Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 21: Prince Xiang Zhu Yiming

"Where is Wen Tiren? Since I already know that Wen Tiren is forming a clique, why don't I deal with him?"

The reason why Chongzhen favored Wen Tihen before was because he was "non-partisan" in the court.

What Chongzhen hated most was forming factions for personal gain. The reason why he changed the prime minister so frequently was to prevent the emergence of any signs of factions.

"Your Majesty, you didn't handle it. You even asked me to draft an order to order Wen Tiren to thoroughly investigate Qian Qianyi's case."

"Draft an imperial decree for a thorough investigation?" Chongzhen stood up suddenly. He remembered that Zhu Changgan had indeed mentioned drafting an imperial decree for a thorough investigation. He could not help but said angrily:
"Since we know that Wen Tiren is forming a clique, why do we still ask him to thoroughly investigate his political enemies? Wouldn't that lead to a lot of killings and further chaos in the government?"

His hatred for Wen Tiren exceeded his anger.

Hatred, like wolves, insects, tigers and leopards, devoured Chongzhen's heart.

He actually always thought that Wen Tihen was a loyal minister even though he was a treacherous minister who formed a clique. No wonder the emperor's uncle said that the country would be destroyed.

My eyes have been blinded by people like Wen Tiren!
"."Wang Chengen.

Chongzhen looked at him dodging and his eyes narrowed. He said coldly, "Tell me, what did I tell you at the beginning?"

"Your Majesty, what you mean is to let the Wen Party and the Donglin Party in the court attack each other, so that the attention will be diverted from Your Majesty, which will be more conducive to the work."

"..." Chongzhen's eyebrows were raised in anger, but his mouth was drooping, and he was so angry that his lungs almost got a stitch in the side. "When it comes to making money, I have to admit it, but when it comes to the court and government affairs, he is still too young after all!"

At this moment, a eunuch came in from outside, "Your Majesty, this is the memorial submitted by Eunuch Cao."

Chongzhen took it and unfolded it. His eyes suddenly shrank and he gritted his teeth and said, "I was wondering why no one impeached Wen Tihen? Isn't it happening now?"

Cao Huachun's memorial impeached Wen Tihen for hiding talented people and forming a clique, being arrogant and domineering, and being incompetent in governing...

"Wang Chengen, you give way now..." Chongzhen was about to give Wang Chengen the order, but he saw Wang Chengen staring at the memorial on the desk and swallowed his saliva.

"Your Majesty, as you expected, it was indeed Eunuch Cao who came forward on behalf of Qian Qianyi."

"???" Chongzhen frowned and looked at Wang Chengen, "What do you mean?"

Wang Chengen quickly knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, you said yesterday that if Wen Tihen took action, Qian Qianyi would also respond and would soon use his connections to submit a memorial to the palace."

"And you asked the eunuchs to keep an eye on whether Eunuch Cao has submitted any memorials. If he does, keep them in the palace and don't send them out."

Chongzhen's eyes widened when he heard this. "Is this also within his expectations? How could it be..."

He suddenly sat down on the throne, his face looked extremely bad, and his eyes were no longer focused.

Until... a mechanical voice woke him up.

"Zhu Changgan requests to speak to you, please answer the call."

Chongzhen waved his hand to let Wang Chengen go out first before choosing to answer the call.

"Uncle, I have a few things I want to ask you."

"What do you want to ask?"

"Wen Tiren has been the Prime Minister for so many years. If you already know that he is forming a clique for personal gain, why do you still let him stay in office?"

"Hey, I thought it was nothing. It's true that Wen Tiren formed a clique for personal gain, but by comparison, there is a behemoth that is even more powerful than him, standing in front of the Ming Dynasty and biting it to pieces."

"Who? Donglin Party?"

"That's right!" Zhu Changgan continued, "Wen Tiren is a villain and a treacherous minister, but aren't all the civil and military officials in the court villains who form cliques and pursue personal interests?"

"Those people that Wen Tiren got rid of were not necessarily loyal subjects. They were just fighting for power, running for power, attacking each other, framing each other, and trying to kill each other."

"Then..." Chongzhen was about to speak.

Then I heard Zhu Changgan say: "It's not that we don't want to get rid of him, but we have to wait a little longer. We still have to use him to do something. When he is no longer useful, we can get rid of him."

Sun Chengzong, Li Banghua, Lu Xiangsheng, Hong Chengchou... and the establishment of the Armory all require time.

"By the way, please urge the Queen again about the talent show. There are some things I am embarrassed to say, but you can. If you really can't, you can just persuade her..."

After the call was over, Chongzhen was stunned for a while, and suddenly blushed and said, "You are embarrassed to talk about the selection of concubines, so I am embarrassed?"

Cao Huachun's memorial caught his eye again, and a word kept flashing in his mind.

Donglin Party.

For Chongzhen, since he ascended the throne, he focused on breaking the deadlock by defeating the eunuch Wei Zhongxian.

Since the eunuch party is defined as "evil", the Donglin Party, which is the opposite of the eunuch party, is naturally "upright".

