Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 205: Announce to the World that I am Here

Killing all the millions of soldiers in Jiangnan, the sword around his waist is still bloody.

When it comes to the desire for killing, Zhu Yuanzhang is second to none among the founding emperors of all dynasties.

During the Hongwu period, only the Hu Weiyong case was uncovered, and the other three major cases did not occur. It was not because Zhu was merciful, but because Zhu Yunfeng solved the problem for him, so there was no need to uncover the other three major cases.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang had a ferocious tiger in his heart. If he killed not enough people during the Hongwu period, he had to make up for it during the Chongzhen period.

As soon as he entered the city, he shot and killed more than a dozen officials who came to greet him, and then ordered the arrest and killing of the rest of the officials who later surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.

After receiving the order, Han Zanzhou and Shi Kefa immediately dispatched troops and began to arrest people.

Although the troops in Nanjing were under the command of Zhao Zhilong, the main power was actually in the hands of Han Zanzhou.

In the list of four people, the garrison eunuch, as the emperor's confidant, is ranked first and has the power to make decisions on matters.

Historically, the reason why Han Zanzhou's power was hollowed out by Ma Shiying was because Beijing fell and Chongzhen committed suicide, so Han Zanzhou lost the support of the upper imperial power.

Nanjing did not have many troops, and its main forces were concentrated in Fengyang Prefecture on the north bank of the Yangtze River, which was commanded by Ma Shiying. Huang Degong, Gao Jie, Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo from the four towns in northern Jiangsu also obeyed his orders.

In this situation, Han Zanzhou lost his imperial power and military power, and only had a nominal status. Naturally, his power was replaced by Ma Shiying.

Even Shi Kefa was eventually squeezed out of the Hongguang court by Ma Shiying.

In the final analysis, after the collapse of the original order, whoever controls the military power controls the power.

Shi Kefa and others could not reach a consensus with Ma Shiying, which led to serious internal strife in the small Southern Ming court.

But we are not there yet.

Chongzhen did not commit suicide, the Ming Dynasty had not yet perished, and the Qing army had not entered the pass.

In addition, the person who held power was Zhu Yuanzhang, so Han Zanzhou was able to quickly mobilize the forces in the city and arrest people according to the list.

The soldiers in the city were dumbfounded.

Apart from some officials, who is on these lists?

Xu Yunjue, the son of Duke of Wei, Zhang Guobi, the Duke of Baoguo, Zhang Gongri, the Marquis of Longping, Li Zushu, the Marquis of Linhuai, Sun Weicheng, the Marquis of Huaining, Tang Guozuo, the Marquis of Lingbi, Liu Zuochang, the Marquis of Anyuan, Xu Hongjue, the Marquis of Yongchang, Deng Wenyou, the Marquis of Dingyuan, Chang Yingjun, the Earl of Xiangcheng, Zou Cunyi, the Earl of Daxing, Liu Yunji, the Earl of Ningjin, Fang Yiyuan, the Earl of Nanhe, Jiao Mengxiong, the Earl of Dongning, Zhang Guocai, the Earl of Ancheng, Huang Jiuding, the Earl of Luozhong, and Guo Zuoyong, the Earl of Cheng'an.
Which one of these can these soldiers catch?
It can be said that arresting the above-mentioned people is almost no less than a coup and purge, and the scope of involvement is so wide that all the nobles and more than one-third of the officials in the entire city of Nanjing are included.

However, Han Zanzhou and Shi Kefa took a tough stance, saying that this was the emperor's will, so the soldiers had no choice but to work reluctantly.

But they soon saw what arrogance and domineering meant.

Jiang Li, the deputy commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, was in charge of the emperor's personal army and was also a close attendant of the Ming Dynasty's Taizu. When facing these nobles, he treated them like lambs to be slaughtered.

They rushed forward recklessly, breaking into the residences of the nobles, and anyone who dared to stop them was shot dead. In just half a day, when the sky darkened, the entire city of Nanjing seemed to be shrouded in blood, and at least hundreds of people were executed.

Nanjing was bustling and bustling in the morning, but by the afternoon the weather seemed to have changed drastically.

The people in the city also noticed something was wrong. The streets, which should have been bustling with activity, suddenly became deserted. Every household closed their businesses and the streets became deserted in an instant.

"what happened?"

"Who knows? Suddenly, many soldiers came to the streets to arrest people."

"Who were they arrested?"

"It seems like they rushed to the residences of the nobles."

"Did you know that more than ten bodies of officials suddenly appeared in the Qinhuai River this morning?"

"Of course I know. I heard someone reported it to the authorities. The Yingtian Prefecture government sent people to investigate, but the Garrison Prefecture and the Ministry of War sent official documents telling them not to get involved."

