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

Chapter 458 Reaction
Cao Huachun and Wang Chengen didn't talk for too long. After they whispered a few words, Cao Huachun bowed and said goodbye.

After leaving the Qianqing Palace, Cao Huachun returned to the Silijian. When the people in the Silijian saw Cao Huachun coming back with a sullen face, they hurried forward to greet him and then dispersed to do their own things.

After all, everyone knew what Cao Huachun had done, and they also knew that Yuan Chonghuan had killed Mao Wenlong. After this incident, it wouldn't take long for the news to spread. This was no small matter, and the entire Ming court would be bustling with excitement because of it.

As for how Emperor Chongzhen reacted, it can be seen from the expression on Cao Huachun's face when he returned that Emperor Chongzhen had probably made up his mind about this matter. Since Cao Huachun did not bring back the order from Emperor Chongzhen to arrest Yuan Chonghuan, Mao Wenlong's death was probably in vain.

Regarding this matter, the people in the Silijian felt sympathy for Mao Wenlong. Although they were eunuchs, they were all sensible people and knew the importance of Mao Wenlong to the Ming Dynasty. But what if they sympathized with him? They couldn't do anything, especially after the fall of Wei Zhongxian, the status of the eunuchs plummeted, and the Silijian no longer had the power they had before. They were just a group of slaves now.

After returning to his office in the Imperial Household Department, Cao Huachun had just sat down when a young eunuch brought him tea.

Cao Huachun took the tea, waved his hand to ask people to leave, picked up the tea and sipped it, but he felt very unhappy.

In his opinion, once Mao Wenlong died, the situation in Liaodong would inevitably change drastically, and no one could predict what would happen next. Mao Wenlong's importance in Liaodong was irreplaceable, but Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong so easily, which made Cao Huachun feel very bad about Yuan Chonghuan.

It’s not that Cao Huachun and Mao Wenlong had any friendship. In fact, the two had never dealt with each other before, let alone old friends.

But Cao Huachun was able to become the de facto number one in the Imperial Household Department. Although he was a eunuch, he had good abilities and vision. Especially after returning to Beijing, what he experienced and witnessed with his own eyes about the current situation in the court made Cao Huachun feel very uneasy.

To be honest, as one of the most trusted eunuchs of Emperor Chongzhen, Cao Huachun naturally agreed with Emperor Chongzhen's ascension to the throne. However, everything Emperor Chongzhen did after ascending the throne made Cao Huachun realize that his master did not have the true imperial bearing, let alone a qualified emperor.

Compared with the previous Emperor Tianqi, Emperor Chongzhen had too many flaws both in ability and character. This master, who was called the wise ruler and the ruler of the Ming Dynasty's revival by the whole court, was actually not worthy of the title. After ascending the throne, he did everything as he pleased and there were many hidden dangers. The most critical point was that he trusted the civil service group too much, and at the same time was too wary of eunuchs, the Jinyiwei, and the Dongchang. He was stubborn, ambitious, irresponsible, and easily fooled. He had a lot of problems.

Emperor Chongzhen killed Wei Zhongxian not long after he ascended the throne. Cao Huachun fully agreed with Wei Zhongxian's downfall. After all, it was Wei Zhongxian who drove Cao Huachun out of the capital and kept him in Nanjing for so many years. If it were not for Wei Zhongxian's suppression, how could he have suffered for so many years?

But the problem was that after bringing down Wei Zhongxian, Emperor Chongzhen did not make use of these old men who had followed him in his palace. Instead, he paid more attention to the eunuchs in the court. He even guarded against the eunuchs too strictly because of them, which led to a sharp decline in the power of the entire Silijian. He, the head of the Silijian, became a decoration.

The butt determines the head, and the same is true for Cao Huachun. In his opinion, even if he cannot become another Wei Zhongxian who holds power when he returns to Beijing, he can at least become a real internal minister, right? But now, the Silijian has become a mouthpiece and rubber stamp, and even the Dongchang and Jinyiwei have all stood aside. Emperor Chongzhen does not care about their ideas at all, and never discusses political affairs with him. He just treats him as a slave.

The psychological gap made Cao Huachun very unwilling. Eunuchs are originally disabled people. Their physical disabilities also lead to psychological defects. Cao Huachun was no exception. Therefore, Cao Huachun had a very bad impression of the civil servants in the court. In his opinion, most of these civil servants were boastful people who had no ability at all. However, Emperor Chongzhen regarded them as treasures and ignored the truly reliable people around him.

Such an attitude made Cao Huachun, who wanted to make a difference, very depressed. Moreover, with the implementation of various policies of the court over the past year, Cao Huachun became more aware of many problems. Let's not talk about other things for now. Just on the taxation aspect, as the head of the Silijian, Emperor Chongzhen asked Cao Huachun to keep an eye on the tax collection of the Ming Dynasty, but Cao Huachun couldn't do it at all, because although he was in a high position, he had no power. Moreover, because of Emperor Chongzhen's precautions, the current Silijian was no longer the Silijian during Wei Zhongxian's time. In addition, the power of the East Factory and the Jinyiwei was sharply reduced, and the arrogance of the civil service group was arrogant. How could he have any power?
During the Wei Zhongxian period, the imperial court was short of taxes, so Wei Zhongxian decisively levied taxes on the gentry and merchants in Jiangnan to fill the gap in normal taxes. The more than 4 million taels of silver collected in more than a year could not only meet the military pay in Liaodong, but also meet other needs of the imperial court. But now, everything has changed after Wei Zhongxian's death. First, the post stations were closed, and then the Liao salary was levied. At the beginning, Cao Huachun planned to follow Wei Zhongxian's practice to levy more taxes on the gentry and merchants in Jiangnan, and try to reduce the tax rate on the people, stabilize local conflicts, and also meet the needs of the imperial court.

