Without understanding the changes in the power of the cabinet in the Ming Dynasty and the resulting power struggle with the head of the six ministries, it is impossible to realize that the political struggle in the 21st year of Wanli is actually the embodiment of the "cabinet dispute".

It is impossible to understand why Gu Xiancheng and his colleagues have repeatedly opposed the cabinet, which can only be explained by Gu Xiancheng, the "mastermind behind the scenes", manipulating his boss.

If you don't understand the game between the cabinet and the use and anti-use of the department, you will not understand why there is a situation where "the cabinet ministers and the way of speech have become fire and water".

You can only think of them as a bunch of lunatics or people with histrionic personality disorder.

If you don't understand the duties of the various departments of the ministry and the specific process of the cabinet ministers, you can't understand why Wupinlang can fight with the emperor.

It can only be boiled down to unfathomable energy.

If we do not understand the many precedents of the Jingcha system and the proliferation of the cabinet ministers' "favoritism to obstruct the inspection code", we will not understand the collapse of the Jingcha system and its degeneration into a battlefield.

The struggle around Jingcha can only be regarded as a communiqué for personal vendetta and a common party against differences.

If you don't understand the important role of the primogeniture inheritance system in the political stability of ancient dynasties and the importance that the concept of the times attaches to it, you will regard the establishment of the crown prince as a "family affair of the emperor".

and regarded the "struggle for the country" as a cover for fighting for power and profit, and even sympathized with the emperor.

If you don't understand the rules and regulations of Donglin Academy, you will understand the lecture as "satirizing the government and judging people", imagine the academy as a base for anti-government forces, and even make up the scene of "ordering the surrounding counties".

If you don't understand the status of the Donglin School in academic history, and don't understand the Donglin School's idea of "applying it to the world", you will attribute the influence of the Donglin Academy to the support of the township party forces and important ministers of the imperial court, and imagine the Donglin Party people as only talking about it.

Even regarded the Donglin School of "talking about the heart and mind" as the poison of the Donglin Party.

Later generations have basically not gotten rid of the argument that "the Donglin Party is fighting for the country", and they still recognize the integrity of the Donglin Party.

The Donglin party, if you look at it from the moral high ground, often holds a dualism, black and white.

"Those who have grievances with Donglin are evil parties in the eyes of everyone."

For example, many officials of the Zhejiang, Chu, and Qi parties were listed as evil parties because they had different political views from Donglin.

Donglin used the Jingcha method to denounce all non-Donglin political leaders as evil, and directly forced the officials who opposed Donglin's proposal to huddle together to keep warm.

Fangdong Lin is prosperous, Luo Tianxia is clear, and there are people who are different from each other, and criticism will follow. Those who attack Donglin are fortunate to be close to themselves, and the aid is important, so the neutral class is inevitably defiled by villains. When Wei Zhongxian sat down, the anti-Donglin people took refuge in him.

In the end, it became a pattern of the so-called "eunuch party" and the Donglin party competing for government and government.

Speaking of which, some people who were beaten into the evil party by Donglin in the early days, and later rehabilitated Donglin by the Chongzhen Dynasty and included in the eunuch party, some people are indeed capable and not bad officials.

For example, one of the leaders of the Qi Party, the Ministry of Rites gave Qi Shijiao in the matter, and was denounced by Zhao Nanxing as evil, and Zhao Nanxing impeached Qi and other four people from the Zhejiang and Qi parties in the third year of the Apocalypse, and the officials all raised objections to Wei Yingjia in the matter and did not agree to deal with these four people.

However, Zhao Nanxing insisted on what he had seen, and wrote the article "Four Evils Theory", comparing Qi Shijiao and others to the four evils of Hun Dun, Qi Qi, Zhu Qi, and gluttony in the ancient Yao Shunyu period, and advocated the elimination of evil.

In the end, the four were dismissed on the grounds of misconduct.

However, when investigating the matter of Qi Shijiao, he is not a great evil, but a capable and well-behaved official.

In Huai'an Mansion, he has quite a political voice.

In the year of the Apocalypse, he patrolled Henan and other places, and supervised military affairs, and also managed the river, and his political achievements were also quite visible.

In the thirty-fifth year of Wanli, Wanli decreed that "Zhili Huai'an Mansion pushes officials and teaches poetry, has pure ambitions, and is only able to practice and rob the court." Then deal with the state punishment, and Er can Chali, seek the middle edge, and be cautious and respectful. ”

"In the forty-third year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, there was a great hunger in Eastern Province. In the first month of the following year, people cannibalize. Qi Shijiao specially asked for relief, and he had to pay 230,000 taels of coins, and he was very popular. The easterners are grateful for the Lisheng Ancestral Hall in the suburbs of Laixi"

In the forty-third year of Wanli, Wanli also issued an edict to the father of Yuan Shijiao, praising his godson in a good way, which said: The ability of the son is not the only father's training! There is also the ambition of becoming a father from a mother. and succeed without getting the reward of eating children, its feelings can be remembered. And the Cheng family, who increases the number of children, is the mother of the poetry and teaching in the matter of the rites, the woman's virtue and filial piety, and the mother's ritual is sacred. Ding Nian pulls the deer, and prepares for the work of the well; Bingye and the bear, the business of Kezan poetry and books.

