Chapter 23 Just Sue Me

Cheng Jiming was indeed the military supervisor appointed by Chongzhen himself. Regardless of what Chongzhen's intention was, as long as Cheng Jiming was in that position, he was eligible to share the military merits. This was an unchanging practice in the officialdom.

Seeing Qian Qianyi speechless, Chongzhen immediately realized that the other party was simply trying to get credit for Cheng Jiming and had no idea of ​​the truth.

However, at this time, Qian Qianyi could only bite the bullet and say: "Cheng Jiming has always been known as a capable minister. Since he is the military supervisor, he must have contributed a lot."

Chongzhen snorted coldly and said with a sneer, "Qian Aiqing, don't take things for granted. I have a secret report from the imperial guards, and it mentions the capable minister Cheng Jiming you mentioned. Do you want to hear the imperial guards' evaluation?"

Qian Qianyi's heart suddenly skipped a beat and he tried to refuse but it was too late.

Chongzhen sneered and said, "The Jinyiwei and the imperial guards reported that the officers and soldiers of Datong Prefecture were all working hard to fight against Ligdan Khan, but the military supervisor Cheng was missing. After the imperial guards searched for him, they found that Cheng Jiming had packed his bags and was ready to flee at any time when the city was broken!"

Chongzhen suddenly raised his tone and said angrily: "This is what you call a capable minister! As a military supervisor, he doesn't think about dealing with the Tartars, but is always ready to run away when the city is breached! What if all the officials of my Ming Dynasty are like Cheng Jiming!"

"I am guilty! I don't know people well!" Qian Qianyi immediately knelt on the ground, with sweat constantly breaking out on his forehead.

He immediately felt resentful towards Cheng Jiming in his heart. He didn't expect that he was so passionate when talking about military affairs, but he was so cowardly when he arrived at the border.

If I had known this earlier, I shouldn't have stood up to take credit for him.

This time, the situation was really hit or miss. Not only did it fail to achieve its goal, it also aroused the disgust of Emperor Chongzhen.

But this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is, according to what Emperor Chongzhen said, Chongzhen is still using the factory guards to gather information?
There are two people in the world that the Donglin Party fears the most. One is Wei Zhongxian, and the other is the guards and imperial guards.

These people are omnipresent, and many ministers have fallen into the hands of the eunuchs.

Especially the combination of the two, it can almost be said to be the Ming Dynasty version of the White Terror.

Some time ago, Wei Zhongxian lost power and Tian Ergeng was imprisoned. Qian Qianyi and other Donglin Party members thought they could breathe a sigh of relief, but suddenly learned that the new emperor not only had no intention of abolishing the Censorate, but even sent the Imperial Guards to Datong to investigate military intelligence without knowing when.

This is what Qian Qianyi cares about most.

No, we have to unite like-minded people in the court and persuade the emperor to abolish the Imperial Household Guards!
In fact, many people in later generations thought that the view that Chongzhen abolished the factory guards and eliminated his spies after he came to power was a bit of a misunderstanding.

In fact, a careful study will reveal that there was no official decree to abolish the factory guards during the Chongzhen period.

The reason why such misunderstandings have arisen in later generations is mostly because as soon as Chongzhen came to power, he ordered the recall of eunuchs guarding various places and the mining supervisors and tax collectors set up during the Tianqi period, and these people were all eunuchs.

In addition, after Emperor Chongzhen imprisoned Tian Ergeng, there was no official appointment of the commander-in-chief of the Embroidered Uniform Guard for three or four years.

The famous Luo Yangxing did not appear until the fourth year of Chongzhen. In addition, Luo Yangxing did not achieve any outstanding results after taking office, which led to a low presence of the Censorate.

In fact, Chongzhen was not that stupid.

For example, when Wei Zhongxian was arrested, it was the Jinyiwei Tiqi who were sent.

By the fifth year of Chongzhen, he even issued an order that the Jinyiwei did not need to inform the Ministry of Justice when arresting people, and could arrest them directly.

Later, Sun Weifan, Marquis of Huaining, was arrested by the East Factory for killing the people, and even took action against Grand Secretary Xue Guoguan.

This shows that Emperor Chongzhen was not as stupid as later generations thought, and was not so foolish as to abandon his own military skills. In history, when Xuanda was invaded, Emperor Chongzhen did send a large number of Jinyiwei to investigate military intelligence, and was even advised by Grand Secretary Qian Longxi to use less factory guards.

Of course, Chongzhen did not listen to Qian Longxi.

When Chongzhen heard Qian Qianyi claim that he was not good at judging people, he laughed sarcastically.

"You can say that colleagues don't get along well with each other and don't know how to judge people, but can't you say that your closest relatives don't get along well with each other and don't know how to judge people?"

Qian Qianyi looked up when he heard this, a little confused.

Chongzhen sneered and said, "When the factory official Wei Zhongxian went to Jiangnan to manage the business taxation, the gentry and merchants from all over Suzhou Prefecture were quite cooperative when he first arrived, but..."

Chongzhen said this, looking at Qian Qianyi angrily and said: "However, some local gentry relied on their family members serving as officials in the court and refused to cooperate, and even threatened to report to me."

"I don't think there's any need to bother. Just sue me, Mr. Qian!"

As soon as Chongzhen mentioned Suzhou, Qian Qianyi had a bad feeling because he was from Changshu County, Suzhou.

When Chongzhen's last words came out, his guess was finally confirmed. He couldn't help but secretly resent his stingy and short-sighted clansmen. Although he had the potential to become the leader of Donglin, he was currently just a powerless Minister of Rites.

Who can you scare by bringing yourself up?
Is it the one who can scare the powerful Wei Zhongxian, or the supreme Emperor Chongzhen!

Qian Qianyi even wanted to kill someone, but he had to kowtow and apologize first.

"My people are ignorant and stupid. If I can give them a letter to reprimand them, they will definitely do their best to cooperate with me!"

Chongzhen just snorted coldly and said: "I heard that Qian Aiqing is from a scholarly family. I hope you can set a good example and become a role model for Suzhou!"

Originally, Chongzhen wanted to use this as an excuse to directly remove Qian Qianyi. However, after Cheng Jiming, Chongzhen no longer had much good feelings towards these Donglin Party members.

However, he was still thinking of using Donglin to contain the old officials of the eunuch party, especially now that he listened to Wang An and did not kill Wei Zhongxian directly, but instead entrusted him with an important task. In the past two days, the eunuch party has shown a tendency to rise again in the court.

It’s not that Wei Zhongxian became restless so quickly and was secretly doing something.

It was just that Wei Zhongxian's resurgence made the eunuch party think that Chongzhen would be like Tianqi, so they unconsciously took bigger steps than others.

This trend was very bad and Chongzhen didn't like it very much.

Being an emperor is really tiring, as one has to balance all parties. After leaving court, he must seek advice from his cousin.

Upon hearing this, Qian Qianyi knew that Chongzhen had no intention of taking advantage of this to attack him, and he couldn't help but feel relieved. He quickly stated that he would definitely let his clansmen cooperate with Wei Zhongxian.

Qian Qianyi was different from other Donglin Party members in that he was not a thoroughgoing moral gentleman. Instead, he was a bureaucrat-obsessed person.

As we all know, there are only two types of people within the Donglin Party.

One type is the corrupt scholar who has become stupid due to reading too much, and who believes that farmers should farm and soldiers should kill bandits, and that as long as everyone does their duty, the country can be governed and maintained in peace.

(End of this chapter)