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

Chapter 340 The storm is coming
Since the second year of the Tianqi reign, Wei Zhongxian was supported by Emperor Tianqi to come to power, and gradually formed the so-called Eunuch Party and the Donglin Party fought for several years. At the beginning, the Donglin Party was more powerful, but now the balance of power between the two has been broken, and the Eunuch Party has begun to show signs of suppressing the Donglin Party.

The impeachment of Yang Lian was the beginning of the change in this confrontation. After Ye Xianggao resigned, the Donglin Party's foundation in the court began to shake. After Gu Bingqian came to power as the prime minister, the tentacles of the eunuch party directly extended into the cabinet, which was an even more painful blow to the Donglin Party.

In December of the fourth year of the Tianqi reign, about a month after Yuan Chonghuan returned to Ningyuan, Wei Zhongxian's eunuch party had taken the initiative in the struggle. Under Wei Zhongxian's attack, the Donglin Party began to retreat step by step. Although it suffered huge losses, it still had some ability to fight back.

At this time, Wei Zhongxian did not slow down. As a gangster, he knew very well that he had to strike hard when the situation was bad. As long as the Donglin Party did not collapse, his mission would not be accomplished and Emperor Tianqi would not be able to completely grasp the power of the empire.

In order to achieve this goal, Wei Zhongxian not only targeted Yang Lian, who had been demoted to a commoner, but also Zuo Guangdou and others in the court. In order to completely deal with Yang Lian and other Donglin Party backbones, Wei Zhongxian instructed his Dali Cheng Xu Dahua to impeach Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou and others for forming a clique to attack dissidents and seeking power and bribery, and borrowed the case of Wang Wenyan to re-examine it, so as to detain Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou and others.

At the same time, Xiong Tingbi, who had been imprisoned, was inexplicably involved in it. It was Xiong Tingbi's own fault. If Xiong Tingbi had stayed in prison safely, Wei Zhongxian and others might not have remembered him. Anyway, he was a death row prisoner. Although Emperor Tianqi sentenced him to death, he never ordered his execution. This was because Emperor Tianqi loved talents and felt that it was better to keep Xiong Tingbi alive than to kill him directly. In case Xiong Tingbi could be used again one day, once his head was chopped off, it could not be reattached.

But Xiong Tingbi didn't know whether it was because he had been in prison for a long time that his brain was not working well, or because he was out of touch with the outside world and didn't know what was going on outside. After spending two years in prison peacefully, and seeing that Emperor Tianqi didn't kill him, Xiong Tingbi actually thought about escaping from prison.

In order to get out of prison, Xiong Tingbi asked someone for help and wanted someone to speak well of him in front of Emperor Tianqi. As a result, he ended up asking the Donglin Party for help.

Xiong Tingbi was imprisoned because of the Liaodong war, and he was sentenced to death because of this. Moreover, Xiong Tingbi and Wang Huazhen were imprisoned together. Wang Huazhen was a disciple of Ye Xianggao and a member of the Donglin Party. In order to save Wang Huazhen, the Donglin Party members had always opposed the execution of Xiong Tingbi because they felt that once Xiong Tingbi died, Wang Huazhen, who was guilty of the same crime, would probably not survive.

Unexpectedly, this gave Xiong Tingbi an illusion in prison, that the Donglin Party wanted to protect him. In addition, when Xiong Tingbi was imprisoned, the Donglin Party was very powerful and had no rivals in the court. Xiong Tingbi misjudged the situation due to poor information in prison. He went straight to the Donglin Party and gave them a large sum of money in the hope that the Donglin Party would help him.

Xiong Tingbi never thought that his actions would push him directly into the abyss. Wei Zhongxian was worried that he could not find any evidence against the Donglin Party. When he learned about this, he was overjoyed and directly asked someone to report the matter to Emperor Tianqi.

When Emperor Tianqi found out about this, he was furious and instructed Wei Zhongxian to investigate the matter thoroughly. After Wei Zhongxian received the "Imperial Sword", he used this case as an excuse and combined it with the Wang Wenyan case to lay out a plan against the Donglin Party. In no time, he first arrested Yang Lian, and then arrested Zuo Guangdou and others and tortured them severely to prove their guilt.

The situation in the court changed suddenly. The power of the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party was instantly exchanged. The Donglin Party was defeated by the Eunuch Party. The power of Eunuch Wei Zhongxian was so great that everyone knew about it.

Zhu Shenzhui, who was far away in Shanxi, received the news sent from the capital. After reading the news, Zhu Shenzhui knew clearly that the Donglin Party would no longer be a match for the joint efforts of Emperor Tianqi and Wei Zhongxian. It was feared that it would not be long before all the Donglin Party members in the court would be attacked one by one by Wei Zhongxian, and eventually end up in a miserable end.

Zhu Shenzui did not feel sorry for the persecution suffered by the Donglin Party, because he knew very well what kind of people these Donglin Party members were. If the Donglin Party was in power in the Ming Dynasty and continued to hold control, the Ming Dynasty would continue to slide into the abyss. Those Donglin Party members who talked about benevolence, righteousness and morality were actually full of thieves and prostitutes, and were never good people.

