After Zhu Youzhen glanced around, his face was cold, and he said loudly to these officials in the court: "What Mr. Qishan said is very good, you must govern the country with benevolence and righteousness. The reason why China is different from barbarians is that China knows what benevolence and righteousness are.

For a country, it is the greatest benevolence to feed the people. Whoever makes the people hungry should get out. Some local officials enjoyed the offerings of the people, but they did not even know whether the people under their rule had anything to eat. What is the use of the people raising such an official?

If it weren't for Mr. Qishan telling the truth, I really didn't know that the people of the Ming Dynasty actually had to pay taxes by selling their wives and children. It is the responsibility of the Cabinet and the Ministry of Household Affairs to devise a system that allows the people to pay taxes that they cannot afford. These outdated systems have reached the point where they must be reformed.

There are more than 100 people in the six departments and the imperial history of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and they don't know anything about the people's livelihood and affairs except for being keen on party disputes on weekdays. Did the ancestors set up science and technology officials for the purpose of advising, supervising, and impeaching, or were they for the sake of certain groups and individuals vying for power and profit?

Where is Li Kuilong, the right deputy capital of Yushi? ”

Since ascending the throne, it is the first time that Zhu Youzhen has made such merciless accusations against officials at a court meeting, and the targets of the accusations have involved almost all officials in the DPRK and China.

Although Huang Liji and other cabinet members and the chief officials of the six ministries were angry, what Zhu Youzhen said today was completely standing on the moral high ground built for him by Liu Zongzhou. Maybe Liu Zongzhou's recital is not operable, but the great truth of a Confucian master is certainly not something that these government officials who are entangled in mundane affairs all day long will be able to refute for a while.

Moreover, Zhu Youzhen's criticism was not directed at one of them, so the leaders of these Chinese officials could not automatically jump out and admit that the person Chongzhen said was himself.

Other officials may be able to remain silent, but Huang Liji, who is the first assistant of the cabinet, cannot, he sighed, took off his hat and bowed to Chongzhen and said: "The incompetence of the old minister has led to the instability of the state affairs, which has made His Majesty angry. ”

Just listening to Zhu Youzhen criticize all the courtiers through Liu Zongzhou's recital, Li Kuilong did not think that the emperor's accusations included himself. As a leader of Kedao who had already taken refuge in Chongzhen, he consciously classified himself on the emperor's side. Listening to Chongzhen's criticism of the courtiers, Li Kuilong's mind quickly thought about what His Majesty's intentions were in doing this, and how he should echo His Majesty.

Li Kuilong thought too much, so when Chongzhen called his name, he was obviously stunned and didn't react quickly, which also led to the first assistant Huang Liji to go out first to ask Chongzhen to resign.

Li Kuilong, who was half a step behind, immediately came out of the column and knelt down and said, "Minister Li Kuilong is here, please give instructions to Your Majesty." ”

Looking at the first assistant and the right deputy Du Yushi who knelt in front of him one after another, although Zhu Youzhen understood that Huang Liji had to stand up and take the responsibility of the first assistant, he also blamed him for coming out and interrupting his momentum.

However, Zhu Youzhen quickly reacted, and he said coldly: "The matter of the first assistant, we will talk about it after the end of the court." Today's court meeting only talks about how to solve the problem, and does not discuss who will be held responsible. Please step down first. ”

Huang Liji, who was full of grievances, originally wanted to say something, but when he looked up and saw Zhu Youzhen's cold eyes, he finally agreed and retreated.

But any official who can achieve the position of the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty, even if he does not have the ability to govern, there is still no lack of emotional intelligence.

From Wanli to the Apocalypse, Huang Liji can be regarded as serving the Son of Heaven of the Three Dynasties, and he knows the personalities of several emperors very well.

These sons of heaven who grew up in the deep palace have never left the capital hundreds of miles away in their lives. Even with Wanli's forbearance and the wisdom of the Apocalypse, limited to their limited understanding of the entire Ming society, they have never been able to put forward a complete principle of governing the country, and ultimately they have to rely on civil officials to make ideas to govern the country.

And whether it is Wanli or the Apocalypse, they lack the courage to break the cauldron and sink the boat. They all know that there is a problem with the politics of the Ming Dynasty, but they have always avoided pushing the entire political structure of the Ming Dynasty to a new one, but trying to tinker with the original political foundation.

An emperor who has been seen through the bottom line, what else is there to be afraid of the civil bureaucracy. Everyone knows that it is the emperor himself who desperately wants to maintain the stability of the Ming Dynasty, so the civil officials will use this psychology of the emperor to achieve what they want.

But this Prince Xin, who would never have had the opportunity to sit on the throne of the emperor, a vassal king who was not valued by civil officials, before he ascended the throne, Huang Liji's understanding of him was limited to this is a well-read prince, nothing more.

However, in the days after ascending the throne, especially at the last court meeting, Zhu Youzhen dared to take the throne as a bet and play games with civil officials. Since then, Huang Liji has understood that this Emperor Chongzhen is different from the three great emperors in front of him, he really dares to shake the table with civil officials.

