The eleventh month in Nanjing brought an increasingly bitter chill. Emperor Chongzhen adjusted the daily morning court sessions to an every-other-day schedule. It was not out of laziness, but rather to accommodate elderly officials like Li Banghua and Fan Jingwen. They were getting on in years, and he preferred not to put them through unnecessary strain.
On the third day of the eleventh month, Emperor Chongzhen received a stack of reports. The only piece of good news came from the south: Qin Liangyu had managed to block Zhang Xianzhong in the eastern Sichuan region, preventing him from advancing westward.
Everything else was bad news.
Chapter 372