Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 98
Zhu Youxiao's imperial decree was issued so fast that the cabinet was caught off guard.

"Oh, troubled times..."

In the Wenhua Palace, Fang Congzhe, the chief assistant of the cabinet, knew the storm was coming when he received the imperial decree.

Sure enough, before he and Sun Ruyou had a discussion, the officials of the Donglin Party in the Wenhua Palace gathered together in celebration, without any shyness.

From several consecutive imperial edicts, it is not difficult to see that the emperor meant that the Jingcha mainly targeted Jiangnan and Zhejiang, and secondarily involved Shandong.

Therefore, as an official of the Chu Party, although he is in an alliance with the Zhejiang Party in name, he looks like he is watching a show, and all the officials of the Zhejiang Party are frowning.

Among the officials of the Qi Party, Qi Shijiao, the royal censor of Youqian, who is over sixty years old, has a sad expression on his face.

As Qi Shijiao's disciple of Fang Congzhe of the Zhejiang Party, and the leader of the Qi Party, it is impossible for the Donglin Party to let him go in the Jingcha this time.

He was still worried about this, and the Qi Party officials next to him were also full of worries.

The only ones who were happy were the Donglin Party officials headed by the cabinet deputy Liu Yixiu.

"Jing Wen, what should we do?"

Fang Congzhe walked to Sun Ruyou's side, and the two of them frowned more and more tightly as they looked at Liu Yixiu, Zuo Guangdou and others who were a dozen steps away.

"Long live is suddenly so strict with Jiangnan, it must be something big happened to Jiangnan."

Sun Ruyou reacted quickly, and so did Fang Congzhe, he hurriedly said:
"If there is an accident in Jiangnan, then this year, only the Huaibei Great Hunger deserves attention."

The conversation between the two fully demonstrated a kind of helplessness in the workplace and officialdom.

To put it bluntly, the people above can sit in the position, in addition to personal ability, there is also the foil of the people below.

Only when the people below are stable enough can the positions of the people above be more stable.

Even in the workplace of later generations, if the middle management does something, the upper management may not be able to clearly understand everything.

Even his own direct descendants would sometimes cause big troubles to their superiors because of a trivial matter.

Right now, Huaibei has taught Fang Congzhe and Sun Ruyou a lesson.

They didn't even know that the situation in Huaibei was so serious, and they didn't even know that they were tricked by Zhejiang party officials in Jiangnan.

"We must send people to Nanzhili immediately, and we must find out what happened, otherwise we will only end up being captured." Sun Ruyou said nervously:
"Only by understanding the matter and knowing the relationship of the matter can we deal with Donglin's counterattack."

"I'll do it now!" Hearing this, Yao Zongwen hurried out of the Wenhua Palace, and Liu Yixiu saw this scene clearly.

After seeing it, Liu Yixiu said to Zuo Guangdou:
"I asked the inner court about this matter, and I heard that it happened after a Jin Yiwei under His Royal Highness entered the palace."

"In addition, Wansui also adjusted Wenru (Yang Lian's name), so this matter must have been caused by His Royal Highness, and Wenru must know a lot of things."

"According to his personality, I'm afraid he is already on his way back to Beijing."

"Tomorrow morning, if Wen Ru can come, you can ask him carefully to see if you can catch this group of township party members!"

"Well, I know." Zuo Guangdou was very handsome, although he was nearly forty-five years old, but the one-foot beard made him look young.

His answer was very rigid, as was his character.

Seeing this, Liu Yixiu continued to explain to the Donglin officials around:
"The revision of the Jingchao will inevitably be brought up by the court tomorrow. At that time, many parties and factions will inevitably attack. The officials who will go to the court tomorrow must prepare early."

"It's okay for me to wait, but most people have different opinions on the revision of the Jingchao, and it is difficult to unify." Yuan Huazhong, the censor, frowned, and this also revealed the internal problems of the Donglin Party.

Since it is not a township party and has no unified interests, the unified opinions are only to let Daming move in a better direction, so everyone has different backgrounds and different political opinions.

