Lin Gao Qiming

"But the emperor..." Qian Taichong remembered the emperor's instructions.

"The canal is currently frozen, and we will wait until the spring comes. The opening of the port will be finalized."

At two o'clock in the night, Chongzhen finished approving the memorial in his hand, and then looked through the memorial just sent by the Secretary of General Affairs. More than ten memorials contained pornographic references. After browsing through them, there were no too urgent military and national events. I felt a little relieved.

I don’t know if it was because of his day and night prayers to the ancestors and gods these days that it had an effect, or if it was due to some other reason. The three major dangers on the screen of Qianqing Palace: Donglu, bandits, and bandits were all at peace, and there was no bad news that shocked him anymore.

I went to bed early today. Because the body is too tired. The emperor also summoned his concubines to sleep with him, and went directly back to Nuan Pavilion to sleep.

At night he had a dream. In the dream, there was a monkey crying under the cliff. I don’t know why, but the monkeys asked each other. The crying monkey pointed at the sun and moon in the sky, and beat its chest angrily. The monkeys wanted to go up to the sky and touch the sun and moon, but they couldn’t. When I was able to reach it, I saw the sun and moon in the water, and a group of monkeys took a boat to catch the moon.

While he was busy catching the moon, suddenly a group of monkeys came and wanted to catch the moon too. The first group of monkeys refused, and the three parties started fighting fiercely. He laughed after seeing it in his dream. Unexpectedly, a group of monkeys became angry and rushed towards him. He hurriedly called for the guards on his left and right to escort him, but no one responded. He was forced under an old locust tree before his eyes. Suddenly a raft came up on the lake, and another group of monkeys came to take advantage of the opportunity to fish for the moon. Three groups of monkeys were having a quarrel when a tall and mighty monkey king jumped out of the monkeys in the raft. He beat the other two groups of monkeys with a golden hoop and made them scream. Suddenly, the Monkey King shouted to Chongzhen that I am Sun Wukong. How dare a mere mortal laugh at me and give me a stick? Chongzhen was suddenly awakened by a nightmare and broke into a cold sweat. Only then did he realize that it was a dream. The sun and moon in this dream must refer to the Ming Dynasty no matter what. Monkeys fishing for the sun and moon in boats must be stealing our Ming Dynasty rivers and mountains. It's really ridiculous. How can monkeys like you get involved in the movement of the sun and the moon? These monkeys are just wasting their efforts. Thinking of this, Chongzhen's mind calmed down a little.

After breakfast, the imperial eunuch brought "Nanyang fruits". The emerald saucer contains round, yellow-orange fruit pulp, which looks very bright and lovely in the gray and dark palace in winter.

It is said to be a "Nanyang fruit", but in fact everyone knows that it was bought from Kun Thief. This unknown Nanyang treasure is packed in expensive glass bottles, filled with sweet juice, and transported thousands of miles from the south to the capital. After opening, it still maintains the original sweetness and refreshing taste of the fruit, so you can take a sip in the winter. , is actually the highest enjoyment of life.

Naturally, the high price is not within the reach of ordinary people. This plate of fruit only contains three or four pieces, and costs nearly ten taels of silver.

The emperor has always felt that this kind of enjoyment is too luxurious, and he deliberately cuts out this kind of enjoyment, so the Nanyang fruits that the emperor currently enjoys are all brought from Tian Guifei's family - her family has the most Nanyang products.

When he saw Nanyang fruits, he thought of Kun Thief, but now, the emperor's hatred for Kun Thief was much less. First of all, Kun Thief has too many useful things. Not to mention the Nanyang fruits in front of us, governors everywhere were petitioning the court for permission to purchase "Nanyang guns." The Denglai Army and the Guangning Army used Nanyang guns and artillery to repeatedly defeat the Donglu's attacks. Although there were no exciting "big victories", they were not defeated at every turn, and they were able to get dozens of real prisoners' heads.

If the peace negotiation with the Kun thieves can be successful, not only will the pressure in the southeast be alleviated, but more guns and ammunition may also be obtained from the Kun thieves. According to the "Zhikun" official, the Kun thieves do not distinguish between right and wrong and will sell them for money.

After using the fruit, the emperor summoned the cabinet elders to discuss government affairs in the Wenhua Palace.

In the tenth year of Chongzhen's cabinet, Wen Tiren served as the chief minister, and cabinet ministers such as Xue Guoguan, Liu Yuliang, and Zhang Zhifa were mostly his party members. It can be called Wen's cabinet.

Wen Tiren has a very bad reputation in history books, and he spared no effort in flattering his superiors and rejecting dissidents. However, he is very capable of doing things, especially when it comes to practical matters such as the punishment of names, money and valleys. Most of the cabinet ministers can only sit back and talk about it, and some are even dumbfounded and don't know what he is talking about. But he can follow the path. If you are an honest official, even your political opponents will not be able to find a reason to do so. The ability to handle various tedious government affairs in times of turbulence and internal and external troubles is evident. Therefore, the Chongzhen Dynasty was said to have more than fifty ministers, but Wen Tiren reigned the longest and was the most trusted by the emperor.

Of course, this kind of trust is also due to another quality that the current emperor likes very much: "prudence and independence."

When Wen Tiren was in power, he could always convince the emperor that he was "not a party member." "Party strife" is the thing that the emperor dislikes the most. If any official is suspected of "participation", the emperor will definitely be disgusted or even dismissed. The Donglin Party went from being "all in power" in the early years of Chongzhen to being excluded from the core of power in just a few years, which had a lot to do with the emperor's mentality.

