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Jinling is named Lansan, Niu Shou is named after the mountain, and Hongji is named after the water. Among the places that combine mountains and water, none is better than Qixia.
Qixia is also particularly famous for its maple leaves. In late autumn, the Maple Ridge on its west side turns completely red, like a rosy cloud, and the scenery is extremely beautiful.
The families of high-ranking officials and nobles in the city often liked to build villas and houses in Qixia Mountain for sightseeing and leisure.
Ruan Dacheng has lived in Qixia Mountain for many years. It’s not that he couldn’t bear to leave the beautiful scenery here. He was driven out of Jinling City and had no choice but to live in seclusion in Qixia Mountain.
Ruan Dacheng is over fifty years old. The depressed and secluded life in these years has caused his temples to turn gray early, but he has never lost his fighting spirit. At this moment, he stands in front of his own abode with a refreshed spirit, waiting for the arrival of a good friend.
Looking back to the past, Ruan Dacheng was a disciple of Gao Panlong and a fellow townsman of Zuo Guangdou, the leader of the Donglin Party at that time. He could be said to be of good family background. In the battle to overthrow Fang Congzhe, Ruan Dacheng made the greatest contribution, and thus was listed as one of the eight cavalrymen of the cavalry in "Donglin Dianjianglu", with the nickname: Tianjiuxing Meizhailan.
In the spring of the fourth year of the Tianqi reign, the position of Li Ke Du Jieshi Zhong was vacant, and Zuo Guangdou notified Ruan Dacheng to come to Beijing to fill the position. However, because of an internal conflict with Zuo Guangdou, a group of people including Xing, Gao Panlong, and Yang Lian were preparing to use another disciple of Gao Panlong, Wei Dazhong, who was also a general of Donglin, as Li Ke Jieshi Zhong on the grounds that "Cha Dian was close and Dacheng could not be used".
After some internal transactions, when Ruan Dacheng arrived in Beijing, the ** Xing group asked him to be appointed as the Engineering Department. Everyone knows that the Ministry of Personnel is in charge of personnel and ranks first, while Engineering is a hard job and ranks last.
Originally, according to seniority, it should have been Ruan Dacheng's turn to be promoted to the Civil Service Department. But now these people secretly transferred him to the Engineering Department in order to deal with Zuo Guangdou, and Ruan Dacheng was naturally very unhappy.
As the saying goes, you don't have to worry about thieves stealing, but you have to worry about thieves thinking about it. The eunuch Wei, who is 9,000 years old, has always been thinking about the Donglin Party. He was worried about where to start, so when he learned about this, he immediately took action and sent Ruan Dacheng to the position of the Li Ke Jie Shi Zhong.
The Donglin Party was in full swing at the time and immediately attacked Ruan Dacheng, saying that he was a eunuch party, which put him under tremendous pressure. However, Ruan Dacheng did not want to rely on Wei Zhongxian, so he resigned and returned to his hometown after working for a month. From then on, Dacheng broke with Donglin.
Later, after Wei Zhongxian dealt with the "Six Gentlemen of Donglin", he summoned Ruan Dacheng to Beijing to serve as the Minister of Rites. After arriving in Beijing, Ruan Dacheng realized that accepting Wei Zhongxian's arrangement would sooner or later cause problems, so he resigned and returned home soon.
To be honest, it is unfair to say that Ruan Dacheng is a member of the eunuch party. He never helped Wei Zhongxian deal with the Donglin Party. It was just that Wei Zhongxian helped him get an official position that should have belonged to him.
But the Donglin Party didn't care about that. After Chongzhen ascended the throne, he executed Wei Zhongxian and investigated the case of treason. Any official involved in the case of treason would not be hired for life. Unfortunately, the Donglin Party did not forget Ruan Dacheng and included him in the list of treason.
In the eighth year of Chongzhen, Ruan Dacheng came to Nanjing to avoid the war and often summoned knights to talk about military affairs and swords.
Wu Yingji, Mao Pijiang, Hou Fangyu, Gu Gao, Yang Tingshu, Huang Zongxi, etc., were members of Fushe, a subsidiary of Donglin. They inherited the rich experience of struggle of their predecessors and had a political sense more sensitive than a dog. They believed that Ruan Dacheng must have a conspiracy when he summoned these knights to talk about military affairs and swords;
As a rebel, do you have the qualifications to talk about military affairs
First of all. You stole our thunder;
Secondly, are you trying to show through this action that you are familiar with border affairs so that the emperor can summon you to the court regarding border affairs
As a result, these wealthy second-generations who were full of themselves immediately attacked him and wrote "A Public Proclamation to Prevent Chaos in the Capital", saying that Ruan Dacheng: "His evil is getting worse and worse, his arrogance is getting more and more rampant, his backyard is filled with singing girls and dancing girls, his mansions and pavilions are shining on the streets, and he has constant communication with the rebels in the north and south, and he is threatening them in many ways."
The public declaration was written and more than 140 members of the Fushe Society signed it, driving Ruan Dacheng out of Nanjing.
Well, Ruan Dacheng's back garden was filled with singers and dancers. I won't tell you how many singers and dancers there were in the homes of all the young masters. There were clear streams, white rocks, and famous prostitutes swimming around. These were always visible to everyone.
It is said that Ruan Dacheng and other traitors have been communicating with each other from north to south, and that the princes have formed cliques and have more than ten thousand members. How can this be accounted for
They say Ruan Dacheng is intimidating people, but you guys posted notices to expel him and even refused to let him enter the city.
