Faced with a series of figures reported by Guo Yunhou, when most officials were still thinking about it, Lu Chengyuan couldn't help but reply: "According to the minister, in the past, the annual income and commercial tax of Taicang was only about 200,000 taels of silver, but this year, the tax on raw silk alone exceeded 900,000 taels. Isn't this a competition with the people? ”

Lu Chengyuan's words immediately angered Guo Yunhou, the secretary of the household department, and he immediately reprimanded: "It's just a strong quibble, in previous years, the raw silk was levied in kind, but this year it was just converted into cash in kind, do you think that the imperial court also levied the wrong tax?" ”

For Guo Yunhou, Lu Chengyuan's psychological pressure was not so great, and he unceremoniously argued: "The imperial court should also levy taxes moderately, in previous years, the whole country collected only 8 or 9 thousand quintals of raw silk in kind, and this year's collection of silver is said to have reached 15,000 quintals, an increase of almost two-thirds, isn't it a tyrannical expropriation?" ”

Guo Yunhou was blocked and couldn't speak for a while, and when he was thinking about how to refute Lu Chengyuan's words, Zhu Youzhen couldn't listen anymore. There is a saying in the afterlife, you can wake up a person who is asleep, but you can't wake up a person who is pretending to be asleep. Obviously, these Qingliu officials have begun to turn into people who are pretending to be asleep.

"Enough, the responsibility of the household department is to collect taxes according to the laws of the imperial court, not according to the taxes of individuals. The increase in raw silk tax this year is not because the imperial court has collected more, but because there are too many people who evade taxes in previous years.

As an official of the imperial court, you don't think about how to declare the law and discipline of the imperial court, but defend tax evasion, where is your ass sitting?

Besides, there is a general assembly composed of representatives of merchants from various provinces in the capital, and they are not dissatisfied with the tax collection method and amount of the imperial court, but you all can't wait to jump out, what do you want to do?

The collection of taxes by the imperial court is to cut the surplus to make up for the shortage, accumulate grain in good years, and prevent disasters in famine years. This year's Northwest Wilderness, Gyeonggi, Zhejiang and Fujian have regional disasters, if the imperial court does not collect taxes, how can it help the victims? Do we still have to rely on morality to convince those victims that they can't starve at home? ”

Chongzhen's rebuke not only did not make Lu Chengyuan, Qian Shisheng and other officials wake up, but shattered the last trace of illusion in their hearts. Kneeling in front of them, they seemed to feel a sense of retreat in the whispers of the officials behind them, which made several people feel that today's events not only angered the emperor and the ruling ministers, but also caused them to lose their reputation.

As self-proclaimed officials, the realization that losing fame is tantamount to political death has clearly caused panic among these officials. Once a person is in a state of panic, he becomes either extremely timid or extremely reckless.

Wang Shoulu and Qian Yuanyu are about the former, while Qian Shisheng should be the latter. Qian Shisheng, who was in a panic, couldn't help but say a little unscrupulously: "The gentleman is righteous, and the villain is profitable." As long as Your Majesty is diligent in cultivating morality, the heavens will naturally send blessings and bless all the people of the world to survive the famine.

How could Your Majesty be so indulged in petty profits that he forgot who he was? Your Majesty is an example for all the people, Your Majesty loves money but is not good at virtue, what will become of the people of the world? ”

Qian Shisheng's unscrupulous words finally angered Chongzhen, and at the same time made the other officials in the palace look sideways. What he said was no longer discussing the issue of how much money and grain the imperial court collected, but openly linking Chongzhen's virtue with the weather in various places this year, which was faintly questioning whether Chongzhen was qualified to be the emperor.

Although it has become a political trend for ministers to openly stab the emperor since Hai Rui of the Jiajing Dynasty, after the Donglin Party case, this is the first time that someone has openly questioned the emperor in the court, and it has directly touched on the most sensitive political issues.

Several Donglin leaders who were racking their brains on the side to relieve the siege of these officials suddenly sank in their hearts, knowing that things were going to be bad.

Unlike Qian Shisheng and other officials, these Donglin leaders did not acquiesce to today's events for the sake of economic problems, in their opinion, the emperor was ideologically inclined to natural science, and the company of Western priests was what worried them the most.

They originally wanted to take this opportunity to admonish Chongzhen, letting him know that even if he was a great emperor, he needed to take into account the feelings of his courtiers and not be able to do whatever he wanted.

But they didn't expect that Xu Guangqi and others would stand up to defend Xinxue; Second, they did not expect that Qian Shisheng would openly associate this year's famine with Chongzhen's virtue, which obviously made the situation beyond their imagination.

Although Chongzhen's behavior towards the government has not been as impulsive as a young man in the past year, he is still only an 18-year-old boy after all, and God knows if he will be provoked to lose his mind because of Qian Shisheng's remarks.

Whether it is Yang Tinghe, Zhang Juzheng, or the Donglin Party, if an emperor is stimulated to lose his mind, their fate will never be different. In the Ming Dynasty, the emperor was the one who could call the wind and rain.

Sure enough, as Qian Shisheng's words fell, Zhu Youzhen finally lost his last bit of patience, and he no longer wanted to entangle with these Qingliu and Donglin Party officials.

He sneered in a stiff tone, "Have you finally revealed your true thoughts?" Anything that opposes the local bureaucracy, the new school, and the internal government to intervene in handicraft commerce is just a cover for you.

