Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Beijing City, inside the Forbidden City.

Emperor Chongzhen leaned on the couch with his back leaning against the high cushions. His face was livid and sick, and he listened carefully to the reports of the officials and eunuchs from the Ministry of Rites, Supervisor of Rituals, Ministry of Industry and Internal Officials.

"...The Ministry of Etiquette has drawn up the posthumous title of the imperial concubine: Gongshu, Duanhui, Jinghuai, the imperial concubine..."

"...The mausoleum of the imperial concubine and empress has been inspected by Qin Tian, ​​and it is located at Yinquan Mountain in Changping Imperial Mausoleum...."

……

After entering the summer, Concubine Tian Guifei, whom Emperor Chongzhen had always loved, died of illness, which caused Emperor Chongzhen great grief.Concubine Tian Gui was originally thin and weak. Since the death of her youngest son, King Mourning Ling, she has been depressed and always sick.

However, Emperor Chongzhen's favorite woman was Concubine Tian Guifei, so he was very concerned about her illness. He not only ordered the imperial doctor in the palace to treat her carefully, but also personally prayed respectfully and blessed her in front of the gods in various temples in the palace.But Tian Guifei's illness is still getting worse day by day.

A few days ago, Emperor Chongzhen was laying incense in a hall to pray for Concubine Tian Gui, when news suddenly came from Chengqian Palace that the situation of the empress was not good.But when Emperor Chongzhen hurried to Chengqian Palace, Concubine Tian Gui had already died, and the two of them didn't even have time to make the final eternal farewell.

Emperor Chongzhen looked at the body of his concubine who had been with him for more than ten years, and couldn't help crying loudly, turning his mourning for Concubine Tian and the grievances and resentments suppressed in his heart for many years into tears.

The extreme grief made Emperor Chongzhen suffer another serious illness.However, after three days of stopping court in accordance with the etiquette, he still forced himself to resume normal government affairs activities.First of all, he just wanted to deal with Concubine Tian Gui's funeral.

Looking secretly at Emperor Chongzhen with half-closed eyes, the officials and eunuchs who gave the performance also lowered their volumes.They all knew that since the beginning of this year, a series of bad news had made Emperor Chongzhen seriously ill several times.And the temper is getting worse and worse, so these officials and eunuchs are afraid that they will do something wrong at this time, and they will be caught and punished by Emperor Chongzhen.

"The old slave has also visited the mausoleum of the imperial concubine and the empress with his own eyes. The specifications of the mausoleum, the tomb and the cemetery are quite spacious and exquisite, which does not disgrace the identity of the imperial concubine. This time, I also used 18 taels of silver, of which... ..."

While reporting to Emperor Chongzhen, Wang Chengen continued to observe the expression of Emperor Chongzhen.He secretly sighed in his heart, it happened that the leak in the house happened to rain all night, so it was just a misfortune for his own emperor's family.A few days ago, I got very angry because of Huitui, which is really "internal and external troubles"!

Before He Fengsheng left the cabinet, Xie Sheng, one of the academicians, had already been dismissed for leaking the secrets of the peace talks with the Qing Dynasty, and Wei Zhaocheng and Zhang Sizhi also quit because of illness.Among the cabinet ministers, only Zhou Yanru and Chen Yan, the chief assistant, were actually left to handle affairs.

So in May, Zhou Yanru and Chen Yan asked for a few more cabinet members.And Emperor Chongzhen, who was busy with the reform and reform, followed the good example.The request will be pushed by the courtiers in accordance with the old practice.However, as it has happened many times in the past, this time the conference has launched yet another big storm.

The promotion of this meeting was presided over by Li Rixuan, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, and for the first time, 13 people including Jiang Dejing, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, were elected.But Emperor Chongzhen thought that there were too few people to choose, and he had little choice, so he asked his courtiers to choose a few more people.Obviously, Emperor Chongzhen was dissatisfied with the candidate proposed by the Ministry of Officials.

So I will push and add ten more people.Among them were Fang Kezhuang, the censor of the vice capital, Song Mei, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, and Zhang Sanmo, the minister of Dali Temple.Although it was very difficult to become a prime minister during the Chongzhen period, and most people did not end well, many ministers in the court still coveted the great honor of being among the prime ministers. Fewer people are active for themselves or for others.

So after some activities.The ministers who were finally listed in the two elections were naturally happy, while those who spent money and effort but were still not nominated were outraged.As a result, some people created rumors to instigate public opinion; some people had a grudge against the person who was elected, so they also wanted to complain if they wanted to.

So just like every time after the cabinet was pushed, there was a lot of talk in the court, and the rumors about selfishness and fraud in the process of pushing the meeting spread like wildfire, some of which were true, some were false, and some were half-truths and half-false. The spies who passed through the factory guards soon passed into the palace and reached the ears of Emperor Chongzhen.

The most rumored ones are Fang Kezhuang, Song Mei, and Zhang Sanmo who were elected later, and these three belong to the Donglin faction, and usually have many political opponents, so some people say that this time it will be all promoted by these three people Secretly acting as an envoy, offering and accepting bribes, connecting joints, and all kinds of illegal activities.

And this kind of statement is not completely unfounded, Song Mei has indeed invited people to carry out activities under the brand of chief assistant Zhou Yanru.It happened that the second assistant Chen Yan asked Fang Kezhuang for help because of a relative's promotion, but Fang Kezhuang didn't buy his account, so he hated Fang Kezhuang deeply.