The most glorious period of the eunuch party was coming soon. It was reasonable to say that when Wei Zhongxian's power reached its peak, it was also the time when he ended in disgrace in history. But now Zhu Shenzhu could not see any hidden dangers in Wei Zhongxian. Even the Tianqi Emperor was very healthy. The young Tianqi Emperor often did carpentry work and was in good health. He was even healthier than ordinary young people and had no problems at all.

These were all written in the intelligence Zhang Xijun gave to himself. Zhang Xijun was Zhu Shenzhui's eyes and ears in the capital, keeping an eye on every move for him.

So why did history turn out like that? Zhu Shenzhui couldn't help but ponder, could it be that some of the rumors were true?
Just as Zhu Shencui was concentrating on thinking, a little man stumbled in. When he saw Zhu Shencui, he immediately giggled, shouted some unfamiliar words, and staggered towards him.

"Hey, be careful." Zhu Shenzhui was amused when he saw this. Isn't this his legitimate son Zhu Minlan? Shouldn't this kid be sleeping in the inner room at this time? When did he wake up and sneak down to his side?

"Father...!" Zhu Minlan threw himself into Zhu Shenzhu's arms, arching his head, shouting something, giggling, and a string of crystal saliva dripping from the corner of his mouth. "Why are you here, kid?"

"Hehe, father...this...toy..." Zhu Minlan stretched out his chubby little hands, grabbed the button on Zhu Shenzhu's chest and pulled it hard twice. It seemed that the button made of silver aroused his great curiosity. Seeing that he couldn't pull it off, he simply moved his head closer and opened his mouth with only two baby teeth to chew hard.

"You little naughty boy, you can't eat this." Zhu Shenzhui laughed. This little guy is so naughty, just like his brother Tengger. He can't stop once he opens his eyes. When he couldn't walk before, he crawled all over the ground on all fours. Now that he can walk, it's even more terrible. He will disappear if you are not paying attention.

Reaching out and taking a rattle from the side, Zhu Shenzhui shook the rattle to attract the little guy's attention. The little guy was indeed attracted at first, staring at the rattle in Zhu Shenzhui's hand with curiosity, but after a while he lost interest in the rattle and was still interested in grabbing the button on his chest.

"Kid, I ran to your father as soon as I turned around, and he had a hard time looking for me." At this moment, Xu Jingqiu rushed into the room. He was relieved when he saw Zhu Minlan in his arms, and then he scolded angrily.

Looking back at her mother, Zhu Minlan started giggling again, as if she was not afraid of her mother's blame at all. Then she set her sights on Zhu Shenzhui's buttons, pulling and biting them, and it seemed that she was determined to get the buttons off.

"It's normal for children to be a little naughty. If they weren't naughty, they wouldn't be boys." Zhu Shenzhui smiled nonchalantly, holding his son and teasing him. Anyway, he didn't have enough strength to pull off the buttons, and there was no need to worry about him swallowing the buttons.

"Just spoil him. This kid is getting bolder and bolder. Qiaoer told me yesterday that this kid secretly ran to Qiaoer's room and threw all the things on her kang to the floor. Qiaoer was so angry that she almost cried."

"Well, this is not good. He needs to be beaten severely. You are so young and yet you throw your sister's things on the ground. How can you be so brave? Be careful or I'll beat you hard!" Zhu Shenzhui nodded seriously, picked up his son and held him in front of him, and taught him a lesson with a serious expression.

The little guy had no idea what his father was talking to him. He thought Zhu Shenzui was going to play a joke on him, so he danced happily and laughed all the time.

"I am really impressed by you two. Look at him, he doesn't look like he is afraid of you at all." Xu Jingqiu rolled her eyes at Zhu Shenzhui. She thought her husband was good in every way, except that he spoiled the child too much.

It is often said that a strict father is a kind mother, but in my own family, Zhu Shenzhui is not a strict father at all. Not to mention his eldest son, even his youngest son who is still breastfeeding is a treasure in Zhu Shenzhui's eyes and he dotes on him very much.

And it's not just the two sons, but also the niece Qiao'er, who has been pampered by Zhu Shencui since she was a child. The children in the family are closer to Zhu Shencui than anyone else. How can this continue?

Seeing Xu Jingqiu's expression, Zhu Shenzhui couldn't help but laugh. Children must be educated, but Zhu Shenzhui didn't want to always educate them in a strict way. Besides, the child is still young. Before the age of three, he doesn't understand anything. Isn't it good to let the child live happily at this time? Zhu Shenzhui was ready to educate the child in his way after the age of three. Zhu Shenzhui didn't believe that he could definitely educate several children well.

She reached out and took Zhu Minlan from Zhu Shenzui's arms and held him in her own hands. The little guy suddenly found that he had changed his place and was about to cry, but when he looked up, he saw his mother staring at him. The little guy was smart and held back his tears. He buried his little head in his mother's arms, looking well-behaved, which made Zhu Shenzui laugh.

Such a little kid has such good eyesight, not bad, not bad, worthy of being my own child.

Zhu Shenzhui laughed a few times, and then put the rattle he was playing with into his son's hands. The little guy didn't refuse, but grabbed it directly. Looking at his cute little appearance, Zhu Shenzhui couldn't help but think of Tengger on the grassland. He didn't know how Tengger and Tana were doing now. According to the time, he should go to the grassland again.

(End of this chapter)