Chapter 17 Chapter 17 Battlefield and Officialdom
The number of the triumphant team has increased by nearly twice that of the departure time. The captives, horses, weapons, saddles, and armor were all arranged in an orderly manner after reorganization and returned to Jianzhou with the team, making the whole This team looks more and more powerful.
And everyone's mood and expression are also very different from when they set off. They changed from the generosity and fierceness of seeing death as home to excitement, joy, and elation. Guarantee, and has been reorganized into a part of the Jianzhou Army, everyone's expressions have long since swept away the gloom and fear, and revealed a peaceful color; several outstanding generals who performed well on the battlefield look even more He is full of majesty, especially E Yidu. His original personality is more extroverted and unrestrained. , even the fingers holding the horsewhip are particularly flying, and anyone who follows him will be infected.
Bayara and Hu Erhan were relatively young, and they had always admired him, so they simply merged the team they were leading, and walked side by side with him. The three of them rode slowly on horseback, talking and laughing loudly while walking, From time to time, they burst out laughing in unison, which made everyone in the team feel high.
However, after all, there are still some people in the team whose emotions have not been affected by this atmosphere-the only exception is Nurhachi.
He walked to the front of the team, rode on a tall steed, surrounded by guards, and led all the people forward. From the outside, he looked as tall and mighty as usual, leading the group; but , but his expression already faintly appeared a little careless.
As in the past, after every victory, a strange reaction and feeling began to emerge in his heart-in every battle, he put in great efforts and went all out; during the war, his spirit The power of the body and the body all erupted with super-energy effects, and after a complete victory and the end of the war, there would often be a sense of loss and bewilderment in his heart for no reason. Miscellaneous.
This time, the reaction was particularly strong; from the very beginning, the scale of this war was the most important in his life; and with only the force of the Jianzhou One against the Nine Allied Forces, it miraculously won the battle, The whole process seemed like a dream when he recalled it; moreover, before the war, he almost devoted all his energy to studying how to win the battle, and did not devote any spare energy to predicting the situation and consequences after the war ended. The problems that came with it were now suddenly approaching, and he had to face it immediately. For a moment, there were too many things to think about in his mind, which instead made him fall into a daze.
The victory in the Gule Mountain battle will of course change the situation in Liaodong; the momentum of the Yehe tribe will drop greatly, and the prestige of Jianzhou will be greatly shaken. This is inevitable. More importantly, the ministries and Jianzhou The relationship between states will change, and this change, if properly controlled, can play a big role.
"Since Buzhai was killed and Ye Heduo formed a feud, Liangzi will only have a deeper and more impossible resolution in the future - capturing Buzhantai, and the relationship with Ula will have a chance to go further - Hada, Huifa, Mongolian Horqin, you can also try—"
He barely controlled his slightly tranced mood, tried his best to rationally face the messy relationship between the various tribes before him, and then pulled out one by one to think, and deliberated one by one. After thinking for a long time, his Only then did his mind slowly calm down; however, from the outside, because of his meditation, he became more and more like an old monk in meditation, like a Taoist priest, sitting on the horse without moving. He didn't notice it at all.
And this reaction happened to be exactly the same as Li Rusong's...
After receiving the report from his subordinates about the Battle of Gule Mountain among the ten Jurchen troops, Li Rusong carefully read every word in the document; after reading it, he fell into silence, as if In a state of mind wandering.
There was no special expression on his face, but a heavy look was evident in his eyes; after a long time of not speaking, the people around him dared not make any sound, which made the atmosphere in the entire barracks even more tense , more stuffy.
After a long time, his limbs began to move—he seemed to let out a long sigh subconsciously, and then handed the document in his hand to Li Rubai who was sitting under him, signaling him to continue to pass it on to Li Rumei after reading it. .
From time to time, there were some sounds of flipping through the documents, but the whole atmosphere not only did not turn around because of these sounds, but became more dull, dull, and dignified...
Li Rusong's tightly pursed lips finally started slowly after everyone finished reading the report on the paperwork.
