To be honest, whether in ancient times or in modern times, no one who can be an official can be the head of a section of the central government, that is, a scholar, will be a simple figure.

These people may be very wasteful in governing the country and the people, making the people feel that they can do a better job than them if they are alone. However, from the perspective of the struggle for officialdom and power, in the environment of feudal society, they are definitely the best among people.

Let's talk about this Gu Bingqian, who is over seventy years old. Perhaps in terms of ability and public opinion, it is inappropriate for him to be the head of this cabinet. However, Mr. Gu, who has struggled in the feudal officialdom for decades, is definitely a leader who overwhelms the contemporary in terms of power struggle.

Whether it is in this time and space, or in later generations, many people feel that this "white-headed villain" who let his son recognize Wei Zhongxian as his grandson has a low character. But we also have to admit that being able to do things so without a bottom line is not something that ordinary people can do. This must be considered an ability.

When people reach the age of 70, they are still so "pursuing", and they still can't look down on power and status. This is really rare in modern society. However, Mr. Kong Er also said, "A gentleman has three precepts: when he is young, his blood is undecided, and his precepts are in color; and its strength, the blood is strong, and the ring is fighting; and his old age, the flesh is declining, and the abstinence is in it. ”

Whether Mr. Kong Er's theory is right or not, let's not care for the time being. As far as this passage is concerned, it still expresses an objective law. That is, the elderly may be more open in terms of wine and fighting, but in terms of the acquisition of power and benefits, the greed of the elderly is more strict.

From this point of view, Gu Bingqian, who is in his seventies, has to be in love with the stack, and he has to be this first assistant university scholar in the midst of everyone's criticism, and his psychology is also understandable.

After about a quarter of an hour or so, Gu Bingqian arrived at Wei Zhongxian's outer house. Seeing that Gu Bingqian had finished reading the news, Wei Zhongxian asked, "What does Mr. Gu think?" ”

Gu Bingqian Wanli was admitted to the Jinshi when he was about 20 years old, and then he went back and forth in the Hanlin Academy and the Ministry of Rites for nearly 30 years. Not to mention dealing with such a major national event as mutiny and rebellion. Even if he is asked to deal with such trivial matters as local grain punishment, he actually does not have the corresponding ability.

However, for politicians, they only need to grasp one point to gain a foothold in feudal politics. That is, for politicians, whatever it is, it can be turned into an effective means of fighting political opponents.

Gu Bingqian pondered for a moment and then said to Wei Zhongxian: "Duke Wei has led me to wait for the past two years, and it took a lot of effort to clear the Donglin evil party from the court. However, the Donglin Party members are all over the world, and most of the governors and high-ranking officials of the two capitals and 13 provinces are controlled by the Donglin Party members. In his humble opinion, the governor of Huguang and the general army are gone, and the local government in Huguang can no longer be counted on. It is better to send a surrounding governor who was born as a member of the Donglin Party to suppress the mutiny. ”

Touching his goatee, Gu Bingqian continued: "In this way, if this person can solve the mutiny, he can use this as a basis to promote his position and transfer him to the sixth department in Nanjing to be idle. If this person can't solve the mutiny, then he can use this as a basis to implicate and deal with it, and then send other Donglin party members to deal with the matter. In this way, whether the mutiny can be resolved or not, there will always be two or three Donglin Party backbones who will be defeated. Wei Gong'an just sat on the Diaoyutai platform. ”

How else to say that "ginger is old and spicy". An old guy like Gu Bingjun has a fast brain.

At the beginning, when Gu Bingqian saw Wei Zhongxian sue him about this matter, he knew that Wei Zhongxian hoped that he could solve the problem of this mutiny. But the problem is that I really don't have these two hits. For a successful person who can be proud in the officialdom, Gu Bingqian's attitude towards himself is quite realistic. He can eat a few bowls of dry rice, he knows it very well.

However, Gu Bingqian immediately thought that for such a problem, he, a scholar, had no ability to solve it. So, isn't the Donglin Party, which is also a scholar, also incapable of solving this kind of problem? If you can't solve the problem yourself, you will lose Wei Zhongxian's trust. However, if the Donglin Party can't solve the problem, isn't this a good excuse to attack them and a good excuse to clean them up.