"Oh my god, look. Isn't that the prince of the Duke of Wei? What's going on? There will be another one later. It's the Duke of Baoguo."

In the streets and markets of Nanjing City, in many closed houses, pairs of curious eyes were secretly looking out at the streets through the gaps in the doors on the first floor or through the slightly opened windows on the second floor.

At this moment, there were almost no people on the streets, only soldiers who were arresting the nobles who had once acted recklessly and arrogantly in Nanjing City, as if they were going to confiscate their property and exterminate their entire families.

Soon it was evening. After most of the day's search, Han Zanzhou and Shi Kefa returned to the Nanjing Palace and reported the results of the operation to Zhu Yuanzhang.

It was just before dusk, and the setting sun shone on the glazed tiles of the Forbidden City in Nanjing, creating a shimmering orange-red glow.

Inside the Fengtian Hall, a ray of setting sun shone through the gate in the west and into the hall, stretching the shadows of the many ministers standing in the hall extremely long, and making them seem as if they were bathed in golden light.

On the upper side of the hall directly in front of them, Old Zhu himself hid in the shadows, with a calm face, looking down at the ministers below and listening to their reports, as if he had no emotional fluctuations at all.

"Your Majesty, this is the list of noble officials that have been captured in Nanjing. There are a total of 134 people. In addition, some rebels were beheaded on the spot, and the rest have been imprisoned."

Han Zanzhou reported the situation to Lao Zhu and handed the list of people who had been arrested to Zhu Yunfeng.

Zhu Yunfeng handed the list to Old Zhu.

Old Zhu flipped through the pages and found that in addition to the hundred people, there were hundreds more people killed. They were all servants and slaves of the nobles. The Qinhuai River seemed to be dyed red with blood.

"I would like to thank the Qing Dynasty Emperor Qianlong. If he hadn't compiled the Biography of Traitors, it would have been difficult to compile this list."

Throwing the list on the ground, Old Zhu said calmly: "But the "Bi Chen Zhuan" only includes some relatively famous people, or those who have made great contributions to the Jian Nu. The rest of those who surrendered to the Jian Nu are countless. It's just that they are not famous, or they did not make any contributions to the Jian Nu after surrendering, so they were not uploaded. However, this does not mean that I will let them go. Even if I check the historical materials again and again, and I go back and forth in the long river of history many times to look for them, I will find them one by one and kill them as soon as possible!"

These calm words, laced with murderous intent, frightened the people below.

Taizu’s murderous aura was too strong.

I'm afraid that if all the people and officials in the city surrendered, he wouldn't mind killing everyone.

"Your Majesty said so."

Shi Kefa said hurriedly: "Such traitors must be wiped out to set the record straight. However, there are still many people on the list who are not in Nanjing, so..."

"It doesn't matter."

Old Zhu slowly leaned back in his chair and said calmly, "Order all places to search for them. Those who are captured will be interrogated by the Jinyiwei to investigate their corruption and abuse of power. We will continue to investigate and try to find evidence of their collusion with landlords, evil gentry and wealthy merchants in Jiangnan. The more the better. I will leave this matter to you. I don't know if you have ever been corrupt, but you have died for your country. If you have been corrupt, it will be written off for the time being. So you have to do this matter carefully. I believe you understand what I mean."

Shi Kefa, Han Zanzhou and others shuddered all over.

This is a massive collective punishment.

But soon after, Shi Kefa, Zhang Shenyan, Jiang Riguang and other Donglin Party members showed joy on their faces.

Because solving the problem of land annexation was one of the Donglin Party's propositions. For example, when Zhang Shenyan served as the governor of Jifu, he reclaimed a large amount of land and distributed it to the people to promote agricultural production.

Therefore, the Donglin Party actually supported this directive.

Zhang Shenyan immediately asked, "Your Majesty, I would like to ask, if the property and land are confiscated, what should be done with it?"

"What Lü Daqi, Li Qiande, and Chen Shiqi did in Huguang and Sichuan is what you should do in Yingtian. You can discuss how to do it. Remember, I want the result."

Lao Zhu said calmly.

"Yes."

Everyone bowed in agreement.

Old Zhu said again: "This time I came here to do three things. The first one is already being done. Now it's time to talk about the second one."

"I am all ears."

Everyone gave up.

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "I have traveled through time and space and found that the Ming Dynasty has many shortcomings, and even the root of many problems is me. These must be solved. In addition, the Ming Dynasty fell due to party struggles. The eunuch party and the Donglin party fought endlessly, which led to national problems and poverty. Even after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, when they arrived in Nanjing, Shi Kefa, Ma Shiying and others continued to fight for their party, causing the situation to deteriorate and being defeated by the Jiannu. Therefore, I must do something to save the Ming Dynasty from disaster."

