readx; Although Wei Zhongxian is dead, the earthquake that shook the entire Ming officialdom is far from over. Pen & Fun & Cabinet www.biquge.info whether it was the DPRK or the local officials, they were soon divided into two distinct factions.

One faction is headed by cabinet ministers Huang Liji, Shi Fenglai, Zhang Ruitu, and Li Guopu, who are either eunuchs themselves, or have a close relationship with the eunuchs, and they are afraid that Chongzhen will chase after the eunuchs and settle accounts on their heads. Therefore, on the one hand, he tried his best to expose Wei Zhongxian's various illegal acts, and tried his best to dissociate himself from Wei Zhongxian; On the other hand, the "Five Tigers" Tian Ji, Wu Chunfu, Li Kuilong, and Ni Wenhuan, who were explicitly arrested by Chongzhen, as well as the "Five Biao" Tian Ergeng, Xu Xianchun, Sun Yunhe, Yang Huan, Cui Yingyuan, and others were secretly defended. Because these people are the ones who have the closest relationship with Wei Zhongxian and are the most troublesome in the eunuch party, if they can all be lightly punished, then it will be easier for them to get by.

In particular, many officials in charge of the "three law divisions" of the Criminal Department, the Dali Temple, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate were eunuchs themselves, and they tried the cases because they avoided the important and made them light, and they attributed most of the blame to the dead ghost Wei Zhongxian, and they were quite protective of the Five Tigers, Wu Biao, and others.

After the first round of interrogation, the three law divisions only questioned Tian Ergeng and Xu Xianchun as the crime of confiscating the army and becoming a family, and Sun Yunhe, Yang Huan, and Cui Yingyuan were reduced to the people's posts and never used for the people. As for Tian Ji and other "five tigers", they are only dismissed.

The other group of officials has nothing to do with the Eunuch Party, and even the Donglin Party members who were suppressed by the Eunuch Party a few years ago. They very much want to take this opportunity to uproot all the political forces such as the Qi Party, the Chu Party, and the Zhejiang Party, which are clinging to the Eunuch Party, and restore the former glory of the Donglin Party. Therefore, they insisted on the strict trial of the prisoners, and constantly went up to impeach other members of the eunuch party, from the first assistant to the prisoners of the Guozi Prison, and all those who had anything to do with the eunuch party were all included in their impeachment.

In this life-and-death struggle, Emperor Chongzhen's attitude undoubtedly played a crucial role. But to the bewilderment of many, the emperor did not seem to be in a hurry to dispose of the eunuchs. Except for the Five Tigers and Five Biao, Zhu Youzhen did not arrest any other eunuchs, and even Wei Zhongxian's nephew Wei Liangqing stayed in the mansion well.

At this time, there were already rumors on the streets and alleys of Jingshi, saying that Chongzhen entered Beijing this time, but more than half of it was because Wei Liangqing wanted to marry the county lord Zhu Cunqi. And Zhu Cunqi has long been Chongzhen's intended person, and Chongzhen should have a "hatred for taking his wife" for Wei Liangqing. In this way, Wei Liangqing is not seriously blamed, which shows that the emperor is benevolent by nature and has no intention of killing all the eunuch ministers.

There was a lot of speculation from the outside world, but Zhu Youzhen was unmoved, and still followed his own rhythm, sending out a series of holy decrees that seemed to be unrelated, but were actually interlocking.

First of all, he announced the rehabilitation of the "Six Gentlemen of Donglin", and immediately ordered Yan Ling to rush to the seclusion of several people in Henan and invite the six to return to Beijing.

This is really a big uproar, everyone thinks that Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou and others have died in the Jinyi Wei Prison, who thought that they were secretly rescued by Zhu Youzhen, who was still the king of faith at that time? Based on this one thing alone, many people concluded that the emperor would never spare the eunuchs.

Second, Zhu Youzhen ordered all localities to destroy the "ancestral hall" erected for Wei Zhongxian, but he did not severely punish those who proposed to repair the ancestral hall at that time, and only demanded that whoever first submitted the motion and how much silver was spent on repairing the ancestral hall now had to pay double the fine into the treasury out of his own pocket.

