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

Chapter 465 After you sing, I will appear on stage

Xu Xiancheng's persuasion worked. Li Xin gradually calmed down. After thinking carefully, he had to admit that Xu Xiancheng was right.

Impeaching Yuan Chonghuan was simple. All one had to do was write an impeachment memorial and submit it. However, once this was done, one would face the result of impeachment failure.

Judging from the current protection of Yuan Chonghuan by Emperor Chongzhen, even if Xu Xiancheng impeached him, it would be unsuccessful. Zhao Rujiao had reported Yuan Chonghuan by his real name before, but what was the result? Yuan Chonghuan was unscathed, but Zhao Rujiao was humiliated by Yuan Chonghuan, so even if Xu Xiancheng impeached him, the result would probably be the same.

As a minister of the Ministry of Industry, Xu Xiancheng was certainly not afraid of Yuan Chonghuan, because Yuan Chonghuan had no control over him. But the problem was that after Xu Xiancheng impeached Sun Yuanhua, the situation could no longer be concealed, and Yuan Chonghuan would definitely know that it was Sun Yuanhua who wrote the letter to Xu Xiancheng.

So doing this would be tantamount to selling out Sun Yuanhua. Given Yuan Chonghuan's vengeful character, Sun Yuanhua would definitely not end up well.

Now Sun Yuanhua is under Yuan Chonghuan, who can easily make things difficult for him. Moreover, Liaodong is a war zone, and it would only take a word for Yuan Chonghuan to use some tricks to make Sun Yuanhua die in Liaodong for no apparent reason. If such a thing really happens, can Li Xin be worthy of Sun Yuanhua?

Thinking of this, Li Xin, who was indignant the moment before, suddenly collapsed like a deflated ball and didn't know what to say for a moment.

"I know this well. Now is not the best time to impeach him. However, Yuan Chonghuan's behavior will not end well. Your Majesty favored Yuan Chonghuan only because he promised to pacify Liaodong in five years. If Yuan Chonghuan does not make progress in Liaodong within two years, then your Majesty's trust in Yuan Chonghuan will inevitably fade. Moreover, our Majesty has never been a patient person. When he loses confidence in Yuan Chonghuan at that time, it will be the best opportunity to impeach him."

Li Xin nodded silently: "You are right. Yuan Chonghuan is at the peak of his power right now. It is indeed not the best time to impeach him. However, if we do not impeach him now, and wait until he makes a mess of the situation in Liaodong, even if we can bring him down, what will happen to the mess in Liaodong? How can we clean it up?"

Xu Xiancheng sighed and said, "You can't have your cake and eat it too. There's nothing we can do about it. But you don't need to be so pessimistic. After all, the Ming Dynasty is a great country with far more national strength than the Jiannu in Liaodong. As long as the situation in Liaodong doesn't get too bad, the Ming Dynasty can still stop the Jiannu with its national strength. When the time comes, the court will send a capable minister to govern Liaodong and gradually stabilize it. There is still hope."

"Don't forget that the former commander-in-chief, Mr. Sun, is still here. If possible, ask Mr. Sun to come out and command Liaodong again. The threat from the Jiannu will surely be suppressed. There is no need to worry too much."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Li Xin clapped his hands, his expression suddenly relaxed. How could he forget Sun Chengzong? Sun Chengzong had resigned and returned to his hometown, and he was now living in his hometown. He was a famous figure who led the Liaodong army to complete the Liaodong defense line and forced the Jiannu to move forward. If he were to take action again, he would be able to subdue the Jiannu, let alone the Jiannu, no matter how strong they were.

Relieved, Li Xin's expression eased a lot. He cursed Yuan Chonghuan a few more times, then suddenly thought of something and said to Xu Xiancheng that it was fortunate that Yuan Chonghuan wrote a letter to Emperor Chongzhen, saying that he wanted to reorganize the Liaodong military, so that the court temporarily postponed the appointment of the Governor of Liaodong and the Governor of Shandong.

If Yuan Chonghuan had not made this request, Xu Xiancheng might have been the military governor of Shandong, or even promoted to the governor of Shandong. Once Xu Xiancheng went to Shandong, he would have become a subordinate of Yuan Chonghuan, the governor of Ji and Liao. It would not be a good thing to have a person like Yuan Chonghuan under his command. No one could predict whether it would be a blessing or a curse. Fortunately, Xu Xiancheng did not go to Shandong.

After hearing what Li Xin said, Xu Xiancheng shook his head and smiled bitterly. This was indeed a blessing in disguise. Not going to Shandong did not seem to be a bad thing now. At least Xu Xiancheng believed that Yuan Chonghuan was not only unworthy of his reputation, but also that if he continued to mess around in Liaodong, he would probably not have a good ending in the future.

When he was a student, Xu Xiancheng always thought that after passing the imperial examination and becoming an official, he could work for the court and the world, realize his ambitions and even leave his name in history.

Isn't this the case for all scholars? But when he really reached this point, Xu Xiancheng no longer had the passion he had before, but instead felt extremely lost.

In terms of his official career, Xu Xiancheng was not bad. It was only less than five years since he passed the imperial examination and entered the officialdom, but now he has already held a fifth-rank official position.

Xu Xiancheng, who was less than 30 years old, became a fifth-rank official in Beijing. His promotion speed was not slow. You should know that among the Jinshi of the same class as him, many talents were only seventh-rank, and the highest ones were only sixth-rank. During the Tianqi period, Wei Zhongxian was extremely powerful and almost controlled the government. At the beginning, Xu Xiancheng's attitude towards Wei Zhongxian was similar to that of most people. He believed that he was a powerful eunuch, and the eunuch party group around Wei Zhongxian was a group that brought disaster to the country and the people.