Once, when Emperor Chongzhen visited Xiyuan (now Zhongnanhai and Beihai), he summoned his ministers, but Zhou Yanru happened to be absent due to illness, so Chen Yan took the opportunity to attack the shortcomings of being able to push.There is information from the factory guards inside, and there are ministers from the auxiliary ministers outside, so Emperor Chongzhen is convinced that this push is another conspiracy to form a party for personal gain.

Although since the 15th year of Chongzhen, Emperor Chongzhen has shown a rare good temper and a very gentle attitude towards courtiers. He is also quite tolerant and benevolent when dealing with Xie Sheng's leak and Hong Chengchou's defection to the enemy.But his temper is good or bad is regular.

Whenever Emperor Chongzhen had a more positive mentality and wanted to cheer up, he would generally appear more generous than usual, and he would be more able to listen to different opinions.But this kind of mentality is difficult to maintain for a long time. When the aggressiveness is fruitless and the situation is getting worse and worse, he will change from being aggressive to depressed, breaking the pot and breaking the pot, and the coldness accumulated in the bottom of his heart will radiate again.

However, nearly half a year of fruitless striving for strength and nearly half a year of tolerance have exceeded his psychological limit. Therefore, in this midsummer season, Emperor Chongzhen took advantage of this meeting to push the fraudulent incident, and expressed his disappointment in state affairs and his courtiers. The resentment turned into a stream of anger together, and all poured out along with the high temperature and scorching heat.

On June [-]th, Emperor Chongzhen suffered from a fever due to poisonous fire attacking his heart, but he still lay sick on the bed and summoned all the elected personnel in the Dezheng Hall to talk separately.

Because of prejudices against Fang Kezhuang, Song Mei and Zhang Sanmo, the atmosphere of Zhaodushi was very tense.Song Mei came here prepared, and talked to the emperor about the situation on the nine frontiers and the strategy of defending against the enemy, but was reprimanded by Emperor Chongzhen for exaggeration and impetuosity.That night, a decree came out from the palace to appoint Jiang Dezhen, Huang Jingfang, and Wu Chen as Ministers of the Ministry of Rites and Bachelors of Dongge University, and it was the first time for these three people to be nominated.It can be seen from this that there is no one in the hands of Emperor Chongzhen at this time.

While promulgating the imperial decree, the imperial decree also accused the official department of arbitrarily promoting many people in the meeting, and asked the official department to understand the response.However, in the reply, the Ministry of Officials insisted that they acted impartially according to the rules, and that they followed the emperor's will as for recommending too many.And this is a bit of a short-cut meaning, which aroused the anger of Emperor Chongzhen.

On the 23rd, when Emperor Chongzhen's condition improved slightly, he summoned the cabinet and ministers again on the Zhongzuomen platform.Perhaps in order to show his sons the insidiousness and cunning of the courtiers, he specially brought the prince and his other two sons King Ding and King Yong with him when he summoned him this time.

During the summons, Emperor Chongzhen summoned Li Rixuan, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, to him, and said in a stern voice: "Employing people is the key to governing the country. If the employment is improper, the Ministry of Officials cannot escape responsibility. Today the world is in turmoil, and the governors and governors in various places are constantly getting easier. How can there be any hope of peace? I remember that two years ago, I told the ministers that some people would rather betray their father than their personal friendship, and would rather compromise their official duties than their friendship. Now it is still like this, only talking about affection, how can it help? The former will reject the cabinet Minister, how important is it, how can you praise it indiscriminately and arbitrarily?"

But Li Rixuan was very stubborn and refused to admit that there was any favoritism.So Emperor Chongzhen summoned Zhang Zhengchen and Henan Taoist censor Zhang Xuan to blame all the officials who were responsible for the meeting, and the two were equally unyielding.Li Rixuan also said: "The minister has served the emperor for 13 years, and he is pure and honest. If there is a trace of favoritism and betrayal of the public, all the civil and military ministers are here today. The emperor can ask one by one, and the courtiers can participate in the performance one by one." The Emperor Chongzhen was speechless for a while. can speak.

After a long silence, Emperor Chongzhen ordered Jin Yiwei to arrest Li Rixuan, Zhang Zhengchen, Zhang Xuan, Fang Kezhuang, Song Mei, and Zhang Sanmo and send them to the Ministry of Criminal Justice for questioning.The six people were punished soon, three people including Li Rixuan were garrisoned at the border, and three people including Fang Kezhuang were dismissed from their posts as civilians.

Since Emperor Chongzhen came to the throne, there have been so many incidents of pushing cabinet ministers, and the basic pattern of each time is the same, but he obviously has not summed up any useful experience and lessons from them.Every time, the ministers fought against each other, and every time he pretended to be clever and broke the cronies, but in the end he inevitably fell into the trap of other cronies.

However, after each disturbance, the courtiers' clique formation and selfishness did not restrain a little, but the estrangement and implicit hostility between the monarch and his ministers deepened.In the past six months of reformation, his temper had just improved a bit, but this time he reverted to his old ways, and the little enthusiasm that had just been stirred up in people's hearts after several cheers also cooled down.

Under such circumstances, Emperor Chongzhen's favorite concubine Tian Gui died again. How could this not make his mood worse?

But when Wang Chengen carefully reported everything, Emperor Chongzhen remained silent.The hall was completely quiet, and no one dared to make even the slightest sound to offend Emperor Chongzhen.

After a while, Emperor Chongzhen seemed to wake up from a dream.He raised his head abruptly, and said, "Are you ready? Mmmm! Everything is done well. And... Also, pass on my will: choose beautiful women from the people for me!"

"Ah!?" There was an exclamation in the hall. (To be continued..)