Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 166: Fighting the "Trouble" with Violence

When the Jinyiwei brought Tian Weijia out of the mansion, they happened to meet several other officials from the Ministry of Personnel who had a good relationship with Tian Weijia, "Ma Shiwei, what are you doing? Are you going to kill your colleagues?"

"Ma Shiwei, I don't need to tell you what happened to Mao Xiang, right?"

"That's right. Your Majesty can protect you temporarily, but not forever. In the end, the world will be ruled by your Majesty and the scholars and officials."

"What about Wei Zhongxian? Didn't he disappear into thin air?"

"Aren't you going to arrest someone? Come, chop here..."

Dozens of court officials blocked Ma Shiwei's way, talking one after another, with their chests puffed out, saying that they wanted the Imperial Guards to produce an imperial edict before they could take the person away.

Otherwise, don't even think about leaving.

Ma Shiwei's face turned blue and purple. It was definitely unrealistic to catch them all. He also knew about the incident about Emperor Wanli that these civil servants mentioned. It was that the Empress of Wanli could not give birth to a child.

Once when he went to pay his respects to the empress dowager, he had sex with the palace maid on a whim. A few months later, she became pregnant with a son. However, Wanli felt that he had slept with a palace maid and it was ashamed and he refused to admit it. However, the empress dowager took out her daily records and forced the emperor to admit it. So the palace maid was promoted to the official concubine and was given the title of Consort Wang.

But Wanli liked Concubine Zheng, and she gave birth to a son, Zhu Changxun, now Prince Fu.

Wanli wanted to support Zhu Changxun as the crown prince, but doing so was against orthodoxy, so he wanted to make Concubine Zheng the Imperial Noble Concubine first. However, he encountered strong backlash from the ministers, who rushed to submit memorials requesting that Zhu Changluo be made the crown prince.

In this way, Wanli fought with his ministers for more than ten years, and finally Wanli was forced to appoint Zhu Changluo as the crown prince.

The civil officials said this to tell Ma Shiwei clearly that we can suppress the emperor and have plenty of ways to deal with you.

Ma Shiwei had no choice but to pull over a captain of the Imperial Guards and said, "Quick, go and tell Eunuch Wang about this."

……

Zhu Changgan had just come out from Concubine Chen's place. Concubine Chen, who was waiting outside, stepped forward and whispered, "Your Majesty..."

Zhu Changgan was in a bad mood to begin with. Before he even finished listening to Wang Chengen's words, he burst into laughter. "What the hell... are you bringing up Emperor Wanli?"

Why did the civil service group not dare to attack in the early Ming Dynasty?

Because both Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di were men who had experienced life and death on the battlefield, when they did not favor civil officials, they used imperial power and the military honor group to suppress the civil official group.

The emperor directly controls the military heroes, who control the Five Military Commissions. The emperor directly controls the violent institutions.

The bottom of this world is violence. In the hands of evil people, violence can destroy everything, but in the hands of good people, it can maintain order.

Unfortunately, Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen got carried away and caused the Tumupu Incident, which destroyed the entire military merit group.

The Five Military Commission was in name only from then on, and the Ministry of War represented by the civil service group took control of the army. The emperor went from being the sole controller of the highest violent organ to sharing military power with the civil servants.

From then on, the emperor had to discuss all major affairs of the world with the civil service group.

From Yongle to Chongzhen, among the 164 cabinet members, 50% were from Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Jiangxi.

It is easy for the emperor to deal with one official, but it is difficult to deal with the entire civil service group.

You can't fire everyone in the company, from the CEO to the cleaner. The key is that if you fire one person, their people will be the next to take over.

Because the talent selection team has also been monopolized by them.

Emperor Wanli demoted Jiang Yinglin and he had been away from the court for twenty years. There were people in the court who spoke for him, hoping that Jiang Yinglin could return to Beijing.

Wanli scolded a person from Jiangsu and Zhejiang and sent him away. Then a group of people from Jiangsu and Zhejiang came up. He scolded them away again and another group came up...

The civil servants are a community of interests and have no scruples at all, knowing that no matter what trouble they get into, someone will take care of it.

This is also the reason why Wanli did not attend court for the 30th year of his reign. The fierce battle with the ministers over the issue of appointing a crown prince alone forced more than a hundred court officials, including the prime minister, to retreat. They were dismissed from office, exiled to the army, and so on.

In the end, Wanli suffered a crushing defeat. The imperial power became weaker and weaker, while the civil service group became stronger and stronger. A strange phenomenon began to occur in the Ming Dynasty: taxes were collected less and less, and the national finances became increasingly difficult.

