Chapter 7 Chapter 7 The First Good
When Tianqi came three years ago, the craftsmanship of Emperor Tianqi created a new peak.His original "carpentry master" Zhao Ming's craftsmanship has long fallen behind him, and he can only act as his assistant - he has truly become the leader of the world, leading the woodworking craftsmanship of the Ming Dynasty to flourish.
This time, he made a gift for himself to celebrate that he will lead the entire Ming Dynasty into the apocalypse for three years.
The original idea was to reduce the entire land of the Ming Dynasty to the size of a tabletop and make it into a decoration; from the Great Wall in the north to the sea in the south, mountains and rivers, capitals and towns, all of them were made in proportion; however, I wanted to After a few days, he gave up and thought about other things; because, when the idea entered into specific preparations, he found that he was very unfamiliar with the so-called Great Ming land that belonged to him, and he had no special feelings or in-depth understanding, so , he was not very interested in doing it, and he couldn't devote himself to the spirit of this work in his heart - he thought that "the world" was meaningless.
Two days later, he got a new idea: to build a Daming Palace.
It feels different—this is a place he is familiar with, and he has never left since he was born!
He also remembered when he was young, secretly watching the craftsmen who built the palace busily knocking, planing and sawing, full of envy - now, not only did his childhood wish come true, but he could even expand the scale!
A sense of excitement arose spontaneously, and he immediately immersed himself in his work; for a long period of time after that, he had nothing to do but fully enjoy the joy of creation.
After the work was completed, it was displayed on the table. He folded his hands behind his back, looked at it intently, and smiled with satisfaction and joy from the depths of his eyes.
Displayed horizontally on the table is like a chessboard, and the entire palace is laid out on it, more like a game of chess—the Daming Palace he carved with his own hands is only different in size from the real building, and the content is exactly the same; Carved beams, flying eaves and caissons, white jade steps, winding corridors, front and back courts, layer by layer, orderly; he looked and looked, he loved it so much that he couldn't bear to look away.
However, on the second day, he suddenly discovered that this work had a serious flaw, and immediately screamed: "There should be 'people' in the palace—how did I neglect it?"
However, it was not too late for this discovery—after a while, he made up his mind that there was no need to "remediate" the matter, and the neglected "people" only needed to do something else and put them in the "palace"; For one thing, these "people" are not fixed, but active, which is more realistic!
The original negligence may not be a bad thing!
So, he worked harder and began to make puppets one by one; from the emperor who imitated himself to the empress, concubines, court ladies, eunuchs, civil and military officials-the face description, body size, clothing, crown and hat of the puppets , all are indistinguishable from real people!
After he was done, he was of course even happier, and he placed these "people" on the chessboard like playing chess, and then moved forward and backward, and walked left and right—all the "people" were at his disposal like chess pieces. ——Including "Emperor" Zhu Youxiao!
He put the puppet of the emperor on the dragon chair, and then all civil and military officials knelt down together and shouted long live—the form was just like the early court ritual system of the Ming Dynasty.
Then, the officials began to report to the emperor, occasionally arguing and cursing each other because of disagreements...
After finishing a set of "Morning Court" rehearsal, he found it very interesting, so he performed it again from the beginning without getting tired, manipulating all the puppets to life - although in real life, he has not been to the morning court for a long time, nor Can manipulate anyone; even, he is a manipulated.
Every time Wei Zhongxian came to ask him for instructions, he got more power instead - he was always busy performing the puppet show of the puppets going to court, and blamed Wei Zhongxian for interrupting his excitement, ordering Wei Zhongxian to take full responsibility The third year of the apocalypse was originally the year of "Jingcha", and the puppet ministers in his hands will also hold "Jingcha" like a real court. As a manipulator, he is very busy.
Therefore, he didn't understand the situation in the court at all, he couldn't hear the voice of any courtier, he didn't know everyone's mood, and he couldn't understand the hidden worries behind this "Jingcha".
The puppet in his hand would not make such a sound: "It's the year of Jingcha again—"
However, Zou Yuanbiao, who was nearly eighty years old and whose beard and hair were as thick as frost and snow, couldn't help but let out a long breath when he was full of emotions, and then he murmured to himself with such a specific sound.
Elderly people sleep less, he usually gets up before the third watch, walks 500 steps back and forth in the courtyard to exercise after washing, then reads a few pages of books, then changes his clothes, and leaves home before the fifth watch— —Although the emperor did not go to the early court, he refused to abandon the etiquette. Every day, he went to the court with some ministers who also adhered to the same philosophy, rain or shine, and never once neglected it.
