Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 345
On July 20th of the [-]th year of Chongzhen, Ouyang Dashangshu impeached Fan Jingwen, a scholar of the Jianji Temple, and listed twenty crimes, such as greed, stupidity, nepotism, envy of virtuous and capable, coercion and arrogance, No one is superior.

Zhu Youjian knew that this was the rhythm of the reactionary gentry in the south of the Yangtze River starting to fight for the power of the government. These people first used the arrest of Gu Lin in Dongchang to provoke Fan Jingwen and other important officials to force him to kill Wang Chengen, so that he had to fight with Fan Jingwen and others to protect Wang Chengen. The civil official group chose to compromise, and then used their resentment towards Fan Jingwen and other important ministers because of this incident to start impeachment, so as to achieve the goal of overthrowing Fan Jingwen and other civil officials of the Zhejiang Party and Jiangxi Party.

Zhu Youjian had to admit that the calculations of these reactionary gentry in the south of the Yangtze River were very shrewd.

But now, Zhu Youjian intends to comply with the wishes of these reactionary gentry and bureaucrats in the south of the Yangtze River, and it can be regarded as a lesson for these civil officials who forced themselves to compromise.

However, Fan Jingwen himself also handed in his resignation, requesting to retire from retirement.

But Zhu Youjian naturally did not agree to his request. Most of these civil servants and bureaucrats have pastoral plots, thinking that after they become famous, they will become a big squire in the countryside similar to the emperor.

But how could Zhu Youjian let them get what they wanted, especially when he was still disobeying himself, so he decreed Fan Jingwen as the magistrate of Danzhou, ordered him to open up 50 mu of land in Danzhou, and train [-] Jinshi, otherwise he would not be allowed It's back home.

Zhu Youjian learned from the way the monarchs and ministers of the Song Dynasty treated their political enemies. They will not kill you, but they will definitely make your life worse than death.

Since Fan Jingwen dared to be threatened by a civil servant, Zhu Youjian dared to let him die of old age in a foreign country and serve Daming for the rest of his life.

Since he doesn't want to obey his own arrangements in the court, he might as well go to the backcountry to cultivate wasteland and help students.

When Fan Jingwen received the decree, he almost spit out a mouthful of old blood. He thought he could return to his roots, but now he realized how cruel His Majesty is.

"Your Majesty, you want this humble minister to die in a foreign country!"

Fan Jingwen cried, but Zhu Youjian smiled coldly: "It's not that I want Aiqing to die in a foreign country, but that Aiqing herself wants to be someone else's gun, and dares to threaten me with the six ministers of the cabinet. Now there are words The official impeached you, but you have to blame yourself. If you don’t do it in a good position as the chief assistant, you want to do something that embarrass me. What is the use of a person like you other than going to Danzhou to reclaim wasteland? I won’t let you be the overlord of the village for disaster!”

Fan Jingwen understood what Zhu Youjian meant, and regretted that he hadn't seen all this, so he couldn't help but slapped himself twice, and then chose to leave desolately, choosing to go to Danzhou to take up a job.

Zhu Youjian did not approve Fan Jingwen's resignation, but deposed him to a remote place, which really surprised many officials in the court. They did not expect that Zhu Youjian, as the emperor, would have his own means.

But for the reactionary bureaucrats and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River who were trying to seize the power of the government, they were very excited, because it meant that His Majesty was really angry, and they just took advantage of this to completely disintegrate the other six cabinet members when Fan Jingwen was in charge of the cabinet.

Immediately afterwards, a censor impeached Qi Biaojia, a cabinet scholar and household secretary, and Zhu Youjian demoted Qi Biaojia to the county magistrate of Yishan, Guangxi.

Liu Zongzhou, the Cabinet University and Minister of Rites, was also impeached, and was soon demoted as the county magistrate of Xinning, Huguang.

All of a sudden, the government and the public were shaken. No one expected that in this moment, a cabinet chief assistant and two cabinet ministers would fall.

The happiest ones were Guan Shaoning, Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites of Nanjing, Chen Shiding, the head of the Imperial Academy, and Ouyang Da, the chief official of Li Kedu, and other officials of Southern Zhili.

