Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 226 Party Struggle

The weather in June had gradually become hot and humid. Late at night, after Meng Jun finished his official business, he stood alone in the courtyard, feeling the cool breeze and mixed emotions in his heart. The longer he stayed in Jinling City, the more bored he felt.

As a latecomer, Meng Jun's advantage in historical foresight has gradually disappeared. The more he does, the greater the variables in history become, and the more uncertain the future becomes. Time rolls forward, it is not clay that can be manipulated by anyone, and history has changed beyond recognition.

In history, Jin Shengheng and Li Chengdong's rebellion was short-lived, and the Ming Dynasty's revival was shattered like a bubble. But now, the Qing court's rule in the entire south is only limited to Huguang and Sichuan, and these two places are not peaceful. The major wars have temporarily ceased, but small wars continue. This is different from the history that after Jin and Li's rebellion, the Qing court still held a great advantage in the south.

Nowadays, most of the southern troops are no longer in a position of disloyalty, but how can the Yongli Emperor and his ministers control these surrendered generals who are indecisive? In name, Li Chengdong, Jin Shengheng, and even Sun Kewang and other surrendered Western Army troops all regard the Ming court as a cover, and there is chaos within the court. In Meng Jun's opinion, civil war will break out in the Yongli court within half a year.

Watching the moonlight gently sprinkled in the courtyard, Meng Jun murmured in a low voice: "Heaven will give great responsibilities to this person. This world can only be saved by me!"

…………

Anlong Mansion.

At this moment in the Anlong Mansion Palace, the sound of quarreling was about to break through the roof of this simple palace.

In this turbulent and stormy era, although the officials of the Yongli court fled in a panic and lived in a state of constant fear, there was still one important thing they did not abandon, and that was party strife!

With the fall of the North, the North-South factional struggles disappeared, and were replaced by infighting between the Wu and Chu parties in the South.

After Li Dingguo defeated Sun Qi, expelled Kong Youde, and recovered Guilin, Emperor Yongli ordered all ministers to go to the Imperial Ancestral Temple first and swear to work together to save the country and recover the lost territory. This also shows that Emperor Yongli wanted his ministers to stop the endless disputes and work together for the sake of state affairs. Unfortunately, it was of no avail.

Those belonging to the Wu party included cabinet minister Zhu Tianlin, Vice Minister of Personnel Wu Zhenyu, Imperial Censor Zhang Xiaoqi, Li Yongji, as well as Wang Huacheng, Wan Xiang, Lei Defu, Chen Bangbo, Cheng Yuan of Sichuan, Guo Zhiqi of Guangdong, and Governor-General Du Yinxi who was still in charge of the Eastern Expedition.

The main figures belonging to the Chu Party include Yuan Pengnian, Ding Shikui, Meng Zhengfa, and Liu Xiangke from Shaanxi. In addition, Qu Shisi, who was credited with supporting the enthronement of the emperor, was also a representative figure of the Chu Party.

Although there were outsiders from the two parties in the court, generally speaking, "most of those who came with the emperor from Hunan and Guangxi and were from the school of the governor (He Tengjiao) and Qu Shisi returned to Chu.

The Chu Party was quite active in the small Yongli court. Among them, Yuan Pengnian was a leader in rectifying the rules and regulations, being cautious about reputation and positions, and was constantly entangled in disputes over status and qualifications.

The Chu faction was aggressive and impulsive, leaving little room for maneuver in the factional struggle. They started the prelude to the Wu-Chu factional struggle by attacking Chen Bangfu.

Chen Bangfu was a person whom even Li Chengdong despised. Chen Bangbo was afraid of Li Chengdong's military power and secretly submitted a letter of surrender. However, Li Chengdong was already dissatisfied with the Qing court at that time and temporarily had no time to pay attention to Chen Bangbo.

Chen Bangbo took the opportunity to spread the word everywhere: "Xun and Qing have not shaved their heads, and they are comparable to Fenyang (Fenyang King Guo Ziyi)". He compared himself to Guo Ziyi, a famous general in the Tang Dynasty, for his great achievements. He threatened Yongli to make him the hereditary governor of Guangxi.

The first person to start the rebellion was Jin Bao, courtesy name Wei Gong, alias Dao Yin. He was a Jinshi in the 13th year of Chongzhen, and served as the prefect of Linqing, Shandong. During the Longwu reign, he was appointed as the Minister of Rites. During the Yongli reign, Qu Shisi requested to summon Jin Bao to the court because of his talent.

