The Ming Dynasty: A bookstore sells the history of the Ming Dynasty, leaving Emperor Chongzhen bewil

"We have already discussed the origins of the Donglin Party and the eunuch party. We have found that neither the Donglin Party, which appears to represent justice, nor the eunuch party, which appears to represent evil, were actually benevolent."

"After Chongzhen eliminated the eunuch faction and rehabilitated the Donglin Party, the Donglin Party once again became the dominant force."

"After the Donglin Party gained dominance, they started attacking and eliminating anyone who wasn't a member of the Donglin Party. Anyone who disobeyed or had objections was labeled a eunuch, ultimately making it impossible for them to accomplish anything."

"Take Mao Wenlong for example. Comrade Mao Wenlong actually did a pretty good job in Liaodong. He stationed himself on Pi Island in Korea, harassed the Later Jin from time to time, accepted Liaodong people who fled from the Later Jin, and trained soldiers, promoted education, trade, and land reclamation. He managed the small Pi Island very well, built a sea line to blockade the Later Jin, and harassed Huang Taiji from time to time, making Huang Taiji very uncomfortable and regarded him as a major threat."

"However, the officials in the court did not think so. They believed that he was arrogant and lawless, and that he was engaging in empty work and misappropriating funds, making it difficult for him to effectively restrain the Later Jin. Therefore, they advocated moving the garrison. Yuan Chonghuan's execution of Mao Wenlong was inseparable from this unfavorable public opinion atmosphere. Moreover, he had also consulted with the cabinet minister Qian Longxi."

Emperor Chongzhen nodded repeatedly as he listened. At that moment, he only regretted not having brought a notebook with him, because Zhu Ziming had given him so much information that he was afraid of missing something.

Zhu Ziming didn't pay much attention to these things; after all, it's just a chat, and you can go with the flow.

"When talking about Grand Secretary Qian Longxi, we have to mention the Chongzhen Emperor's cabinet."

"After completely eliminating the eunuch faction, Chongzhen was full of ambition and planned to rebuild the cabinet and revitalize the Ming Dynasty. However, when he selected more than a dozen candidates, the officials started arguing again, saying that this one had problems and that one was a spy. This made Chongzhen's head explode. Who should he choose? No matter who he chose, people would criticize him and there would be problems with who he chose."

"The endless arguing started again, and in the end, Chongzhen had no choice but to say that they should just draw lots and let Heaven decide who drew the winning lot. That way, everyone would stop arguing. Isn't that ingenious? Isn't that fair?"

"But for a country's cabinet to be decided by drawing lots, isn't that ridiculous? Isn't that absurd?"

Zhu Ziming's question wasn't actually directed at him, but to Chongzhen, it sounded more than just a direct interrogation; it was an open and blatant attack.

This made Emperor Chongzhen's expression very unpleasant.

Because not long ago, he had just established a new cabinet in this way, which included Qian Longxi, whom Zhu Ziming had just mentioned.

"So why is this happening? Why has the dignified court of a nation degenerated into such a childish game?"

"This was all caused by Emperor Chongzhen."

"He went to extremes to exterminate the eunuch faction, creating the Donglin Party's dominance. They wanted to control the court, and non-Donglin Party officials, in order to protect themselves, formed factions based on their regions and led by high-ranking officials. For a time, the court was filled with factions such as the Xuan Party, the Zhejiang Party, the Chu Party, and the Qi Party, and the court was in complete chaos. The struggle gradually evolved from the original cabinet and departmental struggles and factional struggles into a factional struggle, which further escalated in scale, became more serious in nature, and had a more severe impact."

"This created the terrible political environment I mentioned earlier, where the emperor suspected his ministers and the ministers attacked each other. They did nothing but argue all day long. None of the tasks assigned by Chongzhen could be completed. The efficiency was extremely low. Chongzhen could only keep changing people, but it was of no use."

"In the very end, he finally understood his brother's good intentions, so he also began to employ the eunuch faction, but by then it was too late."

Emperor Chongzhen's expression was solemn.

He really listened to what Zhu Ziming said and was seriously reflecting on it.

Zhu Ziming was unaware of these things, but every word and comment he made could potentially have a significant and far-reaching impact on a certain period of history.

If he knew, perhaps he would be much more careful with his words and actions, but he isn't.

Zhu Ziming continued, "From the small things we see, we can see that Chongzhen was an emperor with many excellent qualities. He had good personal virtues, was diligent and frugal, ambitious and responsible, and also had great backbone."

"But none of this was enough, because he failed to revitalize the Ming Dynasty and instead caused its demise. In the end, his achievements were extremely poor."

It's terrible, extremely terrible.

These words constantly irritated Chongzhen's nerves. He admitted that the Ming Dynasty had fallen in his hands, but he had also proclaimed before its demise, "I am not the ruler who brought about the downfall of the country; all my ministers are ministers who brought about the downfall of the country." He was unwilling to admit that he was the ruler who brought about the downfall of the country, which shows that he still had his own pride.

But now Zhu Ziming says his political achievements are extremely poor, isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?

Zhu Ziming said, "Just how bad is it? Let's make a comparison and you'll understand."

"During the reign of Emperor Tianqi, the Ming army achieved a great victory at Ningyuan in the battle against the Later Jin, which severely damaged the morale of the Later Jin and indirectly caused the death of Nurhaci. In the victory at Ningjin, the Ming army, under the command of Yuan Chonghuan, Zhao Shuaijiao and others, once again relied on the city's defenses to repel the aggressive Huang Taiji. During this period, the Later Jin still repeatedly bypassed the Mongols to invade the interior, but were all repelled by the Ming army. The Ming Dynasty's defense line in Liaodong did not collapse during the Tianqi era, but instead formed a stalemate with the Later Jin."

"During Chongzhen's reign, there were almost no victories in the battles against the Later Jin. The Jisi Incident allowed Huang Taiji to march directly to the capital. In the Battle of Dalinghe, the Ming army suffered a crushing defeat, and the elite Guan Jin defense line was disintegrated. In the Battle of Songjin, Hong Chengchou led the main force of the Ming army to a decisive battle and suffered a crushing defeat. The Ming Dynasty lost the last barrier in Liaodong, and the Qing army's entry into the pass was a foregone conclusion."

"Therefore, in terms of the crucial point of resisting the Later Jin, the Chongzhen era was far inferior to the Tianqi era in terms of the actual results achieved."

"Everyone says that Emperor Tianqi was incompetent, a carpenter emperor who favored eunuchs, and brought chaos to the country. He was the most incompetent emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Then what about Emperor Chongzhen, whose foreign war record was far inferior to Emperor Tianqi's?"

"From this perspective, Emperor Chongzhen wasn't just incompetent, he wasn't even worthy of being called incompetent?"