In the early morning of May 8, the fire in Huangji Hall gradually extinguished, and the Ming Emperor's palace turned into a pile of smoking ruins and rubble.
Wang Chengen, the chief eunuch in charge of rituals, led a group of young eunuchs to carefully search the ruins of the palace.
Finally, the loyal eunuch carefully held the burned bones of the Daxing Emperor in a worn-out dragon robe and walked out of the ruins with tears in his eyes.
Marquis Ping Liao led hundreds of officials to kowtow and bow nine times to the remains of Emperor Daxing. Officials from the Ministry of Rites temporarily placed the remains in Cining Palace until the new emperor succeeded to the throne and then buried them in the imperial mausoleum.
Although the fire in Qianqing Palace has been extinguished, the bloody storm in Beijing has just begun.
After Xu Xianchun's death, from the Dong Jishi Factory to the commander of the Zhenfu Division and down to the ordinary officers, all those who had participated in the assassination of Ping Liao Marquis and the rebellion against Wen Deng in the third year of Taichang were all arrested by the Kaiyuan Army.
The three law divisions held a trial overnight and declared these people guilty of treason. Hundreds of people from Fusi and Dongchang in the north and south towns had their property confiscated and were executed in public.
The leader of the Donglin Party who advocated "pacifying" King Qin's army and killing Liu Zhaosun before the war was also interrogated by the Sanfa Division.
After a fair trial by Wang Ji, the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, Ye Xianggao, the former chief minister of the cabinet, and Zhou Jiamo, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, were found guilty of inciting their colleagues and were executed.
However, the Marquis of Pingliao thought that Ye Xianggao would open the door to accept surrender and lead Qin Wang's army to kill the eunuch Xu Xianchun, and he was already old. He suggested that the Ministry of Punishment should exempt him from the death penalty and allow him to perform meritorious service for his crime.
After another interrogation, it was found that Zhou Jiamo, the Minister of Civil Affairs, colluded with Xu Xianchun and had a grudge against Emperor Daxing. On the night of May 5, the first year of Chongzhen, he sent dead soldiers to sneak into the palace and set fire to it. The crime was unforgivable, the property was confiscated, and the three clans were executed.
Under Kang Yingqian's threat, only a handful of Donglin Party members took the initiative to pay for their support.
It seems that there are still many people who want money rather than their lives.
However, Ping Liaohou was not prepared to pursue large-scale looting and subsidies in Beijing.
He is not Li Zicheng, and the Kaiyuan Army is not the Dashun Army. The purpose of King Qin entering Guan this time is to control the emperor and expand the influence of Ping Liaohou in the country, not to kill everyone and become the enemy of the entire Ming bureaucracy.
Moreover, it may be feasible to kill the goose and obtain the eggs like Li Chuang did to destroy the political power, but for now, it is obviously not advisable.
Judging from Li Zicheng's later plunder of 70 million taels, the personal wealth of Beijing officials in the late Ming Dynasty was still considerable.
Of course, Marquis Pingliao would not give up this piece of fat easily.
He assigned Ma Shiying the task of recovering 8 million taels of stolen goods and providing payment, which could not exceed 8 million taels at most. He asked Ma Shiying to find ways to knock the money out of the mouths of the Donglin Party members.
Liu Zhaosun specifically reminded that all recovery of stolen goods must be carried out in a legal manner - at least on the surface it must be legal - and you can consider cooperating with the eunuch party. You should not go too far, try not to kill people, and give priority to those corrupt officials who have committed heinous crimes.
As far as the current situation is concerned, the Kaiyuan system still lacks a group of professional bureaucrats who have real insights into the national situation and can help Pingliao Marquis coordinate the overall situation and propose appropriate strategic policies. It is expected that Kang Yingqian and Qiao Yiqi will manage a state and a county reluctantly. Yes, if they were to take charge alone and put forward institutional suggestions, I'm afraid they wouldn't be able to do so.
The more than two thousand officials gathered in the capital were representatives of the civil service elite of this era. Liu Zhaosun could not do without these people until he found a replacement for the existing bureaucracy.
