Ni Yuanlu has two excellent teachers and outstanding personal talents, so the three of them have always been headed by him. Originally, in Ni Yuanlu's view, the new emperor's accession to the throne was the best time to overthrow the eunuch party and re-establish the Donglin Party in the court.

However, after the fall of the eunuch party, who will lead the Donglin party is also an extremely important matter, which determines who will enjoy the fruits of the victory over the eunuch party.

Originally, Ni Yuanlu and the three of them wanted to recommend Wen Zhenmeng to receive the fruits of this victory, although Wen Zhenmeng was a famous family, he was also a champion, but he was only admitted to the champion at the age of 52, and he was relatively arrogant, so there were few friends in the party.

If Wen Zhenmeng becomes the leader of Donglin, then Ni Yuanlu is very sure that Wen Zhenmeng must rely on the three of them to control the government, and they will have the opportunity to realize their political ambitions.

But soon Chongzhen's attitude showed that he was unwilling to accept Wen Zhenmeng as his teacher. An official who was not trusted by the emperor could not lead Donglin and the government, so they had to choose Liu Zongzhou again.

But now it seems that this stubborn personality of Mr. Qishan can neither please the emperor nor win the support of Comrade Donglin, who wants to completely overthrow the eunuch party. As a result, the three of them are in an awkward position.

Wang Shoulu, Lu Chengyuan, and Ni Yuanlu fired the first shot against the eunuchs, driving Wei Zhongxian and Cui Chengxiu out of the capital, but the next political fruits that were about to ripen seemed to have nothing to do with them.

This contrast is inevitably too great, even if the three of them have always cultivated their minds and temperaments, they are a little emotional today.

The three of them discussed for a long time, but they couldn't come up with a countermeasure, and seeing that it was almost curfew time, Wang Shoulu and Ni Yuanlu hurriedly said goodbye and left.

The next day, the fifth watch had just been knocked, and Ni Yuanlu, who had not rested much, quickly got up and was ready to go to court.

After waiting for the sky to turn white, the drum sounded to summon the hundred officials to go to the court, and the hundred officials basically arrived under the Forbidden City after the three-way drum, and only then did the bell ring to open the gate.

Then the civil and military officials entered from the left and right gates of the Forbidden City, and lined up in the south of the Jinshui Bridge according to the ranks, and then the powerful men waved three net whips, indicating that the dynasty officially began this morning, and then the hundreds of officials in order passed through the Jinshui Bridge in turn.

Under the Fengtianmen Danqi, with the imperial road as the center, the civil officials stand on the east side and the military attaché stands on the west side. Zhu Youzhen sat yawning on the throne on the royal gate, and he looked at the somewhat chaotic scene below with some speechlessness.

When he sat here for the first time, he was still a little excited, expecting to see a spectacular court meeting, but in fact, the court meeting of the Ming Dynasty was far worse than the pomp and circumstance he saw on TV.

The first is that the clothes of the Ming Dynasty used natural dyes, and the colors of natural dyes are not as bright as modern chemical dyes look. Therefore, whether it is an official or a guard at the court, it does not look so conspicuous.

The second is that in the last years of the Apocalypse, not only did the army lack discipline, but also the guards guarding the palace city. A group of guards who have never practiced before, it is undoubtedly difficult for them to stand in a horizontal and vertical line.

And the civil and military officials have to get up in the middle of the night to prepare for the court, and when it is time to go to the court, it is good to be able to line up according to the rank and not fall asleep.

Therefore, every time he went to court, what Zhu Youzhen saw was the guards standing with staggered teeth and two rows of crooked officials. Sometimes Zhu Youzhen thinks that this Ming Emperor seems to be inferior to the primary school principals of later generations, at least when the primary school students do exercises every day, the team is still very neat.

After nearly two months of being in the court, Zhu Youzhen felt more and more that in addition to satisfying the vanity of the emperor, this kind of court meeting was extremely inefficient in handling things.

Because the Ming Dynasty court stipulated that "large and small public and private matters should be made to be played by the public dynasty". The "Ming Huidian" stipulates that the "ensemble notices" of the yamen of various prefectures and ministries reach 184 paragraphs. In addition to such major events as elections, grain inventory, suggestions, prisoner executions, and the opening of yamen, as well as such matters as disasters, rain, and the number of prisoners, there are also many miscellaneous matters such as "buying cattle and farm tools" and "recovering stolen goods and insufficient family members". Even the officials and soldiers guarding the imperial city searched and found the stolen property of the inner government, and they had to be led to the court gate and sent by the emperor himself. It can be described as "annoying" to the extreme.

So every time in the early dynasty, Zhu Youzhen was dizzy in these tedious little things. And what is really important and urgently needs to be done, he can't pay attention to it. He has always wanted to change this way of deliberating, but just by abolishing the preferential exemption of scholars from commercial taxes, Zhu Youzhen has already learned the stubborn and rigid thinking of this group of Ming bureaucrats.

If he wants to change the way of deliberation of the entire court meeting, he will not only be opposed by those old-fashioned civil officials, but also may be associated with the abolition of the preferential exemption of commercial taxes for scholars by those who have a good heart, and finally be accused by these civil officials of being lazy and sloppy.

