For a regime, the biggest troubles are nothing more than two types, one is invasion by foreign enemies, and the other is internal corrosion. Gao Pragmatic's efforts over the past twenty years have resulted in Ming Dynasty's economic and military strength being significantly improved compared to its historical levels, and concerns about invasion by foreign enemies have been significantly reduced.
However, due to the strict ancestral restrictions on the internal structure of the Ming Dynasty, and Gao Pragmatic's own age, which restricted him from entering the top level of the imperial court in a legitimate sense, his reform of the political system obviously lagged far behind his economic and military reforms. reform.
This means that the problem of internal corrosion in the Ming Dynasty has almost remained the same so far. Party strife is just the most obvious problem. Under the party strife, there are also some deeper troubles, that is, the unlimited expansion of personal interests can even affect the entire party. .
Just as the alliance of Gao Dang, Xu Guo, and Shen Li, headed by Gao Pragmatic, formed within the Practical School, the problems within the Xin School gradually surfaced with the Cajun uprising secretly promoted by Shu Yinglong.
In essence, the internal structure of the Heart School itself is looser than that of the Real School, and they don't even pay as much attention to many specific matters as the Real School does.
What they attach great importance to is the promotion and dissemination of a kind of theory, that is, the Xinxue, and they hope that through the ideological unity of the high-level officials in the court, the court will operate according to the Xinxue thinking.
If we look at it from this perspective alone, as a school of "practical ethics", the fundamental purpose of the Xinxue School is to achieve "gentleman's government", that is, everyone in the court is a gentleman, and they should be promoted in accordance with the etiquette and morality that a gentleman should have. Society operates.
This idea may be very beautiful, but in Gao's pragmatic view, it is like trying to create communism in the feudal era when the level of social productivity was extremely low. The idea looks very beautiful, but in fact it is simply impossible to achieve.
The relationship of production must conform to the level of productivity. This is what Gao Xiangxi heard when he was in elementary school. He basically formed a solid thinking in middle school, and the principles are clear in college. There is no need to have any doubts about whether this theory is correct.
Therefore, Gao pragmatism does not engage in mental learning, but honestly implements practical learning and diligently promotes social productivity.
The Heart School obviously does not recognize these things, and they still compete with the Real School based on their own interests. However, in the face of various highly pragmatic political achievements, the days of the Xinxue School in the court were regarded as Wang Xiaoer's New Year, and each year was worse than the other.
Seeing that Gao Jingshi will have a strong impact on joining the cabinet after the victory of the Battle of Yuan Dynasty, the political balance between the practical school and the Xinxue school is very likely to be broken. The possibility of the Xinxue school being completely overwhelmed by the Xinxue school will double. Some people It began to break away from the control of the two big bosses Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue, and began to put its own interests above the interests of the party.
Just like Shu Yinglong's "Operation Yellow Bird" this time, he ostensibly supported Wang Xijue's plan to cause a commotion in the Cao Army, but he deliberately used "excessive force" to turn the turmoil in the Cao Army into a riot.
Wang Xijue hoped to control the scale and create a riot of more than a thousand people, which would alert the court and review the excessive investment in Fa Yuan, and then use formal party struggle methods to force the court to reduce the resources in Gao Pragmatic's hands, such as military and financial resources. The ultimate goal is to make Gao Pragmatic unable to completely clean up Can Yuan, bring the situation back to "normal", and continue the previous political confrontation. As for other things, we have to take it one step at a time and wait until later.
If everything goes as Wang Xijue thought, the Ming court certainly wasted a lot of energy, money and time but failed to complete the planned strategy. However, from the perspective of the Xin School, it at least stabilized the political balance between the court and China, which was a good deal for them. Risks are also controllable.
As for the bankruptcy of the imperial court's grand strategy, although that is a pity, you don't need to worry too much - it doesn't matter if Gao Pragmatic failed to succeed this time. When we have the opportunity in the future, we gentlemen with a high sense of self will naturally take care of it!
However, just as the Reality School now includes the "radicals" headed by Gao Pragmatics and the "conservatives" led by Xu Guo and Shen Li, the Mind School, which originally had a relatively loose organizational system, also formed under the political pressure brought by Gao Pragmatics. Similar factions.
Shen Shixing, who is smooth-tempered and tolerant in situations of trouble, is of course a typical "conservative", while Wang Xijue, who is relatively more ruthless and decisive, is regarded as a "radical" by the officials below. However, for some people below, Wang Xijue's "radicalism" is not enough, and someone needs to add fuel to his fire.
Shu Yinglong's move was of course adding fuel to Wang Xijue's anger. More than that, Shu Yinglong himself has to reap the full benefits from this - you, Wangge Lao, can be the initiator of this operation, but I, Shu Yinglong, must be the direct person in charge and assume greater responsibility for the future. to lay a solid political foundation.
