The news of Yang Sichang's death only brought worry to Yang Zhen, but it brought almost despair to Emperor Chongzhen in the Forbidden City.

On the tenth day of March in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, Emperor Chongzhen, who had already received the news of Yang Sichang's death for three days and had been absent from court for three days, could not bear the piles of letters from the imperial officials, and finally endured the grief and grief.

An edict was issued to summon the important officials of the imperial court.

At 6 o'clock in the morning that day, the cabinet chief assistant, Fan Fucui, a bachelor of Jianji Palace, Zhang Sizhi, a bachelor of Dongge Palace, Wei Zhaocheng, a bachelor of Wenyuan Pavilion, Chen Yan, a bachelor of Wuying Palace, Chen Xinjia, the minister of the Ministry of War, Gao Shiming, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony, and the supervisor of the ceremony. Wang Dehua, the chief eunuch in charge of the East Factory and the admiral of the Beijing Camp, and Luo Yangxing, the commander of the Jinyiwei, were led by Wang Chengen, the eunuch in charge of the Qianqing Palace, Bingbi, the chief eunuch, and filed into the main hall of the Qianqing Palace.

Emperor Chongzhen sat on the throne under the plaque of Jingtian Fazu with a sad expression. He was dressed in the emperor's uniform, but did not wear a crown. He looked thin, old, tired and haggard, and there were tears in the corners of his eyes.

For more than two months, Emperor Chongzhen's mood in the Forbidden City has been in a state of ups and downs.

The victory of Liaodong and Liaoxi against the Qing Dynasty had repeatedly made him ecstatic and called God for blessing.

However, the disasters and crimes that came from the pass made him furious again and again, causing him toss and turn and sleepless nights.

In particular, the news that the bandits abducted the refugees, captured Luoyang City, and killed King Fu, and that the Western thieves abducted the refugees, captured Xiangyang City, and killed King Xiang, made him burst into tears several times, and he had to go to the Ancestral Temple in person to cry bitterly and commit the crime. Ji Zhao.

However, even so,

Emperor Chongzhen is still very confident about the situation in Zhongzhou and Huguang.

Because of the "victory" in the Kaifeng defense battle and the success of Henan Governor Li Xianfeng in leading his army to regain Luoyang City, he once again saw hope of defeating the thieves.

But on the night of March 6th, Emperor Chongzhen, who was fully expecting Governor Yang Sichang to regain Xiangyang City, not only did not receive the good news from Huguang, but instead received news of Yang Sichang's death.

As a result, the news of Yang Sichang's death, which was quickly delivered to Beijing by Huguang Supervisory Army Wan Yuanji, became the last straw that broke Emperor Chongzhen's will for several months.

At that time, Emperor Chongzhen took the report of ten thousand yuan of good fortune, looked up to the sky and sighed, "Heaven wants to destroy me" and "Heaven wants to destroy me", and then fainted.

Fortunately, after Emperor Chongzhen fainted for a few hours, he woke up in the middle of the night. However, he was so sad that he was almost in a state of collapse and despair. He did not go to court for three consecutive days and did not summon his ministers.

Emperor Chongzhen, who had always been extremely diligent in his duties, suddenly stopped going to court at this juncture, and stopped summoning his ministers to consult and discuss affairs. This suddenly caused panic and panic among everyone in the capital court.

Therefore, the officials of Liu Ke Gallery, the censors of the Imperial Procuratorate, and various ministers who loved writing wrote to Emperor Chongzhen one after another, urging him to summon the ministers to inquire about the affairs of the state as soon as possible, and even scolded him directly with fierce and harsh words.

He was scolded for being lazy and lazy in government affairs and neglecting the ministers of the court. He actually indulged himself in the inner palace and did nothing when the world was in chaos.

Of course, there are also many people who directly impeached Yang Sichang. They impeached Yang Sichang one after another. During his lifetime, Yang Sichang made clever words and talked about military affairs in vain, wasting the world's troops and wasting the world's money and food. Not only did he fail to defeat the thieves, but he lost two vassals. Not only did he die unjustly, but his crime was unpardonable.

