In late September, Zhao Xin boarded a ship heading south and left the capital, and Li Hongyu went to the dock to see him off, and agreed to meet him when he reported to the capital three years later.

The reason why Li Hongyu did not return to the Customs Department with Zhao Xin and agreed to meet three years later was because he was going to northern Xinjiang to visit Mangui's Western Expeditionary Army.

With the progress of the war in northern Xinjiang, there are now many affairs waiting for Li Hongyu to deal with in the army of the Western Expedition, not only in military affairs but also in government affairs, and the complicated contradictions have reached the point where he has to solve them.

This is also an important reason for Li Hongyu to ask Emperor Chongzhen to resign, the western expedition is a national policy set by Emperor Wanli, and it is related to the safety of the Ming frontier, so Emperor Chongzhen naturally wants to support, if he can defeat the Warat people entrenched in the northwest in one fell swoop, then the northwest of the Ming Dynasty will sit back and relax.

On the third day of Zhao Xin's departure, Li Hongyu bid farewell to Emperor Chongzhen and embarked on the road to the west, and in order to ensure his safety, Emperor Chongzhen specially transferred more than 1,000 forbidden cavalry to escort him.

These cavalrymen were all veterans who had fought with Houjin outside the Guan, and they had rich combat experience, which was enough to protect Li Hongyu's safety on the road.

After driving out of the capital, Li Hongyu deliberately turned his head to look at the majestic Beijing City behind him, and there was a lot of emotion in his heart: Daming is now the time to need stability, and Emperor Chongzhen, who ascended the throne, is a young man with little experience, I am afraid that the troubled times of Daming are about to begin.

Li Hongyu now has no intention of paying attention to the rights and wrongs in the officialdom of the capital, once he falls into it, he will be entangled, he doesn't want to be busy dealing with intrigue and deceit in the officialdom every day, in that case, where will he have time to deal with a lot of affairs.

In Li Hongyu's opinion, if Emperor Chongzhen can make good use of Wei Zhongxian, the sharp blade left to him by the Emperor of the Apocalypse, then the court situation will not change much, and there are people who are afraid of the civil officials in the court.

After a few years, Emperor Chongzhen will be able to control the court situation and avoid turmoil in the court.

It's a pity that the Emperor of the Apocalypse underestimated his precious imperial brother, although Emperor Chongzhen was young, he had been exposed to it since the Emperor of the Apocalypse ascended the throne, and he knew more or less about the sinister nature of officialdom, and had a certain opinion.

Perhaps because of his personality, or maybe it is related to his education, Emperor Chongzhen is a little different from Emperor Tianqi, believing that eunuchs should not interfere too much in court politics, and court affairs should be run by civil and military officials.

Because there are a lot of unbearable rumors about Wei Zhongxian in the market, and the teachers from the Donglin Party who usually teach him knowledge do not say that Wei Zhongxian is not.

Therefore, in the eyes of Emperor Chongzhen, Wei Zhongxian's character is not good, he acts high-flying, is very obsessed with power, and has the title of "nine thousand nine hundred years old".

In the final analysis, Emperor Chongzhen is just a young man who has not been deeply involved in the world, how can he know the deceit on the market, let alone distinguish the truth from the falsehood of things, and has a relatively simple and straightforward dislike and dislike.

Although Emperor Chongzhen had a relatively large prejudice against Wei Zhongxian, Wei Zhongxian was a person who was specially left to him by the Emperor of the Apocalypse and personally instructed him to be trusted, so Emperor Chongzhen did not want to touch him, but only began to alienate Wei Zhongxian intentionally or unintentionally.

Wei Zhongxian has been up and down for decades, and he can naturally feel Emperor Chongzhen's indifference to him, which makes him who was originally ready to serve Emperor Chongzhen feel like he was poured a basin of cold water head-on, and his enthusiasm was cooled in an instant.

The so-called peep leopard in the tube, a leaf knows the autumn, Wei Zhongxian knows that Emperor Chongzhen hates him in his heart, rather than staying in the capital to make Emperor Chongzhen unhappy, it is better to take the initiative to avoid it, so that both parties are happy.