There are more important things to do right now.
The funeral of Emperor Daxing must be carried out according to the etiquette as soon as possible. Only in this way can people's hearts be calmed and order restored, which is also in line with his persona of being a diligent king Jingnan.
In this era, royal funeral and wedding etiquette was a major event closely linked to political interests and should never be underestimated.
Not to mention, Emperor Jiajing fought with civil servants such as Yang Ting and Yang Shen for three years over the issue of his father's title.
Finally, Zhu Houcong attacked the civil servants in front of Zuoshun Gate and killed sixteen ministers. Only then did the great ceremonial incident come to an end.
On the surface, they are fighting for etiquette, but in fact they are fighting for vital interests.
In a sense, the proper completion of Zhu Youxiao's funeral is far more important than collecting millions of taels of money to support him.
If this funeral is handled well, the battle of Jingnan for Marquis Ping Liao will come to a successful conclusion.
The subsequent expansion will also reduce a lot of unnecessary resistance.
So, he must take it seriously.
According to the Ming Dynasty etiquette system, the funeral ceremony of the Daxing Emperor must be approved by the subsequent emperor before it can be performed.
In other words, now we need to establish a new king first.
Twelve-year-old Xin Wang Zhu Youjian is still on the road.
Instigated by Ma Shiying and others, on May 8th and 9th, Wei Zhongxian's former cronies came forward one after another. Based on the "Three Dynasties Meeting", they exposed various illegal activities of the Donglin Party and launched a counterattack against their political opponents.
In just two days, dozens of memorials to impeach Donglin were submitted to the cabinet, all of which were "murderous".
The chief minister of the cabinet, Ye Xianggao, survived the disaster and was in panic. The father-in-law of the Supervisor of Ceremonies was implicated by Xu Xianchun, and most of them were killed by Ping Liaohou, leaving him paralyzed.
Ye Shoufu could not be as free and easy as Emperor Wanli and directly burned these dog-eat-dog memorials. Under pressure from many parties, he had no choice but to transfer the memorials to Ping Liao Hou and let Ping Liao Hou make a decision together with the cabinet.
The cabinet and the Supervisor of Ceremonies, the two highest organs of power in the Ming Dynasty, all stopped functioning, and the emperor was absent.
Power does not allow for a vacuum.
History takes a different turn here.
In May of the first year of Chongzhen, Liu Zhaosun, the commander-in-chief of the Liaodong army, the crown prince and the prince, and the Marquis of Ping Liao, Liu Zhaosun, were eager to take over the power and temporarily became the talkers of the Ming Dynasty.
"Such arrogance is against the rules of the imperial court! I can never act on behalf of the Emperor. Please do not put me on the stove to bake."
In Wengcheng, Zuo'anmen, at the tent of King Qin's army, Liu Zhaosun looked at the memorials piled up in front of him, showing an expression of fear and uneasiness.
A familiar picture emerged before my eyes.
And put it on the stove to bake.
Several officials from the Sixth Ministry followed the eunuch and eunuch to the Chinese army's tent in Kaiyuan. Li Banghua, the Minister of War, watched the performance of everyone in Kaiyuan coldly and remained silent.
Kang Yingqian took the lead in admonishing:
"Marquis Pingliao must not refuse. King Xin will arrive in a few days. The rebellion in the capital has not been eliminated, the country has no peace, and the people are in dire straits! As the saying goes, obeying power in a hurry, Marquis Pingliao must not abandon the hundreds of thousands of people in the capital!"
Qiao Yiqi, Sun Chuanting and others continued to advise.
Liu Zhaosun was unmoved.
Suddenly, an official from the Ministry of Etiquette who came with him said loudly:
"Ping Liao Hou is a veteran of the three dynasties, and he is well-liked. Emperor Daxing has entrusted us with state affairs, which should not be ignored! This time Ping Liao Hou led the King Qin's army to the capital to turn the tide and make immortal contributions to our Ming Dynasty! In this national crisis When the time comes, don’t refuse!”
