Li Ruhui began to tell.

She narrated: "Let me first talk about the main parties in the last years of Wanli, they are divided into the Donglin Party and Zhejiang, Qi, Chu, Xuan, Kun and other parties; The Donglin Party is dominated by some people who lecture at Wuxi Donglin Academy, those are retired officials plus some officials in the court, they often gather together to satirize the government and criticize the party in power; The other group of officials and gentry parties composed of Zhejiang, Qi, Chu, Xuan, and Kunming by region or representative figures mainly targeted the Donglin Party; Later, the party struggle formed the Donglin Party and the three-party dispute of Qi, Chu and Zhejiang, and then evolved into the dispute between the Donglin Party and the eunuch party of the current dynasty; One can imagine the political turmoil of that time. ”

Li Ruhui has a characteristic, when explaining knowledge, the speed of speech has changed from the usual impatience to become very stable, Zong Zhenlei has long said that she is suitable to be a teacher in the future.

Hong Seok-tae listened carefully; Zong Zhenlei felt that Mr. Hong wanted to listen to the party struggle in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to increasing his knowledge of history, probably because he wanted to take this opportunity to examine Li Ruhui's knowledge level; It is estimated that he has seen that Li Ruhui should be the most willing to study in Singapore for a master's degree among the subject researchers, and as a sponsor, he definitely does not want the person to be funded to be a vase or straw bag.

Li Ruhui's narration continues: "Party struggle is like everyone sitting together eating cake and obeying the emperor's distribution, but later more and more people are unwilling to obey the distribution, so they start a struggle; This is related to the behavior of Emperor Shenzong's rule, in the middle and later stages of his reign, he was tired of political affairs, and rarely went to court, and the courtiers set up their own doors, and finally evolved into a group to demand a bigger share of the cake; Party struggle is actually a struggle between different interest groups and between local interest groups and centralized power; Years of fierce party strife have greatly weakened the hearts of the people and weakened the cohesive power of the imperial court. ”

Hong Xitai interjected: "Can you tell me about an example?" ”

Li Ruhui nodded and said, "Okay." For example, this is the case with the issue of establishing a prince, that is, establishing a prince; Since the issue of establishing a prince involves the interests of different groups, the Donglin Party first wrote against it, and later various parties and factions rose up against the Donglin Party, and the Donglin Party and its opposition began a 20-year debate on the issue of establishing a prince. The establishment of the crown prince means the inheritance of imperial power, and at the political level, it is related to the stability of the dynasty, and Shenzong is guilty of such a taboo. ”

Hong Xitai said to Li Ruhui: "I want to hear more detailed history, is it okay?" ”

"I'm sorry, I'm going to be rough, so let's be more detailed. Let's start with the eldest son of the Myojin Sect. After Shenzong's marriage, he has no heirs, one day he went to Cining Palace, ready to go to his mother Empress Dowager Li to ask for peace, when he saw the queen in the queen mother's palace, he suddenly moved his mind, and secretly came to her; After Wang's pregnancy, Shenzong didn't admit it at first, and Empress Dowager Li asked the eunuchs in the palace to take out the records, and Shenzong had no choice but to set up Wang as Concubine Gong; The Wang family later gave birth to Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of Shenzong, but Shenzong suspected that Wang was born as a palace maid, so he never made Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor, the crown prince; However, Zhu Changluo seems to have been approved by the Empress Dowager Li, because he was born a year after the Empress Dowager Li held a 'prayer for heir meeting' on Wutai Mountain, and the Empress Dowager Li may think that she asked for it. ”

Li Ruhui glanced at Hong Xitai, and he nodded, which means that he understands and can continue to talk like this.

Later, Concubine Zheng Guifei, who was favored by Shenzong, also gave birth to a son named Zhu Changxun. At the instigation of Concubine Zheng Guifei, Shenzong always wanted to take the opportunity to make Zhu Changxun the crown prince, but because Zhu Changxun was not the eldest son, he was strongly opposed by the ministers; At that time, the crown prince was also called the national capital, so the dispute between the emperor and the minister was also called the 'national capital dispute'. Although Shenzong repeatedly suppressed the voices that dared to oppose it, the ministers still fought hard, and the palace struggle became complicated, and Zheng Guifei wanted to use a book about the deeds of virtuous women and martyrs in history to elevate her status, which attracted the spitting of the government and the opposition. At this time, an article borrowed for Zheng Guifei's book appeared...... "Li Ruhui stopped here and glanced at Zong Zhenlei.

