Eight hundred and twentieth chapters of the betrayal
But Xiong Kaiyuan's behavior successfully aroused Emperor Chongzhen's anger. Seeing that Xiong Kaiyuan was clearly going to attack Zhou Yanru, but his words were full of eccentricity and arrogance, he was very angry and sternly told him to make it clear what he meant. However, Xiong Kaiyuan He kept talking and covering up, criticizing Sang and Huai. Finally, Emperor Chongzhen was unwilling to listen to his nonsense and ordered him to step down and write down what he wanted to say in this chapter.
But after all, Zhou Yanru has huge power. After Xiong Kaiyuan was summoned this time, he heard the advice of many friends and fellow countrymen. They all thought that Zhou Yanru was quite tolerant and mature among previous prime ministers. It was definitely not a wise move to impeach Zhou Yanru. It was originally Xiong Kaiyuan, who was hesitant at both ends, lost all his energy. In the supplementary chapter, he just repeated what he said when he called the right, "Only what I have said, I will respectfully listen to it, and I will report it." :……”
When Emperor Chongzhen saw Xiong Kaiyuan's contentless document, he felt that he was being fooled by this villain, so he was furious and immediately sent Jin Yiwei to arrest Xiong Kaiyuan and send him to Beizhen Fusi for severe punishment. torture.
Jiang Cai and Xiong Kaiyuan were just two minor figures in the court. The so-called "crime" was just a few irrelevant words they said when the emperor asked for a confession. They did not have any fundamental relationship with the emperor and his cabinet ministers on major national policies. Although he had sexual conflict, he was regarded by the emperor as a great enemy of the country and a great traitor, and was sent to the darkest Jinyiwei Zhenfusi Prison where he was tortured to extract a confession.
The courtiers talked a lot about the emperor's unreasonable rage, and they were also very dissatisfied with Jiang and Xiong. Zhou Yanru felt even more uneasy because Xiong Kaiyuan was imprisoned to impeach him. So in the next meeting in front of the emperor At the meeting, officials, ministers, and cabinet ministers defended Jiang Cai and Xiong Kaiyuan one after another.
Among them, Liu Zongzhou, the imperial censor of Zuodu who is famous all over the world for his Taoism, said the most sincerely: "The court has its own system for treating officials. If the officials make comments, they will be used if they are useful. If they are not useful, they will be ignored. Even if there is a deserved crime, We should also order the judicial department to convict people according to the circumstances. Now Xiong Kaiyuan and Jiang Cai are arrogant and ignorant, and they cannot be innocent. But the emperor is urgently asking for words. The two ministers are imprisoned for making suggestions, which will cause great harm to the holy government. I am afraid it is not the emperor. The original intention of asking for words. I hope that the emperor will bear in mind the difficulties and dangers of the current situation, and be as generous as the sky, so as to open up a way for all ministers to criticize and remonstrate."
Originally, Emperor Chongzhen would have vented his anger over this matter and dismissed these two little men from office. But at this time, Emperor Chongzhen had already reached the end of his tether. He felt that Liu Zongzhou's words were extremely harsh, thinking that he was clearly mocking his own narrow-mindedness. , abuse of lynching.
So Emperor Chongzhen became furious and said with force and reason: "Three Law Divisions and Jinyiwei are all yamen of the imperial court. What is the difference between public and private affairs? You said that the officials have their own system. Could it be that those who corrupt the law, deceive the emperor and ignore the superiors, and mess up the rules and regulations, are all in the capital? Shouldn’t I be charged?”
"There must be someone behind Xiong Kaiyuan's behavior. I think the person behind this is Liu Zongzhou!"
In this way, the powder keg was ignited. Cabinet ministers Zhou Yanru, Jiang Dejing, Wu Di, Minister of War Zhang Guowei, Minister Feng Yuanbiao, Minister of Punishment Xu Shiqi, Minister of Industry Fan Jingwen, Imperial Censor Jin Guangchen and the five ministers Qi Wuchen, a senior official in the government, defended Liu Zongzhou together, and even wet his sleeves with tears. However, Emperor Chongzhen became increasingly angry and insisted on severe punishment.
After this unhappy meeting, Emperor Chongzhen issued an edict to dismiss Liu Zongzhou from his post and sent him to the Ministry of Punishment to discuss the crime. The cabinet resolutely resisted this, withheld the edict and jointly requested the emperor to withdraw the order. Emperor Chongzhen came to the throne. He had rarely encountered such resistance, and he did not want to get into trouble with the courtiers, so he had to change his order and dismiss Liu Zongzhou as a civilian. Xu Shiqi and Jin Guangchen were also dismissed and demoted respectively for this case.