The civil officials led by Huang Liji, who had been friendly with the eunuch party when the eunuch party was gaining power, but had never colluded with Wei Zhongxian, could be regarded as a neutral faction in the court. But they have the same enemy as the Eunuchs, that is, the Donglin Party.

In the last years of Wanli, the Donglin Party took charge of the government by fighting for the country. But then the Donglin Party's suppression of non-party officials made the court into a Donglin Party's academy, and finally forced all non-Donglin Party members to unite and fight back.

Although the upper echelons of the Donglin Party in the court were eliminated by the eunuch party led by their alliance with Wei Zhongxian. But it doesn't mean that they can sit back and relax, Wei Zhongxian's brutal way of eliminating the Donglin Party members has instead allowed the Donglin Party members to gain widespread sympathy and support from the middle and lower classes.

Although Huang Liji is keen on fame, he has not yet reached the point where he will do anything for power, which is also one of the reasons why Tianqi entrusted him with the aftermath, a politician with a bottom line will not collude with Wei Zhongxian to make a move that makes him stunned.

But because of this, now those who want to maintain the stability of the political situation in the Ming Dynasty have become neutral officials such as Huang Liji. In their opinion, if the party struggle is set off again, no matter who wins, it will be equivalent to the loss of Daming.

If the eunuch party wins, it means that the vitality of the Great Ming Shilin is empty, which is definitely not a good thing, without the containment of the Donglin party, the eunuch party will not be willing to share power with these neutral officials.

If the Donglin Party wins, according to the slogan of the Donglin Party people, "if they are not the same way, they are enemies", it is impossible not to find these officials who are attached to the eunuch party to fight against the Donglin Party to liquidate them.

Therefore, although Huang Liji felt that he was very aggrieved, the shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty did not appear now, and when this Zhang Jiangling wanted to carry out reforms, the Ming Dynasty was already ill. But because of an article by Liu Zongzhou, these problems have become the responsibility of him, a person who has not served as the first assistant for a few years, and he really can't figure it out.

But Huang Liji's grievances were suddenly restrained under Zhu Youzhen's cold eyes. In these days, in contact with Chongzhen at the court meeting, Huang Liji has already understood that this young Son of Heaven is already on the verge of breaking out, and if he continues to entangle, he will only focus the anger of the Son of Heaven on himself.

Chongzhen criticized the government through Liu Zongzhou's recital, and as the first assistant, of course he had to stand up and be responsible, because what Liu Zongzhou said was the truth. But Huang Liji is not great enough, and he has to bear this huge black cauldron for the entire civil official group.

Seeing Huang Li retreat with great interest, Zhu Youzhen also breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, if this first assistant couldn't see the situation clearly, he would continue to threaten himself with resignation. Then at this point, he can't help but make adjustments to the cabinet.

After Liu Zongzhou's dismissal, no Donglin Party members stood up to support him, and this abnormal phenomenon immediately aroused Zhu Youzhen's interest.

In just a few minutes, he decided to go on a political adventure. After checking the information of the officials of the six ministries in recent days, Zhu Youzhen found that about 70 percent of the officials in the DPRK and the Central Committee were from Jiangnan, and 50 percent of the officials were from the four regions of North and South Zhili, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi.

The reason why Donglin Academy was able to transform into the Donglin Party was because these literati combined with the big landlords and big businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River and became the political spokesperson of these big landowners and big businessmen.

This is why the Donglin Party advocates the idea of saving the country and the people on weekdays, but when it comes to actual government affairs, they automatically safeguard the interests of big landlords and big businessmen.

The Donglin Party knew that the people at the bottom of the Ming Dynasty could no longer afford to pay taxes, but when the taxes were raised, they insisted on adding these additional distributions to the people at the bottom who were on the verge of bankruptcy, and when the taxes were reduced, they were wantonly distributed to the landlords and businessmen who owned a large amount of land and property.

There was only one result of this practice, and the homesteaders, who were the most important to maintain the stability of the Ming Dynasty, continued to go bankrupt and disappear. A great deal of wealth was concentrated in the hands of a small number of bureaucratic landlords and bureaucratic merchants, while yeoman farmers, craftsmen, and small merchants went bankrupt as a result.

So since Zhu Youzhen ascended the throne, he has known it. His biggest enemy was not the Emperor Taiji of the Later Jin Dynasty, nor the peasant rebel army that was about to swarm into trouble, but the political representatives of these big landlords and big businessmen, the Donglin Party.

One point that is beneficial to Zhu Youzhen is that traditional Chinese politics has a deep hatred for the party, which has led to the fact that the Donglin party members did not become a close-knit organization, but were divided into small groups linked by origin, school, teachers and students, relatives and friends, although the Donglin party members were unanimous in safeguarding the class interests of large landlords and big businessmen, that is, they opposed the taxation of big landowners and big businessmen, and opposed the opening of the sea ban by the imperial court.

But a loose political alliance without a unified political program and with small groups within each other will not have much cohesion. Therefore, in the early years of the Apocalypse, the Donglin Party members who seemed to be in the Ying Dynasty were defeated by Wei Zhongxian, who gathered a group of remnants of the Donglin Party who were defeated by the Donglin Party, so that these Donglin Party members who had mastered the government lost their armor and withdrew from the center of the Ming Dynasty.