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

Chapter 912 Traitor
Zhu Shenzhu knew Zhang Ruitu's character very well, otherwise he would not have specially recalled Zhang Ruitu to the capital to use him. As for Yang Sichang and Chen Qiyu, although they were not as stubborn as Zhang Ruitu, they also showed worried expressions and pretended to persuade him.

On the contrary, the Prime Minister Wen Tiren had a relatively calm attitude and did not speak much. Zhu Shenzhu, who was familiar with Wen Tiren, understood that he seemed to know something, but when Zhu Shenzhu did not explain the situation, Wen Tiren did not take the initiative, which was consistent with his usual character.

Zhu Shenzhui was not angry. He said something to comfort Zhang Ruitu, then turned to Sun Chengzong and said, "Since I have entrusted this matter to you, you were the one who arranged the incident in the capital today. Why don't you explain it to me?"

"Of course!" Sun Chengzong did not refuse and agreed immediately.

Sun Chengzong was the most senior and highest-ranking official among the ministers present. Even the Prime Minister Wen Tihen could not compare to Sun Chengzong in terms of official rank.

Moreover, Sun Chengzong's status was extraordinary. He was still the chief teacher of the teaching hall. Since Sun Chengzong explained the matter for the emperor, it was impossible for everyone to object. However, they were very curious about the information revealed in Zhu Shenzhu's words just now. Today's incident was actually arranged by Sun Chengzong. This was a bit strange. You know, the people arrested today were all members of the Donglin Party, and Sun Chengzong was the leader of the Donglin Party. What was going on? Did the Donglin Party have a quarrel among themselves? This was very strange.

Sun Chengzong began to explain the cause of today's events. As Sun Chengzong spoke, everyone listened attentively, but soon they all showed expressions of astonishment, surprise and even disbelief. Especially Zhang Ruitu, who was dissatisfied with Zhu Shenzhui just now, when he heard that someone was secretly colluding with the Jiannu and using the grain reserves in Dixi Warehouse and Renhe Warehouse to smuggle grain, weapons and even firearms to the Jiannu, his eyes suddenly widened and his fists clenched involuntarily.

When Sun Chengzong told these people that today's action was not an isolated one, but part of a plan, because the action was launched in Jiangnan two days ago, Qian Qianyi and Zhang Xijun joined forces with the Nanjing Military Department, the Garrison, the Eunuch's Office, and the local guards, Jinyiwei and other government offices to arrest the first-class people involved in the case. Now Gao Hongtu, Zheng Sanjun, Xu Shiqi, Wang Ji, more than 60 officials including local prefectures, and more than 300 local gentry, merchants, etc., have all been arrested.

While arresting people, they seized a lot of evidence in their residences, including not only correspondence related to the case, but also many other crimes. It was because of this, coupled with the confessions of these people, that the capital took decisive action, which led to the current situation.

"Lord Sun, is what you said true?" Everyone was stunned. They had never thought that things would turn out like this. This was treason! A dignified official of the Ming Dynasty, receiving a salary from the court and serving as an official of the Ming Dynasty, actually treasoned in private and did these things. It was really unbelievable.

Although he believed Sun Chengzong's words 70% in his heart, he still had some doubts, and Chen Qiuyu couldn't help but ask further questions.

Sun Chengzong sighed. He felt very uncomfortable. Although he had known for a long time that this case would be a heavy blow to the Donglin Party, especially the Donglin Party which always advocated taking the world as its responsibility, once this case was made public, even if the Donglin Party was not discredited, it would lose its previous transcendent status and influence.

But even so, Sun Chengzong had to do this, because if he took over this case, the Donglin Party would be completely finished. Only if he did this, including what Qian Qianyi did in Jiangnan, the Donglin Party still had a chance to save itself. At least it could be publicized to the outside world that this was done by some people in the Donglin Party for their own interests, not by the entire Donglin Party, and that the Donglin Party still worked for the country and the people, which was extremely shameful. For the sake of the overall situation, it was necessary to make a heroic move and deal with the termites, so that the Donglin Party could continue to exist.

In response to Chen Qiuyu's question, Sun Chengzong nodded silently, then turned his gaze to Xu Xiancheng and others who had been silent, and then looked at the emperor.

Zhu Shenzhui nodded to indicate that this matter would eventually be resolved in the court anyway. Arresting someone now did not mean trial. The final judgment would be the same as what Zhang Ruitu had said. It must be passed by the three judicial departments and dealt with according to the royal law rather than decided by the king alone.

Originally, Zhu Shenzui was planning to wait until tomorrow to hold a court meeting and formally announce this matter at the meeting, but he did not expect Wen Tiren and others to come so quickly. Since they are already here, it would not hurt to tell them in advance, so that there will be fewer obstacles in tomorrow's court meeting.

Xu Xiancheng was assisting Sun Chengzong this time, helping Sun Chengzong coordinate the New Army, Jinyiwei, police and other departments to complete the arrest operation, so some evidences including previous evidences were all on his side. In addition, Xu Xiancheng was the head of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, so he was legitimate to do these things. So after Zhu Shenzhu agreed, Xu Xiancheng took the evidences that had been collected and showed them to Wen Tiren and others. After seeing these evidences, including the confessions of some key figures and a lot of empirical evidence, Zhang Ruitu, who was dissatisfied with Zhu Shenzhu at the beginning, was now full of anger. Of course, this anger was not directed at Zhu Shenzhu, but at these traitors. He never expected that such a thing would happen in the bright and clear world of Ming Dynasty. It was simply unimaginable.