This is a typical case of the county officials being allowed to set fires but the people being forbidden to light lamps. Ruan Dacheng was forced to this point and of course he was filled with resentment.
But he knew very well that he was outnumbered and if he wanted to fight back, he had to enter the court and seize power.
Over the years, he has been working hard to study military books and tactics, while actively campaigning. When the Prime Minister Zhou Yanru was dismissed for the first time, Ruan Dacheng keenly realized the value of Zhou Yanru, so he began to keep Zhou Yanru in the cold, investing a lot of financial and human resources to build momentum for Zhou Yanru's comeback.
Hard work pays off. In the 14th year of Chongzhen, Zhou Yanru returned to the throne and became the Prime Minister again. Unfortunately, Zhou Yanru proposed to Chongzhen many times to use some "rebel party" ministers to replenish the blood of the court, but was strongly opposed by the Donglin Party and failed.
Ruan Dacheng had no choice but to settle for the second best and asked Zhou Yanru to recommend his close friend and classmate Ma Shiying.
As a result, Ma Shiying's career soared and he had reached the position of Governor of Fengyang before the fall of Beijing.
What Ruan Dacheng was waiting for at this moment was Ma Shiying, the second assistant of the cabinet. Since the first assistant Shi Kefa had already led the army to Huai'an, Ma Shiying had now become the de facto first assistant.
At dusk, Ma Shiying arrived as promised. The two friends bowed to each other and then hurried into the study.
"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting for so long, brother Ji. I have already made the arrangements and will submit a petition to recommend you to the court tomorrow. Please prepare first. When the emperor summons you, he will certainly ask you about your strategies for maintaining national security. With your talent, it won't be difficult for you to impress the emperor with a little preparation."
Ruan Dacheng stroked his graying beard, looking extremely calm, as if what Ma Shiying said had nothing to do with him. He replied calmly, "Brother Yaocao, you know me. We are not here for high positions and generous salaries. We just cannot watch the hypocrites of Donglin destroy the Ming Dynasty. The words of Emperor Sizong before his death are still ringing in my ears: All the ministers have misled me. Aren't the hypocrites of Donglin what Emperor Sizong was referring to? Now that the new emperor has just been established, if we allow these hypocrites who have misled the country and the emperor to control the government, I am afraid that the three hundred years of foundation of the Ming Dynasty will be in jeopardy."
"Brother Jizhi is right. We must eradicate these hypocrites as soon as possible."
The two best friends began to conspire in the study and planned various specific action steps. The first step was naturally to recommend Ruan Dacheng to the court. Once this step was taken, it would in fact break the "rebellion case" that Chongzhen had originally designated.
In other words, since the officials appointed by the emperor for the "rebellion case" are available, whether the "rebellion case" is rebellious or not is debatable.
Jiangnan was the base camp of the Donglin Party. The two knew very well that they could not do it by themselves. Even if they succeeded in eliminating the Donglin Party, who would fill the many vacant positions? Would the court still be able to function
In order to fill the gap after the elimination of the Donglin Party, a large number of officials who were demoted in the "rebellion cases" must be re-employed. To re-employ these people, the verdict must be overturned first.
The two conspired for a long time before Ma Shiying left in a hurry.
At the court meeting the next day, Ma Shiying personally came forward to lead the court and reported to the court: "Your Majesty, Ruan Dacheng, the former Minister of Guanglu Temple, lived in the mountains but never forgot his father. He has not been in charge of the frontier, but he is actually skilled in military strategy. When the letter from the north arrived, I discussed the strategy with other ministers. Dacheng wrote to me and Cao's minister Liu Kongzhao, admonishing me to use force to eliminate the evil plot. I was very convinced. You must send an official to summon him immediately, temporarily put on a crown and robe, and come to Beijing to see Your Majesty and ask about the strategy in person. If he is inappropriate, I am willing to share the crime. If he is practical, then when my ministry sees a vacancy for the right assistant minister, I should pardon his past crime and order the ministry to appoint him."
Ma Shiying's words were extraordinary. It could be said that he had already made most of the decisions for Hongguang. To put it bluntly, he said: Your Majesty, Ruan Dacheng played a big role in supporting the emperor. It was he who advocated the elimination of the evil plot of supporting Prince Lu, which led to your ascension today. You must send an eunuch to summon him immediately and grant him a high position. My Ministry of War is still short of a second-in-command, and this is the position.
As soon as Ma Shiying finished speaking, Wang Duo, the Grand Secretary of the Dongge, immediately came out to echo him. Then, Liu Kongzhao, the Earl of Chengyi, Tang Guozuo, the Marquis of Lingbi, Zhu Guobi, the Marquis of Funing, Fang Yiyuan, the Earl of Nanhe, Jiao Menglong, the Earl of Dongning, and Guo Zuoyong, the Earl of Cheng'an, and other meritorious officials came out together and asked Hongguang to summon Ruan Dacheng. It was a grand scene.
That’s not all. There were Gao Hongtu, Jiang Yueguang, Zhang Shenyan, Qian Qianyi, Lu Daqi, Xu Shilin, Zhou Kangeng, Gu Xichou, Huang Daozhou, Liu Shizhen, Wu Weiye and so on... (three hundred people are omitted here). In short, Donglin controlled most of the positions in the court, and their number was definitely several times more than that of Ma Shiying's faction.
At this moment, everyone immediately rolled up their sleeves and rushed forward, wanting to drown Ma Shiying and his gang alive with saliva.
In the court, there was a storm of events and murderous intent... (To be continued...)
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