"But I am not Emperor Wanli, much less Emperor Chongzhen..."

"Huh?" Wang Chengen, who was listening at the side, had his eyes wide open. "Your Majesty, what are you doing?"

"Oh, that's nonsense. It's just a meaning. You can understand it however you want." Zhu Changgan did not explain too much. Explanation would be covering up. It would be better to let Wang Chengen guess it himself.

Sure enough, after Wang Chengen opened his mouth for a while, he calmed down.

In his mind, His Majesty must have had a relapse of his illness, but this time it seemed a little more serious... He didn't even recognize himself?
Zhu Changgan threw the syrup he had taken from Chen Yuanyuan on the ground and said, "As the old saying goes, it's easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it's hard to go from luxury to frugality."

"They have gained too much from vested interests and have forgotten how they got started. Why don't they see that although the military honors are gone, the military power is in my hands. Who has the most capable army?"

"Aren't they shouting for the ancestral system every day? Wang Chengen, go and get all the people from the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard out. I will teach them a lesson and let them feel the situation of the civil officials during the time of Emperor Hongwu."

……

A quarter of an hour later, the sound of troops moving could be heard throughout the city; the sound of horses' hooves and footsteps made the entire Chang'an Avenue tremble.

Thousands of Jinyiwei and Dongchang people pointed their muskets at the civil servants who were causing trouble.

Ma Shiwei already knew His Majesty's determination at this time, and looked at them coldly, "According to His Majesty's order, Tian Weijia is implicated in the Wen Tiren case and the Shanxi treason case. His Majesty asked him to assist in the investigation. You came to stop him and spoke rudely. You must be related to the case. Catch him."

Hula~
A large number of Jinyiwei and Dongchang people directly twisted these civil servants and tied them up with ropes. Those who dared to resist were hacked to death. One of the censors shouted at the top of his voice: "You have seen it, your majesty is cruel, allowing people to be killed in the street, how can our Ming Dynasty be blessed..."

"Pfft~"

Ma Shiwei chopped him down with a knife and said, "He is guilty of disrespecting Your Majesty. He deserves death. Li Wannian, take your men to his home and search it to see if there is any other evidence of his crime besides being in cahoots with Wen Tiren."

"Yes!" The captain of the Jinyiwei named Li Wannian left with his men.

The rest of the civil servants were so frightened by this scene that their heartbeats were trembling. They had never expected that the emperor would be so cruel. He killed people directly, and did it in the street.

He really doesn't care about the face of the emperor and his subjects at all.

"We have no relationship with Wen Tiren."

"We have never participated in the Shanxi merchants, so you can't arrest us..."

"Master Ma, those have nothing to do with us..."

The faces of several officials turned pale and they wanted to turn around and return to their respective residences, but they were grabbed by the Jinyiwei and pressed face down on the ground.

Ma Shiwei said to everyone with a cold look in his eyes: "It doesn't count if you say you have no connection. His Majesty has to say that you have no connection. Wen Tiren has confessed. It depends on whether you know what's best for him or not." "Take them all back!"

……

"It's over... It's over. How did the Wen Tiren case come up again?"

"I heard that before Wen Tiren resigned, he posted a notice exposing many people's illegal activities..."

"Oh, what's going on?"

In fact, there were quite a few people on the same street observing this scene.

Among them were powerful civil servants such as Xue Guoguan, Zhang Sizhi, and Kong Zhenyun. They did not come out due to their status, but they had been paying close attention to this farce.

Ma Shiwei seemed to know that someone was watching all this. Before leaving, he glanced around and said nothing, but he said everything.

When the emperor pointed his finger at them, these people were all busy protecting themselves and no longer cared about finding fault with others.
In addition to Tian Weijia, several others who shouted Huan were also captured by the Jinyiwei.

One of the people who shouted the most was named Cai Yichen.

If Zhu Changgan were present, he might recognize this name. He was a Jinshi in the 44th year of Wanli, and served as the Minister of Rites, Prince Taibao, and Wenyuan Pavilion Grand Secretary of the Hongguang regime of the Southern Ming Dynasty. He led all officials to surrender to the Qing army.

The two people recommended by Wen Tiren before were Xue Guoguan and Cai Yichen.

……

"Your Majesty, isn't this too much? Such brutality may damage your reputation."

"What's reputation?" Zhu Changgan snorted, but looking at the sun moving westward, he ordered Wang Chengen: "In the evening, if I want to release the ministers, you ask me, which is more important, reputation or the country of Ming?"

"..." Wang Chengen was startled and looked at the emperor in surprise, "Your Majesty, you... you know your illness?"

