The night is dark, inside the Wenhua Hall.

Emperor Chongzhen held back all the palace maids and eunuchs, leaving only Wang Chengen. As the boxes were opened one by one, the gold and silver under the candlelight were dazzling. It was not until this moment that he truly confirmed that these things were indeed true. He slowly sat back on his seat and looked at the big boxes in front of him, without saying anything for a long time.

After a while, Wang Chengen whispered from the side: "Prince, what's wrong with you?"

Emperor Chongzhen slowly turned his head, "Thank you, I remember that when Zhou Xian returned to Beijing last time, he also brought two big boxes. He said that he got it from the Tartars when he recovered Fuzhou."

Wang Chengen nodded and said, "There is such a thing. At that time, he also gave His Highness a lotus-shaped Kunlun jade, which is now hanging on His Highness's waist."

Emperor Chongzhen nodded softly, "If I remember correctly, Zhou Xian always brings some things whenever he wins and sends people to report victory, but this time he just takes so much money. What do you think he means?"

Wang Chengen smiled and said, "How do I know these things? I only know that the price of grain in the capital has soared recently. With these silver, the emperor would not have to reduce his clothes and reduce his food, and he could live a better life. I thought that Du Shushang Zhou probably thought of these things, otherwise he would not have bypassed the six ministries and handed over the silver to the emperor in private."

Emperor Chongzhen sighed, "Yes! He is really interested. He also gave me two major proposals in the memorial. One was that the imperial court directly took over several major grain stores in the capital to suppress the grain prices in the capital. The other was that both openly and secretly, both requested to expand sea trade and use the income from sea transportation to raise soldiers to quell the rebellion."

On the case date, Wang Chengen picked up a teacup and handed it to Emperor Chongzhen and said, "Emperor, is what Governor Zhou said reasonable?"

Emperor Chongzhen took a sip of tea and said bitterly: "It makes sense, but it makes sense, but it cannot be implemented. Even if the court directly took over the grain shop, the grain had to be purchased from the merchants, and the price was still determined by them and could not be controlled at all. It was a method to kill all the profiteers, but they were either royal relatives or high-ranking marquis standing behind them. I am afraid that when the capital was unstable, I, the emperor, would have reached the end. For the matter of sea trade, don't forget Shen Tingyang and Zheng Zhi.

Long, opening a Tianjin port will arouse so many opposition. If it is fully opened, I still don’t know what trouble they will do! I can only turn a blind eye to the sea trade that Zhou Xian has conducted and make a decision. Even so, you can still see the memorials of impeachment coming like snowflakes. Why don’t they think about it? If Zhou Xian did not rely on sea trade, how could he raise so many troops, how could he defeat the Manchus and regain Liaonan? One by one, a waste who can only talk, can’t bear to see others doing things if he doesn’t do things themselves.”

Seeing Emperor Chongzhen suddenly getting angry, Wang Chengen closed his mouth tactfully.

However, Emperor Chongzhen, after a while, began to look through the memorials he had read countless times.

Among them, Luo Yangxing impeached Zhou Xian and intended to rebel, and instigated his subordinates to kill Tianjin merchants, seriously injured him.

Someone reported by the Jinyiwei, Li Yan and Zhou Xian were old acquaintances. When Li Yan was imprisoned, Zhou Xian sent someone to take care of him. When Li Yan led his troops to capture Wuyang, Zhou Xian's father and brother were allowed to leave. There was also a secret letter written by Li Yan to Zhou Xian, implying that Zhou Xian had decided to surrender to Li Zicheng.

Some Shandong officials impeached Zhou Xian and robbed Wang Tian and distributed it to the victims to win the hearts of the people. They had the intention of rebelling. He did not report to the court, but directly appointed his confidants to serve as officials of various prefectures.

There was a secret letter from the army that Zhou Xian raised funds to his soldiers and turned the imperial army into his private army.

The last memorial was written by Zhou Xian, who sued Luo Yangxing for accepting bribes from Liu Zeqing. He deliberately delayed the release of the troops sent by him to surprise attack on Liu Zeqing from Tianjin City and asked for bribes. Later, he left Wuqiao's position without authorization, resulting in most of the rebels in Dezhou escape and requested heavy punishment from the court.

It's hard to tell whether it is true or false. Emperor Chongzhen is a person who is extremely suspicious. He has read these memorials many times, but he never knows how to deal with them. He originally trusted Zhou Xian very much, but the memorials that impeached him had to make him hesitate. Especially when he turned the imperial army into his own private army, he directly contacted Emperor Chongzhen's reverse scale. Zhou Xian took out so much money this time, which made him very satisfied. But after looking at the memorials in front of him, he began to hesitate again.

If you don’t use someone, you don’t use someone, you don’t use someone. This is never the style of Emperor Chongzhen. If you don’t use someone, you don’t use someone, you don’t use someone, you don’t use someone, you don’t use someone, you don’t use someone, you don’t use someone, you don’t use someone. This is his usual style.

Emperor Chongzhen also asked several of his trusted ministers about this matter, but their opinions were not unified. Some scolded Zhou Xian with righteous words and suggested recalling him to the capital and ban them directly; some proposed to give him trust and let him continue to lead troops to quell the rebellion; some proposed to send people to Shandong to seize his military power, giving him only the power to plan, and not the power to govern.

Emperor Chongzhen reorganized the suggestions of the ministers again, and finally decided to follow Wei Zaode's suggestions and divide his power. He said to Wang Chengen: "Grind, I will issue an order."

The first imperial edict was issued by Emperor Chongzhen to the Ministry of Personnel. The imperial edict was issued to promote Wei Zaode to the left minister of the Ministry of Rites, and to enter the cabinet to become the Grand Secretary of Wenyuan Pavilion, and to listen to it in front of the imperial court.

The second imperial edict was sent to the Ministry of War by Emperor Chongzhen. Huang Fei was appointed as the right governor and independently commanded all the soldiers in southern Liaoning, and no longer had to be under the command of Zhou Xian.

The third imperial edict was still issued to the Ministry of Personnel. The Ministry of Revenue was ordered to serve as the prefect of Qingzhou, the censor Wang Zhang served as the prefect of Jinan, and the eunuch Li Hong served as the military supervisor, and went to Shandong to take office.

In the fourth imperial edict, Emperor Chongzhen issued the imperial edict to the kings of Shandong. King De followed the rebellion and fined 100,000 taels of silver. However, because of the response of the official army to recover Jinan, his title was retained. King Heng followed the rebellion and exempted him from his title, demoted him to common people, and was banned in Jinan. His son inherited his title and went to Qingzhou to seek vassals. King Zhu of Lu sent a rebellion to be the emperor, but he felt sorry for his repentance and buried him with common people. The title of King Lu was officially taken over by his younger brother Zhu Yihai. Other county and kings were punished.

The fifth imperial edict was issued by Emperor Chongzhen to Luo Yangxing. He did not pursue his past crimes and ordered him to station troops in Tianjin and monitor the movements of Zhou Xian in Shandong at all times.

The last imperial edict was sent to Zhou Xian. He praised his achievements in suppressing the rebellion and allowed him to continue his efforts to eliminate the remnants. But at the same time, he also issued a death order, so that he must clear the rebellion of Liu Zeqing within three months and capture Jining. Then he sent troops to Henan to reinforce Sun Chuanting. Li Hong served as the military supervisor and had the power to directly command the generals.
Chapter completed!