Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1029: Lots of Mysteries
Zhou Anmin and Xu Xiancheng did not leave after the court session. One of them was currently the Left Chief Counselor, the Jinwu General of the Ming Dynasty, and a noble of earlhood. The other was the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Minister of the Imperial Guards, the Left Censor-in-Chief, and the Grand Secretary of the Zhongji Palace.

Although one of them did not hold an actual position in the army, his military rank was not low, and he also had a title. Although the other did not enter the cabinet, he had the title of Grand Secretary. In addition, his positions as Minister of the Internal Affairs Department and Minister of the Imperial Guards were special, so they could be said to be top figures in the Ming Dynasty today.

In addition, they have a common identity, that is, they are relatives of the royal family. The former is the consort of the eldest princess, and the latter is the brother-in-law of Zhu Shenzhu. If it were not for this reason, they would have no problem becoming generals or ministers. However, with this identity, they are not suitable to lead the army directly or enter the cabinet.

Zhou Anmin and Xu Xiancheng were both present at the sudden change in today's court meeting, and they were also caught off guard by the situation. But both Zhou Anmin and Xu Xiancheng were not ordinary people. Like Zhu Shenzhui, they immediately felt something was wrong and realized the strangeness behind this matter.

In theory, since Zhu Shenzhu entered the capital, whether he was the regent or the emperor, he had made many adjustments to the court of the Ming Dynasty, and officials from various departments and factions in the court had undergone several purges. Although Zhu Shenzhu's purges were different from those of previous emperors, in the previous emperors of the Ming Dynasty, the struggle between the emperor and his ministers had never stopped, and the struggle between the imperial power and the civil officials had always existed. Whether it was Zhengde or Jiajing, or the later emperors Wanli, Tianqi and even Chongzhen, the methods they adopted, in addition to forcible hard confrontation, were to use the power of others to weaken the influence of the civil officials on the court by the art of balance, thereby strengthening the imperial power.

Among them, Zhengde and Tianqi used the most similar methods, the former used the Eight Tigers and the latter used Wei Zhongxian, and their endings were almost the same. Wanli also tried hard in the early stage, but in the later stage, he saw that the situation was not good and he could not do it alone, so he learned from Jiajing and played tricks. Unfortunately, he did not have Jiajing's political wisdom and sophisticated tricks, and in the end he could only passively resist by lying down.

As for Chongzhen, it goes without saying that although he appeared to be strong and powerful, he had actually become a puppet manipulated by civil officials without knowing it, which eventually led to the corruption of the Ming Dynasty and almost destroyed the country. If Zhu Shenzhu had not entered Beijing to take over the government and eventually ascended the throne, it is still unclear whether the Ming Dynasty would still exist today.

Zhu Shenzhui's political methods were more flexible and varied than those of these emperors. He had the political sophistication of Jiajing and the courage of Zhengde and Tianqi. In particular, Zhu Shenzhui had one thing that these emperors did not have, that is, he had his own military power and directly controlled the army, which was something that other emperors did not have.

Therefore, Zhu Shenzhui continued to suppress various parties in several adjustments, and used various means to solve the court problems of the Ming Dynasty under the premise of stabilizing the overall situation. Through the methods of Beijing inspection, official promotion, transfer, official system reform, administrative reform, and mutual checks and balances, Zhu Shenzhui gradually stabilized the situation, and combined with a series of other military and economic means to appropriately win over a part of the gentry class, and then the Jiangnan case, he completely suppressed the Donglin Party that had been in the Ming Dynasty for many years, which led to the current good situation of the Ming Dynasty.

As time went by, it was an indisputable fact that the power of Emperor Zhu Shenzhu became more and more stable. Both Zhou Anmin and Xu Xiancheng believed that the political structure that had troubled the Ming Dynasty for two hundred years had been completely changed under Zhu Shenzhu.

But no one expected that just when everyone was thinking this way, such a situation actually happened in the court today. This was really unexpected, and a strong sense of conspiracy was detected in it.

After the court meeting, Zhou Anmin and Xu Xiancheng stayed behind temporarily. Just as they were discussing what happened today, Lu Jiude, sent by Zhu Shenzhui, found them. Knowing that the emperor had summoned them, the two looked at each other and understood why they were being summoned. They did not dare to delay and immediately followed Lu Jiude to the Qianqing Palace.

When I arrived at the Qianqing Palace and entered the side hall, I saw Zhu Shenzui sitting there with a gloomy expression on his face.

The two men stepped forward and saluted. Zhu Shenzui nodded slightly and asked them to take a seat. After Lu Jiude served the tea, Zhu Shenzui waved his hand to let Lu Jiude leave, and then began to speak to them.

"What do you think of today's events?"

"Your Majesty, today's events are quite strange. I think this was not a spur-of-the-moment idea. Someone secretly colluded and suddenly launched an attack!" Zhou Anmin used to be the head of the Jinyiwei. Naturally, he was the first to speak on this matter. He said immediately in a decisive tone.

"That's what I think. In my opinion, Gu Guoen, who was the first to stand up and impeach the adults, was not the mastermind. He was just a pawn to attract others. The same is probably true for the few people who followed suit. These people chose the right time, and they used this incident as an excuse to impeach many adults at once, and even dragged the cabinet, the Ministry of War, and local officials into it. Their intentions are quite deep!" Xu Xiancheng said from the side.