For example, Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, etc., are basically rich and poor peasants, while Hui Shiyang, Qian Qianyi, Gao Panlong, etc. are behind the gentry who are entrenched in the prefectures and counties and are scholar-bureaucrats.

Veteran ministers like Liu Yixiu are backed by country gentry entrenched in the countryside.

Standing on different positions, it is difficult to unify political views.

In addition, the organization is loose, so many times the Donglin Party can quarrel within itself.

What Yuan Huazhong put forward can be said to be the fatal point of the officials of the Donglin faction, and the reason why they were later attacked by the eunuch party formed by the three parties of Qi, Chu and Zhejiang under Wei Zhongxian was also because of this point.

"This time we occupy Dayi, Long Live and His Highness the Fifth Highness are also on our side, even if there are differences of opinion, we can still make a decision on the Jingchao!" Liu Yixiu frowned and said:

"Even if the other township parties disagree, as long as we insist, we will definitely be able to change the Jingcha system, sweep these corrupt officials out of the officialdom, and restore the prosperity of the world!"

"That's right!"

"It should be so!"

"Eliminate them so that the people of the world can live and work in peace and contentment."

After Liu Yixiu finished speaking, a group of Donglin officials immediately joined in, but among them, how many people can think about the people like Zuo Guangdou, Yang Lian, Liu Yixiu, Gao Panlong and others? Never know.

No matter how the times change, there will never be a shortage of speculators, and the nature of speculators is greedy.

When the speculation is successful, their greedy nature will be released slowly, and eventually they will be more greedy than the corrupt officials.

Therefore, after seeing that he had almost united the people, Liu Yixiu was relieved, and then heard hurried footsteps.

He looked at the door, and saw a group of people walking into the Wenhua Hall in a dense manner. After glancing at Liu Yixiu and his group of Donglin Party members, he walked into the side hall of Fang Congzhe and others.

"Xuan Dang and Kun Dang are here."

Zuo Guangdou was calm, while Qi Shijiao and others from Qi Dang saw the people from Xuan Dang and Kun Dang, and led them into the side hall.

Their behavior made Liu Yixiu and others frown, and after a while, a person walked out of the hall, went to the crowd of the Chu party, and called Ying Zhen, the leader of the Chu party, the young official of Taichang Temple, into the hall.

However, how to deal with matters like Jingcha will definitely not be discussed in the Wenhua Palace. They should only discuss a time and place, and then everyone walked out.

After they all left, Zuo Guangdou suddenly said:

"I'm afraid this group of people will unite to resist Long Live's intention to revise Jingcha."

"Resist it!" Liu Yixiu snorted coldly:

"As long as we insist, if Long Live really wants to revise the period of Jingcha, we will directly impeach Fang Congzhe, Sun Ruyou and others."

"Impeach them, and when I take power, I will be able to bring peace to the world."

"But..." At this point, Liu Yixiu said again:
"These township parties are powerful, so we must be irresistible. We must invite back Zhao Mengbai, Gu Boqin, Xia Zhengfu, Zhou Jihou, Yuan Liqing and others."

The people Liu Yixiu mentioned were Zhao Nanxing, Gu Dazhang, Xia Jiayu, Zhou Zongjian, Yuan Keli and others.

Among them, Yuan Keli is probably the most famous in the eyes of later generations.

After all, Yuan Keli established the defense lines of Dongjiang Town and Southern Liaoning by himself, and when he was in charge of Shandong and Liao affairs, it can be said that they were as solid as gold.

In particular, instigating against Liu Aita and establishing the defense line in southern Liaoning can be said to have restrained Houjin's great energy.

As for the others, they were well-known clean and honest officials during the Wanli Dynasty.

However, it was Zhao Nanxing who attracted the most attention.

At the beginning, he relied on his own strength to stir up the Zhejiang Party into muddy water.

At this time, members of the Donglin Party like Sun Chengzong were not ranked among the internal talents of the Donglin Party.