It can be said that the current Donglin Party was created with his acquiescence and support.

The question is...is the Donglin Party really that powerful?

Chongzhen couldn't help but shook his head.
Making Wen Tiren the prime minister was also a move by Chongzhen to balance the Donglin Party.

But on the other hand, he was also wondering in his heart, how powerful is the Donglin Party to have allowed Cao Huachun to submit memorials to the palace?
"Wang Chengen, bring today's memorial here."

Chongzhen picked out all the memorials from the court officials in the "Wuzhong" area.

Sure enough, almost all of his memorials were pleading for Qian Qianyi.

He bluntly said that Qian Qianyi had been dismissed from office and returned to his hometown. He had no power or influence, so it was impossible for him to control the government and have the power of life and death, let alone bring disaster to the hometown.

Among them was a memorial from the former Prime Minister Feng Quan.

He mentioned that Zhang Hanru had no achievements and definitely did not have the courage to challenge Qian Qianyi, but he had a backer. As long as this person was arrested and interrogated strictly, the truth would surely come to light.

At the end, Chongzhen's eyes narrowed, because he saw Qian Qianyi's own memorial defending himself.

He wrote down in the memorial all the clues that Zhang Hanru was bribed and framed to imprison him.

The target is Wen Tiren.

Chongzhen looked at the blue veins on his forehead and took a few deep breaths before he could hold back. "Wait a little longer, I will believe him, wait a little longer..."

……

Wen Tiren,
He listened to the housekeeper telling him the names of the people who came to visit today, and couldn't help but shook his head, "No, I won't see the rest of them."

Wen Tiren took a sip of wine, shook his head and said intoxicatedly: "The more it is at this time, the more we should not be so unbridled."

Humility and self-discipline are his characteristics in front of the emperor. If he wants to kill Qian Qianyi and others, he must maintain this.

The housekeeper suddenly thought of something, "Master, there is one thing. Zhang Hanru, who was in Beijing these few days, suddenly disappeared after receiving the money."

Wen Tiren frowned, "Gone? How could it be gone?"

Zhang Hanru was the plaintiff in Wen Tiren's frame-up case. He was a legal advisor in Changshu County Government and was well versed in lawsuits.

It was the imperial petition he wrote that listed 58 charges against Qian Qianyi, which led to Qian Qianyi being thrown into prison.

"Yesterday morning, I sent someone to deliver rice and oil to him, but when I went there this afternoon, the place was empty."

Wen Tiren put down his glass and said, "Find this person, even if it's a corpse. This person is very important."

"Yes, sir. There is another matter. Cao Huachun got involved. He submitted a memorial to Your Majesty, pleading for Qian Qianyi."

Wen Tiren stood up suddenly. "How did Cao Huachun get involved? What does it have to do with him?"

"No." Wen Tiren asked someone to take the wine away. "If this continues, Qian Qianyi's case may recur. You can ask Chen Luqian to fabricate a post to discredit Qian Qianyi and find someone to come out and turn himself in, saying that Qian Qianyi took 40,000 taels and asked Cao Huachun to mediate."

Chen Luqian was Wen Tihen's man and also the chief official of Changshu. It was at his instigation that Zhang Hanru dared to falsely accuse Qian Qianyi.

……

At this time, in the basement of a house not far to the west of the East Factory, a bloody man was tied to a wooden frame.

"Will you tell me or not? If not, keep hitting me!"

"Sir, stop hitting me, stop hitting me!"

The person who was beaten was Zhang Hanru, a fat man with big ears and a neck as thick as his head.

The great eunuch Gao Yushun looked at the man in front of him with disdain. He hardly used any torture, just a few whippings, but he couldn't bear it?
This was the first person he tried after becoming the head of the East Depot.

Although it was a secret interrogation and the people around him were all his confidants, since His Majesty appreciated him so much, he naturally had to do his best to share His Majesty's worries. He attached 200% importance to Zhang Hanru's case.

Just go and judge it yourself.

What he didn't expect was that Zhang Hanru would just do that. He felt like he was trying to hit someone with a sledgehammer, but the nail got hammered in by itself.

How is this possible?

Your Majesty, don't you think I am just doing things perfunctorily?

"Come on, tell me, what's going on?" Gao Yushun frowned and asked unhappily.

"I said, it was Chen Luqian and his son. Chen Luqian and his son asked me to do this job. They said they would give me 5,000 taels of silver after the job was done, and they would also let me serve as a substitute county magistrate."

"You are just a scholar, how can you be a candidate for county magistrate?"

"this……"

Gao Yushun saw him hesitate and said, "Come on, keep fighting!"

"Don't... Sir, I'll tell you, I'll tell you... What sins did I commit in my previous life that I have to suffer like this? In our place, buying an official position with money is not new, not to mention that Chen Luqian said that Prime Minister Wen is his master..."

Zhang Hanru told everything he knew.

Gao Yushun listened to him and looked at him, "No, you must have something else to say. Come on, keep fighting."

