"I am willing to defend the capital with Your Majesty and resist the bandits. As for assisting the crown prince, please send someone else!" Li Guozhen kowtowed solemnly to Chongzhen.
Chongzhen smiled slightly, "Marquis of Xiangcheng, what I just said is an order, not a discussion. You should go back to your house and pack up, and leave tonight."
"After you go to Nanjing, you must assist the Crown Prince earnestly."
Li Guozhen raised his head, his brain working rapidly.
Is this sentence true or false? After a moment, he got the answer.
On November 19, the 16th year of Chongzhen, Chongzhen conferred the title of Prince Taibao on him.
The Prince's Grand Tutor, Grand Preceptor, and Grand Protector are all official positions in the Eastern Palace, and are responsible for teaching the prince.
The Grand Master teaches literature, the Grand Tutor teaches martial arts, and the Grand Protector protects their safety. The Prince's Junior Master, the Prince's Junior Tutor, and the Prince's Junior Protector are all their deputies.
Although it is only an honorary title without real duties, they are the first ones that come to mind when assisting the prince.
Thinking of this, Li Guozhen no longer hesitated. He immediately knelt down to accept the order: "Your Majesty, I accept the order and thank you!"
"Well, leave now. This trip to Nanjing is not a trivial matter, and we will rely on the Earl of Xiangcheng for the whole journey."
"I will definitely live up to your Majesty's trust."
After Li Guozhen left, Chongzhen slumped on the dragon chair to sort out his thoughts. He was too tired to care about royal etiquette and face.
The Ming Dynasty is a ball of thread, and we must carefully unravel it to keep it intact.
Otherwise history will repeat itself!
Now he neither expects nor hopes that his ministers will take the initiative to do anything. If they want to defend the capital, they must follow his ideas.
In history, Chongzhen lost the elite troops of the Ming Dynasty, and now he has to control these old, weak and sick people to resist the bandits.
There seems to be God's will in all things.
"Come in!"
Wang Chengen saw Chongzhen leaning on the dragon throne in a very exaggerated posture and thought he was taking a rest. Just as he was about to erect the stele, Chongzhen stopped him.
"Your Majesty, the silver hidden behind the Hall of Mental Cultivation has been counted. Here is the account book for Your Majesty to review." Wang Chengen said self-reproachfully.
The emperor finally wanted to take a rest, but was disturbed by him. He deserved to die.
Chongzhen took the account book and glanced at it.
Forty thousand silver ingots, each worth fifty taels; one thousand gold ingots, each worth twenty taels.
All converted into silver is about 2.2 million taels.
"Send 1.5 million taels of silver to the Ministry of Revenue, and put the rest in the Palace of Heavenly Purity."
"Gan...Qianqing Palace?" Wang Chengen's not-so-bright head was filled with question marks.
According to convention, this money should be sent to the inner treasury. Although it is the emperor's personal money and the emperor can use it as he wants, there is a complete set of procedures for the inner treasury's income and expenditure, and there will be no corruption or theft.
"Yes, put all the rest into the Palace of Heavenly Purity, and take out the 40,000 taels of gold from the treasury and put them together."
"As you wish."
"Is Gao Shiming back?"
Gao Shiming was the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department, in charge of the twenty-four government offices of the inner court, a position one level higher than Wang Chengen's.
He was also one of the people trusted by Chongzhen.
He did not let Chongzhen down. Historically, after Li Zicheng captured Beijing, Gao Shiming saw that the situation was hopeless and burned himself to death for his country.
Loyalty is evident.
Prior to this, he was ordered to leave Beijing and go to Shandong to send silver to express his condolences to Liu Zeqing, who pretended to be injured after falling off a horse.
According to the time, it’s time to come back.
Thinking of Liu Zeqing, Chongzhen felt so angry that his teeth itched.
The most hateful of these military commanders in the late Ming Dynasty was him. He killed innocent people and took credit for his achievements, just like a bandit. He ordered people to burn, kill, rob and kill civilians, and then set a fire and put the blame on the bandits. When someone impeached him, he sent people to assassinate him, and then used a large sum of money to bribe the ministers in the court, so that big things could be turned into small things.
He now has 15,000 soldiers and horses under his command. If they can obey the orders of the court, they will definitely be a powerful force.
"Your Majesty, Eunuch Gao is waiting outside the door for orders. He didn't dare to come in and disturb Your Majesty just now because he saw Your Majesty resting."
Hearing this, Chongzhen felt warm in his heart.
Looking at the entire Ming Dynasty, there are very few people who sincerely hope for the best for him.
There are a few in the harem and some in the court, and the rest are these eunuchs.
"Let him in."
"As you wish."
Gao Shiming, who was outside the door, walked quickly into the hall, lifted his clothes and knelt down: "Your Majesty, I, Gao Shiming, kowtow to you. Long live the emperor."
Gao Shiming is very white, and looks like a corpse that has stood up after being dead for three days. His facial features are very regular, and except for his effeminate voice, he is no different from an ordinary adult man.
"Have you seen Liu Zeqing?"
"Your Majesty, I see that Liu Zeqing has no injuries and seems to be faking it."
"I already knew that. Didn't he give you some silver?"
Gao Shiming felt a chill down his spine.
How did the emperor know what was happening a hundred miles away?
He hurriedly took out a package from his arms and raised his hands above his head: "Your Majesty, this is the silver Liu Zeqing gave me. I didn't touch a cent."
"It's good enough as long as it's collected, it's good enough as long as it's collected!" Chongzhen breathed a sigh of relief.
If Gao Shiming didn't take the money, his next plan would not be able to be implemented.
Seeing Gao Qiqi's bewildered face, Chongzhen explained: "Since Liu Zeqing doesn't want to come to the capital to defend the king, let him go to Nanjing."
"I have decided to let the prince go to Nanjing to supervise the country. So, I will give you an imperial decree, and you will go to Shandong again and let him go to Nanjing with the prince."
The purpose?
Gao Shiming's mind had not yet recovered from the fear of collecting the money just now, and he was instantly stunned by this word again.
There was a set procedure for imperial edicts in the Ming Dynasty.
The emperor issued an edict to the six ministries and the cabinet. The cabinet drafted the edict according to the emperor's requirements, and the six ministries provided legal consulting services. If there was any violation of the law or ancestral teachings, they would reject the edict.
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