The ministers were able to survive the struggle, but as little people, Jiang Cai and Xiong Kaiyuan were in doom. On the day after the summons, Emperor Chongzhen sent a secret order to Luo Yangxing, the commander of the Jinyi Guards: "Get the bears." In Kaiyuan, Jiang Cai died and reported his death due to illness."
When Luo Yangxing saw the secret decree, he was immediately horrified. The Jinyiwei has always been a powerful tool for the emperor to implement tyranny. In the history of the Ming Dynasty, countless people were secretly executed for the emperor. But most of the Jinyiwei supervisors who helped the tyrants did not end well. Not to mention, the "Five Tigers" who presided over the Imperial Guard during the Apocalypse were all executed for lynching and killing.
What's more, Luo Yangxing and Xiong Kaiyuan were from the same hometown, and they had some friendship. Moreover, this incident had caused a lot of trouble, and the two people were killed in a hurry. When the court officials investigated, whose responsibility was it? Luo Yangxing and Jin Yiwei's friends for this. They discussed and decided not to carry out the emperor's secret decree, but also intended to disclose the contents of the secret decree to the courtiers. However, in order to deal with the emperor, the Zhenfu Division still used poisonous torture on Jiang Cai and Xiong Kaiyuan.
Because the officials began to discuss the matter of the emperor's secret decree, Zhou Yanru and other cabinet ministers argued again and again. In the end, Emperor Chongzhen had to decide to transfer Jiang and Xiong to the Ministry of Punishment for discussion, but killed them to vent his anger. The mood is still not gone.
However, the prison sentence in the memorial to the Ministry of Punishment was obviously evasive. He severely accused the Ministry of Punishment of "not interrogating and not recruiting" and "bullying and playing favoritism", and then ordered: Jiang and Xiong were to be given a royal stick outside the Meridian Gate, each with a hundred sticks. , after the stick, he was still sent to the Zhenfu Division for torture.
For Jiang Cai and Xiong Kaiyuan, who were wounded by the punishment and were already dying, a hundred imperial sticks was almost synonymous with certain death. Fortunately, the eunuchs in charge of rituals and the officials in charge of the execution were afraid of beating someone to death and causing the courtiers to panic. They protested collectively and showed mercy during the imperial cane, and the two of them managed to save their lives. Even so, Jiang Cai was so angry that he fell unconscious after being beaten with a hundred large canes. His younger brother Jiang Gai was also an official in Beijing. , rushed over and filled his mouth with human urine, and finally came to his senses.
The incident involving two little people, Jiang Cai and Xiong Kaiyuan, had been going on for a whole month. Emperor Chongzhen finally regained some psychological balance by going to war against them.
Although Jiang Cai and Xiong Kaiyuan were lucky enough to save their lives, the ministers and workers in the court were even more disappointed with the emperor and the political situation. If their criticism of the emperor before was limited to "extremely serious", "too severe" "Smart", by this time it was clear that he was being intolerant, cruel and irresponsible.
An important sign of the sharp decline in Emperor Chongzhen's prestige is that he wanted to kill two ministers but was ultimately unable to do so. This was unthinkable a few years ago. It's just that the resistance shown by the courtiers to the emperor was by no means a positive one. There is some kind of check and balance on the autocratic imperial power, and a kind of negative popular disintegration.
In addition, the noble groups are also quite dissatisfied with Emperor Chongzhen. They believe that the emperor's attitude towards Wu Shigong is simply an unreasonable accusation. In the eyes of the nobles, it is a "virtue" for military officers and nobles to be domineering outside, not to mention many honorary officials. Gui also regarded Wu Shigong's success as a "good example" for revitalizing the Xungui Group.
This time, Emperor Chongzhen's attitude towards Wu Shigong had already loomed as a threat to the two princes' mansions, and the tangled relationship even spread to most of the mansions of nobles in the capital. Why didn't this make the nobles vigilant?
Therefore, a show of strength by the Runing Army inadvertently triggered conflicts between the DPRK and the Central Government. By this time, Emperor Chongzhen had already deserted his relatives.
PS: Thanks to all my friends for their support over the past year. I will add another chapter today.
This book is about to be finished in two or three months. The new book will be chosen between urban and fantasy, but it needs to be approved by the editor, so the final book I will write is undecided, and I hope friends will give me their own suggestions.
So next, I will collect materials for new books, and updates will definitely continue. I hope there will be a seamless connection between new and old books.
Finally, thank you all friends again for your support!