Before Yi Xun brought the bad news of Guo Xing'a's robbery of Sushun back to Beijing, the Empress Dowager and Prince Gong were already busy with their feet, because they had before them the urgent task of forming a new government team. They had to complete the redistribution of power and take over the powers of the Eight Ministers in time to avoid a power vacuum.

All the eight ministers of Gu Ming were resigned, and among the original five members of the Military Aircraft Department, except for one Wen Xiang, four were among the ministers of Gu Ming, so as the administrative center of the central government, the Military Aircraft Department was actually paralyzed at this time. Of course, the fundamental principle of personnel arrangements has long been decided, that is, the new government team must be headed by Prince Gong, which is also the "deal" between the Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Gong - King Gong has fulfilled his promise to overthrow the eight ministers and the system they represent, and put the empress dowager of the two palaces on the throne of listening to the government. Now that the "revolution has succeeded", it is time for the two imperial queens to fulfill their promises.

Therefore, Prince Gong became the undisputed head of the new government, commonly known as the "military aircraft foreman". However, just being a "military aircraft foreman" was not enough to "reward" him for his achievements, so he came up with a name, that is, "to confer the title of the king of parliament", in order to show the "deep dependence" of the empress dowager and the emperor on Prince Gong.

Why not just make a "regent"? Because at the beginning of the reign of Emperor Shunzhi of the Great Qing Dynasty, his fourteenth uncle Dolgon was named the regent, and later he was not happy, so he simply came to a "regent of the imperial father". There are two reasons why Yi Xin did not become the regent, the first reason is precisely considering the experience of Dolgon, although Dolgon is a real "uncrowned emperor" for a while, but the fate behind him is really not good. When he first died, he was even posthumously honored as "Emperor Chengzongyi", but only a month later, he was completely "liquidated" by Emperor Shunzhi - not only deposed the emperor's honorific title (including temple number and nickname) just given to him, but also was stripped of the title of the original Prince Rui, and even deposed the clan of Aixin Jueluo and demoted to a concubine. It was not until the Qianlong period that it was partially "rehabilitated". There is such a precedent of "regent", and Prince Gong himself will not be interested in the word "regent" under any circumstances. There is another reason, the "regent" is also the "regent", and the regent is the agent of the power of the Son of Heaven. Now that the queen mother is in the court to listen to the government, it is naturally the queen mother who acts as the power of the Son of Heaven, so Prince Gong can only "discuss politics", not regent.

However, at this time, the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces, especially the Empress Dowager Cixi, was not familiar with the personnel of the imperial court, and she was almost "blind", and she had no way to intervene if she wanted to. She didn't know what the qualifications and backgrounds of the Manchu civil and military were and whose virtues and talents were. The list of members of the new team of the Military Aircraft Department, announced by the Cabinet Minister, was drawn up by Prince Gong alone. They are the king of the council walking in the military aircraft, Prince Heshuo Gong Yixun, the prince Taibao Wenhuadian University Shi Guiliang, the head of the household department Shen Zhaolin, the right attendant of the household Lang Baojun, the left attendant of the household Lang Wenxiang, the young secretary of the Honglu Temple Cao Yuying, and Zhou Zupei, who has been jumping very happily, was excluded from the list because he was not Yixin's man at all.

The Empress Dowager Cixi was very dissatisfied with this list, but there was no way to get Su Shun back. Because among these six people, excluding Prince Gong, at least four people can see at a glance that they have a close relationship with King Gong. The first one is Gui Liang, a scholar of Wenhua Palace, who is the father-in-law of Prince Gong. The only Wen Xiang who was retained by the "old team" was of the same banner as Gui Liang. Although Wen Xiang is also an extremely rare capable member among the banner people, he must have been recommended by Gui Liang when he was reused at this time, and he came up with the idea of dealing with Guo Xing'a, and he obviously had a tacit understanding with Prince Gong for a long time. Another Bao Jun, this person doesn't seem to have much ability, but his personal relationship with King Gong is very good, so good that he can joke casually in public. As for Cao Yuying, when she was still in Chengde as a military aircraft Zhang Jing, she had confidential correspondence with King Gong, and made great contributions to the success of the coup. At this time, King Gong talked about meritorious deeds, so he replaced Jiao Youying, who was originally "suppressing the party", and became a "curtain military machine". In the end, there was only one Shen Zhaolin left, and his identity was relatively "neutral", but it was difficult to say whether he was Yixin behind his back.

After Yi Xun brought the news of Guoxing Ah Yan and coming in back to Beijing, Lianggong and Yi Xin were really flustered for a while, but they quickly stabilized. When Cixi and Yixin had already made a decision on how to deal with Guoxing'a, they immediately began a complete liquidation of the seven "subordinate prisoners" and one fugitive with lightning speed, without any delay. On the second day of the first month of October in the 11th year of Xianfeng, when Su Shun and Guo Xing'a were in Hexi, Cixi and Yixin ordered Rehe to be the capital of Chunyou, and Su Shun's property in Rehe would be "secretly confiscated" and "not allowed to be concealed in the slightest", and at the same time, Su Shun "was sent to confiscate the property in Beijing, so that there would be no concealment", which was only the first step.