Zhu Changgan had always wanted to patch himself up with Chongzhen. Since he had already revealed some abnormalities during the day, he might as well take advantage of the situation.

"Of course I know that. During the day, I work diligently for the Ming Dynasty, but at night... I occasionally behave abnormally, right?"

Wang Chengen's eyes were like a calf's, and he nodded frantically. Then he realized that he was seeking death, and shook his head frantically again.

Zhu Changgan smiled and sighed, "That's why I ask you to keep an eye on me at night and don't let me issue orders when I'm sick."

"Just like today, the civil officials are asking me to suppress Cao Huachun with the help of the general trend. If it were Lord Hongwu, what do you think he would do?"

"This..." Wang Chengen didn't dare to say it.

Zhu Changgan naturally would not directly say that he wanted to deal with you civil servants, but instead adopted the method used by Emperor Hongwu.

In the 13th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang executed the nine clans of Prime Minister Hu Weiyong for the crime of "plotting against the law". At the same time, he killed several people including the Imperial Censor Chen Ning and the Zhongcheng Tu Jie.

Ten years later, Zhu Yuanzhang promulgated the "Record of Exposing Traitors" and executed other founding heroes such as Li Shanchang, Duke of Han, Lu Zhongheng, Marquis, and the descendants of the late Gu Shi, Duke of Teng, for conspiring with Hu Weiyong to commit crimes.

A total of more than 3 people were killed.

It lasted for a long time and killed so many people... Don’t these civil servants shout about the ancestral system every day?
Then let me show you the ancestral system and how Emperor Hongwu treated those corrupt officials and those who formed cliques for personal gain.

Compared with him, I am nothing.

The construction of the prison was not Zhu Changgan's purpose, but its occasional use had an immediate effect.

Before Wen Tihen was exiled, he submitted a memorial to the emperor. After seven years in the cabinet, the things he knew were of use to the emperor.

On the first day that Zhu Changgan exchanged bodies with Chongzhen, he was preparing to eliminate the civil service group.

The civil service group is too large and only thinks about how to exploit the world and satisfy their collective selfish desires.

These people cried out for ancestral rules and for sharing wealth with the people.

However, they were secretly closely tied to the capital groups and siphoned the Ming Dynasty's finances into their own pockets. This can be said to be the root cause of the chaos in the world.

The so-called party struggles and struggles for imperial power, to put it bluntly, are nothing more than financial struggles.

The civil service group was not limited to the Donglin Party and the Qi Party.

The Chu Party, Zhejiang Party, Xuan Party, Kun Party and Donglin Party were fighting each other. These were all super capital groups that did not pay taxes during the Chongzhen period.

Whether it was the Jiangnan industrial and commercial trade gentry capital group, the Shanxi merchant smuggling trade group, or the bureaucratic capital group within the Ming court, all the money flowed to them, and these people monopolized most of the court by relying on their financial advantages.

Zhu Changgan's next step was to train troops, fight against banditry in the south, and fight the Qing Dynasty in the northeast, all of which required money.

Therefore, it is imperative to take action against the civil service group!
Now that the Mongols south of the desert have been eliminated, Zhu Changgan can finally stand up straight and deal with the civil service groups in the court and the bureaucrats and gentry in various parts of Jiangnan.

“From now on, the era of centralization has arrived.”

……

As for Chongzhen, he felt that he had not done much. He just took care of some patients and wrote a few notices, but inexplicably Sun Kewang took him seriously.

He was assigned more work and visited more often than before.

However, this is understandable. In the 276 years of the Ming Dynasty, only scholars emerged, and most of them were in peacetime. In recent years, there have been constant disasters and people can barely survive, so how can they have the leisure to study?

So the probability of meeting a knowledgeable person is really small.

"General, why do you value me?" Chongzhen was confused and helpless.

Sun Kewang looked at Chongzhen and sighed, "To achieve great things, one must have real skills. It is not enough to be smart and courageous. One must be brave and learn!"

"I, Sun Kewang, respect scholars. I didn't have a choice before, so I only had brothers, rivals, and foster fathers in my life. Now I want to have a mentor."

Sun Kewang stared at Chongzhen with scorching eyes.

Chongzhen's hand trembled, he looked at Sun Kewang, then looked at his sword, "Forget about Shizhi, but I can still teach you."

Sun Kewang was ready to draw his sword and force him, but when he heard this, he was overjoyed, "I don't know what's going on... Sir, you want to test me, to see if I'm good at studying, right?"

“……” Chongzhen looked at him steadily, and the muscles on his face twitched.

(End of this chapter)