His voice, tone and tone of speech have been controlled by himself to appear flat as if it does not contain any emotions, but the low and hoarseness that is more than usual has leaked out of hiding: " What should come is finally coming!"
He sadly said to his younger brothers: "The thing that the father-in-law didn't want to see the most, and it took years of painstaking efforts to suppress and prevent it, will finally happen before our eyes—"
A silkworm is about to break out of its cocoon, and a grain of wheat is about to sprout after it matures in the soil——the Jurchens who have been divided for hundreds of years have begun to reveal the dawn of unity, and a trend has been faintly formed, and no one can stand in their way. Can't stop.
Realizing this, he felt very heavy: "The commander-in-chief is not mistaken at all, Nurhachi is indeed capable of surpassing others - in a few years, Liaodong will be all his world!"
As he spoke, he let out another long sigh, his eyes were full of frustration, and his whole body was gray—his sadness was twofold, one of which was of course that the situation in Liaodong, which his father had painstakingly managed for many years, began to change; the second Chong is watching this change happen and this trend taking shape, but he is powerless to reverse it.
Although his subordinates commanded tens of thousands of horses, since the order they received was to aid North Korea, they could not return to take care of Liaodong affairs until the North Korean problem was resolved; At present, the army can only keep a close eye on the movement of the Japanese army, and cannot move a step. How can it care about Liaodong?
His heart was very sad, his head was drooped, and he didn't speak for a long time.
Li Rubai and Li Rumei, who followed him, did not have deep insights and feelings, and their emotions were not as low as him; however, seeing him like this was indeed very different from usual, so they dared not take it lightly, let alone Talking too much, besides sitting silently with him, I can't think of any way to respond.
However, the atmosphere has been stagnant for a long time, and it has been going on indefinitely. After all, there is no way out. Therefore, after the two exchanged a few glances, Li Rubai finally braced himself and persuaded: "Since you are worried, why don't you Go to the imperial court and report this matter?"
Unexpectedly, this persuasion aroused Li Rusong's feelings even deeper, he sighed heavily, shook his head several times and said: "Go to the imperial court and report this matter, what's the use of that? Since the resignation of the father-in-law, who else in the court knows about "Liaodong"? The Battle of Gule Mountain was just a civil war for Jurchen, and it did not disturb the people of Ming Dynasty. , The bosses of the Six Departments saw it, and half of their reactions were: "Jurchen civil war, what's wrong with me?" After the resignation of the father commander, he made friends with the governor of Liaodong and the general army very carefully, so that everyone spoke and covered up for him. The court has long regarded him as a submissive, so how can they accept my opinion? ?”
As he said that, his expression became even more gloomy: "What's more, since the father commander resigned, the power of our Li family has not been as good as before, and this time we aided North Korea, and we lost again; Both parties have become depressed because of this, no matter what kind of memorial I give, the weight will not be as good as before—"
He is talking to his younger brothers, and he can speak frankly about anything; there is only one thing that he dare not even say in front of his younger brothers, and that is to directly criticize the emperor - he has the eyes, ears and news in the court The well-connected channels have already been received from his father, so he knows better than anyone else that no matter what kind of memorials he gives, how brilliant opinions he puts forward, and how serious problems he points out, Emperor Wanli Still don't even take a look at it, and end up suffering because it affects the interests of others.
"Why bother—and invite resentment?"
After all, he was born in an eunuch family, and he knew all the knowledge about being an official. Although the foreseeable future situation made him feel heavy and full of emotions, and the emotion was emotion, the first thing to do is to take care of his own head and fame.
Therefore, his emotions were not turned into actual actions at all. Despite the sadness in his heart, he reluctantly endured it rationally, and repeatedly thought of the same sentence to relieve his emotions: How can I listen to the words of "Liaodong will be the world of Nurhachi"? How can I disobey the king's heart? The painstaking efforts of the father-in-law have to be put aside-"
Of course, what he thought was true, absolutely right; what Emperor Wanli liked was to be intoxicated by the illusion of peace in the world amidst the praises of his ministers-the only thing that was slightly different from what he thought was that Wanli The emperor seldom received ministers, and almost all the praises he heard about the prosperity of the world came from the harem, which included Concubine Zheng and her three children, eunuchs, child molesters, beauties, etc. Coupled with the miraculous effect of the drug, it formed a living space that made him addicted and intoxicated.
