The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Although Wang Maodeng's deception was well known in Jiangnan, the major event that really affected the world at this time was the demon book case.

The timing of this case was too coincidental. Although Zhu Changluo became the prince, his life was not easy. The relationship between Emperor Wanli and him was relatively cold, and Concubine Zheng's remarks that she wanted her son Prince Fu to ascend the throne were rampant.

At this time, Zhu Geng, a cabinet scholar, discovered a demon book at his doorstep claiming that Emperor Wanli wanted to change his heir. What was even more dangerous was that the critic named in the demon book, cabinet scholar Zhu Geng and chief minister Shen Guiwen, were Concubine Zheng. The accomplice was naturally shocked that one Buddha was born and two Buddhas ascended to heaven.

Zhu Geng had to go to Shu to defend himself, and Shen Yiguan, who was mentioned, also went to Shu. The two bachelors, Zhu Geng and Shen Yiguan, had to stay at home to avoid suspicion.

Then the two began to doubt:

There were three people in the cabinet, but two were down. However, Shen Li, who was supported by the Donglin Party, did not appear in the demon book.

The party struggle in the 31st year of Wanli has worsened, and they are attacking each other no matter what. If there is a little spark at this time, how can there be no reason for both parties to not explode?

When the situation was tense, all parties hoped to use the demon book case to attack their opponents. The Zhejiang Party represented by Shen Guangyuan and the Donglin Party represented by Shen Li soon began to compete with each other.

First, Hu Hua, a fellow acquaintance of the Donglin Party, wrote a letter to accuse Ruan Mingqing, the leader of the Zhejiang Party, for "fabricating a demon book."

Shen Yiguan had already suspected Shen Li, but when he saw the Donglin Party members attacking first, in order to turn his passivity into an initiative, he quickly instigated his party members to attack Shen Li and Guo Zhengyu, the Minister of Rites, for their involvement in the demon book case.

As a result, Shen Li, who was still able to preside over the cabinet work alone, was also dragged into the water, and the entire cabinet of the Wanli Dynasty fell.

Emperor Wanli's expulsion order began when the censor of the city patrol searched Shen Li's house. Shen Li liked to make friends with famous people. When the censor of Zhejiang Party searched Shen Li's house, he found a monk, a doctor, and a doctor. Musician.

The Ming Dynasty had a yellow armor law. According to the law, monks, doctors and musicians did not have the reputation of being a scholar. Without a letter from the government, it would be a crime to break into the capital without any reason.

Of course, by the Wanli period, no one had taken care of these matters, not to mention that Shen Li was a dignified elder, so it was not a big deal to have a few Shanren in his family.

However, when the party struggle came, all the old rules were naturally ignored. The Zhejiang Party Committee insisted that the three people were related to the demon book case, and directly arrested the doctor and the monk in prison and tortured them.

Therefore, not to mention that the Donglin Party killed all the three parties after it came to power, the three parties were also merciless in dealing with the Donglin Party.

You must know that the monk Shen Li took in was not an unknown person. This monk was Master Zibai Zhenke, the leader of the Southeast Zen Sect at this time and one of the four great monks of the Ming Dynasty.

Monk Zibai Zhenke taught sutras to both Emperor Wanli and the Empress Dowager Cisheng at this time, but he was involved in party disputes, and no matter how famous he was, he could not escape.

In order to get Zibai Zhenke to admit that Guo Zhengyu and others were involved in the demon book case, Shen Yiguan drove Zhejiang Party officials to arrest Zibai Zhenke and torture him in prison.

But Zibai Zhen was unwilling to falsely accuse others and refused to let go. In the end, the Zhejiang Party had no choice but to release him. At this time, Zi Bai Zhen was already half-dead. A generation of eminent monks passed away in the capital shortly after being released from prison.

Next, Dongchang, Jinyiwei, and Sanfasi began to find out the source of the demon book. They were completely confused. The Zhejiang Party asked them to interrogate Guo Zhengyu, but they could not reach a conclusion after five days of interrogation. Just because of this, the whole capital was in chaos. There was no one to take care of the affairs of the cabinet. The ministers and officials divided into parties to attack each other.

