The 30th day of the twelfth lunar month of the twenty-fifth year of Chongzhen, New Year's Eve.
In the Ming Dynasty, everyone from royal family to common people were immersed in the joy of the festival.
The men sat together, drinking and bragging.
The woman was busy at the stove.
The children, holding sacrificial incense used for worship at home, set off firecrackers outside.
Zi——
Bang!
As firecrackers explode, the new year arrives.
On this day that should have been a day of reunion, two people are experiencing loneliness.
They are Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty and Crown Prince Zhu Cilang of the Ming Dynasty.
Both were pretending to be sick.
The interesting thing is that most people know they are faking illness.
They also know that others know they are faking illness.
But even so, they had no intention of ending their pretense of illness.
Especially Chongzhen.
He will continue to pretend unwaveringly until all forces come to the surface.
He would only need an imperial decree...
No! Strictly speaking, only one piece of news is needed to throw all parties into disarray.
"Your Majesty!" Wang Chengen poured Chongzhen a cup of tea: "Concubine Shen is still waiting for you to come over."
Just as Chongzhen was about to stand up, he felt some discomfort in his waist.
For the sake of his own health, Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "Tell Concubine Shen that I am a little tired today and I will not go over."
"Yes," Wang Chengen nodded and asked a trusted eunuch to deliver the letter.
After eating and drinking, Chongzhen did not rest immediately, but exercised in the hall.
While exercising, he asked, "What is the situation in the imperial court?"
"In reply to the emperor, the situation in the imperial court has been somewhat chaotic recently."
"Well, that's good..." Chongzhen was very satisfied with the answer.
Xie Sanbin was a member of the Donglin Party.
He became the Prime Minister of the Cabinet with the help of the Donglin Party's money.
But the foundation is unstable.
In order to secure his position, he had to promote members of the Donglin Party and suppress other parties.
The other parties would neither sit idly by nor watch the Donglin Party grow stronger.
Will find a way to fight back.
Thus, the struggle between the parties began.
If Chongzhen came to court, they would only fight secretly.
But now Chongzhen not only has not attended court for several months, but also ignores state affairs.
Ministers in the court all have a basic skill: to judge the person's performance according to his or her situation.
Without Chongzhen's restraint, they would put aside their concerns and turn their covert fights into open ones.
How can there not be chaos?
Chongzhen stopped and asked, "I heard that Xie Sanbin recently promoted two prefects, five state governors, and more than ten county governors. Most of these people are from the Donglin Party, right?"
Wang Chengen shook his head: "According to the Jinyiwei, there are only three Donglin Party members here."
"Hmm?" Chongzhen turned around and looked at Wang Chengen in surprise: "Are you sure there are only three?"
"Sure."
Chongzhen was even more puzzled: "What's going on? Xie Sanbin is a veteran in the officialdom, this shouldn't happen..."
Wang Chengen explained: "There was an internal conflict within the Donglin Party."
"Internal strife?"
"Yes, there was an internal conflict."
With Wang Chengen's explanation, Chongzhen finally understood the whole story.
In the first few months of his tenure as Prime Minister of the Cabinet, Xie Sanbin was not in a hurry to promote members of the Donglin Party in order to avoid unnecessary trouble.
Even if there is a promotion, it will be done in a rather obscure way.
But many Donglin Party officials had no patience.
Because the crown prince has the power to regent.
In order to get to the top as quickly as possible, they decided to bet on both sides.
While trying to curry favor with the cabinet chief, Xie Sanbin, he also bribed the Donglin Party members around the prince.
Xie Sanbin was very disgusted with this kind of double-dealing behavior.
After learning the news, instead of promoting them, he suppressed them.
In addition, Chongzhen was ill and did not attend court, so the crown prince immediately became a hot commodity in the eyes of officials.
As a result, many Donglin Party members completely turned to the prince.
Seeing this, Xie Sanbin began to take action against the Donglin Party from within.
He won over those who were friendly to him and suppressed those who surrendered to Nanjing.
The Donglin Party in Nanjing was no pushover either.
They fought back in kind.
As a result, internal strife arose within the Donglin Party.
The Donglin Party headed by Xie Sanbin became the Northern Faction, and the Donglin Party headed by Qian Qianyi became the Southern Faction.
The struggle between the two factions intensified.
Under the influence of this situation, both the Beijing and Nanjing courts began to fall into chaos.
"It's good to have chaos!" Chongzhen couldn't help laughing.
Seeing the smile on Chongzhen's face, Wang Chengen was puzzled: "Your Majesty, we can't let this chaos go on. The turmoil in the court will soon spread to the local areas. If the local areas also become chaotic, I'm afraid..."
Chongzhen snorted, "Don't worry, there won't be any chaos! Even if there is chaos, I know what's going on."
Chongzhen's confidence came from the border troops and the Beijing camp.
The nine frontier armies and the Beijing camp soldiers together have a strength of 200,000.
These are all real elites.
As long as he gave the order, they could go south to quell the rebellion at any time.
Seeing Chongzhen's confident look, Wang Chengen did not dare to say anything more and could only continue to report: "News came from Nanjing that... His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is ill."
Upon hearing the news, Chongzhen suddenly felt relieved.
If Zhu Cilang had not been ill, he would have died when things developed to the final step.
Fortunately, he finally got sick.
"Any other news?"
Wang Chengen thought for a moment and said, "Yes, the candidate for Nanjing Counselor for Maintenance was decided before the New Year. It's Ma Shiying."
"As expected." Chongzhen nodded and then asked, "What have Liu Kongzhao, Zhu Guobi and others done recently?"
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