King Fu, who had been staying in Huai'an, suddenly disappeared, and disappeared after being assassinated, if it had been placed two years ago, it would have caused a big wave in the imperial court, but now, the new Nanjing imperial court, no one is willing to seriously investigate this matter. Because now, the new court in Nanjing still has a lot of things to do.

My Ming Dynasty has always had a whole set of central institutions in Nanjing, except that there is no emperor and cabinet, it is almost exactly the same as Beijing. When Emperor Chengzu moved the capital to Beijing, in order to balance the interests of the south, he also left a complete set of central institutions in Nanjing. Theoretically, the officials in this set of institutions are equal in rank to those in Beijing, for example, the Nanjing Hubu Shangshu and the Beijing Hubu Shangshu are theoretically the same as the Beijing Hubu Shangshu. However, in terms of actual authority, Nanjing's Hubu Shangshu can't be compared with Beijing's Hubu Shangshu. So later, Nanjing's central institutions became the placement of idle retired officials and some officials who were not welcomed but could not find anything wrong to directly demote or simply punish crimes, in fact, it became a nursing home and a garbage recycling station. For example, the famous Haiqingtian Hai Rui has been an official in the Southern Sixth Department for a long time. Therefore, the officials of the Sixth Department of Nanjing were either old men or opponents who were incompatible with the original imperial court.

After Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, he once used the Donglin Party people, but he soon found that the Donglin Party people did nothing but mouth cannons, and they were used to branding all the people who were different from themselves as "traitors", which seemed to have the intention of dominating the court. Generally speaking, it is intolerable for any emperor to have all his men in a gang, or to try to drive out everyone else who is not his own. Because if this situation cannot be stopped, it will almost certainly mean the sidelines of imperial power.

The Donglin Party does not do things, and likes to exclude dissidents. As a result, Chongzhen naturally became more and more dissatisfied with them. But on the other hand, the Donglin Party may not be very good at doing anything else, but they are the top in playing public opinion, so their reputation is better than one by one. It is not good to directly dismiss and demote officials. Fortunately, my Ming Dynasty had a Nanjing Sixth Department, so Emperor Chongzhen used the method of "promotion" to the Donglin Party officials and threw them all to Nanjing. However, Emperor Chongzhen did not expect that one day, the central institutions in Beijing would be finished with him, and the Nanliu Department in Nanjing, which was used as a garbage recycling station, suddenly became the imperial court, and the Donglin Party people, who had been taken down by him, once again occupied the most important position in the entire bureaucratic system.

Nanjing was originally the base of Donglin, and judging from the class analysis method of later generations, the Donglin Party was the representative of the interests of the big landlords and big businessmen in the Nanzhili area, and now they naturally do not want to get a prince who is not right with them to be the emperor. Therefore, they have always wanted to skip King Fu, who has the highest succession line, and hand over the throne to King Lu, who is good friends with them. Now, the biggest obstacle is the sudden disappearance of King Fu, and in a sense, this is exactly what they want. As the so-called first to enter the customs is the king, with the bureaucratic system of the entire Nanjing, coupled with the fact that King Fu suddenly knows his life and death, and there are rumors that he was killed by thieves, Qian Qianyi, the leader of Donglin, feels that at this time, it is just right to let King Lu supervise the country in the name of not being ownerless for a day, and then send orders to the Quartet, quickly determine the name, and then, it seems that the world can be determined.

