Chongzhen's sudden anger suddenly shocked the officials involved in the debate in the palace. Chongzhen, who returned to the capital after defeating Jin, has recently had a very good reputation in the capital.

When Chongzhen first ascended the throne two years ago, although the two opposing sides in the court needed the support of the emperor, they did not think that Chongzhen had the ability to govern independently. While these officials attacked their political opponents, their greatest ideal was to gain the emperor's trust and govern the country according to the political ideas they proposed.

But in the third year of Chongzhen, no matter the officials of any party, they had to approve that Chongzhen's governance methods and political methods in the past two years on the throne were enough to make him a powerful party in the government. Not to mention, Chongzhen's personal defeat of the Houjin army brought a great prestige bonus to the emperor.

By this time, the fighting between the officials in the court had actually had to be eased. Only officials like Li Biao and Qian Longxi, who could not see the situation clearly, or who were young and vigorous and refused to compromise with Huang Liji and other remnants of the eunuch party, still set the goal of the struggle on the so-called remnants of the eunuch party.

For these officials, who have always held the belief that they want to fight to the remnants of the eunuch party, a small number of them want to replace them, and there are so many positions of real power in the court, and how can they sit on them if they do not pull down the opponents who sit in these positions.

There was also a large number of people who opposed the reform policies implemented by the imperial court in the past two years, and because Chongzhen expressed support for the reform policies, they had to carry out a roundabout attack, trying to hit the officials who implemented these reform policies first, and then find a way to abolish or shelve these reform policies.

Since the emperor's return to Beijing, these officials have been trying to unite in every possible way, hoping to criticize the mistakes in the cabinet through the adjustment of the general staff, so as to reverse Chongzhen's trust in the reformist officials, and eventually slow down the current pace of reform in the imperial court.

Although the alliance of the Donglin Party and these conservative officials who opposed the reform strengthened the opposition to the reformists, their methods of political struggle in the court were still the same.

First set off public opinion criticism from the people, and then the officials played it with hearsay, and then they attacked it in the court, thus creating a situation in which everyone who was impeached shouted and beaten, so that the emperor had to face up to the wind direction brought by the public opinion of the government and the opposition.

However, in the current Ming Dynasty, the set of political struggle methods they adhere to is obviously outdated. First of all, in terms of public opinion, because of the emergence of the Daming Times and various newspapers and periodicals, the control power of public opinion has changed from the original mouth of Shilin Qingliu to the chief writer of various newspapers.

Newspapers and periodicals led by the Daming Times, with the advantages of wide dissemination, large amount of information, and timely transmission speed, completely covered the slow word of mouth among scholars in the past. For example, in the past, in the capital, if the officials and gentry in the city wanted to focus their attention on one thing, it took at least a month or two of circulation and brewing before they could incite a high degree of public opinion.

Today, however, a few articles in the newspapers can replace the propaganda of the past month or two. When the beneficiaries of the reform strangled and refuted the remarks of these conservative scholars, the conservative forces completely lost their dominant power in public opinion.

And today, these old-fashioned officials are trying to launch a frontal attack at the court meeting, so as to prevent reformist officials such as Huang Liji from consolidating their power by resisting the victory of the Houjin invasion.

But they had just made a start, and when they wanted to prevent the resurgence of a real traitor like Cui Chengxiu, they were directly slapped by Chongzhen, which made the officials who felt that they were completely loyal to the emperor to criticize them, both aggrieved and angry.

An official was very angry and defended himself to Chongzhen: "Although what Your Majesty said is selfless, the ministers oppose Cui Chengxiu's revenge and impeach the cabinet ministers to deceive the saints, which is also out of sincerity, and there is absolutely no selfishness."

If the officials selected by His Majesty are not good or bad, and let the tigers and wolves mix in them, then although Your Majesty always thinks of the people, the people will still not have a day to live and work in peace and contentment.

Your Majesty wants to have peace in the world, long-term peace and stability in the country, and people living and working in peace and contentment, so he should be cautious in selecting officials. How can we say that we are not serving Your Majesty when we speak for the people today..."

"Good, good, that's a good point." Zhu Youzhen stood up from the throne, walked back and forth on the steps in front of the throne, and forcibly suppressed his anger and said to His Highness's officials who refuted him: "A good one is out of sincerity, and a good one speaks for the people, I almost believed it."

What are you discussing these days when you are gathering outside in tandem, to eat hundreds of dollars for a banquet? Do you eat it with the people in mind? Then you should tell me, how much food can ordinary people in the capital earn in a month, and how much does it cost to eat a meal on weekdays? ”

Hearing the emperor's questioning again, the officials who had just stood up to defend themselves did not know how to explain. He didn't know whether to say he didn't know about it, or deny that they hadn't spent that much on dinner out.

