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

Chapter 838 Disagreement
A place in the capital.

The bearded man and the slightly plump man sat opposite each other. They had been friends for many years, but they rarely met in private in recent days. This was their first meeting in half a year.

"Fang Fengnian is not worthy of being reused. Now he is being suppressed by Qian Qianyi and is already disheartened." The slightly plump man said.

"What? Did he go looking for you?" the bearded man asked unhappily.

The slightly fat man nodded with a helpless expression: "He hit a snag with you, so naturally he can only come to me for help. Now Qian Qianyi is the Minister of Rites, and he, the Right Vice Minister, is just a decoration in the Ministry of Rites. Moreover, many people defected to Qian Qianyi after he came to Beijing. Fang Fengnian lost his position as Minister of Rites due to being implicated in the Beijing Inspection, and he is no longer as glorious as he used to be."

"Hmph, he brought this upon himself!" The bearded man sneered. In his opinion, Fang Fengnian was a brainless guy. Not long after Zhu Shenzhui came to Beijing as regent, Fang Fengnian had impatiently jumped out with Zhang Fengxiang, Fang Kezhuang, Gong Dingzi, Wu Weiye, Xiang Yu and others, intending to use the power of the Donglin Party to suppress Zhu Shenzhui and seize the right to speak in the court.

The man with a long beard did not approve of what these people did at that time. In his opinion, the situation had changed. The safest thing to do was to wait and see, find a good opportunity to take action, and then use some means to subtly influence the court and achieve his own goals.

But what's wrong with Fang Fengnian and his people? They have to go against Zhu Shenzhui. What's the benefit of doing this?
The Donglin Party was certainly a clean group, and was famous for its boldness in action and outspokenness. But the problem was that the bigwigs of the Donglin Party were not fools. Everything they did had a purpose. Even if they were scolded and beaten by the emperor in front of him, it was ultimately for their own reputation.

Foolishly using an egg to hit a stone, isn't this courting death? If the Donglin Party were all this kind of people, they would have been completely destroyed by the joint efforts of Wei Zhongxian and Emperor Tianqi. Being able to bend and stretch, and judge the situation, is what a real man does. Moreover, Zhu Shenzhui is different from Emperor Chongzhen. If Emperor Chongzhen is just a guy who looks strong but is weak, then Zhu Shenzhui is exactly the opposite of him.

Although Zhu Shenzhui did not take much action after entering Beijing, apart from dealing with a few diehards, he did not make any major changes to the court. Not only did he retain the old men in the cabinet, he even did not replace the Prime Minister Wen Tihen. As for the officials of the six ministries, they basically remained the same. These actions seemed weak, but in fact they made them more difficult to deal with.

The bearded man saw it clearly. It was not that Zhu Shencui was unable to do it but that he deliberately did not do so. The most important thing for him when he came to Beijing as a royal family member and took charge of power was the stability of the court. As long as the court was stable and the orders from the central government could be smoothly passed down to the local areas, Zhu Shencui would be able to take control of the Ming Dynasty's government. If he stirred up trouble at this time, or even dealt with a large number of people harshly, it would not only cause chaos in the central government, but also cause the local areas to break away from the central government, thus causing various variables.

In other words, Zhu Shenzhui was seeking stability, waiting for everything to stabilize before gradually making changes according to his will. This move was seen by the long-bearded man, who thought that Zhu Shenzhui was definitely not a simple person, but a character who was much harder to fool than Emperor Chongzhen.

According to the bearded man, under such circumstances the Donglin Party should cooperate well with Zhu Shencui. If they can take this opportunity to establish a good relationship with Zhu Shencui and help Zhu Shencui stabilize the government, then Zhu Shencui will naturally have a different perception of the Donglin Party.

When the government is stable, Zhu Shencui will definitely think of the Donglin Party when adjusting the various departments. At that time, the Donglin Party will be able to rely on Zhu Shencui to place people on a large scale, control the various departments, and eventually control the government step by step.

Unfortunately, Fang Fengnian and his people did not listen to the advice of the bearded man at all. They believed that Zhu Shenzhui's entry into the capital as a member of the royal family was a heinous act and a violation of the moral code between the monarch and his subjects. Even if Zhu Shenzhui became regent, he would not be able to stay in this position for long. The Donglin Party has always taken the world as its responsibility, so naturally they had to restore order and rectify the government. If they could get rid of Zhu Shenzhui and let Emperor Chongzhen return to power or support a new emperor to ascend the throne, then the Donglin Party would be able to become the real master of the Ming Dynasty and manage the country instead of the emperor.

Fang Fengnian and others had a good idea, but unfortunately they forgot that no matter what they did, the key was decisive strength and power. Although Zhu Shenzhui's regent position was a fluke, don't forget that with the collapse of the Beijing camp, the capital, including the entire northern Zhili, was under the control of Zhu Shenzhui. The strength of Zhu Shenzhui's new army was obvious to all. How could a powerful official with military power be so easy to deal with? How could Fang Fengnian compete with Zhu Shenzhui with his skills?

Therefore, the bearded man did not think highly of Fang Fengnian and his people from the very beginning, but after his persuasion failed, he did not care about the matter anymore. Anyway, he is no longer the same as before and has already semi-retired from politics. Although Fang Fengnian and others, as the backbone of the Donglin Party, respect him, it is just respect. If he wants to order Fang Fengnian to do this or that, Fang Fengnian and others will not listen to him at all.

The result was the same. Fang Fengnian and others deliberately embarrassed Zhu Shencui after the Battle of the Great Wall, deliberately lowered the etiquette level of Wang Jinwu and others who returned to the court, and secretly set a trap. However, this was exactly the stupidest way for the long-bearded man to do so. Not only did it anger Zhu Shencui, it also offended a large number of new nobles such as Wang Jinwu, and even Lu Xiangsheng, Xu Xiancheng, Li Xin, including the entire cabinet and the Ministry of War.

