"Your Majesty, it's time to have a meal."

After sitting like a puppet for the whole morning, eunuch Wang Chengen whispered from the side.

"I have no appetite, so you can step down."

Chongzhen waved his hand, looking bored, and didn't want to talk to him at all.

Wang Chengen looked helpless and could only bow and retreat with a sound.

Speaking of which, it is not an exaggeration to Emperor Chongzhen be the most miserable emperor in the Ming Dynasty.

Since the eighth year of Chongzhen, after Fengyang's ancestral tomb was excavated, Chongzhen cried and accused the Taimiao of guilt, and since then he wore common clothes and vegetarian food. Officials advised him not to be so harsh to himself, but they were harshly rejected.

In June of the following year, his grandmother dreamed of Empress Dowager Xiaochun and asked her to tell the emperor that except for sacrifices, death day and the first day of the 15th day, as usual, the fifteenth day, the other days could be eaten. For this reason, he specially issued an edict to his subjects that he would no longer eat vegetarian food starting from June 22nd.

Although meat food was restored, Zhu Youjian and Empress Zhou still insisted on eating vegetarian food for ten days a month to "stay fasting". This was a big test for the emperor and empress who had always eaten fine meat and fine food.

Of course, Zhu Youjian's frugality and hard work in life was not just for family life, but more because of his concern for the country and the people, which seemed to be his consistent attitude.

Shortly after he ascended the throne, facing the mess of poverty in the country, he resolutely announced the cessation of the activities of the Soviet-Hangzhou weaving (official agency dedicated to the palace silk and satin) on the grounds that he could not bear to bother the people.

Since the eighth year of Chongzhen, Empress Zhou has made his own efforts and ordered the eunuch to purchase twenty-four cotton spinning wheels in Suzhou and send them to the palace to teach the palace maids to spin, and cultivate a diligent and thrifty atmosphere.

Although the palace maids in the north were unable to learn the skill of the Jiangnan village girl, it finally ended up in nothing, but the "sound of spinning wheels blowing into the Heavenly Palace" is a strange story in the Forbidden City.

According to the records of Sun Chengze, the director of the Husband and the Ministry of Education, the royal dietary expenses reported by Guanglu Temple, who was in charge of the palace diet, for the 15th year of Chongzhen, were as follows:

The emperor's meal costs 1,046 taels of silver per month;

The queen's meal costs three hundred and thirty-five taels per month;

The imperial concubine's meal costs 164 taels of silver per month;

The Crown Prince's meal costs 120 taels of silver per month.

Of course these are not small numbers, but compared with the Wanli period, they are already very frugal.

Especially in September of the 16th year of Chongzhen, Zhu Youjian took the lead in savings in consideration of financial difficulties and announced that his meal expenses would be reduced by half, his concubines would be reduced by four tenths, and his palace maids and eunuchs would be reduced by three tenths.

A month later, he once again advocated frugality and opposed luxury, and set an example. In addition to insisting on the previously announced "reducing meals and withdrawing joys", he stipulated that only gold and silver utensils can be used for major festivals, and tin, wood, and porcelain will be used in daily life. He hopes that the ministers will follow suit.

If you still ignore the situation in the future and spend extravagance and expenses, you will be severely punished.

This is actually his usual style. Since he ascended the top, he has always maintained the virtue of frugality.

Wu Weiye, who was the editor of the Hanlin Academy at that time, recorded this: whether in the harem, whether in the monthly banquet or the seasonal banquet, the relatives or married princesses sent food on time. After Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, he specially issued an imperial edict to prohibit it.

Since the first year of Chongzhen, when the weaving in Suzhou was announced, the emperor often wore old clothes that had been washed many times, and his socks were sewn on cloth soles.

He often said: I am calling on the world to return from luxury to simplicity, so that my younger generations can know the difficulties. Can you not start with yourself?

There are many such examples.

Li Qing, who was the staff member at the time, said in "Sanyuan Notes": The emperor was worried that the country's financial difficulties and took Liaodong ginseng that had been stored in the harem for decades to betrayed the market. Li Qing once bought some of the best wild ginseng in the market, with a hard texture and a timeless taste, which was completely different from ordinary ginseng. I heard that this time, the ginseng trade could get tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Wang Yuchang's "Chongzhen Palace Ci" talked about such a small thing. One day, the emperor went to listen to the teacher's lecture. The sleeves of the underwear he was wearing were damaged and exposed outside were very indecent. He stuffed it in from time to time to cover it. The "lecturer" who witnessed this subtle action said to him: Although wearing worn-out clothes is too frugal, it is a virtue, so why bother to hide it?

For this reason, later generations praised the poem: "The virtue of sages is to be frugal, and not to be ashamed of one's own plan." In the meantime, profit and loss are all the same, and accumulating a fur must be made into a fur.