If you say that you don't know about the dinner, you are obviously deceiving the emperor in public, and since the emperor can even know the cost of their dinner, it is obviously asking for trouble to deny it now.

If they deny that they didn't spend so much on dining out, it is to confirm that they did have a private dinner meeting, and this does not confirm the fact that they formed a party to manipulate the government.

Lu Chengyuan, Qian Shisheng and the others couldn't help but look at the court class on the side, wanting Li Biao, Qian Longxi and others to come out and say a few fair words to help them divert the emperor's attention and let them get through the current predicament.

However, to the disappointment of the two, Li Biao, Qian Longxi and others avoided their gaze, but Yang Weiyuan and other remnants of the eunuch party looked at the emperor's face, as if they wanted to take this opportunity to launch a counterattack.

Lu Chengyuan, who was in the bureau, found that he could no longer stay out of the matter, so he was heartbroken, grabbed ahead of Yang Weiyuan and the others, and said to the emperor head-on: "Your Majesty, although the ministers are wrong, how can Your Majesty spy on the behavior of officials with factory guards, this is not the reason for Your Majesty to govern the country." ”

After finding that if they continued like this, they had become villains who formed a party for personal gain, in order not to ruin their reputation, Lu Chengyuan had to take the risk of provoking the emperor and criticizing the most taboo factory and health policies of the Ming civil officials.

Although after angering the emperor like this, Lu Chengyuan did not feel that he could escape the corporal punishment after the emperor's anger, but he was able to save their reputation. Even if he was driven home by the emperor to live idle, it was better to be driven home because he criticized the emperor for relying on the factory guards than to form a party for personal gain and be driven out of the capital.

Lu Chengyuan successfully angered Chongzhen, but failed to get the result he wanted, and Zhu Youzhen became more and more calm after being angry to the extreme.

He pointed to Lu Chengyuan, who was kneeling below, and said, "Master's words are good: clever words, fresh and benevolent. I think you fit this sentence very well, so I'd rather deal with a real villain than a hypocrite like you. Wang Chengen read it to them, and let everyone hear how I governed the country with factory guards. ”

Everyone in the hall looked up at Wang Chengen in amazement, not knowing what the emperor meant.

Wang Chengen took out a newspaper from his side for a long time, and then looked at it and read an article, this article is mainly to criticize some officials in the capital for excessive profligacy, even if the emperor is out on an expedition, the people of Jizhou are still in dire straits, they are still singing every night, a meal costs dozens of hundreds of yuan, which is equivalent to about ten yuan per person per meal.

Although the income of officials in the capital has been reformed several times, most of the middle and low-level officials earn 15-45 yuan per month. With their wealth, they simply can't afford to go out for three days and two ends.

The author also made an analysis of the income of ordinary people of all walks of life in the capital, and demonstrated that the cost of a meal for these officials was already worth a month's income of ordinary people's homes.

Wang Chengen finally recited: "... The food of the victims in Shaanxi is less than five cents a day, and these court officials are so extravagant, would they rather feel ashamed?

This is an article published in today's Daming Times, and the latest Daming Times will be sent to the palace every day and handed over to His Majesty for inspection. What His Majesty said just now is all information published in the Daming Times, not a secret report submitted by the factory guard. ”

Only then did Zhu Youzhen look at the officials below and said unceremoniously: "I only learned today that the people often say: as long as the state officials set fires, the people are not allowed to light the lamps. What exactly does that mean?

Looking at your performance today, it's not just that the people can't light the lamp, even if it's me, I can't light it either, otherwise I won't become a faint monarch who governs the country in the factory? ”

Jiang Dejing glanced at Lu Chengyuan and the others with earthy faces, and then at Yang Weiyuan and the others with happy faces, and couldn't help sighing in his heart, knowing that he had to stand up at this time.

Unlike Lu Chengyuan and others, who were bent on bringing down the cabinet, although Jiang Dejing was as dissatisfied with Huang Liji and other eunuch members, he believed that the current pattern of the imperial court should be a faction of officials who should be quiet and not moving.

In Jiang Dejing's view, justice and justice should indeed be served, for example, the previous persecution of the Donglin Party should be rehabilitated.

But wasn't the purpose of the struggle between the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party to be the way to govern the country? Now that all aspects of the Ming Dynasty are gradually improving, in order to be able to continue this good situation, then officials who want to be good for the country should be patient with each other to maintain the status quo of the court.

In the silent hall, where only Chongzhen's reprimand voice was heard, Jiang Dejing finally walked out and said to the emperor: "Minister Jiang Dejing wants to show his favor to Your Majesty..."