Zong Zhenlei remembered that she had complained that the name of the article was particularly awkward, and guessed that she probably forgot, so he whispered: ""Discussion of Anxiety".

Li Ruhui nodded happily at Zong Zhenlei: "The article is called "Discussion on Anxiety", and the content is dedicated to the abolition of the past dynasties, alluding to the issue of 'national capital', but because this matter involves the suspicion of Zheng Guifei and her relatives forming a party for personal gain, it was downplayed by Shenzong. ”

Zong Zhenlei is very familiar with this history, as the leader of the reading group in middle school, he read more and knew more than others, and later when he was in college, he further came into contact with and carefully read the historical records and comments of later generations; He cheered for Li Ruhui with his eyes.

Li Ruhui continued: "Empress Dowager Li seems to have sensed the atmosphere of hidden crisis from the intensifying palace fight, one day after the 'national capital dispute' has been going on for many years, Mingshenzong went to the Empress Dowager Cisheng to say hello, and Empress Dowager Li asked Shenzong why he delayed appointing Zhu Changluo as the crown prince? Shenzong said that he was the son of Duren, which meant that he was the son of a palace maid; This immediately aroused the anger of the Empress Dowager Li, pointing at him and saying, you are also the son of Duren, which means that the Empress Dowager Li was also a palace maid when she was fortunate at the age of sixteen; Shenzong was horrified when he heard this, because he had been strictly controlled by the Empress Dowager Li since he was a child, and knew that the situation was serious, he set up Zhu Changluo as the crown prince soon after returning to the palace, and named Zhu Changxun as the blessed king. But Concubine Zheng didn't want to see this ending, so she had a big fight with Shenzong for this; Shenzong began to waver again, and on the grounds of 'unprepared ceremony', he wanted to reschedule the crown prince, and finally the minister did not agree to the rescheduling, so he officially canonized Zhu Changluo as the crown prince. But for this prince, Shenzong didn't like it very much, and Concubine Zheng Guifei was also eyeing his position, and wanted to 'easy storage', just to replace the prince. At this juncture, another article appeared in the capital......"

Li Ruhui set her eyes on Zong Zhenlei again, blushing, and reached out to bring tea to drink.

Zong Zhenlei understood, and also picked up the tea, as if a word leaked out of his mouth unintentionally: "Continue".

Li Ruhui covered her mouth, smiled and swallowed the tea in her mouth, if it weren't for here, it is estimated that she would have become a whale spray; She calmed down for a moment before she continued: "At this time, another unveiling post called "Continuing the Anxiety and Danger" appeared in the capital, accusing Zheng Guifei of intending to abolish the prince and canonize her son as the prince. ”

Zong Zhenlei smiled when he saw Hong Xitai, and stretched out his hand to refill the tea in the teacups of the two young people; From Hong Seok-tae's smile, Zong Zhenlei felt that this wise old man seemed to see all these things in his eyes and embraced everything. At the same time, it can be seen that he admires this girl's intelligence and her straightforward and unpretentious personality.

Li Ruhui made a gesture to Hong Xitai to thank him for his tea, adjusted his sitting posture, and continued: "After this unveiling post appeared, it was called the 'Demon Book' because of its huge impact. Shenzong was furious when he learned of this, and ordered Dongchang, Jinyiwei and other institutions to track down the suspects related to this post; Some of the people who were arrested were beaten into tricks, and others were implicated, and the 'demon book case' was born. Later, after arresting and killing a large number of people, although the 'Demon Book Case' was quelled, the impact had spread to the government and the opposition, and the dispute between the court and the party did not subside. Because the Zheng group composed of Zheng Guifei's family still tried to seize the right to inherit the throne, and repeatedly plotted to murder the crown prince Zhu Changluo, and later there were three famous court cases in the late Ming Dynasty, the attack case, the red pill case, and the palace transfer case, which actually involved the court and the party struggle. ”

Zong Zhenlei was very touched by this history, sat up straight and took a breath, wanting to say something.