Therefore, a few days after Li Hongyu left the capital, Wei Zhongxian wrote to Emperor Chongzhen, hoping to resign from his position and return to his hometown on the grounds of advanced age.

Emperor Chongzhen was very surprised by Wei Zhongxian's letter, although he didn't like Wei Zhongxian, he didn't mean to drive Wei Zhongxian away.

No matter how Wei Zhongxian is also a person who the Emperor of the Apocalypse specially told him to take care of, and the person who cleared the Emperor of the Apocalypse as soon as he succeeded to the throne would make the outside world look at him.

Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen rejected Wei Zhongxian without thinking about it, let him continue to stay in the capital to serve the royal family, and gave him a lot of rewards in order to appease Wei Zhongxian.

Emperor Chongzhen's original intention was to gradually remove Wei Zhongxian from power, so that he could explain to the dead Emperor of the Apocalypse, but what he never expected was that the officials of the Donglin Party were keenly aware of the fact that Emperor Chongzhen did not favor Wei Zhongxian as much as the Emperor of the Apocalypse.

As a result, the officials of the Donglin Party rose up to attack him and wrote to impeach Wei Zhongxian, saying that he had engaged in favoritism, perverted the law for bribes, and even intended to rebel.

The recitals of the impeachment of Wei Zhongxian were impassioned one by one, and they said with noses and eyes, as if they had seen Wei Zhongxian break the law with their own eyes.

Seeing this situation, the officials of the original Qi, Chuzhe, and other factions in the court also followed the prelude to defend Wei Zhongxian, pointing out that Wei Zhongxian was loyal and law-abiding, and the impeachment of the Donglin Party was slanderous.

Around the issue of Wei Zhongxian's loyalty and traitor, the two factions are at loggerheads, quarreling fiercely, since the Donglin Six Gentlemen incident after the Donglin Party is at a disadvantage, so there has never been such a fierce debate in the officialdom of the capital.

In the face of this sudden outbreak of party strife, the young Emperor Chongzhen didn't know what to do for a while, after all, he had never experienced this kind of formation, and he had never learned the power technique of balancing party struggle before.

Just when Emperor Chongzhen was hesitating, a piece of music angered him, making him finally make a choice in his heart.

Zhu Zhijun, the secretary of Guozijian, impeached Lu Wanling and Cao Dai, two of whom had asked Lin Qian, another secretary of Guozijian, to establish a shrine for Wei Zhongxian in Guozijian half a year ago, and respected him with Sage Kong.

Lin Qian felt ridiculous, so he smeared the credit pen and ink of the two people's request for the Lisheng Ancestral Hall, when Wei Zhongxian was in power, and then left his post and returned to his hometown.

Lu Wanling and Cao Dai were not discouraged, but wrote another letter of request to Zhu Zhijun, who was also the secretary, although Zhu Zhijun also felt that this move was very ridiculous, how could Wei Zhongxian be respected with Sage Kong? But he didn't dare to offend Wei Zhongxian, so he tried his best to be perfunctory.

Then, the Emperor of the Apocalypse Xiyuan fell into the water, and the matter dragged on.

Now that the Donglin Party has impeached Wei Zhongxian, Zhu Zhijun knew that Wei Zhongxian was no longer as powerful as he was during the Emperor of the Apocalypse, so he also joined the army that overthrew Wei and impeached Lu Wanling and Cao Dai, who blasphemed the Confucian saints.

Emperor Chongzhen never thought that the prisoner of Guozijian would respect Wei Zhongxian as a "saint", which challenged his bottom line, and at the same time invisibly confirmed the rumor that Wei Zhongxian was powerful and the leader of the "eunuch party", otherwise why would people want to slap him, is it really the rumored "nine thousand nine hundred years old"?

Emperor Chongzhen was naturally very annoyed by the blasphemy of the Confucian saint, and ordered Lu Wanling and Cao Dai to be severely punished, he was different from the Emperor of the Apocalypse, and had an antipathetic attitude towards Wei Zhongxian's ancestral hall.

After the Guozijian incident, Emperor Chongzhen read a lot of books that recorded the tactics of ancient emperors, and after some weighing, he quickly made up his mind to crack down on Wei Zhongxian and the "eunuch party" who followed him, and reactivated the Donglin party, which had a good reputation among the people.