Therefore, Shu Yinglong acted quietly to aggravate and expand the situation, turning the riots of more than a thousand Cajun troops into a riot of tens of thousands of Cajun troops, and turning the dangerous and controllable Cajun riots in Zhenjiang and Yangzhou into a Cajun riot in Nanjing.
Nanjing under the "Two Capitals System" was attacked by tens of thousands of rioting Cao troops. The political risk involved would be ten times that of Wang Xijue's plan. This forced the imperial court to take immediate action, and given the fact that it was impossible for Gao Pragmatic to fly to Nanjing immediately, the task of quelling the riot was given to Shu Yinglong, the governor of water transportation.
This is internal corrosion, where personal interests override party interests and even national interests.
And this also means that under the strong pressure of the Real School, the Xin School also experienced internal ideological splits and formed new changes. At the same time, as mature and stable old-school politicians, Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue had to tolerate this split, hoping to bridge the internal discord and stabilize the current situation first before liquidating or purging them later.
However, Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue may have underestimated Zhu Yijun's courage and courage at this moment. After receiving the news that Nanjing was attacked by the rioting Cao army, Emperor Wanli's first reaction was not panic, but pure anger.
All cabinet ministers and Minister of War Zhou Yong were immediately summoned to the Wenhua Hall to face the saint. Zhu Yijun simply asked about the cause of the riot and whether Nanjing was currently occupied by the rioting Cao army, and then directly asked Wu Dui, Liang Menglong and Zhou Yongsan How to fight the war against rebellion.
These three people have either been in charge of the Ministry of War or are currently in charge of the Ministry of War. Although the information obtained so far is not very detailed, it is at least clear that Nanjing City is still in the hands of the imperial court.
Wu Dui was the cabinet elder in charge of the Ministry of War in the past. After Liang Menglong joined the cabinet, he could nominally intervene in the affairs of the Ministry of War, but in fact he mainly helped the pragmatic Ministry of Household Affairs; Liang Menglong was directly in charge of the affairs of the Ministry of War, but mostly At the strategic level and the tactical level, it is mainly up to Da Sima to do it himself.
Therefore, Zhou Yong had to stand up and prepare to answer the emperor's questions. However, this situation was not what Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue wanted to see. However, as Wang Xijue was a group assistant, the matter the emperor asked had nothing to do with his leadership, so it was not convenient to directly interrupt, so Shen Yuanfu had to stand up.
As the chief assistant, Shen Shixing certainly had the right to say anything, so he said before Zhou Yong could answer "how to fight": "Your Majesty, I don't think it's appropriate to discuss how to quell the force by force at this moment, or even rush to put it down." This incident is defined as a riot."
This statement conflicts with Zhu Yijun's point of view, but the traditional power of the Ming Dynasty is strong enough. Even the emperor has to give the dignified chief minister a chance to speak. He can only be patient, nod with respect and say: "Mr. Shen, what's so great about him?" About teaching me?"
Shen Shixing looked solemn and saluted: "I don't dare. I believe that the Cao Army's accident was ultimately caused by Japanese pirates attacking and burning a large number of canal ships, which caused the Cao Army to think that it would have to bear 40% of the losses.
Therefore, two points are most critical at the moment: First, why were the Japanese pirates able to invade Nanjing and what happened to Susong's coastal defense? Second, although the Cao Army's losses were huge, the incident happened suddenly and no one in the world could have predicted it. If the imperial court could reduce or reduce the Cao Army's compensation for its own losses as appropriate, it might be possible to eliminate this commotion without having to use force to suppress it. .
Your Majesty, the Cao Army is not actively plotting rebellion. Suppressing it easily will only cause pain to relatives and happiness to enemies. There has been no war in Nanjing and surrounding areas for a long time, and none of the guards are ready for war. A rash war may not be a good opportunity, but will only make the situation worse. The situation is getting worse and the harm is very serious. I ask your Majesty to think twice. "
Zhu Yijun was silent for a moment and asked: "So, where did this group of Japanese pirates come from, and how did they escape the surveillance of the coastal defense and enter the Yangtze River, and even kill them outside Nanjing?"
This is also a matter for the Ministry of War, and Zhou Yong still has to come out and answer. When Gao Pinggong was in Beijing, the great Sima rarely had the opportunity to perform. Now that he has such a rare opportunity, it happens to be bad things, which is unfortunate enough.
Zhou Yong subconsciously cleared his throat and saluted: "Back to the Emperor, regarding the Japanese pirates entering the Yangtze River, Tang Wenfang, the Liujiahe guerrilla stationed in Chongming County, has reported back.