Faced with this situation, Gao Shiming, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony, Wang Dehua, the eunuch in charge of the East Factory and the admiral of the Beijing camp, and Wang Chengen, the eunuch in charge of the Qing Palace, couldn't bear the snowflakes. Submission of various memorials to the Supervisor of Ceremonies.

In the end, they had no choice but to mobilize the concubines in the palace to persuade Emperor Chongzhen to summon the ministers as soon as possible to calm down the various disputes between the government and the public.

So there was this small court meeting in the main hall of Qianqing Palace on the morning of March 10th.

"In the past few days, I was just tired and just wanted to take a rest. Many people wrote letters to scold me, saying that I was lazy in politics, that I indulged in the harem, and neglected the ministers.

"Many people are still impeaching Yang Sichang, saying that I misbelieved the slander and misused him, which led to today's situation. Hehe, hehe, hehe, it's really ridiculous, ridiculous!"

Emperor Chongzhen looked coldly at the close ministers and cabinet ministers who entered the hall to pay homage to him. His voice was hoarse and low, and his disappointed laughter was mixed with some crying.

"On weekdays, I speak widely, issue orders to ask for strategies, issue orders to seek talents, but none of the ministers in the court can remedy the current situation, turn the tide, and the only one who dares to supervise the division and quell the thieves is Yang Sichang.

"Now, Yang Wenruo is dead, and when his body is still cold, the government and the public are impeaching him for losing his master and harming the country, and the accusations are barely scratched. It is ridiculous, ridiculous!"

Emperor Chongzhen said it was ridiculous several times, and his voice became more and more severe.

Obviously, Emperor Chongzhen was very sad about Yang Sichang's death, but what made him even more unacceptable was that after Yang Sichang's death, many people in the court gloated and even applauded.

This made Emperor Chongzhen particularly angry.

But the ultimate form of anger is despair.

At this moment, Emperor Chongzhen was in a state of despair when facing the civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty.

I hate these ministers to the extreme who find fault with everything they do.

"Let's talk about it first. Since you are eager to see me, you must have a way to deal with the current situation, right?"

"Your Majesty, my condolences! I want to see your Majesty. Firstly, to communicate with the outside world and to calm the hearts of the people in the capital. Secondly, I want to ask your Majesty to take care of the dragon body. Only if your Majesty's dragon body is in good condition can Xu Tukuang save the current situation!"

"snort!"

After hearing Emperor Chongzhen's sarcastic words, several ministers who were former supervisors of rites, as well as ministers of the cabinet and the Ministry of War, all knelt on the ground and said nothing.

However, Luo Yangxing, the commander of the Jinyiwei who always stood between the outer court and the inner court, saw that Emperor Chongzhen's face was not kind and his words were not kind, so he immediately kowtowed and expressed the intentions of the ministers.

However, Luo Yangxing's change of words only received a cold snort from Emperor Chongzhen.

Because it doesn't matter whether it hurts or not, Emperor Chongzhen really heard too much.

"Your Majesty, Yang Ge has died of illness and cannot be resurrected. If Your Majesty grieves too much for this, I'm afraid Yang Ge's heroic spirit will not be able to rest in peace under the spring even if he knows about it!"

Seeing that other ministers in the cabinet and Chen Xinjia, the Minister of War, were afraid to speak, Fan Fucui, as the chief minister of the cabinet, had no choice but to speak first.

And he is different from other ministers. At this critical juncture of the current situation, Emperor Chongzhen has not asked the political council for three days in a row. There are countless major issues in the backlog of the cabinet. Others have recommended him as the chief minister, but he is the chief minister. You can't just send it to the Supervisor of Ceremonies and be done with it.

"Furthermore, after Yanggebu died of illness, the situation in Huguang was extremely critical, and Zhongzhou was also in chaos, with bandits raging. The imperial court urgently needed to appoint an important minister to inherit Yanggebu's legacy, command the troops in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Huguang, and Zhongzhou, and continue to supervise the encirclement and suppression of rogue bandits.