It's a pity that in history, most of these people were persecuted to death by the Qi, Chu, Zhejiang, Xuan, and Kun parties who were attached to Wei Zhongxian and were known as the Eunuch Party.

In the end, the Donglin Party without this group of people has completely become a master of talking. During the Chongzhen period, there were only a few capable ministers such as Yuan Keli, Sun Chengzong, Li Banghua, Xu Guangqi, Ni Yuanlu, and Fan Jingwen.

In Nanming, only Qian Qianyi and other people without political means were left among the 309 Donglin party members.

Pushing people with mediocre talents to the stage is tantamount to accelerating the collapse of a dynasty.

But these are all things to say later, and now Liu Yixiu's words have been praised by all Donglin Party members immediately.

"In the early years, Fang Congzhe was the head and assistant, and used the Jingcha to exclude people with lofty ideals like us. Now that the feng shui is turning, it is time for us to punish them!"

Zuo Guangdou was arrogant, and Yuan Huazhong also said:

"The most urgent thing to delay right now is to implement the Beijing inspection first. As long as the Beijing inspection is implemented, the Jiangnan affairs can be used to make a big fuss."

"As long as the Kun Party and Xuan Party are cut off, the Qi Party, Zhejiang Party, and Chu Party will all be swept out of court!"

"That's right!" The people next to him also echoed.

At this moment, it seemed that all other township party officials who were not from the Donglin Party had become enemies of the Donglin Party.

This is the most failed political policy of the Donglin Party, the party unites against dissent...

As long as the opinion does not match with his own, he is a courtier who will harm the country and the people!
Therefore, at this point in the discussion, all the officials of the Donglin Party chatted enthusiastically.

While they were talking all night, all kinds of other township parties left the Wenhua Palace one after another, and the only ones left in the Wenhua Palace were officials with no party or affiliation, and officials from the Donglin Party who were in full swing.

As for all the officials who left, they went to Sun Ruyou's mansion in the capital one after another.

In the pitch-dark capital of Shuntianfu, soldiers and horses from the five cities patrolled the streets, and watchmen beat gongs from time to time.

Lanterns were lit in many squares and cities, and it seemed that even though there was a curfew, they were still prosperous.

But under this prosperity, there is hidden danger enough to destroy the country...

In the main hall of a mansion in Nanxunfang, there were seven or six people sitting on the main seat as if they were facing court, and in front of them there were more than two hundred people, spreading all the way to the outside of the main hall.

Sun Ruyou, the leader of the Zhejiang Party, a cabinet minister, and a scholar of Dongge University, sits in the middle of the six people. On his left is Fang Congzhe, the chief assistant of the cabinet.

On the right is the leader of the Qi Party, Fang Congzhe's disciple Qi Shijiao, Youqian Du Yushi of the Duchayuan.

The three of them were the leader of the Chu Party, Ying Zhen, the Shaoqing official of Taichang Temple, Gu Tianjun, the head of the Kun Party, and Zuo Chunfang, Zuo Yude, Tang Binyin of the Xuan Party.

In this way, a huge alliance headed by six people and covering [-]% of the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty was revealed.

Those who can enter the main hall are all officials above the seventh grade of Beijing officials, which shows the great power of these five major parties.

However, the Donglin Party wanted to take charge of the Jingcha affairs, but these five major parties were afraid. It is not difficult to see how terrifying the Jingcha was in the late Ming Dynasty.

Looking at the people in the main hall, Sun Ruyou knew that all the discussions were just those of the six leaders, so he looked at the other five people and said:
"If Liu Yixiu and others are allowed to become a matter of the Beijing inspection, I am afraid that there will be no one in ten who can be in the court."

Once a word is spoken, everyone is silent...

Jingcha of the Donglin Party advocated that most of the people here have seen it.

The Guisi Jingcha in March of the [-]st year of Wanli was presided over by Sun Yu, Shangshu of the Zhejiang Party, Li Shida, the censor of the Zuodu without the Party, and Zhao Nanxing, the doctor of the Donglin Party's Kaogong Division.

