Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 360 Sun Chengzong Resigns

The Battle of Liuhe was a disastrous defeat, in which Lu Zhijia, Li Chengxian, Qian Yingke and others were killed, causing an uproar in the court.

There were even rumors in the capital that the Ming army was defeated miserably in this battle, directly losing 100,000 elite troops, and the Liaodong defense line was shaken, and Sun Chengzong could not be blamed.

In fact, although the Battle of Liuhe was a defeat and Lu Zhijia, Li Chengxian and Qian Yingke died on the battlefield, it was not as exaggerated as the rumors said. This army had only 800 people in total, and some of them escaped. From this point of view, the actual losses of the Ming army were only this many.

In addition, when Ma Shilong sent troops, in addition to the troops led by Lu Zhijia, Li Chengxian, and Qian Yingke, there was also a detachment. This detachment won a victory. When Huang Taiji led his troops to attack Lu Zhijia and others, this detachment caught the Later Jin soldiers off guard and killed several Later Jin Jiannu, including one Gushan. In addition, it also rescued more than 500 Liao people.

If we look at it as a whole, although the Battle of Liuhe was a defeat, the actual losses were not great. Both sides suffered losses. At most, the Ming army suffered greater losses than the Later Jin and Jiannu.

But the imperial court did not think so. As the news of the defeat in the Battle of Liuhe spread, rumors about the defeat in Liaodong became more and more outrageous. However, Emperor Tianqi and Wei Zhongxian did not ask for an explanation, and even allowed the rumors to grow more and more intense.

Soon, the censors jointly impeached General Ma Shilong and Ji-Liao Governor Sun Chengzong, and even the Liaodong Governor Yu Anxing was impeached, as if they were determined to hold them accountable to the end.

All of this was actually instigated by Wei Zhongxian. As the eunuch party continued to grow stronger, Wei Zhongxian had now gained the upper hand in the struggle between Wei Zhongxian and the Donglin Party. Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou and others were finished. As the case of Wang Wenyan was brought up again, and the charge of collusion between Xiong Tingbi and the Donglin Party was included, after the execution of Xiong Tingbi, the eunuch party directly arrested a large number of Donglin Party backbones including Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou, and took ruthless action.

Shortly before the Battle of Liuhe, Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou and others had died in prison. The elimination of this threat made Wei Zhongxian and his gang celebrate, and even the Emperor Tianqi was very satisfied with the result.

Although Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou and others died, the Donglin Party was still not completely defeated. The power of the Donglin Party in the court was still strong. Moreover, because of the persecution of the Donglin Party by the eunuch party, the Donglin Party fought back desperately. As the saying goes, a centipede will not die, and a lean camel is bigger than a horse. How could the Donglin Party, which once controlled the government, be killed so easily? To completely eliminate the Donglin Party is just the beginning.

Next, Wei Zhongxian wanted to continue to attack the Donglin Party, but there was an obstacle in front of him that he could not overcome no matter what. This obstacle was Sun Chengzong, the cabinet elder, grand secretary, and governor of Ji and Liao.

Sun Chengzong was the leader of the Donglin Party. If he was not removed, it would be impossible to completely solve the Donglin Party problem. As long as Sun Chengzong stayed in the position of the governor of Ji and Liao, the Donglin Party in the court would have enough confidence, so dealing with Sun Chengzong was Wei Zhongxian's next step.

Wei Zhongxian didn't have the courage to deal with Sun Chengzong as recklessly as he did with Yang Lian and others. You have to know that Sun Chengzong was the teacher of Emperor Tianqi, and Emperor Tianqi trusted Sun Chengzong as much as Wei Zhongxian. In addition, Emperor Tianqi also warned Wei Zhongxian that he must not use dirty means to deal with his teacher Sun. Teacher Sun helped him a lot. He was a person who could and was willing to do things, unlike other Donglin Party members who were boastful. He still had to protect his teacher.