This made the eunuchs feel that the emperor still planned to raise his noble hand, and they could still afford a few pieces of silver, so they accepted the punishment one after another. Even Yuan Chonghuan, the governor of Liaodong, was forced by Wei Zhongxian's Yinwei to set up a shrine in Ningyuan against his will; At this time, he had no choice but to plead guilty and obediently pay a fine of several thousand taels of silver.

Third, Zhu Youzhen ordered the eunuchs of the garrison, the town guard, and the eunuchs of the army to return to Beijing to report on their work and reappoint them. Many of these eunuchs were Wei Zhongxian's close friends, such as Nanjing's garrison Tai Ning Ning, who heard that Wei Zhongxian was dead, did not wait for Zhu Youzhen's order, and directly abandoned the town and fled, nowhere to be found. The other eunuchs attached to Wei Zhongxian were also panicked, but they didn't dare not return to Beijing, so they had to set off hard.

Of course, there are also some eunuchs who feel that they have little to do with Wei Zhongxian, but this is a good opportunity to be reused by the emperor. Therefore, before some people arrived in Beijing, they began to secretly carry out activities, asking some shameless officials to fabricate some of their own "moral politics" in order to win Chongzhen's favor. It would be even better if you could blend in with the celebrants.

Fourth, Zhu Youzhen announced that the case of the Five Tigers and Five Biao has not yet been tried, and a public trial will be held on the overpass outside Zhengyangmen, the most lively in Beijing, and the emperor will personally preside over the trial!

On the one hand, the emperor's will is equivalent to completely denying the trial and sentencing of the "Three Law Divisions", which makes the people in the eunuch party extremely frightened; On the other hand, it is unheard of for the emperor to personally preside over the trial, or on the overpass outside the palace!

Therefore, many ministers went up to dissuade Zhu Youzhen, not only the eunuch party, but also some centrists and the Donglin party, with a total of as many as forty or fifty people, and the four auxiliary ministers of the cabinet took the lead. The reason is exactly the same: inconsequential.

The next day, Zhu Youzhen answered everyone cleanly with an extremely brief decree. There are only five words in this holy decree: "Listen to me!" ”

As soon as the holy decree came out, Huang Liji's face as the first assistant was a little unbearable. He thinks that if the emperor is really acting alone, what else do he need the cabinet ministers to do? Huang Liji and several other cabinet ministers, as well as officials of the six ministries, exercised the right to "refute" and actually returned Zhu Youzhen's holy decree.

Zhu Youzhen was also taken aback, he originally thought that he was the emperor, and the ministers naturally had to obey him. I didn't expect the cabinet to have so much power that even the holy decree could be returned!

Later, he found out from the "Emperor Ming Zu Xun" that the original "sealing and refutation" system existed in ancient times, and the Ming Dynasty also inherited it. To put it bluntly, if the emperor's decree is impulsive or unreliable, the cabinet can return it and let the emperor consider it carefully.

From this point of view, this system still has its necessity, because the emperor will inevitably make mistakes, which is equivalent to giving the emperor a chance to correct his mistakes. And the most important thing is that if the emperor has made up his mind, even if it is "refuted", the emperor can issue a decree again, and then the cabinet will "refute" it, which is a disobedience to the decree.

After understanding this section, Zhu Youzhen immediately sent the holy decree back to the cabinet as it was, and it was still the five big characters of "listen to my arbitrary actions".

Huang Liji felt his head buzzing after seeing it, knowing that this young emperor didn't seem to talk much, but he was very assertive, and it was difficult to change the matter of personal trial. But with the last glimmer of hope, he said that he was old and frail, and he was too much to vote for, and begged to resign and return to his hometown to retire.

This trick of "retreating as advance" is also commonly used by cabinet ministers, and it has been tried and tested, and the emperor will generally keep it. Because the cabinet is responsible for drafting, simply put, it is to make decisions for the emperor, and the emperor only needs to nod and agree. State affairs are heavy, and without the assistance of the ministers, how can the emperor be busy alone? Therefore, after Huang Liji handed over the fold, he still had some expectations, thinking that even if the emperor did not change his original intention, he would have to comfort himself a few words, and he, the first assistant, would earn enough face in front of the courtiers.

The decree soon came again, this time with a simpler one, with just two words: "Quasi-play!" ”