Six months ago, he, Feng Congwu and others founded the "Shoushan Academy" in the capital, imitating Donglin Academy to gather people to give lectures, and he also went to the palace early every morning to wait for the court, and then went to the Jinluan Hall to wait for the emperor to appear; He didn't go to the academy until the time had passed.
Only in the past few days, because it was annual leave, morning classes were closed, and the academy was closed, so he didn't go out before five o'clock; instead, he would sit in the study and read a book after walking five hundred steps.
However, an abnormal phenomenon appeared—for most of his life, his favorite thing was reading, and he would often forget himself as soon as he held a volume in his hand; but on this day, he couldn't concentrate on reading, as if there was an extra tail swimming in his heart. Like a caught fish, it dragged its spirit to swim around, making him unable to concentrate again and again.
In desperation, he simply put down the book, stood up, walked to the window, looked at the looming sky through the window paper, and also sorted out his thoughts, trying to clarify.
It feels like there is always something protruding in my heart like a foreign object...
After a long time, he traced to the source...
It's because "Jingcha" is coming!
There will be struggles and changes in the court again; and it will be difficult for me to stay out of it - the premonition happened more than two months ago, and I am one of the parties involved!
I finally found the reason for my uneasiness, but the hidden worry that followed was even heavier: "That incident is just ice floating on the water, and there are more and more ice frozen under the water. awesome--"
A few months ago, he had considered using Li Sancai—Li Sancai was a capable man. He was an official in his early years and had a great reputation. Later, when he was governor of Fengyang in the 27th year of Wanli, he was the only one who could humiliate and commit all kinds of crimes. As an official of the mine tax eunuch, his reputation became even more prominent; at the same time, Li Sancai was Gu Xiancheng's good friend. At the beginning of Donglin's founding, Li Sancai was the governor of Huaiyang, and he strongly supported Donglin. He even asked Gu Xiancheng to resume his official position. However, the relationship between Li Sancai and Donglin became even closer; later, Li Sancai was attacked by political opponents, and Gu Xian became his letter to Ye Xianggao and Sun Piyang, asking for extension, which was copied by Yu Shi Wu Liang's residence. Among them, those who attack the three talents make a big fuss.However, Li Sancai himself was taboo because of this relationship, his fame, his ability, and his popularity, and he was dismissed from office as early as the Wanli period.In the first year of Tianqi, when Liaoyang fell, the censor Fang Kezhuang asked Li Sancai to use Li Sancai, so he ordered the court officials to gather for a meeting, but after several meetings, no final decision was made; after that, people who supported Li Sancai's recovery came to him He asked for a recommendation from Shangshu, hoping that he could help him; based on the close relationship with "Donglin", he readily agreed.
Unexpectedly, at this juncture, those who opposed Li Sancai's recovery uttered strong voices, citing Li Sancai's bad performance of "ten corruption and five traitors" when he was an official in the past, and even slandered him, casually accusing him of unsubstantiated crimes, and tried his best to prevent Li Sancai's recovery ; Before his memorial was published, it was simply cancelled.
Because, having been up and down in the officialdom for several times, he already deeply felt that the matter was not simple, and not only Donglin's relationship was involved, but also "right and wrong" existed; Li Sancai was caught in the vortex of right and wrong that he couldn't extricate himself from, and Li Sancai was harmed; if Li Sancai was not recovered, then all the attacks and slanders would stop soon, and Li Sancai's reputation would be preserved instead.
This was a decision he made after careful consideration, but unexpectedly it aroused dissatisfaction from the people in Donglin—the imperial censor Wang Dewan, who was also entrusted to speak for Li Sancai, was the first to attack him, ridiculing him face to face and embarrassing him.
He didn't care about Wang Dewan's words, because it was just rude to him personally, and there was nothing to care about; what really made him sad and worried was the essence of the political struggle behind the incident.
Since Emperor Tianqi ascended the throne, most of the important positions in Donglin were held by people in Donglin. Therefore, everyone in the court and the opposition believed that "Donglin is prosperous", and they could not be in the court unless they were listed in Donglin. neutral foothold.
However, judging from Li Sancai's case, he felt that the "non-Donglin" counterattack force had already formed, and it was already a considerable force.He had directly encountered this force because of Li Sancai's matter, so he felt it more deeply than others. Then, after a period of careful observation and calm thinking, he concluded that the original "three parties" in the imperial court had merged. However, some people who were neither Donglin nor the three parties are converging and gradually combining with the three parties—the "non-Donglin" who were originally scattered have begun to walk on the road of unity.
But this kind of development is due to the promotion and promotion of Donglin people-Donglin vigorously squeezed out non-Donglin people, and beat all non-Donglin people who were originally independent in one place with a stick.