Therefore, Gu Bingqian immediately asked Wei Zhongxian to let the local magistrate from the Donglin Party be responsible for quelling the rebellion. If you win, you will go up and down, and go to Nanjing to retire. If they lose, they can push the boat down the river, seize their official positions, and strike at the local forces of the Donglin Party.

When Wei Zhongxian was a scoundrel in Cangzhou City, he knew that this scholar had his eyes and ears. Don't look at the moral articles of these people, they are sanctimonious on the surface. In fact, they are all bad water. Like this kind of trick method of killing two birds with one stone, Wei Zhongxian himself couldn't think of it. This is also the reason why Wei Zhongxian is keen to recruit civil officials.

Wei Zhongxian, who has fully grasped the power of the celebrant and the cabinet, is really resolute. Once the matter was decided, a decree was sent from the celebrant to the cabinet. And the cabinet used the 800-mile expedited and immediately sent this decree to the Henan Governor Yamen of Kaifeng Prefecture, Henan Province.

The important task of exterminating the Wuchang Mutiny fell to Cheng Shao, a member of the Donglin Party and the governor of Henan.

Cheng Shao had been appointed governor of Henan a year earlier, in 1624. No matter how hard the traitor literati who surrendered to the Manchu Qing tried to whitewash Cheng Shao in their compilation. The fact is that this current governor of Henan, Cheng Shao, a member of the Donglin Party. In fact, there is no day of experience in presiding over the local civil affairs of a place and being a Zhengyin official (number one) to manage the local civil affairs of a place.

Judging from Cheng Shao's resume, he was admitted in the sixteenth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, that is, in 1588 AD. The next year he was admitted to the Jinshi.

After that, his first position was as the magistrate of Runing Prefecture in Henan. The so-called pusher is the prefect's second official, that is, he is in charge of various cases in the land of the government. In today's parlance, it is the role of the secretary of the political and legal committee in charge of the public security and law work of a prefecture-level city.

Historical sources say that he has the reputation of "gods and ghosts breaking their courage". However, because the position of the traitor literati who wrote it is very suspicious, and there are no concrete examples to support it. So this statement is very suspicious and full of moisture.

After serving as the secretary of the political and legal committee of the prefecture-level city of Runing Mansion for several years, Cheng Shao was transferred to the central government. He first became a member of the household department, and then he became a ministry.

The cadres of prefecture-level cities who have been transferred from the localities to the central government certainly do not depend on how good Cheng Shao's work is at the local level. After all, he is not the number one, and he has no hard political achievements that he can get his hands on. In today's words, Cheng Shao was able to be promoted entirely because he was a member of the Donglin Party, and there were "people above".

The so-called position in the middle of the matter is now equivalent to a discipline inspection cadre. However, their status is much higher than that of the current discipline inspection cadres. Moreover, the discipline inspection cadres of the Ming Dynasty at that time had institutional guarantees. Although they only have the official position of the seventh grade, they can scold whoever they want, and they can scold as much as they want, and the emperor has nothing to do with these people.

Cheng Shao is in this very good position, and he fully expresses his nature of pulling people to form a party and running the Donglin Party forces. At that time, the eunuch in charge of collecting taxes was today's National Taxation Bureau. Because local officials and the gentry colluded to refuse to pay taxes, they filed a complaint with the central government.

This kind of thing, let alone in the Ming Dynasty, is in modern times, refusing to pay national taxes, this thing can't be justified. However, the Donglin Party represents the interests of big landlords and big businessmen. Faced with the contradiction between big landlords and big businessmen and national interests, Cheng Shao resolutely stood on the side of big landlords and big businessmen.

Shanxi tax envoy Zhang Zhong impeached Han Xun, the magistrate of Xia County, and Cheng Shao "sparsely Shenli", and wrote a letter from Zhujin. Friends in the same dynasty persuaded each other to collect the pen, and said: "If you eat the royal family, you have to report to the country, and you can take care of your personal life." The emperor was angry and reprimanded, so he was cut to the people.