"Your Majesty, I think what Lord Xu said is absolutely right!" Zhou Anmin said, "These people are very well-planned and suddenly launched an attack. On the surface, they are impeaching ministers, but in fact they are targeting Your Majesty. You must be on guard!"

Nodding silently, Zhu Shenzhui had thought about this matter carefully before they came, and his judgment was the same as Zhou Anmin and Xu Xiancheng. This matter was not an isolated incident, nor was it a sudden impulse of Gu Guoen, a young man, to seek fame, but a comprehensive plan and careful preparation.

If it was just a personal reason, it wouldn't be a big problem, but this is clearly a well-prepared plan, so we must be on guard. Thinking of this, Zhu Shenzhui asked Zhou Anmin: "You are in charge of the Jinyiwei. Although you are no longer working in the Jinyiwei, you know more about the officials in the court than I do. In your opinion, who does this Gu Guoen belong to? Who is behind him? What is the real intention of doing this today?"

"This..." Zhou Anmin hesitated for a moment before saying, "Your Majesty, may I ask you first?"

Zhu Shenzhui nodded and told him to ask if he had any questions.

Zhou Anmin asked, "Does your Majesty suspect that Donglin was responsible for today's incident?"

"What? Was my guess wrong? Or do you have other opinions?"

Zhou Anmin smiled bitterly and said, "Your Majesty and I have different views. In my opinion, although there is a shadow of Donglin in today's incident, it is probably not true to say that this incident was done by Donglin."

"Why is that?" Xu Xiancheng asked in confusion, "Wasn't the Donglin Party good at doing these things back then? Moreover, most of the officials impeached today were censors, and several of them were from the Donglin lineage."

"That being said, although it is true on the surface, it is a little strange when you think about it carefully," Zhou Anmin explained patiently.

In fact, since Zhu Shenzhui began to rectify the imperial examination, the Donglin Party in the court has been suppressed by the emperor many times, and through various means, the Donglin Party's power has long been less than before. Moreover, after the outbreak of the Jiangnan case, the Donglin Party was divided because of the Jiangnan case. In particular, the faction headed by Qian Qianyi of the Donglin Party had actually left the Donglin Party and surrendered to the emperor, no longer posing a threat to the imperial power.

Moreover, the Jiangnan case involved a wide range of people, among whom many of the core members of the Donglin Party were dismissed. In addition, several Donglin Party leaders in the court were also implicated in these cases and either resigned or returned home. At present, the Donglin Party, which once occupied half of the Ming Dynasty, has lost its former glory and its strength has been greatly reduced. Even if there are still some Donglin Party members left in the court, they no longer have the energy they had before. The reason why they stay in the court is that on the one hand, these people are still useful, and on the other hand, they can use the Donglin Party to contain other parties, so they are not moved.

Under such circumstances, the Donglin Party would never initiate such an event, let alone take such a risk. If it had been possible in the past, it might have been possible, but now the Donglin Party has lost its talent and is internally divided, so even if it wanted to, it would be powerless.

Although Zhou Anmin no longer controls the Jinyiwei, he has been keeping an eye on the various parties in the court at the emperor's behest. In his opinion, the Donglin Party is now a thing of the past, and it is good enough that they can barely protect themselves. If they make such a fuss at this time, wouldn't it be courting death? Knowing that the emperor dislikes the Donglin Party, they still want to confront the emperor. The Donglin Party would not be so stupid as to do so.

In addition, there is the Donglin Party headed by Qian Qianyi. This group of people nominally carried the banner of the Donglin Party, but in fact they had completely surrendered to the emperor and became the emperor's party. Especially Qian Qianyi himself, now his mind is full of thinking about how to enter the cabinet as a cabinet elder. In addition, Zhu Shenzhu has already made a promise to Qian Qianyi that he will let him join the cabinet when the cabinet is adjusted next time. Faced with such temptation, with Qian Qianyi's intelligence and pursuit of power, how could he let the Donglin Party do such a thing?

If the Donglin Party was really going to stir up trouble, Qian Qianyi and his people would not be unaware of it, let alone show a look of surprise in the court today. Otherwise, Qian Qianyi would have stopped it in advance without anyone else stepping in, or reported it to Zhu Shenzhu in private. Judging from the current actual situation, Qian Qianyi also knew nothing about it. Combining these factors, Zhou Anmin believed that the possibility that the Donglin Party was behind this was not high.

"Could it be that the Donglin Party was not involved? It is clear that..."

"Private personal participation and Donglin Party participation are two different things." Zhou Anmin knew what Xu Xiancheng was going to ask, and explained, "Gu Guoen is just a fellow Jinshi, and his talent and learning are just average. He is also an ordinary official on weekdays. But today he has the courage to be the first to stand up and impeach Your Majesty, and the spearhead is directly pointed at Your Majesty. The deep meaning behind this is really shocking when you think about it carefully!"

"I think the person behind the scenes is not simple. Not many people know about the affairs of Haoge and Dorgon, and the transfer of the Zhenglan Banner to Korea is also a very secret matter. In addition, your majesty's layout in Liaodong, Korea and other places, let alone Gu Guoen, even among the six ministers, there are not many who really know. How did Gu Guoen know these things? And he impeached the ministers in public for this reason."

(End of this chapter)