On March 24, the 17th year of Chongzhen, Nanjing, the Forbidden City.

In Wenhua Hall, Qiu Zhizhong stood outside the hall, blocking all the civil and military ministers who were preparing to pay homage to the emperor.

In the hall, Zhu Cilang was staring at the memorial on the table in a daze. There were three major matters to be handled in front of him.

The first thing is to deal with the follow-up matters of the canal transport. The north is in chaos, but the canal transport cannot be stopped. Dezhou, Shandong will be the focus of canal transport for some time. Don’t underestimate the canal transport. Whether Li Zicheng occupied the capital or the Later Jin Tartars entered the pass, canal transport is the most critical link in maintaining Shandong’s defense. Only by transporting money and grain to Shandong continuously through the canal transport, can the army stationed there stubbornly resist the fierce attack from the outside world.

The second thing is to determine the main officials of the Cabinet, the Six Ministry, the Supervision Bureau and other relevant departments. The importance of this is self-evident. Even if Zhu Cilang has the ability to be in the sky, he cannot maintain the normal operation of the entire Ming Dynasty. He needs a large group of civil and military ministers who can handle the affairs of the court. Although these people are not necessarily loyal, when they accept the official appointment, the cabinet and the Six Ministry can overlap, that is, the Secretary of the Six Ministry can be the Minister of Cabinet. Among the six ministries, the most important ones at the moment are the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue. The Secretary of these three departments must be loyal and have strong abilities.

The third thing is to integrate all the troops in Nanzhili. Zhu Cixuan has already controlled the soldiers of the Nanjing Jingzhan and the soldiers of the Nanjing Jinyiwei. Unfortunately, the combat effectiveness of the soldiers of the Nanjing Jingzhan is too weak, most of them are old, weak, sick and disabled, and there is also **. As for the Jinyiwei, they are in name only, Yang Wencong, Li Jizhou and others have tried their best, but they have not been able to select many useful soldiers from it. At present, Yang Wencong is directly responsible for the defense of the entire Nanjing, and the five-city military commander assists, so that the safety of Nanjing can be basically guaranteed.

There are three armies in Nanzhili, controlled by Ma Shiying, Governor of Fengyang, Gao Jie, General of Xuzhou, and Huang Degong, General of Luzhou. The control of these three armies is not very difficult. The slightly difficult ones are Gao Jie and his army. However, Gao Jie dare not make any abnormal changes at the moment. You should know that Gao Jie was once a beloved general under Li Zicheng. Because he was hooked up with Li Zicheng's wife Xing, he was afraid of being discovered by Li Zicheng, so he surrendered to the Ming Dynasty. Now Li Zicheng has captured and occupied the capital, and his momentum is in full swing. If Gao Jie is caught by Li Zicheng, he will definitely die miserably.

When Zhu Cixuan passed by Xuzhou, he thought of seeing Gao Jie, but eventually gave up. Gao Jie in history is a bit complicated, and the evaluation of him by historical books is mostly negative. During the Southern Ming Dynasty, Gao Jie was arrogant and was eventually lured and killed by Zhang Xianzhong's adopted son Xu Dingguo, which led to the fact that the Southern Ming Dynasty had no more troops to deploy in Henan and lost the capital to compete with Li Zicheng and the Later Jin Tartars in the Central Plains. However, historical books have a high evaluation of Xing family, and Xing family has a significant impact on Gao Jie's actions.

Zhu Cixuan has already killed Shandong general Liu Zeqing. In his plan, the only one who may kill Huguang general Zuo Liangyu, most of the rest must be fought over, including Gao Jie.

None of these three things that need to be dealt with urgently is easy, and the bigger thing is the situation in the north.

Li Zicheng had already captured the capital. If nothing unexpected happens, Wu Sangui was about to surrender to the Later Jin Tartars. The Later Jin Tartars would soon enter the pass to fight. Li Zicheng would definitely not be able to defeat the Later Jin Eight Banners Army. After all, Li Zicheng was seriously injured when he was fighting in Shanxi. After taking the capital, he had no time to repair it. To be honest, even Li Zicheng at the heyday might not be able to defeat the Later Jin Eight Banners Army, let alone when his vitality was severely damaged.

Zhu Cilang, who traveled through time, was still very clear about the strength of Li Zicheng and the Eight Banners Army of the Later Jin. Both sides had weaknesses. Needless to say, Li Zicheng was said to be one million. Although his soldiers under his command were not strong in combat and were not disciplined. He was defeated like a mountain and would soon lose his direct control of the capital. The biggest weakness of the Eight Banners Army of the Later Jin was the lack of military strength.

According to Zhu Cixuan's memories of history, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the total strength of the Eight Banners of the Later Jin Dynasty was only about 300,000, which included a large number of Han troops. When Dorgon accepted Wu Sangui's surrender, he did not dare to go out in full swing. The total strength of the troops entering the pass was only 100,000. After occupying the capital and Beizhili, he had to divide his troops and even less troops to go out to fight. Later, he continued to absorb the surrendered Han army and Li Zicheng's Dashun army soldiers, so he could barely maintain it.

