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At the end of March in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen's reign, various gossips spread all over Nanjing, saying that the capital had been captured by Li Zicheng.
Since the north of Xuzhou has been occupied by the Dashun Army, the communication channels between Nanjing and the capital have been blocked. Officials have not yet confirmed the authenticity of these messages, but people in the city are already panicked, the atmosphere is unprecedentedly tense, and the city is covered with rain. The state of wanting to come is full of wind.
The higher-ups in Nanjing issued martial law, and the nerves of the entire city's military and civilians became even more tense, almost to the point of breaking.
On the first day of April, Shi Kefa, Minister of War in Nanjing, summoned officials from the six ministries of Nanjing to issue a proclamation against the traitor Qin Wang. At the same time, he held a grand swearing-in meeting and then led his army across the river.
What's interesting is that even though the scene was so big and the swearing-in ceremony was held, Shi Kefa's army of King Qin stopped at Pukou in the north of the Yangtze River. According to the official statement, the soldiers still needed training.
Well, if a worker wants to do his job well, he must first sharpen his tools.
It is right to train the soldiers first before heading north to King Qin, so as to avoid the meat buns beating the dogs and never coming back.
The question is, if you train soldiers, you should train soldiers. Why hold such a grand swearing-in meeting in advance? Haven't you ever heard of the idea that one can make great efforts at one go, then fail again, and then be exhausted again and again
The swearing-in meeting has been held, and you train the soldiers for another half a year. When you go north again in half a year, the soldiers may not even remember what they went to do.
While Shi Kefa was training his King Qin's troops day and night in Pukou, Jiangxi and Huguang seemed to have snowed heavily in the past few days, and the sky was completely white. The three armies were in peace, and mourning halls were set up in all prefectures and counties to worship the Daxing Emperor.
According to the old system, during the period between the death of an emperor and the establishment of a new emperor, the deceased emperor was collectively referred to as the Daxing Emperor.
When this news reached Nanjing, it immediately caused an uproar. In terms of distance, Nanjing is closer to the capital than Jiangxi and Huguang. Nanjing has not received the exact news, but Jiangxi and Huguang have begun to set up mourning halls to commemorate the Daxing Emperor. How is this going
This scene is a bit strange. If you look down at the mountains and rivers of the Ming Dynasty from the sky, no one, including the capital, is mourning the emperor. The high-ranking officials are busy defecting to the Dashun New Dynasty, and the people are busy paying money and food to the new Dynasty. Everyone is busy, who can Do you care about Chongzhen's life and death? Other places are still muddy, and I don’t know why. Only Jiangxi Huguang has become a white ocean. It is unique in the land of China and looks so special.
As Jiangxi and Huguang turned white, a message written by Yang Shen and published in the name of Qin Mu came out: ... Safety is a matter of breathing, and the country is in urgent need. After three hundred years of cultivating scholars and respecting the virtuous, will there be no reward in the form of strong winds and powerful grasses? Gentlemen, after the family and before the country, would you rather forget the thoughts of loyal ministers? If you want to lead the country to fight against the same enemy, you will have the left side to satisfy the world, and raise troops to fight against the thieves. A soldier who calls for punishment has a reputation, he is a righteous and diligent king, he fights with integrity and he will win...
This proclamation against thieves is awe-inspiring and righteous, fully embodying the ardent heart of the Qin governor's loyalty to the emperor and patriotism. Woohoo, the strong wind knows the strong grass, and the rough waves know the loyal ministers. Who does not admire the integrity of the Qin Governor
The difference between this statement and Shi Kefa is. Shi Kefa's appeal against thieves was to boost morale and go north to King Qin.
Qin Mu's article against thieves first stated that Li Zicheng had conquered the capital. They forced the emperor to death, threw the corpses of the emperor and his queen on the roadside, and were busy extorting the property of officials and people. These unscrupulous crimes were listed one by one. Finally, he called on the soldiers and civilians of the Ming Dynasty to unite as one and avenge Emperor Daxing.
Qin Mu's message of daring to be the first in the world to punish thieves instantly triggered a magnitude 10 earthquake in the north and south of the country, causing the sky to collapse.
