Ming Dynasty: A mere unruly commoner is rebelling against the heaven?

Chapter 206: Move the capital, must move the capital!
The news that Zhu Youtang's expeditionary force was ambushed by the Oirat people and the Ming emperor's life or death was unknown immediately spread throughout the capital.

At this moment, the capital city was in turmoil.

The first person to know the news was the commander-in-chief of the Beijing Guards, followed by the Five Military Governorates, and then the Ministry of War.

Then the cabinet, the six ministers, and finally all the officials in the capital knew the news.

The officials in the capital showed completely different attitudes after learning that Zhu Youtang was ambushed by the Oirat people and his life or death was unknown.

Liu Jian, the second-in-command of the cabinet, was worried and felt a great sense of crisis.

The thing he feared most finally happened.

He immediately found Li Dongyang, who was also a cabinet minister, to discuss countermeasures.

The reason is simple, just because Li Dongyang and Liu Jian are both from the north!
When Liu Jian saw Li Dongyang, Li Dongyang had obviously also known the news and was sighing and groaning.

"Liu Ci Fu, Your Majesty has been attacked again in Tumubao. I'm afraid that what happened decades ago will happen again!"

"Those people in the south will definitely clamor to move the capital again. What should we do?"

As soon as Li Dongyang saw Liu Jian, he immediately frowned and chattered anxiously, unable to stop.

Liu Jian also sighed: "I came here for this very reason."

"Those officials in the south have been planning to move the capital back to Nanjing since the Yongle period."

"During the last Tumu Incident, the situation was the most critical and we almost moved the capital."

"Fortunately, Queen Mother Sun intervened and forcefully rejected the proposal to move the capital. Otherwise, those southern officials would have succeeded."

When talking about the Tumu Incident that happened decades ago, Liu Jian and Li Dongyang, two northerners, still feel a lingering fear.

"It's just that this time, Your Majesty encountered the Tumu Incident again, and there is no Empress Dowager like Empress Dowager Sun in the harem, and the current emperor has no children."

"What should we do if those southern officials ask to move the capital again?"

Li Dongyang scratched his hair irritably. He looked so anxious at the moment, completely different from his usual calm and composed appearance.

This just shows that the relocation of the capital is deeply related to Li Dongyang's interests, making him worry and anxious.

Liu Jian was right. Officials in the south had always wanted to move the capital of the Ming Dynasty from the capital back to Nanjing.

This has long been no secret in the Ming Dynasty court, and almost everyone knows it.

Since the Yongle period, officials in the south have been committed to moving the capital of the Ming Dynasty back to Nanjing.

In order to achieve this goal, many officials in the South died, but they remained unmoved and continued to work hard.

In the 18th year of Yongle, Zhu Di officially established Beijing as the capital, changing the capital of the Ming Dynasty from Nanjing to Beijing.

In the 19th year of Yongle, the Forbidden City in the capital was completed.

In the first month of the year, Zhu Di held a ceremony to worship heaven and earth and celebrate the completion of the imperial palace.

The following month, a fire broke out in the Forbidden City, which had just been completed, and burned down the three main halls of Fengtian.

In the 19th year of Yongle, Zhu Di's cabinet had seven people.

Among them, Xie Jin, Hu Guang, Hu Yan, Yang Shiqi and Jin Youzi, the five cabinet ministers, were all from Ganzhou.

The remaining two are Huang Huai and Yang Rong, one is from Zhejiangzhou and the other is from Minzhou.

There is no need to guess who set the fire; it was the angry ministers of the cabinet.

These people's land, assets, and businesses are all in the South.

Zhu Di was afraid of these southern officials, so he forcibly brought them to the north.

This made these southern officials hate Zhu Di to death.

After the burning of the three main halls of Fengtian, the six ministries, nine ministers, and censors all submitted petitions to the emperor.

Instead of comforting Zhu Di whose house was on fire, they all scolded Zhu Di for being immoral and angering God, saying that it was the fire from heaven that burned down your palace.

Zhu Di's move of the capital to Beijing was going against the will of heaven!

If Zhu Di did not want to continue to be punished by God, he should quickly move the capital back to Nanjing.

But Zhu Di was not like Zhu Yunwen, an emperor who came to power with the help of southern civil servants. At that time, he killed a group of southern civil servants who cursed him the most.

Among them, Xiao Yi, the head of the Ministry of Revenue and a native of Ganzhou, was executed by Zhu Di on the same day.

Li Shimen, a Hanlin lecturer from Ganzhou, was imprisoned by Zhu Di and almost died in prison.

Later, Yang Rong made many efforts and finally rescued him from prison in the 20th year of Yongle.

At the same time, Zhu Di set up the Dongjishi Factory to specifically monitor the cabinet and the group of civil servants in the south.

This was the first time that civil servants in the south clearly stated their intention to move back to Nanjing.

So they ultimately failed and paid a heavy price, but they never gave up.

Three years later, Zhu Di returned to the capital from the northern expedition, with only Yang Rong and Jin Youzi as his companions.

When passing through Yumuchuan, Zhu Di died suddenly, and Yang Rong and Jin Youzi kept the news secret.

Zhu Gaochi inherited the throne and became emperor.

But just after Zhu Gaochi ascended the throne, Yang Shiqi and others in the cabinet changed the capital to the temporary residence. At the same time, officials in Nanjing and the capital were swapped, officially preparing for the relocation of the capital.

