Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The civil unrest in Shaanxi is only very likely to happen, but there is one place where civil unrest has already occurred.

On April 11, the governor of Nanjian, Hong Zhanzu, reported to the emperor that in the first year of Yongxing, the bandits of Nanjian seized the false title of Heavenly King and led a crowd to attack the county city of Anyuan, looted the treasury and released the prisoners, and the magistrate Shen Yaofeng escaped.

Zhu Youjian was very angry about this, and realized that if civil unrest occurred frequently, it would give people a signal that the world was unstable. So he wanted to use thunder and lightning to solve this civil unrest.

In addition, Li Yingqi, the censor of Fujian Province, impeached Hong Zhanzu for being tired of politics due to his age and dulled his wisdom due to greed, so Zhu Youjian decided to dismiss Hong Zhanzu from his post and replace him with someone else.

On April 13, Zhu Youjian formally dismissed Hong Zhanzu at the regular court session and asked the nine ministers to prepare candidates. The next day, a court recommendation was held.

This temporary replacement of the governor-general and governor-general was directly recommended by the Nine Ministers according to the previously determined court recommendation method, which facilitated the court to respond quickly and send personnel to take over.

Many officials in the court were very excited about this. The Purple Pavilion Meritorious Officials confirmed on April 9th ​​made many officials want to make achievements. Although the scale of the civil unrest in Nangan was not large, it was also a credit after it was quelled.

Wang Shouren rose to prominence by suppressing the rebellion in Nan Gan, and later suppressed the rebellion of Prince Ning and the Tengxia bandit rebellion, thus becoming a Purple Pavilion hero.

Who can say that the suppression of this rebellion is not the result of another Purple Pavilion hero's success?

Therefore, those officials who felt they had military talents began to approach the nine ministers in the court, hoping that they could recommend themselves.

On April 14, Zhu Youjian convened the four ministers, the nine ministers and relevant officials of the Ministry of Personnel to hold an enlarged regular meeting to discuss solutions to the civil unrest and famine in various places.

First of all, there was the governor of Nanjian. After a day of consideration, each of the nine ministers had already chosen a candidate.

However, after Zhu Youjian knew about the movements of the ministers and the nine officials, he did not give them a chance to speak, and took the lead in saying to the ministers:

"Shi Yongan, the governor of the three frontiers, has many people impeached for building the temple."

"I demoted him because of his previous merits, so he remains in office."

"The governor of the three borders will be replaced this year, and given Shi Yongan's level, he is no longer suitable to stay in office."

"I intend to transfer him to be the governor of Nangan, responsible for quelling the civil unrest."

Shi Yongan was a hero in the defense of Guiyang. Because of this achievement, he was promoted from the governor of Guizhou to the Shaoqing of the Imperial Household Department and the governor of Ningxia. He then made meritorious services on the border and became the governor-general of the three borders.

It can be said that he did have the ability, otherwise Zhu Youjian would not have retained him after he participated in the construction of the ancestral temple.

In addition, Shi Yongan was promoted from the southwest to the northwest, and was familiar with the climate and environment in the south. When he was asked to quell the rebellion in Nangan, all the officials felt that he was competent.

But being competent does not mean that one must be recommended. After all, the Nangan Civil Rebellion was not a big deal in the eyes of the ministers, and many people were capable of quelling it. How could such a meritorious task be given to Shi Yongan, a remnant of the eunuch party?

Therefore, they all opposed Shi Yongan's transfer to the post of governor of Nangan. Xu Yuqing, the military official who was reinstated last month, said:
"Li Li demanded a golden basin from An Wei, which led to Shuixi's rebellion."

"Shi Yongan was the provincial governor of Guizhou at the time and was guilty of negligence."

"I think we should investigate the previous crimes and remove Shi Yongan and others from office."

This statement caused even greater controversy among the officials, because the heroes of the Guiyang Defense War were mainly Li Li and Shi Yongan.

Li Li had been idle because of the Golden Basin incident. Who would have thought that the Golden Basin incident would also involve Shi Yongan.

Mao Yujian, the censor of Yunnan Province, said:
"The story of the golden basin was reported by the Imperial Censor Jiang Yunyi. Later, when I was ordered to reply, I also thought it was hearsay."

"Li Li has made great contributions by defending the isolated city to the death. He should be reinstated and given important positions."

The Ministry of Justice was not satisfied with this statement. Yu Changzuo, the Criminal Department's Censor, said:

"The Golden Basin is a matter with solid evidence. The late emperor once issued an order:"

"Li Li's demand for the golden basin has caused a great upheaval to this day, and the consequences are endless."

“So it has never been restored.”

"Censor Mao said it was just hearsay, where did it come from?"

A group of censors began to have a heated debate about the golden basin.