At the same time, two eunuchs who escaped from Beijing came to Nanjing and confirmed that what Qin Mu said in his petition against thieves was true. This made the city of Nanjing even more gloomy and doomsday.
The Ming Dynasty has always adopted the two-capital system since Yongle. Nanjing, like the capital, still retains a leadership team of six ministries and nine ministers. Many people think that this leadership team in Nanjing is only used to place idle, retired or excluded officials. In fact, This is a huge misunderstanding.
It is true that because there is no emperor in Nanjing, the officials of the Six Ministries of Nanjing have far less say than the officials of the Six Ministries of the Capital when making decisions on national affairs. However, it is definitely not an institution purely for the placement of idle officials;
There are a total of thirteen provinces in the Ming Dynasty. In terms of daily governance, they have always been divided into six provinces in the south and seven in the north. The Nanjing team is responsible for the governance of the six provinces in the south. It can be seen that the six departments in Nanjing have always held considerable real power.
And as the capital, it also has a very important role, that is, once the capital guarding the country falls, Nanjing can immediately step in and perform the functions of the central government.
Now, it was confirmed that Beijing had fallen and the emperor had made a great move. The eyes of the world immediately focused on Nanjing, and officials like Lu Daqi rushed towards Nanjing.
A country cannot live without a king for a day. Obviously, the first task before the remaining ministers is to support a new king and reorganize the political power.
Nanjing was in a turmoil, and the undercurrent was surging. Officials from various ministries were busy working to support the new king, and public and private discussions were held, but it was difficult to reach a conclusion for the time being.
According to the traditional succession procedure of father's death and son's succession, Chongzhen's son was of course the first choice to succeed. Emperor Chongzhen had three sons: Prince Zhu Cihong, second son Ding Wang Zhu Cijiong, and third son Yong Wang Zhu Cijiong. However, these three princes are all trapped in Beijing and their whereabouts are unknown.
The Ming Dynasty is now in turmoil and is in urgent need of a monarch to serve as a spiritual leader. It is impossible to wait for Chongzhen's son to be found before establishing a new monarch. Under the current situation, the only choice for the new monarch is to consider among the nearby vassal kings.
As a rule, the selection rules are generally based on blood relationship. Neither Guangzong nor Xizong had any surviving heirs, so we can only consider the generation of Emperor Shenzong Wanli.
Among the vassal kings who are relatively close to Chongzhen, Prince Fu Zhu Yousong is the grandson of Emperor Wanli. There are also several princes from his uncle generation, Prince Hui Zhu Changrun, Prince Rui Zhu Changhao, and Prince Gui Zhu Changying. These three are the descendants of Emperor Wanli. son.
King Lu was the nephew of Emperor Wanli and had a slightly distant lineage.
However, judging from the current situation, the three kings Hui, Rui and Gui are all in their own vassals, which are far away from Nanjing. It takes several months to go back and forth, so there is no practical possibility of supporting them.
To implement it at a feasible level, Nanjing officials have set their sights on Huai'an, not far away. Originally, supporting Zhu Yousong should not be controversial.
But at this time of national crisis, the Donglin Party members did not forget to settle old scores. As the saying goes, being a thief has a guilty conscience, and the Donglin Party members remembered the three major mysteries of the past;
Although there is no definite evidence to prove that these three major mysteries were concocted by the Donglin Party, the Donglin Party used the attacks to attack Zhu Yousong's grandmother Zheng Guifei, making the old Fu Wang Zhu Changxun lose the possibility of inheriting the throne.
In the Hongwan case, it was pointed out that Concubine Zheng ordered someone to poison Emperor Guangzong. This further forced Concubine Zheng into the cold palace.
With these old events, the Donglin Party members were worried that after Zhu Yousong succeeded to the throne, he would settle accounts with them. As a result, things that had been taken for granted became weird and unpredictable.
At this time, Qian Qianyi, the minister of the Ministry of Rites and one of the Donglin Party bosses, acted the fastest. He was the best at maneuvering the camp. When Chongzhen was first established, he was the first to push the partisanship of the Chongzhen Dynasty to a climax. He originally wanted to kill Wen Tiren and compete for a spot in the cabinet. It's a pity that he couldn't wipe off the pile of shit on his butt, so he was kicked out of the court by Wen Tiren.
