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

Chapter 1032 Chess Pieces
Sitting down, the prince sat steadily in front of Zhu Shencui, with his hands on his knees and his back straight, with a clear military style.

This made Zhu Shenzui very satisfied. He was still very confident in his prince. Seeing that the prince was in a hurry and had a little sweat on his forehead, he picked up his teacup from the side and handed it to him, letting him drink some water to moisten his throat.

After expressing his thanks, the prince took the teacup, took a sip, and then put it aside.

"Just ask if you have any questions." Zhu Shenzhui said.

The prince smiled embarrassedly: "I really can't hide it from you, Dad. What do you think about this matter today?"

"What? Do you think your father is making a big deal out of nothing? Not only did he mobilize the guards, but he also transferred you from the military academy?" Zhu Shenzhui asked back.

The prince nodded silently and said, "Although this matter has caused quite a stir, I heard that the crowd at the Meridian Gate has not dispersed yet. Although Lord Zhang and others are still trying to persuade them, the effect is not good. But even so, this is only a matter of the outer court and has nothing to do with the inner court. Why do you want to impose martial law in the inner court and be so cautious, Dad?"

"Haha, let's not talk about this for now. Let me ask you first, what do you think about what happened to Gu Guoen today?" Zhu Shenzhui asked directly.

"I think Gu Guoen is just a chess piece, an insignificant little man." The prince would have been fine if he hadn't said anything, but once he spoke, he defined Gu Guoen's character. He said, "Before I came to see you, I already knew a little about this matter, and I also knew about Gu Guoen. In my opinion, Gu Guoen is just a Jinshi graduate. Logically speaking, with his performance in the imperial examination, he should at best be appointed as a county magistrate in a lower county, or a county magistrate in a middle county, and then rise up step by step."

"But I discovered a problem. That is, after Gu Guoen passed the imperial examination, he first observed government affairs in the Ministry of Revenue in Beijing. Later, he was not sent out but stayed in the capital, and was transferred from the Ministry of Revenue to the Ministry of Works as a deputy."

"After that, I don't know what connections he had or other reasons, but he was transferred from an ordinary official of the Ministry of Works to a censor of the Six Ministries, and in just a few years he became a secretary of the Ministry of Justice. Although the position of a secretary is not high, the status is different. With Gu Guoen's ability, he should not have been in this position, but he got it. You should know that there are many people who rank higher than him among the Jinshi of the same class, and even more of them are more knowledgeable, but they didn't become a secretary. Why did Gu Guoen become one?"

"Do you mean that Gu Guoen got this position because he has someone behind him or because he was lucky?" Zhu Shenzhui asked back.

"Both are possible." The prince concentrated and said, "But in my opinion, the former is more likely. If no one helped him, Gu Guoen would not be able to hold this position. If it weren't for what happened today, maybe Gu Guoen was just lucky, but today's incident is different. I think someone might have secretly planned this long ago, and Gu Guoen was the chess piece arranged by the planner for today's incident!"

Zhu Shenzhui nodded slightly at the prince's words. Zhu Shenzhui had also thought about this. After this incident, Zhu Shenzhui investigated Gu Guoen's information. Just as the prince said, Gu Guoen was of ordinary origin and not from a prominent family. Although he was lucky enough to pass the imperial examination and become an official, his ranking in the imperial examination was not high. He was just a fellow Jinshi.

There is a difference between Jinshi and Jinshi. Jinshi is divided into three categories. The first category is the top three, namely Zhuangyuan, Bangyan and Tanhua. These three first categories are the best among Jinshi and attract the attention of thousands of people.

The second class is called the granted Jinshi, which is commonly known as "Jinshi". The first one in the second class is Chuanlu, second only to the three people in the first class. The other second class Jinshi are not bad either. They can be regarded as the backbone of the imperial examination Jinshi and are basically the best of the same subject.

As for the top three, it is different. The top three are also called Tong Jinshi Yuan. The so-called "Tong" means similar, which means that the top three Jinshi are not real Jinshi, but just have the qualification similar to Jinshi. Therefore, in the imperial examination, the top three Jinshi are also jokingly called "raised by concubines". Unlike the first and second classes, they only have the title of Jinshi but not the dignity of the former.

Generally speaking, the starting point of the Tongjinshi is much lower than that of the first and second class, and there are also obvious differences in the appointment of officials. Needless to say, the first class is generally directly admitted to the Hanlin Academy, and there are also many second class people who enter the Hanlin Academy. Even if they cannot enter the Hanlin Academy, they can basically get a good official position in the six ministries of the court, and there is a great chance that they can even go to the Censorate to serve as an imperial censor.

Even if they were appointed as officials outside the capital, the second-class Jinshi would at least be a county magistrate of a middle-sized county, or an official of a prefecture. The situation was different for the third-class Jinshi, who could at most be a county magistrate of a lower-level county, or even a county magistrate of a middle-sized county. Their rank was one level lower, and their subsequent promotions would also be affected. Unless they had outstanding political achievements in the future, the officials who were Jinshi would be promoted much slower than the former, and there was also a ceiling on how high they could become officials.

For people like Gu Guoen who were among the top three Jinshi and ranked low in the top three, there was no good place to go when they were appointed as officials. They basically went to a remote area to be a small county magistrate, or to a local prefecture to work as an official in an unpopular government office to gain experience, and then try to get promoted little by little. Of course, this is not inevitable, and sometimes there are exceptions. The exception is that if you have a strong background and connections in the court, it will be different. For example, the children of officials or wealthy families will definitely be given some care, and a better position will be chosen for you, or a good official position. This is also the unspoken rule of the officialdom, which is tacitly accepted by everyone.