Liu Zhaosun chuckled. He was only twenty-two years old and had become a veteran of three dynasties.
Probably the youngest elder of the three dynasties in history.
In this way, the more than 2,000 officials in the capital can be regarded as veterans of the three dynasties.
He smiled and looked at the official of the Ministry of Rites. The more he looked at him, the more he liked him. He asked Kang Yingqian in a low voice:
"Who is this?"
Before Kang Yingqian could reply, the official said loudly:
"I have heard about the reputation of Marquis Pingliao for a long time. I am lucky enough to see his face today..."
Liu Zhaosun nodded to him and thought for a while that this Hou Xiu should be the father of Hou Fangyu who wrote "The Peach Blossom Fan".
Seeing that he wanted to take the initiative to surrender to him, Liu Zhaosun didn't mind recruiting a few more juniors.
On the same day, under the remonstrance of Kang Yingqianhou and others, Liu Zhaosun began to read the memorials sent to the cabinet from across the country.
Unknowingly, Marquis Pingliao seemed to have become a regent-like character.
In his previous life, Liu Zhaosun had some understanding of party strife in the late Ming Dynasty.
However, when he saw the pile of memorials to impeach Dong Lin on his desk, he was deeply shocked.
The first thing I read was the memorial from Ni Wenhuan, the censor of the left deputy capital.
Ni Wenhuan said that Donglin has not yet been liquidated, and all the great leaders of Donglin have not yet been executed.
He wrote in the memorial:
"Since Donglin, he has used fake Taoism to learn the drums, attract friends, and trap righteous people. He has cleverly used his own fame and fame, and has been buried in public opinion for decades. He has been the erroneous people of the Holy Lord for a long time... Today, he has slipped through the net, and he In order to stir up trouble every day, and to overturn the situation, we still need to ask questions and pursue stolen goods for payment."
The imperial censor Zhang Na went a step further and advocated the banning of all academies in the world, starting from the Shoushan Academy in the capital, to Donglin Academy, Guanzhong Tuangui, Jiangyou Academy, and Huizhou Academy. The reason for the ban was that these academies were controlled by Donglin Party members. It was built with the help of the people and the people.
"Sun Shenxing, Gao Panlong and others were in the cave, doing wanton things, making connections with important people, accepting bribes for personal gain..."
Shi Sanwei, the censor, put on a posture of settling general accounts, starting from the inspection in Beijing in the 39th year of Wanli.
"Li Sancai followed Gu Xiancheng, causing chaos in the world, only looking for one hand to cover the sky, spreading the sky's formation, spreading poison, and making the sky dark."
He suggested following the clues, not only arresting the Donglin Party members in North Zhili, but also thoroughly cleaning up the lair in the south of Donglin.
Liu Zhaosun couldn't help but laugh when he remembered that Shi Yushi had impeached Xiong Tingbi three years ago and his writing style was exactly the same as before.
What made him even more stunned was that the censor Wang Shaohui imitated the 108 generals in Liangshan and compiled a list of Donglin generals, and strongly demanded that the Marquis of Pingliao arrest and kill every one of them according to the list.
Liu Zhaosun took a rough look:
Founding Marshal
Li Sancai, the King of Pagodas and the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing [Chao Gai]
The two leaders of the general army:
Ye Xianggao, a bachelor of Tiankuixing and Timely Rain [Song Jiang]
Tiangang Star Jade Unicorn Zhao Nanxing [Lu Junyi]
Two members of the secret military division in charge:
Tian Ji Xing Zhi Duo Xing Zuo Yu De Miao Changqi [Wu Yong]
Tianxianxing enters Yunlong Zuodu Yushi Gao Panlong [Gongsun Sheng]
·······
Liu Zhaosun read it carefully twice and found that the list covered all the important officials he knew in the late Ming Dynasty. Except for Yuan Chonghuan, Sun Chuanting, and Ma Shiying, almost everyone else was on the list.
"The eunuchs are going to do it all at once!"
If the Donglin Party is really arrested based on this list, the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty will probably be wiped out.
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