Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 405
Although those ministers cried out and painted a doomsday scene for Chongzhen, Chongzhen still didn't believe it.A few years ago, the emperor would have been fooled into distinguishing between east, west, south, north, and south, and sent Jin Yiwei to tie up Yang Menglong and Fang Yizhi and chop them up alive. But after being emperor for so many years, Chongzhen also Gradually, he could see clearly what kind of people were kneeling in front of him.To put it simply, they can’t do whatever they want, they can’t eat whatever they want, they can’t defend against foreign enemies, they can’t clean up officials, expand tax sources and reverse the fiscal deficit, they can’t manage local governments, and they are still not able to do anything. .Sometimes, Chongzhen even wondered whether it was right or wrong to kill the eunuchs at the beginning. If Wei Zhongxian was still there, the situation would be better. At least his money would not be so tight. He did not forget to leave a portion for the emperor when he was full...

The young emperor turned his attention to the few big brothers who had been silent all this time.

Zhou Yanru has been overthrown, and the one who replaced him as the chief assistant of the cabinet is Wen Tiren—— Zhou Yanru is also unlucky enough, since he became the chief assistant, Wen Tiren has been stabbing knives in the dark, he does something good Wen Tiren will be stabbed twice, and if he does something bad, Wen Tiren will also be stabbed twice. Even if he does nothing, Wen Tiren will still encourage a group of imperial officials to impeach him. Lost and ruined, I had better pack up my parcel and go home to sell sweet potatoes.Now, the chief assistant who broke the Donglin Party's dominance of the government and unbelievably overthrew Zhou Yanru, who was fully supported by the Donglin Party, stared at the gold bricks on the ground with great interest, as if he didn't intend to go This is muddy water.The reason why he can gain the trust of Chongzhen is because he has no cronies—at least Chongzhen thinks so.However, anyone who knows him knows how insidious this seemingly sanctimonious chief assistant is. He will never make a move easily. It will end well.

But Wen Tiren is not without opponents.

His opponent is the old man who is thin but still sharp-eyed, Sun Chengzong, Minister of the Ministry of War.In the Battle of Dalinghe last year, Sun Chengzong suffered from wind and cold while supervising the battle in Jinzhou. After returning to Beijing, he became seriously ill. Let the eunuch move a stool for him to sit on.Now the old man is sitting upright in a chair, groaning silently.

Seeing that the two of them didn't seem to be planning to speak, Chongzhen had no choice but to speak up himself: "Mr. Sun, what do you think?" He is an old man who can suppress the mad dogs of the Donglin Party, and the most rare thing is that he can control the two most powerful Heluo and Tianxiong flying armies of Ming Dynasty.

Sun Chengzong stood up with some difficulty, bowed deeply to Chongzhen, and said: "Your Majesty, this old minister thinks that everyone is exaggerating."

Chongzhen asked: "How to say?"

Sun Chengzong looked around at the ministers and said slowly: "It is nothing new to study Western learning and hire barbarian technicians for my use. From Jiangnan to Liaoxi, which military town does not have barbarian technicians helping our army to forge guns? From Guangdong In Shandong, which city doesn’t have a Western church? Didn’t the Emperor hire many missionaries to help with the almanac?”

Ouyang Dong snorted coldly: "The emperor hired missionaries, but only asked them to help with the almanac, but did not allow them to preach!"

Sun Chengzong said: "But there is no law that prohibits them from preaching in Daming! Xiyi has many unique technologies. Yang Zongbing thought he could use them, so he learned from them and vigorously promoted these technologies. What's wrong? Everyone put the hat of colluding with Xiyi and destroying Huayi's defense on Yang Zongbing's head, are you exaggerating?"

Fan Shangjing said: "Those strange and obscene techniques are useless to learn!"

Sun Chengzong sneered and said: "There is a thing in Xiyi called a screw pump, which can be pumped to a high place by placing it in a two or three feet deep well and twisting the handle. A farmer can irrigate water in a day with one such pump. Ten acres of wheat fields, in this year of drought, is this also a strange skill that is useless to learn?" Before Fan Shangjing could speak, he said: "Xiyi also has a four-wheeled carriage, which is used to carry goods. , one cart can hold up to three or four of our carts, is this also an ingenious technique?"

Fan Shangjing was speechless.Screw pumps and four-wheeled carriages are very practical things, and they have been gradually popularized. The four-wheeled carriages have become the dignitaries of the capital, while the screw pumps are used by the Tianxiong Army and Luoyang Guards, ensuring the security of Juntian. Irrigation and a bumper harvest, these are all obvious facts, no matter how open your eyes and talk nonsense, there is no way to overthrow it.

Ouyang Dong said: "Even if Xiyi has some trivial skills that can be used, it is still inappropriate..."

An old voice sounded: "Ouyang Yushi, what evidence do you have?"

