Chongzhen Sunset Song

?one

Capital City, Hall of Martial Arts.

The partition door was tightly closed, isolating the world on both sides of the door.Outside the hall, the sun is soft and warm, moistening the grass, trees, bricks and stones in the courtyard, and even the snow-white white marble railings are faintly glowing with a soft and light golden color.The half-yellow fallen leaves lay peacefully in the corner of the wall, quietly watching the sparrows jumping around cheerfully and chirping from time to time, as if they were chatting leisurely, unaware of the darkness in the dark hall that was blocked by the doors and windows. , How dignified the atmosphere is.

Chongzhen's face was sullen and he didn't say a word.Chen Xinjia, Xie Sheng and other important officials of the court held their breaths and waited for the emperor to express his position.A few rays of sunlight leaked into the hall, cut into thin long pieces by the window edge, intertwined with the green smoke curling up from the incense burner, and then separated from each other, one side turned into spots of light on the blue brick floor, and the other side drifted silently in the In the shadows of the hall, it quietly hid among the fine dust in the air.

"Really...is there no other way to think about it?" After a long time, Chongzhen finally uttered a sentence.Chen Xinjia took a step forward, bowed respectfully, and said:

"Your Majesty, for the present plan, there is only one way to negotiate. The thief Li Zicheng killed the governor of Shaanxi, and now he is besieging Luoyang. If he is allowed to be presumptuous again, sooner or later his troops will come to the city, and the capital will not be safe. But the lack of troops, Food and wages are not enough. It is really difficult to resist foreign enemies and suppress bandits at the same time. It is better to make peace with the Qing for the time being and concentrate on suppressing the bandits. At this time, we will mention it again, and everything will come naturally.”

"Master Chen's words are very true." Xie Sheng, the cabinet assistant at the side, echoed without losing the opportunity, "Now both inside and outside are in danger. If we drag on, I'm afraid both sides will lose. Since the Qing army has peace in mind, it's better to delay the troops first and rescue them. Master Hong, call back your troops, and after the bandits are over, it won't be too late to take revenge on Song Jin."

Several cabinet ministers present saw that they had made it clear, and they all nodded in agreement. The only person in the hall who was unclear about his attitude was Chongzhen.Chongzhen glanced across the faces of the ministers one by one, then lowered his eyelids, silently looking at the smooth blue bricks on the ground.Although he knew that everyone's words were reasonable, and knew that there was nothing he could do about it, but he didn't know what was weighing heavily on his heart, and it was difficult for him to nod his head.There were sparrows chirping at the gate of the hall, breaking into the silence unscrupulously, distracting people in a trance.Suddenly a murmured word, accompanied by the sound of a bird, passed by the ears unsuspectingly. Although the voice was low, it immediately tensed everyone's sensitive nerves.

"I don't know if Lord Yang is still here..."

Several ministers all cast their eyes on Chen Xinjia who spoke carelessly, and they were all shocked.In the early years, Yang Sichang had indeed been advocating and suppressing bandits, and everyone could see that the emperor at that time was indeed moved.But today is different from the past, Yang Sichang is already dead, and has been charged with various crimes, no one knows what the current emperor thinks about Yang Sichang in his heart.Chen Xinjia mentioned him at this time, it should be to arouse the old feelings of the emperor for the purpose of peace discussion, but if this dangerous move is wrong, wouldn’t all previous efforts be wasted, and there will be no possibility of peace talks... The hearts of all the ministers present rose to the top of their throats. He stood still with his mouth shut, clenched his sweaty palms, just waiting for the emperor's reaction.I saw Chongzhen startled slightly, his brows frowned suddenly, but they relaxed slowly, the hearts of all the ministers fluttered back and forth with this tightening and relaxation, and Chongzhen's thoughts were also exhausted in this short moment. Turn around a thousand times.After a while, he finally lowered his eyes and let out a long sigh.

"If you can make peace, you can make peace, Qing, wait and do it according to the situation."

The emperor finally agreed.The concerns of all the ministers present were relieved, and they all secretly breathed a sigh of relief. "However, if this matter is made public, the officials will use the righteousness of the Spring and Autumn Period to obstruct it. When the season is out of the question, it may be difficult to achieve a major event." Chongzhen watched the few ministers in front of him, and added, "You must act in secret this time. There must be no leaks of any information about the peace talks."

"I obey the order." Everyone responded in unison.But despite answering like this, everyone's thoughts are still occupied by the major resolutions that have just been finalized. No one expected that these seemingly random supplementary wills would influence Daming in the near future. Or at the crux of their own destiny.

two

The days passed day by day, and the peace talks with Qing were progressing slowly step by step, while the grain and grass in Songshan were also decreasing day by day.Although the 15 troops were scattered and Songshan was no longer under the threat of food shortages for three days, waiting to die in a precarious isolated city was a more desperate curse than food shortages.Finally, in March of the [-]th year of Chongzhen, Songshan's deputy general Xia Chengde rebelled, secretly colluded with the Qing army to enter the city, captured Hong Chengchou to the Qing camp, and Songshan, which had been trapped for a long time, fell.After Hong Chengchou was defeated, Jinzhou, which had been besieged by the Qing army for a long time, lost its last ray of hope. Perhaps there was a lesson learned from Dalinghe four years ago. .

"Your Majesty, the Qing army is so unrighteous that they just occupied Songjin. Will the peace talks continue?" After the imperial court, Chen Xinjia came to the Wuying Hall to have an audience.

