Zhu Youzhen agreed to the matter of the ministers' protection, appointed Gao Hongtu as the first assistant of the cabinet, and ordered him to preside over the government.

But at the same time, Zhu Youzhen did not leave the impeachment of Ma Shiying and Song Yingxing and ignored it.

This made many courtiers very puzzled, and they began to feel more and more that they couldn't guess Zhu Youzhen's thoughts.

What Zhu Youzhen wants is not to let them guess his thoughts, he is not thinking about revenge against anyone now, but everything is fighting for the purpose of better stabilizing the domestic political situation and concentrating all the forces of the southern bloc to resist the Qing army in the north.

Guan Shaoning and others began to think that when Zhu Youjian still insisted on appointing people who were not directly affiliated with the South to serve in important posts in the six cabinet departments, Zhu Youjian directly instructed Gao Hongtu, the second assistant of the cabinet, to sponsor Guan Shaoning, Huo Da, and Chen Shiding to take important posts when he presided over the cabinet again.

"I dethroned Fan Jingwen, Qi Biaojia, and Liu Zongzhou, not only because they disobeyed me, but also to show some reactionary gentry in Jiangnan who were wavering with different hearts, Fan Jingwen was a northern official supported by me, Liu Zongzhou and Qi Biaojia were both members of the Zhejiang Party, and I deposed them to make these Jiangnan reactionary gentry believe that I would no longer only be close to northern officials and Zhejiang Party officials; All of this is just to prepare for the upcoming Qing army's southward movement, so when you preside over the cabinet, Aiqing, you can promote these people to important positions, but you can't let them cover the sky with one hand, and the position of the secretary of the three departments of the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Households cannot fall into their hands, understand? ”

After Zhu Youzhen's entrustment, Gao Hongtu hurriedly nodded: "Weichen understands!" ”

Soon, it entered the period of Gao Hongtu's cabinet, and the local governors and officials above the fourth rank in Beijing began to actively contact Gao Hongtu.

At this time, Ma Shiying's party disciple Ruan Dayue was also a little like a pins and needles, he and Gao Hongtu belonged to the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party respectively since the Apocalypse, and now Gao Hongtu organized the cabinet, and his hardcore ally Ma Shiying was not in Nanjing, so he began to worry about whether he could keep the position of the right attendant of the military department.

Ruan Dayue is not a person who is willing to accept the status quo, he has been observing the court situation, from the then cabinet chief assistant Fan Jingwen with the cabinet ministers to force His Majesty to kill Wang Chengen to Gu Lin's release Duan Literature Society is growing stronger and stronger, and now the fall of three successive cabinet ministers and the incident of Gao Hongtu succeeding the cabinet first assistant, Ruan Dayue has been looking for an opportunity for himself to soar.

"It's Your Majesty who really controls everything, as long as you obey Your Majesty's wishes, you don't have to worry about being dismissed, but what does Your Majesty think, what does you want?"

Ruan Dayue secretly muttered, at that time, a Qing guest came to Ruan Dayue with a letter: "Master, this is the supervisor Ma Ge Lao entrusted students to transfer to you, Ma Ge Lao said that before the Qing army went south, with the clumsiness of the prince, the straightness of the prince, and the faintness of the first assistant, it will make the court chaotic, at this time, if you want to sit firmly in the court, you should be unswervingly loyal to Your Majesty, spend your mind on resisting the Qing army going south, and maintain Your Majesty's authority." ”

"When you spend your mind on resisting the Qing army going south, that is to say, this official is in charge of the affairs of the military department as the right attendant of the military department, and when he carries out the allocation of military resources for grain and military resources, he does not ask about the outside world, and maintains the authority of His Majesty, it is natural to obey His Majesty's orders, get rid of those who hinder His Majesty, and those who do not listen to His Majesty's words, now that the first assistant of the cabinet has been decided, only the palm seal of the celebrant has not been changed, and Shi Kefa has always been too upright and does not listen to His Majesty's orders, and now it is better to impeach Shi Kefa and cut off the connection between foreign officials and the inner court!"