Everyone looked around, and it turned out to be Xu Guangqi, Minister of Rites.Xu Guangqi was Sun Yuanhua's teacher. Sun Yuanhua was beheaded because of the Denglai rebellion, and Xu Guangqi was hit hard.

Ouyang Dong secretly screamed that something was wrong, although he was a big troll, he also knew who could and couldn't.Xu Guangqi happens to be the kind of person who cannot be criticized. This man is not only a great Confucian, but also an astronomer, hydrologist, mathematician, agronomist, and philosopher. Confronting him, it must be the rhythm of being beaten by tricks.He hurriedly changed the subject... No way, he didn't know anything about Catholicism, and there was a Catholic here, so he couldn't chat happily.But Xu Guangqi, who was irritated, didn't intend to let him go just like this. He was uncharacteristically aggressive. No matter how Ouyang Dong and his group of birds turned in, he could always quickly stop them, and then quoted the scriptures and slapped him hard. These birdmen stared at gold stars:
You said that Nanyang broke the Huayi defense?Then quickly ask the emperor to kill those missionaries who are helping to fix the calendar. The emperor not only invited them to work, but also appointed them officials!

What?Women and men compete on the same stage, destroying ethics?Just a joke, women in the Tang Dynasty still played polo with a cue, what kind of etiquette was broken?
Yang Menglong and Fang Yizhi colluded with officials and businessmen to compete with the people for profit?Well, even if they colluded with the government and businessmen to fight for the benefits of the people, but what is the result?The result is that this year Nanyang's per capita income has exceeded [-] taels of silver, an increase of one-third compared with last year. Competing with the people, the common people can still become richer and richer, isn't it amazing?
……

The old man showed off his power and eloquently. No matter whether the gang of censors came one by one or a group of people, he was smoked like a pig's head. Ouyang Dong, who is known for his eloquence, was repeatedly refuted and rendered speechless.Chongzhen watched with relish, oh my god, I didn't see that the old gentleman's fighting power was so strong, oh my god, why didn't I think of using this principle to stop the mouths of those birdmen?Oh my god, they are still being chased and beaten after being smoked so much?Why didn't I think of using this old gentleman to deal with these birdmen before?It's just that it's too inferior to let him be the minister of the Ministry of Rites. I should let him be my queen's mouthpiece!He didn't even intend to believe the nonsense of these bird people to punish Yang Menglong and Fang Yizhi. He also planned to reuse these two, and even reserved them for his son. Who would punish them? Come to work for Lao Zhu's family?
Sun Chengzong was also helping in the battle, handing bricks to Xu Guangqi, or digging holes for the gang of officials and censors. The two old men teamed up to draw the gang of censors into a mess.The old man's point of view is very simple: To punish Yang Menglong's crime?Okay, next time Jiannu calls, you have to go up there!

The court meeting turned into an unprecedented fierce war of words. The two old gentlemen sparred with a large group of censors, leaving them speechless.Looking at the smiling Chongzhen sitting on the dragon chair, the censors understood that the era of spraying down two powerful officials with just one mouth is over!
The last court meeting this year ended in a fierce quarrel.The Nanyang Party failed to take advantage of this unprecedented war of words.What made them dissatisfied was that Shoufu Wen Tiren didn't say a word from the beginning to the end, as if he was determined to stay out of the matter. If the boss didn't speak, it would be useless for those birdmen to dance fiercely.

Wen Tiren really didn't have any interest in rushing through this muddy water.He knew what kind of ghostly plan this gang of Donglin gang was up and down. They just wanted to concoct a big incident, muddy the water, and then drag him into the water, and then look for his flaws, to see if he can be caught. Take it down so that Zhou Yanru can come back. It's an old trick. If he is really fooled by the so-called "righteousness" and helps the Donglin Party bring down Nanyang, then he is really brain-dead.There is indeed a lot of money to be made after taking down Nanyang. The problem is that he doesn't have many cronies, and he can't win the Donglin Party at all.Wen Shoufu was even thinking about whether he could take advantage of this opportunity to draw Yang Menglong and Fang Yizhi to his side. After all, they are soft-spoken people and need a backer...

Far away in Nanyang, Yang Menglong, who was happily awarding medals to the top three athletes in this sports meeting with Fang Yizhi and Zhu Yujian, did not know that in the capital, the conspiracy against him had been fully rolled out.Of course, even if he knew, he wouldn’t care. With thousands of elite soldiers in hand and hundreds of thousands of people’s unreserved support, what can you do to me?No matter what you do, you must rely on strength. If you want to bring down a powerful faction with one mouth, it's a dream!

However, it's not rude to come and go, since the other party is already digging holes for him, it would be too embarrassing for him not to reciprocate.He also began to dig holes, not any party or faction, but this corrupt dynasty.

(End of this chapter)