"Although the loss of Songjin is the injustice of the Qing army, it's also because we have no restraint and cannot blame others." Contrary to Chen Xinjia, Chongzhen did not see any ups and downs, neither sad nor happy in his eyes, but a little imperceptible exhaustion, " Besides, the pine brocade has been lost, Zu Dashou came to the Qing Dynasty, Hong Chengchou's life and death are unknown, and there is no one in Liaodong to use, so if we don't negotiate peace at this time, it is difficult to hand over Ning Yuan to others."

"...Your Majesty is right." Chen Xinjia bowed slightly, responding to Chongzhen's words with a helpless expression. "...but four years ago, General Zu had feigned surrender in the Battle of Daling River. Could this time be the same...?" Chen Xinjia paused for a while, and asked again.

Chongzhen shook his head slightly, but did not speak.Whether this shaking of the head was uncertain or negative, no matter how carefully Ren Chen Xinjia observed it, he couldn't find any clues from Chongzhen's face.

After that, news came from Liaodong one after another, and they were piled up on the dragon case in the Hall of Martial Arts, gradually building up the answers to the questions.Zu Dashou should have really surrendered to the Qing army. Since the dedication of the city, it seems that the world has evaporated and there is no sound.And Hong Chengchou's entourage and family also fled back to the capital one after another, crying and telling about Hong Chengchou's helplessness when he was captured, and his heroism when he died.This repeated crying convinced Chongzhen that Hong Chengchou, whose life and death were uncertain, was finally killed by his opponent.So Hong Chengchou issued a decree to posthumously in the name of a hero who died for the country, and set up a funeral in Chaotian Palace. Chongzhen went to mourn in person, and the whole court mourned endlessly.However, he died in a foreign land, and it was difficult to find his body. Until a long time after the funeral, there were still rumors that Hong Chengchou was still alive and sent to the Qing Dynasty.Chongzhen didn't pay much attention to such rumors, and never sent anyone to investigate.The funeral has been posted, and the title has been chased, why bother to make all this a joke.Besides, even if it is dropped, so what.The most important thing is that this general who started fighting for Ming Dynasty shortly after he ascended the throne has finally left Daming now.Chongzhen stood in front of the window, caressing the cracked red paint on the edge of the window, sighing faintly.

"The paint on the window is not good, should Dexiu ask someone to repaint it?" Seeing Chongzhen staring at the paint on the window, Xi Zhao stepped forward and said courteously.

"what……"

A word from Xizhao interrupted Chongzhen's thoughts, he looked back at Xizhao, and forced a smile.

"The sky is dry and the things are dry. I'm afraid it will still crack after repainting."

Chongzhen said, and sat down after returning to the dragon case with his hands behind his back.

"That's all."

three

"Every year, your country gives ten thousand taels of gold, one million taels of platinum, and our country gives a thousand catties of ginseng and a thousand pieces of mink fur. The upper mountain in the middle of Ningyuan Shuangshubao is the border of your country, and Tashan is the border of our country. This mutual market..." In the inner room of Lijian, Wang Chengen read the secret report from Ningyuan, rolled his eyes, and snorted. "The mere Jianlu, who is so unscrupulous, stretched out his hand to ask me for the old silver from the Ming Dynasty, really..." Halfway through speaking, his mind sank, he stopped talking, and snorted resentfully, and then fell silent.

"Hey, it's now and then." Li Quan on the side shook his head helplessly, "Huang Taiji used troops to force Ning Yuan, and it is already a good result to reach such a peace agreement."

"It's really this moment, that moment..." Wang Chengen murmured and sighed, knocking the secret fold in his hand, "I think back when our family was young, what the emperor looked like at that time, and the world was reversed. Taiping, the current emperor bestows wisdom from heaven, but this chaotic world can never be peaceful..."

"Don't worry, father-in-law." Li Quan smiled and comforted Wang Cheng'en, "The peace agreement will be completed, the frontier can be settled, and the elites of the Ming Dynasty will be gathered to deal with a few thieves, so there is no fear of injustice in troubled times. Now the emperor has pardoned Sun Chuanting. Leading the army to quell the chaos and the thieves should be just around the corner.”

"I hope." Wang Chengen nodded, and suddenly heard the voice of a young eunuch outside the screen saying: "My lord, Eunuch Zhao, the imperial horse supervisor, is here to invite you."

"What's the matter?" Wang Chengen frowned and leaned back, looking a little impatient.

"The visitor said that Eunuch Zhao's Xinjiao arranged for a small play, and he wanted to invite Eunuch Wang to watch it."

"Oh?" Wang Chengen's eyes lit up, and he regained his energy immediately, "You go back, just say that our house will be there soon." After saying that, he turned his head and said to Li Quan with a smile, "Look at this Zhao, he knows our house Well, I really know how to be filial to others, let's go, you go with me, there are so many troubles in recent days, let's take a break."

"Eunuch Zhao invited you, the villain should not go." Li Quan waved his hands and declined.

"Hey~ what about you and me, the theater is lively when there are many people watching it, let's go, let's go together." While talking, Wang Chengen put down the secret bag casually, ignored Li Quan's refusal, got up and forced Li Quan out of the inner room .As soon as the person left, there was no sound in the small inner room, only the document containing the secret agreement was lying on the table with other ordinary and innocuous memorials, quietly waiting for the upcoming event. The coming storm and thunder...?