Qian Qianyi's views were supported by many Donglin Party members, such as Lu Daqi, the squire of the Nanjing Military Department, Gao Hongtu, the Shangshu of the Nanjing Household Department, Zhang Shenyan, the Imperial History of the Right Capital, and Jiang Yueguang, the Zhan Shi of the Zhan Shifu, all expressed their support, but Shi Kefa, the most powerful Nanjing Military Department Shangshu Shi Kefa, was quite skeptical at this time, because according to the etiquette law, even if King Fu was not considered, King Gui should be considered first. It's just that King Gui is far away in Guangxi at this time, and the road is far away, and he can't get to Nanjing for a while. Qian Qianyi said to Shi Kefa: "If King Gui is established, when will King Gui arrive in Nanjing?" I'm afraid that if I go and come, I may not be able to arrive in July. If it is raging today, the generals everywhere are suspicious. If we fail to establish the Son of Heaven as soon as possible, in case the armies of all places will be forced by the thieves, then I am afraid that there will be many of them who surrender to the thieves. If so, the big thing will go! ”

Shi Kefa was still a little hesitant, and said: "What if Yao respects King Gui as the prison country?" ”

"King Gui from Yaozun? If so, how to give orders to the military towns? Qian Qianyi said, "If we give a direct order in the name of the prison country, then everyone knows that the prison country is still in Guangxi, and we are just an edict, who will really obey the order?" Besides, what will be written in the history books in the future? If you ask for your life in everything, the road is far away, how is it different from having no king? If it is critical today, one more day of delay will be one more day of danger. If King Gui is near Nanjing, it is naturally the most suitable, but now it is thousands of miles away, as the so-called far water does not save the near fire! Moreover, King Lu is wise and wise, and the world knows it. Now, if you want to keep the Daming Society, you can only establish King Lu as the king! ”

Shi Kefa was very famous in later generations because of his martyrdom. But in fact, Shi Kefa is not a man of great talent, and there is another very fatal fault for politicians, that is, indecision. In history, Shi Kefa almost failed to make even wrong decisions in time, whether it was in the matter of appointing anyone as the Son of Heaven, or on whether Shandong should be restored, or even in various matters that later guarded Yangzhou. He always seemed accustomed to letting time and options slip by in hesitation. And at such times, the biggest mistake is not being able to make a decision, and even if you make a wrong decision, it is better than not being able to make a decision.

At this time, Shi Kefa's mistake was made again, so he said to Qian Qianyi: "Mr. Yushan, let me think about it again, think about it again." ”

Qian Qianyi talked for a while, but Shi Kefa still couldn't make up his mind. Qian Qianyi couldn't help it, so he went to Lu Daqi again, told Lu Daqi about it, and said: "Now that the country is in danger, Shi Xianzhi hesitates to decide, how about it?" ”

Lu Daqi thought for a while and said, "Shi Xianzhi has always been like this. However, if we had set up King Lu first, most of the Xianzhi would not have objected. Mr. Yu Shan, you and I contacted some gentlemen and directly welcomed King Lu to Nanjing. When King Lu arrives, will Xianzhi still oppose it? ”

"That's right!" Qian Qianyi also replied, "In this case, without further ado." I'll take my leave. ”

Later, as Lu Daqi estimated, Qian Qianyi first contacted Li Chengdong, who was stationed in Xuzhou at that time, Li Chengdong was Gao Jie's general, at this time Gao Jie was the closest to Li Zicheng's soldiers, he felt that he couldn't beat Li Zicheng, so he was ready to retreat early, and let his most trusted subordinates guard the main way to retreat. And let his wife, Mrs. Xing, stay here with their son.

After Li Chengdong knew what Qian Qianyi meant, he immediately told Mrs. Xing about it, although Mrs. Xing was a woman, she was also quite decisive, and she immediately expressed her support on behalf of Gao Jie. So Qian Qianyi and Lu Daqi simply got rid of Shi Kefa and directly sent someone to take King Lu to Nanjing, Shi Kefa saw that King Lu had arrived, but he did not object, so he followed everyone to meet him, and asked him to supervise the country as a prince.

In this way, the Donglin Party got their wish and put King Lu in the position of supervising the country, and issued an announcement to the Quartet to announce the matter. For a while, it seemed that the general trend had been set. However, only half a month later, a sea ship brought a good news and another proclamation to Nanjing, and the content of the proclamation was almost identical to the proclamation they issued to supervise the kingdom of King Lu, except that the person who claimed to be in charge of the kingdom as a prince became King Fu.