Ming Zuo

Throughout the history of the Joseon Dynasty, one of the main political issues was party struggle.

It is called the four-color party struggle in history.

The so-called four colors do not refer to the four colors, but the four directions of east, west, south and north.

According to the principle of unity of opposites, the relationship between East and West is antagonistic, and the same is true for South and North.

Like all feudal dynasties, the origin of party struggle must be academic.

The Eastern People's Party and the Western People's Party first appeared on the stage of history.

In the early days of King Seonjo, the relationship between the famous Confucian scholar Kim Hyo-won and Queen Insun's younger brother Shim Eui-gyeom was very tense.

The traditional scholar-bureaucrats are all on Shen Yiqian's side, while the new scholar-bureaucrats are Jin Xiaoyuan's supporters.

To put it bluntly, it is a battle between the old and the new in the field of thought.

The intensification of the conflict between the two factions stems from the Quanlang dispute.

The so-called Quanlang is an important position in charge of personnel administration of civil and military officials in the Joseon Dynasty.

This is a key official position related to the official hat, whether it is an Eastern or a Westerner, they all want to hold it in their own hands.

This is similar to the dispute between the Donglin Party and the Zhejiang Party, the Chu Party, and the Qi Party during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty.

Kim Hyo-won lived in Gancheon-dong, Naksan, east of Hanyang, so the faction that supported him was called Dongren.

Shen Yiqian lived in Jeongdong in the west of Hanyang, so he was called a Westerner.

In the ensuing struggle, the Western People's Party gradually lost power, while the Eastern People's Party took control of the government.

Originally, because of Zheng Ruli's rebellion incident, the Western People's Party briefly came back to power.But later Zheng Che, the leader of the Western People's Party, fell due to the issue of canonizing the crown son, and the Eastern People's Party took power again.

This is very similar to the battle for the establishment of the reserve during the Wanli period.

If we say that the party disputes that happened in the Central Plains in the late Ming Dynasty were moved to North Korea, we cannot say that they are exactly the same, but that there is no difference.

North Korea learned everything from Ming Dynasty, even the bad aspects.

The brief loss of power made the Queen of the Dongren Party terrified.In order to avoid repeating the same mistakes, drastic measures have been taken in dealing with political opponents.

But within the Dongren Party, not everyone was in favor of bloodshed.

As a result, the Eastern People's Party split and formed the Northern People's Party and the Southern People's Party.

At this point, the embryonic form of the four-color party struggle appeared.

It is the Northern People's Party that advocates taking drastic measures against political opponents; while it is the Southern People's Party that advocates taking moderate measures.

In the beginning of the North-South dispute, the Northerners were at an absolute disadvantage.

This is because the Northerners did not have a united academic center.

Among the giants of the Northerners, Li Shanhai is Xu Jingde's disciple and Li Zhihan's nephew and disciple; while Zheng Renhong and Cui Yongqing are Cao Zhi's core disciples.

Unlike the southerners, they are completely dominated by the Tuixi School.

Among the several political factions at that time, the Northerners were at an absolute disadvantage, and no matter how you looked at it, it was impossible to control the government.

However, the emergence of the Imjin Japanese Invasion caused great changes in the political arena of North Korea.

The northerners who advocated fighting to the end and the left-behind Gwanghae-kun joined together and quickly grasped the situation.

Mastered the highest power, but the Beiren split internally, divided into the Great North faction and the Little North faction.

With the help of Mr. Guanghai, the Dabei faction expelled all the Xiaobei faction.

Yet this is not the end.

The Great North School continued to split into the Bone North School and the Rou Bei School, and then the Zhongbei School was born.

Even the Xiaobei faction, which lost power, split into the Qingbei faction and the Zhuobei faction.

Just like cell division, the number of parties is dazzling, which shows how chaotic the situation is.

However, due to the loss of power, the Xiaobei faction was a blessing in disguise, and survived the subsequent liquidation, and is still active in the political arena.

Unlike the Dabei faction, after Injo was reversing, it was completely cleaned up.

By supporting the Western People's Party, which Li Zhen was in power, it became the biggest force in the political arena.

But like the Great North faction, there are many factions within the Western People's Party in order to fight for power.

At the beginning, the Western People's Party was divided into the faction of meritorious officials anyway and the faction of waiting and watching.

Anyway, the hero faction is also known as Xunxi, and Jin Liu, Shen Qiyuan, Li Gui, and Jin Zidian are the core of it.

Li Gui is the father of Li Shibai and Li Shifang.

The wait-and-see faction is called Qingxi, and its leader is Kim Sang-heon.

This is also the reason why Jin Shangxian and Shen Qiyuan confront each other when it is time to support a new king.

The Xunxi faction split again into Laoxi and Shaoxi.

Laoxi is from the family of Jin Liu and Jin Qingzheng, while Shaoxi is from the family of Li Gui.

Interestingly, Kim Sang-heon's elder brother, Kim Sang-young, is a member of Shaoxi, and he has a lot of political differences with him.

Song Shiyeol is actually a Westerner Party.

But he is neither Lao Xi, nor Shao Xi, nor Qing Xi, but the leader of the Shan Party.

Don't look at him denouncing factionalism here, but in fact he is also deeply involved in it.

The fundamental reason why they don't like Lao Xi and Shao Xi and set up their own party is actually to fight for power and profit.

In addition to Song Shilie, there are also Jin Yu's Han Party, Yuan Doopiao's Yuan Party, and Jin Zidian's Luo Party.

In this way, the Xiren Party formed a parallel structure of four factions of Shan, Han, Luo, and Yuan.

As for Song Shiyeol, although he was Fenglin Dajun's teacher, he did not have time to go to Ganghwa Island, but followed Li Ji to Namhan Mountain City.

Later, Li Jing surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, which made him very dissatisfied, so he simply resigned and returned to his hometown in Zhongqingdao to live in seclusion.

Not long after, he heard the news that Xia Jun counterattacked and approached Hanyang, and he felt that the opportunity had come.So he hurried to the north and reprimanded Jin Shangxian and Shen Qiyuan in front of Zuo Menggeng, hoping to take this opportunity to rise to power.

The complicated party struggles in North Korea made Zuo Menggeng dizzy.However, he was happy to see Song Shilie's appearance.

Comparing the two factions of Jin Shangxian and Shen Qiyuan comprehensively, the former occupies an absolute advantage.

If no new forces emerge, Kim Sang-heon will definitely suppress Shen Qiyuan in the future North Korean political situation.

This is not in the interests of Xia Guo.

The emergence of new forces can better contain Jin Shangxian's family and increase the space for Xia Guo to operate.

"You Angong (Song Shiyeol's name) sincerely said that party disputes are indeed a persistent disease in North Korea and should not be ignored. It is necessary for the old city to clean up the atmosphere and reshape the morale of Korean scholars. In the future state affairs, please You An Please worry a lot."

In front of North Korea, Zuo Menggeng praised Song Shilie so much that everyone looked sideways.

This was said from the mouth of His Highness King Xia, and the influence can be imagined.

At least with this remark, Song Shilie will have a great say in the officialdom in the future.

Song Shilie achieved his goal and repeatedly expressed his loyalty to Zuo Menggeng.

He has been on the bench for many years, and he has already figured out that if he wants to gain power, he must be favored by the king.

Although Zuo Menggeng was not the ruler of North Korea, the emperor of Shang Kingdom was even better.

Standing aside, Jin Shangxian and Shen Qiyuan looked at the radiant Song Shilie, and they all felt faintly uneasy.