"Taishi, supporting the Son of Heaven is an important matter of the country, and it should be presided over by you, the Taishi of the Ming Dynasty, but before you arrived in Nanjing, they elected King Fu to ascend the throne, which can mess up the custom of the imperial court, the name is not right, and the words are not good!"

"They are arbitrarily powering, how can the Son of Heaven of the Ming Dynasty be so hastily upheld? If the local vassal kings followed suit, the consequences would be unimaginable. ”

"How can those people in Nanjing City be virtuous, and what qualifications can they have to support the Son of Heaven?"

……

After arriving at Jining, an important town along the canal, Li Hongyu convened the accompanying civil and military officials to discuss the matter and told them the news of King Fu's accession to the throne, which made the ministers riot at once, and they all expressed their dissatisfaction and anger.

Although these civil and military officials present surrendered to the Dashun army, in their opinion, it was just an expedient measure, not really for Li Zizhi, but for the future of the Ming Dynasty to preserve its strength, waiting for the opportunity to return to the Ming Dynasty.

Historically, there were indeed some officials who fled south from Beijing to Nanjing, and it is difficult to say whether they were loyal to the Ming Dynasty or could not bear Dashun's "chasing stolen goods".

Since Li Hongyu did not hold them accountable, these civil and military officials are naturally still ministers of the Ming Dynasty, and only the new emperor of the Ming Dynasty can remove them from their positions.

It is worth mentioning that they are different from those officials who opened the city to lead the Dashun army into the city, and their behavior is out-and-out treason, and they have already been arrested by Li Hongyu and escorted back to Nanjing to await trial.

From a legal point of view, the people who can be summoned by Li Hongyu to attend the proceedings are still officials of the Ming Dynasty, representing the yamen of the orthodox central ministries of the Ming Dynasty, and the yamen of the ministries and courtyards in Nanjing are just foils.

Therefore, the civil and military officials at the scene were very annoyed and dissatisfied with the fact that the people of Nanjing had proclaimed King Fu as emperor without their consent, and where did this put them? It is obvious that King Fu will reuse those who support him, and then these officials who have come from Beijing will be snubbed and suppressed.

This situation is unacceptable and tolerable to those officials who came out of Beijing, after all, they are the orthodox representatives of the central yamen of the Ming Dynasty, how can they be trampled on the head by those people in Nanjing City?

"Ladies and gentlemen, now is an eventful time, the so-called urgent power, since King Fu has ascended the throne, then for the future of the Ming Dynasty, we still have to support this matter, the overall situation is important!"

Li Hongyu glanced at the excited officials at the scene, and after a deep sigh, he said quietly, not so much that these people are fighting for the orthodoxy of the Ming Dynasty, but that they are for their own interests and do not want to lose their position in the officialdom.

"What the master said is very true!" Now that Li Hongyu has spoken, all the officials present can only accept it, and they bow to Li Hongyu one after another.

In private, everyone secretly felt injustice for Li Hongyu, and it was obvious that even Li Hongyu had been squeezed out of the core of the Nanjing regime this time, otherwise he would never have refused to greet Li Hongyu in advance.

"Alas!"

After the civil and military officials who participated in the deliberations left in groups, Li Hongyu couldn't help but let out a long sigh, and his face was full of helplessness.

Although others are out of town, they are very clear about what is happening in Nanjing.

Since the city of Beijing was captured by the Dashun army, the civil and military officials of Nanjing City began to decide to support the vassal king of the imperial family as the emperor, after all, the country cannot be left without an owner for a day, and then wave the army to the north to restore the country.

According to the Ming Dynasty's customization, the rule of succession to the throne is "there is a grandson, no grandson is long", and there is no "brother to brother", which will make many people covet the throne, and then cause court bloodshed.

Although the Emperor of the Apocalypse has no heirs, in a situation like him, he usually chooses an heir before his death, but the situation of Emperor Chongzhen is different, he has three candidates for the crown prince but they are all trapped in the city of Beijing, so it is no different from having no heirs.

In this way, who will be the emperor of the Ming Dynasty has become a thorny issue, and according to the conventions and rules, the queen mother should decide on the successor after consulting with the important ministers of the court on behalf of the imperial family.

But the Empress Dowager and others are also trapped in Beijing, and their lives and deaths are unknown, so at this time, the most noble minister in the court should preside over the matter of supporting the new emperor, that is to say, this matter should be done by Li Hongyu, so that the elected crown prince can be called orthodox.

Although the Ming Dynasty is now in crisis, those officials in Nanzhili have formed a party and fought viciously for their own selfish interests, and they all want to get the most benefits from this incident of supporting the Son of Heaven.

Among them, Ma Shiying, the governor of Fengyang, and Lu Jiude, the supervisor of Fengyang, and other officials in the four towns of Huai'an, Yangzhou, Luzhou, and Sizhou, supported the accession of Zhu Yousong, the king of Fu, to the throne on the grounds that Zhu Yousong was the closest imperial bloodline to Emperor Chongzhen.

Zhu Yousong and Emperor Chongzhen are both grandsons of Emperor Wanli, with Emperor Chongzhen's suicide, Emperor Wanli's eldest son Emperor Taichang's bloodline has been cut off, and the second son of Emperor Zhu Changfu is born and dies without blood.

Although Zhu Changxun, the third son of the Wanli Emperor, was killed by Li Zicheng after breaking through Luoyang in the 14th year of Chongzhen, his eldest son Zhu Yousong escaped from Luoyang and inherited the title of King Fu.

In terms of blood kinship, Zhu Yousong is indeed the closest vassal king to Emperor Chongzhen.

However, because Zhu Yousong is not in the scope of the Ming ancestral system, "there is a grandson, there is no grandson", so although his bloodline is recent, there is no custom that he will be able to inherit the throne.