"Ouch... ouch... I really don't know."

Gao Yushun ignored him and let the eunuch continue beating him until he passed out from the pain. He asked someone to splash water on him to wake him up. "Do you remember?"

"Sir, what do you want me to say? I really don't know anything else!"

"It seems that the blow was not strong enough. Come on, continue. Is the soldering iron ready?"

After several times,

Seeing that nothing useful could be pried out of him, they had him sign and sealed the document.

"This man will be detained here. He cannot be released without your Majesty's order."

The young eunuch couldn't help but ask, "Eunuch Gao, how long do we have to wait?"

"Just wait!" Gao Yushun remembered Wang Chengen's reminder and shook his head. "Your Majesty, if you want to take action against Wen Tiren, why do you have to wait for some time?"

He turned around and said to the eunuchs, "Take good care of him. Don't let him die."

Leave quickly.

……

In prison, Qian Qianyi bribed the jailer and sent letters to the outside world one after another.

Qian Qianyi knew that he could not overturn the verdict on his own.

Then we can only find people and find ways.

Cao Huachun was one of his disciples, and the reason why he could entrust Cao Huachun to him was because his teacher was Sun Chengzong.

Sun Chengzong's son had a relationship with the eunuch Cao Huachun of the Imperial Household Department, and he had previously written an epitaph for the former eunuch Wang An of the Imperial Household Department.

And Cao Huachun was a disciple of Wang An.

In addition, he also contacted the former Prime Minister Feng Quan, and wrote letters to almost everyone who had a say in the court.

The energy of the Donglin Party in the entire court began to be slowly mobilized with the Qian Qianyi incident.

……

The various parties in the DPRK are playing games.

There was a constant stream of visitors to Luo Yangxing's mansion.

As the emperor promoted Luo Yangxing to the position of Prince Taifu, he became very proud.

Not only him, but even the doorman started to tremble. He looked at this and that with displeasure and shouted loudly.

His back straightened up, "One hundred taels, without one hundred taels, you still want to come in?!"

The list of people entering was constantly sent to the restaurant across the street.

There was a man sitting on it, Cao Huachun.

He sorted it out and sent it into the palace.

"Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Liu Yuliang."

"Chen Yan from the Imperial Academy..."

Cao Huachun looked at the names on the list one by one and sighed, "Your Majesty is different now, really different now."

After the emperor came to power, he was most strict in guarding against the eunuch party. Even though he had followed Chongzhen since he was still Prince Xin, he had always been on guard against by Chongzhen.

This was exactly the reason why he had always wanted to resign and return home, but what happened in the past two days made him feel as if His Majesty had just woken up from a dream.

As he was transcribing, a man came up from below and said, "Eunuch Cao, Zhang Hanru has confessed."

It was Gao Yushun, who was temporarily in charge of the East Factory, and his immediate superior was naturally Cao Huachun.

"Oh?" Cao Huachun took the confession signed by Zhang Hanru and said, "Sure enough, they are forming a clique for personal gain."

In the afternoon, Cao Huachun volunteered to investigate the case, but was rejected by the emperor.

The emperor said, "I already know about Wen Tihen's affairs. Lord Cao just needs to do his job well."

……

In the Prince Xiang's Palace,

"Everyone in the court is attracted by Qian Qianyi's case, except Luo Yangxing. Let's see if we can take advantage of this opportunity to do something more..."

Zhu Changgan picked up a snack and said to Hong Tao who came in from outside: "Do you want to eat it?"

Hongtao shook her head.

"Don't want to eat? That's because you haven't eaten it before. Once you have tasted it, I'm afraid you will eat it secretly and I won't be able to stop you."

Hong Tao was stunned for a moment, then flew to the cork like two pomegranate petals, her face flushed, "My Lord, you are making fun of me again."

She shrank back against her chair, her face flushed.

Her long eyelashes slowly drooped, and the pair of childish big eyes decorated with long eyelashes on her face looked at a loss, and her black eyeballs were like two crystal grapes.

"Well, that means you are not yet sixteen years old..."

In this era, people use the virtual age. Although Hong Tao said that she was already sixteen, in fact, it was not real. She was born before the Chinese New Year, so she was one year old right after birth. After the Chinese New Year, she was two years old.

In fact, he had just turned fifteen and he really couldn't bring himself to do it.

"Prince, the prince wants you to come over." Hong Tao then remembered the important matter and said hurriedly.

Zhu Changgan was stunned. After being here for so long, it seemed like this was the first time he met his nominal father, Prince Xiang Zhu Yiming.

He sat on the throne of King Xiang for forty years, during which time nothing much happened, and his reign was considered competent and stable.

Historically, there are not many records about Prince Xiang Zhu Yiming.

There are only a few words: He was brutally murdered by Zhang Xianzhong, who also burned his body and killed forty-three of his concubines.

Zhu Changgan tapped the table lightly with his fingers. "Well, now that we are here, we can't hide."

It just so happens that there are a few things that need help from his cheap father, King Xiang.

……

(End of this chapter)