Emperor Chongzhen still agrees with the political proposition of the Donglin Party very much, since the Emperor of the Apocalypse can control the ministers with ease, then he believes that he can also control the Donglin Party, and with the assistance of the Donglin Party, he will prosper the Ming Dynasty.

As a result, Emperor Chongzhen gave the Donglin Party a signal to overthrow Wei, and when Yang Weiyuan, the imperial historian, impeached Cui Chengxiu, the secretary of the military department who was close to Wei Zhongxian, Emperor Chongzhen immediately dismissed him from his official position.

This immediately caused a sensation in the officialdom of the capital, and even Yang Weiyuan did not expect that Emperor Chongzhen would remove Cui Chengxiu from his post so quickly, you must know that Cui Chengxiu was regarded by the Donglin Party as Wei Zhongxian's right-hand man, the second person in the "Eunuch Party".

The smart people in the capital quickly sensed the strange smell from it, and Emperor Chongzhen was about to attack Wei Zhongxian and the "eunuch party".

As a result, the Donglin Party was encouraged, and the impeachment of Wei Zhongxian flew to Emperor Chongzhen's desk like snowflakes, and the nature of the recital became more and more ruthless, in addition to putting a hat engraved with heinous charges on Wei Zhongxian, he also said that he had the heart of rebellion, comparing him to Wang Mang and Dong Zhuo who were traitorous and rebellious in history.

I have to say that when it comes to playing with a pen and using his mouth, Wei Zhongxian really has to bow down in front of civil officials, and he is ashamed.

At the end of October, Wei Zhongxian saw that the impeachment of him in the capital was becoming more and more popular, and Cui Chengxiu and other officials close to him were successively dismissed from their official positions by Emperor Chongzhen, and he finally realized that Emperor Chongzhen wanted to give him an explanation to the Donglin Party, so he entered the palace to cry to Emperor Chongzhen about his grievances, and wanted to let Emperor Chongzhen open his net.

Facing Wei Zhongxian, who was crying bitterly, Emperor Chongzhen did not open his mouth to comfort, but showed Wei Zhongxian the upper secretary of Qian Jiazheng, a tribute student in Jiaxing, in the Guozi Prison.

When Wei Zhongxian's face turned pale after opening the song, Qian Jiazheng impeached Wei Zhongxian for the ten major crimes, namely the merger of the emperor, the contempt of the queen, the soldier, the kingless, the stripping, the saintless, the indiscriminate lord, the indiscriminate martial arts, the Jiansheng Temple and the joint.

Although the words are concise and to the point, every word is brilliant and murderous, and no one has ever criticized Wei Zhongxian like this since Yang Lian impeached Wei Zhongxian for the "24 deadly crimes".

Wei Zhongxian immediately understood what Emperor Chongzhen meant, so he said that he was sick and closed his door, and asked for the resignation of the title, coupon and land obtained during the period of Emperor Tianqi.

Emperor Chongzhen graciously approved Wei Zhongxian's resignation, and dismissed him from the post of chief eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor on the grounds of his poor health, and asked him to go to the White Tiger Hall to guard the spirit of the Emperor of the Apocalypse.

The appointment of the chief eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor as the supervisor of the East Factory has become an unwritten custom of the Ming Dynasty, so after Wei Zhongxian lost the position of the chief eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor, he naturally could not do it as the supervisor of the East Factory.

In this way, Cao Huachun was able to serve as the chief eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor and the supervisor of the East Factory.

Wei Zhongxian originally thought that Emperor Chongzhen would quell the attacks against him in the court after he lost his official title, but what he and other officials in the capital did not expect was that in early November, Emperor Chongzhen posted a notice announcing the various crimes committed by Wei Zhongxian, and asked him to go to Fengyang to guard the ancestral tomb.

Not only that, but the Hakka family, who was good with Wei Zhongxian and once served as the nurse of the Emperor of the Apocalypse, was implicated, was demoted to the Huanyi Bureau and suffered, and the family property was confiscated and confiscated.

Faced with this bizarre scene in front of him, Cao Huachun was helpless, he never imagined that Emperor Chongzhen would be so ruthless to Wei Zhongxian, and he knew that Emperor Chongzhen had been quite conceited since he was a child, and once he made up his mind, he would not change it easily.

