Wei Zhongxian knelt on the ground, his body trembling involuntarily. www.biquge.info It was only now that Wei Zhongxian felt sincere fear.

Until this morning, he still had the illusion that Chongzhen would not dare or would not put him to death, and now he finally found that his life and death depended entirely on Emperor Chongzhen's thoughts.

At this point, Zhu Daming felt that it was almost over, but looking at the princes and uncles in the ranks of the noble and military ministers, they looked like they had nothing to do with him, and he suddenly felt a little uncomfortable.

The emperor of the Ming Dynasty treated the meritorious nobles and military ministers very well, and gave them what they wanted for the land, title, and Yulu, and also gave them the right to monopolize the position of military generals.

Therefore, when all the Chinese ministers of the palace expressed their stance to kill Wei Zhongxian, and Zhu Daming thought that he had won the victory and achieved the goal, he quietly looked at the British Duke Zhang Weixian, who ranked first in the ranks of honors.

Zhang Weixian was the general Zhang Fu when Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, was martyred in the army, and at the beginning of the Apocalypse, he became the governor of the Five Armies and the governor of Beijing, and he was definitely the first person among today's noble military ministers.

Zhang Weixian felt the emperor's eyes and knew what the emperor meant, so he didn't wait for Zhu Daming to ask, and soon walked to the middle of the main hall, knelt down solemnly not far from Huang Liji, kowtowed and said: "Minister Zhang Weixian, please punish Wei Zhongxian!"

As soon as Zhang Weixian's voice fell, the group of nobles who were originally standing behind Zhang Weixian, as if they had just woken up, knelt down with a hula la, and said in unison: "Your Majesty please punish Wei Zhongxian!" ”

Now, Wei Zhongxian also felt that his general trend had gone, his emotions collapsed, his face was colorless, he just knelt on the ground and said to himself: "The old slave is guilty, the old slave is guilty, I ask the emperor to save the life of the old slave in the old slave's love for serving the emperor for many years, the old slave is willing to resign from all the titles, just go back to his hometown and live idle, and ask the emperor for permission." "After speaking, he bowed his head.

At this time, Huang Liji suddenly said: "Your Majesty, the minister has a word that I don't know whether to say or not. ”

Zhu Daming looked at him, pondered for a while, and still said: "Since Huang Aiqing has something to say, let's talk about it!" ”

Huang Liji seemed to have made a lot of determination, and said: "Your Majesty, Wei Zhongxian is guilty of arbitrarily exercising power, but he has served the former emperor for many years, and when the former emperor was dying, he entrusted it to His Majesty. ”

As soon as Huang Liji finished speaking, Qian Yuanyu, who had previously impeached Wei Zhongxian, shouted: "Your Majesty, Wei Zhongxian's crimes are heinous, and not killing is not enough to correct discipline, and not killing is not enough to calm the hearts of the corporals in the world!" ”

Wang Jiazheng also followed and said: "Your Majesty, Huang Liji's generation is all Wei Party, he exonerates Wei Wei, but he is exculpating himself, if Wei Wei can not die, then his party members can also not die, so where is the national law and discipline?" Your Majesty, please be clear! ”

Wei Zhongxian will definitely be executed, because if he is alive, the Wei Party will not disperse, and if he dies, whether it is the Wei Party in the palace, the Wei Party in the court, or the Wei Party in the local area, he will lose the bond that binds him together, and he will not be able to make any moths.

But he can't be executed now, because there are still eunuchs in the cabinet who have not been cleaned up, and these people must be given a little hope first, otherwise, if they unite to resist, it may bring turmoil to the court situation, after all, Liaodong and other nine-border eunuchs, and there are eunuchs among the generals, not to mention the local ones, in case any of them are afraid of being questioned and simply surrender to the thieves, then the loss will be great.

Historically, Emperor Chongzhen adopted a step-by-step, divided, and final fatal blow.

Zhu Daming decided to follow suit, so he said: "Passing on my will, Wei Zhongxian is old and frail, and he resigned due to illness, so he is specially allowed to resign from the factory, hand over the factory seal, and go to the White Tiger Hall to keep the spirit of the emperor for three days, and then he can return to his hometown to live idle and retire for the rest of his life." ”

Wei Zhongxian, who was kneeling on the ground and was nervous, was obviously relieved, knelt down and bowed again: "The old slave bows to thank the emperor Longen, long live the emperor, long live, long live!" ”

The White Tiger Palace, that is, the Renzhi Palace in the Forbidden City, is the place where the Emperor Daxing stopped in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, just on the right side of the Qianqing Gate, not far from the Qianqing Palace, such as the coffin of Emperor Zhu Youxiao today, still stays there.

Hearing the emperor's treatment of Wei Zhongxian, Huang Liji and many of the ministers behind him, the originally tense kneeling posture was obviously relaxed, and they were all secretly relieved, thinking that since the emperor did not kill Wei Zhongxian, he would not treat them as eunuchs, maybe it was just a release, a demotion, or even just a punishment.

