Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 346 Delegating Shi Kefa

Zhu Youjian agreed to the recommendation of the ministers, appointed Gao Hongtu as the chief assistant of the cabinet, and ordered him to preside over the government.

But at the same time, Zhu Youjian refused to publish the memorials to impeach Ma Shiying and Song Yingxing, and ignored them.

This made many courtiers very puzzled, and began to feel more and more uncertain about Zhu Youjian's mind.

What Zhu Youjian wants is to prevent them from guessing his own thoughts. He is not thinking about revenge, but is trying to better stabilize the domestic political situation and concentrate all the forces of the Southern Group to fight against the Qing army in the North. .

Guan Shaoning and others began to think that when Zhu Youjian would still insist on appointing non-South Zhili people to serve as important posts in the six cabinets, Zhu Youjian directly instructed the cabinet deputy Gao Hongtu to recommend Guan Shaoning, Huo Da, and Chen Shiding when he was in charge of the cabinet again. Wait for important positions.

"I demoted Fan Jingwen, Qi Biaojia, and Liu Zongzhou not only because they disobeyed me, but also to show some reactionary gentry from the south of the Yangtze River who were vacillating. Fan Jingwen is a northern official supported by me. Liu Zongzhou and Qi Biaojia are both members of the Zhejiang party. I demoted them to convince these reactionary gentry in the south of the Yangtze River that I will no longer only be close to northern officials and Zhejiang party officials; all of this is just for the coming Qing army Prepare for the southward affairs, so when you are in charge of the cabinet, Aiqing, you can raise these people to important positions, but you can't let them cover the sky with one hand. In their hands, understand?"

After Zhu Youjian made some instructions, Gao Hongtu nodded quickly: "I understand!"

Soon, it entered the period of Gao Hongtu's cabinet formation, and the local governors and officials above the fourth rank in Beijing began to actively contact Gao Hongtu.

At this time, Ruan Dayue, a member of Ma Shiying's party, also felt a little bit on pins and needles. He and Gao Hongtu belonged to the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party since the Tianqi period. He began to worry about whether he could keep his position as the right servant of the Ministry of War.

Ruan Dayue is not a person who is content with the status quo. He has been observing the situation in the court. From the time when the chief assistant of the cabinet, Fan Jingwen, led the cabinet ministers to force His Majesty to kill Wang Chengen, to the time when Gu Lin was released, the literature club grew stronger, and now three cabinet ministers in a row With the downfall of the minister and the succession of Gao Hongtu as the chief minister of the cabinet, Ruan Dayue has been looking for opportunities to make a fortune.

"It's His Majesty who really rules everything. As long as you obey His Majesty's wishes, you don't have to worry about being dismissed. But what exactly does Your Majesty think and what do you want?"

Ruan Dayue was muttering to himself, at that time a Qing guest came to Ruan Dayue with a letter: "Master, this is handed over to you by the supervisor, Ma Ge, who entrusted his students to deliver it to you. The uprightness of Shi Gong and the fainting of the first assistant will surely cause chaos in the court. At this time, if you want to sit firmly in the court, you should be unswervingly loyal to His Majesty, and spend your mind on resisting the Qing army going south and defending His Majesty. authority."

"When you spend your mind on resisting the Qing army going south, that is to say, as the right servant of the Ministry of War, I am in charge of the affairs of the Ministry of War. I should be responsible for collecting food and allocating military resources. I don't care about external affairs, but to maintain the authority of your majesty. Naturally, it is only your majesty. Order is obedience, get rid of those who hinder His Majesty, those who don't listen to His Majesty, now that the chief minister of the cabinet has been appointed, only the seal of the chief inspector has not been changed, and Shi Kefa has always been too upright and does not listen to His Majesty's orders, now it is better to impeach Shi Kefa , cut off the connection between foreign officials and the inner court!"

Ruan Dayue suddenly had his own thoughts, and hurriedly began to contact the spokesman to impeach Shi Kefa.

Soon, Shi Kefa was also impeached. The reason for the impeachment was that Shi Kefa had made friends with foreign officials. Zhu Youjian took advantage of the situation and demoted Shi Kefa to Fujian as a naturalized county magistrate. According to Zhu Youjian, since Shi Kefa liked to get along with foreign officials so much, he simply Just put them in the local area to be a foreign official.

When Shi Kefa left the Prison of Rituals, all the civil servants were surprised and disappointed.

After all, although Shi Kefa was already a eunuch, he still had the same ideology as the civil servants. Therefore, when Shi Kefa presided over the Supervisor of Ceremonies, the cabinet and the Supervisor of Ceremonies were almost in harmony. .

Ruan Dayue guessed exactly what Zhu Youjian was thinking. Zhu Youjian really didn't want Shi Kefa to take up the post of Supervisor of Ceremonies. As a minister's big taboo.

In fact, Zhu Youjian had already expected that civil servants like Shi Kefa would wear a pair of trousers with civil servants even if they became ministers. Because Shi Kefa is indeed capable of handling government affairs, and the inner court lacks government talents, and Shi Kefa can be regarded as a loyal and reliable person, Zhu Youjian has no choice but to use him until now.

But what is different at this time is that the fact that Fan Jingwen and other cabinet ministers and Shi Kefa threatened Zhu Youjian together made Zhu Youjian realize that it is indeed a terrible thing for internal ministers and foreign officials to unite. Such a person will be in charge of the Rites again.

"I didn't kill you. Letting you continue to go to other places to do something for the people of Ming Dynasty is the greatest tolerance for you. You don't have to pretend to express any reluctance to me. I didn't collude with foreign ministers to threaten me. Minister, I also know that you have never regarded yourself as my servant. You are Shi Kefa, a famous and loyal Shigong. If this is the case, you should make good use of your own reputation to do some practical things for the people. There is no need Show off your name again here."

When Zhu Youjian said this, Shi Kefa also knew that he had completely lost his holy family, and after paying a big gift to Zhu Youjian, he left Nanjing city desolately.

As soon as Shi Kefa left, Zhu Youjian summoned Ruan Dayue, the right servant of the Ministry of War.

Through Dongchang's spies, Zhu Youjian naturally knew that Ruan Dayue secretly instigated the impeachment of Shi Kefa, which made Zhu Youjian very excited.

Because in his opinion, no matter which faction the civil servants would want Shi Kefa to leave the Supervisor of Rituals, after all, Shi Kefa is still a civil servant in essence, and no matter whether he is a traditional gentry or an official from the Jiangnan commercial gentry, he can reach a good agreement with Shi Kefa. tacit understanding, so as to truly take charge of the political power.

Therefore, no official will instruct the censor to impeach Shi Kefa.

However, Ruan Dayue chose to do this, which made Zhu Youjian realize that it was not impossible for him to achieve the goal of splitting the civil official group, and there were still civil officials who would oppose the entire civil official group for their own interests.

Although this person who is willing to stand on the side of his own emperor and oppose the entire civil official group is an official who has always been said to be a treacherous minister in history.

Zhu Youjian knew who Ruan Dayue was, because of "Peach Blossom Fan", he was scolded by countless literati from the end of Ming Dynasty to the present, even Zhu Youjian sometimes didn't know how to evaluate Ruan Dayue, if it wasn't for Ma Shiying's strong recommendation , he would even let Ruan Dayue stay at home all the time.

(End of this chapter)