"Thief! Villain! Traitor! Traitor! Sellout!"

Zhang Ruitu cursed with gnashing teeth, his hands trembling with anger and his eyes red. Yang Sichang and Chen Qiuyu were also filled with astonishment after reading the evidence. They had never imagined that there would be such bold people in the world who dared to do such a thing. Moreover, these people were known as moral gentlemen and claimed that they were the officials of the Donglin Party. The evidence was simply shocking, but at the same time, real and irrefutable.

"The Donglin Party is finished..." A thought flashed through the minds of the two. The Donglin Party had such a mess, and the lofty image that it had built up over the years was destroyed. Who would believe the Donglin Party's so-called speeches for the country and the people in the future? It was even more impossible to be proud of Donglin.

Although Sun Chengzong, the person in charge of the case, was arrested in the capital, Qian Qianyi was arrested in Nanjing, and many Donglin Party members were directly involved in the arrest process, on the surface, the Donglin Party was not full of treacherous officials, but still had loyal officials who served the country and the people. But the problem was that even so, it could not avoid damaging the reputation of the Donglin Party. Even if nearly half of the Donglin Party members could be protected, it would be useless. The fate of the Donglin Party in the future was predictable. The Donglin Party, which had been powerful in the Ming Dynasty political arena for decades, was about to become a thing of the past.

"Your Majesty, this is a really good method!" Unlike Yang Sichang and Chen Qiuyu, Wen Tihen saw the essence of the problem from another angle.

On the one hand, this case was used to deal with the Donglin Party. After all, the Donglin Party had too deep roots in the court and posed too great a threat to the imperial power. Moreover, the Donglin Party had always been good at sticking together. Even Wei Zhongxian failed to completely eliminate the Donglin Party back then, so it would be even more difficult for others to do so.

As soon as Emperor Tianqi passed away and Wei Zhongxian fell from power, the Donglin Party, which was originally on the verge of death, re-emerged like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, and soon took control of the government again. Even now, there are still many Donglin Party members in the court. Although there are no Donglin Party members in the cabinet, and the Donglin Party leaders in several ministries and halls have been disgraced because of the previous Beijing inspection, their momentum is not as strong as before. However, even so, among the middle and lower-level officials, especially in the southern officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, there are countless Donglin Party members, and their strength is obvious to all. It is not easy to deal with this political group.

As the Prime Minister, Wen Tiren certainly understood Zhu Shenzhu's thoughts, especially since Zhu Shenzhu had been trying to solve the Donglin Party and Jiangnan issues since he ascended the throne, but he never had a good solution. But this case was completely different. This was not a simple political struggle but an act of treason.

If it was the former, the Donglin Party could still use the power of all sides to resist and gain the support of the majority. Even if it was suppressed, its reputation would not be damaged at all. Instead, it could go further. For example, this was the case after Wei Zhongxian suppressed the Donglin Party. As soon as Wei Zhongxian died, the Donglin Party revived and became the largest political force again.

But the latter is different. The latter's actions are unacceptable to everyone. This is completely different from the proposal to negotiate peace with the Later Jin (Qing Dynasty). The Ming Dynasty has always had a very clear attitude towards Liaodong. Whether it was the initial Wanli Emperor or the later Tianqi Emperor or Chongzhen Emperor, there was only one attitude towards Liaodong, that is, to fight!

Recovering Liaodong and pacifying Jiannu was the common understanding of the court. Not only the emperor thought so, but also the civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty, including the people, had the same attitude. Therefore, even when Emperor Chongzhen was in power, the war in Liaodong continued to deteriorate. Not only did the Ming Dynasty fail to solve the Jiannu problem, but it was even invaded by Huang Taiji through Mongolia into the capital of the Ming Dynasty, which aroused the tough attitude of the emperor, officials and people of the Ming Dynasty.

Even if Emperor Chongzhen saw that the situation was not right and wanted to use peace talks to stabilize the situation in Liaodong, so that the Ming Dynasty could breathe a sigh of relief and focus on solving the problem of bandits at home, Emperor Chongzhen himself did not dare to propose the idea of ​​peace talks, because he knew that once he proposed this idea, he would be attacked by his ministers, and not only would it fail, but he would also lose face.

In desperation, Emperor Chongzhen could only "save the country in a roundabout way" and try to get his ministers to propose peace talks on his behalf. But he didn't expect that as soon as his ministers understood the emperor's intention and proposed peace talks, they were scolded by the ministers. Many ministers were even extremely angry and accused the other party of surrendering in the so-called peace talks. How could the great Ming Empire of China surrender to the Jian Nu? The Ming Dynasty must not negotiate peace. Anyone who talked about peace talks was a traitor! This act should be executed!
As a result, Emperor Chongzhen's attempt was directly rejected. In order to appease the excited ministers, he was eager to pass the buck and even imprisoned and executed the official who proposed peace talks on his behalf for the crime of intending to surrender. After that, he never dared to have the slightest thought of peace talks. Even if he could not win, he had to bite the bullet and continue to fight, which made him miserable.

(End of this chapter)