Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

As soon as Emperor Chongzhen heard Zhang Shikang's words, he stood up from the dragon throne.

"Do you want to irritate me too? I will never allow it!"

Emperor Chongzhen opened his eyes wide and said angrily.

If he had encountered such a thing in the past, he might have been conflicted, but after experiencing the Battle of Jingshui, Emperor Chongzhen had already realized it.

After the victory, the Jianlu would not have the energy to cause trouble in the short term, which was definitely a good thing for the imperial court.

But there is a group of people who just can't bear to see the court get better, and they want to cut off the source of trouble at this juncture.

They always spoke righteously, standing on the moral high ground, and made a big fuss about his leaving Beijing without permission.

These people did not dare to scold him directly, so they turned their spearheads to Zhang Shikang, and used the excuse of impeaching Zhang Shikang to make innuendos and accuse him of something else.

These five large boxes contained almost all information revealing Zhang Shikang's crimes, from reorganizing the Beijing camp to harming loyal officials, from killing military supervisors without authorization to disobeying imperial orders.

Many memorials even listed all of Zhang Shikang’s childhood crimes, as if as long as there was enough evidence, they would appear to be righteous.

Although Emperor Chongzhen knew that Zhang Shikang might be joking with him, he still felt uneasy because of those words.

“Aren’t they going to die?

Just come on, I’ll take it all!

I want to see, without them, can the court still be in chaos?"

Emperor Chongzhen was so angry that his beard became crooked.

Liu Yuliang and other cabinet ministers had not refuted in the military camp, and Emperor Chongzhen thought that the group of people had given in. Now it seems that they were planning something bad!

I'm afraid that as soon as they returned to the capital, they secretly contacted the court officials, so that at the morning court today, the group of people all presented memorials impeaching Zhang Shikang.

The angry Emperor Chongzhen stormed out on the spot.

Seeing Brother Chongzhen trembling with anger, Zhang Shikang, who was at the core of the conflict, was surprisingly calm.

"Ah, Your Majesty, I have said this to you before. Why are you angry with those old guys? They will be so happy if you get yourself into trouble.

Relax, Your Majesty, you have to learn to relax, there is no use getting angry with them.

If one day, Your Majesty can make them so angry that they faint on the spot, or even better, can calmly and calmly make three or two of them angry to death, it means that Your Majesty has learned to relax.

This is a science," Zhang Shikang said.

It is not appropriate to talk about things when people are furious. Zhang Shikang felt that he had to help Brother Chongzhen calm down.

He didn't expect Brother Chongzhen to really relax, but he had to at least practice his cunning.

For an emperor, shouldn't it be a basic skill to not show one's emotions on one's face?

You get so angry at this little setback that your anger is written all over your face. Do you think this will solve the problem?

No wonder, in the later period of Chongzhen's reign, people like Wei Zaode who curry favor with the powerful were able to become the chief minister of the cabinet.

The emperor's face is a barometer of weather. Whoever can guess the emperor's intention correctly can ascend to the throne. No one else can be so good at 'knowing people and assigning them to the right positions'.

"Relax...you kid, don't try to fool me with your fabricated nonsense.

Lazy is lazy, don't I know you?" Emperor Chongzhen said dissatisfiedly.

But it must be said that in recent times, Emperor Chongzhen has gotten to know Zhang Shikang's temperament pretty well.

He was quite envious of this boy's temperament, as if no matter how big the matter was, it was not a big deal in front of this boy.

At first, Emperor Chongzhen thought that Zhang Shikang was a man of great ambition, so he remained calm even when faced with a huge crisis.

Later, Emperor Chongzhen thought that Zhang Shikang was just lazy, lazy to the extreme, and seemed indifferent to everything.

He thought he guessed right and was very troubled by it.

It's like a lousy shepherd, driving a flock of sheep that is about to get out of control, and suddenly God sends down a sheepdog. He knows that if the sheepdog works hard, it will be able to drive the flock home safely.

But this sheepdog is disobedient and always lazy.

The key point is that Emperor Chongzhen had no solution.

"I can't wait any longer, Shikang, I don't want to wait even a moment!

You tell me, where should we start?" Emperor Chongzhen clenched his fists.

