Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 33 The Great Maelstrom

Yang Chao naturally knew about Zhang Pu, who was a famous man.

Because Zhang Pu is the founder and leader of Fushe, the most popular political group in the south of the Yangtze River.

When it comes to political groups in the Ming Dynasty, one has to mention the Donglin Party.

During the period of Emperor Wanli, the relationship with civil officials was very tense, so they often fought.The emperor did not trust civil servants, so he could only trust eunuchs, so the eunuchs were in power in the Wanli Dynasty.

At that time, Gu Xiancheng, a civil servant who was born in the south of the Yangtze River, was dismissed by the eunuchs and returned to the south of the Yangtze River. He rebuilt an ancient academy in the Song Dynasty called Donglin, where he gave lectures and discussed politics. share of political power.

This is the origin of the Donglin Party. It can be said that the purpose of the establishment of the Donglin Party is to fight against eunuchs.

Moreover, it was a real battle with real swords and guns. Many civil servants in Wei Zhongxian's era died miserably because of this. It can be said that Donglin has a lot of backbone in the struggle between eunuchs.

After Emperor Chongzhen succeeded to the throne, he overthrew the great eunuch Wei Zhongxian. At first, he reused the Donglin Party known as the "gentleman". Fighting, even fighting with the emperor, caused a mess in the court.

The most exasperating thing is that, in the view of Emperor Chongzhen, these Donglin party members were busy fighting and fighting, but they did not do practical things at all.On the contrary, the peasant army of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong was so powerful that they fought from east to west and from north to south on the land of the Ming Dynasty, and they could not be wiped out.

The Jurchen forces outside the customs have come to Beijing again and again, ignoring the defense of the frontier city.

According to the members of the Donglin Party, as long as the emperor is close to the virtuous ministers and is far away from the villains, and spreads kindness, the barbarians will naturally obey them. But now it is not like saying that the emperor has no kindness, and the people he uses are not virtuous ministers.

The emperor slowly began to feel disgusted with Donglin. Since the Donglin Party's own theory proved that he was not a good minister, the emperor was not polite, and expelled all the high-ranking officials of the Donglin Party from the court, and the Donglin Party members completely lost their power. .

At this time, in the land of the south of the Yangtze River, starting from the Donglin party members, a kind of association atmosphere has formed.Literati groups such as Yingshe and Jishe are everywhere.

Zhang Pu himself joined the Yingshe and Yantai clubs, but Zhang Pu is a very capable activist. Under his operation, he invited dozens of clubs in Huqiu to form a complex. society.

As a few members of the Fushe passed the imperial examinations and became officials in the court, the reputation of the Fushe was unmatched for a while, faintly suppressing the limelight of the Donglin Party. At its peak, there were more than 3000 scholars in the society.

But Zhang Pu is a person with enthusiasm and energy in his activities, but his EQ is not high as an official. He offended people very quickly, was plotted against by Wen Tiren, and was pushed out of the court. In the end, his backer Zhou Yanru was also pushed out of the court by Wen Tiren. In the church, Fushe also began to lose power, and those scholars who followed suit slowly began to disperse and join other groups.

Zhang Pu believes that all this is because Fushe lost the relationship with Zhou Yanru, the backer, so he has been doing the first assistant activities for Zhou Yanru's comeback. The fundamental purpose is actually to revive Fushe and realize his political ideals and goals. political aspirations.

Therefore, while Zhang Pu was active in raising political funds for Zhou Yanru, he instigated the speech officials of Fushe to continuously impeach cabinet officials, which now made the emperor a little dissatisfied with the cabinet.

Yang Chao used to be just a boy who didn't even have a reputation as a scholar, so it was impossible for him to know about these court affairs. He only knew that this time Zhang Pu wanted to raise money for Zhou Yanru, so he found Ruan Dacheng. Ruan Dacheng didn't want to waste money, so he found him Figure out your own way.

I didn't expect that things would be so complicated. It's not just about getting enough money to buy a shoufu, but also a series of complicated political struggles.

After listening to Wang Xiao's explanation, Yang Chao suddenly felt that he was involved in an extremely complicated political vortex.

"My father learned from the eunuch that the emperor is very dissatisfied with several cabinet ministers recently. Zhang Pu ordered some censors of the Fushe to impeach the cabinet ministers. The emperor was originally dissatisfied with the cabinet ministers, and gradually replaced the chief ministers. It’s on my mind, but I haven’t made up my mind on who to use.”

