Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 203: Establish the Donglin Party and declare war on the emperor!
Zhang Juzheng returned to the cabinet in a daze.

Under the gaze of Gao Gong and the other two, Zhang Juzheng's expression changed like the face of a person in Sichuan, sometimes red, sometimes blue, and sometimes white, which was very uncomfortable to watch.

After thinking for a long time, Zhang Juzheng cut a piece of rice paper, wrote a letter with his brush, and called his disciple, Liu Tai, the secretary of the cabinet, to send it to Qingpu Jinze.

When they heard this place name, Gao Gong, Hu Zongxian and Li Chunfang were stunned and thought of someone.

Former Cabinet Deputy Minister Xu Jie.

Court officials often change, but cabinet officials do not. After Xu Jie entered the cabinet and became prime minister, his life and past became well known to countless court officials.

When Xu Jie was young, he studied under Wu Yizhui in Jinze, Qingpu. After he taught his son at the Wumen Gate, was granted retirement, and his entire family was executed, Xu Jie did not return to the sad place of Songjiang Prefecture, but went to the place of his youth that he often missed and built a house there.

It is said that a fallen phoenix is ​​no better than a chicken, but this is not the case with Xu Jie. The reason is very simple: he has a good teacher, Nie Bao, a disciple of Mr. Yangming.

Nie Bao is one of the few disciples of Mr. Yangming still alive in the world. His appeal in the School of Mind and the Yangming School of Mind is unquestionable.

Unable to bear to see his disciple’s career end in such a sad way, he personally held a lecture for Xu Jie despite his old age.

Not to mention Xu Jie's character and moral conduct, he was very knowledgeable in terms of psychology. After several lectures, Xu Jie gained a large number of fans.

It is said that when Xu Jie was lecturing in Wuxi, he went to Donglin Academy, where the Song Dynasty scholar Yang Shi had once lectured. He and his mentor Nie Bao proposed to repair it.

Needless to say, Nie Bao's reputation among the literati was very high. Once he proposed the idea, he received funding and support from many local people and even the prefect of Changzhou and the magistrate of Wuxi. With a large sum of money, he quickly restored the Donglin Academy.

In October, Xu Jie, together with Nie Bao, Zou Dongkuo, Luo Nian'an, Liu Shiquan and other masters of the School of Mind, initiated the Donglin Conference and formulated the "Donglin Conference Agreement", which stipulated that the general conference would be held once or twice a year and a small meeting once a month.

From then on, Xu Jie traveled between Jinze in Qingpu and Donglin Academy in Wuxi.

"Prime Minister."

Li Chunfang suddenly spoke up, euphemistically saying, "Time flies, some people and things should be cut off when necessary!"

He was from Yangzhou Prefecture, only two or three hundred miles away from Wuxi County of Changzhou Prefecture. When he was in contact with his family, he accidentally learned some things about Donglin College. The most important thing was that it was not a good thing.

"Zi Shi, what do you know?" Gao Gong continued.

As an "old friend", Gao Gong was still very concerned about Xu Jie, but he was busy with government affairs before and did not pay attention to his old friend's movements. Now, the abnormal behavior of Zhang Juzheng and Li Chunfang revealed unusual meanings.

Li Chunfang glanced at Zhang Juzheng and saw that he was sullen, so he knew that Yuanfu knew about some of his former mentor's current actions, but did not express his opinion, which meant that Yuanfu did not object, or did not know how to deal with the past friendship between master and apprentice.

The Prime Minister did not speak. Facing the question from the Deputy Prime Minister, Li Chunfang could only say, "Deputy Prime Minister, Xu Jie... well, after Xu Jie retired, he initiated the Donglin Conference at the Donglin Academy in Wuxi County, Changzhou Prefecture. It was both a lecture and a political discussion, attracting many scholars, a large number of whom were officials who were demoted for criticizing the government.

At Xu Jie's call, they came together at Donglin Academy despite the long journey. There were so many of them that the academy's dormitory could not accommodate them all.

A group of frustrated officials gathered together to discuss politics?
This immediately caused Gao Gong to look sideways and become alert, and he continued to ask, "What are you discussing?"

Li Chunfang glanced at Zhang Juzheng again, and seeing that he did not object, he said, "The court is corrupt and the people are living in misery!"

Just eight words.

Gao Gong slammed the table and shouted angrily, "Arrogant!"

The problem of court corruption was not a problem that emerged only during the Ming Dynasty, nor was it a national condition unique to the Ming Dynasty. It has existed in all dynasties, and has been a problem since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty by Emperor Taizu Gao.

