The so-called Western Party includes some high-ranking officials from Shaanxi, but in fact, it is mainly the Jin Party group.

In the history of the Ming Dynasty, the Western Party did not become a bureaucratic group like the Zhejiang Party, the Chu Party, the Donglin Party, or even the Eunuch Party, which had a huge influence and had long controlled the situation of the dynasty.

However, in the history of the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty and beyond, the Western Party was also intertwined, and once controlled the government, which should not be underestimated at all.

In the late Wanli period, with the rise of the Donglin Party, many rising stars in the Western Party, because of the proximity of appeals, a considerable number of people became the backbone of the Donglin Party, which was dominated by the literati and Jinshi of Nanzhili.

But when it comes to the people from the Western Party who were born in Shanxi, the biggest difference between them and other bureaucratic groups is that the ministers in the Western Party, such as Zhang Siwei, Wang Chonggu, Yang Bo, Wang Jiaping, etc., in the early days, were all from the Jin merchant family.

The ancestors of these people made a fortune by relying on the opening of the Chinese law by the imperial court and the border trade with the Mongolian tribes, and then spent a lot of money to train their children to study and become officials.

In the end, he relied on the preferential policies or care given by his fellow villagers or relatives who were officials in the DPRK and the central government to engage in business and seek even higher profits.

That is to say, to support officials with business, and to protect businessmen with officials.

Zhang Siwei, Wang Chonggu, Yang Bo, Wang Jiaping, etc. are all like this.

Therefore, it is natural that these people have become the umbrella of many Jin merchant families.

Whether it is the Fan family's business name, the Shanxi Chamber of Commerce in Zhangjiakou before, including the Shanxi Chamber of Commerce that gradually transferred to kill Hukou, these people were able to gain a foothold in each mouth along the border before, in addition to their audacity and daring to think and dare to do, behind them stood the entire Shanxi official and business family.

The Jin merchants stepped onto the historical stage in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, which had some direct relationship with Wang Chonggu's long-term tenure as the governor of Xuanda.

Wang Chonggu was born into a Jin merchant family, and after serving as the governor of Xuanda, he recruited Shanxi merchants to Xuanda to operate border trade.

Moreover, only Shanxi merchants were allowed to operate foreign trade with all ports within the territory of Xuanda.

In such a context, the merchant family of Jin merchants born in Shanxi, and the merchants of Shaanxi who married with the merchant family of Shanxi, soon monopolized the trade of Xuanda and even the nine borders.

And many high-ranking officials from Shanxi, as well as the former Western Party families, hold more or less shares in them.

The relationships are intricately intertwined, including in-laws formed by marriage, master-servants formed by refuge and deceit, and clan relationships between distant and close relatives.

No matter what the relationship is, the water in it is very deep, and it can be said that it affects the whole body.

Now Zhang Siwei, Wang Chonggu, who abolished Zhang Juzheng's new policy during the Wanli period, as well as Yang Bo, Wang Jiaping, Wang Guoguang and other bulls, have been dead for many years, and the Western Party formed with these people as the core link seems to have disappeared.

But the influence of these people still exists, and there are many officials from Shanxi official and business families, such as Zhang Shenyan, who strongly opposed the opening of the sea before.

For example, Sun Juxiang, who is one of the servants of the ministry, and Sun Dingxiang, who is his younger brother as one of the right deputy governors of the Imperial Palace.

Another example is Han Yi, the former assistant who is now living in the countryside and seeking recovery.

Moreover, this huge Shanxi official and business group may also include Yin Tonggao, the governor of Sichuan, who is now very valued by Emperor Chongzhen, Zheng Chongjian, who participates in politics in Shaanxi, Chen Qiyu, who participates in politics in Yansui, and Sun Chuanting, the governor of Yansui who is now relied on by Emperor Chongzhen.

Even Zhang Yuan, the governor of Suidezhou, who was rewarded by Emperor Chongzhen for defending Suidezhou but was not promoted, is closely related to the Shanxi official business group.

Because this Zhang Yuan is Zhang Siwei's grandson, and Zhang Siwei's younger brothers, Zhang Sijiao, Zhang Siduan, Zhang Sixiang, and their children and grandchildren are all big businessmen in Shanxi.

As for Han Yi, he is even more remarkable.

As early as the first year of Taichang, Han Yi entered the cabinet and assisted the government, and in the first year of the Apocalypse, he became the prince Taibao and Wenyuan Pavilion scholars, and later further became the prince and the prince, Jianji Hall scholar and cabinet chief assistant.

In the original history, not long after Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, he entered the cabinet again, became a cabinet minister, and soon after served as the first assistant of the cabinet again.

As the cabinet minister of the three dynasties and the first assistant of the two dynasties, Han Yi is also a member of the Shanxi official and business group, and can even be said to be the banner figure in the Shanxi official and business group.

Although Han Yi has not been reinstated by the emperor after Emperor Chongzhen has been on the throne for more than two years, among the courtiers, whether it is the current first assistant Li Guowei or the cabinet minister Sun Chengzong, they have privately recommended Han Yi to the emperor many times.