So at that time, Xu Xiancheng was a very low-key person. In addition, his brother-in-law Zhu Shencui had reminded him long ago that Xu Xiancheng deliberately kept a distance from the Donglin Party for self-protection. With the secret help of Zhang Xijun, Xu Xiancheng entered the Ministry of Works for an internship and was responsible for the renovation of the three main halls.

It was because of this job that Xu Xiancheng met Emperor Tianqi, and he also commanded the incident of the Wanggongchang explosion and saved Emperor Tianqi, leaving a deep impression on him.

But afterwards, Xu Xiancheng still kept his distance from Emperor Tianqi and Wei Zhongxian's party to avoid being involved in the political vortex. After Emperor Tianqi passed away and Emperor Chongzhen came to power, Xu Xiancheng was extremely excited when Emperor Chongzhen decisively brought Wei Zhongxian down and eliminated the eunuch party in one fell swoop. He had great expectations for the young emperor who had just ascended the throne.

In Xu Xiancheng's opinion, Emperor Tianqi quietly dealt with Wei Zhongxian and the eunuch party not long after he ascended the throne, showing extremely brilliant political means in this matter, and Emperor Tianqi's diligence and hard work are also admirable. After ascending the throne, the young emperor did not neglect his duties like Emperor Tianqi, but often summoned ministers, listened to their opinions humbly, never missed court meetings, and was said to be busy with government affairs in the palace from morning until late at night every day. He also issued an edict to reduce palace expenses, which was very frugal.

These actions demonstrated the demeanor of an wise ruler, and people from all walks of life praised Emperor Chongzhen highly. Many people, including Xu Xiancheng, felt that the Ming Dynasty was about to be revived.

But as time went by, the faults and defects of Emperor Chongzhen were gradually exposed. Although this young emperor was diligent in government affairs, brave in reform, aloof from women, lived a simple life, and had great ambitions and the idea of ​​changing the Ming Dynasty, unfortunately everything he did was further and further away from his original intentions, and Xu Xiancheng saw many problems with Emperor Chongzhen after their contact.

Although Emperor Chongzhen had good sides, he also had irreparable flaws in his character. These flaws were that he was stubborn, impatient, suspicious, hesitant, and indecisive. He had a poor grasp of the situation and was even unable to judge the situation.

If Emperor Chongzhen were an ordinary person, these character flaws would not be a big problem, but as an emperor, the ruler of an empire, these flaws were fatal.

Many decisions made by Emperor Chongzhen since he ascended the throne reflected these problems not only in major national policy matters, but also in the appointment of officials. As time went by, many things had good starting points, but in actual decision-making and operations, they developed in a worse direction, which made Xu Xiancheng very disappointed after he noticed this.

Compared with Emperor Chongzhen, Xu Xiancheng could not help but compare him with the previous Emperor Tianqi. Although Emperor Tianqi was criticized for his use of Wei Zhongxian, and the rampant eunuch party led to strong resistance from the civil servants and gentry, Xu Xiancheng had to admit that at least when Emperor Tianqi was in power, the situation of the Ming Dynasty was much better than it is now, whether it was the operation of finances or the stability of the local areas, and even the situation in Liaodong, etc.

Xu Xiancheng was not a man of few books. Although he was a young Jinshi and the founder of Fushe, he was different from others. In particular, his study tours had made Xu Xiancheng see a lot more clearly and he was able to judge problems from other angles. In his view, Emperor Chongzhen was not an wise ruler, let alone the ruler who would restore the Ming Dynasty. To be honest, Emperor Chongzhen's personality was not suitable for being an emperor. There had never been an emperor like him since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. The more trouble an emperor with this kind of personality made, the more serious the damage to the Ming Dynasty would be.

This is what is meant by governing a big country like cooking a small fish. How could an emperor do this?
Let's not talk about other things for now, and just talk about the current cabinet. The cabinet members, from cabinet elders to prime ministers, are replaced like a revolving lantern. From the first year of Chongzhen to the present, in just over a year, not to mention the ordinary cabinet elders, only the prime ministers have been replaced six times. Although nearly half of these six prime ministers were replaced because they were implicated in the eunuch party, the problem is that nearly half of them are members of the Donglin Party and other parties, but they were also kicked out of the cabinet by Emperor Chongzhen.

Among them, the person who served as the Prime Minister for the shortest time was Lai Zongdao, who served for just one month. The others did not serve for long either, especially Li Biao, who was chosen by lot by Emperor Chongzhen. He did not stay in the position for long. His tenure was only slightly better than Lai Zongdao. He only served as the Prime Minister for more than two months before being dismissed by Emperor Chongzhen.

After Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the Secretariat, the prime minister system that had lasted for a thousand years came to an end. The cabinet system was gradually established afterwards, and the cabinet elders became the "secretariat" to assist the emperor in governing. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, the cabinet system was established, and the status and rights of the cabinet elders gradually became higher than those of the six ministries. From then on, the cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty was stabilized and has continued to this day.

Although the chief minister and the cabinet elders are not prime ministers, they actually still have some power as prime ministers. It can be said that the cabinet is the most important court control agency in the Ming Dynasty except for the emperor. The other agency is the Imperial Household Department, which has the power to approve documents.

But Emperor Chongzhen was different. Less than three years after he ascended the throne, his cabinet members were replaced like a revolving lantern. The Prime Minister changed six people in total. Even the Imperial Household Department lost its previous power. All the power, including the power to approve documents, was in the hands of Emperor Chongzhen. This practice had never been seen before among all the emperors of the Ming Dynasty and it was unimaginable.

(End of this chapter)