But Zhu Di knew that these civil servants in the south would not live in peace, so he made plans in advance and built his Changling Mausoleum at the foot of Tianshou Mountain at the gate of Juyongguan.

The Ming Dynasty's so-called "the Son of Heaven guards the national gate and the king dies for the country" refers to Zhu Di.

Zhu Di was truly determined to defend the capital and would not take a single step back!
It was because of this incident that, although the capital had been renamed as Xingzai, Zhu Gaochi still did not dare to actually move the capital back to Nanjing.

It had been less than ten months since his father was buried, and he was already returning to Nanjing with officials from six ministries?
Will this work?

At least we have to complete the three-year mourning period before we can talk about moving the capital, right?
Although the civil officials would portray Zhu Gaochi as a wise and benevolent ruler, anyone who knew a little about history and politics would curse him to death.

Zhu Gaochi agreed to almost all the conditions of the civil officials, except returning to Nanjing!
So, the day before Zhu Gaochi's sudden death, Li Shimen went to the palace to meet Zhu Gaochi.

What the two talked about that night was not recorded in "History of Ming Dynasty", "Ming Shilu" and "Guoqie".

The only record is that Zhu Gaochi was extremely angry after hearing this and beat Li Shimen.

Li Shimen had three ribs broken and was directly sent to the Jinyiwei prison.

But the next day, Li Shimian, who had been beaten, was still drinking the medicine given to him by Yang Rong in prison.

Zhu Gaochi, who beat people, died suddenly!
It is actually easy to guess what Li Shimen said to Zhu Gaochi that night.

Li Shimen had been imprisoned by the Imperial Guard by Zhu Di because he supported the relocation of the capital.

What else could he say when he went to see Zhu Gaochi?

It was nothing more than persuading Zhu Gaochi to move the capital as soon as possible.

Moreover, judging from Zhu Gaochi's generous demeanor, Li Shimen's tone would not be too polite, and might even have threatened Zhu Gaochi.

Before his sudden death, Zhu Gaochi ordered Yang Shiqi to draft an imperial edict, urgently summoning Crown Prince Zhu Zhanji, who was still in Nanjing offering sacrifices at the Xiaoling Mausoleum, to return to the palace as soon as possible.

Because Nanjing was constantly experiencing earthquakes at the time, Zhu Gaochi sent Zhu Zhanji back to Nanjing to offer sacrifices at the Xiaoling Mausoleum to see if Emperor Taizu Gao was unhappy.

But it was too late, Zhu Gaochi died that night.

When Zhu Zhanji rushed back to the capital, Yang Shiqi took out a carefully prepared edict, in which he specifically mentioned one point: All four directions look up to me and all belong to Nanjing, which is my sincere wish.

What I mean is that everyone is looking forward to returning to Nanjing. Your father thinks so too. Don’t just stand there, let’s move the capital quickly.

Zhu Zhanji did not believe a single word of what was written on the will and kept dragging his feet, refusing to move the capital back to Nanjing.

The southern civil servants' second plan to move the capital failed again.

In the sixth year of Zhengtong, after leading the army in person, Zhu Qizhen changed the name of the capital from the temporary residence back to the capital.

This completely cut off the hopes of the civil servants in the south to move the capital.

Just when they were in despair, Zhu Qizhen gave them hope again.

In the 14th year of the Zhengtong period, the Tumu Incident broke out.

When the cabinet heard the news, they were extremely excited and their first reaction was to move the capital. The capital must be moved!
We have been waiting for decades since the Yongle period, and finally something happened to the emperor!

This capital must be moved back to Nanjing!
The cabinet in the 14th year of Zhengtong consisted of five people: Chen Xun, Miao Zhong, Gao Gu, Peng Shi, and Shang Lu.

These five people are all from Jiangnan!

Unfortunately, in the harem at that time, there was also the most cruel and evil queen of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zhanji’s second queen, Sun.

The Sun family controlled the Imperial Household Department, and they were from Luzhou.

Why would she, a northerner, follow a bunch of southerners back to Nanjing?
In Beijing, Sun was also able to control the Imperial Household Department and the harem.

After arriving in Nanjing, there were southern civil servants everywhere. What could she control?
Therefore, as soon as the cabinet's memorial requesting the relocation of the capital was sent to the Imperial Household Department, it was vetoed by Empress Dowager Sun.

Empress Dowager Sun single-handedly crushed the conspiracy of southern civil officials to move the capital back to Nanjing.

Southern officials failed once again.

Until today, they once again see hope of moving the capital.

If they don't mention the relocation of the capital this time, Liu Jian and Li Dongyang will write their names backwards!

Liu Jian pondered for a moment, and suddenly said: "Isn't there still a Zhou in the harem now?"

"She is from Changping, the capital. She will never agree to move the capital."

"If she and the Imperial Household Department work together, we can follow the example of Empress Dowager Sun and stop the southern officials from moving the capital!"

Li Dongyang was stunned, then opened his mouth in shock.

"But...but His Majesty has already stripped Zhou of her title. She...she is no longer the Grand Empress Dowager!"

"Your Majesty's life or death is unknown now. As long as our cabinet says she is the Grand Empress Dowager, then she is the Grand Empress Dowager!"

Li Dongyang took a deep breath, his pupils filled with shock.

Liu Jian turned his head and looked at the gradually darkening sky outside. He frowned deeply and felt extremely worried.

"It's getting late. We'd better hurry up and go to the palace to welcome Empress Dowager Zhou."

"If we let those southern officials gain the upper hand, we'll be in danger!"

(End of this chapter)