Chapter Thirty-Six Early Morning

  When Princess He Pu left, Wei Zhao flattered: "Your Majesty's love for the princess is truly excessive, enough to be a model for all people under heaven."

  Without heeding Wei Zhongxian's flattering words, Emperor Taichang frowned and asked: "Don't mention those things I entrusted to you, how did they turn out?"

  Nodding vigorously, Wei Chao replied cautiously: "I will report back to Your Majesty, it has been taken care of."

  "What about those who leaned towards the Empress Dowager?" Tianqi Emperor stared tightly at Wei Zhongxian, his face cold and stern.

  "Those slaves have already been arranged, Your Majesty, would you like to review them?" Wei Chao took out a book and held it up with both hands.

  "It's not necessary, you can handle these people." The Tianqi Emperor waved his hand, he himself was not bothered to manage such things. What he cared about was only Li Xuan, as long as her fangs were removed, it would be fine. As for those who ran to the Empress Dowager to prepare for their retirement, he naturally wouldn't ask too much.

  The day before, Tianqi ordered Wei Chao to not only thoroughly investigate and clean up the palace, but also secretly eliminate the eunuchs and palace maids who were loyal to Li Xuan. Since Wei Chao said so, it seemed that the task was accomplished.

  "Your Majesty, it's time to go to court." An old eunuch came to the side of Emperor Tianqi and said in a low voice. This eunuch was named Chen Hong, who had just been selected by the Eastern Depot to serve Emperor Tianqi, or rather, he was personally appointed by Emperor Tianqi himself. There was no special reason for this, because Chen Hong was an expert.

  In later generations, countless films and television shows mentioned some masters, even the legendary "Kuihua Baodian". Two days ago, Emperor Tianqi suddenly remembered this matter and asked Wang An about it.

  Unexpectedly, this Chen Hong was indeed the eunuch with the highest martial arts skills in the palace, who had cultivated hard qigong and eagle claw technique as well as iron sand palm. Although he was disappointed that there was no "Kuihua Baojian" (a legendary martial arts manual), he was already very pleased to have found such a person. He pulled him to his side, not only could he protect his own safety, but also learn a few moves from him.

  This Chen Hong was originally from a declining family, and at the age of six, he fainted from hunger on the side of the road. Unexpectedly, after waking up, he became a eunuch. Although he was furious, there was no other choice but to enter the palace.

  After arriving at the imperial palace, with a lot of time on his hands, he resumed practicing the martial arts skills he had learned from home. Since there were many martial arts classics in the imperial palace as well, this practice lasted for forty years, and naturally, his skills reached an unfathomable depth.

  The Tianqi Emperor had personally witnessed that Chen Hong could punch a hole in the wall with one palm, and if he punched a person, there would only be one outcome. Fortunately, after decades of time, Chen Hong's loyalty to the emperor was almost as good as that of the heretics, otherwise the Tianqi Emperor really wouldn't have dared to use him.

  He glanced at Chen Hong and nodded slightly, although he was unwilling to go, but there was no way, after all, it had been three days, and not attending court immediately after ascending the throne would be somewhat embarrassing.

  When he arrived at the Palace of Heavenly Purity, all the ministers were already waiting here. Looking at the kneeling ministers below, Emperor Tianqi still felt a wave of excitement in his heart.

  "With a drum roll at dawn, the assembly disperses at dusk." As Chen Hong's voice rang out, the morning court session began, but soon Tianqi Emperor's good mood on his first morning court session was gone.

  Endless trivial matters, endless annoying things all came to the Tianqi Emperor, and finally fell on the body of Fang Congzhe, the chief minister of the Grand Council. At this time, the Tianqi Emperor had already felt that something was wrong, what's going on with these guys? These small things should not be brought here for discussion, they should be handled by the university scholars in the cabinet and then reviewed by himself. As for the daily court meeting, it was supposed to discuss some major events, but now what's going on?

  Looking at the old god in the square from afar, Tianqi Emperor suddenly felt strange, what is this going to do?

  The Emperor suddenly remembered a decree from yesterday, which was on the desk of Zu Guangdou. It was only then that he understood what was going on. He had been busy with palace affairs for days and had forgotten one very important thing - rewarding those who helped him ascend to the throne. For those who assisted him in becoming emperor, it was natural to give them rewards and let them obtain what they wanted.

  "Let the cabinet handle these matters! I have just ascended to the throne and many things are still unclear. But one thing is clear: those who have merit will be rewarded, and those who have faults will be punished. The cabinet should quickly come up with a plan for this matter, rewarding the meritorious and punishing the guilty, and then quickly issue it." Looking at the ministers below him who had closed their mouths in obedience, Emperor Tianqi knew that his words had struck home, and that they were using these trivial matters to bother him just to make him go back on his promise of rewards. He believed that there would be more than one person coming to ask for rewards, but Emperor Tianqi just hadn't seen them yet.

  Time passed slowly like this, and three days later, the cabinet came up with a reward program, which should be a reward program. In this event, most of the ministers were meritorious, after all, there was that one who had been **.

  Gently tapping on the table, staring at the folded paper in front of him, quietly pondering. The reward on the folded paper was only for twenty or so people. The number seemed quite suitable, but these people did not satisfy Emperor Tianqi. He couldn't help but slowly sink into contemplation, mentioning the late Ming dynasty and the reign of Tianqi, the most famous thing being the party struggle.

  Because of Yang Lian's achievements in the case of moving the palace, Emperor Tianqi began to trust Donglin Party and reinstated all the Donglin Party members who were demoted during the late Wanli period. As Ye Zhigao, the leader of the Donglin Party, became the chief minister of the Grand Secretariat, the Donglin Party basically controlled the court. The Qi-Zhe-Chu party, which was originally competing with the Donglin Party, fell into a passive position due to Fang Zongxian's departure. This led to the Qi-Zhe-Chu party joining forces with Wei Zhongxian and becoming the Eunuch Party.

  In the subsequent struggle, the Donglin Party ultimately failed to defeat the Eunuch Party. With the death of Yang Lian and other seven gentlemen, the Donglin Party was thoroughly defeated. However, when Chongzhen ascended to the throne, the Donglin Party once again began its path to power. These Donglin Party members, who were full of righteousness and morality, made Chongzhen believe that all officials in the world were readers of sacred books and were not corrupt good officials.

  But when the Qing army entered the pass, what were these officials doing? They surrendered, defected and betrayed their country.

  In the late Ming dynasty, party struggles almost became the main thing in the imperial court. It was said that it was a dispute over ruling opinions, but in fact, it would be more appropriate to say that it was a dispute over local interests.

  The Donglin Party represents the interests of those large landowners and big businessmen in the southeast, most of whom are local tyrants who annex land, smuggle, and engage in maritime trade. It can be said that every family is rich and oily, but they always think about not paying taxes, so the Donglin Party advocates for heavy agriculture and suppression of commerce, hiding wealth among the people.

  In fact, the emperor of this era misunderstood the concept of "emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce". Emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce does not mean heavily taxing farmers, but rather lightly or even not taxing merchants. The Donglin Party distorted this theory, claiming that agriculture is the main source of national taxation and should be heavily taxed, while the status of merchants is lowly and should be lightly taxed.