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

Beijing City, Qianqing Palace.

Emperor Chongzhen was furious after the morning court session as his court officials continued to oppose the tax reform.

Every time as soon as the court started, this group of people would come to the court like flies, making a bunch of excuses about competing with the people for profit and asking him to revoke his decision.

In the past half month, he has dismissed more than 30% of the officials in the court.

Emperor Chongzhen took a very tough stance on this tax reform. Anyone who dared to protest would be dismissed immediately, and anyone who dared to resign would be approved immediately.

After several such incidents, there were not many officials in the court who resigned or died for their remonstrances.

However, the daily memorials not only did not decrease, but became more and more intense. At the beginning, Emperor Chongzhen argued with them, but now he is too lazy to even argue, and every time he returns with a rage.

Of course, the reasons given by this group of officials are different each time. In the beginning, they accused the people of competing for profits, which was a fabricated story. But now they have even started to use memorials from officials in various prefectures and cities across the Ming Dynasty to justify their claims.

The decree on tax reform has been issued for more than half a month. Although due to travel restrictions, many remote areas such as Guangdong and Guangxi have not yet received the decree.

However, provinces closer to Beijing, such as the capital region, Shandong, and Henan, have already begun to implement it.

Feedback from provincial officials was also continuously delivered to the cabinet through the Ministry of Public Security.

It is mostly because the new tax system has led to a sharp rise in prices, causing complaints from people everywhere.

What's worse, many officials reported that if the situation continued, it might trigger civil unrest again.

Emperor Chongzhen didn't quite believe it at first, so he ordered Fang Zhenghua to send the officers from the Eastern Investigation Bureau to investigate, and eventually they found out that it was the truth.

As a result, Emperor Chongzhen, who had already developed PTSD due to the civil unrest, could no longer sit still. As soon as the morning court was over, he ordered all cabinet members to come to the Qianqing Palace for a meeting.

Emperor Chongzhen paced back and forth in the hall anxiously.

There were five ministers sitting in the hall. The new Minister of War, Grand Secretary of the Eastern Pavilion, and Chief Minister of the Cabinet, Li Banghua, was sitting upright on a small wooden stool.

He was thin and occasionally stroked his gray beard with his hand. His expression looked particularly serious.

During that deathbed remonstrance, he was prepared to die, and vowed to make the emperor revoke the decree appointing Zhang Shikang as the Grand Marshal of the Army.

His Majesty was very angry that time and had already ordered him to be beaten to death, but for some reason, he only dismissed them from their posts.

It was not until later that he found out that the reason for all this was just a word from Zhang Shikang - civil servants who are not afraid of death can probably be used.

What's even more outrageous is that he never expected that the person who would eventually bring him into the cabinet would be the champion marquis Zhang Shikang.

But even though Zhang Shikang repeatedly showed goodwill, Li Banghua still firmly believed that the appointment power of the Grand Marshal of the Army was too heavy and too dangerous for the country. If there was any change, there would be no recovery.

Even in the recent court meetings, he was stubborn and refused to have a good face with Zhang Shikang.

He has always been like this, and he never changed even after offending important officials in the court and being imprisoned.

Even though he was suppressed for many years because of a huge hole he made during the rectification of the Beijing camp, he remained like this.

Sitting next to the Cabinet Chief Minister Li Banghua was his long-time confidant in the court, the newly appointed Minister of Works and Grand Secretary of the Dongke, Fan Jingwen.

Compared with Li Banghua's seriousness, Fan Jingwen's expression was much calmer. He was older than Li Banghua, and the setbacks and oppression he had experienced over the years had made his temperament much softer.

Sitting on the other side were the Minister of Punishments Fan Fucui and the Minister of Revenue Cai Guoyong.

These two people got the chance to enter the cabinet because of the resignation of Zheng Sanjun, Liu Yuliang and others.

In addition to these four people, the new Minister of Personnel Ni Yuanlu also participated in the court discussion.

Ni Yuanlu had just rushed to the capital from his hometown a few days ago. He had resigned from his post to observe mourning for his mother who had passed away. It was only two months away from the two-year anniversary.

However, there were so many vacant official positions in the court, so he was recommended by Li Banghua and Fan Jingwen and was appointed Minister of Personnel by Emperor Chongzhen.

The Minister of Personnel is the head of the Six Ministries and holds a high position of power. Therefore, there has always been an unspoken rule in the Ming Dynasty that the Minister of Personnel cannot enter the cabinet.

But Emperor Chongzhen still summoned him. The matter was of great importance and he dared not neglect it.

The five ministers sat steadily on the small wooden stools, each with a different expression, and from time to time one of them would glance outside the hall.

Everyone is waiting for the same person.

"Wang Dabanban, it's almost an hour, why hasn't Guanjun Hou arrived yet?"

Emperor Chongzhen frowned, which was rare.

"Your Majesty, perhaps something has delayed us. After all, the Xishan camp is not very close to the capital." Wang Chengen explained gently.

"Humph, he must be delaying on purpose again. This kid is extremely lazy. It would be fine if he didn't attend the morning court, but now he even dares to perfunctorily follow my orders. This is really too much!"

Emperor Chongzhen complained angrily.

But if someone thought that the emperor was really angry at this time and wanted to take the opportunity to impeach Zhang Shikang, he would be in big trouble.

"Your Majesty is right. I also think it is too much. I will talk to him later and teach him not to be so presumptuous." Wang Chengen also echoed, but he still had a gentle smile on his face when he spoke.

Anyone could guess that neither the master nor the servant was really angry or really scolding.

The four cabinet ministers and the Minister of Personnel present remained silent.

They all knew that now in front of His Majesty, they could impeach anyone except Marquis Zhang Shikang.

Anyone who dares to touch this reverse scale of Emperor Chongzhen will be punished with a single blow.

The fact that 30% of the officials in the court were dismissed is a lesson for us.

So much so that when Zhang Shikang entered the cabinet as a relative of a noble family, he did not encounter much opposition.

You should know that in addition to the title of Marquis of Guanjun, Zhang Shikang also held titles such as Admiral of the Beijing Camp, Grand Marshal of the Army of the World, and Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

No matter which one it is, it does not comply with the rules for joining the cabinet.

Even compared to this, it is more acceptable for the Minister of Personnel to join the cabinet.

However, the court has been weird enough recently. Compared with such trivial matters that break the rules, the tax reform that concerns the wallets of many people is what they really care about.

If Zhang Shikang didn't show up, the court meeting would never begin. This was the unspoken rule tacitly accepted by those present during the recent court meetings.

Even though Li Banghua was already very dissatisfied with this, he believed that rules were rules and as a cabinet minister he should not be late at will and should be punished for being late.

Looking at the sun, it was almost noon. Li Banghua frowned and finally decided not to endure it any longer.

He was just about to stand up to impeach Zhang Shikang's bad habits when Fan Jingwen beside him hurriedly pulled his collar.

Li Banghua was about to pull away Fan Jingwen's hand that was pulling his collar, but he heard footsteps outside the hall.

"Oh, I'm sorry, everyone. I sprained my ankle halfway through the journey, so I was delayed for a while."

Having heard the voice before seeing the person, Emperor Chongzhen's frown immediately unfurled.

After a while, Zhang Shikang, wearing a purple flying fish suit, strode in.

……