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

On the thirteenth day of the first lunar month in the twelfth year of Chongzhen, in the capital, at midnight, at Zheng Sanjun’s mansion.

It was late at night when there was a sudden knock on the door of Zheng's house. A man was grimacing with cold, and his eyebrows and hair were covered with frost and snow.

The horse behind him looked extremely tired, foaming at the mouth and panting hoarsely.

The door creaked open and someone knocked on the door in the middle of the night. The doorman of the Zheng residence frowned and cursed.

Although Zheng Sanjun had been dismissed long ago, he had once held an important position as the Minister of Personnel, where his students and friends were all over the world. Even though he was unemployed, there were always people visiting him.

As the leader of the Donglin Party in the capital, all officials in Beijing understood that Zheng Sanjun would be reinstated once this struggle was over.

It is also for this reason that even though the master was dismissed, the servants in Zheng’s house are still very arrogant.

"Who are you? You're disturbing me in the middle of the night. You'd better say something, otherwise I will not let you off easily." The doorman said to the man and horse outside the door.

"There's urgent news from Yanzhou. You're required to pass it on as soon as possible." The man seemed confident and ignored the doorman's harassment.

The doorman frowned, he knew that the master was now planning a very important event. If he delayed the master's business, losing his job would be the least of his worries, but if the master got angry, he might not be able to stay in the capital.

Without bothering to ask for the tip, the doorman went to the house where the housekeeper lived. A moment later, the man was led by the housekeeper of Zheng's house to see Zheng Sanjun, who was dressed in plain clothes.

Compared to the freezing cold outside, the room where Zheng Sanjun lived was brightly lit and had several charcoal basins for heating, making the room particularly comfortable.

Being woken up in the middle of the night, Zheng Sanjun still felt uncomfortable even though he knew something important might have happened.

He was half lying on the bed, with his legs stretched in the arms of a young maid.

The maid was only wearing underwear and did not dare to be negligent. She just held Zheng Sanjun's feet in her arms. She seemed to be very afraid of Zheng Sanjun.

"You'd better have something important to report." Zheng Sanjun said to the man with a cold face.

After saying that, he coughed, and another maid hurried over with a spittoon. Zheng Sanjun spat out a mouthful of phlegm and wiped his mouth.

"I dare not deceive you, sir. During the Yanzhou Incident, Zhang Shikang massacred three clans of the Kong family." The man saw that Zheng Sanjun was unhappy and felt a little terrified.

As soon as he said this, Zheng Sanjun felt as if he had been electrocuted.

"What? What did you say?"

Zheng Sanjun kicked the maid aside, and changed from half-lying to sitting, with an extremely shocked expression.

Seeing this, the man had no choice but to repeat it again.

"You are so bold, so daring!"

After saying that, Zheng Sanjun stood up and paced back and forth in the bedroom with his hands behind his back.

Of course he knew about the affairs between Prince Lu and the Kong family. In fact, the Kong family had written him a letter a few days ago.

The letter was about asking about the tax system. The Kong family wanted to find out from Zheng Sanjun the emperor's true thoughts and the Donglin Party's grasp of this struggle.

Zheng Sanjun wrote back saying that he was sure of victory and suggested that the Kong family could advance and retreat together with the gentry of the world.

The Kong family enjoys a high reputation among the literati in the Ming Dynasty, and Zheng Sanjun certainly does not want the Kong family to succumb to the court.

In addition to the Kong family, according to Zheng Sanjun's speculation, the local princes must also be particularly disgusted with the tax system.

After all, robbing someone of their money is like killing their parents. As long as the Kong family and local princes can take the lead, and with the help of their Donglin Party colleagues, all the gentry in the world will unite, even the emperor and Zhang Shikang will be unable to do anything.

They only need to delay for a period of time, until the people of the world are filled with resentment, the court has to take into account the civil unrest, and is eventually forced to cancel the newly added taxes, and then their business will be done.

Then will be the time to restore order. At that time, Zhang Shikang, as the instigator, will inevitably be criticized by people all over the world.

But Zheng Sanjun never expected that Zhang Shikang would dare to attack the Kong family and even exterminate the three clans of the Kong family.

