Chapter 6: Mysterious words confuse the public
"As for the lax military discipline, it is not something that has been corrupted today. The new emperor will naturally start to rectify it after he ascends the throne! As for the talk of factional strife, it can be quelled as long as Wei Yan is removed! By then, the court will be full of righteous people, and the emperor and his ministers will be of one mind. How can there be talk of more intense factional strife?"

At this time, Chongzhen had already torn his relationship with Wei Zhongxian, took back Wei Zhongxian's East Factory seal and approved Wei Zhongxian's request to retire, so people in the opposition were cheering and everyone praised Chongzhen for being a wise ruler.

When those officials who originally belonged to the eunuch party saw that Wei Zhongxian was about to fall, they all behaved themselves and dared not show up. In the court, almost whatever Chongzhen said was the truth.

This gave the young Chongzhen the illusion that everything was under control, and he sneered at Wang An's words.

The idea that party struggles are getting more intense is sheer nonsense!

Wang An frowned and waved his hand at Chongzhen: "Sit down and talk. We are just ordinary people. Why are you so excited?"

Seeing Chongzhen still standing there angrily, Wang An couldn't help laughing.

I didn't realize that my cousin was a fan of Ming Dynasty, but then I realized that it was normal for a Ming person to be a fan of Ming Dynasty.

After all, although there were many traitors who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in the late Ming Dynasty, there were also many who would rather die than surrender.

However, Wang An decided to persuade Chongzhen. After all, his rich uncle occupied a crucial position as an angel investor in his business plan.

Not to mention that he was his only blood relative in this era. He could not sit idly by and watch him die tragically at the hands of Li Zicheng seventeen years later.

Wang An shook his head and said solemnly: "My brother, you are still too young."

Chongzhen almost vomited blood when he heard this. It was bad enough that this shopkeeper took advantage of him a few times, but he even mocked his youth and ignorance!
Chongzhen was so angry that he laughed and said, "I... am really too young. Let's hear what the shopkeeper has to say!"

At the same time, he made up his mind that if Wang An couldn't explain the situation, he would go back and ask Shuntian Prefecture to deal with this bastard!

How dare you curse our Ming Dynasty! Never died!
Wang An stood up and put his hands behind his back, with the momentum of commanding the whole country. "Let's talk about the Later Jin first. Since the battles of Hunhe and Sarhu, the Later Jin army has become too powerful to be defeated, and important border towns have been lost one after another!"

"Right or wrong?"

Chongzhen naturally understood the threat posed by the Later Jin Dynasty and nodded when he heard this.

Just after he nodded, he couldn't help feeling a little annoyed. He was actually intimidated by the aura of the owner of a herbal medicine shop.

When Wang An saw Chongzhen nod, he continued with satisfaction: "As for the so-called Lindan Khan, he is nothing but a paper tiger."

"Others may not know, but you have been at the border for so long, don't you know?"

Chongzhen really didn't know. The news he had received all along was how powerful Ligdan Khan was, how he occupied a vast grassland, and how many soldiers and generals he had under his command.

However, he couldn't lose face in front of Wang An, so he could only say vaguely: "Lin Danhan has 400,000 soldiers. Shouldn't it be easy for him to control the Later Jin?"

Wang An sneered, "What an easy job! Let me ask you, how did Guangning City get lost?"

In the second year of the Tianqi reign, Lin Dan Khan formed an alliance with the Ming Dynasty to jointly defend Guangning City. However, Nurhaci took only a few days to capture Guangning. Guangning Governor Wang Huazhen abandoned the city and fled, and Lin Dan Khan's so-called reinforcements also left without a fight.

This incident caused a big uproar at the time, and Chongzhen was speechless.

Wang An still felt that it was not enough, so he added: "Speaking of Lin Dan Khan, you should quickly write a letter to your uncle and tell him not to go to Xuanda recently. Lin Dan Khan is going to invade the border!" When these words came out, Chongzhen's heart skipped a beat, and then he said disdainfully: "This is even more nonsense. How can Lin Dan Khan invade Xuanda when he is far away in Baicheng?"

Seeing that Chongzhen didn't believe it, Wang An was a little surprised.

Although Lin Danhan's base camp was on the left wing of the Mongolian grassland, since the reign of Wanli, the tribes under his command had been divided and won over by Nurhaci.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that Lin Danhan would definitely not be able to stay in Hetao unless he could muster up the courage to fight Nurhaci head-on to decide the outcome.

Moreover, in history, Lin Danhan was indeed afraid of fighting with the Later Jin Dynasty, so he abandoned his hometown and moved west with his troops, leaving the entire left wing of Mongolia to Nurhaci's allied tribes.

These actions did not happen all at once. My uncle and his family have been staying at the border for so many years. Couldn't they have noticed any trend?
Maybe my cousin is young and doesn’t care much about these things.

Wang An said earnestly: "It's also the fault of the new emperor. It was he who forced this matter."

Chongzhen blurted out: "It's none of my business... No, it has nothing to do with the emperor!"

Wang An didn't hear clearly what Chongzhen said, and he chuckled and said, "Think about it, why did Lin Danhan abandon his hometown and move west?"

"On the one hand, they did not dare to fight the Later Jin directly, and on the other hand, they coveted the rewards given by the imperial court to the right-wing Mongolian tribes, which they could use to support their army and make a comeback."

"But the emperor stopped the city reward right after he came to power. People came with their families to collect "relief food" but you stopped it for them. If they have no food to eat, they will have to rob!"

There were two kinds of market rewards in the Ming Dynasty. One was the mutual trade, not to mention it; the other was that as long as the surrounding forces were willing to call the Ming Dynasty "father", the Ming Dynasty would reward them with salt, iron, money and grain every year.

Although each individual tribe could not get much, the rewards that Lindan Khan gained by dominating the right-wing Mongolian tribes were no small amount when added up.

This time, Chongzhen did not rush to refute, but was stunned.

Wang Chengen also looked at Chongzhen in horror. The new emperor had to abolish all market rewards for the Mongolian tribes due to the financial difficulties of the Ming Dynasty. The decree had just been issued by the cabinet. How could the owner of the herbal medicine shop know about it? Could he have predicted it?

The most important thing is, since Wang An got Chongzhen’s decree right, is it true that Lin Dan Khan moved westward?
And when Lin Danhan learns that the life-saving money and food that he had placed his hopes on are gone, will he really tear up the alliance and attack Xuan Da?

Although Chongzhen had only been on the throne for two months and didn't know much about Ligdan Khan, based on his understanding of the Mongolian foreigners, he knew that these beasts who only cared about whoever gave them milk would turn against him without hesitation.

If it was only the weak armed forces of the right-wing Mongolian tribes that turned against each other, it would not be a big deal.

But if it was Ligdan Khan who turned against them, it would be a different story.

Not to mention that the Ming Dynasty had already spent one million taels of silver on Ligdan Khan in order to win him over and contain the Later Jin. This change of attitude meant that the huge investment was wasted and it also created another powerful enemy for the Ming Dynasty, which was already in deep trouble!

This was unacceptable to Chongzhen, and he did not want to create a powerful enemy just after taking over the Ming Dynasty.

Although Lin Danhan acted like a coward against Nurhaci, he still controlled tens of thousands of strong troops, most of whom were cavalry or mounted infantry, and their combat effectiveness was not weak.

Chongzhen had just inspected the Beijing camp and was now seriously doubting the combat effectiveness of the Ming army.

(End of this chapter)