The next day, led by the cabinet and personally presided over by Prince Gong, the six ministries, Jiuqing, Han, Zhan, Ke, and Dao were convened to meet in the Zongren Mansion to discuss the disposition of the eight ministers of Gu Ming. Zaiyuan, Duanhua, and Sushun are all close relatives of the Aixin Jueluo family, that is, "Zongren", so if it is dealt with according to the law, this meeting should be attended by officials of the Zongren Mansion. However, before Zaiyuan was arrested, he was the "Zongling" of the Zongren Mansion, that is, the patriarch of the imperial family, and the two palaces and Yixin did not let the Zongren Mansion attend the meeting for "the sake of justice".

Since after all, it was the dying ministers of Emperor Xianfeng of Daxing who were to be disposed of, so almost all the important ministers of the current dynasty participated in this "historic" meeting. However, the conviction and punishment have not been decided for a long time. There are probably two main opinions: one opinion is to advocate seriousness, and some of these people take into account the ancestral system and the will of Emperor Daxing, because no matter how domineering the eight ministers are, in the end they are also the ministers of Emperor Daxing. Now that the bones of Emperor Daxing are not cold, he wants to kill the ministers of Tuogu, not only can he bear it, but it also seems that the heir to the throne does not leave room for the emperor to take the imperial examination, which is not the way of the successor.

Some are mindful that Zaiyuan and Duanhua, who are the leaders of the group, are hereditary "iron hat kings", which is in line with the imperial court's rule of "discussing relatives and nobles", and since the founding of the Qing Dynasty, there has been no precedent for publicly killing the "iron hat king". Of course, there are also people who can have an equal view of Su Shun, thinking that although he is arrogant and domineering, his great contribution to the court is also obvious to all. In particular, the Hunan army, which he maintained single-handedly and commanded by Zeng Guofan, had just taken Anqing, the first important town on the Yangtze River, from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Anqing is the last barrier of Nanjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and retaking Anqing will also be a matter of Gu Jian to conquer Nanjing. This is just when the merits of Su Shun are revealed, but he was sentenced to death, which will inevitably remind outsiders of the words "rabbits and dead dogs cook, and birds hide their bows". Maybe it will chill the hearts of the generals of the Hunan army who are fighting bloodily in front, and if there are any unexpected changes, the situation will really be difficult to clean up. Moreover, it is really difficult to justify dealing with such important ministers as Minister Gu Ming without consulting the opinions of Zeng Guofan and other important frontier ministers in front. What's even worse is that there is also a Guoxing'a stirred up here, the Gu'an Army Chen Bing Jinggi, who may use force at any time to admonish him, and he has to consider Guoxing's attitude to deal with Sushun. Of course, such an opinion is just slander at this time, and in this situation, it cannot be brought to the table under any circumstances, otherwise there will be a suspicion of "rebellion". In short, these people advocate lighter punishment.

There is also an opinion that advocates severe punishment of the eight ministers of Gu Ming, especially Zaiyuan, Duanhua, and Sushun. Most of these people are dissatisfied with the domineering of Su Shun and others, of course, there are also some people who figure out that the Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Gong have the intention of putting Su Shun to death. There is even a kind of person who has a personal vendetta and a strict style of obedience and politics, which has offended many people. In the eighth year of Xianfeng, when Su Shun dealt with the "Shuntian Kechang Fraud Case", he insisted on killing Bai Ye, a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion and Minister of Military Aircraft at that time, and Bai Ye's protégés and former officials were numerous, and these people naturally hated Su Shun to the core, such as Zhao Guang, the secretary of the Criminal Department who participated in this meeting, was Bai Ye's protégé. The Criminal Department is in charge of "Qiu Cao", so Zhao Guang's opinion is of course very important, and his insistence on killing Su Shun and avenging his teacher is almost universally known. And Prince Gong, who presided over the meeting, and most of the princes and ministers did not object, and those who were vaguely obedient and aggrieved were helpless. Therefore, the result of the meeting was to draw up a punishment for Zaiyuan, Duanhua, and Sushun to be executed by Ling Chi, which is what the common people usually call "a thousand cuts". The rest of Jingshou, Mu Yin, Kuang Yuan, Du Han, and Jiao Youying all planned to be dismissed and sent to Xinjiang to serve and atone for their crimes.