Theoretically, in this case, all the local vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty are eligible to inherit the throne, and the key is to see the results of the deliberations between the empress dowager and the important ministers of the court, in addition to the bloodline, it usually depends on ability and character.

Therefore, in the face of Ma Shiying, who was regarded as a "eunuch party", proposed that Zhu Yousong succeed him, and the officials of the Donglin Party, headed by Qian Qianyi, the leader of the Donglin Party, supported Zhu Changshu, the son of Zhu Yiyi, the younger brother of the Wanli Emperor, as the emperor.

Another big man of the Donglin Party, Nanjing Military Department Shangshu Shi Kefa advocated that both virtuous and pro-family should be established, so he supported Zhu Changying, the seventh son of Shenzong, as the emperor.

In order to oppose Zhu Yousong's succession, Shi Kefa listed his seven major shortcomings, namely: greed, lewdness, alcoholism, unfilial piety, abuse of subordinates, failure to study, and interference with officials, saying that Zhu Yousong "is disloyal and unfilial in the domain, and it is difficult for him to dominate the world."

Because Ma Shiying and Lu Jiude, who supported Zhu Yousong, were foreign ministers, they naturally did not have more influence in Nanjing than Qian Qianyi and Shi Kefa in Nanjing, so they were at a disadvantage in the struggle for the throne.

But Zhu Yousong also has a huge advantage, that is, Ma Shiying has the Jiangbei army in his hands, and Lu Jiude is also the supervisor of Nanjing.

Therefore, in order to allow Zhu Yousong to ascend the throne, Ma Shiying led his troops to personally send him to Pukou, Nanjing, and Xu Hongji, the Duke of Wei, crossed the river to greet him.

This made everyone in Nanjing City shocked, everyone knew that Ma Shiying's move was to escort Zhu Yousong to the throne, and the army of Nanjing City was forced to close the city gate by more than 100 Japanese robbers, and the combat effectiveness can be imagined.

Moreover, Lu Jiude also had a lot of connections in the Nanjing army, and he had only one crushing defeat against Ma Shiying, which made Qian Qianyi and Shi Kefa have to agree to Zhu Yousong's succession.

Therefore, the hundred officials of Nanjing welcomed Zhu Yousong and asked him to be the supervisor of the country in the Longjiang Guanzhou, after all, at this time, the whereabouts of the crown prince and King Ding and King Yong were unknown, and Zhu Yousong could not be directly allowed to ascend the throne.

At this time, according to the usual practice, Zhu Yousong and the officials in Nanjing played a trick of persuasion, Zhu Yousong deduced that he did not bring his palace dependents to prepare for refuge in eastern Zhejiang, and was unwilling to be a prisoner, and only reluctantly agreed after several persuasions from the ministers.

Half a month later, Zhu Yousong ascended the throne as the emperor in the Wuying Hall of the Imperial Palace of Nanjing City, changed the Yuan to Hongguang, and became the Hongguang Emperor in history.

It is worth mentioning that after Zhu Yousong took charge of the country, there was a major event that shook the city of Nanjing, and a person who claimed to be the crown prince Zhu Cihong arrived in Nanjing, saying that Li Zicheng was waiting for an opportunity to escape after the defeat at Shanhaiguan, and asked to ascend the throne and succeed to the throne, and waved his troops north to avenge Emperor Chongzhen and the slaughtered people.

The officials of Nanjing City were so shocked by this sudden prince that they didn't know what to do, and the prince lived in the East Palace for a long time when he was in the capital and rarely showed up, so as not to make personal friends with foreign ministers.

Therefore, except for those important ministers of the imperial court, even Shi Kefa and Ma Shiying have not seen such Nanzhili officials, so naturally they cannot distinguish the authenticity.

As the capital was breached by the Dashun army, all the civil and military officials in the capital became prisoners of the Dashun army, which made those who knew the prince trapped in the capital, and naturally no one could distinguish its authenticity.

When Zhu Yousong learned of this, he ordered him to be imprisoned in the Terracotta Prison, and then ordered the civil and military officials to try the prince outside the noon gate.

In view of this, Zhu Yousong ordered the prince to be put in prison for interrogation, and after some torture, he finally admitted that he was a fake prince, and his real identity was a soldier of Long Xiangwei, who guarded the palace, and knew that he wanted to take advantage of the chaos to seize the throne.

Anyway, the officials in Nanjing didn't know him, and they couldn't prove his authenticity at all, as long as he could board the plane smoothly, then he would be the son of heaven in the Ming Dynasty, even if someone knew that he was a fake in the future, there was nothing to be done, which was why he knew so much about royal affairs.

Although the identity of the fake prince was tried, many officials and people thought that he was the real prince, and Zhu Yousong deliberately said that it was fake in order to inherit the throne, which had a great impact on society.

Li Hongyu's arrival undoubtedly solved Zhu Yousong's heart disease, because Li Hongyu not only brought the coffins of Emperor Chongzhen and Empress Zhou, but also brought the coffins of the crown prince, King Ding and King Yong, plus the testimony of the accompanying civil and military officials in the capital, making the identity of the fake prince self-defeating.

For Li Hongyu's arrival, Zhu Yousong naturally welcomed it vigorously, Princess Shouning is Zhu Yousong's aunt, and his uncle Ran Xingrang and Li Hongyu are close friends, Li Hongyu will definitely support Zhu Yousong when he comes to Nanjing this time.

For this reason, Zhu Yousong specially sent the civil and military officials of Nanjing City to the wharf on the side of the canal to welcome Li Hongyu's arrival, and it was also the coffin to welcome Emperor Chongzhen and his party.

(End of chapter)