They all thought that their strategy had been fulfilled, and the successful use of Dongchang to arrest Gu Lin made His Majesty feel disgusted with these officials of the Zhejiang Party and Jiangxi Party.

"Your Majesty, Gu Lin secretly entered the Guanfu last night, saying that he has contacted the Yushi to prepare for the impeachment together with Gao Hongtu, the cabinet secretary and minister of the Ministry of War, Ma Shiying, a cabinet scholar and Minister of the Ministry of War, and Song Yingxing, a cabinet scholar and minister of the Ministry of Industry. , At the same time, it is also drawing up a list of candidates for the next cabinet chief and assistant, and plans to contact these officials to help them enter the six cabinets."

After Wang Chengen conveyed the news to Zhu Youjian, Zhu Youjian smiled lightly: "It seems that it is time to end the turmoil in the court. How can my court allow them to have the final say? You should quickly send someone to pass the word to you." Gao Hongtu, the second assistant of the cabinet, ask him, do you want to go to Bijie to teach with the barbarians, or do you want to stay in Nanjing to preside over the cabinet and carry out the great cause of salt tax reform for me?"

As early as July of the 18th year of Chongzhen, after the Duduo Department of the Qing Army was wiped out, Zhu Youjian instructed Gao Hongtu to reform the salt administration, and even asked him to investigate for a period of time in the name of vacation.

Now that it is the second half of the 20th year of Chongzhen, the reform of the salt government should also be put on the agenda. Although Gao Hongtu had rebelled against him with Fan Jingwen before, Zhu Youjian still hopes that he can stay to succeed the chief assistant and prepare to reform the salt government. .

Naturally, Gao Hongtu was unwilling to serve as a magistrate in a place like Bijiewei, Guizhou, where the flames of war spread, so he quickly conveyed his meaning to Zhu Youjian, willing to be His Majesty's bull and horse, and never do anything against Zhu Youjian again.

Therefore, when a censor named Wen Zhenhong impeached Gao Hongtu, the cabinet assistant, three days later, Zhu Youjian reprimanded Wen Zhenhong on the grounds that Wen Zhenhong's performance was untrue.

……

"What, Your Majesty has not demoted Vice Assistant Gao Hongtu again!"

Guan Shaoning, Minister of the Ministry of Rites of Nanjing, sat up in surprise.

"It seems that His Majesty prefers Gao Hongtu, the second cabinet assistant, to be the first assistant. In other words, it is difficult for us to impeach Gao Hongtu now. I am afraid that in the near future, His Majesty will decree to appoint him as the first assistant of the cabinet, and order him to go to the cabinet. Lord, it is better to impeach Ma Shiying and Song Yingxing now, if one more person is impeached, we will be able to fight for one more position by then!"

Chen Shiding, head of the Imperial Academy, said.

"Brother Erxin (Chen Shiding's name is Erxin) is very true, but what makes Guan Mou puzzled is why His Majesty spared Gao Hongtu, and also intended to let him be the chief assistant. Did Gao Hongtu and His Majesty reach some kind of deal? Gao Hongtu is from Shandong, not from our Southern Zhili, this may be one reason, but could there be other reasons.”

When Guan Shaoning was saying this, Ouyang Da spoke first:

"Why do you need to think about it? Your Majesty's intention is that you don't want the position of chief assistant in the cabinet to be in the hands of people like us. To put it bluntly, your Majesty is still defending us. There's nothing you can do about it. If you want us from Nanzhili to be in charge We have to take it step by step, and the most important thing now is to have our people among the six cabinet departments."

"Since this is the case, what we should do now is to recommend Gao Hongtu, the second cabinet assistant, as the first assistant to the cabinet. Officials above the second rank are qualified to recommend. This will require the Guanbutang to submit a recommendation at that time. It can be regarded as a compliment to His Majesty and Gao Hong. It's a good idea to sell; other than that, the impeachment of Ma Shiying and Song Yingxing will depend on Ouyang Da to mobilize your speech officials."

After Chen Shiding said, the rest of the officials also nodded in agreement.

Soon before Zhu Youjian's case, there were memorials for recommending Gao Hongtu and impeaching Ma Shiying and Song Yingxing.

　Thank you book friend Mu Yu Changqing for rewarding 100 book coins
　　
　
(End of this chapter)