Chapter 1030 Mutation
Zhou Anmin's words awakened Zhu Shenzhui. After Zhu Shenzhui calmed down and thought about it carefully, his first reaction was that the Donglin Party was making trouble because they were unwilling to be lonely. After all, the Donglin Party had a bad reputation. From the Wanli Dynasty to the Tianqi Dynasty and then to the Chongzhen Dynasty, even after he ascended the throne, the Donglin Party had never stopped, and often stood on the moral high ground to do similar small actions under the banner of national justice.

Moreover, the censors were originally controlled by the Donglin Party. Although the Donglin Party's power has not been as strong as before, many of the Donglin Party members have been purged out of the censors after several purges, and their voice has been greatly weakened. But as the saying goes, a lean camel is bigger than a horse. The Donglin Party has been able to dominate the political arena of the Ming Dynasty for decades, so it is not so easy to completely eliminate it.

Zhu Shenzhu originally wanted to discuss this matter with Zhou Anmin and Xu Xiancheng, and was even prepared to use his power to completely eliminate the remnants of the Donglin Party in the court. Zhu Shenzhu did not keep these Donglin Party members before, not because he could not eliminate them, but because he considered the political balance and restraint in the court, and because Qian Qianyi had already defected to him, so he finally let these Donglin Party remnants go.

But today's incident touched Zhu Shenzhui's sore spot that he could no longer tolerate it. He even wanted to kill him and tried to completely eliminate the Donglin Party with a thunderous approach. But Zhou Anmin's words immediately brought Zhu Shenzhui back to his senses. Perhaps Zhou Anmin's judgment was right. Given the current situation of the Donglin Party, although it is not impossible, it is unlikely. The real person behind the scenes may not be the Donglin Party.

If that's the case, then who are the other parties? The Zhejiang Party? The Chu Party? The Qi Party? Or...? If it's another party, then what's their purpose? Are they trying to challenge my bottom line? Or do they want to use me to eliminate the Donglin Party? Or maybe there's another purpose?

Thinking of this, Zhu Shenzhui couldn't help but ponder deeply. The more he thought about the meaning behind today's incident, the more chilling it became.

On the surface, it was aimed at the cabinet, the Ministry of War and local officials, but in fact it was aimed at me. But was this the other party's real purpose? Perhaps not!

If this matter gets out of hand, the entire cabinet will be involved. Although only three cabinet members have been impeached today, namely Wen Tihen, Zhang Zhifa and Wang Jinwu, don't forget that these three are ranked top three in the cabinet. Now there are only five people in the Ming Dynasty's cabinet, the other two are Fan Fucui and Kong Zhenyun.

Three cabinet ministers were impeached, including the first and second assistants and military representatives. Once this matter is investigated, according to the rules of the Ming Dynasty officialdom, these three cabinet ministers will have to avoid suspicion or even resign because of this matter. And the cabinet has lost three important cabinet ministers at once. Can the remaining Fan Fucui and Kong Zhenyun remain unscathed? Of course it is impossible. The cabinet is an integrated whole. If there is a problem with the first three, the last two will be implicated anyway. In the end, the cabinet may collapse as a whole and reorganize.

The politics of the Ming Dynasty was a tripartite balance of power among the imperial power, the cabinet, and the inner court, which controlled and operated the three parties. The previous inner court was based on the Jinyiwei, the Silijian and the East and West Factories controlled by the eunuchs. However, under Zhu Shenzhui, the power of the Jinyiwei has been gradually weakened. The current Jinyiwei of the Ming Dynasty has changed from its original function to a professional spy agency, mainly responsible for intelligence collection and supervision. The power of the Silijian as the internal minister is the same, not to mention the East and West Factories. Some powers were split by Zhu Shenzhui and gradually distributed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Minister of the Imperial Guards. This further consolidated the imperial power and made subtle adjustments to the original three-legged political structure.

But no matter what, the cabinet is still an important part of the Ming Dynasty's political structure, which can be said to be equivalent to the existence of the State Council in later generations. The chief minister of the cabinet is the prime minister, who assists the palace in managing and governing the country.

In this case, once the cabinet is reorganized, the current cabinet that Zhu Shenzhui has worked so hard to build will collapse, which will not only affect the government, but also the operation of the country. In addition, Wang Jinwu's position in the cabinet is extremely special. This is an important step to allow the Ming nobles and the military to intervene in the cabinet and form a new cabinet structure. Now Wang Jinwu has been in the cabinet as a cabinet elder for less than a year. If this cabinet is dissolved and reorganized, Zhu Shenzhui will not be able to select a suitable candidate to replace Wang Jinwu as a cabinet elder in a short period of time, which will also be a great blow to subsequent plans.