Although the Ming Dynasty had the punishment of clan extermination, not many people were actually exterminated. This punishment was hurtful to others, and even if someone committed a serious crime, the court would be very cautious in judging the crime.

The Kong family was a role model for all the scholars in the world and a giant that stood firm despite the changes of dynasties. Even the prestige of the vassal kings could not compare with that of Duke Yansheng.

More than 2,000 people, the lineage of Duke Yansheng, which was so prestigious, had all three clans wiped out by that kid Zhang Shikang!

How dare he?

"What's the reason? If it wasn't for treason or other serious crimes, how dare Zhang Shikang act like this?" Zheng Sanjun stared at the man seriously.

He didn't believe that the Kong family was plotting treason.

Even if you randomly pick someone off the street, no one will believe it.

"Duke Yansheng refused to lower prices, so Zhang Shikang led his troops to surround the Confucius Mansion and reportedly found a letter," the man replied.

"Letter? What letter?" Zheng Sanjun asked.

"Most of those who knew about it were beheaded, but I got some clues from the dismissed servants of the Confucius Mansion. The letter was written to the pseudo-Qing emperor and should be a letter of surrender."

"Surrender?" Zheng Sanjun showed a very strange expression when he heard it.

He immediately recalled the incident of Jianlu's attack last year, and he also knew that Yuetuo had attacked several prefectures and counties in Shandong at that time.

If no one believed that the Kong family rebelled, then at least he thought it was possible that they wrote a letter of surrender.

After all, Zheng Sanjun was well-versed in the history books of past dynasties, and he knew that the reason why the lineage of Duke Yansheng was able to continue was actually very simple, that is, it descended quickly enough.

As long as the surrender is fast enough, the invaders will treat Yanshenggong favorably in order to gain a certain degree of legitimacy.

After all, Duke Yansheng shoulders the foundation of Confucianism, and obtaining his advice will do no harm to the invaders.

But Zheng Sanjun remembered that Yuetuo could only fight as far as the central part of Jinan, which was several counties away from Qufu where the Kong family was!

Is this going to drop?

"Where is Zhang Shikang?" Zheng Sanjun asked again.

“In reply to the master, before I left the city, they were still raiding the house of Lord Yansheng.

I knew the news was important, so I didn't stop on the way, and three horses alone were exhausted." The man flatteredly recounted the hardships of the past few days.

"If the news is true, you have done a great deed.

"Butler, give me fifty taels of silver and have someone go to the warm room to entertain you." Zheng Sanjun said casually.

When the man heard that the reward was fifty taels of silver, he was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling and kept kowtowing to Zheng Sanjun to express his gratitude.

After the man left, Zheng Sanjun sat quietly in the room thinking.

But no matter what the truth is, the Kong family is already dead.

Although Zheng Sanjun felt it was very abrupt, he had to re-evaluate the changes in the situation.

As the top nobles of the Ming Dynasty, the lineage of Duke Yansheng was exterminated by Zhang Shikang. This is unacceptable both morally and legally.

Even if the surrender was true, Zhang Shikang did not have the power to execute the Duke of the current dynasty, let alone exterminate his entire clan.

According to normal procedures, even if the evidence is conclusive, the three judicial officials of the court should jointly try the case, and the final decision should be made by the emperor.

Zhang Shikang's actions were tantamount to contempt for the imperial court and even undermined the emperor's dignity.

In any case, he should take advantage of Zhang Shikang's reckless behavior to gain more bargaining chips for his side in the subsequent struggle.

Thinking of this, Zheng Sanjun immediately asked his servants to notify Liu Zongzhou and others to come to the mansion to discuss matters.

Since Zhang Shikang hasn't come back yet, it's a good thing for them.

Half an hour later, Liu Zongzhou, Liu Yuliang, Xiong Mingyu and others arrived one after another.

"Yong Zhang, what's the matter that has made you ask us to come here after working so hard for half a month?"

It was a freezing cold day, and everyone was old. Although they showed up for the appointment, most of them didn't look very good.

"Everyone, I just got the news that Zhang Shikang has wiped out the three clans of Duke Yansheng."

"what?"

……