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

Chapter 684: Employing a "Villain"

The capital, the imperial city, the Palace of Heavenly Purity.

This is the residence of the Ming Emperor. Emperor Chongzhen has lived in the Qianqing Palace since he ascended the throne. Now the nominal Ming Emperor still lives here.

However, compared to the Chongzhen Emperor who was always busy and slept less than two or three hours a day, he has now not only lost his power as an emperor, but also lost his former busyness.

After being captured by his eunuchs, Emperor Chongzhen was unable to burn down the entire palace, and even failed to seek death. In order to save their own lives and wealth, Du Xun and his godsons turned against him and captured Emperor Chongzhen. They also gagged him and tied him up to prevent Emperor Chongzhen from seeking death and implicating themselves.

When Wang Jinwu and others arrived, Du Xun immediately presented Emperor Chongzhen, and disguised himself as a guide, leading Wang Jinwu's men to search the palace, and found all the concubines, palace maids, and eunuchs who were hiding.

Du Xun was an out-and-out villain who sold out his master for fame and fortune, but even so, he made the right bet.

When Zhu Shenzui learned about this after entering the palace, he specially had Du Xun brought to the palace. Instead of punishing him, he was very satisfied with his actions. Moreover, when he rebuilt the Silijian later, Zhu Shenzui also appointed Du Xun as the eunuch in charge of writing, making him one of the most powerful eunuchs in the palace.

In Zhu Shenzhui's opinion, Du Xun was indeed a villain, but he also made great contributions. If he had not captured Emperor Chongzhen and prevented him from setting himself on fire and perishing along with the palace, then the trouble would have been huge.

In taking over the capital, Zhu Shencui fought under the banner of clearing the court of corrupt officials and pacifying the national crisis. It would be best if Emperor Chongzhen could be captured alive. If he died unexpectedly, it would not be a good thing for Zhu Shencui.

After all, Zhu Shenzhui was not Zhu Di. Although he was a member of the imperial clan, his relationship with the royal family was very distant. As the saying goes, the grace of a gentleman will be cut off after five generations. Although Zhu Shenzhui was a descendant of the King of Jin, who was the legitimate son of Zhu Yuanzhang, his position was second only to the crown prince Zhu Biao and the King of Qin, ranking third among the imperial clans.

But after all, these were all things that happened more than 200 years ago. The title of King of Jin has been passed down for several generations. Zhu Shenzhui's ancestor, the King of Jiaocheng, has long lost his title. As an ordinary member of the royal family, he does not have the influence and appeal that Zhu Di had back then. What Zhu Di could do back then would be impossible for Zhu Shenzhui. For example, the life and death of the emperor was not a big deal for Zhu Di. Zhu Di could command the world as the "eldest son" of the previous emperor, but it was different for Zhu Shenzhui. As long as Emperor Chongzhen was alive and under his control, Zhu Shenzhui could use the emperor to command the princes. Once Emperor Chongzhen died, the Ming Dynasty would inevitably be in chaos, especially Nanjing, which would most likely establish another emperor to compete with the north.

Without completely controlling the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Shenzhui would never let Emperor Chongzhen die, let alone let him suffer any harm. A living emperor is far more useful than a dead one, and when Zhu Shenzhui first entered the capital, he had no one to use except Wang Jinwu, Wang Hai, Li You, Zhou Anmin, Zhang Xijun and other few people.

Instead of using those officials of the Ming Dynasty and guarding against these officials' ulterior motives, Zhu Shencui might as well use villains like Du Xun. After all, these villains betrayed their former masters, and now they have no choice but to join Zhu Shencui. It is also more reassuring to use them, so why not?

After being granted the title of Prince of Jiaocheng and promoted to the position of Regent, Zhu Shenzhui did not immediately make drastic changes to the political landscape of the Ming Dynasty, nor did he rush to make any reforms. Apart from reorganizing the Imperial Household Department, the Cabinet, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, reorganizing the Beijing camp, pacifying the local areas, and stabilizing the political situation, he also began to deal with the war preparations for Huang Taiji's attack on the Ming Dynasty.

As for the rest, Zhu Shenzui did not do much. He certainly knew that the Ming Dynasty had many problems and there had been problems everywhere. However, the Ming Dynasty, which had been seriously ill for a long time, would not be able to achieve any effect if drastic measures were used in the current situation. On the contrary, it would be counterproductive.

If the court is in chaos, the central government will be in chaos. If the central government is in chaos, the local governments will be in chaos. If the local governments are in chaos, the whole world will be in chaos.

If there were no internal or external troubles, Zhu Shenzhui might try to solve the problem in this way with tough measures, or even deal with all the problems by cutting the Gordian knot. But now there are powerful enemies outside and rebellions by bandits such as Gao Yingxiang inside. Natural and man-made disasters are serious in various places, and the Ming Dynasty's finances are on the verge of collapse. Doing so at this time is not a good choice.

Zhu Shenzhui needs stability now. Only when there is stability can he free up his hands to solve problems one by one. Therefore, apart from dealing with a few stubborn and hard-line opponents, he did not make any other adjustments to the court, including the local governments. He even used easing measures to appease these officials. As long as they did not oppose his supervision of the country and still obeyed the orders of the central government, Zhu Shenzhui would not touch them in a short time. In a word, stability overrides everything. It was this move of Zhu Shenzhui that quickly restored order to the capital and even the entire Ming Dynasty from the brief chaos. On the surface, the central government and the local governments returned to their previous state, and the Ming Empire once again operated according to its previous inertia.