In the final analysis, I just want to question whether I am qualified to be the emperor. Let's talk about it, you don't think I should sit on this throne, so who do you want to let sit in this position?

Now that you've said it, you might as well make it clearer, and I'll give you this opportunity to speak! ”

As soon as Chongzhen's words fell, Wu Chunfu, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry and the minister of the cabinet, immediately stood up, pointed to Qian Shisheng and others in front of the palace and reprimanded: "You rebels, you are still claiming to be a clear stream, and you are simply muddy water that can no longer be dirty. You are not honest, who is the instigation of you to do harm to Your Majesty? ”

As Wei Zhongxian's cronies, the secretary of the Ministry of Works, who moved six times within a year, became the target of public criticism after Wei Zhongxian's downfall. All the Donglin Party members wanted to open a gap from him, so as to set off a wave of liquidation of the eunuch party in the DPRK, and Huang Liji and others have been hesitating whether to throw out these Wei Zhongxian's cronies as a condition for reconciliation with the Donglin Party.

Under the protection of Chongzhen, coupled with the fact that his sons and daughters' in-laws grasped the military power of Gyeonggi, Wu Chunfu survived this year with trepidation. But he didn't feel that his danger had diminished, after all, he didn't know how long Chongzhen's favor of him could last. And those Donglin Party members have a deep enmity with the Eunuch Party, and they have become an endless situation with him.

He didn't want the Donglin Party to regain power one day, so that they could completely liquidate themselves. Therefore, when he saw that the Donglin Party and Qingliu were dying by themselves, and they were facing Chongzhen, he wanted to take this opportunity to completely cut off Donglin's hope of regaining power.

With Wu Chunfu taking the lead, the remnants of the eunuch party, who had been shouted and beaten by the Donglin Party and Qingliu before, suddenly attacked Qian Shisheng and other officials as traitors who formed a party and plotted rebellion, and there was a great chance of reproducing the posture of criticizing the Donglin Party in the court in the fourth and fifth years of the Apocalypse.

And Zhu Youzhen's unusually silent connived at these officials to expand the scope of the attack. The situation soon expanded from Qian Shisheng's unscrupulous words to a situation in which the Lin Party in the DPRK and the Middle East was to be completely eradicated.

No matter what Donglin leaders such as Liu Zongzhou, Yuan Keli, Qian Qianyi, Qian Longxi, and Han Yi had in mind before, they now have to stand on the same front and defend these Qingliu officials.

However, Qian Shisheng's words and Chongzhen's indifference made a considerable number of neutral officials dare not speak out in support of the Donglin party. And the officials of the first department of Xinxue are still disgusted with the slander and slander of Xinxue by these Qingliu and Donglin Party members just now, not only did they not maintain their previous neutral position, but some people directly joined the crusade against Qian Shisheng and others.

The Donglin Party, which originally had a slight advantage in the court, was suppressed by the remnants of the eunuch party they looked down on in the Imperial Palace after uniting with some Qingliu today.

Yuan Keli was the first to react, if Chongzhen didn't come out to stop this controversy now, once there was a wave of all-out condemnation of the Donglin Party in the court, even the emperor himself would not be able to stop this cruel party struggle, and that kind of situation was obviously not what Chongzhen wanted to see.

Yuan Keli quickly walked out of the class order, walked directly to the hall and pleaded loudly to Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, everyone in the court is excited now, and it is not a rational attitude to discuss political affairs. The minister requested that the Korean Council be temporarily suspended and that urgent national consultations be held. ”

The emergency country is a consultation, and it is a lazy method that Chongzhen came up with in order to reduce the number of court meetings. According to the regulations set at the beginning of the country, the emperor should come to the court once every three days, but after becoming an ancestor, most of the emperors were not happy to go to court, so this rule was abandoned for a long time.

There are two examples, Wanli and Tianqi, Chongzhen is in the dynasty once a month on the first and fifteenth days of the new year, which is already very positive. However, in the past, Wanli and Tianqi did not have the habit of holding regular meetings of cabinet ministers, which means that some officials can see the emperor at any time, while other officials cannot see the emperor.

The political system of the Ming Dynasty ensured that all power belonged to the emperor himself, and the regular meetings between the cabinet and the emperor confirmed that the status of the cabinet ministers was far above the other officials of the six ministries, which obviously diluted the power of the officials of the other ministries, which was obviously not liked by the officials of the six ministries.

In order to appease these officials, Zhu Youzhen set up a system of state-state meetings and emergency state-state consultations, the former ensuring that officials from other ministries could also meet with him regularly, while the latter recognized that officials from various ministries also had the right to meet with him to discuss affairs under special circumstances.

However, when Yuan Keli proposed that the emergency state be consulted, this was the first time that a minister had requested the use of this power. Although Zhu Youzhen was a little unhappy, he didn't want to break the rules he had made. He was silent for a long time before he whispered a few words to Wang Chengen on the side.

After Wang Chengen lowered his head and listened to Zhu Youzhen's instructions, he straightened up and announced loudly: "This court meeting is temporarily suspended, and all officials will go to the side halls on both sides to rest for an hour and then come back to discuss matters, and everyone is not allowed to make noise and move around during the break. Gentlemen of the Cabinet and ministers of the third rank and above, please go to the apse..."