"At this critical moment, the people of the world, hundreds of millions of soldiers and civilians, are eagerly looking up to your majesty to cheer up and make a difference. How can your majesty, because of the death of one person, mourn yourself and lose the hope of the people of the world?"

It has been more than a year since Fan Fucui, who is over sixty, unexpectedly succeeded the cabinet as chief minister from his former chief minister Xue Guoguan.

For more than a year, Fan Fucui struggled to cope with the situation and was exhausted mentally and physically. Last year, the situation in Liaodong and Guanhai was not bad, and he could barely hold on.

But since this year, the banditry in the Central Plains and Huguang has become fierce again. Luoyang and Xiangyang have fallen successively. King Fu and King Xiang have been killed one after another. Even Emperor Chongzhen himself cried at the Ancestral Temple and issued an imperial edict to blame himself.

Fan Fucui, who felt uneasy and gradually felt powerless to make a comeback, submitted two memorials to Emperor Chongzhen regarding his resignation. However, Emperor Chongzhen repeatedly tried to persuade him to stay, so he could not resign and return to his hometown.

Today, he took the lead in coming to see Emperor Chongzhen. In addition to finishing the backlog of urgent matters as soon as possible, he also had plans to resign again.

Therefore, when faced with Emperor Chongzhen's sarcastic remarks, he had nothing to fear, and he was quite tough when speaking.

"Then let's talk about it. In your cabinet, do you have a suitable candidate to inherit the legacy of Mr. Yang Ge?"

Emperor Chongzhen was not confused. Of course he also knew that after Yang Sichang died, if no one took over for a long time to lead the army to suppress thieves, then the strategy of suppressing thieves with four squares, six corners and ten nets, which had used countless troops and food, would be completely destroyed.

fail.

Therefore, although he was sad and grieving these days, he did not completely ignore the government affairs. Otherwise, how would he know that so many people were writing letters attacking the dead Yang Sichang?

And the reason why he was deeply angry about this was because many of the officials and ministers who attacked Yang Sichang were actually insinuations and insults about him.

In Emperor Chongzhen's view, if others denied Yang Sichang's strategy of suppressing thieves, they would be slapping themselves in the face.

Because behind Yang Sichang, there was no one else but Emperor Chongzhen himself.

So out of anger, he simply ignored all the memorials and memorials and ignored them.

But this does not mean that he is not anxious in his heart, nor does it mean that he will break the pot and indulge in wine and sex from now on, not caring about anything.

However, after Yang Sichang died, Emperor Chongzhen himself really didn't know who to send to take over this mess.

He arranged for Hong Chengchou to be sent outside the customs. He had just won a battle and had just gained a foothold.

Sun Chuanting was imprisoned by him, and he was still angry with him. He made rude remarks and refused to repent or admit his mistakes.

Besides, who else can be sent?

Which one has both ability and talent, and at the same time can listen to his own words and follow the rules without changing his tune?

In the past few days, while Emperor Chongzhen was mourning the death of Yang Sichang, he was also considering these issues, but he could not find such a candidate.

"Your Majesty, I believe that Ding Qirui, Governor of the Three Borders of Shaanxi, is a candidate to succeed Governor Yang. Previously, Ding Qirui was appointed as the Left Minister of the Ministry of War because of Governor Yang's strong recommendation. Later, he was appointed Governor of the Three Borders of Shaanxi, also from Governor Yang.

Recommended by the teacher."

Just when Fan Fucui was embarrassing Yang Sichang's successor, Chen Yan, a bachelor of Wuyingdian who was kneeling next to him, suddenly kowtowed and said:

"The existence of Ding Qirui, the governor of the three sides, is certainly the result of His Majesty's keen eye for knowing people, but he was also recommended by Governor Yang. This shows that Governor Yang and Ding Qirui got along well with each other during his lifetime.

"That being the case, my successor should be able to carry on the unfinished ambitions of Governor Yang's Four Right Six Corners and Ten Sided Nets, and not change the course and waste all the previous achievements. This is my humble opinion. Please consider it, Your Majesty."

"I second the proposal!"

"I second the proposal!"

"I second the proposal!"
Chapter completed!