According to him, at that time, seven Japanese pirate ships entered the Yangtze River Estuary from the south of the island. The Chongming Qianhu Guard Station and the Susong Anti-smuggling Fleet Chongming Coast Defense Station of the Customs Administration Tax Police Corps discovered the thieves at the same time. The Chongming Qianhu Guard Station immediately discovered the thieves. A ship was sent to notify the main guard (Zhenhaiwei, stationed in Taicang Prefecture, Suzhou Prefecture), and the Susong Anti-smuggling Fleet of the Tax Police Corps of the Customs Department immediately dispatched a warship (that is, the armed transport ship) that was in port at the time to follow and pursue.
The Japanese pirate ships were small, and if they sailed on the sea, they would be slower than the warships of the anti-smuggling fleet. However, because the sea winds dropped sharply when entering the Yangtze River, the large ships of the anti-smuggling fleet were actually slower than the Japanese pirate ships, so the pursuit effect was inevitably poor.
After Zhenhaiwei learned the news, they could only send two small warships from the Fushan Inspection Department to join the anti-smuggling fleet warships to pursue them. Therefore, the three official and military warships could follow and get farther and farther away from the Japanese pirate ships.
Fortunately, God did not bless the thieves. Not long after, a strong wind blew, and the speed of the large ships of the anti-smuggling fleet increased. Finally, the Japanese pirates attacked the Cao army on the Qinhuai River. Within half an hour, they were attacked by three warships of the official army, which caught up. He did not give up and continued to loot, burn ships and other evil deeds, and fled by trying to escape..."
Zhu Yijun stretched out his hand to stop him from continuing, but asked: "I want to ask two things: First, Chongming County is in the center of the Yangtze River Estuary. Da Sima said that those Japanese ships sailed in from the south of the island, does that mean they came from Suzhou? Song or Zhejiang direction?
Secondly, the Japanese pirates have always acted for the purpose of making money. I heard that the prosperity of Shanghai Port is now as prosperous as Nanjing. Why did the Japanese pirates go to Nanjing instead of Shanghai Port? It should be noted that Nanjing’s city defense was not only strong, but also the Cajun army gathered at that time, as many as 20,000 to 30,000, and the number of Japanese pirates was less than 11, so why were they so audacious? "
Zhou Yong replied: "I have heard from Grand Situ that the Japanese pirates came to Ming Dynasty to take advantage of the wind and ocean currents. Therefore, when they come from the Japanese country, they will most likely drift to the Zhejiang line. It is not surprising that they appeared in the south of Chongming Island this time.
There is no need to elaborate on the strength of our coastal defense in the Ming Dynasty, but the coasts of Jiangsu and Zhejiang have not been invaded by Japanese pirates for many years, and there are fixed patrol times. As long as the Japanese pirates have one or two inside lines, they will definitely be able to evade our patrol fleet. But there is indeed a doubtful point, that is, apart from our naval patrols, there are countless merchant ships traveling along the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. This time, no ship found the thieves and reported them, which is really unusual.
As for why the Japanese pirates did not harass Shanghai Port and went to Nanjing... It is not clear why they went to Nanjing, but it makes sense for Japanese pirates to harass Shanghai Port. Your Majesty, Shanghai Port is a private port of Beijing. The port has a strong coastal defense force, including twelve No. 1 coastal defense guns and more than thirty No. 2 guns. There are also a large number of sea-going ships stationed in the port all year round, including many of Jinghua's artillery-carrying armed transport ships. The Japanese pirate ships have few people and the chance of success in attacking Shanghai is extremely low. Not only is it unprofitable, but they are even hit hard.
As for Nanjing, the Cao army gathered this time, and there were hundreds of Cao boats carrying countless cargoes. The benefits were huge, enough to envy the Japanese pirates and make them salivate. The Cao army was not good at fighting and had been robbed of large quantities of goods by Japanese pirates many times at a very small price decades ago. Therefore, the Japanese pirates were not afraid of the Cao army.
I believe that the issue at hand is not why the Japanese pirates dared to go to Nanjing, but how the Japanese pirates knew that a large number of military ships were docked in Nanjing at that time. As far as I know, the Jiangnan canal ships gathering in Nanjing this time came from Shu Yinglong, the governor of water transport. Order. "
Zhu Yijun's eyes narrowed: "Is Grand Sima doubting Shu Yinglong?" As soon as he said this, Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue couldn't help but frown, thinking in their minds how to deal with such doubts.
But unexpectedly, Zhou Yong behaved very "fairly" this time and did not admit this statement. Instead, he said: "The emperor misunderstood. What I meant was that there was a whistleblower around Shu Yinglong or within the Cao Army."
In fact, it is not that Zhou Yong does not doubt Shu Yinglong, but that he believes that his words are not practical and effective, and he is not a public official. He cannot "hear and discuss matters" without any factual basis, so he cannot say anything to death.
For him, the key to whether there is a problem with Shu Yinglong lies in whether he can investigate. As long as there may be Japanese pirates around him, he can go back and investigate. At this time, it is not surprising to investigate Shu Yinglong himself.
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