Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Compared with Zhang Xianzhong's first suppression and then promotion, Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai at this time are proud of themselves.After Li Zicheng captured Luoyang, he appointed a surrendered Ming official as the head of Luoyang, and tried to establish a sense for the first time.Of course, in Zuo Liangyu's subsequent battle to recover Luoyang City, Luoyang City fell into the hands of the court again, and the official was also executed by Zuo Liangyu, but after all Li Zicheng began to take the initiative to establish political power.

At this time, the Li and Luo coalition forces were looking for a "capital" of their own regime.Li Zicheng first set his sights on Kaifeng City.However, during the siege of Kaifeng, the camp was repelled by the city defenders and the Runing army, so Li Zicheng focused on the backup target-Xiangyang.

But at this time, the coalition forces of Li and Luo could not occupy Xiangyang with peace of mind, because Fu Zonglong, the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi, led the commander-in-chief He Renlong and the deputy commander-in-chief Li Guoqi, and brought together the commander-in-chief Hu Dawei led by Yang Wenyue, the governor of Baoding. The army pursued closely, and Zuo Liangyu, who defeated Zhang Xianzhong's army, also joined the battle group, and the Runing army on the side was watching.

So Li and Luo's coalition forces began to use the fast fleeing that the peasant army was good at, and Fu Zonglong, the commander-in-chief of the Ming army, saw that the peasant army was leaving without a fight, and mistook it for a show of cowardice, so he led the army to chase after him.

But at this time, the Jiangnan Shilin circle was in a state of turmoil. They seemed to have lost sight of the war situation in the world, and started a promotion campaign, wanting to push Zhou Yanru, the former chief assistant who returned to his hometown for leisure, and the spokesperson of the Donglin Party, to the top again. in the auxiliary position.

To be honest, sometimes I have to admire Emperor Chongzhen's willpower and psychological endurance.Not to mention the size of his ability to govern the country, just think about it, if it is an ordinary person, if he encounters the deteriorating national conditions for more than ten years, he may have already lost his life and gave up on himself.But Emperor Chongzhen was still able to deal with state affairs with painstaking efforts.Judging from his performance, he is really a role model among emperors!

So the current Emperor Chongzhen is the same as before. After being stimulated, he thought of cheering up.So he first felt Sasuke's mediocrity and powerlessness.

On February 24, Emperor Chongzhen summoned his courtiers while sick.In the Dongnuan Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace, he said weakly to the courtiers: "I have been in the world for 14 years. The country is full of troubles and famines. Everyone eats each other. It is really pitiful. Recently, the bandits captured Luoyang. King Fu was murdered. Even my own uncle can’t be saved, it’s all due to my lack of morality, I’m so ashamed that I’m dying!”

As he spoke, Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help crying, and the more he cried, the more he felt sad.In the end, he lost his voice and cried out, tearing up and down.This was the first time that he openly broke down in tears when summoning courtiers.And started crying.From then on, it often happened that he cried and wiped his tears in front of his officials.

But the courtiers saw that the emperor was seriously ill because of worrying about the country, and exchanged tears because of sadness.In order to comfort the emperor, the first assistant Fan Fucui just said repeatedly: "This is the number of qi, the number of qi!"

Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to reply to him very unhappy: "This can't be said to be a matter of luck. It is a matter of fate. It must be restored by manpower." The ministers then remained silent for an infinite extension.

It's no wonder that Emperor Chongzhen was dissatisfied with such a minister who only cried with him and didn't speak.Therefore, he wants to change phases again.

Since Wen Tiren returned to his hometown, the assistant ministers have changed several times.The chief assistant also used four people, Zhang Zhifa, Liu Yuliang, Xue Guoguan, and Fan Fucui, but none of them were handy, let alone Wang Zuozhi, who is a man who governs the country.

Emperor Chongzhen's original intention was to let Yang Sichang be the chief assistant, but in order to suppress the banditry, he had to be sent out of the capital to supervise the division, and eventually his reputation was ruined.He felt sorry for Yang Sichang, but also for himself, because after careful consideration, he couldn't find a single assistant among the courtiers that he could trust.

When the country is in trouble, he thinks about his loyal ministers, so he recalled the ministers who had served by his side.Han Yu, Sun Chengzong, and Wen Tiren, who were more capable, are all dead. It seems that only the former chief assistant Zhou Yanru, who was once particularly appreciated by him, is not satisfactory.It seems that for the sake of this dilapidated country, Zhou Yanru can only be reappointed.

Just when Emperor Chongzhen was having a lot of trouble choosing a new chief assistant, a powerful "outsider activity group" was also busy with Zhou Yanru's recovery.

The establishment and growth process of Fushe will not be described in detail. If you are interested, you can refer to historical materials.We only need to know that at this time, Fushe had already controlled the scientific research in the Jiangnan area, and it was difficult for people who were not Fushe to be elected.Moreover, Fushe has also intervened in the appointment of officials in the officialdom.

With the increasing power and influence of Fushe, the prestige of Zhang Pu, the leader of Fushe, and his main assistants is also at the height of the sky, and they look a little arrogant.Moreover, most of them were born in aristocratic families in the south of the Yangtze River, and they have inextricably linked with the Donglin Party members. In addition, they are mostly consistent with Donglin in terms of moral articles. Therefore, in terms of political stance, Fushe has always been Donglin. Lin's staunch supporter.Many of the Fushe members are descendants of the famous Donglin party members.

