In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 291 The Five Emperors Stand Together
After the news that King Zhou ascended the throne in Kaifeng and inherited the throne spread to the south of the Yangtze River, the noble civil servants and Donglin Party members left behind in Nanjing immediately panicked.

In fact, after Chongzhen's edict of abdicating the throne and subjugating the country reached Nanjing, a group of Donglin Party members began to jump up and down, hoping to support a new emperor to ascend the throne in Nanjing, divide the river from China and rule, and continue the Ming Dynasty.

Among them, Zhou Yanru and Qian Qianyi danced the most happily. The two Donglin scholars danced the most happily. One of them was the former chief minister, and the other was the former minister of the Ministry of Rites. They both had unparalleled appeal among the officials in the south of the Yangtze River.

However, there was no Ming vassal king in the south of the Yangtze River. A group of people led by Qian Qianyi felt that the nearest King of Chu in Wuchang should be brought to Nanjing to ascend the throne. After all, a country cannot be without a king for a day, especially at this time. There can be no delay.

But Zhou Yanru and others felt that King Chu's bloodline was too far away and his name was unfair. King Lu, whose bloodline was closer to Chongzhen, should be taken over to inherit the throne.

As a result, the two sides were quarreling fiercely, and no one could convince the other. In fact, to put it bluntly, both Zhou Yanru and Qian Qianyi wanted to be the first assistant and the first minister of Conglong.

As for King Xiaofu who had just fled to Jiangbei, he was directly ignored by the Donglin Party members.

Although Prince Xiaofu and Chongzhen were cousins ​​and had the closest blood relationship, once Prince Fu was killed in Luoyang, Chongzhen had not yet had time to issue an order for Prince Xiaofu to inherit the throne, resulting in Prince Prince Xiaofu still being the heir apparent.

Second, the Donglin party and King Fu had a grudge against Wanli regarding the appointment of the crown prince. They almost regarded him as a fire and water. In addition, as he succeeded to the throne as the crown prince, his reputation was not correct and his words were not smooth, so they were naturally unwilling to support the younger King Fu.

Historically, the reason why Fengyang Governor Ma Shiying was able to suppress the Donglin Party and let Prince Xiaofu go to Nanjing to succeed him was because he had won over the four towns in Jiangbei and held military power, which forced the Donglin Party to compromise.

However, at this time, there were only Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo in Jiangbei. The key was that Huang Degong was only a general, and Liu Liangzuo's troops were far less powerful than in history, and Ma Shiying had not yet served as the governor of Fengyang.

At this time, the Donglin Party members were naturally unwilling to give up the merits of Conglong and recognize the King of Zhou. After all, Nanjing was the capital of the Ming Dynasty, so they could not care so much and immediately took Prince Xiaofu to Nanjing and directly ascended the throne.

He also drafted a false edict for the succession of Emperor Chongzhen, and accused the King of Zhou of being treasonous, usurping the throne, being a puppet of thieves, and not qualified to inherit the Ming Dynasty's orthodoxy.

It has to be said that the status of the capital of Nanjing is indeed higher than that of Kaifeng, and the appeal of the Southeast Party members is not comparable to that of King Zhou and King Chuang. Coupled with the bloodline of King Xiaofu, their momentum immediately overwhelmed King Zhou.

Prefectures and counties in the north of the Yangtze River turned against each other one after another and chose to support King Fu and Emperor Longwu of Nanjing. Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian also chose to recognize King Fu as the orthodoxy.

As the saying goes, there must be two in everything. On the premise that King Zhou has ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor and inherited the orthodoxy of the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing still disregarded the fact that there are no two masters in the country, and forcibly proclaimed King Fu as emperor, although the limelight was overshadowed by King Zhou. , but it also made a bad start, causing the authority of the Ming Dynasty to plummet.

Even if Nanjing can support King Fu to compete with Kaifeng, other places can naturally support other kings to take charge of their own affairs. Why should they listen to Nanjing and Kaifeng?

Chen Xinjia, who did not occupy the northwest, was originally dissatisfied with King Chuang for holding the emperor hostage to make the princes angry, but he had to submit to the status of Zhou King and Ming Emperor.

Now seeing that Nanjing had made the first move, and together with the civil and military officials in the northwest, they immediately decided to support the King of Qin as emperor and make Chang'an the capital. Chen Xinjia was the chief minister of the cabinet. He Renlong was as fierce as a tiger, and other generals They were all made marquises.