Zhu Youjian had a headache after hearing this, and felt that it was a mistake to let the censors attend the regular meetings. After these censors took office one after another, they had begun to regain their fighting power, and they could quarrel over anything in the court.

Therefore, he had decided in his heart that he would hold fewer regular meetings in the future and hold more regular meetings to deal with certain departmental affairs, and only allow the relevant department's censors to participate. In this way, even if the censors wanted to argue, no one would argue with him. However, the incident of the golden basin still reminded him. He realized that he could not just encourage the ministers to make meritorious deeds, but also considered the possibility that they would deliberately stir up trouble and then make meritorious deeds.

For example, Li Li certainly had merit in the defense of Guiyang, but if the request for the golden basin was true, then the rebellion of the Shuixi An family was instigated by him. Of course, such merit cannot be ignored.

So Zhu Youjian decided after a while of debate among his ministers:
"The matter of the Golden Basin concerns Li Li's contribution in the defense of Guiyang, and also whether he will have the opportunity to become a wise official of the Purple Pavilion in the future."

"This matter must be handled with caution. Instruct Li Ruogui, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, to investigate further, review the relevant files, and question all personnel."

"If this is true, Li Li must punish him and comfort the soldiers and civilians who died in the Guizhou Rebellion."

"If this is groundless, we should give credit to Li Li."

He also told Zhao Fu, the Right Vice-Chief Censor of the Censorate, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, who was in charge of the Military Supervision Office:

"From now on, the military supervisors must carefully record the military achievements."

"The reasons for the unrest in various places must also be investigated."

"I will have the guards and imperial guards at all levels record this as well."

"Local authorities who supervise eunuchs also have this responsibility."

Supervisory responsibilities were added to these four institutions at once.

Together with the officials such as the Inspectors and Censors who were responsible for supervision, there were five institutions that monitored military achievements at the same time.

Zhu Youjian did not believe that the governor-general responsible for quelling the rebellion could deal with all five parties at the same time.

If someone could do it, he would have to admit it.

After all, that meant that all civil servants, civilian military officers, censors, close ministers, and eunuchs had been conquered.

As the ministers listened to the emperor's arrangements, they all realized that although the emperor spoke in a calm tone, he was really angry, otherwise he would not have given supervisory responsibilities to so many institutions.

According to their understanding of the current emperor, if the emperor feels that something is serious, he will adjust the institutions and solve it from a systemic perspective.

The incident of Li Li's golden basin obviously made the emperor feel that the original supervisory system was not enough, so he added supervisory responsibilities to four agencies.

Especially the supervisory eunuchs, which shocked all the civil servants and made them realize that if the emperor lost trust in the officials, he would re-employ the eunuchs.

Those who had experienced Wei Zhongxian's rule during the Tianqi period did not want to see this situation, and they all advised the emperor not to employ eunuchs.

But Zhu Youjian was determined, he wanted to use these eunuchs to teach the officials a lesson, so that these people would not be unrestrained and act recklessly.

So he just acted arbitrarily and didn't want to discuss this matter with his ministers:
"Supervisory eunuchs have supervisory responsibilities, and supervising the causes of riots in various places is the key point."

"You gentlemen, if you object to this, why don't you think carefully about how to reduce the chaos?"

"Don't let anyone want to follow Li Chengliang's example and nurture the enemy just because I praise his military achievements!"

These words were really harsh, and all the ministers thought of what happened to Li Chengliang in their dynasty.

Whether in terms of military merit or the origin of the Li family, the representative of the Eastern Li should be Li Chengliang. The one who should be listed as a Purple Pavilion hero should be Li Chengliang, who was awarded a title for his merits together with Qi Jiguang.

However, the emperor stripped Li Chengliang of his title and promoted Li Rusong as the representative of the Li family, listing him as a meritorious official in the Purple Pavilion.

The reason for this is nothing more than that Li Chengliang allowed the enemy to grow stronger and abandoned the territory to indulge the Jianlu.

The reason why the matter of Li Li's golden basin needs to be investigated again is to clarify the responsibility and see whether Shuixi An rebelled for this reason.

If this is really the reason, what awaits Li Li is definitely not a reward, but perhaps even punishment.

As for Shi Yongan, because of the possible crime of negligence, his contribution in the defense of Guiyang was temporarily stripped away, and he was only appointed as the Chief Censor, and was appointed as the governor of Nan Gan, Ting Shao and other places.

After realizing that the emperor was really angry, the officials were no longer interested in this position. The nine officials all agreed to the emperor's appointment of Shi Yongan, and the post of governor of Nangan was finally decided.

Then there is the position of Governor of the Three Borders vacated by Shi Yongan, which is a more important position. (End of this chapter)