In addition, this impeachment also implicated the Ministry of War, directly involving the Minister and the Vice Minister of the Ministry of War. According to the example of the cabinet, the Ministry of War must also be reappointed. The importance of the Ministry of War among the six ministries can be imagined. The current Minister of War Chen Qiyu and Vice Minister of War Chen Xinjia are carefully selected people. Zhu Shenzhu is using them well. How could he dismiss them because of this incident?
This does not include Li Xin and Li You in Shandong. In addition, there are Shandong Navy and Shandong New Army. These are all important arrangements for Zhu Shenzhui's subsequent plans for Liaodong and Korea, which cannot be moved lightly. Once all these are moved, Zhu Shenzhui's plans over the years will be ruined. How easy will it be to get back on track? This shows that the problem is really unimaginable.

"Your Majesty, why don't we just arrest Gu Guoen! Torture him and find out his background..." Seeing Zhu Shenzhui frowning, Zhou Anmin couldn't help but suggest, but he couldn't continue the words halfway through, and shook his head with a wry smile.

It is not difficult to arrest Gu Guoen, just one word is enough, but the problem is that Gu Guoen's actions in the court today will cause big trouble if Gu Guoen is touched. There will inevitably be many people who think that the impeachments against Gu Guoen are true, because they directly offend the vested interests, which will lead to the court taking action.

People have different ideas. The more you cover up something, the more people will think it is true. Under the current circumstances, Gu Guoen must not be arrested. Even if we want to find out who is behind Gu Guoen, we cannot use this method.

"I'll go back and think of a solution for this matter. First, I'll find out how the news leaked, and then find out who's behind these people. Anyway, I still have some face in Fushe. I'll let the people of Fushe find out carefully. Maybe there's..." Xu Xiancheng also felt that the situation was difficult. After thinking about it, he put forward his opinion. He was going to start the investigation from Fushe, and maybe there would be some clues. But before he could finish his words, he suddenly heard a hurried trot coming from outside. Xu Xiancheng subconsciously looked back. What was this Qianqing Palace? Who was so bold? Didn't they know that they were discussing matters with the emperor?
Just as Zhu Shenzhui was stunned and looked up at the door, the door was suddenly pushed open from the outside, and the eunuch Lu Jiude looked panicked and terrified.

"Your Majesty! Something has happened to Your Majesty!" As soon as Lu Jiude saw the emperor, he knelt down with a plop.

"What happened? How can you be so flustered!" Zhou Anmin stood up and scolded him rudely. Zhu Shenzhui's face was also very ugly. Lu Jiude had a high status in the palace and he had always served him carefully. He had never been so ignorant of the rules. What happened today?
"Your Majesty... I just received news from outside the palace that Gu Guoen, the Minister of Justice, was assassinated after leaving the court. He was stabbed three times outside his mansion and died tragically on the spot..."

"what!"

As soon as these words came out, everyone present was shocked. No one expected that Gu Guoen, who impeached the ministers in the court today, would die? And he died tragically in such a way. How long has it been? He impeached the ministers and then went back to the court. He was killed by an assassin before he even entered the house. This is simply unbelievable.

"Where is the murderer? Has he been caught?" Xu Xiancheng asked hurriedly.

"I heard that the incident happened suddenly and Lord Gu was not prepared at all. After the incident, the scene was in chaos and the murderer took advantage of the chaos to blend into the crowd and escape. When the people from Shuntian Prefecture and the police arrived, the murderer had disappeared. As for other circumstances, I don't know. I just heard about this matter and I hurried to report it to Your Majesty."

"Haha, haha, haha, hahaha!"

Zhu Shenzhui couldn't help but burst into laughter, but there was no joy in his laughter. Instead, it revealed a chill in his bones.

Gu Guoen was not a big shot in the past. He was just a minor official. Both his rank and position were insignificant in the Ming Dynasty. Not to mention being killed, even if his body was chopped into meat paste in public in the capital, it would be just a criminal case at best.

But today's Gu Guoen was different from the past, because less than an hour ago, Gu Guoen, as a secretary, directly impeached three cabinet elders, as well as the Minister of War, the Vice Minister of War, local governors, and senior military generals in the Ming Dynasty court, pointing out that these people were secretly communicating with the Jiannu and intended to sell out the country, which set off a storm in the Yongming Dynasty.

But he was assassinated right at his doorstep just after he did this. What does this mean? What will happen next after Gu Guoen's death? With Zhu Shenzhui's wisdom, it is not difficult to guess. Especially since his death not only cuts off the possibility of tracking down the identity of the mastermind behind Gu Guoen, but also makes everyone think that it was Gu Guoen's impeachment today that led to his death, and makes people think of the act of treason. In this way, the evidence of Gu Guoen's impeachment is no longer important. What is important is the serious consequences of a censor being murdered for impeaching an important official in the court.

Zhu Shenzhui understood this, as did Zhou Anmin and Xu Xiancheng. They looked at each other in astonishment and surprise, and felt the conspiracy and calculation behind this matter. They had never thought that the impeachment in the court today was just the first step, and Gu Guoen would die in public in this way. Now that Gu Guoen is dead, the matter has become serious, and the subsequent problems are more complicated.

(End of this chapter)

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