Fortunately, Yang Sichang, Zuo Liangyu and other civil and military officials who pursued Zhang Xianzhong in Huguang did not stop and chose to go it alone. They supported the King of Chu as the emperor and made Wuchang the capital. Yang Sichang served as the chief minister of the cabinet.

Seeing that the Ming Dynasty had four emperors at once, the King of Shu in Chengdu also quit, and the civil and military officials in Sichuan also quit. When they saw the edicts sent by the four emperors one after another, they burned them all and supported the king of Shu. For the emperor.

This resulted in five emperors popping up in the Ming Dynasty in just three months, including Emperor Jianxing who occupied Henan, Emperor Longwu who occupied Jiangnan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Fujian, Emperor Chongren who occupied the northwest, and Emperor who occupied Huguang. Emperor Chongde, and Emperor Chongxing who occupied Sichuan and Yunnan.

As for Guangdong, Guangxi and Guizhou, they were vacillating between left and right. They didn't know which emperor to recognize, and they were immediately confused.The five emperors accused each other and were ready to launch an army to attack. Lin Rui in Beijing was also confused and summoned Zhang Yan to the palace immediately.

Zhang Yan was still wearing a pair of coarse white clothes and was unwilling to enter the imperial study room of Qianqing Palace. Lin Rui didn't care. He knew that Zhang Yan wanted to avoid suspicion and cherish his reputation, so he still chose to summon her on the platform of Qianqing Gate.

After all, once you enter the Qianqing Gate, you belong to the harem. Once Zhang Yan, the queen of the subjugated country, steps into the harem, it will be yellow mud that falls out of her crotch, either feces or feces.

Zhang Yan was a little nervous and embarrassed at first, thinking that Lin Rui called her here because of Nuo'er's affairs. After all, everyone else asked officials to recommend her, but she couldn't find officials to help, and no officials dared to help, so she had no choice but to recommend herself. .

However, what she didn't expect was that Lin Rui directly threw five letters at her as soon as she came in, and asked with an angry look on his face: "I hope the empress can give me a reasonable explanation, otherwise don't blame me for not abiding by my original promise."

"Your Majesty, what do you mean by this?" Zhang Yan took the letter from the palace maid and frowned slightly, with a puzzled look on her face.

"Empress Zhang, let's finish reading it first and then talk!"

Lin Rui pretended to be very angry with a straight face.

Zhang Yan didn't know why, so she had to read all five letters, and her mouth opened wide in surprise.

Apparently he was also shocked by the sudden appearance of five Ming emperors, and then he let out a sigh.

If the south is willing to make concerted efforts to support a vassal king as the new emperor of the Ming Dynasty, it may be able to compete with this traitor and finally rule across the river. In the future, even if the Northern Expedition recovers the north, it may not be possible to revive the Ming Dynasty.

Who would have thought that the civil servants and generals in the south would be so selfish and ignore the overall situation, and choose to stand on their own. I am afraid that before the Chinese army goes south, they themselves will have to beat their heads and bleed. How can they stop China in the end? The country’s army?
The more Zhang Yan thought about it, the more disappointed she became, and the more she thought about it, the sadder she became, as if she had lost her soul, holding on to her words in a daze.

"Empress Zhang, don't you want to say something?"

"What does Your Majesty want me to say?" Zhang Yan calmed down, stared at Lin Rui and said calmly.

"Huh, naturally I have to stand up and accuse these rebellious Ming Dynasty officials and these unfilial descendants of the Zhu family."

Lin Rui put his hands behind his back, stood up, came to her and snorted coldly.

What he said is not nonsense, but has legal basis. Chongzhen himself announced that he would abdicate and subjugate the country. In other words, all the officials of the Ming Dynasty must abide by this edict of subjugation and admit that the Ming Dynasty was subjugated. Otherwise, they will not resist the edict. Your Majesty, you are a treasonous and dishonest man, a rebellious official and traitor of the Ming Dynasty.

And those five Pan kings falsely passed down edicts, usurped the throne, and even forgot their lineage. They should be removed from the Zhu family tree.

Chongzhen was dead and the aftermath had been left to the emperor's sister-in-law Zhang Yan, so Zhang Yan naturally had to stand up and express her attitude.

(End of this chapter)