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

Chapter 718 Secret Message
Before Zhu Shenzhui took up the post of regent, the cabinet had resumed normal operation. After Wen Tihen defected to Zhu Shenzhui, he remained the chief minister, and the second chief minister Zhang Zhifa also retained his position and continued to serve in the cabinet.

As for the other cabinet ministers, Zhu Shenzhu made some adjustments, and only retained Fan Fucui, Kong Zhenyun, and Liu Yuliang. Among them, Zhang Zhifa was originally a man of Wen Tihen, and always followed Wen Tihen's lead. Fan Fucui had good administrative ability and was relatively upright. As for Kong Zhenyun, he was a descendant of Confucius and a representative of literati, but he had nothing to do with the Donglin Party. When he was the Minister of Rites in Nanjing, he had outstanding achievements and a good reputation among the people.

Liu Yuliang is a man of seniority but lacks ability. However, he is good at judging the situation and is a fence-sitter. After consideration, Zhu Shenzhui felt that he was still of some use in the cabinet, so he kept him. So now the cabinet consists of five people.

Wen Tiren walked in front, and the other four followed him into the Wenhua Hall. When they arrived at the side hall, Wen Tiren saw Zhu Shenzhui hurried forward with a look of joy on his face. He took out the victory report and memorial he had just received and handed them over.

"Your Highness is overjoyed! Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou wiped out Gao Yingxiang's army in Heishui Valley. Gao Yingxiang's 50,000-strong army was completely destroyed, and the bandit Gao Yingxiang was captured alive. All his generals were captured in one fell swoop. The threat of bandits has been eliminated. This is a rare joy for our Ming Dynasty!"

"Your servants congratulate the Regent!" Everyone smiled and congratulated Zhu Shenzhui.

Zhu Shenzhui was very happy to hear this, and quickly reached out to take it, and at the same time asked the ministers to sit down and talk.

First open the memorial and take a closer look. You can tell at a glance that it was written by Sun Chuanting. His handwriting is very familiar to Zhu Shenzhu, and there is also Hong Chengchou's signature at the back.

The report was not complicated, most of which was a report on the battle, and the content was the same as what Wen Tiren had just said. After reading the report, Zhu Shenzhui picked up the memorial from Sun Chuanting, which was much more detailed. It detailed how Sun Chuanting judged that Gao Yingxiang would go to Ziwu Valley, and then how he led his troops back, and notified Hong Chengchou to come to help, how the two armies set up an ambush at the entrance of Heishui Valley to stop Gao Yingxiang, and then fought with Gao Yingxiang's troops for several days, and finally dealt a heavy blow to Gao Yingxiang after Zu Kuan arrived, completely defeating Gao Yingxiang's main force, thus winning a great victory.

After reading the memorial, Zhu Shenzhui was filled with joy. This was indeed a great event. Gao Yingxiang was known as the King of Rebellion and was the leader of all the rebel armies in the world. In addition, Gao Yingxiang had fought wars in the eight provinces of the Ming Dynasty over the years, causing great destruction to the local areas.

The Ming army has spent a lot of effort over the years and gathered the strength of eight provinces to encircle and suppress Gao Yingxiang, but he still fled everywhere. Now Gao Yingxiang and his main force were completely wiped out in the battle of Heishui Valley, and even Gao Yingxiang was taken prisoner. If this is not a great joy, what is?
Gao Yingxiang's defeat would inevitably shock the rebel forces across the world, and the Ming Dynasty would also eliminate one of its biggest hidden dangers. With Gao Yingxiang's defeat, the rebel forces suffered a heavy blow, and their complete destruction was imminent.

This good news made everyone happy. After Zhu Shenzhu read the victory report and the memorial, he immediately discussed it with the ministers. Among them, Kong Zhenyun pointed out that this great victory not only boosted morale, but also greatly improved the stability of the Ming Dynasty.

Gao Yingxiang has been wreaking havoc in the local area for many years. Now that he has been captured alive, he should be escorted to the capital as soon as possible to be executed according to the law in order to deter the bandits in the world.

Kong Zhenyun's suggestion was recognized by everyone, including Zhu Shenzhui. As the leader of the bandits and the most powerful and influential leader of the rebel army, Gao Yingxiang must be executed after a fair trial, so as to shock the world and boost morale and stabilize the people of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition, Zhu Shenzhu also wanted to meet Gao Yingxiang in person to see what kind of person this famous King of Rebellion was. It would be a pity to kill such a heroic figure without meeting him. In addition, Zhu Shenzhu also wanted to find out about Li Zicheng. Since Gao Yingxiang was Li Zicheng's uncle and Li Zicheng was a general under Gao Yingxiang, he must have a good understanding of Li Zicheng.

Unlike Wen Tiren and others, Zhu Shenzhu knew that although Gao Yingxiang was captured and his rebel army was completely destroyed, the problem was that Li Zicheng was not among them. Li Zicheng was a man who should never be underestimated. In history, it was Li Zicheng who eventually overthrew the Ming Dynasty and forced Emperor Chongzhen to hang himself on Coal Hill. As long as Li Zicheng was not dealt with, the world would not be peaceful. It was a little early to say that the overall situation of the banditry had been decided.

Zhu Shenzui immediately agreed to the suggestion of letting Sun Chuanting and others escort Gao Yingxiang to Beijing, and prepared to hand the matter over to the Jinyiwei, with Zhou Anmin sending people to escort him to ensure his safety.