Because these people were all promoted by Han Yi when he was in the cabinet.

It can be seen that the influence of this person is really not small.

Moreover, in addition to civil officials like Han Yi and others who were born in the Shanxi official and business groups, there were also many border town generals who had various relationships with these Qin and Jin merchants.

The degree of their close relationship is no less than that of these Jinshi civil officials who were born in the Jin Shang family.

Many military generals are directly practitioners of border trade, and they are directly big businessmen.

For example, the ancestral family of Shizhen Ningyuan, the Ma family of Shizhen Datong Right Guard, and the You family of Shizhen Yulin, and so on.

Therefore, how to get rid of these traitor businessmen who engage in border smuggling trade and even fornicate with the north and the east requires a careful approach and strategy.

Even if you are the emperor, it is impossible to directly pull a list and say that these people are all profiteers and sinners who have committed treason to the enemy, and then let Jinyiwei arrest and kill them all.

Although Emperor Chongzhen doesn't care much about his false name or reputation among the courtiers and scholars, he doesn't want to put himself on the opposite side of all the civil officials in the entire court at once.

If he really wants to do this, then he is afraid that he will follow the old path of the Emperor of the Apocalypse and even the Emperor Wanli back then.

From now on, he hid in the palace and saw no one, and completely relied on the celebrant and the brocade guard to rule the Ming Dynasty.

But such an ending is never what he wants!

Because, this problem is not without a solution.

The solution is to divide and dismantle the civilian-bureaucratic clique, which is not monolithic in the first place, to break it up piecemeal, to pieces, and to break it down individually.

Many of the Shanxi government and business groups, which are not very closely related to the relationship formed mainly by relying on regional nostalgia and the transmission of interests, are members of the Donglin Party, or fellow travelers of the Donglin Party.

But they are not the same thing as the Donglin Party, which was born in the southeast Shilin.

When Donglin bigwigs Gu Xiancheng, Zou Yuanbiao, Yang Lian and others were killed by Wei Zhongxian in prison, Han Yi, who was also the boss of the Donglin Party, was able to stay out of the matter and not be affected much, which also shows this.

In other words, the literati and scholars from the Shanxi official and business groups could not get rid of the brand of being good at calculating interests from businessmen.

When their own vital interests are damaged, they will definitely fight hard, but when the interests of their allies are damaged, as long as they do not endanger themselves, they will choose to stand by and watch in order to protect themselves.

Starting from Zhang Siwei at the beginning of the formation of the Western Party, the figures from the Shanxi official and business groups are all characterized by this characteristic.

Zhang Siwei can endure for many years under Zhang Juzheng, and then as soon as Zhang Juzheng died, he immediately changed his face, and Zhang Juzheng, who had promoted him and reused him, made him die and couldn't live in peace.

Originally, in history, the sixteen Jin merchants that Nuer Hachi met, as well as the eight Jin merchants who were rewarded after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, were able to operate border trade in Xuanda, including Hukou and Zhangjiakou, for so many years, and were not liquidated by the imperial court, is it because they do things secretly, and the reconnaissance agencies such as Jinyiwei and Dongchang are blind?

Of course not.

The reason why they were able to stand tall and sell until after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs was because they had a huge protective umbrella above the court.

This umbrella is the Shanxi official and business group that knew more or less about the border situation during the Apocalypse and Chongzhen periods.

These civil officials, who were born in merchant families or families or township parties, were engaged in business on the nine sides, and even exported and did business, were more knowledgeable and bold than the officials in the court at that time who simply knew how to do eight shares and entered the official career.

Because of this, these people are often reused by Emperor Chongzhen, who attaches great importance to military affairs.

If Emperor Chongzhen moved those big merchants in Shanxi on the nine sides, he would definitely move his whole body.

Of course, this is also because the original historical Emperor Chongzhen did not really realize the great harm of these traitor merchants to the Ming Dynasty.

Now, of course, this Emperor Chongzhen knows the harm caused by some of these traitors and traitors who have captured the enemy.

But even so, before he found out the real relationship between these businessmen and the Western Party forces, he was a bit of a shithorn and needed to be patient and wait for the opportunity.

Now, with the arrival of Jiang Pin, a garrison that has nothing to do with Jinyiwei or Dongchang, the time is finally ripe to eradicate Fan Yongdou and other Jin merchant traitor groups.

Because he has a reason to act openly, in the face of this reason, not only other courtiers have nothing to say, but also the Qin and Jin Western Party groups, which are inextricably linked with the Shanxi Jin merchant family, have nothing to say.

Therefore, this time, when Emperor Chongzhen, who was furious and angry, asked Xu Guangqi, the only cabinet minister by his side, how to deal with these treasonous Shanxi businessmen, Xu Guangqi hesitated for a long time, and finally said:

"The imperial court has a precedent for disposing of Qu Jiazhen back then, and the minister thinks that His Majesty can follow this precedent! There is also ironclad evidence that the private businessmen of the Shanxi Chamber of Commerce and the willingness to respond to the internal response of the Shanxi Chamber of Commerce said by Jiang Jian, and at the time of this national war, no one between the government and the opposition must dare to disagree! ”