When Xu Jie was in charge of the cabinet, this problem was never solved and was criticized by countless censors.

Only then did he get into officialdom and he immediately criticized the corruption in the imperial court. Gao Gong was really amused by Xu Jie's actions.

Besides, regarding the problem of people’s livelihood, in the 200 years of the Ming Dynasty, have the people ever lived in peace and security as they do today?
The whole country was exempted from taxes for three years, and the fields in the two capitals and thirteen provinces all had a good harvest. If this were to make the people live in misery, Gao Gong really couldn't understand what it would be like for the people to live and work in peace and contentment.

"The government's anti-corruption campaign is a long-term endeavor, and it is not necessarily a bad thing if the people respond to it."

Hu Zongxian stepped in to smooth things over, saying slowly, "As for what Donglin Academy said about the people's miserable lives, I guess what Xu Jie really meant was 'officials' and 'scholars' are miserable lives.

Zishi, am I right?"

Li Chunfang nodded and said carefully, "That's right. Xu Jie and the people from Donglin Academy dared not mention the emperor, nor officials or gentry, so they fabricated a lot of sufferings of the common people.

Xu Jie even bluntly said in Donglin Academy that "the current political situation is like holding firewood on top of a raging fire", referring to officials in the court who do not consider state affairs, officials in local areas who do not pay attention to people's livelihood, and officials who retire to the countryside who do not care about the world.

Xu Jie and the Donglin people were determined to closely combine reading and teaching with caring about national affairs.

Relying on the influence of Yangming's philosophy of mind in the court, Donglin Academy received support from many local officials and even officials in the capital. "

Speaking of it.

Gao Gong suddenly felt a chill in his heart and subconsciously looked at Zhang Juzheng. His lips moved slightly, but he didn't say anything.

In the Song Dynasty, such groups had a special name, which were connected with scholars and officials in the form of academies, and raised different opinions from the government, opposed the court, or opposed certain people.

"The opposition party!"

After the emperor eliminated the factional disputes, Xu Jie finally embarked on the path of "party struggle". The Donglin Academy can be said to be the Donglin Party.

If we say this, it may be a bit arbitrary. Gao Gong made a final confirmation and said, "Zi Shi, does Donglin Academy have any proposal?"

Whenever there is a party struggle, there must be a claim.

This time, without waiting for Li Chunfang to look over, Zhang Juzheng waved his hand tiredly and said, "Since you've said it, let's finish it."

My dear teacher, you are so confused.

"Yes, Yuanfu."

Li Chunfang accepted the order and said in a deep voice: "Xu Jie and the people of Donglin Academy strongly demanded to change the situation of Jinyiwei's monopoly of power and disorderly politics, and advocated that "political affairs should be returned to the six ministries, and public opinion should be handed over to the censors" so that the world would "hope for governance."

He strongly opposed the emperor's dispatch of mining supervisors and tax collectors to various places to plunder and levy heavy taxes. He advocated that both agriculture and industry and commerce should be emphasized, and he called for benefiting merchants and the people, reducing taxes, reclaiming wasteland and building farms, and developing water conservancy projects..."

The Donglin Party advocated.

There are more than one or two.

The more Gao Gong listened, the more embarrassed he became. The Donglin Party formed by Xu Jie simply stopped pretending and wanted to challenge the emperor and the imperial court.

"I'm going to see the emperor."

Gao Gong was about to walk out, but Zhang Juzheng stopped him and said calmly, "Mr. Su, slow down!

The Jinyiwei are not just for show. The emperor must have known about the Donglin Academy's affairs long ago.

Donglin Academy was founded by Xu Jie and Nie Bao in the Yangming School of Mind. Ultimately, it was the School of Mind that was trying to interfere in government affairs.

The reason why I sent a letter to Xu Jie was that when Yi Fu was implementing the policy of surveying land and distributing land equally to the people in Wanping County, he encountered difficulties with the Wang Xue Mu family in the north. Moreover, the head of the Mu family, Mu Bei, spoke wildly to Emperor Taizu Gao, the current emperor, which angered the emperor and he ordered the Jinyiwei to execute him.

After all, I was once Xu Jie's disciple, so I used this letter to repay our past friendship and persuade Xu Jie not to get involved in opposing the national policy.

If Xu Jie listened to it, the Donglin Academy's plot to govern the country would only be verbal and would not cause any harm to the court.

If Xu Jie had not listened, the matter of Donglin College would probably have come to an end soon.