Emperor Wanli was also anxious and ordered each government office to get people within a time limit. Each government office searched around and directly found a scholar named Qi Shengguang from among the scholars in Shuntian Prefecture.

Gao Shengguang was a literary traitor. He once defrauded Concubine Zheng's brother Zheng Guotai. He often gave people some crooked ideas in Beijing and used his writing skills to defraud money. His character was indeed not very good. But based on his level, it was impossible to write the documents in the Demon Book Case involving court officials. But the major yamen had run out of recruits, so they took this person as the blame.

The Zhejiang Party also accepted that they just wanted a reason to attack each other.

Zhu Geng and Shen Guangxi both wanted Qi Shengguang to reveal that Shen Li was the mastermind behind the case, so during the Tri-Facial Tribunal's joint trial, Xiao Daheng, the Secretary of the Zhejiang Party's Ministry of Punishment, wrote a note to Wang Shugu, the head of the Ministry of Punishment, asking him to tell Qiu Sheng Guang's confession was brought to Guo Zhengyu and Shen Li. Unexpectedly, although Wang Shugu was from Henan, he was on good terms with Zhao Nanxing of the Donglin Party. After reading Xiao Daheng's note, he said the matter out loud in the hall. .

It made Xiao Daheng so embarrassed.

If you only read The Case of the Demon Book, you would think that Xiao Daheng is a bad person.

But you must know that Xiao Daheng was a top-notch military strategist throughout the late Ming Dynasty. He fought against the Tatars since the Jiajing Dynasty, was the governor of Ningxia, and the governor of Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi. During his tenure, he solved the Tatar River Revolution, Ningxia Rebellion, and after entering the capital, they encountered the Wanli Korean War. At that time, Shi Xing, the Minister of War, was dismissed. Xiao Daheng, who also managed the affairs of the Ministry of War, was a major contributor to the victory of the Korean War.

Historically, he was later responsible for organizing the suppression of Japanese pirates along the coast of Fujian and quelling military rebellions in the southwest border many times. These were all done when Xiao Daheng was the minister of two important departments, the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Punishment, when the Wanli Dynasty was short of officials. .

Being one of the six ministers can be exhausting, but Xiao Daheng has been holding two such tiring positions for thirteen years. He can make no big mistakes and is definitely a capable minister.

One sentence in the elegiac couplet written by Wanli after Xiao Daheng's death can express the court's evaluation of him: "When you ascend the court with your hair tied, your merits will hang on the border forever."

However, important ministers like Xiao Daheng can only play a clown role in the demon book case, responsible for taking sides in party disputes. It can only be said that it can be seen how harmful party struggle is, and almost no one can avoid it.

The fight over the Demonic Book Case will continue until the thirty-second year of Wanli. During this period, Bo Yun was treacherous, and the forces of the Three Parties and the Donglin Party were entangled. This was the time when the fight was fierce, even for big party leaders like Shen Yiguan and Shen Li. There was nothing he could do to stop his men, and Wang Wenlong didn't want to cause trouble.

It's okay for him to pay attention to Wang Maodeng's fraud news in the newspaper, but he must not get involved in political disputes.

Li Sancai sent people to Wang Wenlong many times and revealed that he wanted Suzhou Xunbao to guide public opinion in the demon book case, but Wang Wenlong refused all of them.

Even Wang Wenlong himself lived in seclusion. After staying in Suzhou for less than half a month, he simply decided to go back to Nanjing to work in the Imperial College, and found some reasons to avoid these troubled political events.

"Jianyang, the boat is here."

At the pier, they saw Wang Wenlong's family arriving together with Yuan Wuya and Feng Menglong, and Ye Zhou came up to them with a smile on his face.

Ye Zhouze heard that Wang Wenlong was going to Nanjing. He also missed the beauty of the Qinhuai River, so he simply proposed to go north together. Yuan Wuya and Feng Menglong were also going together.

Wang Wenlong stepped forward and said with a smile: "Why did Wentong arrive so early?"

Feng Menglong, who was familiar with Ye Zhouze's character, smiled and said, "Brother Wentong probably didn't arrive at the river early, but stayed on the flower boat last night, right?"

(End of this chapter)