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

Chapter 456: Laughing in Angry
After getting rid of Mao Wenlong, Yuan Chonghuan struck while the iron was hot and took over the troops on Shuangdao, and then took his men directly to Pidao.

When they arrived at Pi Island, they summoned the garrison commander of Pi Island and announced in public that Mao Wenlong had been convicted and executed. Upon learning that Mao Wenlong had been executed, Mao Wenlong's subordinates who stayed behind on Pi Island were in an uproar. They could not believe their ears. When Yuan Chonghuan took out Mao Wenlong's head, everyone's eyes turned red and they knelt on the ground and cried.

Yuan Chonghuan repeated his old trick and once again announced Mao Wenlong's crimes in public, reiterating that it was wrong for him to kill Mao Wenlong, that Mao Wenlong's death was against the law of the country and that he had brought his own death upon himself.

Although Mao Wenlong was dead, his crime had nothing to do with the people in Dongjiang Town. They were all soldiers of the Ming Dynasty and Dongjiang Town was also Dongjiang Town of the Ming Dynasty, not Mao Wenlong's private army. Yuan Chonghuan had his own way to deal with the placement of Dongjiang Town. At the same time, he announced that after Mao Wenlong's death, Dongjiang Town would be divided into four associations, under the charge of Mao Chenglu, Xu Fuzou, Liu Xingzuo and Chen Jisheng, and Deputy General Chen Jisheng would temporarily take charge of Dongjiang Town.

Yuan Chonghuan had a plan in mind for doing this. Long before he made a plan to deal with Mao Wenlong, Yuan Chonghuan had already thought about how to arrange the Dongjiang Town.

Dongjiang Town was founded by Mao Wenlong. Mao Wenlong had only one son, Mao Chengdou. However, Mao Chengdou was young and had no official position in Dongjiang Town. On the contrary, his adopted son Mao Chenglu was a brave general of Dongjiang Town. He currently served as the right-wing guerrilla of the Pidao Army and the Lieutenant General Neiding.

In addition, Mao Wenlong, like other generals, was fond of adopting sons. In addition to Mao Chenglu, he also had adopted sons Mao Yongshi (Kong Youde), Mao Youjie (Geng Zhongming), Mao Yongxi (Shang Kexi), etc. These adopted sons were Mao Wenlong's closest subordinates. They were a group different from ordinary military generals and were the most loyal to Mao Wenlong.

After Mao Wenlong's death, they were the ones who had the greatest dissatisfaction with Yuan Chonghuan, and they gathered together to demand an explanation from Mao Wenlong. In their opinion, Mao Wenlong had made outstanding military achievements and fought for the country for many years, but ended up like this. It was really unfair to the extreme. They were unwilling to see Mao Wenlong die in such an unjustifiable way, and they were extremely hostile to Yuan Chonghuan.

Given Yuan Chonghuan's temper, killing them directly would be the best solution, but the problem was that Yuan Chonghuan had no way to take action against them at all, because these people controlled the actual troops of Dongjiang Town and were the backbone of the military in Dongjiang Town.

Once they were killed, the entire Dongjiang Town would completely collapse. Then why would Yuan Chonghuan take over Dongjiang Town? Besides, even if Yuan Chonghuan wanted to kill them, he couldn't do it, because Mao Wenlong's death was so unclear, these people were already on guard against Yuan Chonghuan. Even if Yuan Chonghuan's official position was high, as long as they didn't leave the barracks and control the army, Yuan Chonghuan couldn't do anything to them.

Yuan Chonghuan had no choice but to divide Dongjiang Town into four parts, and use the other three to share the military power in their hands, weakening their influence in Dongjiang Town. However, this method can only ease the situation temporarily, but cannot solve the fundamental problem. Therefore, it is urgent to decide who will replace Mao Wenlong as the general of Dongjiang Town, but this matter is not something Yuan Chonghuan can decide. Generals of this level must be appointed by the court, and Yuan Chonghuan does not have this qualification.

Moreover, after Mao Wenlong was killed, Yuan Chonghuan had to report the matter to the court. It was not as easy as killing a fifth or sixth rank military officer. He killed a first rank military officer, and the prince's guardian. Such a big thing must be reported to the court and the follow-up hand is cleaned up. No matter how bold and reckless Yuan Chonghuan was, he could not ignore the court. So after he solved the Shuangdao and Pidao issues, he wrote a memorial to the court, which detailed why he wanted to kill Mao Wenlong, and added the charges he had accused Mao Wenlong one by one, and sent someone to deliver it to the capital.

Capital, Qianqing Palace.

There was a huge pile of memorials in front of Emperor Chongzhen. The pile was taller than him. At a glance, there were at least 100 or 200 copies. It would take at least a whole day to deal with all these memorials, let alone read them all from beginning to end.

But Emperor Chongzhen had to read these memorials every day, and he had to read each one carefully, and he would give his own suggestions and opinions on the contents of the memorials, and he never neglected his duties.

This is quite difficult to say. I wonder where this young emperor got so much energy? Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, perhaps only Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang has achieved this.

Since Taizu, the Ming emperors never did the same thing. Especially after Xuanzong established the tripartite system of the emperor, the cabinet, and the Imperial Household Department, all memorials and court affairs were first reviewed by the cabinet, and then the cabinet gave its opinion and handed it over to the Imperial Household Department. After the Imperial Household Department reviewed it, it was reported to the emperor for approval. Sometimes, the Imperial Household Department, which had great power, even approved it directly on behalf of the emperor. Except for some major events or decisions on national policies in court meetings, the emperor delegated many trivial matters to others and did not need to do it himself.