For my sake, Su Qing, please wait a moment.

please! "

Gao Gong didn't pay attention to the previous words and walked out without stopping, but the words "please" made Gao Gong stop his step from crossing the threshold.

After pondering for a long time, he returned to his desk and accepted Zhang Juzheng's "please".

Hu Zongxian and Li Chunfang sighed in unison, "It's so difficult to be Prime Minister!"
……

It's day and night.

In Wanping County, the Jinyiwei cavalry were everywhere.

Zhu Qi, one of the Thirteen Guards of the Imperial Guard, led the way and smashed the red gate of the Mu Mansion, and countless imperial guards rushed in like wolves and tigers.

A large and wealthy family would have strong slaves and guards to watch over the house, who would rush out with fierce dogs at the first opportunity to block the Jinyiwei and Tiqi cavalry on their way.

"Whoosh!"

"Whoosh!"

"Whoosh!"

"..."

The Ti cavalrymen holding crossbows pulled the trigger of the crossbows almost instantly, and countless crossbow arrows were shot out, covering all the people and animals who tried to resist.

The guard of the Mu Mansion and the fierce dog he was leading were shot to death on the spot by the crossbow arrow, but the body continued to rush forward for a while due to inertia.

But Zhu Qi frowned. The effect of the arm crossbow did not reach the expected effect. Not to mention those fierce dogs, as long as they were not hit in the vital parts, their vitality could always resist for a while.

But it was a little abnormal that the fragile human body did not fall down immediately after being hit by the crossbow arrow head-on.

He ordered the Ti cavalry to advance, with crossbow arrows showering the ground. Zhu Qi stopped in front of the dead guard of the Mu Mansion, leaned down, and gently knocked on the things the guard was wearing.

Zhu Qi originally thought it was leather or something, but the cold and dull touch feedback made him realize that something was wrong.

After tearing off the outer garment, the thin armor immediately came into Zhu Qi's sight.

According to the Ming Dynasty law, no person or family is allowed to hide armor.

The Ming Dynasty could even accept hiding from swords, but there were two things that it absolutely could not accept.

1. Firearms, 2. Armor.

Firearms have a great killing effect. Once they are carried by bad guys in a busy city, they will surely cause large numbers of casualties. It is understandable that this is something the imperial court cannot accept.

The reason why armor is not acceptable is very simple. After putting on armor, a person's defense will increase significantly. When a criminal does something bad and puts on armor, it will bring more trouble and danger when he is arrested.

According to the Great Ming Law, those who privately possess armor shall be beheaded, and those who possess more than ten pieces of armor shall be executed. Zhu Qi looked around and saw that there were more than a hundred guards of the Mu Mansion who had fallen. The crossbow arrows had entered their bodies but not completely penetrated them, and it was obvious that they were all wearing thin armor.

More than a hundred pieces of armor are enough to prove that the Mu family has rebellious intentions, and tonight's killing is becoming more and more reasonable.

As for killing people first and then finding evidence, the order is wrong. The Ming Dynasty did not care about this, only the results mattered.

The shouts and cries alarmed everyone in the Mu Mansion. Candles were lit one after another, as if giving the Jinyiwei Tiqi a target. They raised their hands and shot a crossbow arrow at the reflected figure.

The crossbow arrow pierced through the paper silk window screen and accurately hit the Mu family member who was lighting the lamp. After a scream, he fell to the ground.

The Jinyiwei cavalry broke into the room and fired another crossbow arrow to finish off the fallen Mu family member, regardless of whether he was alive or dead.

Then he searched for the surviving members of the Mu family, servants, and runners in each room.

The blood of the dead Mu family members flowed freely, soaking the bricks and stones, and turning the land into blood red.

The head of the Mu family, Mu Bei, was also found by the Ti riders and dragged out naked like a fat pig.

When he was found, the guy was lying on the woman's belly.

Mu Bei, who did not see the situation clearly, was still shouting: "My last name is Mu, from the Mu family of the Northern Wangxue! I am the disciple of the saint! Who dares to kill me! Who dares to kill me! Who dares to kill..."

"If you are not surnamed Mu, not from the Mu family of the Northern Wang School, and not a disciple of the saint, we will not kill you. This time, I will kill you to make you understand!"

Zhu Qi walked slowly over, stepping on the bloody pit, holding the Embroidered Spring Knife, and said, "I'm going to kill you, the disciple of the saint!"

With one cut, the body was split in two.

Mu Bei's head rolled far away, his eyes were as big as copper bells, and his look when he died was full of disbelief and fear.

The blood in his chest spurted out and splashed far away.

