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

Chapter 913 The wall fell and everyone pushed it
The mere peace talks led to such terrible consequences, not to mention the blatant secret communication with the Jiannu and collusion with them to sell out the country.

This kind of behavior is intolerable to anyone. Some people may think about it in private, but it is absolutely impossible to make it public. So at that time, they knew that the person who made the request was not Park Sangyin of the Park family of North Korea. The so-called Park Sangyin was clearly Yuan Chongyu. As for who Yuan Chongyu was, it goes without saying. And who was behind Yuan Chongyu, everyone knew it well.

Even though they knew all this, everyone pretended to be deaf and dumb, which was perfectly described by the idiom "covering one's ears and stealing a bell". They thought that as long as they pretended to be confused and did not expose Yuan Chongyu's identity, and only engaged in smuggling with the Park family in North Korea, there would be no problem. However, pretending to be an ostrich and burying one's head in the sand was simply deceiving oneself. When everything came to light, all the cover-ups were false, and the truth would be made public.

Now that the Donglin Party has gotten into such a big trouble, no one in the court will help the Donglin Party. Moreover, haven't we seen that the bigwigs in the Donglin Party, such as Sun Chengzong and Qian Qianyi, are using this method to save themselves? How can there be any chance for them to turn things around?

Furthermore, in the officialdom, there are few cases of helping others when they are in trouble, and more often, people kick someone when he is down. Especially the Donglin Party has offended countless people in the past few decades by uniting with the party to fight against dissidents. Which of the other parties, including neutral officials, did not show courtesy to the Donglin Party, but secretly kept a close watch on it? The Donglin Party is in big trouble now, and everyone is applauding and cheering, so why would they risk saving it?

Wen Tihen had similar ideas to Yang Sichang and others, but Wen Tihen also thought of another problem, that is, the Donglin Party suffered a serious blow, and the subsequent political emptiness included a series of subsequent impacts on the officialdom and local areas of Jiangnan.

The problem at the central government is not that big. From the current point of view, only 19 Donglin Party officials are implicated. One of them is estimated to have committed suicide by taking poison after learning the news in advance. Among the remaining 18 people, there is no official at the ministry level. The highest official is only the Right Vice Minister. The rest include two from the Censorate, three from the Ministry of Revenue, three from the Ministry of Works, and several people from the Six Ministries, the Salt Transport Commissioner's Office, the Taichang Temple, the Dali Temple and other departments.

Although these people were all officials at the central government, their positions were assistant officers or mid-level officials. One more or one less of them would not make much difference. Now that they have been arrested, these positions have all become vacant. There are so many people who want to fill the positions, so it will not have any impact at all.

But the situation in local areas was different. Gao Hongtu, Zheng Sanjun, Xu Shiqi, Wang Ji and others were all high-ranking officials. Some of them were senior executives in Nanjing's ministries and some were provincial governors. In addition to them, those who were arrested included prefects, associate prefects, prefectural magistrates and county magistrates. The impact of these people's accidents on the local areas was extremely great, even greater than the arrest of these officials in the capital.

What’s more important is that local gentry, aristocratic families, and businessmen were also implicated in this case, totaling more than 300 people. With so many people involved, the political landscape of the South, including local forces, is bound to change drastically.

Zhu Shenzhui has always wanted to completely control the South and solve the South's problems. Now this case is the best opportunity for the central government to intervene in the South. Wen Tiren feels that this case is not as simple as it seems. Maybe Zhu Shenzhui has known the news for a long time, but he has been holding back. His purpose is to use this case to solve the South's problems. In this way, many changes can be explained. When thinking about some of his previous speculations, Wen Tiren has to admire Zhu Shenzhui's methods.

"Good tactics! Good planning! Good calculation!"

Wen Tiren could not help but admire it, and at the same time he was thinking whether he could gain some benefits for himself. If he could take advantage of the opportunity to get involved in the Donglin Party's troubles, whether it was a power vacuum or a huge change in the local area, the rewards would be extremely rich.

But Wen Tiren rejected this idea after just a brief thought. He thought it would be better not to take this risk. Zhu Shenzhui had made such a thorough plan and took such an action with such a powerful force. With his character, he must have thought of this and made a series of arrangements in advance. If he intervened at this time, wouldn't it be equivalent to competing with the emperor?

This kind of thing was absolutely unacceptable, especially since Wen Tiren was a lone minister who never formed factions except for a few trusted subordinates in the court. Moreover, he had no connection with the Donglin Party, nor with the Zhejiang Party, Chu Party, Qi Party, etc. He always went his own way.

It was precisely because of this that Wen Tiren gained Zhu Shencui's trust and allowed him to remain as the Prime Minister. If Wen Tiren had formed a clique, Zhu Shencui would not have dared to use him no matter how capable he was. Once Wen Tiren became too powerful, a new political group would inevitably be formed with Wen Tiren as the core, or even a new party similar to the Donglin Party and other parties, which was a result Zhu Shencui absolutely did not want to see.

Wen Tiren didn't want to lose the big picture while picking up sesame seeds. He was doing well as the Prime Minister, so why would he take such a risk for a little profit? So Wen Tiren gave up this idea and made a decision to continue to assist the emperor in handling this case as a lone minister. At most, he would use this case to strike back at his political opponents and consolidate his political position. As for other things, he didn't have to think about it.