Li Ruhui seemed to see it, picked up the teacup and took a sip of tea, and said softly: "It's not over, wait until I'm done." "And he continued what he had said; After the death of Shenzong, the party struggle intensified. Initially, the Donglin Party members were given the opportunity to govern, and the Zhejiang, Kunming, and Xuan parties were once ostracized. Soon after, the eunuchs led by the eunuch Wei Zhongxian formed an alliance with some people from the Zhejiang, Qi, and Chu parties to control the imperial program. The Donglin Party fiercely opposed the eunuch party to take power, and was constantly hunted down and killed by the eunuch party. Later, Emperor Chongzhen succeeded to the throne and hunted and killed the eunuchs. This repeated political struggle was like flipping a pancake, and even in 1644, when Li Zicheng captured the capital and the Nanming regime went into exile in Fuzhou, Fujian, the struggle between the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party continued. ”

Hearing this, Hong Xitai paused the action of preparing to boil water in his hand, and looked at Li Ruhui with a solemn gaze.

Li Ruhui didn't notice it, and continued: "In the end, the relationship between monarchs and ministers became distrustful. As a result, the entire court became a plate of scattered sand, and when a major event occurred, it was either discussed for a long time without a decision, or attacked each other, everyone was afraid of taking responsibility, and the emperor, ministers, and military generals who fought outside distrusted each other and doubted each other. At this time, it was only 30 years since the death of Empress Dowager Li. ”

Hong Xitai frowned, held the teapot in his hand, shook his head, and sighed softly, before continuing the boiling action he had stopped just now.

Zong Zhenlei inadvertently raised his head and saw Hong Xitai's solemn expression.

Li Ruhui still recounted without distraction: "Li Zicheng attacked the capital, and Emperor Chongzhen ordered 150,000 Jinyi guards in the city to resist the enemy, but the Jinyi guards surrendered first; And just seven or eight days before Li Zicheng captured the capital, in order to pay the soldiers who defended the capital, Chongzhen put down the emperor's dignity and went to ask the ministers and relatives to donate, but the effect was very small, they seemed to say that this is the world of your Zhu family, you are responsible, what do you have to do with me! At the last moment of Li Zicheng's attack, Emperor Chongzhen killed his daughter and asked his concubines to commit suicide to avoid being defiled by the peasant army......

At this time, Zong Zhenlei gently touched Li Ruhui with his elbow and gestured to her with his eyes; Li Ruhui glanced at Hong Xitai, who lowered his head and locked his eyebrows, and immediately stopped his talk.

Hearing Li Ruhui's voice stop abruptly, Hong Xitai, who lowered his head and was slowly wiping the water droplets on the tea table with a tea towel, seemed to notice something, raised his eyes to look at Li Ruhui, sighed heavily and said, "Chongzhen is gone, and Daming is not far from the end." ”

Li Ruhui picked up the teacup and said, "I'm sorry, it's out of scope to talk about it." ”

Hong Xitai sighed: "The relationship between cause and effect is well explained. Come, this tea is faint, I'll change the tea, please wait. ”

Zong Zhenlei hurriedly changed the topic and chatted about the newly brewed tea.

Hong Xitai continued to chat with the two of them with a pleasant face, but only talked about tea, Buddha, and life, and completely lost the urgency when he wanted to hear the history of the last years of Wanli.

Li Ruhui didn't seem to have braked the car yet, and wanted to continue the topic of party contention just now, but was inadvertently turned away by Hong Xitai several times.

Zong Zhenlei savored the expression of Hong Xitai he saw just now in his heart, and felt that there must be a story in this expression.

After sitting for a while, Zong Zhenlei got up to say goodbye to Hong Xitai under the pretext that he still had something to do and wanted to go back to the school where he was studying for graduate school, and politely refused to be sent by his husband.

When she went out and waited for the bus, Li Ruhui pointed in the direction of the studio and asked Zong Zhenlei: "Do you see anything?" ”

Zong Zhenlei looked at her and said with a serious attitude: "You also noticed it, right?" Then he shook his head again and said nothing.