Wang Xiao continued.

Yang Chao already understood: "So, Zhang Pu has basically controlled the situation now."

Zhang Pu was just taking advantage of the situation. The emperor was dissatisfied with the cabinet. Zhang Pu sent Fushe officials to take the opportunity to impeach.

Wang Xiaodao: "It's a matter of course. It's just that it's not so easy to get the emperor to use Zhou Yanru. Someone has to pass the word beside the emperor. The emperor is quite disappointed with the civil servants now. The one who can speak is the eunuch."

The civil servants of the Ming Dynasty always let the emperor down time and time again. If the eunuchs of the Wanli and Tianqi dynasties were in power, the world was in chaos, then Chongzhen used civil servants heavily at the beginning, and now it has to be said that the civil servants are incompetent. The reason for the emperor's disappointment.

Yang Chao said: "So Zhang Pu wants to raise donations to bribe eunuchs?"

Wang Xiao said: "That's right. In fact, Zhang Pu is only short of money now."

Yang Chao couldn't help being surprised again: "In this case, why didn't your Wang family directly ask Zhang Pu to donate?"

Wang Xiao smiled wryly and said: "Although Zhang Pu is poor, he is not greedy as an official. He does not lie to us merchants. This time, he only raised money from literati. He would rather find Ruan Dayue than me. Merchant."

Not only was Yang Chao dumbfounded, it turned out that it was out of literati's contempt for businessmen, out of a kind of social prejudice.

"So when you hear me here, you want to seize this opportunity."

Yang Chao smiled and couldn't help admiring Wang Xiao's vision, which was accurate, poisonous, and powerful in action.

It may be better for such a person to be an official than those scholars with high eyesight and low abilities.

Wang Xiao laughed and said: "Brother Yang, don't blame me, my younger brother just happened to meet him. Now that we meet, we can't miss it."

Yang Chao doesn't care either, everyone has their own interests, as long as they don't offend others' interests, there is nothing wrong with it, let yourself live, let others live, this is Yang Chao's creed.

He nodded and said: "Then, it's not just your Wang family who understand the situation in the court. It's also good, this time you should invite more big businessmen who know the situation, so as not to spread the word, and the influence will not be good."

Wang Xiaodao: "That's natural. In fact, there are definitely not many merchants who can know the situation of the court. As far as I know, there are no more than three merchants in Hangzhou who have this ability except my Wang family. There may be many in Nanjing, but Absolutely no more than ten."

Yang Chao said: "Ten families are enough."

The Wang family can throw out 1 taels, and ten families can get together 10 taels, which is definitely enough to bribe eunuchs.

Wang Xiaodao: "Brother Yang, don't worry, leave it to me. Although my family's business is not mainly in Nanjing, I still have some contacts with wealthy merchants in Nanjing."

Yang Chao nodded: "Brother Wang, go ahead and do it boldly."

At this time, Yang Chao couldn't help being touched. The political vortex he was involved in would bring him some consequences, and he couldn't tell whether it was joy or sorrow.

Zhou Yanru can definitely be the chief assistant, so this political meeting will definitely be a great success.

But what is worrying is whether he will offend Zhang Pu behind the scenes if he rashly introduces these merchants.

If Zhang Pu is angered, Zhang Pu will take control of the court in the future. Although he is unlikely to deal with a small person like himself, but he will not take care of him, then his efforts will be in vain.

What's more, Yang Chao is showing Ruan Dacheng's eyes. Will he be passively hated by the Donglin Party who will gain power in the future? After all, the relationship between Ruan Dacheng and the Donglin Party members is not good. improve.

But Yang Chao will not give up easily, this is also a rare opportunity.

At the same time, Yang Chao didn't intend to make it so simple. Since he took such a big risk and didn't get some practical benefits for himself, Yang Chao would never be reconciled.

The last time I helped Wang Xiao get in touch with Shi Kefa, but it didn't work. It just got into a hidden relationship with the Wang family, and there was no real benefit for the time being.This time Yang Chao has to learn a lesson, not only to obtain a vast network of relationships to build a good relationship for the future, but also to win over a reliable force that he can use in front of him.

Therefore, he changed his plan quietly in his heart. The purpose of this meeting was not limited to the simple relationship with the officials of Fushe Donglin. Yang Chao had to win over a force that could be used by him.

(End of this chapter)