The death of the Ming Dynasty, some people say that they died in the apocalypse, and some people say that they died in Wanli; Some people died in exile, some people died in Manchuria; Some people die in finance, some people die in corruption; Some people say they died in the eunuchs, and some people say they died in civil officials......

However, none of these reasons address the root causes.

It should be said that although these chronic diseases are difficult to deal with, as long as one or two strongmen like Zhang Juzheng appear, they can still turn the tide, or at least delay the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

But by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the whole court was already controlled by friends, and a person and a matter often didn't matter what was right or wrong, but only looked at what party he belonged to - as long as it was his own party, even if what he did was ridiculous and nonsense, he had to fully support it; As long as he is a heretic with himself, even if what he does is good for the country and the people, then he has to go all out to attack it.

Therefore, even if Zhang Juzheng himself is reincarnated, there will always be people everywhere to hinder things, and he may not be able to make a big career as he did in the early years of Wanli.

But having said that, the situation in Chongzhen's early years was quite different from before.

Emperor Chongzhen is a powerful emperor, and even the eunuchs around him can't believe it, let alone those scholars who are full of benevolence and morality, and are full of chickens and dogs. And what he fears most about scholars is that the people of the government and the opposition form a party for personal gain, which not only corrupts the government and government, but is more likely to empty him, the supreme emperor.

Therefore, after Chongzhen took office, the first thing he did was to sweep away the eunuch party, and while reusing the Donglin party, he did not let the Donglin party monopolize power, and successively dismissed the cabinet Han Kuang and Qian Longxi, two hardcore Donglin party members.

Regarding this, Ji Qingwen has heard and witnessed it.

But since the emperor is so strictly guarded, why is there a friend in the court?

This is something that Ji Qingwen can't figure out.

So he asked again: "Elder Xu Ge, at present, the emperor has a monopoly of power in the court, as long as the decision made by the emperor is made, whether it is the eunuch or the cabinet, it can only be implemented according to the rules." I don't know where to start with the word 'friend'? ”

Xu Guangqi sighed and said, "Holy Longen, no matter which courtier is a treasure, today's friends are raised to compete for favor. ”

Following this, Xu Guangqi explained the situation in the imperial court, strictly speaking, in the cabinet, to Ji Qingwen in detail.

It turned out that the most fundamental reason for the party struggle was the power struggle between Zhou Yanru, the first assistant of the cabinet, and Wen Tiren, the second assistant. Although Shoufu Zhou Yanru is not a member of the Donglin Party, he is inextricably linked with the Donglin Party, and he is young, but he is in his twenties, even the Zhonghui Yuan and the champion, and he is very famous in the literary world.

However, after Chongzhen succeeded to the throne, he punished the eunuch party, but did not completely reuse the Donglin party. In this context, Zhou Yanru is naturally the best candidate to lead the hundred officials, and he almost naturally became the first and auxiliary minister of the cabinet. During his tenure as the first assistant, the situation in the imperial court did improve greatly for whatever reason, not only the Manchurian Tatars in the north died down, and the White Lotus rebellion in the south was also quickly quelled, but only the civil rebellion in the northwest became more and more intense.

Seeing that the government was moving in a good direction, Wen Tiren, who served as the second assistant of the imperial court, was not satisfied.

Wen Tiren is fifty-seven years old this year, seventeen years older than Zhou Yanru, but he can only be relegated to the second place. This benevolent brother is not the first assistant of the cabinet, not because he is too young, nor because his ability is not good, but because this person is too unlucky. When the eunuch party was in power, he was regarded as a member of the Donglin party; When the Donglin Party was in power, he was regarded as a eunuch figure because of his origin. It can be said that it is not flattering left and right, and it is not a person inside and out.

Therefore, Wen Tiren simply broke the jar and fell, and came to a person who did not help each other, did not offend, and only wanted to please the emperor, and called it "a group of gentlemen but not a party". For this reason, when Chongzhen liquidated the eunuch party, Wen Tiren made great efforts to belittle Qian Qianyi, and when Wen Tiren was the first to attack.

In this way, Wen Tiren offended the government and the opposition all over again, and became a piece of stinky meat that even flies didn't bother to star. But Emperor Chongzhen likes such stinky meat, and he likes Wen Tiren and has nothing to do with those civil officials in the court.

But the emperor likes to be liked by the emperor, and the ministers are disgusted by the ministers.