Inspired by the emperor's strict self-discipline style, the harem was rare in quiet and simple atmosphere, and there was no decadent scene of being drunk and dreaming about the demise of the country.

As Wu Weiye said in "Suiko Jilu": The emperor was serious in the deep palace. His prince and other children's words and deeds were based on etiquette and law. Therefore, the harem did not play with the entertainment of pearls and jade, nor did it perform sensuality and dance. In his spare time, only the elegant sound of the guqin was lingering.

The emperor said: This kind of piano sound is enough to entertain the mind and surpass other music.

This emperor, who has always been strict with himself, would make state affairs so messy. This history is really full of paradoxes.

Chongzhen was extremely confused. Why was he so diligent and thrifty and so vigorous, and why was the state affairs so chaotic and the situation increasingly collapsed. What was going on?

This almost unsolvable question made the emperor feel extremely bad, but he could not find the answer to the question.

Today, in addition to the chaos in state affairs, Chongzhen was unwilling to eat, there was another very important reason, that is, Chongzhen received a letter from Li Xiao.

In the letter, Li Xiao not only reported to the emperor in detail that he had wiped out Jinzhou, destroyed the entire city of Hetuara, and destroyed it into plains, but also had a very important point, which was to solemnly remind the emperor not to easily negotiate peace with the Qing Dynasty.

Li Xiao said, although our Ming Dynasty has suffered heavy damage, he has also hit the Qing court hard. Therefore, from a general perspective, although the Ming Dynasty lost a lot, the Qing court also suffered a big defeat and suffered a great loss.

Therefore, there is no need for the emperor to lose confidence, no need for fear of the Qing people, and no need for the Qing court to lead him by the nose.

Li Xiao assured the emperor that although the Qing court is now victorious in western Liaoning, because both Jinzhou and Hetuala are destroyed, there is no need to worry that the Qing army will take advantage of the victory and go south.

In his opinion, even if the Qing army wanted to enter the pass again to fight, they would have to rest for a long time. Therefore, there was no need for the Ming court to be scared by the Qing army, so they signed the agreement and clauses in panic.

Li Xiao wrote this letter, which was actually based on his knowledge of the real historical process at the end of the Ming Dynasty, so he prevented the situation in advance and sent this letter to the emperor as a reminder.

Emperor Chongzhen was originally a hesitant and unfaithful person. When he saw Li Xiao's letter, he felt even more bored and frustrated.

And at this moment, Chen Xinjia, the Minister of War, asked for a visit.

Chongzhen hesitated for a moment and summoned him.

As soon as Chen Xinjia saw the emperor, he immediately knelt down and stooped to the ground.

Seeing his appearance, Chongzhen guessed that he must have had some harsh words. He wanted to say to himself, but his mood became more and more irritable, but it was not easy to get angry. He could only say coldly: "My dear, what do you have to say? You can tell me one by one."

Chen Xinjia took a long breath, stood up from the ground, bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I am blunt, after the Battle of Songjin, my Ming Dynasty is defeated. If I don't come up with a countermeasure quickly, I will only be afraid..."

Chen Xinjia deliberately interrupted the following words, and the emperor looked gloomy when he heard this.

Of course he knew what Chen Xinjia wanted to say to him next. Since the end of the Songjin War, such a topic has become a scar in the emperor's heart that has been repeatedly exposed but cannot be healed.

Chen Xinjia slowly raised his head and said to Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, I have a plan, I don't know whether to talk about it."

"Tell me."

"Emperor, now my Ming Dynasty was defeated in the Battle of Songjin, and my troops were extremely damaged. I really have no ability to fight against the Tartars and bandits at the same time. I ask the emperor to agree and seize the time to negotiate peace with the Tartars, so as not to be attacked on both sides. The situation will be irreversible in the end!" Chen Xinjia looked painful.

When Chongzhen heard the word "Safeguarding" and couldn't help but frown tightly again.

Almost instantly, he thought that the results of the previous peace talks with the Qing court since the Tianqi period all ended in failure.

Especially last time, Li Xiao solemnly asked the Qing court to send an envoy to the Qing court, and even the agreement was agreed, but in the end, the matter was left unresolved due to face and the court's discussion.

Seeing the emperor hesitating, Chen Xinjia said tremblingly again: "Emperor, now is an extraordinary moment. In order to protect the country, the emperor must not hesitate. Think about the story of Song and Liao…"

"Stop the mouth! How can the story of Song and Liao dynasties be compared with the current situation?" The emperor interrupted his words sternly. "Now the Qing court has the remaining power of a great victory. If we want to negotiate peace, we will ask for a lion's big talk. My Ming Dynasty is now in decline. How can we bear these conditions? Besides, the Duke of Tang wiped out Jinzhou and conquered Hetuara one after another, and also severely attacked the Qing court. How can he defeat his ambitions and promote the enemy's power?"

There was a letter from Li Xiao to remind him that the emperor could see clearly about the current situation.