The blood on the Xiuchun Knife gathered into beads and dripped from the tip of the knife.

Zhu Qi gave the order, "Kill them all!"

The emperor's order was to execute everyone, but the Mu family secretly stored more than a hundred pieces of armor, which made the charges against the Mu family rise several levels. This was a crime of treason, and everyone in the Mu family should be killed.

Even if it's an egg, the yolk will fall apart if you shake it.

Killing all night long.

It was not until the dawn that the sounds of killing in Wanping County slowly stopped. Qi Dazhu came to report, saying, "Godfather, Wanping County clerk Wang Kai and his family have all been killed, and all the property has been counted."

"Take the corpses away and burn them, send the property to the treasury, and clean these houses. This is all the emperor's money." Zhu Qi practiced his skills on this bloody land and said indifferently: "After doing this, go and report to Chen Ge Lao, and don't delay the land survey."

"Yes." Qi Dazhu obeyed the order and did his job.

Overnight.

All the gentry and wealthy families in a county were executed, with a total of nearly 10,000 people killed.

Of course, the Mu family made a great contribution to the loss of so many people, but they didn’t even leave any descendants.

The family in charge of the Northern Wang School ended up without any heir or successor. The degree of tragedy was far worse than that of Wang Ji, whose ten clans were implicated by his disciple.

There were many disciples of Yangming's School of Mind. The news of Mu Jia's death spread rapidly across the country as if it had wings.

Without the interference of officials, gentry, powerful families and wealthy households, the land survey became particularly smooth. With the joint efforts of the Jinyiwei Tiqi and Dongchang soldiers, Chen Yiqin obtained the detailed amount of land in Wanping County.

Seven hundred and ninety-nine thousand six hundred acres.

Chen Yiqin dug out the fish-scale atlas that Wanping County had previously submitted to the imperial court, which clearly recorded 346,222 acres.

In Wanping County, which is located outside the capital, there are more than 450,000 acres of hidden farmland. Chen Yiqin was really shocked.

These local clerks, gentry and wealthy families are so bold!
There are less than 80,000 people in Wanping County, and each person can get an average of about ten acres of land. However, each township and village has different regions, different geographical conditions, and different populations. Chen Yiqin decided how many acres of land each person should be allocated based on the township and village conditions. Then, he divided all the land into plots and wrote them in a lot tube. Each person drew a lot, and the quality of the land and the geographical location were all up to fate.

Once the lottery is won, no changes are allowed. Chen Yiqin personally issued the first land deed to the people, and also conveyed the sacred will of "only planting is allowed, not buying and selling is allowed."

There was some chaos at first, but gradually order was restored and efficiency was immediately improved. Chen Yiqin finally had time to record what happened in Wanping County truthfully and report it to Yuxi Palace and the Cabinet respectively.

The point is clear: the problem of hidden farmland in local areas is more serious than imagined, and the court must be prepared to select talents at any time to fill the clerkship of local government offices.

Chen Yiqin felt that if the policy of "surveying the land and distributing it equally to the people" continued, the shortage of clerks in local government offices would be even more serious than the shortage of officials.

His Majesty has killed so many people, and not even half of the local government officials are still alive, but among the clerks, perhaps only one in ten survives.

The corruption of local officials is shocking!

cabinet.

Zhang Juzheng and his companions looked at the new fish scale atlas reported by Chen Yiqin, feeling a little embarrassed.

As one of the families that once hid their land, the more acres of land they lost, the more sins they had committed.

Therefore, they tacitly did not express their opinions on the issue of officials, gentry, noble families, and wealthy households hiding their fields, and instead discussed Chen Yiqin's request to fill a vacant clerk position in Wanping County.

Zhang Juzheng put down the fish scale atlas, looked at his colleagues and said, "In my opinion, after the several official purges in the Ming Dynasty, the officials in office are all quite competent. I think there will be fewer officials who will be questioned in the future, and there will not be hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of vacancies. Mr. Su, how many of the 400,000 farmers' and workers' children you selected before are still available as candidates?"

After several rounds of killing.

The ability of Ming Dynasty officials to embezzle and cause trouble plummeted, and the number of people hacked to death by the emperor became fewer and fewer. This does not mean that there were no corrupt or incompetent officials, but that officials in the two capitals and thirteen provinces acted more secretly, and even if they were caught, they would not be followed up to kill dozens or hundreds of people.

There will definitely be more deaths in the future, but it won’t be as serious.

In the past, the children of workers and farmers who were selected to be officials had to be demoted to become clerks.