At that time, the strength of the Donglin Party was still very weak, but this time Jingcha and they were almost the main impeachment force. The three parties of Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang were all impeached and joined the same party, and a large number of ministers were dismissed and dismissed.

Yuan Keli, the censor of the Donglin Party, even angered Shen Yiguan, the chief assistant of the Zhejiang Party leader, and Shen Yiguan encouraged Emperor Wanli to dismiss Yuan Keli directly.

Such a move caused an uproar at the time.

But this is just the calm before the storm. The real highlight will be in the [-]rd year of Wanli.

At that time, Yang Shiqiao, a member of the Donglin Party, and Wen Chun, the censor of Zuodu, presided over the Yisi Jingcha. During this period, the "Pseudo-Chu King Case" broke out, forming a struggle between the two groups of Shen Yiguan of the Zhejiang Party and Shen Li of the Qingliu Party.

Shen Li took the opportunity to relegate the Zhejiang party officials, but Shen Yiguan simply put it down, saying that he was sick and went home behind closed doors. In the end, only Zhu Geng was left in the cabinet.

It is precisely because of this incident that Zhang Juzheng's Wanli fresh air was destroyed and began to go downhill.

During the struggle between the Zhejiang Party and the Qingliu Party, the Donglin Party grew rapidly, which attracted the attention of the Zhejiang Party.

Therefore, during the Xinhai Jingcha period in the thirty-ninth year of Wanli, officials from the Zhejiang Party, the Qi Party, and the Chu Party planned to overthrow Donglin, but fortunately they were stopped by You Yulang Wang Tu of the Ministry of Officials.

During this period, the party struggles in the imperial court formed a dispute between the southern party and the northern party, and they attacked each other. Xu Zhaokui, the censor of Gyeonggi Province, said: "Where the Donglin is, it will be shaken for a while, and the north and the south will attack each other, and the corner will win the party."

The Donglin Party was continuously suppressed, and under the suppression of the three parties of Qi, Chu and Zhejiang, a political atmosphere of unity and dissent was also formed.

In the end, in the [-]th year of Wanli, Ding Sijingcha, Qi Shijiao and Zhou Yongchun of the Qi Party, Ying Zhen and Wu Liangsi of the Chu Party, Yao Yunwen of the Zhejiang Party, Liu Tingyuan and other three parties aggressively expelled the Donglin Party members. .

It is only three years since Ding Sijing inspected, how strong the Donglin Party's desire for revenge is, the officials of the three parties have become very clear after discussions.

Therefore, it is necessary to reject the imperial decree of the emperor to revise the deadline of the Jingcha, and it is even more important to fight back against the Donglin Party in the next few years!
Thinking of this, Sun Ruyou continued:
"Like Xinhai Jingcha, as long as I stand together with the enemy, I will definitely not let Donglin Chengchen succeed!"

"It's easy to say, but is it really so?" Suddenly, Gu Tianjun from the Kun Party said with a flat expression:
"Long live to investigate ahead of time, and focus on attacking Nanzhili. What's the reason?"

Gu Tianjun asked a key question. At this time, the officials of the Xuan Party, Zhejiang Party and Qi Party were a little timid.

Ying Zhen, the leader of the Chu Party who had nothing to do with himself, also snorted coldly:

"Although it is an alliance, there are some things that some people do not be authentic."

The words of Guan Yingzhen and Gu Tianjun directly point to the Zhejiang Party, and the reason is even simpler.

The taxation of the Ming Dynasty is mainly the collection of land taxes, followed by miscellaneous items.

Ying Zhen, an official of the Chu Party, is attached to the Sichuan Party, and the Sichuan Party, the Chu Party, and the Henan Township Party are the main places where food is cultivated.

Taxes from Sichuan and Huguang are paid in full every year and shipped to the south of the Yangtze River, and then to the capital in the north.