Concubine Zheng became more mature, charming and charming as she got older; her intellectual depth also increased day by day, she was more considerate and good at grasping the heart of Emperor Wanli; the children grew up to be able to accompany Wanli The age for the emperor to play various games, from playing hide-and-seek to counting money, satisfied all the shortcomings of Emperor Wanli in his childhood; the eunuch group headed by Zhang Cheng tried their best to cater to his will , waiting for him to 'everything goes well', from the supply of food and drink, singing and dancing, bringing forth new ones from old ones, to beauties and twin children, adding newcomers at any time-always, the "wine, sex and wealth" penetrated into the life of Emperor Wanli, and the passing of years is isokinetic.
However, all the problems in the DPRK are still the same, and the issue of "establishing a reserve" for many years has not been resolved, and it is still the first major event that the ministers must strive for.As for the internal strife among the courtiers, some of the honest and gentlemen have been resolved by the process of "Jingcha", and the remaining part appears to be alone and lonely, and the noise is much quieter, and then it is covered up by another wave , That is the dispute between the doves and the hawks over the North Korean issue.
After Li Rusong was defeated, the peace faction headed by Shi Xing raised his head. For several months, he swaggered and talked about "negotiating peace" and "paying tribute". After going down, I was too lazy to bother my brain, so I simply asked the cabinet to draw up a reason, and then let him make an order—since the voice in the court was the loudest of the main peace, he also agreed to the main peace without exception; Therefore, while the Gule Mountain War in Liaodong was in full swing, his cabinet, the Ministry of War and other important ministers were discussing all the details of negotiating peace with Japan and sending troops from North Korea; , although the governor of Liaodong also mentioned this matter in the memorial, none of the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty thought it was a big deal, and no one thought it was necessary to further understand, pay attention to and deal with it; Jianzhou Jurchen, Nurhachi As Li Rusong expected, these names did not leave any impression in Emperor Wanli's heart at all, and the courtiers even read the report of "small border barbarian affairs" and threw them into the sky.
In December, the dust on the new policy of "aiding the DPRK" was settled—Emperor Wanli nodded to the opinions put forward by the cabinet, decided to negotiate peace with Japan, and issued an edict to recall Song Yingchang, Li Rusong and their leaders. In the army, Gu Yangqian, the governor of Liaodong, was appointed to handle North Korea affairs, and the commander-in-chief was replaced by You Jixian.
When this "imperial decree" was sent to North Korea by eight hundred miles and handed over to Li Rusong, his face was ashen, and his heart was so depressed and heavy that he knelt down to receive the decree, and his body fell on the ground after kowtowing to receive the decree. , I couldn't straighten up for a long time.
The news of being recalled to Beijing has already been known to him through other channels. However, once the "news" becomes a real fact before his eyes, it is still difficult for him to bear it calmly--then, when the whole world Everyone in the army was busy packing up and preparing to return to Beijing, but he was so sad that he didn't eat or drink for several days, let alone speak. I can't persuade you.
The mood is heavy and depressed—he thought over and over again in his heart: "I came to North Korea for a whole year—the change in a year is so great—the court actually made such a decision——"
However, if you think about it, no matter how much you think about it, it will be useless; decisions are made by the court, and orders are issued by the court, so he can only follow orders; right.
"Since the rise of the civil rebels in North Korea, the Japanese army has been restrained. The Japanese army has shown signs of fatigue and should be wiped out in one fell swoop—Jianzhou Jurchen has defeated the nine coalition forces. Its reputation has been greatly boosted, and there is a faint sign of unification. It should be taken advantage of its fledgling. Annihilated in one fell swoop—”
The two "shoulds" of "annihilating in one fell swoop" intertwined in his mind, but these are just fantasy, and it is impossible to realize it in reality.