However, in the late Ming Dynasty, if the cabinet ministers did not have a party, they would not even be able to sit in this position. Not only did Wen Tiren have party members, but the entire cabinet was basically under the control of his party members. However, the emperor was completely unaware of this and thought he was a "lonely loyal".

The sunlight at noon rarely shines into the Wenhua Hall, and is projected onto the dragon columns of the palace, making the golden-winged dragons that sit on the columns appear to be spreading their wings and ready to fly. The winter gatherings are not arranged in the empty and tall main hall, but in the Dongnuan Pavilion.

Wen Tiren was the last of the cabinet ministers to come to the Nuan Pavilion. His late arrival was not to show his status as chief minister, but more to show his "cautious independence" attitude of not discussing with others in private.

There are usually six or seven cabinet ministers, but not all of them are present when the ministers are summoned. However, since Jiajing, the chief minister of the cabinet has the most power, and the power of voting is basically controlled by him. As long as the chief minister is present, government affairs can be handled.

He came to the Nuan Pavilion, met with the cabinet officials, and then sat in the Nuan Pavilion, closing his eyes and saying nothing.

Although the eunuchs were all on duty outside, the emperor knew every move they made in the Nuan Pavilion and even what they said. Therefore, he simply kept silent, firstly to show that he had no personal relations with the cabinet ministers, and secondly, to avoid the trouble coming from his mouth, saying something "shouldn't be" - he had caught Zhou Yanru's unintentional remark in the first place. He said that he would be kicked out of the cabinet; Thirdly, he also went over the content of today's call in his heart.

It is not certain what the emperor summoned his cabinet ministers to talk about specifically, but they were usually about recent important government affairs. Although some of them were events of the past, there were signs that old matters would be brought up again before. A draft must be prepared in advance. Once the emperor consults, there must be a plan to deal with it - and it must be in line with the emperor's thoughts. Here you have to make some guesswork.

If we talk about the important government affairs in the past few years, they are nothing more than the three major bandits that worry the emperor the most and the endless natural disasters, but these are not things that Wen Tiren cares about. Because although these things are important, there are old practices from the past that can be used. If the service ticket is processed according to the rules, nothing will go wrong. As for how it will be dealt with down there, that's another matter.

What he is most concerned about right now is not military affairs, but the restoration of society.

Donglin and Fushe are Wen Tiren's mortal enemies. Especially after he framed Qian Longxi and dismissed Qian Qianyi and Zhou Yanru, he became the same as Donglin and Fushe.

He had received news from last year that Fushe was secretly moving to get Zhou Yanru to step out and join the cabinet.

Zhou Yanru was his ally at the beginning. The two worked together to bring down Qian Qianyi. It was only later that they turned against each other in order to compete for the position of chief and assistant. Now he wants to come back with the help of Donglin and Fushe, which is Wen Tiren's biggest crisis at the moment.

Once this person returns to the DPRK and joins the cabinet, he will quickly gather into a powerful anti-temperature group within the DPRK. Wen Tiren knew that he had offended many people in the court over the years. As long as someone came forward, people would definitely attack him. What's more, behind him are the two major political forces in the government and the opposition.

Zhou Yanru is not a member of the Donglin Party, but he has a deep connection with the Donglin Party. He is a disciple of Donglin Party leader Ye Xianggao. Although he had offended Donglin because of Qian Qianyi, he prevented Chongzhen from appointing Wang Zhichen and others who were implicated in the eunuch party's crimes after he took charge of the cabinet. He also used the opportunity of presiding over the examination to promote people from the Donglin Party and Fushe. ——Including Tongtian Sect advocate Pu in "Loudong Two Zhangs".

After losing power and returning to his hometown, Zhou Yanru seemed to be living a secluded life living in the mountains and rivers and retreating to the forest. In fact, his relationship with the Donglin Party and Fushe became even closer. This is why the Donglin Party and Fushe tried their best to promote Zhou Yanru's resurrection, because although Zhou Yanru was not Donglin, he was better than Donglin, and he had impeached Qian Qianyi and Qian Longxi, important members of the Donglin Party It is more confusing and can easily gain Chongzhen's trust.

"This Master Tongtian's methods are really powerful!" Wen Tiren thought to himself. He didn't care too much about the Donglin Party, because after several major events in the early years of Chongzhen, especially after the Yuan Chonghuan incident, the emperor was very taboo about "forming parties" and was very wary of the Donglin Party members. He consciously Exclude the Donglin Party from entering the core of power. However, the "Fushe" known as "Little Donglin" has gradually become a trend due to Zhou Yanru's deliberate support in the past few years, and now it is a powerful force in the court. Although they have no spokesperson to enter the center, their influence has spread throughout the capital and local areas.

Zhang Pu planned Zhou Yanru's revival, and his ambition was self-evident. Moreover, with him as the thread, even Qian Qianyi, who Zhou Yanru had offended in the past, has now joined the plan for his comeback. Naturally, this kind of support is not without cost. It is very likely that Zhou Yanru has promised to help him come back to life once he comes back to life. The imperial court—maybe he will be admitted to the cabinet for the second time.

Compared with Zhou Yanru, who was somewhat infamous, Qian Qianyi was a much greater threat. His reputation was much better than Zhou Yanru, and he was also a great figure in the literary world and one of the leaders of Donglin. Once he resurrects, he will inevitably unite with Zhou Yanru to deal with him. You must know that he was trying to kill him in the first place...