Since Wen Tiren entered the cabinet to pay respects to the prime minister, the impeachment of him has never stopped. From perverting the law for bribes, to twisting the law for personal gain, to usurping people's property, even when he went to the court, he took an extra step and sneezed, and some people were impeached, which really reached the point where people hated dogs. If it weren't for Emperor Chongzhen's support behind him, maybe this cabinet chief assistant would have been demoted to three hundred and twenty-one levels in a row, and went to that poor country to be a county magistrate.

Although Wen Tiren has poor popularity and his conduct is not much better, his brain is smart, and he naturally knows that behind so many civilian officials who attack him is such a huge and insurmountable figure as Zhou Yanru, the first assistant of the cabinet.

But Wen Tiren also knew that in the Ming Dynasty, although Zhou Yanru was the first assistant, he was still different from Zhang Juzheng and Yang Tinghe back then, and he was far from a man of his word - there was another even bigger figure hovering behind him, that is, Zhu Youzhen, the emperor of Chongzhen.

Therefore, Wen Tiren, who has a keen sense of political smell and a cool head, quickly realized that the only way to bring down Zhou Yanru and replace him was to hug Emperor Chongzhen's thigh tightly, and then use this thigh, which is the thickest thigh in the world, to kick Zhou Yanru off the throne of the first assistant of the cabinet.

So Zhou Yanru figured out Emperor Chongzhen's intentions, took the lead in making a fuss, and made a fuss about Yuan Chonghuan, who had been imprisoned in the prison of the Criminal Department for more than half a year, and played alone, saying that Yuan Chonghuan would be dealt with strictly, and the responsibility for the unfavorable combat in the "change of his own country" last year would be investigated.

As soon as this piece was released, the government and the opposition were immediately shocked.

Yuan Chonghuan, the Jiliao Governor who was leaning towards one side and almost became the emperor of Liaodong Tu, although he was imprisoned for the crime, the amount of money is still extraordinary.

Everyone in the government and the opposition knows that Yuan Chonghuan is a capable and capable commander, and his mishandling in last year's Battle of Beijing is also obvious to all. The general response to such a troublesome person with mixed reputations is to keep him in prison and wait for everyone to forget about it, and then quietly deal with him.

As for how to deal with it, it is to condemn a petty crime and let him wear the crime and make meritorious contributions; It is a great crime to degrade officials and serve the people; is to condemn a felony and give Bai Aya to commit suicide; Or let him die "naturally" in a dark prison without any conviction - that would not be a big deal.

But the most important thing is that someone singled out this matter, to the point where he had to have a clear proposition, and it was Wen Tiren, the deputy assistant of the cabinet, who also had a dazzling position, who provoked this incident.

As for Yuan Chonghuan, the opinions of the hundred officials of the imperial court are also quite interesting.

Out of public interest, for the Ming court, which is still suffering from internal and external troubles, leaving Yuan Chonghuan's life is obviously more beneficial than disadvantageous, and although Yuan Chonghuan made some mistakes in the first battle of Beijing last year, he also barely completed the task of guarding the Beijing division, and defeated the elite of the Manchurian Eight Banners many times in the front, which can be regarded as a lot of credit. Therefore, from a reasonable point of view, the most objective way to deal with Yuan Chonghuan is to let his merits and demerits be offset and make meritorious contributions, and go to Liaodong under the old superintendent Sun Chengzong to help with the defense of Liaodong, which is the best way.

However, the difference in Yuan Chonghuan's popularity is even worse than that of Mr. Wen Tiren.

When the imperial court relied on it to defend Liaodong, in order to resist the offensive of Manchurian Nurhachi and Huang Taiji's father and son, Yuan Chonghuan asked the imperial court for money, goods, food, and power. Mao Wenlong, the chief soldier of Naphi Island, was killed by him in this way, and Zhao Shujiao and Man Gui, who were originally close friends with him in life and death, were also strangers to him.

Coupled with the Battle of Beijing, Yuan Chonghuan was obsessed with annihilating or severely damaging the main force of the Eight Banners of Manchuria under the city of Beijing, and allowed the Eight Banners Iron Cavalry to trample on the farmhouses around the Jingshi, causing heavy losses to all the officials in the capital.

These Beijing officials, who have broken their wealth and broken hearts, naturally do not have much of a good impression of Supervisor Yuan Chonghuan, and they are already very kind without the impeachment of Master Wen Tiren.