Whether it's because of my own defeat, or the political disputes in the court, or even the heart of Emperor Wanli—it doesn't matter what the reason is, what matters is the result; I went back to Beijing.
Whether he regrets that the aid to North Korea has "beginning but never ending", or worries about the situation in Liaodong, these are all his personal "concerns", and the crux of the problem is that the decision-making power is not in his hands.
However, on the day before the whole army returned to Beijing, his mood, which had been depressed for many days, suddenly became brighter. ?Since the imperial court seeks peace, there will be a way to seek peace. Why do I have to fight hard? Why do I have to think hard about what matters to me in Liaodong?"
Thinking about it this way, his mood cleared up, and the focus of his thinking turned and focused on his own future and interests—he began to think about how to deal with himself after returning to Beijing, how to get ahead in Beijing's official circles one floor.
"What about North Korea and Liaodong, Long Live Lord doesn't like to hear it, so why should I talk about it? If there's no need to talk about it, why should I think about it?"
The big stone that had been actively pressing on his heart for many days was thrown away, and he immediately felt relaxed and happy. He led the team back to China as if he was a different person, and began to count Beijing's officialdom along the way.
However, after all, he is a general who leads troops to fight, and although he has heard of the way of fighting among civil servants, he is still separated; if he has not experienced it himself, he can't help but "think naively"-the officialdom in Beijing is bigger than he imagined. It is much more difficult to mix.
It has not been a full year since he became the Chief Assistant of the Cabinet, and Wang Xijue is already exhausted physically and mentally...
He was originally a person with a strong personality and easy to get angry; when he was young, he was very principled when he was an official and a person, especially when Zhang Juzheng was in power - he was the first in the 41st Jiajing Examination Huiyuan of Huiyuan won the second place in the court examination, so he was awarded the editorial post; in the fifth year of Wanli, he took charge of the Hanlin Academy with Zhan Shi, and Zhang Juzheng won the favor. Zou Yuanbiao, Wu Zhongxing, Zhao Yongxian and several other superiors objected, but they were sentenced to a trip to the court for this; he mobilized more than a dozen people in the Chaolin Court to intercede with Zhang Juzheng, but Zhang Juzheng refused to meet him; he went to Zhang Juzheng's house alone. When he asked for a funeral, he told Zhang Juzheng that he could not punish the minister for private affairs, but Zhang Juzheng ignored him and didn't let him finish his speech, so he retreated into the back hall; As a result of offending Zhang Juzheng, he burst into tears on the spot; in the second year, he served as the right servant of the Ministry of Rites, and Zhang Juzheng returned to his hometown to attend the funeral. avoided in name.
And these "unique character" performances gave him a lot of advantages in reputation, and after Zhang Juzheng's death, he became a strong capital for his career in officialdom.
In the winter of twelve years, his family's Minister of Worship and a Bachelor of Wenyuan Pavilion participated in the maintenance of the aircraft, and his seat was only under Shen Shixing and Xu Guo, and he was the third assistant.
At the beginning of joining the cabinet, he got along very well with Shen Shixing and Xu Guo. The three of them were all from Nanji, and they were from the same hometown; After all three of them have been in the officialdom for a long time, the elements of "true self" decreased and the elements of "false self" increased respectively, the friendship and harmonious relationship began to change, and eventually it led to a conflict between the three people. Infighting.
The most criticized and dissatisfied point of Shenshi Firm is the wish of the township; it obeyed the will of Emperor Wanli and dared not argue with reason; it covered up dereliction of duty officials and refused to strictly implement the test - at that time, there were people behind the scenes every day He scolded shishi angrily, including himself.
However, now that he himself has served as the Chief Assistant, in just a few short months, he has already deeply realized that Shen Shixing's hometown wish was forced, and it was due to the "political environment"...
He completely forgave Shen Shixing from the bottom of his heart, even Zhang Juzheng who he once regarded as "unfilial" and "regardless"...