In other words, the Later Jin, Dorgon and others were not prepared to rule the Central Plains, but by chance, the Later Jin was able to compete for the Central Plains.

How could Zhu Cilang, who traveled through time, missed such a good opportunity? He must seize it. At least in Huguang or Shandong, he would fight the Eight Banners Army of the Later Jin and strive to defeat the Eight Banners Army all the way. This would definitely make Dorgon at a loss and dare not enter the south easily.

Everything is related, and if anything is not done well, it will affect the overall situation.

Zhu Cilang was unable to avoid the common people ascended the throne and became the emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He had to consider how to use the eunuchs around him.

Most emperors of the Ming Dynasty had a habit, which was to use the eunuchs whom they trusted most to confront the civil servants. Through the confrontation between the eunuchs and civil servants, the emperor coordinated to the greatest extent and controlled the situation of the government.

Under normal circumstances, eunuchs represent the will of the emperor, so eunuchs are often acquiesced by the emperor. Zhu Cilang, who traveled through time, has a deep understanding of this. There are so many people around him, Yang Wencong, Li Banghua, Lu Yuanda and others of the Military Attendant Group, but they are not as good as Cao Huachun. If it were an ordinary emperor, they would definitely trust and rely more on Cao Huachun, and are cold and indifferent to Yang Wencong, Lu Yuanda and others.

However, Zhu Cilang, who traveled through time, is not an ordinary person. He will never allow the people around him to be arrogant.

How should the cabinet and the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of Emperor Tianqi or Emperor Chongzhen?

Emperor Tianqi and Emperor Chongzhen were two extremes. Emperor Tianqi trusted Silijian and gave almost all the power to Wei Zhongxian, the eunuch of Silijian, and used Silijian to suppress the civil and military ministers in the court. Emperor Chongzhen was just the opposite. After destroying Wei Zhongxian's group, he gave power to the cabinet, chose to trust the civil servant group, and ruthlessly suppress the eunuch group.

Zhu Cilang sighed and slowly walked to the side of the imperial desk.

On the right corner of the imperial case, there was a stack of documents, which were the information collected by Sun Chuan and Liu Ning in various parts of Nanzhili, including the secret investigation of officials and merchants at all levels in Nanzhili. Although it was not long, the information collected by Sun Chuan and Liu Ning still shocked Zhu Cixuan. The official group in the south was too rich. If it were a capitalist society, they could control the entire country with their family wealth.

This time, the Donglin Party was liquidated, and the information found by Sun Chuan and Liu Ning came in handy.

The Silijian and the Jinyiwei are about to take action against ten of the merchants, including the three richest salt merchants. If their wealth is gathered together, it is equivalent to the tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty in the past five years.

The Donglin Party members were originally a group of unsuccessful small bureaucrats, the product of combining with the merchant group. After they gradually gained power, they first protected their own interests. Opposing the court to collect commercial taxes is the most obvious example. They represent the interests of small bureaucrats and merchant group. Whenever the court wanted to collect commercial taxes, the Donglin Party members in the court denounced this as a competition for profit with the people. Ironically, they did not object to increasing farmers' taxes and strongly supported them.

Zhu Cixuan does not object to any group to fight for its own interests. This is human instinct. However, when this interest clearly conflicts with national interests, you must make appropriate concessions. If you ignore national interests and blindly fight for your own interests, such a group will be the cancer of the country.

The Donglin Party is now the cancer of the Ming Dynasty.

"It's time to make a decision, alas, what should come will always come."

Zhu Cilang paused and made up his mind.

Cao Huachun was the first to enter Wenhua Hall.

"Mr. Cao, I understand the case of the Donglin Party within ten days. It is necessary to create a certain momentum and suppress the Donglin Party severely. I still have the same opinion. There is no need to kill too much. Just show the hypocritical side of the Donglin Party in front of everyone. Seven or eight out of ten scholars in the south have something to do with the Donglin Party, and we cannot overcorrect it."

"Mr. Cao, I trust you completely, but before I start, I still have to say a few more words, be justified and well-founded, and try to keep the detained and killed as little as possible. The north is already in chaos and the south cannot experience too much fluctuations."

"Li Jizhou will lead the sergeant to do the matters in question."

After Cao Huachun left Wenhua Hall, Zhu Cilang sighed deeply. Outside Wenhua Hall, Shi Kefa and others were still waiting. In fact, there was not much. Zhu Cilang had just ascended the throne, and everyone came to pay homage and congratulate. According to the rules, the court was once every five days in the morning, and the court was held every day. The Secretariat of the Six Ministry of Nanjing, the left and right censors of the Supervision Court, the eunuch of the Silijian, and others went to Wenhua Hall to discuss major matters.
Chapter completed!