But Emperor Chongzhen was different. He never let go of any matter, big or small. He did everything himself, even if it could be handled by the cabinet or the Imperial Household Department. To put it nicely, he was diligent in his work. To put it bluntly, Emperor Chongzhen didn't trust anyone. In his heart, the ministers were unreliable, and the eunuchs in the Imperial Household Department were also unreliable. He was the only emperor to do this.

Due to Emperor Chongzhen's behavior, the power of the cabinet was greatly weakened and the cabinet elders became a mere decoration.

The same was true for the Imperial Household Department. Although Cao Huachun and Wang Chengen were in charge of the Imperial Household Department, Cao Huachun had no power at all. His role as the chief eunuch of the Imperial Household Department was almost to become a mouthpiece and rubber stamp between the cabinet and the emperor. All powers and work were handled by Emperor Chongzhen himself. Not to mention Wang Chengen, who only wanted to serve Emperor Chongzhen and didn't care about anything else. This attitude actually made Emperor Chongzhen more confident in him.

The sky gradually darkened, and the light in the Qianqing Palace also dimmed as the sun was about to set.

Seeing Emperor Chongzhen holding the memorial in his hand and reading it carefully, he could not see clearly because of the light. He looked a little tired with his body turned sideways. Wang Chengen, who was serving beside him, stepped back a few steps and gestured to the eunuch not far away. The eunuch immediately understood and went outside. After a while, he returned to the hall with a few people holding lit candles and placed the candles on both sides of Emperor Chongzhen. With the illumination of the candles, Emperor Chongzhen could see the words on the memorial clearly.

After reading the memorial in his hand, Emperor Chongzhen wrote a few words on it with a red brush, then closed it and put it aside. At this time, he glanced at the candles lit on both sides and frowned slightly.

"Wang Banban!"

"The slave is here!"

"The country is in a difficult situation and money is needed everywhere. Just light the candles on the left hand side and remove the ones on the right." Emperor Chongzhen pointed to the candles on the right and said to Wang Chengen.

Wang Chengen quickly pleaded guilty. He had never expected that Emperor Chongzhen would think that lighting two candles was too wasteful. The emperor of the Ming Dynasty should light more candles, let alone two! Shouldn't it be brighter to read the memorials after dark? But this emperor was so frugal that he wanted to remove another candle. He was speechless.

But Wang Chengen didn't dare to complain. He just had to do as the emperor instructed. He knew the emperor's temper very well. If he didn't do things according to his wishes, he might be in trouble. Wang Chengen immediately stepped forward and extinguished the candle on the right, and asked the eunuch to take it away. After the candle on the right was taken away, the imperial desk, which was bright just now, became much darker in an instant. However, Emperor Chongzhen didn't care at all. He took out a memorial and opened it, then moved slightly closer to the candle on the left and continued to read it carefully.

Just as Emperor Chongzhen was reading intently, suddenly there were light and hurried footsteps outside the hall. Emperor Chongzhen seemed not to hear them and was still reading the memorial. However, Wang Chengen frowned slightly. He took a few steps back and walked out of the hall. After a moment, he returned to Emperor Chongzhen and whispered to him that the Imperial Household Department had received an urgent memorial and Cao Huachun had delivered it personally.

Emperor Chongzhen did not take it seriously and waved his hand to ask Wang Chengen to bring Cao Huachun in. After a moment, Cao Huachun walked in quickly and kowtowed to Emperor Chongzhen.

"Where does the urgent music come from?"

"Your Majesty, there is an urgent report from Liaodong!"

"An urgent report from Liaodong? But is it an urgent report from Yuan Chonghuan?" Emperor Chongzhen, who was about to pick up the tea in front of him and take a sip, was stunned the next moment. His hand holding the teacup stopped in mid-air and he asked anxiously.

"It is Yuan Chonghuan's urgent report from Liaodong." Cao Huachun replied, holding the memorial in both hands.

"Quick! Bring it to me!" Emperor Chongzhen said hurriedly. Wang Chengen quickly took the memorial from Cao Huachun, then returned to Emperor Chongzhen and handed it to him.

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen was a little impatient. He looked very serious. His first reaction was that a fight had broken out in Liaodong. You know, the Jiannu in Liaodong has been a little uneasy in the past two years. Although Yuan Chonghuan made him feel more at ease after his visit, the problem in Liaodong was still far from being solved. Could it be that the Jiannu had sent troops again this time?
When he took the memorial and saw Yuan Chonghuan's handwriting on it, Emperor Chongzhen felt slightly relieved. This memorial was not a military report, because if it was a military report, the writing style would be different. But this memorial was written in ordinary writing style, which made Emperor Chongzhen feel a lot more at ease.

However, even so, Emperor Chongzhen still took Yuan Chonghuan's memorial very seriously. In his view, matters in Liaodong were of no importance, not to mention that this was a memorial submitted by the Governor-General of Ji-Liao, whom he valued the most and appointed.

Emperor Chongzhen immediately opened the memorial and took a closer look. He originally thought that the content of the memorial was about the reorganization of the Liaodong military, but after reading a few lines, Emperor Chongzhen was suddenly stunned. His expression changed from calm to astonishment, then from astonishment to disbelief, and then to immense anger.

Even the hand holding the memorial began to tremble slightly, and his face looked extremely ugly. Wang Chengen, who was standing by, had no idea what was written in the memorial, and Cao Huachun, who was kneeling not far away, bowed his head and said nothing, as if he had buried his head in the gold bricks on the ground.

"Haha...hahaha...hahaha...hahaha! Good! Good! What a Yuan Chonghuan! What a Yuan Chonghuan! How dare he? He actually dared?" Suddenly, Emperor Chongzhen let out a creepy laugh, but this laughter did not contain any joy. It was so cold that it chilled Wang Chengen to the bone and he could not help but shiver.

(End of this chapter)