In this way, the current situation in which local people are in charge of local affairs will be broken. After all, the selected officials do not necessarily come from the county, the prefecture, or even the province.

It would become the norm for outsiders to serve as officials and clerks in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty. Zhang Juzheng was optimistic about this. When local people were in charge of local affairs, it would be easy for them to cover up, conceal, and be partial to each other. When outsiders were in charge, there would certainly be cases of unfair law enforcement, but it would not always be so smooth.

In addition, when the emperor abolished the system of officials and staff in the court, he formally incorporated clerks into the Ming Dynasty system. Officials and clerks were both official positions in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Juzheng had a vague premonition that one day, clerks would be able to compete with officials and it would not be impossible for the lower classes to defeat the higher ones.

However, the general trend was unpredictable and Zhang Juzheng could not foresee what the future would look like, nor did he have the ability to do so. He could only let things take their course.

No matter how the status of officials and clerks changes, the status of the cabinet will not be affected.

"There are still more than 350,000 people." Gao Gong replied.

Upon hearing this, Hu Zongxian and Li Chunfang could not help but gasp. Four hundred thousand people and more than three hundred and fifty thousand people, there was a difference of more than forty thousand people. In other words, the emperor had killed or dismissed at least more than forty thousand court officials during the forty years of the Jiajing reign.

You have to know that the three major cases of Hongwu under Emperor Taizu Gao only killed more than 50,000 people in total.

In the Hu Weiyong case, Hu Weiyong, the last prime minister of the Ming Dynasty, was killed and more than 10,000 people were implicated.

In the Lan Yu case, Lan Yu was killed and about 15,000 people were implicated.

The Empty Seal Case occurred because Emperor Taizu Gaozu was angry about officials stamping blank seals on official documents. He believed that this was a deception of him, so he ordered an investigation, which resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of officials.

The three major cases began with the Hu Weiyong case and ended with the Lan Yu case, spanning thirteen years.

The current emperor, in just one year, caught up with the number of officials executed by Emperor Taizu Gao in 13 years, and in matters such as implicating relatives and eliminating merchants, he far surpassed Emperor Taizu Gao in the speed of wielding the butcher knife.

Horror!
Zhang Juzheng nodded and said, "Select 200 people from among them and add them to the Wanping County staff. All of them must be in place before the spring farming season next year."

There are now 1,223 counties in the Ming Dynasty. Take Wanping County as an example. One county is short of 200 officials. The court still has sufficient talent reserves, so the cabinet is in a relaxed mood at this time.

"Yes." Gao Gong took over the matter.

Although after being baptized many times by the emperor and the prime minister, the grace of "support" has weakened a little, but there is still some gratitude.

In total, Gao Gong promoted 40,000 to 50,000 officials. I can't guarantee anything else, but his posthumous evaluation would definitely not be low.

Under a sage ruler, leaving your name in history is sometimes as simple as that.

Gao Gong took the list of candidates for official positions and began to consider the names on it, while Hu Zongxian and Li Chunfang continued to deal with the government affairs at hand.

Zhang Juzheng looked out the window. Although the cabinet did not mention the Mu family, the affairs of the Mu family would certainly not end like this. He hoped that the School of Mind, Yangming School of Mind, and his former mentor Xu Jie would not make the mistake.

……

Changzhou Prefecture, Wuxi County.

Donglin Academy, also known as Guishan Academy.

The famous couplet hanging in the courtyard is very grand, "The sound of wind, rain and reading is heard in every ear, and the affairs of family, country and the world are all of concern to me."

After restoration, Donglin Academy covers an area of ​​16 mu, including 6 mu of base land and 10 mu of courtyard land, all of which were purchased with donations from Nie Bao and Xu Jie. Nie Bao then served as the president of Donglin Academy.

However, Nie Bao was old and lacked energy, so the position of the president of Donglin Academy actually fell to Xu Jie.

The end of the Northern Wang School caused a huge wave among the followers of the School of Mind and the Yangming School of Mind in the Ming Dynasty.

The people of the five major schools of thought, namely the School of Kings in Zhejiang, the School of Kings in Nanzhong, the School of Kings in Chuzhong, the School of Kings in Fujian and Guangdong, the School of Kings in Taizhou, and the School of Kings in Qianzhong, all vowed to ask the old emperor for an explanation.

In front of Daonan Temple.

Xu Jie supported his teacher Nie Bao and asked, "Teacher, what should I do at Donglin Academy?"

"For people like me, why should we fear death? Let's fight!"

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(End of this chapter)