But Zhu Shenzhu knew that all this was just appearance. Even those officials who had nominally admitted that they were the regents, no one could know what they really thought. Not to mention the local areas, there were many people who secretly opposed him in the capital alone. Some of these people kept their thoughts in their hearts, some secretly colluded, and some patiently waited for the opportunity. Once the situation changed, they would definitely be the first to jump out.

Zhu Shenzhui's decision to use Wen Tihen to continue serving as the Prime Minister was a well-considered one. It has to be admitted that Emperor Chongzhen learned from his mistakes and discovered serious problems after initially appointing a large number of Donglin Party members. Later, while frequently adjusting the cabinet, Emperor Chongzhen was also constantly weakening the Donglin Party's influence in the court, especially its power in the cabinet.

Emperor Chongzhen chose Wen Tihen because he saw that he was a "lone minister" who did not belong to any party or faction, so he stuffed him into the cabinet. He gradually became the second assistant minister and then the first assistant minister from an ordinary cabinet minister.

Unfortunately, although Emperor Chongzhen chose the right person, he didn't know how to use people. Let alone Wen Tihen, even if Zhang Juzheng was resurrected, it would be useless to work under Emperor Chongzhen. A suspicious, self-willed, and irresponsible emperor, no matter how capable he was, would not be able to make any difference. It was rare that Wen Tihen could work under Emperor Chongzhen for so long.

After Zhu Shenzhui took control of the capital, he summoned Wen Tihen immediately, gave this guy a reassurance, and told him that he would continue to serve as the prime minister and be in charge of the cabinet.

Wen Tiren was an extremely smart man, and of course he understood the intention of Emperor Chongzhen to choose him as the Prime Minister. Unfortunately, he was not able to play a role under Emperor Chongzhen. Apart from using several tricks to retain power and forcing the former Prime Minister Zhou Yanru to step down and take his place, Wen Tiren was unable to do anything outstanding, let alone change the status quo.

But it was different under Zhu Shencui. Zhu Shencui told Wen Tiren his requirements clearly when talking to him. Zhu Shencui told Wen Tiren that he only needed Wen Tiren to be consistent with himself in the position of Prime Minister of the Cabinet, do a good job as Prime Minister, ensure the smooth implementation of government orders, and make reasonable adjustments to the six ministries and local governments to reduce the previous wrangling. Political enemies could be put aside for the time being, and even the attacks had to be limited to ensure the stability of the Ming Dynasty. As for the rest, let Wen Tiren handle it on his own.

Wen Tihen had never done this under Emperor Chongzhen. To be honest, even the Prime Minister under Emperor Chongzhen did not have much real power, because he never trusted people and could not tolerate opposition. Emperor Chongzhen would always follow his own opinions on matters big or small, and would not consider the suggestions of the cabinet at all. As a result, cabinet ministers, including the Prime Minister, were restricted in what they did, and if they made a mistake, they would take the responsibility for the emperor, and if things went wrong, they might even lose their heads.

Wen Tihen's ability is naturally not as good as Zhang Juzheng, or even as good as Gao Gong and Xu Jie, the prime ministers of the previous dynasties. In the entire Ming Dynasty cabinet, Wen Tihen's ability as a prime minister can only be said to be mediocre. If compared, he is probably only slightly better than Yan Song.

But what Zhu Shenzhu wanted now was not a capable prime minister who could control the overall situation. If Wen Tiren was really as capable as Zhang Juzheng, Zhu Shenzhu might not dare to use him. Wen Tiren, who was slightly less capable but very smart, could understand his own thoughts and will, had no connection with the various parties in the court, was not greedy for money but only for power, and was good at political schemes, was the most appropriate candidate at present.

This was indeed the case. After confirming that Wen Tiren would continue to serve as the Prime Minister, Wen Tiren immediately responded accordingly. He arranged for Zhu Shenzhu to be promoted to Prince of Jiaocheng and then serve as regent. At the same time, he suggested that Li Kangfei in the harem be promoted to Queen Mother, and then confirmed the legitimacy of Zhu Shenzhu's regent status with the Queen Mother's decree. This was Wen Tiren's cleverness.

Apart from this incident, Wen Tiren, who served as the Prime Minister, quickly restored the normal operation of various departments of the court. In the name of the cabinet, he used the Imperial Household Department to adopt many means to win over the local governments after seeking Zhu Shenzhu's consent.

Wen Tihen's actions allowed Zhu Shenzhui to stabilize the political situation in a short period of time. It can be said that his contribution was enormous. It was also because of this that when Zhu Shenzhui learned that Huang Taiji was leading his troops to attack the Ming Dynasty, he was able to mobilize the army with confidence and let Wang Jinwu lead his troops to the north for defense without having to worry too much about the stability of the capital.

Wearing ordinary clothes, Zhu Shenzui came to the Qianqing Palace. There was a team of Mongolian guards stationed in the Qianqing Palace. These Mongolian guards were tall and skilled in archery and horse riding. Many of them could not speak Chinese, but only Mongolian. More importantly, these Mongolian guards were carefully selected by Zhu Shenzui. Their main task was to guard the Qianqing Palace and Emperor Chongzhen who lived in the Qianqing Palace.

(End of this chapter)