In addition, with such a great victory, it is necessary to reward Sun Chuanting, Hong Chengchou and others. Not only them, but also their subordinates, such as Zu Kuan, Gao Jie, and even the rest of the troops who have been besieging Gao Yingxiang must be commended and rewarded.

As for how to deal with it, let the cabinet come up with a plan first. Zhu Shenzhui rejected Liu Yuliang's suggestion to summon Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou back to Beijing. He said that it was only Gao Yingxiang who was captured, and the local bandits were still a problem. It was too early to summon them back to Beijing now. It would not be too late to discuss these things after all the bandits were completely wiped out. Facing Zhu Shenzhui's attitude, Wen Tiren quickly agreed. After Wen Tiren and his men said goodbye and left, Kang Youfu also left. Zhu Shenzhui called Zhou Anmin and asked him to send people to Shaanxi as soon as possible to escort Gao Yingxiang and his men to the capital to ensure that these people arrived safely in the capital to enforce the canon.

After Zhou Anmin left in a hurry, Zhu Shenzhui picked up the memorial given to him by Sun Chuanting again and read it carefully. This time, he paid attention not to the content about the battle in the memorial, but to a sentence in the memorial, which was about the treatment of the captured Gao Yingxiang's troops.

After carefully pondering the contents of the memorial, Zhu Shenzhui vaguely guessed Sun Chuanting's dilemma. According to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, memorials from local or military commanders to the court were sent directly to the cabinet, which would first review them before handing them over to the Imperial Household Department or the emperor for review.

Therefore, although Sun Chuanting was the governor of Shaanxi and the commander-in-chief of this battle, his memorial had to go through this procedure. This was also the reason why Zhu Shenzhui did not know about this matter until Wen Tihen brought his men here.

Although there was nothing wrong with this process and it was normal from a procedural point of view, today's incident made Zhu Shenzhui realize something he had overlooked before, that is, if all memorials were delivered in this way, then in some cases, Zhu Shenzhui, as the regent, would be the last person to know.

This not only makes the information flow inefficient, but also if the cabinet has ulterior motives, it can temporarily withhold the memorials from the local governments, preventing Zhu Shenzhu from getting the news in time. In addition, because the information is circulated through the cabinet, the content of the memorials submitted by the local governments will be ambiguous. Once the issues mentioned in the memorials are sensitive, some things are not so easy to say directly.

Just like in Sun Chuanting's memorial, although he implicitly raised the issue of the resettlement of prisoners, Zhu Shenzhu actually saw the contradictions among all parties involved in the resettlement of prisoners, including concerns about the resettlement of prisoners. And because of the cabinet's transmission, Sun Chuanting did not write too clearly. If someone who did not know Sun Chuanting was replaced, it might be difficult to detect that although this problem seemed minor, it was actually very serious.

The Ming emperor controlled the world through secret agencies such as the Imperial Guard, East Factory, and West Factory, in addition to the imperial court departments including the cabinet and the Imperial Household Department. But even so, it was not so easy to control the overall situation. Even if the Imperial Guard was omnipresent, it was impossible for it to be all-encompassing. Moreover, if the Imperial Guard monitored all officials including local and military generals, these people would have some feelings over time.

The Ming Dynasty has serious problems in all aspects. Zhu Shencui came to the position of regent through unconventional means. At present, the attitude and recognition of Zhu Shencui throughout the Ming Dynasty are still quite ambiguous. Although many people have voted for Zhu Shencui, such as Wen Tihen, there are still more people who pretend to obey and secretly observe the direction of the wind.

These situations are unavoidable, not to mention that Zhu Shenzhui is not the emperor yet, even if Emperor Chongzhen is in power, there will be such situations. The imperial power of the Ming Dynasty has been restricted by the civil service group for too long. It can even be said that this situation began to show signs as early as the Song Dynasty, and it became more and more serious in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

Living in the palace, Zhu Shencui never dared to be careless. He was always careful. Facing these situations, Zhu Shencui noticed such a problem again today, so he naturally had to make some changes.

After thinking about it, Zhu Shenzui felt that the "secret memorial system" created by Emperor Yongzheng in history seemed good and could be used.

To be honest, although he looked down on the Qing Dynasty in history, he had to admit that the power in the hands of the Qing emperors reached its peak in feudal society, and some of the Qing systems also solved some drawbacks of previous dynasties during their implementation. Now that the Imperial Household Department system has been borrowed, it is normal to also use the secret memorial system.

Good things should be used. There is no need to regard them as rubbish just because they were established by the Qing Dynasty. The establishment of the secret memorial system enabled the emperor to obtain first-hand information directly without going through the Cabinet (the Grand Council), and to strengthen communication with local governments including the military to avoid information blockages. Why not do it?

The Ming Dynasty also had considerable convenience in adopting the secret memorial system. With the recovery of the Jinyiwei's strength over the past six months, the Jinyiwei, which had been suppressed by Emperor Chongzhen, gradually regained its previous power and network throughout the Ming Dynasty. On this basis, the secret memorial system was implemented and delivered through the Jinyiwei channels, which could completely bypass the current cabinet, the Silijian and even other official channels, thereby strengthening the power in their hands.

Thinking of this, Zhu Shenzhui planned to implement it as soon as possible, starting with Liaodong and Northwest regions, Shandong region and northern Zhili region. The personnel with the right to submit secret memorials were temporarily controlled by a few key people, such as governors, provincial governors, provincial governors, generals, etc. If the implementation was effective, then it would be gradually implemented. By that time, Zhu Shenzhui would no longer be bound by the cabinet through the secret memorial system, including bypassing the relevant departments of the court and directly dealing with many issues.

(End of this chapter)