Qi Shijiao also put forward his own opinions and suggestions on the grain requisition policy implemented by the imperial court in Shandong and the existing drawbacks, and used the four methods of suspending the levy, changing the discount, leveling the level, and retaining people to adjust the grain requisition policy and the problems existing in taxation in Shandong, and rescued the people of Shandong, especially the rebellion in the Qingzhou area, and saved the starving people from suffering from misery.

In order to appreciate the great contribution made by the Qi Poetry Sect to the people of Shandong, the people of Laiwu and Qingzhou built a shrine for the Qi Poetry Sect in the west of Laicheng City to express their love for him.

Among them, there is a poem in the ancestral hall of Lae City praising the merits of the dollar: "Looking at the first ancestor of Jingjing, the top of independence." Henan Kaifu is pro, and the lonely moon is hanging in the air. The breeze carries two sleeves, and the big task is negative. When it stands on the sun, the wind and frost Su Banlian. Every time there is a list, resolutely take the lead. At that time, the eastern province was hungry, and Qingzhou was unique. Thousands of words, sincerity is the sky. Hundreds of millions of lives are safe in an instant. Public morality is the thinking of people, and the history of meritorious deeds. ”

In the third year of the Apocalypse, he was expelled by Donglin as the four murderers, and in the fifth year of the Apocalypse, Donglin fell and re-ascended to the throne, and was promoted to the right of the Imperial History of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and applied to be released away from the place of party contention.

However, in the early years of Chongzhen, the eunuch party fell, and the remnants of the eunuch party were searched, and Qi Shijiao was judged to be guilty of relying on the eunuch Feng Quan and others, and the final sin was secondary, and the ransom was for the people.

Looking at Wei Zhongxian from the emperor's point of view, Wei Zhongxian is a loyal and capable minister.

It can even be said that Wei Zhongxian was the first loyal minister, and all the historical materials that say that Wei Zhongxian wanted to rebel are wrong, because there is no real evidence that he is going to rebel.

And Wei Zhongxian's rebellion didn't make any sense.

Don't talk about the apocalypse, Chongzhen doesn't rebel, he is loyal to be an old dog.

Many people say that Chongzhen is good at covering up.

Chongzhen's acting skills may not be good for fooling ordinary people, Wei Zhongxian was born by acting.

Playing scheming, a hairy young man like Chongzhen, where is Wei Zhongxian's opponent.

Not to mention Cui Chengxiu and Gu Bingqian, almost everyone knew that Chongzhen wanted to move Wei Zhongxian, and Wei Zhongxian did not oppose in the end.

The emperor asked for money, and Wei Zhongxian got money, which is quite capable.

The emperor wanted the ministers to be obedient, and Wei Zhongxian helped supervise the princes and ministers, and the emperor could hear the sound in the palace when a copper plate fell from the house.

The emperor wanted to clean up the government, and Wei Zhongxian supervised the implementation of various rules and regulations, and bereavement and disaster relief.

No matter how much Wei Zhongxian tosses, he hasn't lost a single cent of your imperial power.

Wei Zhongxian is the representative of imperial power.

said that Wei Zhongxian formed a gang and became nine thousand years old.

Who doesn't form a gang when they engage in politics?

The Ming Dynasty opened the country, and they all stayed at home honestly, what else did Zhu Yuanzhang kill?

Why did Hu Weiyong and Li Shanchang die? It's not that the gangs are too big to get rid of.

The princeling Yanwang Party in the back, Qi Chuzhe in the back, the villain Yan Song Wen Tiren in the back, and the decent Sanyang Zhang Juzheng, there is no one in the past dynasties who does not form gangs.

From the perspective of the Donglin Party, from the perspective of most landlords and literati, Wei Zhongxian is a ruffian and a hooligan.

From the perspective of the common people, Wei Zhongxian has nothing to do with ordinary people, if you have to say that it has anything to do with it, it is much better than some Donglin Party things full of benevolence and morality later.

Wei Zhongxian belongs to the poorest people at the bottom, and he knows to think about it from the perspective of the people.

When the Donglin Party was fully in power, those guys, in order to make money, completely ignored the suffering of the people, and even the emperor didn't care, and forced the Ming Dynasty to perish prematurely.

Otherwise, with the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, it really wouldn't have fallen so quickly.

So some people think that if the Emperor of the Apocalypse, Zhu Youxiao, does not die, the Ming Dynasty can survive for a long time, Wei Bao believes it.

At least, if the Emperor of the Apocalypse Zhu Youxiao does not die, Wei Zhongxian will always be in power.

Under the long-term temptation of power and money, Wei Zhongxian has done quite well, at least much better than the Donglin Party in power.

Therefore, Wei Bao felt that Chongzhen should not kill Wei Zhongxian, leave a way for people to live, and let them go to the spirit guard.

As long as people like Wei Zhongxian don't die, many people will be jealous, and they will work honestly, at least they won't coax Chongzhen like a fool.