Who would have thought that this would not work at all? He, Cao Huachun, was not Wei Zhongxian, and Emperor Chongzhen was not Emperor Tianqi. The tax inspectors and tax officials sent by Cao Huachun could not collect taxes from the gentry and merchants in the south of the Yangtze River because he had no power and could not mobilize local troops. Local officials and court officials united to resist and refused to cooperate at all. As for the weakened power of the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, their deterrence was not as strong as before.

At first, they tried to follow the previous practices, but soon news of tax resistance came from various places. Those gentry and merchants relied on their connections in the court and united to not only resist and refuse to pay taxes, but the bold ones even beat and killed the tax supervisors and tax officials sent to the local areas, and then turned the blame around.

Several times, civil officials in the court wrote to the emperor, saying that the tax collection by the Imperial Household Department was improper, which aroused civil unrest in the local area and even led to conflicts. In the end, the tax collectors and tax officials who were killed became the most heinous criminals, while the perpetrators were not punished. As a result, the people below dared not collect taxes from these people in order to save their lives. However, the tax collection of the court had to be solved, so they had to bite the bullet and ask for money from the poor.

Cao Huachun knew that the situation was getting worse and worse, but he was also powerless. In desperation, he could only turn a blind eye and let the people below mess around. As long as the tax revenue was collected, Cao Huachun could not care less about who collected the tax.

Cao Huachun was a wise man, and he knew that doing this kind of thing too much would not have a good result. The greater the pressure, the greater the resistance. If it continued for a long time, this would clearly lead to the destruction of the country, but what could Cao Huachun do? He could not change these things at all, so he could only pretend to be deaf and dumb.

As for explaining the situation to Emperor Chongzhen and reminding him of the serious consequences of doing so, Cao Huachun would never do it even if he was beaten to death. He was just a eunuch, a slave of the royal family. Didn't those civil servants who were well-versed in poetry and books understand the consequences of such an operation?
Of course not! The civil officials must have understood, but for their own interests, they still did it, and it was their instigation that made Emperor Chongzhen do so. If Cao Huachun tried to dissuade Emperor Chongzhen for the sake of the people of the world, not only would he not get any good results, but he might even anger Emperor Chongzhen and even die in battle. Cao Huachun was not willing to do that. Anyway, he was not young anymore. Why would he care so much when he, a eunuch without an heir, closed his eyes and kicked his legs? He would just hang around for a few years and find an opportunity to retire. As for what would happen in the future, it was none of his business.

Just as Cao Huachun had imagined, the news that Yuan Chonghuan had killed Mao Wenlong spread the next day. Upon learning of this, the entire court was shocked. No one had expected that Yuan Chonghuan would be so bold as to kill a first-rank official, and he did so by executing first and reporting later.

Many court officials immediately wrote to Emperor Chongzhen, pointing out the serious problem of Mao Wenlong's killing. Putting aside the issue of whether Mao Wenlong was guilty or not, and whether he should be killed, the key point was that a military general of Mao Wenlong's level was actually killed by Yuan Chonghuan in such a way and in such a name. This completely disregarded the court and set an extremely bad precedent.

If everyone did the same thing as Yuan Chonghuan, where would the law be? Where would the dignity of the imperial court be? A second-rank governor of Ji and Liao killed a first-rank general without any actual evidence, trial or authorization from the imperial court. This was simply lawlessness.

What's more, Mao Wenlong had made outstanding contributions in Liaodong, and his Dongjiang Town was an important military force in Liaodong. Now that Mao Wenlong is dead, the situation in Liaodong is bound to change dramatically. Once the war situation worsens, who will bear the responsibility?
Regarding this incident, many people demanded that Emperor Chongzhen severely punish Yuan Chonghuan, and even proposed to remove Yuan Chonghuan from his post as the commander-in-chief of Ji and Liao, and escort him to Beijing to be interrogated by the three judicial officials and sentenced to death according to the law.

However, due to the consideration of Liaodong issue, Emperor Chongzhen not only did not agree with these views, but also defended Yuan Chonghuan in front of everyone at the court meeting, claiming that Mao Wenlong had wasted money in Pidao for many years and had failed to contain the enemy, so he deserved to die, and Yuan Chonghuan was not at fault for his decisive action, let alone sin. Therefore, under the strong pressure of Emperor Chongzhen, the matter was eventually dropped, and Yuan Chonghuan barely escaped the disaster because of the so-called five-year strategy to pacify Liaodong, and was not punished for the Mao Wenlong incident. However, after the incident, many people in the Ming Dynasty opposed Mao Wenlong's death, especially many military generals, who were even more worried and uneasy.

Originally, after the Tumubao Incident, the decline of the noble group led to a situation in which civil officials were more powerful than military officials in the Ming Dynasty. However, even so, the rift between civil officials and military officials had not yet reached the point of irreconcilability. In the low-level military officer group, even if the civil officials were of a lower rank than themselves, they could only be lower than them. However, in the middle and high-level military officer groups, the civil officials were at least polite, and both sides maintained normal exchanges.

But now, even a general of Mao Wenlong's rank has been beheaded in this name, so what will other generals who are not as good as Mao Wenlong think? For a time, the generals were all in danger, and everyone was afraid that they would become the next Mao Wenlong. If they were beheaded for this reason, it would be too unworthy.

(End of this chapter)