Fushe controlled the election in the south of the Yangtze River, and almost controlled the fate of the scholars. Naturally, it benefited a lot from insiders, but it also aroused the hatred of scholars outside the society; The opponents of Donglin in the bureaucracy looked sideways at them.Therefore, since the early years of Chongzhen, incidents of attacking the restoration of the society have occurred frequently, and in the ninth or ten years of Chongzhen, such attacks have formed a wave.

Feeling threatened, it also made the core members of Fushe more aware of the importance and urgency of participating in politics and developing political power.After that, they formed a party to interfere in politics, and their activities to create public opinion became more active.And 14 years before Chongzhen, they also did two remarkable events.

One is that in July of the 11th year of Chongzhen, a group of young people in the Fushe published a "Liudu Prevention of Chaos Public Exposure" in Nanjing to crusade against the eunuch party member Ruan Dacheng.

It's funny that Ruan Dacheng has always been very fond of these people in Fushe.For example: He took the initiative to match Hou Fangyu, one of the four princes of Fushe, with Li Xiangjun, a famous Jiangnan prostitute, and invited the princes of Fushe to drink and watch plays at home.But the young men of Fushe drank wine and watched the play, but they sarcastically scolded Ruan Dacheng face to face.Moreover, he raised his vigilance because of this, thinking that Ruan Dacheng's actions were obviously preparations for overturning the case.

Ruan Dacheng, on the other hand, was in a state of embarrassment. On the one hand, he also wrote a posting "Remuneration and False Words" as an answer, and on the other hand, he asked people to explain to the princes of Fushe to plead for mercy. Naturally, all he received was slander.Under such an insult, Ruan Dacheng had the heart to befriend Wu Shigong, a warrior.

Another major activity carried out by Fushe was not as impressive and exciting as the attack on Ruan Dacheng, but it had a more direct and far-reaching impact on court politics.In the 13th year of Chongzhen, the Fushe people worked closely with the Donglin party members in the court to remove Xue Guoguan, the chief assistant of the cabinet.

Judging from the faction system in the DPRK, Xue Guoguan belongs to the type of people who openly oppose the Donglin Party members.It was precisely because he dared to openly confront Donglin that he was recommended by Wen Tiren and appreciated by Emperor Chongzhen.The members of the Donglin Party are of course very dissatisfied with the fact that there is such an opposing Shoufu Dangguo, and the people in Fushe also feel very depressed when they are linked.

At this time, Xue Guoguan lost the favor of Emperor Chongzhen because of Wuqinghou Li Guorui's donation to the treasury and the death of the five emperor's sons, and his status was in jeopardy. The anti-Xue movement.

This activity, mainly organized by Fushe members, is different from the behavior of Donglin party members in the court in the past. Donglin prides himself on integrity, even when attacking political opponents, he generally goes straight to the public and even denounces them in front of the imperial court. But Wu Changshi would rather take the feminine path.Wu Changshi tried his best to make friends with the eunuchs in the palace and the leaders of Dongchang. He said many good things and gave many generous gifts.

Dongchang was not very interested in Xue Guoguan at first, but once, when Emperor Chongzhen asked about the corruption of courtiers, Xue Guoguan once said to Emperor Chongzhen: "If the supervisors of Dongchang and Jinyiwei are competent, how dare the courtiers act so recklessly?" ?”

At this time, Wang Dehua, the eunuch of Governor Dongchang who was standing aside, broke out in a cold sweat and drenched his clothes.However, Emperor Chongzhen did not pursue the director of Dongchang for this, but Dongchang has since recorded Xue Guoguan's hatred, always looking for opportunities to retaliate.

With Fushe giving money and ideas, and Dongchang copying knives, you can understand Xue Guoguan's fate.So Emperor Chongzhen saw the "evidence" of Xue Guoguan forming a party and accepting bribes.And Emperor Chongzhen could never forgive the courtiers for their corruption and clique formation, and was even more annoyed by the actions of the chief assistant. Coupled with the old account of Aizi's death, he finally could no longer tolerate Xue Guoguan staying by his side as the chief assistant. .

After some black-box operations, Emperor Chongzhen finally ordered Xue Guoguan to retire and go home.But the people in Fushe, the eunuchs of Dongchang, and Emperor Chongzhen himself did not let it go, and they still wanted to catch the dog in the water and beat him hard.

On the night of the eighth day of August, Xue Guoguan, who had been arrested and taken to the capital, had already fallen asleep, when the Jinyiwei officials and warriors who delivered the decree came suddenly.When he saw that the emissaries were all wearing red robes, he was shocked. He couldn't find his cap in a panic, so he had to put a servant's cap on his head to receive the order.

When Xue Guoguan heard the imperial decree announcing that he would commit suicide, he fell on the ground and couldn't get up anymore, but muttered drowsily: "Kill me when it's Wu Chang, kill me when it's Wu Chang!" There was no record of family registration in the book, and he said to the edict passer-by: "I'm so lucky, if I don't have my family name, how would I know my poverty?" Then he had no choice but to hang himself on the roof beam. (To be continued..)