After Zhu Daming dictated how to deal with Wei Zhongxian's holy decree, he thought about it and said: "The eunuch Fang Zhenghua, the eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor Bingbi, concurrently serves as the governor of the Dongji Factory and Bao and the three stores, and will handle the handover of duties from now on. ”

In a moment, the people of the Zhongshu House, who had been waiting in the corner of the Emperor's Palace, wrote two holy decrees, showed them to the emperor, and immediately used the seal, one to Cao Huachun, and accompanied Wei Zhongxian to the White Tiger Hall where the Emperor of the Apocalypse is currently staying.

One was handed over to Fang Zhenghua, and he took his henchmen and immediately went out of the palace to take over the East Factory, and what followed was the purge of the leaders above the middle level of the East Factory.

This is inevitable, a secret police agency like this must be in the hands of someone trusted by the emperor, and for the time being, Zhu Daming is relieved.

Dealing with this urgent task, Zhu Daming originally wanted to retreat from the court, but looking at Wang Tiqian, Li Yongzhen and other Wei Zhongxian's henchmen in the palace who were kneeling on the ground, he was a little uneasy, and then looked at the two coldly and said, "Wang Tiqian, Li Yongzhen, do you two have anything to say to me?" ”

Wang Tiqian and Li Yongzhen, who have been kneeling on the ground, now regret a little, when they saw the Manchu Dynasty civil and military shouting and shouting to kill Wei Zhongxian, they had ghosts in their hearts, of course, they were afraid in their hearts, and they saw Wei Zhongxian kneeling in the hall and begging bitterly, so they had to come to the palace and kneel down to ask for guilt. But the emperor never seemed to want anything to do to them.

When he was embarrassed and considered whether to get up and return to the throne, Wang Tiqian heard what the emperor said, and was stunned for a moment, thinking that the emperor was going to deal with himself, and he wanted to confess and be lenient, of course he enjoyed the feeling of power brought to him by the eunuch who was in charge of the eunuch's seal, but he hoped to be able to keep his life, and looking at today's situation, it would definitely not work if he didn't admit defeat or admit it, so he trembled and said: "The slave Wang Tiqian is guilty, please punish the emperor." The slave and maid saw that the matter was unknown, and was bewitched by Wei Zhongxian, and there were many inappropriate actions, and the slave and maid were willing to accept the punishment and ask the emperor to deal with it. ”

Li Yongzhen, who was kneeling behind, also said: "The minister is guilty, please punish the emperor." ”

After listening to them, Zhu Daming immediately said: "The ancestral law, the palace is forbidden to use a strict word. Now that you have confessed your sins, I will remove you from your posts and go home and rest in your home for a while.

"Passing on my will, Wang Tiqian, Li Yongzhen, and Cui Yingyuan attached themselves to Wei Zhongxian, and they were willing to be minions, and they were lawless, so they immediately took away the post of Wang Tiqian's ceremonial supervisor and took away Li Yongzhen and Cui Yingyuan's post as the eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor, and handed them over and left Beijing on the same day, and returned to their hometowns to live idle."

After saying this, Zhu Daming thought for a while and added: "The position of the eunuch in charge of the seal will be taken over by the eunuch Cao Huachun, the eunuch of the celebrant and the pen, from now on. ”

Zhu Daming's resoluteness at this moment completely suppressed the civil and military ministers in the palace, and it was not until the Zhongshu Sheren wrote all the holy decrees that the ministers remembered to shout long live and praise the emperor's wisdom and sage.

For Qian Yuanyu and Wang Jiazheng, Zhu Daming must be promoted, but now is not the time to reward and punish merit, because the matter of cleaning up the Wei Party has just begun.

Of course, Zhu Daming will not completely kill all the Wei Party in accordance with the ideas of the Donglin Party, and he still has to retain and use some talents in the Wei Party, after all, the Donglin Party is a faction that is a master of poetry, writing, etiquette, music, benevolence, righteousness and morality, but once he does practical things, he will not be able to do practical things, so he will not completely stand on the side of Donglin.

But for the one-sided Wei Party in the cabinet, it must be cleaned up, Huang Liji, Shi Fenglai, and Zhang Ruitu must be driven away, otherwise he will not be able to do anything.

Of course, these people who relied on bribery, flattery, and even sold themselves to Wei Zhongxian to ascend to the throne are of course unusable, not to mention that these people did not show any talent in history, Emperor Chongzhen gave them time and opportunity, and finally was completely disappointed after the second year of Chongzhen, and then all of them were driven away, delayed for nearly two years in vain.

When he came to Zhu Daming, he wouldn't give them a chance at all, because he had a better choice, and Sun Chengzong should also go to Beijing.