After learning the truth, Wen Tiren, Yang Sichang, Zhang Ruitu and Chen Qiyu were speechless, and were even more indignant at the shameless and crazy behavior of these people. In particular, Zhang Ruitu was so dissatisfied with Zhu Shenzhu's behavior just now, and now he was so indignant about the behavior of these people. He immediately volunteered to intervene in the case and assist in the investigation to rectify the national law. Zhu Shenzhu did not immediately agree to Zhang Ruitu's firm attitude, and specially sought the opinion of Sun Chengzong. After all, he had asked Sun Chengzong to lead the case before. Sun Chengzong hesitated and agreed to the intervention of the Censorate. Now that the case has been uncovered, it will enter the normal judicial process. At that time, the three judicial departments will participate, not to mention that Xu Xiancheng has intervened first. The addition of Zhang Ruitu to the Censorate does not affect the overall situation. Moreover, Zhang Ruitu's involvement is not a bad thing from a practical point of view. Everyone in the world knows what kind of person Zhang Ruitu is. With his assistance, the pressure on his side will be correspondingly smaller.

Meeting on the second day.

At the court meeting, Zhu Shenzui announced yesterday's incident in public, and asked Sun Chengzong and others to explain the case to all officials. Many officials had no idea about it, and there were even a few low-level censors from the Donglin Party who had been holding their breath, preparing to make remonstrations at the court meeting, asking the emperor to explain what happened yesterday.

When the truth of the case was made public, everyone was shocked. No one had expected the situation to be like this. Everyone showed an extremely astonished look. Some were terrified, some were secretly happy, some were gloating, and some were thoughtfully wondering if they could take advantage of the situation to gain some benefits.

As for the officials belonging to the Donglin faction, they were as pale as if they had lost their parents, and they were at a loss. Some of them stubbornly questioned the authenticity of the case, suggesting that someone might have deliberately thrown dirty water on the Donglin Party and fabricated facts to frame loyal officials.

Zhu Shenzui, who had been prepared for these situations, asked Sun Chengzong, Zhang Ruitu and others to explain in public after they finished speaking, and produced evidence and testimony, including the memorial written by the bearded man who committed suicide by taking poison.

After seeing these, these people were speechless. The solid evidence was right in front of them and there was no way they could deny it. What's more, among the people who came forward to explain, Sun Chengzong was the leader of the Donglin Party, and Zhang Ruitu's character was obvious to all and known to the world. In addition, many people from the Donglin Party were involved in the investigation and arrest of people in this case, including not only Sun Chengzong and Qian Qianyi, but also Nanjing Minister of War Li Banghua, Nanjing Vice Minister of Justice Chen Liangxun, Yingtian Prefecture Governor Song Shixiang and others. They were also the backbone of the Donglin Party. It couldn't be said that the Donglin Party was bullying its own people, right?
The Donglin Party has always been the political backbone of the Ming Dynasty court. Moreover, the Donglin Party has always controlled the censors and raised a large group of trolls. They always make unreasonable interference in everything and always try to suppress others in every discussion. Over the past few decades, under the party-building and dissident-suppression system, many officials in the court have a bad attitude towards the Donglin Party. They hate it so much, but they can do nothing about it.

But things are different now. When Zhu Shenzhu was regent, he used the Beijing inspection to rectify the administration of officials, which led to the fall of many officials in the Donglin Party. He also gradually reduced the power of the Donglin Party among the censors by successively appointing Xu Xiancheng, Zhang Ruitu and others as the top leaders of the Censorate, making the current Donglin Party much weaker than before.

The emergence of this case has caused a fundamental change. It is unimaginable that many members of the Donglin Party, who have always claimed to be loyal to the emperor and love the people and to fight for the Ming Dynasty, actually secretly colluded with the enemy and committed acts of treason. Such a crime is unusual and even more unbearable.

When a wall falls, everyone pushes it down. As the truth of the case was revealed, many officials publicly stated that they would investigate the case thoroughly. These traitors must not be let off easily and must be punished according to the law. Those who deserve to be beheaded should be beheaded, those who should be dismissed should be dismissed, and those who should be exiled should be exiled.

Some even offered to assist in the investigation to avoid officials protecting each other and making a big incident a small one. Looking at the excited expressions and enthusiasm of the crowd, Sun Chengzong felt bitter and worried that Zhu Shenzhui would take advantage of this opportunity to agree to the demands of these people and completely eradicate the Donglin Party.

However, this situation did not happen in the end. Zhu Shenzhui kept his word. As the emperor, he said that only a few officials were involved in this case, and no matter whether they were from the Donglin Party or other parties, as long as they were officials, they were ministers of the Ming Dynasty. Since they were ministers, they were equal. As an emperor, he would not implicate others because of some people. Just like in this case, weren't Sun Chengzong and Qian Qianyi also from the Donglin Party? But they were the ones who handled this case. Without their actions, this case would not have been so smooth.

After setting this tone, Zhu Shenzhui once again stated that the case would still be handed over to Sun Chengzong and others. Now the three judicial departments would be involved, and the cabinet would fully assist in investigating the case thoroughly while not involving others or expanding the matter.

After hearing Zhu Shenzhu's conclusion, although many people were a little disappointed and felt that they had missed a great opportunity, they thought in retrospect that it was not bad to have such a gain. Since the emperor wanted to protect some members of the Donglin Party, let the emperor protect them. But it was different for those who were already involved in the case. In addition, so many official positions were vacant at once, and the gentry, aristocratic families and businessmen from Jiangnan were also involved. If they started from these angles, they would still gain a lot. Why bother with other things? Wouldn't it be good for everyone to get some benefits together?

(End of this chapter)