As soon as he arrived at Anlong Prefecture, Jin Bao wrote a letter to Emperor Yongli sharply impeaching Chen Bangfu and Ma Jixiang.

The words were fierce, and Emperor Yongli was very unhappy when he read the memorial. Ma Jixiang, who saw the memorial first, was even more furious. He immediately said that "the dangerous words provoked the two palaces in order to capture the fortress." This led to the two Empress Dowagers to intervene.

Emperor Yongli immediately drafted a strict decree: "Severely punish the fortress and order it to serve quietly."

But a single stone can cause a thousand ripples. Chen Bangfu was particularly resentful of Jin Bao. He submitted two memorials to attack Jin Bao and spread rumors that Jin Bao "surrendered to the enemy and fled back after receiving an official position" when he was the prefect of Linqing, and now came here from Hunan to act as a "Tartar spy."

Zhu Tianlin was delighted when he saw Chen Bangfu's memorial and laughed loudly, "Jin Daoyin likes to scold people, and now he is scolded by someone?"

Zhu Tianlin then drafted an imperial edict according to the Emperor Yongli's intention: "I don't know why Jinbao has suffered so much. Please ask for discipline inspection and hold a meeting immediately."

Where does the hardship come from? This is a veiled allusion to the words from Du Fu's poem "The hardship comes from being among the thieves". This is to cooperate with Chen Bangfu's attack and rumor-mongering to frame Jin Bao.

After seeing the imperial edict, Ding Shikui and others were extremely angry, and that night they invited 16 officials from the two government offices to come to the court in the morning to make a lot of noise, publicly demonstrate and put pressure on Emperor Yongli.

At this time, Emperor Yongli suddenly heard that the officials were making trouble in the court. He was shocked, shook his hands, drank tea, and urgently summoned the cabinet ministers to discuss countermeasures.

Just as the officials were making a fuss in the court, Jinbao submitted another memorial. He took the offensive and demanded verification of a long-standing rumor, which was that Chen Bangfu claimed in his external documents that he had been the hereditary governor of Guangxi and said that this was a statement from the emperor's edict. Jinbao said that this was a false edict.

Therefore, when Yongli met with the cabinet ministers, he issued an imperial decree to review Chen Bangfu's original edict, and indeed, it did not contain the words "hereditary guardian", and the attacks of the ministers were completely true.

Finally, Emperor Yongli backed off and issued a special decree, "ordering the sixteen officials of the Ministry of Rites to continue to work in this government office, and to issue a new draft of the previous one." He then dismissed Chen Bangbo.

The Chu Party won a great victory in its first attack, and was full of ambition and arrogance. Yuan Pengnian always boasted about his contribution to the rebellion. He even debated in front of Emperor Yongli.

Emperor Yongli was unable to win the debate with Yuan Pengnian, so he used the principle of righteousness between the ruler and his subjects to restrain him. Yuan Pengnian even wrote in a letter: "Last year, Duke Huiguo led his cavalry to the west. Where is the principle of righteousness between the ruler and his subjects today?"

Upon seeing this memorial, Emperor Yongli was extremely shocked. He held the memorial and cried to his ministers. The whole court was shocked. Seeing this, Qu Shisi secretly warned Yuan Pengnian. Then Yuan Pengnian had no choice but to write a letter to apologize, saying: "I am stupid and ignorant, and I said rude words. I offended the emperor and contradicted Your Majesty, which is a crime of great disrespect. In the future, I will be careful with my words and deeds and abide by my loyalty as a subject." Finally, Emperor Yongli had no choice but to order a reduction of Yuan's salary for half a year to calm the incident.

Although the Chu Party was in full swing at this time, it was still arguing with the Wu Party over the return of the capital to Nanjing. Qu Shisi and others insisted that they should "return to the Southern Capital as soon as possible to restore the people's support."

Wang Huacheng of the Wu Party firmly opposed it, saying: "Meng Jun has stationed a large army in the southern capital. If the emperor arrives, I am afraid that Han Xian will be in danger!"

The two parties argued endlessly, and even ten days of court meetings could not resolve the issue. Finally, Emperor Yongli could not stand it anymore, and issued an edict to transfer people from the Wu and Chu parties, Wang Huacheng, Jin Bao, and Jinyiwei Ma Jixiang, to go to Nando to test Meng's attitude.