In today's words, Cheng Shao can be said to be a typical example of eating the rice of the Ming Dynasty and smashing the pot of the Ming Dynasty. Not to mention in the era of the Ming Dynasty, even in modern society, such an official with a crooked ass will definitely be dismissed. As a result, the Wanli Emperor really removed him from office.

Since then, Cheng Shao has returned to his hometown and stayed at home for 20 years.

has been at home for the past 20 years, and Cheng Shao has never been honest. According to historical data, he has been advocating the revival of ancient studies and the improvement of political affairs. In literature, he emphasized that the creation of poetry should serve the struggle of political reality. Therefore, most of his works are full of content, vigorous and simple, and have strong practical significance.

In fact, Cheng Shao used his influence at home to organize a group of literati to discuss politics and engage in illegal organizational activities in the name of reviving ancient studies.

In the first year of Taichang (1620 AD), Cheng Shao was recalled to Beijing and appointed Shaoqing of Taichang Temple to be in charge of sacrifices and ceremonies. In the fourth year of the Apocalypse (1624 AD), Cheng Shao became the right deputy capital of the Imperial Court and the governor of Henan.

In the five years from the first year of Taichang to the fourth year of the Apocalypse, the three first and auxiliary ministers of the Ming Dynasty, Ye Xianggao, Han Yi, and Zhu Guozhen, were all famous representatives of the Donglin Party. So, Cheng Shao has changed from a seventh-grade official who has been idle for more than 20 years to a second-grade local official, what is the reason, we can figure it out.

Judging from Cheng Shao's resume, his political experience is really the same as his experience as secretary of the Political and Legal Committee in the years ago 20 years ago. As for local affairs, in fact, this Cheng Shao is ignorant. said that he was a straw bag who relied on the relationship of the Donglin Party, and that would not wronged him at all.

According to historical records, Cheng Shao's biggest move during his tenure as governor of Henan was to "accept the grain and grass needed by the army on time, and store the grain and grass in the cave in case of problems." In accordance with the establishment of the army, verify and manage, and repeatedly educate the garrison personnel on weekdays, and strengthen vigilance against grain and grass. ”

A governor of Henan, who has the power of the party, government, and military forces in one province of Henan Province, can leave a mark during his tenure of office, and he can actually teach the troops to dig holes and store grain. It's really speechless.

On the other hand, in 1624, when Cheng Shao was governor of Henan, the Fuxing Society received more than 60,000 refugees from Henan Province. From this point of view, we can also see how incompetent Cheng Shao, the governor and party secretary of Henan Province, is.

To tell the truth, Cheng Shao's personal ability is really only two aspects. One is the experience he accumulated in judging cases when he was a magistrate in his early years, and the other is the experience he accumulated when he was in the middle of the matter, spitting feces and attacking political opponents. Regardless of the experience, for Cheng Shao, it will not be of any help to him in the counterinsurgency work he is about to embark on.

We say why the eunuch clique led by Wei Zhongxian can easily overthrow the Donglin Party. In fact, in the process of comparing the two sides, the Donglin Party is really bad. Their kung fu and abilities are all focused on that mouth. "If you say that you are invincible in the world, you can't do anything about it." In the face of the eunuch clique, which is relatively capable of action and practical ability, the Donglin Party is like a mess of mud.

It doesn't matter if a person's abilities are big or small. But the problem is that many people don't know how big they can do and how many bowls of dry rice they can eat. Let's take the feudal scholars of the Donglin Party as an example. They thought that if they could memorize a few high-headed sermons, they would be invincible in the world. The reality is that they are all fools whose hearts are more stupid than their hands.

Let's take Cheng Shao as an example. In addition to promoting a practical policy of "digging holes and storing military rations" in Henan Province, this cadre of the Donglin Party has not only promoted a practical policy of "digging holes and storing military rations." He had no actual knowledge of the military power of Henan Province as a whole.

When he received the order of the imperial court and was about to send troops to quell the rebellion, Cheng Shao discovered two problems.

The first is that in the entire eighty-six counties of Henan Province, the soldiers on the list are one number jù, while the actual soldiers are another number jù. On the surface, there are tens of thousands of people in one Henan province. In fact, the province was able to find three or four thousand soldiers who could afford to hold swords and guns, and that was a blessing to the heavens.