Although Zhu Youzhen does not mind wearing the title of a faint monarch, it is clear that if a faint monarch wants to implement political reform, he will definitely encounter greater obstacles than now. Therefore, Zhu Youzhen has been observing which of these officials in the DPRK and China can be his political allies.

When Zhu Youzhen was holding his chin and thinking about other things in his mind, those tedious chores were finally reported.

An official of the Ministry of Officials stood up and said: "Your Majesty, Liu Zongzhou, Qian Qianyi, Qu Shiyun and others who should be recalled to Beijing have arrived in the capital, please summon them to Your Majesty." ”

Under Wang Chengen's hint, Zhu Youzhen finally came back to his senses. When he heard a familiar name, he couldn't help but smile and said, "Let's announce that they will go to the court to see you." ”

The celebrity whose water is too cold is finally here, although this benevolent brother has been ridiculed a lot by later generations, but in Zhu Youzhen's opinion, Qian Qianyi is at least much better than Hong Chengchou, who is desperate to work for the Manchu Dynasty.

The group, led by an introduction officer, walked directly below the Danqi. This kind of summoning after the resumption is actually just a formality, so that Chongzhen and the officials who recalled the capital can familiarize themselves with their faces and leave an impression on the emperor's mind.

Generally, there is no such civil official, and he will raise something at this kind of meeting. Because after all, the emperor and the officials met for the first time, and everyone didn't know each other, so it was not the style of a mature politician to be rash at this time.

Like the last court meeting, Xu Guangqi was reformed as soon as he returned to the DPRK, which caught the DPRK and Chinese officials off guard, also because no one would have expected that Xu Guangqi would dare to risk his political life.

However, Xu Guangqi was a special case after all, and he just guessed Chongzhen's thoughts. If Xu Guangqi's superiority did not impress Chongzhen, he would either be demoted out of the capital as soon as he returned to Beijing, or he would be left in that place to eat ashes. This is the view of most civil officials in the DPRK and China on Xu Guangqi's reform.

Zhu Youzhen was looking at the appearance of Qian Qianyi, who was on the roll call, and didn't notice Liu Zongzhou standing on the far left at all.

Qian Qianyi has three short beards on his chin, and he looks quite good-looking, with a bit of a yuppie temperament.

When Zhu Youzhen was paying attention to Qian Qianyi, he heard the end of the roll call. Liu Zongzhou, who was on the far left, suddenly came out and said, "Minister, Liu Zongzhou has a book." ”

At this time, not only the officials on both sides of the royal road looked sideways at Liu Zongzhou, but Ni Yuanlu, who had been staring at Liu Zongzhou's actions, also sighed, knowing that today's situation was irreparable. In his opinion, Liu Zongzhou's pedantic letter will have no effect except for increasing Chongzhen's bad feelings towards Donglin people.

Zhu Youzhen was also stunned, he just looked at Qian Qianyi, and he didn't hear the name of this thin middle-aged man at all. He couldn't help but look at Wang Chengen standing beside him, Wang Chengen immediately lowered his head in comprehension and whispered a few words in his ear.

Zhu Youzhen's face became a little solemn after listening, he sat upright, and said to Liu Zongzhou like gold: "Accurate." ”

Liu Zongzhou straightened his clothes, bowed to Chongzhen and fell to the ground, and then spread the music on the ground and began to read. Generally speaking, it was quite uncomfortable to kneel on the ground and play to the emperor, so the ministers tried to be as concise as possible when they wanted to report something, and only talked about one thing at a time.

However, this stubborn Mr. Hiyama meticulously followed the etiquette of the scholars to be loyal to the king, and gathered all the things he wanted to say into a book of seven or eight thousand words.

What did Liu Zongzhou say? The first thing is to warn Zhu Youzhen that now that the Ming Dynasty is at the end of the day, and he can no longer continue to fight, and looting the world's property to support the army will only make the army more and more arrogant. Moreover, it is not a good way to gather the world's troops to fight Houjin and count on the first war to pacify Liaodong.

The second thing is to persuade Zhu Youzhen to reduce taxes, Liu Zongzhou thinks that it is not good to have a good tomorrow, and it will be almost ten years since the Liao salary is added. Local officials take the completion of tax payment as their own merit, and the small people can only sell their wives and children to pay taxes, and the state ignores the disasters encountered by the local people.

The third thing is to accuse Wei Zhongxian and others of setting off a rebellion of party disputes, which has led to the failure of the officials of the DPRK and China to protect their morale, and the officials have attacked each other in a group for self-protection, and have thrown aside the major national affairs that need to be handled urgently. If this continues, the officials will lose their integrity and shame, and they will deceive the king, and who will the emperor rely on to govern the country at that time?

In the end, Liu Zongzhou concluded that he hoped that Chongzhen could choose a sage and govern the country with benevolence and righteousness.

There is still a little merit in the front of Liu Zongzhou's recital, but the more he gets to the back, Zhu Youzhen feels that it is completely empty words. This is very correct in choosing sages and governing the country with benevolence and righteousness, but how to select sages and what kind of policies can reflect benevolence and righteousness, this Mr. Qishan did not mention at all.

Zhu Youzhen, who originally had prejudices against the Donglin Party, couldn't help but think with some malice that this selection of sages was about to choose the rhetoric of the Donglin Party, and sure enough, there was nothing new under the sun.