In fact, the so-called "three parties" in the imperial court were originally just three small forces against Donglin, which took shape as early as the Wanli period; Supporters were also organized to fight back; Shen has always been from Zhejiang, and the people he organized were called the "Zhejiang Party".
Then, Tang Binyin, who served as a sacrificial wine for the Guozijian in Nanjing and was born in Xuancheng, Anhui, and Gu Tianjun, who worked in the Imperial Academy and was born in Kunshan County, Suzhou Prefecture, also gathered personnel to form small organizations, forming the "Xuan Party" and "Kun Party".
Soon, the three parties were reorganized, and Xuandang and Kundang were merged into Zhedang, Qidang, and Chudang; and no matter what the names were, the essence of fighting with Donglin for many years was the same.
In the past, only a few people from the three parties occasionally held important positions in the court, such as Shen Yiguan and Fang Congzhe. There was only a short period of time, and Ye Xianggao, Sun Piyang, Zhao Nanxing and others were in important positions, and they were in the opposition most of the time, so it was not easy for the struggle between the two sides to develop into concrete actions. battle".
But, now, the situation is different...
"Dong Lin has already held various important positions in the court. This year's "Jingcha" plan will definitely kill people who are not Donglin. It is not Donglin's counterattack. At that time, the two sides will fight Gotta die and die—”
He thought his heart trembled slightly.
"Jingcha" has always been the best tool to eliminate dissidents. Over the years, there have been too many cases of using "Jingcha" to carry out political struggles, and each time it has caused serious sequelae, and even fundamental Unexpected developments and influences come.
He suddenly thought: "That was the fifteenth year of Wanli - Gu Xiancheng resigned because of 'Jingcha', so he rebuilt Donglin Academy, and there is today's Donglin - alas! That was thirty-six years ago Bar--"
In an instant, melancholy and bewilderment filled my heart, but my body became stiff, and I couldn't even move my fingers.
Gu Xiancheng's tomb has been arched, and Zhao Nanxing and himself, who have always been respected as the "Three Monarchs" with Gu Xiancheng, returned to the court to serve as officials. This was unexpected at the time; The person who inspected was Zhao Nanxing!
Is this God's intention to trick people?
He knew Zhao Nanxing's personality as an extreme person who "chooses the good and stubborn"; Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou and others who held important positions in the younger generation also had extreme and stubborn personalities; such a combination - he couldn't even think about it. Don't think about what kind of means will be adopted in the Jingcha at that time!
A look of horror appeared in the depths of his eyes...
After taking a breath, he paced back to his seat, feeling even more powerless—the original idea of going to Zhao Nanxing to talk to him had been dispelled, and instead he shook his head and sighed: "People in Donglin, there is something wrong. Who will listen to my advice that 'peace is the most important thing'?"
As early as years ago, when he presided over the "outside inspection", he had a lenient style, and he had already been criticized by some radical young men in Donglin, saying that he was not as bold and severe as when he first became an official, that he had lost his vigor and He developed moral courage, and even said to him: "Lian Po is old, can he still eat?"
At that time, he didn't want to pay attention to it, but several people said it face to face, so he wrote a few words and sent it out to answer: "The minister is different from the official. When protecting the body of the country, can you act like a young man?"
And even though he maintained a nonchalant calm on the surface, his mood was still unbalanced, and he couldn't help but fluctuate.
He is actually a man with a strong and fierce personality. At the beginning of his official career, he was sentenced to 80 imperial staff and banished to Duyunwei because Shangshu opposed Zhang Juzheng's seduction - at that time, how many people dared to do this?
But now, he definitely did not lose his vigor and moral courage because of old age and frailty. The reason why he opposed Donglin's attack, excluded non-Donglin, and advocated that the two sides work together is based on the overall consideration of the country.
At the beginning, it was a kind of persistence to fight to maintain etiquette; now, it is also a kind of persistence not to fight to eliminate dissidents!
And simply turning around and founding "Shoushan Academy" is a kind of persistence-when he felt powerless to improve the various phenomena in the court, he did not give up his efforts in pessimism and despair, but still insisted on hope and pinned his hope on in academics.
Even, there is still a special wish hidden in my selfish heart: "The purpose of Donglin Academy's lectures has changed, and now, 'Donglin' has become a political entity, divorced from the meaning of research and learning; in the future, I hope that Shoushan Academy will be separated from politics. , only develop within the scope of research and learning; lecture and teach, write books and write, purely study and explore the true meaning of classics and history, and never get involved in other things!"
Donglin has deteriorated. How long has it been since those listed in Donglin went to Donglin Academy in Wuxi to sit down and study quietly?
A political battle is about to unfold, and he is powerless to change it, and his determination to take the world as his own responsibility has been reduced to the point where he can maintain the Shoushan Academy and make it a pure land...
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