However, another important close eunuch beside Emperor Chongzhen, Xu Yingyuan, the eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch Bingbi, thought that Wei Zhongxian should be left in the capital, and Wei Zhongxian was still very good at dealing with the officials in the court.

Moreover, Wei Zhongxian has been serving the Emperor of the Apocalypse all these years, without merit and hard work, hoping that the Emperor of the Apocalypse can open the net.

Who would have thought that Xu Yingyuan not only failed to help Wei Zhongxian but committed the taboo of Emperor Chongzhen, he didn't expect that the people around him would speak to Wei Zhongxian, so he drove Xu Yingyuan out of the capital in a fit of anger and let him take up his post in Nanjing.

When Xu Yingyuan left, Cao Huachun and Wang Chengen came to see him off, he took Cao Huachun's hand and wanted to say something, but the corners of his mouth squirmed, and finally he couldn't say it, and left with a gloomy expression.

Cao Huachun knew that Xu Yingyuan was wronged for Wei Zhongxian, and the things that Wei Zhongxian did were all acting on the orders of the Emperor of the Apocalypse, and these eunuchs were clear about this, without the nod of the Emperor of the Apocalypse, how could Wei Zhongxian dare to command Cui Chengxiu and other officials in the court to do things?

What is especially important is that Wei Zhongxian is a master of dealing with the civil official group in the court, if he leaves, it will be difficult for the people in the inner court to compete with the civil official group, and it is also a big blow to the eunuchs in the inner court.

After all, Wei Zhongxian is a person who is loyal to the imperial power, and he has not committed any major mistakes, and Emperor Chongzhen should indeed be open to him.

However, Li Hongyu, who could speak on this matter, had already gone to the northwest, and Zhang Yan remained silent on this matter and did not speak, so the fact that Wei Zhongxian was demoted to Fengyang could not be changed, and Emperor Chongzhen wanted to use Wei Zhongxian in exchange for the hearts of the Donglin Party.

On the way to Fengyang, Wei Zhongxian committed suicide by hanging himself from a beam while traveling to Hejian Mansion, which made the young Emperor Chongzhen furious, believing that he had violated his imperial authority, so he ordered Wei Zhongxian's head to be displayed to the public.

The Hakka of the Huanyi Bureau heard that Wei Zhongxian was dead, and they also followed Wei Zhongxian by hanging, and the two of them were also a pair of hard-working mandarin ducks.

As for the folk rumors that the Hakka family was whipped to death by Emperor Chongzhen, it is purely fictional, and the Hakka family is the nurse of the Emperor of the Apocalypse, so Emperor Chongzhen will not kill her no matter what, otherwise it is a blasphemy against the Emperor of the Apocalypse.

As for whether Wei Zhongxian is really hanging or has something else hidden, the angry Emperor Chongzhen is not interested in knowing, anyway, Wei Zhongxian is dead, and his goal of winning over the Donglin Party has been achieved.

Because the Donglin Party hated Wei Zhongxian and others, it didn't take long for Chongzhen to increase the punishment of Wei Zhongxian in the first month of the first year, and sent someone to bring his body to the capital to be punished with "Ling Chi", and then dumped the corpse in the wilderness.

At the same time, Emperor Chongzhen relied on the Donglin Party to begin to investigate the "eunuch party", which implicated more than 260 officials in the court, rehabilitated the "unjust case" handled by Wei Zhongxian, and reactivated the Donglin party officials who were deposed during the Apocalypse.

Here, Emperor Chongzhen made a big mistake, as the king of a country, what he needed was to control the party struggle rather than let one faction dominate, but he obviously did the opposite, maybe he was deceived, or he had the confidence to control the Donglin Party.

In short, the situation in the capital changed soon after Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, and it was unimaginably fast, and the Donglin Party, which was suppressed by the Emperor of the Apocalypse, rose again and quickly took control of the government, which can really be described as feng shui in turn.

However, none of this has anything to do with Li Hongyu, no matter how turbulent the situation in the capital is, he is out of sight and out of mind, and the top priority is to stabilize the situation in the northwest and open up a new world in the northwest.

(End of chapter)