Ruan Dayue instantly had his own thoughts, and hurriedly began to prepare to contact the spokesman to impeach Shi Kefa.

Soon, Shi Kefa was also impeached, the reason for the impeachment was that Shi Kefa befriended foreign ministers, and Zhu Youzhen took advantage of the situation to depose Shi Kefa to Fujian and naturalize him as a magistrate.

Shi Kefa's departure from the celebrant made all the civil officials surprised and disappointed.

After all, although Shi Kefa is already a eunuch, he is still ideologically consistent with the civil officials, so during the period when Shi Kefa presided over the celebrant supervisor, the cabinet and the celebrant were almost very harmonious, and the opinions of the cabinet were almost all agreed.

Ruan Dayue guessed Zhu Youzhen's thoughts, Zhu Youzhen really didn't want Shi Kefa to serve as the master of ceremonies and the palm seal, even if Ruan Dayue didn't find someone to impeach Shi Kefa, Zhu Youzhen would depose Shi Kefa, because Shi Kefa did commit a big taboo as a minister.

Zhu Youzhen actually expected that even if a civil official like Shi Kefa became a minister, he would wear a pair of pants with the civil officials, and the reason why he still used Shi Kefa at that time was to use Shi Kefa's power in Jiangnan officialdom to stabilize the situation in Jiangnan, and because Shi Kefa did have a strong ability to handle government affairs, and the inner court lacked government talents, plus Shi Kefa was also a loyal and reliable person, Zhu Youzhen had to use him until now.

But what is different at this time is that Fan Jingwen and other cabinet ministers and Shi Kefa coerced Zhu Youzhen together, which made Zhu Youzhen realize that it is indeed a terrible thing for the ministers and foreign officials to unite together, and he will never let such a person take charge of the ceremonial supervisor no matter what.

"I didn't kill you, let you continue to go to the place to do something for the people of the Ming Dynasty, it is the greatest tolerance for you, you don't have to fake any more feelings to me, I didn't collude with foreign ministers to coerce my ministers, I also know that you have never regarded yourself as my slave, you are Shi Kefa, you are a well-known and loyal Shi Gong, in this case, you can use your own prestige to do something practical for the people, there is no need to sell your name here in me."

As soon as Zhu Youzhen said this, Shi Kefa also knew that he had completely lost his holy family, and after paying a big salute to Zhu Youzhen, he left Nanjing City lonely.

As soon as Shi Kefa left, Zhu Youzhen summoned Ruan Dayue, the right attendant of the military department.

Through the secret agents of Dongchang, Zhu Youzhen naturally knew that the impeachment of Shi Kefa was secretly instigated by Ruan Dayue, which made Zhu Youzhen very excited.

Because in his opinion, no matter which faction of civil officials would not want Shi Kefa to leave the celebrant supervisor, after all, Shi Kefa is still a civil official in essence, whether it is a traditional gentry or an official from the Jiangnan commercial gentry, he can reach a tacit understanding with Shi Kefa very well, so as to truly take charge of the government.

Therefore, no official would instruct the Imperial Historian to impeach Shi Kefa.

However, Ruan Dayue chose to do so, which made Zhu Youzhen realize that he did not seem to be unable to achieve the goal of splitting the civilian clique, and that there were still civilian officials who would oppose the entire civilian clique for their own interests.

Although this is willing to side with himself, the emperor, and oppose the entire civil bureaucracy, it is an official who has been said to be a great traitor in history.

Zhu Youzhen knows what kind of character Ruan Dayue is, because of a "Peach Blossom Fan", he has been scolded by countless literati from the end of the Ming Dynasty to the present, and even Zhu Youzhen sometimes doesn't know how to evaluate Ruan Dayue, if it wasn't for Ma Shiying's strong recommendation, he would even have let Ruan Dayue stay at home all the time.

(End of chapter)