Fang Fengnian and his gang were trying to be clever but ended up shooting themselves in the foot. They then took advantage of the war between the Beijing camp and Liaodong to deliberately try to seize power, but were seen through by Zhu Shenzhui, who easily defeated them. When Gong Dingzi died inexplicably in Liaodong shortly after he went there, Fang Fengnian finally realized what was going on, but it was too late.

Then Zhu Shenzhui used the Beijing inspection as an excuse to establish the Supervisory Department, and dealt with a large number of officials through the Beijing inspection. Among these officials, Fang Fengnian's followers suffered heavy losses. Even Fang Fengnian himself lost his position as Minister of Rites and was demoted to Right Vice Minister because of his involvement. When Zhu Shenzhui brought Qian Qianyi back to the capital from Jiangnan, the situation changed completely. Qian Qianyi's appeal in the Donglin Party was much stronger than Fang Fengnian's. After he arrived in the capital, he quickly surrendered to Zhu Shenzhui and personally cheered for Zhu Shenzhui.

Zhu Shenzui did not treat Qian Qianyi badly. He first gave him the post of Chief Censor, and then replaced Fang Fengnian as the Minister of Rites with Qian Qianyi. Qian Qianyi is now in high spirits, and his status in the court is even higher than before he was driven out of the capital. Moreover, because of Qian Qianyi's presence, a split occurred within the Donglin Party. Seeing that Fang Fengnian and others were gradually declining, most people directly defected to Qian Qianyi for their own interests, making Qian Qianyi's title as the leader of Donglin completely established.

Now that it has come to this, how could Fang Fengnian still intend to turn things around? Not to mention Zhu Shenzhui, if the bearded man himself was the emperor, he would definitely not use Fang Fengnian again. It would be considered good enough if he dismissed him without finding a reason and sent him home to retire.

"Fang Fengnian has fallen flat on his face. Although he is not worthy of being reused, he is from the Donglin lineage after all. Apart from him, there are also Zhang Fengxiang, Fang Kezhuang and others. It is better to have them in the court than not. Since he has come to me for help, I have to think of some way." The slightly fat man explained with a sigh. In fact, he did not want to get involved in this matter. His opinion was the same as that of the long-bearded man. Fang Fengnian was too smart and he deserved it. He had brought this upon himself. He did not listen to them at that time, and now he has no choice but to ask them for help again. It would be a pity to give up.

The bearded man looked unhappy and asked directly, "What exactly is his plan?"

"The Ministry of Rites currently has Qian Qianyi in charge. He thinks the Censorate might be a good place to go," said the slightly plump man.

"Impossible!" The bearded man objected without even thinking: "The Censorate is currently controlled by Xu Xiancheng and Zhang Ruitu. Your Majesty has finally spent a lot of effort to clean up the Censorate. How can you let Fang Fengnian in to mess things up? Forget him. Even Fang Kezhuang doesn't have this opportunity. Although he was the Deputy Censor-in-Chief before, it is impossible for him to go back after being kicked out."

"Then the Ministry of Justice? Or the Ministry of Works?" The slightly plump man thought for a moment and asked tentatively.

The long-bearded man shook his head and said, "It is absolutely impossible for him to be in the six central ministries of the capital. His Majesty has already let him go for the sake of the Donglin Party by appointing him as the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites. Otherwise, how could His Majesty allow him to be free and unfettered? As for going to the Censorate, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Works, it is simply a fantasy. Unless he is willing to be a clay Buddha like he is now, and be a minister who does not care about anything, His Majesty will never agree."

"What should we do? This is not just Fang Fengnian's problem, it also involves Zhang Fengxiang and Fang Kezhuang." The slightly plump man said anxiously.

The bearded man did not answer immediately, and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face. In fact, he really did not want to get involved in this matter, because in his opinion, Fang Fengnian and his people were the kind of people who were more likely to cause trouble than to accomplish anything. They did not seize such a good opportunity before and ended up like this. If it were them back then, how could this result have happened?

But a hero does not brag about his past achievements. Both he and the slightly plump man are old. As the backbone of the Donglin Party, they have gradually withdrawn from the court over the years. Although they still hold official positions, their influence is not as great as before. Moreover, they are physically and mentally exhausted after so many years of fighting and scheming, and do not want to directly participate in these matters anymore.

It was a pity that Fang Fengnian and the others had failed their expectations. Now they had no other options and had to beg them for help. If they had listened to their advice, how could they have ended up like this? But as the slightly fat man said, after all, they were from the Donglin lineage, and it would be a pity to give up. I, an old man, would help them if I could. I couldn't just watch them destroy everyone.

"How about this, you go and persuade Fang Fengnian and the others, and tell them that I want them to go to the six ministries in Nanjing and stay there for a few years. When the political situation in the capital changes, they can find a way to come back. This is at least a way out."

"The six ministries of Nanjing?" The slightly plump man was stunned. The two capitals of the Ming Dynasty were Beijing and Nanjing. Nanjing, like Beijing, had the same set of court teams and six ministries, and the ranks of officials were also the same. But in fact, the official positions in Nanjing were very different from those in the capital.

If you go to Nanjing to serve as an official in the six ministries, even if you are a minister, you are only a nominal minister, and your power cannot be compared with that of the minister in the capital. In other words, the six ministries in Nanjing are just for retirement, and they only occupy a nominal position. Among the six ministries in Nanjing, except for the Nanjing Military Department, which has some real power, the rest are all empty positions.

(End of this chapter)