However, Zhejiang party officials always withhold taxes from the two provinces, make profits, and then transport them to the north.

The land taxes of the two provinces were handed over three million shi every year, and more than a hundred thousand taels of miscellaneous items. As a result, after they arrived in Nanjing, they were directly withheld by the Zhejiang Party, and only [-]% of them were handed over.

It is equivalent to saying that Zhejiang Party officials ate [-]% of the taxes that the Chu Party should have paid. In the end, the taxes were insufficient, and the Chu Party was forced to default on taxes.

This kind of accumulation over the years has become a considerable sum, and the Chu party is even more angry.

If it is not the Donglin Party, the Chu Party should strangle the Zhejiang Party the most. Therefore, the Chu Party and the Zhejiang Party often impeach each other on small matters, and only when they face Donglin will they unanimously speak out.

Compared with the Chu Party, the Kun Party is even worse.

As a major taxation province, Nanzhili has always accounted for a quarter of Daming's taxation and paid six million shi for grain every year. Among them, Suzhou alone paid nearly two million shi, accounting for almost one-tenth of Ming's land tax.

The establishment of the Kunming Party, to put it bluntly, is to reduce the burden on landlords big and small in Suzhou, and the Zhejiang Party has been resisting taxes, which is basically against the Kunming Party.

Taxes are fixed. Since Suzhou needs to pay less taxes, other places need to pay more.

But the Zhejiang Party not only refused to hand over, but also sheltered the small township party below, so that the Kunming Party became a clown.

Therefore, it is right for Guan Yingzhen and Gu Tianjun to have grievances. If there is no grievance, wouldn't they be dead?
Therefore, Sun Ruyou also understands the grievances of the two, but as the leader elected by the Zhejiang party gentry, squires, officials, and merchants, it is impossible to harm the interests of the Zhejiang people.

Therefore, he could only say: "The matter of seizure can be discussed. The most urgent thing to delay right now is to discuss how to reject the edict of Long Live."

"Reject? Discuss?" Gu Tianjun sneered:
"Don't Sun Gechen know who caused the incident in Huaibei this time?"

"Whoever provoked it, let him clean it up..." Tang Binyin of Xuandang also spoke suddenly, pointing the finger at Zhejiang Dang and Qi Dang.

But at this time, Fang Congzhe and Qi Dang Qi Shijiao did not hide it, but admitted generously:

"We have already inquired about the Huaibei famine this time. The crime of the Huaibei famine lies with the prefects of Xuzhou and Huai'an."

"We have asked them to release food quickly, and the local famine will be resolved soon."

"The famine can be solved, but what about the corpses? How many people died in the Huaibei famine? Do they dare to tell you?" Xuandang Tang Binyin asked loudly.

Although he was also an official from Southern Zhili, he also knew that if the Ming Dynasty fell, everything they had would be lost.

So when Xiong Tingbi was impeached, he also silently contributed, and officials in Fengyang and other places had already told him about the Huaibei incident.

While he was shocked, he hated the Qi Party and Zhejiang Party that caused this incident.

In his view, this is not a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster.

Moreover, because of this incident, the Donglin Party will be in power for the first time. It is hard to say what kind of bad results the Donglin Party will "feedback" based on the oppression experience of many of their parties against the Donglin Party.

"The prefect of Huai'an reported that [-] people died of famine in Huai'an..."

After a few seconds of silence, Sun Ruyou opened his mouth slowly, and this opening made everyone's hearts hang.

Is there really only so few people?
If there were only so few people, why did the emperor lose his temper and make so many adjustments?

"One thousand four hundred and sixty-four people? More than that..." Tang Binyin sarcastically said:
"I think there are about [-] people!"

"how can that be?"

"No way... [-]?"

"There are so many people, no wonder Wanzai is angry..."

Tang Binyin's words caused the whole main hall to boil, and [-] people died of starvation. It is no wonder that the emperor would be angry with such a disaster.

