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

Chapter 411 Chongzhen
The news of the death of Emperor Tianqi soon reached Zhu Youjian. After learning that his brother the emperor had passed away, Zhu Youjian was heartbroken, but at the same time he was secretly happy.

Finally, finally he can become emperor!

But even so, Zhu Youjian was still very cautious. After all, although Emperor Tianqi had passed away, Wei Zhongxian was still there. As long as he still could not grasp the imperial power, Wei Zhongxian's threat to him would not be eliminated.

On the next day, Zhu Youjian met with his ministers. Because of the edict left by Emperor Tianqi and the full support of Wei Zhongxian, Zhu Youjian's succession to the throne occurred without any disturbance. Moreover, Emperor Tianqi's empress Zhang Yan stood on Zhu Youjian's side from the very beginning and stated in front of everyone that it was natural for Zhu Youjian to inherit the throne and hoped that the transfer of power in the empire could be completed as soon as possible.

In this way, on August 24, the second day after the death of Emperor Tianqi, Zhu Youjian put on the imperial crown and ascended the throne in the Huangji Hall, becoming the 16th emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

There are two major things the new emperor has to do after ascending the throne. One is to take care of the funeral of the deceased Emperor Tianqi and give him a posthumous title, and the second is to choose a reign title for himself.

There were rules for the funeral of Emperor Tianqi, so this was not a big problem. Moreover, Zhu Youjian was very smart to hand this matter over to Wei Zhongxian. It was not because he valued Wei Zhongxian, but because he intended to use this matter to distract Wei Zhongxian's attention and weaken his power.

Regarding the issue of reign titles, the ministers also followed convention and proposed four reign titles for Zhu Youjian: "Qiansheng", "Xingfu", "Xianjia" and "Chongzhen".

Of these four reign titles, Chongzhen's was actually the most bland, Qiansheng sounded the best, and Xingfu and Xianjia also had good meanings. But Zhu Youjian chose the last one, Chongzhen. That is to say, from the moment the reign title was determined, the new emperor became Emperor Chongzhen.

After becoming the emperor, Emperor Chongzhen was still very careful. He still kept Wang Chengen by his side and appointed Wang Chengen and another eunuch in his palace, Xu Yingyuan, as eunuchs in charge of the Imperial Household Department. In addition, Emperor Chongzhen also had Cao Huachun recalled from Nanjing. Cao Huachun, like Wang Chengen and Xu Yingyuan, was a trusted eunuch of Chongzhen when he was Prince Xin. In particular, Cao Huachun had been with Chongzhen for a longer time and was more capable.

However, Cao Huachun was Wang An's adopted son. In the second year of the Tianqi reign, when Wang An was killed by Wei Zhongxian, Cao Huachun was implicated and was driven out of the capital and exiled to Nanjing by Wei Zhongxian. Many years passed in a flash.

Now that Emperor Chongzhen has ascended the throne, he is short of manpower, so he naturally thought of Cao Huachun. He brought Cao Huachun back this time to let Cao Huachun and Wang Chengen help him together. With a few trusted people around him, he can feel more at ease.

After becoming emperor, Emperor Chongzhen had much greater freedom in the palace. After the death of Emperor Tianqi, while determining his own reign title, Emperor Chongzhen also gave his sister-in-law Zhang Yan the title of Empress Yi'an.

With Zhang Yan's support, Emperor Chongzhen soon had the right to meet with his ministers. At the same time, he also dismissed Wei Zhongxian on the pretext of handling the funeral of Emperor Tianqi. In the following days, Emperor Chongzhen met with many people, including important officials of the court, ordinary officials of the ministry and censors, but there was one thing about these people, that is, many of them did not belong to Wei Zhongxian's eunuch party. They were either members of the Donglin Party or officials who sympathized with the Donglin Party.

Wei Zhongxian could not have been unaware of Emperor Chongzhen's actions. At this time, Wei Zhongxian had already sensed that something was wrong, but he was still not sure whether Emperor Chongzhen was going to deal with him.

For this reason, Wei Zhongxian took the initiative to tell Emperor Chongzhen that he was old and his health was not good due to excessive grief after the death of Emperor Tianqi. He was really unable to bear the heavy responsibility, so he planned to resign from the post of director of the East Factory to show his concession.

But Wei Zhongxian's resignation was rejected by Emperor Chongzhen. Instead of agreeing to Wei Zhongxian's resignation, Emperor Chongzhen comforted Wei Zhongxian and said that before his brother passed away, he specifically told him to support him and help him be the emperor. These words were still ringing in his ears. How could you, Wei Zhongxian, resign now? If you leave, who will help you? Could it be that you, Wei Zhongxian, don't even listen to the words of the late emperor? Even if you want to resign, there is no need to rush. Emperor Chongzhen thinks that Wei Zhongxian can work for a few more years, and after a few years, when the government gradually stabilizes, he can retreat to the second line.

Moreover, Wei Zhongxian, you have worked hard and made great contributions to the late emperor for many years. Now that I have just ascended the throne, you are leaving. Doesn't this make people in the world think that you are intolerant? How will people in the world view you? Wei Zhongxian, you can rest assured. The late emperor trusts you and uses you. I will also value you as much as the late emperor. Just continue to do your job peacefully. As for some other rumors, they are simply groundless. If even you, Wei Zhongxian, don't believe in me, then what's the point of being an emperor? Emperor Chongzhen's bowl of magic soup made Wei Zhongxian dizzy and put his mind at ease for the time being. Not only that, Emperor Chongzhen also specially conferred a title on Wei Zhongxian's nephew Wei Liangqing. Emperor Tianqi had previously conferred the title of Marquis of Suning on Wei Liangqing, thus raising the Wei family to the noble class.