Since he was already at odds with that group of people, he might as well break off relations with them. Emperor Chongzhen anxiously threw the memorial into the box.

Zhang Shikang had said before that without an army, that group of people could not be touched.

Now the Beijing Army already had 40,000 strong troops. Emperor Chongzhen became a little impatient when he thought that if he got rid of this group of people, the court's finances would be greatly eased.

"Your Majesty, Sage Lu once said that impulse is the devil." Zhang Shikang shook his head without comment.

He had said more than once before that the court's real enemies were not Liu Yuliang, Zheng Sanjun and others in the court.

At best, these people were just spokesmen for an interest group. The real enemies of the court were the bureaucratic class and the gentry and landlord class.

In a narrow sense, the Donglin Party refers to a group of bureaucrats and gentry in coastal provinces such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang who are collectively affiliated with the government under the banner of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism.

But broadly speaking, the Donglin Party at this time had long since transcended the regional scope of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and evolved into a deep bond between the entire bureaucracy and the gentry and landlords.

If Liu Yuliang and Zheng Sanjun are brought down, Zhang Yuliang and Zhu Sanjun will emerge.

The classes behind them will also be more united to fight against the imperial power. This is a fight between life and death, either you die or I die.

He just rushed forward without thinking twice. It probably wouldn't be long before this guy would go downstairs to chat with his brother.

And Zhang Shikang himself might return to the future and find that he had just had a dream. He is still wearing the yellow robe and still delivering takeout.

This is so rough.

Trying to fight the two classes with only the imperial power would be underestimating the power of money. Zhang Shikang doesn't want to continue delivering food, so he must be cautious.

Emperor Chongzhen also knew that he was reckless. After being persuaded by Zhang Shikang, he felt a little embarrassed and took the opportunity to complain:

"You always mention the Sage of Lu, the Sage of Lu. I also often read Confucius and Mencius, so why have I never heard of him? Who is this person?"

"Your Majesty, the sage of Lu's surname is Zhou, and his name is Shuren."

Emperor Chongzhen muttered to himself, "The sage of Lu has the surname Zhou. What the hell is going on?"

“But your majesty, this is not the point.

If we talk about Recklessness, I would also like to defeat Ten Skills with my own strength, but that is not how things work.

In my opinion, we should first stabilize the ministers, at least for a period of time.

During this period, we must try to bring people together as much as possible."

"Who to win over?"

“It’s not a specific person, it’s other classes, or groups.

If you want to win the class struggle and achieve your goal in one fell swoop, this is the only way to do it.”

Zhang Shikang was very sure about this because a great man had already practiced it himself and another great man had also said it.

Practice is the only criterion for testing truth.

"Shikang, please explain it more clearly. I am a little... a little confused." Emperor Chongzhen said with some embarrassment.

He wanted to admit that he was slow-witted, but ultimately he couldn't overcome the psychological barrier of self-esteem.

“Before the final battle with those people, we can unite the military and, of course, the Donglin Party must have people in the border towns.

The second is the nobles and relatives. This is relatively easy to deal with. After all, the nobles and relatives don’t get along well with that group of people. However, I doubt whether their awareness is enough.

The third is also the most important – all the people in the world.

If we can win the support of the grassroots people in the world, then this battle will be won.

Of course, this is also the most difficult." Zhang Shikang said very seriously.

There would be a war between him and the Donglin Party. This was something Zhang Shikang had been certain of long ago. He had been thinking about it in his spare time, so he seemed quite calm at this moment.

"Your Majesty, the most urgent matter is not this, but the salaries of the military garrisons.

If we solve this problem first and get the support of the military towns, that group of people will not dare to act rashly. "

"But... where is the silver in the national treasury? Shikang, aren't you talking about the Shanxi merchants..." Emperor Chongzhen frowned.

He couldn't care less about so many things now. As long as the problem could be solved, he would endure the blame.

Zhang Shikang grinned and said:

"Your Majesty, please don't be anxious. Shanxi merchants... let the bullets fly for a while."

"Durian! Your Majesty, I'm here to eat durian!"

Seeing Zhang Shikang so calm, Emperor Chongzhen immediately stopped being anxious.

"Eat! Eat big pieces! Are three pieces enough?"

……