Shi Kefa and others were stunned, and suddenly felt something was wrong.

But there was no rebuke as expected. Old Zhu continued, "From now on, I don't want to see any eunuch party, Chu party, Zhejiang party, Donglin party, etc. You all died for your country later, but in the southern court you established, you have been fighting internally, which is a move that harms the country and the people. From today on, I don't need you to have any opinions or fights. I just want you to do one thing, that is, listen to my will. You do whatever I want you to do. If you dare to question me or attack each other endlessly, don't blame me for not thinking of you as loyal ministers who died for your country!" "Your subjects obey your orders."

Shi Kefa and others below immediately breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that Zhu Yuanzhang was also going to start taking action against the Donglin Party.

In fact, Lao Zhu had no intention of killing all the people from different parties.

Because if we kill them all there will be no one left.

This was the officialdom of the late Ming Dynasty. If you didn't join any party and wanted to remain neutral and alone, that was unrealistic.

The ancient imperial examinations paid attention to classmates, colleagues and guest mentors.

You will most likely have to join the same party as your visiting mentor, otherwise it will be difficult for you to make progress in the officialdom.

Therefore, the factional struggles during the Tianqi and Chongzhen dynasties were very serious.

By the late Chongzhen period, Chongzhen seemed to have resolved the factional disputes by eliminating the Eunuch Party, the Donglin Party and other factions, and replacing them with Wen Tihen, who was apparently non-partisan.

But in fact, Wen Tihen was a member of the eunuch party in his early years. He started his career by bribing the eunuch party member Cui Chengxiu, and also built a shrine for Wei Zhongxian.

Therefore, the officials in the officialdom now are either from the Donglin Party or from the Chu Party, Zhejiang Party, Qi Party and the like under the former eunuch party. There are very few who want to keep themselves out of trouble.

Like Shi Kefa, a member of the Donglin Party.

Lu Daqi, who sympathized with the Donglin Party, was also labeled a member of the Donglin Party.

Ma Shiying was a close friend of Ruan Dacheng, a member of the eunuch party.

Liu Kongzhao, the Marquis of Chengyi, had many conflicts with the Donglin people. In order to get the post of Caojiang, he impeached Hou Xun, flattered Wen Tiren, attacked Ni Yuanlu for resigning, and became friendly with Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng.

It can be said that when the Southern Ming Hongguang regime was just established, the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party had already begun to clash over the issue of whether to establish Prince Fu or Prince Lu.

The Donglin Party had offended Prince Fu's lineage in the dispute over the country's foundation, so naturally they were unwilling to establish Prince Fu.

Prince Fu was on good terms with the eunuch party.

The result was a foreshadowing of a power struggle between the Donglin Party headed by Shi Kefa and the Eunuch Party headed by Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng, which marked the beginning of the internal strife in the Southern Ming Dynasty.

Ruan Dacheng was bound to die, and Qian Qianyi was bound to die as well. With people being arrested everywhere today, it would be difficult for the two of them to escape.

However, the fierce party struggles that had begun since the Wanli period had to come to an end.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't want any factional strife to occur under his leadership. Even though Shi Kefa and Ma Shiying had died for their country, if they still dared to make trouble, he wouldn't mind giving them a decent end.

Seeing that Old Zhu didn't kill the Donglin Party, Ji He, who was standing next to Zhu Yunfeng, was a little puzzled and asked, "Isn't it said that the Donglin Party is a disaster for the country and the people? Why didn't the old ancestor kill them?"

"I asked you to study more, but you slacked off."

Zhu Yunfeng took the opportunity to tease Ji He and immediately laughed in a low voice: "Read less street literature. The Donglin Party has been badly criticized. It can only be said that they did cause party disputes and led to political turmoil in the Ming Dynasty. But in terms of the degree of harm, the Eunuch Party is much more serious than the Donglin Party."

"what?"

Ji He was dumbfounded and said, "Then I've read a lot of time-travel novels. When one travels back in time to Chongzhen, they immediately kill the Donglin Party and then recruit Wei Zhongxian?"

“So they are all victims of street literature.”

Zhu Yunfeng explained: "You may not know that the Donglin Party is actually a group of idealists. They advocate honesty and integrity, revitalize the administration of officials, open up channels for speech, eliminate the accumulated malpractices in the court and the public, and oppose the corruption and abuse of power by the powerful. They require officials and gentry to pay taxes together, and even hope to investigate the land of the landlords and gentry in Jiangnan and find a way to solve the serious problem of land annexation. On the other hand, the eunuch party is actually the representative of the Jiangnan gentry in the court. Not only are they corrupt themselves, they also help the Jiangnan gentry evade taxes and engage in money-for-power transactions. Which one do you think is good and which one is bad?"

