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

Zhang Shikang originally planned to return with the fleet by ship, but due to ocean currents, the return journey was against the wind for most of the time. In order to return before the New Year, he had to choose the land route.

To put it simply, it means riding a horse, riding a horse non-stop.

Fortunately, he was not alone. When Zhang Shikang was returning, Sun Dasheng had just arrived in Guangzhou with 5,000 cavalry and happened to return together with Zhang Shikang's 1,000 personal guards.

Since they were all cavalry, the troops moved quite quickly, and by the second day of December, they had already arrived in Nanjing city.

After calculating that there was still enough time, Zhang Shikang used the excuse that he could not stand the wait any longer and stayed in Nanjing for another three days.

But three days later, the pain in his buttocks went away, but the pain in his lower back started again.

The seven girls with great talent and artistic ability tried their best to make sure that Zhang Shikang would not forget them.

On the night before their departure, Kou Baimen and Chen Yuanyuan kept begging him to take them to the capital.

Zhang Shikang considered it and finally decided to keep them all in Nanjing.

Nanjing is a place with beautiful scenery and a lot of romance, and the climate is much better than Beijing. Why should I follow him to the capital to blow the cold wind?

Zhang Shikang still asked Liu Rushi and others to learn about mathematics, economics and other aspects in preparation for future plans.

These seven girls are all very smart and clever. Zhang Shikang firmly believes that they will be of great use in the future.

In fact, during this trip, he had originally planned to go to Sichuan to meet the first legendary female general in Chinese history who was recorded in official history.

However, he was so eager to return home that on the morning of the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, he took the lead in crossing the river with a thousand guards.

Except for a unit of 10,000 people temporarily stationed in Nanjing, the rest of the Beijing Camp, including the Yongwei Camp where Huang Degong was located, returned to the capital with the army.

For the next half month, except for necessary rest, Zhang Shikang rode his horse towards the capital with a thousand guards.

……

Beijing City, Qianqing Palace.

Since the Jiannu troops outside the Great Wall retreated, Emperor Chongzhen's mood has improved a lot.

He was pleased with his firm belief in Zhang Shikang. At that time, he was really confused and almost made another mistake.

To use Zhang Shikang's words, professional matters should be left to professionals.

As the emperor, one should reduce micro-management as much as possible and only be responsible for the overall strategy.

It must be said that Emperor Chongzhen felt much more relaxed since he handed over all military affairs to Zhang Shikang.

Apart from attending court, handling memorials to the emperor, and discussing matters with cabinet ministers every day, Emperor Chongzhen actually had an extra hour or two of free time.

Of course, in the past, that one or two hours were mostly used to discuss the war and war-related matters.

Before this, Emperor Chongzhen had never had a moment of leisure.

It is also for this reason that people are used to being busy, and once they have some free time, they feel a little at a loss.

He often paced back and forth in the empty hall of the Qianqing Palace, thinking about the various changes that had occurred in the past two years.

Especially the various operations that Zhang Shikang has carried out since entering the court, trying to learn some abilities that he did not possess.

Ever since he admitted in front of Zhang Shikang that he was lacking in ability in some areas, Emperor Chongzhen calmly accepted this fact.

But acceptance does not mean that Emperor Chongzhen had no ideas to improve his shortcomings.

He often recalled what Zhang Shikang used to say, as well as his words and deeds, and occasionally laughed at them.

Of course, whenever he had free time, he would often go to the Taimiao.

I offer a stick of incense to inform our ancestors of the current situation of the Ming Dynasty.

However, in all the confessions, the word Zhang Shikang appeared very frequently.

A lot of things happened in Ming Dynasty throughout this year, starting from the Lantern Festival at the beginning of the year. After that, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse and Ming Dynasty fell into complete turmoil.

Then Zhang Shikang led his troops south to suppress the rebellion, and he marched all the way from north to south.

During this period, Zhang Shikang once wrote a letter to complain to him, saying that it was too hard to lead troops outside.

At first he really believed it, but even if he really believed it, Emperor Chongzhen only encouraged and praised him, but never said anything like "let it go" because he was too tired.

The experiences of the past two years told him that only this kid could put an end to the long-standing malpractices in the court. This could be seen from the Donglin Party members who were killed, and from the people who were allocated land.

Contrary to what he had expected, the whole world would criticize him and Zhang Shikang after he killed all the Donglin Party members and gentry.

Emperor Chongzhen discovered that no one criticized them at all.

Not only did the people praise them both, but many local literati even began to praise the court's new policy of distributing land to the people.

He originally thought that Zhang Shikang was really tired, until the Director of the East Factory Fang Zhenghua told him that Zhang Shikang had actually started collecting beauties in Nanjing City!

And I collected seven at once!!

Then what happened next was that Zhang Shikang kept a mistress in his golden house and ignored military affairs for half a month!!!

This news stunned Emperor Chongzhen for a long time.

He originally thought that Zhang Shikang was not interested in money or beautiful women, and Emperor Chongzhen was even worried about how to win over this guy.

But I didn't expect this kid to be like this!

As he had ignored military affairs for half a month, Emperor Chongzhen should have been very angry and issued an imperial decree to reprimand him.

But Emperor Chongzhen was not angry at all. He even thought that he had finally found the boy's weak spot.

That's right, Zhang Shikang is now old enough to get married, and this was something he had neglected before.

But he was only happy for a few days and then he started to worry again.

Because he discovered a problem: if Zhang Shikang was really addicted to beauty, it would actually be of no benefit to him.

Unless the person that kid is addicted to is loyal to the Ming Dynasty, we can still encourage him to do things well.

He didn't mind giving the beauties sent by the tributary states to Zhang Shikang as concubines, but those women couldn't even speak the Ming language.

Moreover, Emperor Chongzhen also felt from the bottom of his heart that the women sent by those vassal states were not worthy of his most trusted ministers.

Emperor Chongzhen was still not satisfied with the dozen or so young women he asked Fang Zhenghua to select from the capital and Shuntian Prefecture.

He felt that those women might be able to read and write, but they were only able to obey orders and were still not worthy of being the wives of his most trusted ministers.

So these days, whenever Emperor Chongzhen had some free time, he would start thinking about this matter.

He felt that since Zhang Shikang had reached the age, the first thing he would do when he returned was to perform the coming-of-age ceremony for this boy, and he had already promised to do so.

After that, he would choose a woman as his wife and he would personally arrange the marriage.

But until now, he still hasn't decided on the right person.

At this time, Princess Kunyi, who was ten years old this year, came in carrying a flower basket with a few crystal clear persimmons in it.

"Father, the Imperial Kitchen Supervisor sent a lot of persimmons to the palace today. They are very sweet. I brought some to you.

Father, please try it."

As she spoke, Princess Kunyi took one out of the flower basket and handed it to Emperor Chongzhen.

Looking at his eldest daughter, Emperor Chongzhen suddenly had a strange expression on his face for some reason.

……