That is, the Ming and Qing dynasties' peace talks are incomparable with the Song and Liao stories. The most fundamental point is that if the peace talks are successful, let me ask, what strength does the Ming Dynasty, which had just experienced the great defeat of Songjin and the destruction of 130,000 Ming troops, have to make the Qing Dynasty abide by the promise of peace talks?

So the emperor still knew very clearly that the Song and Liao dynasty Alliance should not be compared with the present.

In history, after the Chanyuan Alliance, there was no war in the Song and Liao dynasties for more than a hundred years. In fact, the Song Dynasty had no ability to stop the Liao army from storing the Song border. How could it give Liao tribute to annual monies if it was capable?

There was also the Empress Dowager Xiao died shortly after the Chanyuan Alliance. Then Liao started a war with Goryeo for more than ten years, and he didn't bother to deal with the Song Dynasty. It was not that he didn't want to start a war. Later, Liao forced the Song Dynasty to increase coins and cede land one after another.

If we explain the conditions for the peace talks in the Qing Dynasty, I am afraid that no matter how well the negotiation is, we have to compensate the Qing Dynasty’s property. It is really not a good idea to weaken one’s own strength and enhance the opponent’s strength in vain.

When Yuan Chonghuan wanted to negotiate peace with Huang Taiji, the Qing Dynasty was at the peak of internal struggle. Huang Taiji's status was unstable, and several major benevolent fights openly and secretly, but in name only was the Khan, but in fact, they were on par with the other three other benevolents. In this case, Huang Taiji's behavior must follow the opinions of most people, otherwise the position may be unstable. At that time, as long as he was not nervous, he would definitely not be sincere in discussing peace with the Ming Dynasty. Besides, it was impossible for the Qing Dynasty to agree to the peace.

Therefore, to be realistic, at the current stage, it is simply wrong to propose to the Qing Dynasty to negotiate peace. The Ming Dynasty had already had too huge gap with the Qing Dynasty on the military level and had no ability to guarantee that the Qing Dynasty would abide by the agreement. If the Qing Dynasty made small moves or simply broke the contract in the future, the Ming Dynasty would definitely suffer.

You should know that in real history, the peace conditions offered by the Qing Dynasty were like this.

"The Veritable Records of Emperor Taizong of Qing Dynasty" records the conditions given by Huang Taiji:

First, if there are good and bad things between the two countries, they must send envoys to celebrate and celebrate;

Second, every year, the Ming Dynasty gave the Qing Dynasty ten thousand taels of gold and one million taels of silver, and the Qing Dynasty gave the Ming Dynasty a thousand jin of ginseng and a thousand marten fur;

Third, those who enter the Ming Dynasty, those who rebels from the Ming Dynasty must also be arrested and sent to the Ming Dynasty; those who rebels from the Ming Dynasty must also be arrested and sent to the Ming Dynasty;

Fourth, each king has its own country, using the Tuling Ridge in the middle of Ningyuan Shuangshupu as the bright national boundary, Tashan as the clear national boundary, and Lianshan as the moderate place to conduct trade with each other.

However, Huang Taiji also insulted: "If you don't want to reconcile, don't send envoys to write... If you don't arrive in September, you will be in charge of the army."

The general idea is that you either give a million taels of silver right now, or I will pick it up by myself in winter.

To put it bluntly, I was given one million taels of silver. Will Huang Taiji not come to the Central Plains to rob in winter? This is hard to say.

Huang Taiji never gave any guarantees, saying how long it would last for a peaceful relationship with the Ming Dynasty in the future.

This condition is too arduous. You must know that after the Songjin War, the Ming court could still get a million taels of silver, and it was a big deal! He had already dispatched troops from the mainland to continue fighting.

You know, the peace talks between the Song and Liao dynasties were only 100,000 taels, and it took a long time to delay. The Qing Dynasty lion was so loud that the price was really ruthless.

More importantly, Huang Taiji was already impatient to say that as long as the silver in September was less than the silver in September, he would take action to rob it. Where did the Ming court get the silver? Will he publicly rob in the capital like Li Zicheng?

In addition, even if Chongzhen tried every means, even if he had to take off his underwear and get one million taels of silver, he would have any real value for a peace agreement.

Of course, Huang Taiji did not make any promises, as long as he gave money to him, he would not come to the south to hunt this year.

As for next year, the year after tomorrow... how can I know that it is so far away?

Unexpectedly, Li Xiao's letter turned a corner in history. Chongzhen did not agree with Chen Xinjia's proposal as in history, and then sent an envoy to discuss peace with the Qing court.

After hearing the emperor's words, Chen Xinjia, who was kneeling on the ground, was stunned for a moment and could not reply.

"emperor……"

Chongzhen waved his hand and said to Chen Xinjia boredly: "No need to talk about peace talks for now, you can step down."
Chapter completed!