"This"

Ji He was even more dumbfounded.

He never expected that the Donglin Party, which was later called a disaster to the country and the people, was actually such a group of people.

But why did the Donglin Party become so badly reputed in later generations that everyone wanted to kill them?
Ji He was puzzled and asked Zhu Yunfeng the reason.

Zhu Yunfeng said, "It's very simple. First of all, the Donglin Party is actually a small party with only a few hundred people. Including those who sympathize with the Donglin Party, there are only a few hundred people. Compared with the huge group of officials from the south of the Ming Dynasty, it is just a drop in the ocean. It's just that they are very good at talking and fighting, so they are very famous. But the fact is that they belong to the Qingliu faction, they are relatively honest, and hope to investigate corruption and reform the administration. As a result, they offended a large number of officials represented by the gentry class, including the Chu Party, the Zhejiang Party, and the Qi Party. These people are numerous and powerful, and they band together to resist the Donglin Party. With the Jiangnan gentry to build momentum for them, how good can their reputation be?"

"So that's how it is. It seems that the Donglin Party has touched the pie of the vested interests and has been smeared. What else?"

Ji He asked again.

"Secondly, it's not a smear campaign. They did harm the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Yunfeng shook his head and said, "They are only good at talking nonsense. At the end of the Tianqi period and the beginning of the Chongzhen period, the Donglin Party was in power for a short period of time, but it was useless."

"The class enemies were too powerful, and they could not achieve the ideal of honest government. In addition, there were traitors among them, and they themselves were not very clean. They used all their political power to suppress political enemies and did not govern the country well, which led to the loss of Chongzhen's trust. As a result, the Donglin Party was dismissed in large numbers."

"They had good intentions, but they used them in the wrong place. It could also be that the situation was already too bad to change at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the emergence of a few idealists could not change reality at all, so their existence could not change anything. On the contrary, the continuous struggle with the eunuch party made the political situation unstable, the state affairs became more corrupt, and there was no way to solve the problem."

"In the final analysis, they are just a group of scholars who have ideals but no ability. They only know how to fight for their own party. It would be better for the eunuch party to be in power, at least they can get some money for Chongzhen. From the perspective of modern people, they can be said to be the typical example of scholars ruining the country."

At the end, Zhu Yunfeng curled his lips.

Many people thought that the Donglin Party represented the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River and was the spokesperson for the southern landlord class in the court.

The opposite is true.

Their political proposition is to deal with the landlords in the South and to eliminate corruption.

But nine out of ten officials in the late Ming Dynasty were corrupt. If you want to investigate corruption, wouldn't that be the end of their lives?

Therefore, the various parties naturally banded together and attacked the Donglin Party, constantly slandering them, demonizing the Donglin Party, and even calling them an evil party.

Later generations believed rumors and did not actually understand the specific situation. Over time, the Donglin Party became very unpopular in later generations.

However, the eunuch party, who were corrupt and engaged in money-for-power transactions, were regarded as the saviors of the Ming Dynasty.

I have to say, this is also a kind of irony.

But to a certain extent, the Donglin Party did mislead the country and the people.

Not only do they lack the ability, but they also want to fight for power and profit. Instead of doing their work every day, they impeach this and that, and engage in endless party struggles. Since the Wanli period, they have intensified political turmoil, so it is normal for him to be criticized.

But for Lao Zhu, he doesn't have so many troubles.

Are you, the Donglin Party, and the Eunuch Party fighting for power?
That also requires you to have the power to fight for it.

I, Zhu Yuanzhang, am here, and you still want power?
Just dream.

I am here, no matter who you are, you have to behave like a dog. What I say is what it is, and you have no right to interrupt.

So no matter whether you are from the Donglin Party or the Eunuch Party, if you surrender to the enemy and sell out your country, I will kill you.

For example, Ruan Dacheng was a member of the eunuch party, and Qian Qianyi was a member of the Donglin Party, but since both of you have surrendered to the enemy, you will have to die no matter what party you belong to.

You are a loyal minister who died for your country, so I will spare your life.

For example, Shi Kefa and Ma Shiying, although there were constant party struggles, as long as you died for your country, I will give you a chance.

Thinking about the problem with such a simple and crude idea is not that complicated. Under Zhu's leadership, there is naturally no party struggle.

“This third thing is also the most important thing.”

After talking about the party struggle, Zhu Yuanzhang looked calm, looked down and said: "I want you to announce to the world that I am here! I want to make the South submit. Do you understand?"

"Sir, you understand!"

All of a sudden.

Lu Daqi, Chen Shiqi, Li Qiande and others from Huguang and Sichuan became excited and bowed to Zhu.

His Majesty Taizu is finally going to rule the world and announce his arrival to the world!
(End of this chapter)