This time, Emperor Chongzhen went a step further and directly conferred the title of Duke of Ningguo on Wei Liangqing. Such generosity and reward made Wei Zhongxian more convinced that Emperor Chongzhen had no intention of dealing with him.

But Wei Zhongxian did not know that Emperor Chongzhen was just paralyzing him. Just imagine how precious the status of a duke is. The dukes of the Ming Dynasty were not ordinary people. The few remaining dukes were either founding heroes who followed Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the world, or people who followed Zhu Di to fight for the world and made great contributions during the Jingnan Rebellion.

After Taizu and Chengzu, the only duke in the Ming Dynasty was Shi Heng, who participated in the coup d'etat during the reign of Emperor Yingzong. Shi Heng did not hold the title of Duke of Zhongguo for long. Later, because he was too arrogant and domineering, he was imprisoned on charges of treason by Emperor Yingzong just three years after being conferred the title of Duke of Zhongguo. He was then executed. His title of Duke of Zhongguo was stripped of his title along with his death.

Now Emperor Chongzhen directly promoted an illiterate farmer from the title of marquis to the prominent position of Duke of Ningguo. It seemed like he was rewarding and respecting Wei Zhongxian, but in fact it was just a means to an end.

The mere title of Duke of the State is nothing, and it is worth it if it can be used to stabilize Wei Zhongxian. As for the so-called Duke of Ningguo, since it can be conferred and taken away, after dealing with Wei Zhongxian, wouldn't it be easy to deal with Wei Liangqing?
After doing this, Wei Zhongxian was relieved and continued to prepare for the emperor's funeral. At this time, the posthumous title of Emperor Tianqi was also decided. After listening to the advice of his ministers, Emperor Chongzhen finally chose the posthumous title "Emperor Da Tian Chan Dao Dun Xiao Du You Zhang Wen Xiang Wu Jing Mu Zhuang Qin Qiu" and the temple name "Xizong".

The temple name Xizong was proposed by the ministers. The word Xi means faint morning light, which means that they feel sorry for the emperor's early death and that he was not able to shine. From the perspective of the meaning, it is a good one. Emperor Chongzhen did not have much education and his cultural level was not high. After simply listening to the explanations of the ministers, he approved the temple name Xizong.

In the heart of Emperor Chongzhen, he was indeed very sad about the untimely death of his brother, Emperor Tianqi, so after the ministers explained the meaning of the temple name, Emperor Chongzhen agreed to use it without much thought.

But Emperor Chongzhen did not know that although the word "Xi" has such a meaning, it also has another meaning. "Xi" is the same as "Xi", which also means playing and enjoying oneself without striving for progress. In history, emperors with "Xi" as their temple name, such as King Xi of Zhou, Duke Xi of Lu, and Emperor Xizong of Tang, etc., were not considered good posthumous names. They also meant to satirize monarchs who were mediocre, appointed villains, and pursued pleasure.

In the eyes of these civil officials, the suffering they had endured before was apparently caused by Wei Zhongxian and the eunuch party, but in fact it was because Emperor Tianqi favored Wei Zhongxian. If not, how could the once prosperous Donglin Party fall to its current state? How could those Donglin gentlemen die at the hands of the eunuch party?
What made people even more angry was that the eunuch party had directly violated their actual interests and took away the rights and money that should belong to them. These were things that the civil service group could not tolerate, but before, because of the Emperor Tianqi, they could do nothing no matter how angry they were. Now, the Emperor Tianqi finally died, and his death was really a good thing. After the death of the Emperor Tianqi, the young Emperor Chongzhen, who had just ascended to the throne, had a low level of education and did not look very smart. Playing word games was what these scholars were best at, and they easily made the Emperor Chongzhen recognize this posthumous title.

In this way, Emperor Tianqi was given the temple name Xizong before his body was cold. Emperor Chongzhen, who had no idea that he had fallen into the trap of the civil servants, was still complacent, thinking that he had given his brother a good temple name.

After settling the issue of posthumous titles and temple names, these people continued to put pressure on Wei Zhongxian in front of Emperor Chongzhen, and began to advocate that the eunuch party was damaging the interests of the country, instigating Emperor Chongzhen to deal with Wei Zhongxian as soon as possible and eliminate the eunuch party.

Emperor Chongzhen had already had an idea about how to deal with Wei Zhongxian. When he was Prince Xin, due to the influence of people around him and some words of his sister-in-law Zhang Yan, Emperor Chongzhen never believed in Wei Zhongxian in his heart. Even when his brother Emperor Tianqi held his hand before his death and told him to make use of Wei Zhongxian and warned him that the civil service group could not be trusted, it did not change Emperor Chongzhen's mind.

For Emperor Tianqi's promise, Emperor Chongzhen was just interested. His preconceived ideas had already determined his thoughts and decisions. In addition, the civil officials were good at talking, and they kept saying the words of saints and high-sounding words. This made Emperor Chongzhen want to completely deal with Wei Zhongxian and the eunuch party.

However, Emperor Chongzhen was not stupid. He knew very well that although he had become the emperor, the power of Wei Zhongxian and the eunuch party was still considerable. It was not so easy to deal with Wei Zhongxian. It required preparation and means. This was why Emperor Chongzhen did not take action against Wei Zhongxian immediately. Instead, he showed him favor. His purpose was to paralyze Wei Zhongxian and at the same time make preparations for the final attack.

(End of this chapter)