Chongzhen's level, he will only cry and beg the minister to donate silver and two dozen slaves, no matter how diligent he is, it is useless, he has neither much experience nor much knowledge, not everyone can be gifted to be the emperor of a huge empire.

Wei Zhongxian is martial, good and bad, bright and dark, Wei Zhongxian has more than 100 ways to get money from the minister, this is the difference in level.

That's for the following things.

Wei Zhongxian wanted to get rid of Sun Chengzong, but Wei Zhongxian's support for Yuan Chonghuan, who had nothing to do with him, showed that he still valued the ability of people who did things.

No matter how much Yuan Chonghuan tosses, as long as he can still fight, no matter how much he does too much, Wei Zhongxian will only suppress him and will stay to fight.

Wei Zhongxian is dead, as long as Yuan Chonghuan does something wrong, he will directly kill him from top to bottom.

Therefore, Wei Bao now looks at the problem in a particularly Buddhist way, which is more comprehensive.

I think it makes sense to say that Wei Zhongxian is good and that Wei Zhongxian is bad, and there are different perspectives and different views.

Anyway, from Wei Bao's point of view, Wei Zhongxian has really helped Wei Bao a lot.

Without Wei Zhongxian, Wei Bao would not have been able to be named on the gold list.

It is impossible for Wei Bao to stabilize southern Liaoning, Weijiazhuang, and the Yamen of the Governor of Haiphong.

People are the most complex, the most multifaceted, everyone has pigtails behind their backs, everyone has a dark side, as long as they eat, drink, sleep, eat grains, there will be shortcomings.

Under the perennial corrosion of money and power, he can still care about the people and the people in the world, there are very few such people, and even Wei Bao often feels that he is going to lose himself in high society.

They are all ordinary people, and few people can withstand the corrupt life of high society.

Not everyone can become Hai Rui, let alone not eating meat for three or five years, and if you don't eat meat for two or three days, you can be hungry.

If it is in a peaceful and prosperous era, Wei Zhongxian is a ruffian and a hooligan, no problem.

But at this important historical node at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Wei Zhongxian was the blade of the royal family.

At this historical juncture, the Ming Empire was no longer big, strong, rich and beautiful, but a weak and haggard sick man.

At this time, there is no need for benevolence, righteousness and morality, no need for Confucius and Mencius to preach, what is needed is to linger.

Daming, what is needed is not an extremist like Chongzhen who is bold, vigorous and resolute, and goes all the way to the black, who will take out coins and throw them at every turn, and gamble with the Manchu rebels to win or lose, either you die or I die, such a person is not good.

A hypocrite who is full of benevolence and righteousness, who calculates the small treasury at home, and which aunt's wife is too late at night, is even more impossible.

At this time, Daming needs ruffians and hooligans like Wei Zhongxian, as long as anyone can play scoundrels enough to get money, so that the border soldiers can have combat effectiveness, and let Daming survive.

As long as Wei Zhongxian can suppress those hypocrites and make those hypocrites less shameless, Jinyi Weidong Factory can jump up and down to make these ministers unhappy, and work honestly.

As long as Wei Zhongxian can spend another few decades, he can survive the Xiaoice River period.

As for the Manchus, it's better to say.

As long as it can fool for decades, the Manchu Qing will be over.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty was the last glory of cavalry in the world.

This glory was only a flash in the pan, and as long as new firearms and new tactics appeared, the Manchu cavalry would not have such a big advantage.

In fact, the power struggle within the Manchu Qing Dynasty is very, very serious, as long as it is not handled well, it will immediately be an internal split, and they will cripple themselves.

Every time the power was handed over in the early period of the Manchu Dynasty, it was actually a tightrope, so as long as the Ming Dynasty blocked the Manchu Qing out of the pass, the Manchu Qing Dynasty would not be able to walk down the tightrope steadily every time.

Wei Bao faced the Ming Dynasty at this time, the house leak happened to rain overnight, it was raining heavily outside, and it was dripping with light rain in the house.

Wei Bao entered the palace with several cabinet ministers.

No, it should be said that all the ministers who are qualified to go to the court entered the palace together.

As expected, Emperor Zhu Youxiao of the Apocalypse did not plan to come to the court today, and Wei Zhongxian dispersed and was over.

Several cabinet ministers had a tacit understanding and did not leave immediately.

Wei Zhongxian didn't come over to talk to a few people, but was overwhelmed by Li Yongzhen, a chief eunuch.

"A few elders, Lord Wei, please come with the old slave." Li Yongzhen said with a smile.

Li Yongzhen smiled warmly.

Wei Bao secretly thought, these old eunuchs, big eunuchs, and little eunuchs, all of them are talents, if they go to modern times to engage in sales, everyone is qualified to be a sales manager, at least they look comfortable.

Several ministers were expressionless, especially Ding Shaoshi.

As the only minister of the Donglin Party, Ding Shaoshi now seems to owe him a lot of money, whether in the cabinet or in the palace.

Ding Shaoshi would talk to Wei Bao in private, and when someone was there, even Wei Bao ignored him.

Several people followed Li Yongzhen to the platform, and the Emperor of the Apocalypse, Zhu Youxiao, was already waiting there.

Wei Bao saw an acquaintance standing next to the emperor.