Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

"To reply to your question, My Lord, I have never heard of it." Yang Guozhu, the general of Xuanfu and the Earl of Weiyuan, was the first to express his opinion.

Yang Guozhu knew clearly that the emperor's decision to relax the restrictions on titles must have a lot to do with Marquis of Guanjun.

This is just one of the reasons. Another point is that even if some generals were of humble origins and could not even read or write, they knew everything clearly.

The imperial court is in trouble now, and the commander-in-chief is also worried about military pay and pensions. One hundred percent of these captured spoils will be used in the army.

In other words, these spoils of war were all theirs, and were won by their subordinates at the cost of their lives.

These important officials asked them to pay them back in just a few words, but did not give them money to pay their military salaries. How could this be possible?

"We haven't heard of them either. Maybe they were all taken away by Dorgon." Wang Pu, the general of Datong and the Earl of Dingyuan, also spoke.

Shanxi General, Jingyuan Bohu Dawei scratched his beard and said leisurely:

"Even if those rich families were robbed, their lives would still be better than those in our military camp."

Everyone was talking at once, and in short, the military camp had never seized so many supplies, they were all stolen by that bastard Dorgon.

If you elders want it, then go and ask the Jiannu for it if they are willing to give it to you.

After all, generals were not civil servants, and they spoke relatively directly, which made Liu Zongzhou's beard stand on end in anger.

"How ridiculous! How ridiculous! Are you guys telling lies with your eyes open?"

Seeing Liu Zongzhou so angry, Zhang Shikang was afraid that the old man would not be able to catch his breath, so he quickly comforted him:

"Don't be angry, Lord Liu. I really don't know, but I can ask someone to check it out.

You just said you heard someone say that, but you don’t know who this person is?”

There are bad people among the masses, and Zhang Shikang feels that they must be punished.

He actually understood this group of cabinet ministers very well. As the saying goes, the head follows the butt. As the spokespersons of the bureaucratic gentry, what they thought about was naturally to safeguard the interests of the entire group.

The wealthy families plundered by the Jiannu were basically the gentry and landlords in various prefectures and counties.

What Hu Dawei said was absolutely true, even if these guys were robbed, they still lived better than most people.

Even if all these people's property was looted, they still had a lot of land, and land could not be taken away.

Whether it was Liu Zongzhou or Zheng Sanjun, they never felt that they had no concern for the court. On the contrary, they believed that the court could function normally only with their support.

If the imperial court wants to survive, it must safeguard the interests of the gentry. Only after this is achieved can it talk about patriotism.

Therefore, they are the real pillars of the Ming Dynasty!

Zhang Shikang seemed to be asking casually, but Liu Zongzhou was stunned for a moment and almost got into trouble. If he said this out loud, it would be tantamount to betraying his colleagues.

With Zhang Shikang's dissolute character, his colleague is bound to suffer a bad outcome.

"Hmph, there's no smoke without fire?" Liu Zongzhou said dissatisfiedly.

Although Liu Zongzhou didn't say anything, he glanced at Hong Chengchou inadvertently.

Zhang Shikang immediately knew who had reported the secret, but he was not angry. He smiled slightly, glanced at the squinting eyes, and said:

"Master Hong, have you heard of this?"

"It must be a misunderstanding." Hong Chengchou quickly distanced himself from the matter.

In this battle, most of the generals were awarded a title, and even Sun Chuanting, who worked under him, was awarded the title of Earl of Lincheng.

However, he, the Governor-General of Shaanxi, was only given the rank of Light Cavalry Commander, a third-rank official, and even the number of war horses he was allocated was the least.

Of course he was dissatisfied. If it were in the past, he would have raised objections even in front of Yang Sichang. Even if he could not gain more benefits, at least he could express his attitude.

But now, he didn't dare to say much. After all, the main force in this battle was the Beijing Camp and Shanxi Soldiers, and he really didn't gain any military merit.

More importantly, Zhang Shikang is not Yang Sichang. No matter how stingy Yang Sichang is, he is a civil servant after all and has to abide by the rules of officialdom.

But Zhang Shikang doesn't follow the rules at all and is extremely arrogant and domineering. The worst thing is that he has great power.

Based on his speculation about the current emperor, even if Zhang Shikang killed him with a knife, the emperor would probably applaud.

How is this still playing?

“Since it is a misunderstanding, let’s just leave it at that.

Lord Liu, the soldiers fought with their lives in this battle, and the issue of pensions is of utmost importance.

I think this is what you gentlemen should consider."

After the matter of the seized materials was finalized, Zhang Shikang turned the tables on Liu Zongzhou and others.

Who doesn't know how to find trouble by standing on the moral high ground?

You say that the rich are wronged, but aren't the tens of thousands of soldiers in this military camp wronged either?

If you die and you don’t get any compensation, who will protect you?

Those wealthy families? If it really came to that, they would have already bowed down and acknowledged the new master, right?

"Don't worry, Marquis Guanjun. After I return, I will discuss this matter with the ministers and will resolve it as soon as possible." Emperor Chongzhen acted as a peacemaker and finally gave the ministers a way out.

After revealing this matter, Zhang Shikang continued:

"Next, let's talk about the promotion and deployment of generals."

As soon as these words were spoken, generals such as Hu Dawei swallowed their saliva, thinking that there would be surprises besides the title.

"Oh, the promotion is for the middle and low-level generals. You are already generals. Being awarded a title for your merits is the greatest reward from His Majesty."

Upon hearing this, Hu Dawei quickly put on an expression of indifference, for fear that the emperor would discover that he was unsatisfied.

Yes, human greed is like a snake swallowing an elephant. What else do you want after being granted a title?

"There are too many names on the list, so I will not read them out one by one. I will submit the specific promotion list to the Ministry of War for review. This is a copy. You can take it back to make your subordinates happy."

As Zhang Shikang spoke, he handed the list of promotions of generals belonging to their respective military towns to Hu Dawei and others.

"Oh, I almost forgot, Governor Sun?" Zhang Shikang slapped his head and glanced at Sun Chuanting.

Sun Chuanting hadn't said a word since the meeting began, like a transparent person.

He actually had his own secret. As the governor of Shaanxi, Hong Chengchou was his immediate superior.

Sun Chuanting naturally knew the relationship between Hong Chengchou and that group of cabinet ministers. Being caught in the middle, he could only avoid offending anyone and keep silent if possible.

However, Sun Chuanting generally had no objection to Zhang Shikang's distribution of the spoils, and thought it was fair.

"I'm here." Sun Chuanting ended his invisible state, stood up and bowed.

"His Majesty is going to appoint you as the Governor of Hanzhong and order you to garrison Hanzhong to prevent bandits from leaving Sichuan.

The Jian Nu was recently defeated, and now the bandits are the biggest hidden danger. Do you have confidence?"

After saying this, Sun Chuanting's expression became very strange.

Hanzhong is just a prefecture. He has lived for more than 40 years, but he has never heard of the need for such an important position as governor to garrison a prefecture?

Is this reasonable?

Emperor Chongzhen was also a little confused, thinking to himself, when will I be ready?

……