Even if he wanted to force Sun Chengzong to step down and stop being the backer of the Donglin Party, Emperor Tianqi had to ensure that his teacher Sun would not get into other troubles. The best way was to find a suitable reason to remove him from his post as the governor of Ji and Liao, and then let him return to his hometown to retire.

At this time, the Battle of Liuhe broke out, and news of the defeat of the Ming army came. When the news reached the capital, Wei Zhongxian was overjoyed and went to see Emperor Tianqi overnight to inform him of the matter. The next day, under Wei Zhongxian's instruction, the news of the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Liuhe quickly spread throughout the capital. It was obviously a small defeat with the loss of a few hundred people, but under Wei Zhongxian's guidance, it turned into a disastrous defeat with the loss of 100,000 soldiers and humiliation of the country. In addition, the eunuch party's censors jointly impeached, and Emperor Tianqi took advantage of the situation and dismissed Ma Shilong first, and then removed Yu Anxing, the governor of Liaodong. As for Sun Chengzong, although he was not directly dismissed, the court continued to impeach him, but Emperor Tianqi never expressed his final attitude.

When the news reached Liaodong, Sun Chengzong saw it clearly. He knew very well that Emperor Tianqi was saving face for him and hoped that he would resign on his own rather than be dismissed by the court.

After all, he was the imperial teacher, and there was a relationship between him and the Emperor Tianqi as master and disciple. If the Emperor Tianqi directly ordered his dismissal as he did with Ma Shilong and others, it would be bad for the Emperor Tianqi's reputation and would also make it difficult for his teacher Sun Chengzong.

Sun Chengzong sighed, understood the Emperor Tianqi's idea, and immediately submitted a memorial to resign. After the memorial arrived in the capital, the Emperor Tianqi directly rejected it and wrote a letter to Sun Chengzong, saying that he knew that the Liuhe Campaign had nothing to do with Teacher Sun, and that Teacher Sun was implicated. Many people in the court impeached Teacher Sun for various problems, but he absolutely did not believe it. Teacher Sun had worked hard and made great contributions in Liaodong over the years, and he had seen it all. He told Teacher Sun to rest assured that as an emperor, he would protect Teacher Sun even if he offended the civil and military officials in the court. Sun Chengzong did not know whether to laugh or cry after receiving the letter from the Emperor Tianqi. He did not think much about it and immediately wrote another resignation report and sent it to the capital, but the Emperor Tianqi still did not allow it.

If Emperor Tianqi disagreed, Sun Chengzong would write another letter with a very firm attitude. After two or three times, Emperor Tianqi had no choice but to agree to Sun Chengzong's request to resign. He issued an edict to agree to Sun Chengzong's resignation from the post of Governor of Ji and Liao, but at the same time he also gave Sun Chengzong great honors. Sun Chengzong was promoted to Guanglu Dafu, his son inherited the title of Zhongshu Sheren, and he also rewarded him with dragon robes, silver coins, etc., and sent people to protect Sun Chengzong on his way home.

After Sun Chengzong resigned, Gao Di, who was reinstated to Beijing by Emperor Tianqi last year, had already become the Minister of War. Emperor Tianqi then ordered him to succeed Sun Chengzong as the Governor of Liaodong.

That's right, Gao Di's position was not the Governor-General of Ji-Liao but the Governor of Liaodong, which was the position previously held by Xiong Tingbi. Although Tianqi valued Gao Di and used him to fill the vacancy left by Sun Chengzong, he also restricted the authority given to him. He did not let Gao Di take over the position of the Governor-General of Ji-Liao, but re-activated the previous position of the Governor of Liaodong as a replacement.

Gao Di was appointed as the governor of Liaodong, and Wang Yongguang took over his post as the Minister of War. From then on, Sun Chengzong's presidency over the Liaodong war came to an end.