After Prince Gong presented the results of this joint meeting of various departments of the central government, the Empress Dowager of the two palaces immediately approved it and officially promulgated the edict to announce it to the world. Because there is an unwritten rule in the Qing Dynasty, that is, the punishment that has always been proposed by the ministers to the minister of crime should be heavier than the actual punishment received by the minister in the end. In order for the emperor to make the final ruling, he "filled the good person" to reduce the sentence, so as to show that "the emperor's grace is vast" and "the grace comes from the top". The punishment of Gu Ming's eight ministers is to play this trick, the original meeting to Zaiyuan, Duanhua, and Su Shun were all Ling Chi to execute, and now "Jiaen" is changed to Zaiyuan, Duanhua committed suicide, and Su Shun was decided. For Jing Shou, Mu Yin, Kuang Yuan, Du Han, and Jiao Youying, they were all sent to Xinjiang to serve, and now they are also "graced" to Jing Shou only dismissed, and he still retains the rank of duke and forehead. Among the remaining four, only Mu Yin was sent to the military to serve in atonement, and the other three were exempted from being dispatched.

In fact, the handling of the eight ministers by this edict is very methodical, and the most unlucky ones are Zaiyuan and Duanhua, who could not have died. Because these two people are hereditary iron hat kings, since the founding of the Qing Dynasty, there is no precedent for killing the iron hat king, for the sake of "national system", they should also be pardoned for capital crimes. Moreover, Duanhua was still the owner of the blue flag until he was arrested, and if there was a slight mistake in the handling, the foundation of the Qing Dynasty's rule, the Eight Banners of Manchuria, might be divided. But since the Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Gong insisted on putting Su Shun to death, they couldn't help but kill Zaiyuan and Duanhua, because among the eight ministers of Gu Ming, their ranking was before Su Shun, and if they were spared the scourge of killing the two of them, Su Shun would have no reason to die, so Zaiyuan and Duanhua were really dragged down by Su Shun.

There is also a character who is both unlucky and lucky, and that is Jing Shou. said that he was unlucky, because he was an honest man, he didn't have any opinions, and this position of the minister who took care of his life was purely pulled by Su Shun to make up the numbers, which was simply a "big wronged head". The purpose of pulling him to make up the number was not only to balance the defects of the Jinzhi clan that was not among the fateful ones, but also to cover up the fact that Su Shun had monopolized power, because he was the brother-in-law of Prince Gong's mother-in-law. It can be said that he was confused and became the minister of Gu Ming, and now he is punished in a daze. But it is precisely because he is the brother-in-law of King Gong that he is relatively lucky, because the Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Gong will naturally open up to him, so he received the lightest punishment among the eight ministers.

There is also an unfortunate one, that is, the head of the Minister of Military Aircraft, Shangshu Muyin. This person was quite cautious and cowardly, but only because he was cautious and cowardly, he was held hostage by Su Shun all the way as the foreman of the Minister of Military Aircraft. Although the edict also admitted that he was "restrained" by Su Shun and others, so "it is difficult to compete", and believed that "it is still forgivable that he cannot cheer up". However, because he was the head of the Minister of Military Aircraft, he had an "unshirkable responsibility" for Su Shun's actions, so he was sent to the military station to serve and atone for his crimes.

The luckiest of the eight ministers is Du Han. Du Han's talent is not under Su Shun, and his actual status among the eight ministers is second only to Su Shun, and many of Su Shun's ideas are actually from his plans. It stands to reason that he should also be charged with "beheading prisoners", or at least it should be a punishment for confiscating the army. But his father was Du Shoutian, the master of Emperor Xianfeng, so no matter what, the Empress Dowager could not punish him severely. The reason why Emperor Xianfeng was able to defeat the sixth brother Prince Gong to ascend to the throne was that Du Shoutian made great contributions, so Emperor Xianfeng treated "Master Du" very well. Now in the two palaces, especially the loyal Empress Dowager Ci'an, thinking of the kindness of "Master Du" to Emperor Daxing, she pushed her kindness and son, and naturally couldn't bear to treat Du Han for serious crimes. And Prince Gong, in order to avoid giving people the impression of "hitting his son to take revenge on his father", he naturally did not dare to punish Du Han severely. Therefore, Du Shou Tian Ze and his descendants, Du Han can be regarded as "a blessing in misfortune".

In fact, there are two hidden lucky ones, namely Kuang Yuan and Jiao Youying. The reason why the two of them were not seriously convicted and only dismissed was not because of the benevolence of Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Gong, but because of the light of Jingshou and Du Han. Because if they are to be treated again, Jing Shou and Du Han will not be able to talk about it anyway.

The seven people who were already in custody were immediately executed, and Su Shun, who had absconded, was arrested and then carried out the law. Along with the punishment of the eight ministers, there was also the disposition of Goxinga, who became a rebel and the Gu'an army a rebel. Moreover, Guo Xing's sin was greater than that of the eight ministers, and he was directly characterized as a rebellion. There was not a word in the edict that Guoxing'a would know that he had lost his way, but instead asked the soldiers and horses from all over the country to immediately exterminate the Gu'an army.