But Gu Guoen was born in an ordinary family, with no elders in his family serving as officials in the court, and no relatives or friends serving as high-ranking officials. In addition, Gu Guoen was not very capable, and his essays were barely good enough among the Jinshi of the same class. People like him should not have stayed in Beijing, but he stayed in Beijing after observing the government. Not only that, he went from being an ordinary official to a member of the Six Departments and became a censor in just a few years. If there was no one to help him behind the scenes, it would be impossible for Gu Guoen to do it on his own.

After knowing these circumstances, Zhu Shenzhu immediately saw the problem and noticed something strange. He had the same idea as the prince. The person who did this had been planning for a long time, and had been planning it a few years ago. The reason why Gu Guoen was able to become the Jieshizhong must be the other party's handiwork, and it was for this reason that Gu Guoen suddenly launched an attack today and impeached the court officials in public.

Then when the court meeting was over, Gu Guoen returned home, but was assassinated before he could even enter the house. Gu Guoen's death directly triggered the indignation of officials and students in the capital, which led to the current situation.

From this, we can see that the value of Gu Guoen as a chess piece lies in two aspects: one is that he came forward to impeach and triggered this incident, and the other is that his death fueled this incident and caused it to explode.

These two points alone directly consumed all of Gu Guoen's value, and his current death was probably something that Gu Guoen himself did not expect would end like this.

"In your opinion, who are the people behind Gu Guoen? What are their intentions?" Zhu Shenzhui asked the prince intently.

The prince frowned, thought for a moment, and shook his head, saying, "This is something I have never been able to figure out. At first I thought it was the Donglin Party, but after thinking about it carefully, I felt that it was not the case."

"Oh, why do you think so?" Zhu Shenzhui asked.

The prince immediately explained. His opinion was similar to Zhou Anmin's. He thought that although today's incident was very similar to many of the Donglin Party's actions, after careful consideration, he felt that it should not have been done by the Donglin Party. The reason was very simple. First, the Donglin Party was no longer the Donglin Party of the past. After the reigns of Tianqi and Chongzhen, the original strength of the Donglin Party had been hit many times. Moreover, after Zhu Shenzhu ascended the throne, he had been suppressing the Donglin Party and weakening the influence of the Donglin Party in the court and the country through various means. In addition, due to the Jiangnan case, the strength of the Donglin Party was no longer what it used to be. In addition, Qian Qianyi and others also defected to the Imperial Party. The Donglin Party was divided and had no ability to do such a thing.

If it wasn't the Donglin Party, then who could it be? Could it be the Zhejiang Party? The Qi Party? The Chu Party, etc.? The prince couldn't figure it out. He felt that it shouldn't be their doing. After all, once something is done, there must be clues. This incident was so strange and broke out so suddenly. No news was leaked beforehand, which was enough to show how deep the other party's plan was. So the prince felt that there might be another party in the court, and this party was not among the original parties, and was more secretive and deeper. This judgment was more reasonable.

"Dad, I think these people's real target is not the impeached ministers, but you, the imperial power of our Ming Dynasty!" The prince said solemnly, "Since the founding of our Ming Dynasty, since the death of Emperor Taizu, the government has been caught in a struggle between the imperial power and the civil officials. The reason why Emperor Jianwen was defeated was because of the civil officials. After Yongle, although Ming Dynasty had the Renzong and Xuanzong's rule, the civil officials had gradually become powerful and began to compete with the imperial power for the right to speak in the court. After the reign of Emperor Yingzong, the Tumu Fort Incident killed only one in ten nobles, and the original balance of the court was completely broken."

"After Emperor Yingzong, the civil service group became more and more powerful, and the imperial power could no longer be suppressed. During the reign of Emperor Xiaozong, because of Emperor Xiaozong's weakness and concessions, the civil service became even more aggressive, and their power was above that of the emperor, which made the finances of the Ming Dynasty weak and full of problems. After Emperor Wuzong ascended the throne, he obviously realized that something was wrong, and began to compete with the civil service for power. He used the Eight Tigers, built the Leopard House, trained a new army, and even appointed himself as the commander-in-chief in an attempt to regain military power and compete with the civil service. Although there was some improvement, it ultimately failed, and he even died in an unclear manner..."

The prince spoke one by one, analyzing the situations of each dynasty since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and finally talked about the present.

The prince said that the situation in the Ming Dynasty was different now. Zhu Shenzhui's ascension to the throne was different from that of previous emperors. He ascended to the throne through the Jingnan Campaign, just like Emperor Yongle. Therefore, Zhu Shenzhui had an innate advantage, which was that he had military power that previous emperors did not have.

Because he held military power, Zhu Shenzhu had the confidence to carry out reforms. In addition, after the civil strife was quelled, production in the Ming Dynasty began to resume. The war in Liaodong gradually stabilized after the previous Battle of the Great Wall and the Battle of Crossing the Sea. The internal conditions were provided for recuperation, and his throne was gradually consolidated.

After firmly sitting on the throne, Zhu Shenzhui adopted various means to carry out internal reforms. There were many directions of reform over the years. In addition to once again enhancing the political status of military generals and nobles and weakening the voice of civil officials in the court, he also reversed what the previous emperors had failed to accomplish through measures in military, economic, and political aspects. This further strengthened the imperial power.

(End of this chapter)