After learning that Sun Chengzong had resigned, Yuan Chonghuan cried out in disgrace for Sun Chengzong in Liaodong, and even made a gesture that he would resign and return home together with Sun Chengzong. However, Sun Chengzong soon sent a letter to Yuan Chonghuan, telling him to put state affairs first and not act on impulse. How could he ignore state affairs because of personal emotions?
Under Sun Chengzong's persuasion, Yuan Chonghuan, who was just making a gesture, naturally followed suit and finally listened to Sun Chengzong's advice.

When the dust settled, it was October of the fifth year of the Tianqi reign. By this time, Zhu Shenzui had returned to the Ming Dynasty more than a month ago.

The war provoked by Lindan Khan ended in a whimper with the joint efforts of Zhu Shenzui and Bu Shitu. Because the Tenger tribe withdrew first, Lindan Khan was ultimately unable to compete with Bu Shitu and quickly withdrew his troops back to Chahar.

After returning to the tribe, Zhu Shencui held the people responsible for the defeat and cleansed the tribe, completely solving the hidden dangers that existed in the tribe. After the cleansing, the entire tribe fell completely into Zhu Shencui's hands, and no one was able to influence Zhu Shencui's authority in the tribe. Those leaders who secretly flirted with Lin Danhan and intended to control the tribe had already been secretly dealt with by Wang Hai.

After the tribe was integrated, although it suffered some losses in the battle with Bu Shitu, the overall strength of the tribe was actually stronger than before. After doing all this, Zhu Shenzhui used both diplomacy and military force to directly attack the surrounding small tribes that were not his own, and found an excuse to annex them, which increased the population of the tribe a lot.

Even Ligdan Khan could not do anything about Zhu Shenzui's behavior, because the Tengger tribe came here completely under the banner of being a descendant of Bushitu. The previous defeat made the Tengger tribe full of anger, and they were looking for revenge. Unfortunately, these two tribes became the scapegoats. Moreover, they were all small in size and weak in strength. Who else could they trouble if not them?

Even Bu Shitu didn't say anything, because these two tribes actually had little connection with him. In addition, Bu Shitu had previously cooperated privately with Zhu Shenzui, and when the battle came, Bu Shitu had ulterior motives and even thought of killing Zhu Shenzui directly.

Although Bu Shitu was the one who suffered in the end, the matter was not over yet. Afterwards, Zhu Shenzhui sent a letter to Bu Shitu, accusing him of being dishonest and showing extreme indignation. This made Bu Shitu very embarrassed. As the nominal leader of the Tumed, it would have been no problem if he could have killed Zhu Shenzhui, but he failed to do so. Once Zhu Shenzhui publicized this matter, it would have had a bad impact on Bu Shitu. So Bu Shitu acquiesced to Zhu Shenzhui's small actions after returning to the tribe, in order to make up for the previous breach of contract and to cover up the matter.

It took a long time to deal with the tribal affairs. The next thing was the border trade. Zhou Anmin did not go to the capital to take up a post under Zhu Shenzhui's suggestion and rejected Tian Ergeng's arrangement to promote him. However, Zhou Anmin did not covet the border trade rights of Weiyuanwei and gave them up directly, handing the matter back to Tian Ergeng, which made Tian Ergeng feel very embarrassed.

It would be fine if he was just an ordinary captain of the Jinyiwei, but Zhou Anmin and Wei Liangqing have a special relationship. Now Zhou Anmin has not been promoted and has lost his job. If Wei Liangqing knew about this, he would definitely not be happy and might even offend him.

After much thought, Tian Ergeng could only use other methods to make up for it. He directly helped Zhou Anmin to get an additional title of commander-in-chief. Since Zhou Anmin refused to come to the capital, he still had to be promoted, and this additional title could explain it. In addition, Tian Ergeng simply gave him the charge of the other two Jinyiwei thousand-household offices in Shanxi, including the one Zhou Anmin was originally in charge of. In this way, Zhou Anmin became the highest-ranking Jinyiwei chief in Shanxi.

(End of this chapter)