Now, Brother Qian felt that an opportunity had come, so he first contacted Lei Yanzuo in Ding Youzhong to actively engage in activities. They were the first to find Lu Daqi, the Minister of War, who hurried to Nanjing.
It should be noted that Lu Daqi, the Minister of War, is the Minister of War of the Sixth Department of the Capital, and he also holds the titles of four governors of Jiangxi, Huguang, Yingtian (Nanjing), and Anqing, which is undoubtedly very important;
So Qian Qianyi was the first to approach him and persuade him: "King Lu is the grandson of Mu Zong, Zhao Mu is not far away. A wise man can be established. At the beginning, King Fugong coveted the throne, which almost caused a catastrophe. If he established his son, his power would be greatly reduced." The three cases will be repaired. Please take care of me."
This was said to an insider of the Donglin Party. It was very sincere and had nothing to hide. There was only one reason why he could not establish King Fu. Our Donglin Party has a grudge against Zhu Yousong's father. If Zhu Yousong is appointed, everyone will be a swordsman and I will be a fish. Therefore, one cannot establish a blessed king.
After Qian Qianyi's lobbying, Lu Daqi, Youdu Yushi Zhang Shenyan, Zhan Shijiang Yueguang and other Nanjing court officials agreed to establish King Lu.
But now the establishment of a new emperor is not an internal matter within the Donglin Party. The above reasons for not establishing the blessed king Zhu Yousong can also be said to Donglin Party insiders, but they certainly cannot be said to the outside world, and they cannot be said to Shi Kefa.
Although Shi Kefa also belongs to the Donglin Party, this guy is stubborn. If you tell him this, I'm afraid he won't cooperate.
Therefore, under the auspices of Mr. Qian, the Donglin Party members in Nanjing divided the labor and cooperated closely to reorganize the materials. After a night of hard work, everyone reorganized the seven major reasons why Zhu Yousong could not be blessed: unfilial piety, abuse Poor, meddling, uneducated, greedy, promiscuous, drunkard.
After the materials were compiled, he immediately wrote to Shi Kefa who was stationed in Pukou. Shi Kefa saw the seven reasons why King Fu could not be established, and he agreed to support King Lu.
The Dukes of Nanjing Gungun were busy operating behind closed doors, and there was no movement for a while.
Zhu Yousong, who was far away in Huai'an, was panicked. As the most popular candidate, no one came to invite him to deliver a campaign speech or policy platform. There are only a few people who come to show their loyalty and engage in speculation.
All this makes Zhu Yousong feel that the situation is not good. It doesn't matter how others arrange it for him, but classmate Zhu Yousong is definitely not a real fool. If you don't come to me, will you? Maybe I won't take the initiative.
I am experienced in this regard. In order to remind Brother Chongzhen to confer me, I was fleeing while inspecting the mountains and rivers, terrain, and studying military strategies. I quickly wrote a memorial to my brother Chongzhen, suggesting that river defense be strengthened. Brother Chongzhen greatly encouraged me. Appreciated, and then the canonization came down.
This time, classmate Zhu Yousong decided to continue to take the initiative and hit the critical point.
The first target of attack is naturally the nearest Governor Lu Zhenfei, but it would be unwise to hang Governor Lu on a tree. It must be a two-pronged approach... No, it must be a multi-pronged approach.
At this time, Lu Jiude, the eunuch of the Fengyang Supervisory Army, happened to come to express his loyalty. Zhu Yousong couldn't help but be overjoyed. The Donglin Party is engaged in secret operations, right? I can do this trick. Let's each do our own thing. Let's see who is better at it. .. ... ...
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ps: Please give me a monthly pass, please give me a monthly pass, please give me a monthly pass, please give me a monthly pass. The monthly vote list has dropped all the way to outside the 200th place. If it drops further, I will fall into the sea.
Finally, I cursed, those sons of bitches must be hiding some shameful truth. They are operating in secret, and even the Vietnamese won’t play with them anymore.
Well, after scolding, continue to summon monthly tickets! Please support.
.(To be continued...)
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