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

Chapter 663 Questioning
Two days after Wu Weiying returned, Zhu Shenzui summoned him to the palace for an audience.

In the Wenhua Hall, Wu Weiying met Zhu Shencui for the first time. He behaved very respectfully and paid homage to him.

Although he did not have a good impression of Wu Weiying, he did not have much bad feeling towards him either. Besides, Zhu Shenzui was able to enter the capital so smoothly thanks to this idiot. If Wu Weiying had not led the Beijing camp to fight on his own initiative and had not known how to lead troops in battle, resulting in the 30,000 elite troops of the Beijing camp being defeated in one fell swoop, Zhu Shenzui would not have been able to take the capital so easily.

After all, the capital had 800,000 soldiers and civilians, including tens of thousands of soldiers in the Beijing Camp. If these people were stationed on the city walls to defend, it would be difficult for Zhu Shenzhui's army to defeat them. However, because of Wu Weiying, the elite soldiers of the Beijing Camp were all left outside the city. After the main force was destroyed, the entire capital was in a state of panic, and the Beijing Camp was even more insecure. This is how they successfully joined forces from inside and outside to seize the city gate and attack the capital.

From this point of view, Wu Weiying still has "merit", and Wu Weiying, the Duke of Gongshun, is a representative figure among the nobles and has a high status. There is no harm in having such a person come over.

Therefore, Zhu Shenzui did not make things difficult for Wu Weiying. Instead, he comforted him with kind words. This made Wu Weiying extremely happy. Not only did he express his support for the court in front of Zhu Shenzui, he also took the initiative to offer to help the court.

Wu Weiying was previously the commander of the Beijing Camp. There were not many nobles who held real positions, and those who could hold such a real position as the commander of the Beijing Camp were even more outstanding. After returning to the capital, Wu Weiying did not have much thought. After all, he returned from the defeat and surrendered to Zhu Shenzhui. It was absolutely impossible for him to continue to be the commander of the Beijing Camp. Although Zhu Shenzhui was now the regent, the defeat of the Beijing Camp outside the city made everyone in it resent Wu Weiying. If Wu Weiying was not ambitious and incompetent, and underestimated the enemy, how could 30,000 troops be wiped out overnight?

One incompetent general can tire out the whole army, and this is what Wu Weiying is like. Even though the Beijing Camp has been reorganized and the court is controlled by Zhu Shenzhui, there are still many people in the Beijing Camp who hate Wu Weiying. It would be fine if Wu Weiying died in the battle, but this guy ran back unscathed. How do the soldiers in the Beijing Camp think of this?

Just because Wu Weiying can't fight doesn't mean he doesn't understand other things. He is an expert at eating, drinking and having fun, but he is not a fool.

A defeated general like Wu Weiying not only had many people in the Beijing Camp who hated him, but even more people in the world wanted him dead. Everyone felt that if it wasn't for his defeat that led to the fall of the capital into the hands of Zhu Shenzhu, how could Emperor Chongzhen retire Zhu Shenzhui to serve as regent due to illness? He thought clearly and knew that the only way to get ahead was to change sides and join Zhu Shenzhui, and work hard for Zhu Shenzhui. He definitely didn't want to be the admiral of the Beijing Camp. Now he just wanted to get a job. Otherwise, he, the leader among the nobles, would become a marginalized noble without any job, and he might die in a daze one day.

"You are a smart man." After listening to Wu Weiying's statement, Zhu Shenzhui nodded slightly.

"I am stupid, but my loyalty is evident to all. Now that Your Majesty is the regent, I should be loyal to Your Majesty and to the Ming Dynasty..." Wu Weiying knelt in front of Zhu Shenzhui, his words sincere and heartfelt.

"Get up, the ground is cold." Zhu Shenzhui raised his hand and said. This guy is thick-skinned enough and can lower his body. Although he is a fool, he is not stupid.

The Ming Dynasty is not the Qing Dynasty. The etiquette between the monarch and his subjects rarely requires one to kowtow when meeting the emperor, let alone a long-standing noble like Wu Weiying. Even ordinary civil officials usually only follow the etiquette when meeting the emperor. But Wu Weiying not only kowtowed several times after meeting Zhu Shenzhui, but also acted as if wagging his tail to beg for food, which made Zhu Shenzhui a little interested in him.

If it was the Wu Weiying of the past, he might still have some character, but the current Wu Weiying had been a beggar for more than a month after experiencing the previous disastrous defeat. Especially when he was a beggar, this dignified Duke Gongshun had to bow his head to countless people just to get a bite to eat. Otherwise, how could he have survived?
Wu Weiying now clearly knows one thing: face is nothing if a person wants to survive. His reputation has already become a bad name. If he does not grab Zhu Shencui as a straw, the Gongshun Marquisate that has lasted for eight generations will end in his hands, and he will inevitably end up in a miserable end.

"You can't go to the Beijing Camp anymore." Zhu Shenzhui said lightly. Although he had expected this, Wu Weiying still felt very disappointed when Zhu Shenzhui said this. He was a leader of noble families and the former admiral of the Beijing Camp, but in the end he couldn't even keep an ordinary job in the Beijing Camp.

"Your Highness is right. I am not good at leading troops, and it is not appropriate for me to be the commander of the Beijing Camp..."

The Beijing Camp is now actually in name only. Since Zhu Shenzhui came to Beijing, he began to split up the Beijing Camp. First, he formed the Shunyi Army, and then further reorganized the remaining Beijing Camp. Even if Wu Weiying had not had the previous incident, it would be impossible for him to be in charge of the Beijing Camp again.