As the Chief Assistant of the Ming Dynasty, which was riddled with many diseases and riddled with holes, it was really difficult to walk out a bright path; he finally understood why Zhang Juzheng would control everything in a high-pressure and dictatorial way, And Shen Shihang wanted to pretend to be deaf and dumb to accept the fate of being infamous for thousands of years.
"Government—very difficult!"
He sighed helplessly from the depths of his selfishness more than once, and it was hard for him to sit in the seat of "below one person, above ten thousand people". Only before he sat down, he realized that he had nothing but a sense of powerlessness. Obtained; neither real power nor political achievements, but bad reputation, the ancient sages' saying of "government with virtue" is simply a myth of self-deception. In this dynasty, being an official is like gambling , Betting on whether she will live forever or be infamous forever.
It has only been a few months since he came to power, and people have already transferred the words of scolding Shen Shixing to him...
Just for the matter of setting up the crown prince, he was caught between the Wanli emperor and the ministers, and he became Zhu Bajie looking in the mirror. No matter from which side, he was not a human being; the Wanli emperor obviously adopted a passive resistance method to deal with the issue of establishing the crown prince. , He broke his promise several times and resorted to the "drag" formula, hiding in the harem and muddling through the days day by day. No matter what kind of memorials the ministers gave, he ignored them and ignored them; He couldn't see the emperor's face, so he had to focus all the blame on him, the chief assistant.
There have been two formal and heated head-on conflicts:
For the first time, Shi Menglin, Minister of Rites Luo Wanhua and others took the lead in the matter, and gathered a dozen people to come to his mansion. After a few polite words, his face changed, and he spoke directly and sharply.
"When the old grandfather is an official, does he put the country as the most important thing, or is it his job to 'love his name and position'?"
The second time we came together, there were more people pointing at his nose and yelling at him. A group of young officials, such as Yue Yuansheng, Gu Yuncheng, Yu Kongjian, etc., were all "young boys" in terms of seniority and seniority, but they were unscrupulous in the court room. Surrounding him, he yelled loudly like baring his teeth and claws: "The end of the stinking legacy is imminent. Is the old ancestor still obsessed with it?"
That time, he was so angry that his heart hurt for several days, and the uselessness in his heart couldn't get rid of it no matter what.
As the chief assistant of the cabinet, it was really hard to swallow the tone of being scolded like a grandson on the spot-but, if you take a step back and think about it, although these people roared impolitely, everything they said was true.
My official reputation has been greatly affected by the dispute over the "Beijing Cha" and the resignation of Zhao Nanxing and others who have been disappointing to everyone; Li Rusong aided North Korea. Innocently, he was stained with bad luck; the issue of the establishment of the reserve is a mess left from the hands of the previous two chief assistants...
The more he thought about it, the more unhappy he became, the grievance, grief and indignation, mixed with his sense of powerlessness, became a very bad state of mind: "It looks like it will be infamous forever!"
However, his personality was originally different from that of Shen Shixing. After sighing a few times, he suddenly shook his head vigorously and muttered to himself: "Who wants to be infamous for thousands of years? I don't care about this official of the Ming Dynasty." Just do it! If you leave now, you can still go in a leisurely manner, otherwise, it will be another Shishihang!"
His calculation is different from that of Shen Shixing - he knows very well that if he continues to be attached to him, not only will he not be able to compete with these people and these realistic political aspects, but he will also end up in a disgraceful end like Shen Shixing; At the moment, he showed a "strength of character" to win a good reputation and serve as political capital for a comeback in the future.
Once he made up his mind, he would figure out how to proceed within a few days.
He decided to take advantage of the opportunity that the year was coming to an end to fight with Emperor Wanli for the appointment of the emperor's son Chang Luo as the crown prince in Mingchun; He will immediately agree to his request; then, the opportunity will come, and he will take the opportunity to resign to show his superior integrity to the people of the world and for the sake of the country and the country, he will fight for the Emperor Wanli at all costs. Officials to show the courage to be responsible.
"Gen Geng Lonely Loyalty, only God can show!"
He even thought out his lines, in order to gain fame and save future political capital, he simply deceived the sky.
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