While everyone was boiling, they looked at Sun Ruyou one after another, but Sun Ruyou was still there, and said indifferently:

"In the sixth year of Wanli, the households in Huai'an Prefecture were [-], and the population was [-]."

"How many people died, you can know with a little calculation..."

Sun Ruyou's words made Baiguan's heart tremble.

Everyone knows that most of the household registrations in the late Ming Dynasty were copied from the old ones. If Huai'an Mansion had a population of [-] on paper, then the real population probably exceeded [-] million.

In this way, as long as some squires and gentry are asked to release some tenants, it is enough to make Huaibei area free of dead people on paper.

This approach is chilling, but it is the most effective and direct.

As for the hundreds of thousands of people who died?Are they human?It's just a lonely ghost after a stroke, as if this group of people has never appeared in Da Ming.

"Hmph!" Wen Yan and Tang Binyin were angry, but there was nothing they could do.

State affairs are very important, but if officials of the Xuan Party cannot stay, how can they handle state affairs?

"The officials of Huai'an Prefecture have already started to deal with the corpses of the local hungry people." Sun Ruyou continued immediately:
"When Yang Lian goes south, he will only see the scene of peace, and in Huaibei, there have never been any hungry people who died of starvation."

"The thing to do right now is to think about how to reject Wansui's imperial decree to revise Jingcha."

"It's easy to say the imperial decree, what about the autumn tax and additional money seized in Jiangnan?" Chu party official Ying Zhen continued to ask, but Sun Ruyou could only say:
"Cao Liang, Cao Yin, and Jiapai Yin will be escorted to the north soon, but it will take some time to get them together."

"Hand in as much?" Guan Yingzhen sarcastically said.

"We can discuss it next year, and subtract the extra money from Sichuan and Huguang." Sun Ruyou didn't answer directly, but used the extra money from next year to make a profit, but Guan Yingzhen said:
"I'm afraid I won't count at that time?"

Guan Yingzhen knew very well that the imperial court was short of silver, and Sichuan and Huguang had sent nearly half a million taels of additional silver.

"Why be aggressive?" Sun Ruyou was also annoyed by Guan Yingzhen's question.

"It's not that I'm aggressive, I think it should be you." Guan Yingzhen said:
"The increase in the field tax has already become unbearable for the people of the world. The increase in the field tax must be allocated to miscellaneous items!"

"That's right!" Kundang Gu Tianjun and Xuandang Tang Binyin echoed, only Qi Shijiao from Qidang hesitated.

If the previous ones can still be fooled, then now is the time to cut the flesh.

Thinking of this, Sun Ruyou only felt very tired, he looked at Fang Congzhe hesitantly, and after seeing the other party nodded, he said:

"Miscellaneous items are not levied, how about this, how about paying one cent more for Zhejiang's land tax next year, and half a cent less for other provinces?"

Sun Ruyou knew that miscellaneous items could not be collected, so he would rather pay one point more for the land tax, that is, one percent, than pay an extra point for miscellaneous items.

Although this is not considered cutting meat, after a year, the land tax plus other taxes will cost more than [-] taels more, which can be regarded as gaining the support of all parties.

"That's right." Chu party official Ying Zhen nodded, and other party leaders also echoed.

This is unimaginable, but for the sake of two hundred thousand taels, this group of people has been arguing so far.

But when the matter came to this point, the parties were considered to have unified their attitudes towards the emperor and the Donglin Party.

The matter of Jingcha must not be changed, and the Donglin Party will definitely not be in power.

With the Donglin Party in power, they will have no way out!

As soon as the matter was settled, everyone returned to the mansion one after another, and wrote various memorials overnight, all of which were memorials to reject the imperial decree.

Zou Shu flies like locusts, like a threatening sharp knife, about to stab out in the Chang Dynasty tomorrow...

　Tomorrow there should still be two chapters of 12 words, and the daily update time is 12 o'clock. If two chapters are updated, they will be published at 1 o'clock and [-] o'clock respectively.

　　Finally, thank you guys for your rewards and monthly tickets

　　
　
(End of this chapter)