Taking this opportunity, the Beijing Camp made major adjustments, not only solving the problem of empty salaries on the Beijing Camp roster and actual soldiers in one go, but also rebuilding a new Beijing military system in the name of Shunyi Army by adjusting the Beijing Camp. This is what Emperor Chongzhen has always wanted to do but has not been able to do. Emperor Chongzhen knew the problems of the Beijing Camp a long time ago, but he tried to solve them many times but failed. After all, the Beijing Camp is the base camp of the nobles, and the corruption of the Beijing Camp is not a matter of one or two days, especially the empty salary problem is the top priority. If these are moved, it would be strange if the nobles who rely on the Beijing Camp do not jump out to oppose.

Moreover, there are civil officials involved. Although the Beijing Camp is the only unit directly under the royal family, with nobles as the commanders, after the Battle of Tumu, Yu Qian, the Minister of War, was appointed to take charge of the situation. The civil officials extended their hands to the Beijing Camp. The Five Military Commandery was in name only, and the power of the Ministry of War increased greatly. In addition to the nobles in charge of the military, the civil officials also had a certain influence in the Beijing Camp.

Faced with the double problem, how easy was it for Emperor Chongzhen to solve the problems of the Beijing Camp? But this time, taking advantage of the opportunity to capture the capital, especially the opportunity to destroy 30,000 main forces of the Beijing Camp in one battle, Zhu Shenzhui took advantage of the situation to solve the problems of the Beijing Camp. Although only a large part of it has been solved now, and the name of the Beijing Camp is temporarily retained, fundamentally speaking, the most difficult step has been completed.

There are still many meritorious officials serving as generals in the Beijing Camp, and the grassroots officers and ordinary soldiers below them still remain the same. However, after the fundamental problems are solved, the command of the Beijing Camp has been completely controlled by Zhu Shencui. Those meritorious officials who voluntarily surrendered to Zhu Shencui or surrendered to him after being defeated and captured will gradually transfer their power in the Beijing Camp to Zhu Shencui in the future, thus completely controlling this military force.

"I heard that you have a good relationship with the son-in-law of the emperor, Gong Yonggu?" Zhu Shenzhui asked.

Wu Weiying was stunned at first, then replied: "Your Highness, Gong Yonggu is a man who admires elegance and likes to collect ancient books and Yi artifacts. That's why I became friends with him."

Gong Yonggu is the husband of Princess Le'an, and the son-in-law of the former Concubine Li Kang, now Empress Dowager Li.

Wen Tihen took the initiative to propose that Zhu Shenzhui support Empress Dowager Li to ascend to the throne. This idea was approved by Zhu Shenzhui, and soon Zhu Shenzhui met with Empress Dowager Li. The two sides hit it off and got what they wanted. Thus, Empress Dowager Li ascended to the throne, and with the support of Empress Dowager Li, Zhu Shenzhui further confirmed the legitimacy of his regent.

Moreover, now that Empress Dowager Li is in charge of the inner palace, Zhu Shenzhu has saved a lot of trouble. After all, Empress Dowager Li has been in the harem for many years. She has suffered for more than ten years after the palace relocation case, and she has always been resentful. Empress Dowager Li has long been full of resentment towards the people in the harem. Now that she has turned over a new leaf, she will naturally not treat them well. With the support of Zhu Shenzhu, how could Empress Dowager Li, who knows the harem well, let go of this opportunity? In just over half a month, she took control of the harem and made those eunuchs and palace servants obedient.

The harem is now under the command of Empress Dowager Li, and those evil spirits cannot show their heads for the time being. After occupying the palace, Zhu Shenzui put all the palace servants including the eunuchs under surveillance. Later, he released a few of them due to the reorganization of the Imperial Household Department, but most of them were still under strict control.

But after all, there were too many palace maids and eunuchs in the harem. Kang Mazi, a later generation, said that there were 9,000 palace maids and 100,000 eunuchs in the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty. This is of course nonsense. Although the palace is large, it is absolutely impossible to accommodate so many people. Moreover, Chongzhen was very stingy with himself. His dragon robe had to be repaired by his wife. Queen Zhou also spun yarn in the harem to earn pocket money. How could it be possible to support so many palace maids and eunuchs?

Even if the eunuchs stationed in various places and those sent out to other places were included, the number would still be far from this. After taking control of the palace, Zhu Shenzhui had people count the numbers and found that there were only more than 2,300 palace maids in the entire palace, and there were slightly more eunuchs, but only more than 3,000. The total number was less than 6,000.

How many of these people were loyal to Chongzhen? How many of them bore a grudge against Zhu Shenzhui? Or how many of them had other thoughts? It was difficult to verify. Even among the people such as Du Xun, Han Zanzhou, Fang Zhenghua, and Li Guofu, who were employed by Zhu Shenzhui, it was not certain whether they really surrendered to Zhu Shenzhui, not to mention their disciples.

Zhu Shenzhu couldn't just kill all these people, right? Or drive them out of the palace? Even so, some things were unavoidable. The entire palace was so large that it was impossible to have no eunuchs, and even if they were all replaced, would the new people be reliable?
Therefore, letting Empress Dowager Li take charge of the harem can save a lot of trouble. At least even if there are people with ulterior motives in the harem, they can't make trouble. As for Zhu Shenzhu himself, he doesn't need these palace maids and eunuchs at all. Until now, his safety in the palace, including his daily life, is taken care of by the Mongols he brought with him.

Although these Mongols were only so-so in serving people, and were clumsy and didn't know much about the rules, and many of them couldn't even understand Chinese, let alone speak it, but was this a problem for Zhu Shenzhui? Zhu Shenzhui was an ordinary royal family member who started the Jingnan Rebellion and entered the capital. He was not a person who followed the rules. What he wanted was absolute safety around him. Compared with others, these Mongols brought from the Tenger tribe were truly trustworthy.

(End of this chapter)