The second is that the Yamen of the Henan Metropolitan Division has clearly sued Master Cheng Shaocheng. The salaries that should have been allocated by the imperial court have not been allocated for more than four months. Now if it is not possible to distribute the money and food to the soldiers. Although it is unlikely that the various guards in this province will mutiny, it is not even possible to let the soldiers and horses of this province enter Huguang as guest soldiers to fight.

Not to mention that now Cheng Shao Henan wants to be the capital of the Yamen, pulling out tens of thousands of soldiers and horses on paper. If you don't have enough food, even ordinary military remnants don't even want to get one.

Henan Governor Cheng Da also had a headache for a while. You must know that although he is a member of the Donglin Party, when the Donglin Party controlled the government, all kinds of rules and "drifting" will not be looted from Henan just because Cheng Shao is their party.

If it weren't for the fact that the scraping on it was too hard, Henan's military rations would be very tight. Cheng Shao will not come up with the bad idea of digging holes to store grain to protect the safety of military food in this province.

Now, the Donglin Party members who were originally in the central government as Cheng Shao's backers have been swept away by Wei Zhongxian. Cheng Shao's situation has also changed from "there are people above" to "there is no one above". Cheng Shao, who has lost his backer, must rely on himself to solve the problem.

Even if Cheng Shao is a pure straw bag in governing the place. But he also knows that the current imperial court, let alone helping him solve the problem, if he doesn't take the opportunity to buckle the stumbling block, it has to be said that Gonggong Wei is merciful.

For Master Cheng, the problem of manpower is easy to solve. There are both military and civilian households that do not have enough to eat. As long as there is money and food, the soldiers are either a trick or a lot. The problem lies mainly in the issue of wages. The central government did not allocate funds, and Henan Province's own treasury was empty under the raids of successive governors and officials at all levels (Cheng Shao himself also contributed to this), and the only way to solve the problem of food and salary was to raise money by himself.

Of course, if you want to make the Donglin Party members, who are big landlords and big businessmen, bleed on their own, that is something that you can't even think about. It's that the Ming Dynasty has fallen to the country, and hasn't it received a penny of taxes from these Donglin Party members. Cheng Shao naturally couldn't pay for this military expenditure out of his own pocket.

The advantage of being a feudal official of a province was that, as the supreme ruler of Hunan, and as an important component of the feudal link of the emperor's power, Cheng Shao, the governor of Henan, could tax the people of the entire Henan region.

Originally, it was similar to this kind of place interception, and everyone had to sneak more or less to cover up. Now, Cheng Shao, who has the will of the imperial court, is even more unscrupulous.

Of course, Cheng Shao raised taxes on Henan, just as the national taxes of the Ming Dynasty would not be levied on the landlords and gentry. Cheng Shao's tax increase naturally could not be added to the landlords and gentry in Henan. The very small number of yeoman farmers in Henan who have already paid this year's taxes and the majority of poor farmers in Henan are now faced with two choices.

The first is to pay a new tax that is not much less than the national tax again. The second is to bring his own dry food and weapons, and as a soldier or a civilian man, he followed the governor of Henan, Cheng Shaocheng, to travel thousands of miles to Wuchang, Hubei Province to quell the rebellion.

Cheng Shao's trick is not poisonous. Using the power of the government, Cheng Shao really forced the low-level people in Henan to "hold a money field for those who have money, and support a personal market for those who have no money".

After such a toss, Cheng Shao used his "ingenuity" to scrape a sum of military expenses from the homesteaders, who had become more scarce, to support the regular army in Henan Province. On the other hand, there was no need for mobilization and recruitment, so Cheng Shao took advantage of this additional levy and sent out the soldiers to organize a team of more than 10,000 people.

Because he can solve the current problem with a heavy weight, Cheng Shao is very optimistic about several Donglin Party bigwigs who are now idle at home. They wrote letters expressing their appreciation for what he had done, and sent many of their own disciples and children to serve in Cheng Shao's army.

Space-Time Gate 1619