Every politician is not perfect, and Chen Jin is no exception.
He has high political talents and good military qualities, but he has a fatal flaw: arrogance and arrogance.
Guys who come from rich and handsome backgrounds usually have this shortcoming. Some people hide it well, and some people disguise it poorly. Chen Jin is the kind who can't disguise it.
As we said before, Zhou Xi was instructed by Admiral Zhang to impeach Chen Jin. But Chen Jin also had people backing him. At least Li Dongyang would definitely say good things for him, so Zhu Houzhao did not hold him accountable.
But how can Zhang Yong be easy to deal with? Chen Jin was unable to resist with a series of moves. At that time, both Li Dongyang and Yang Yiqing were targeted by Liu Jin and were unable to support him.
So Chen Jin had no choice but to surrender: My mother is seriously ill, please let me go and let me go back to the countryside.
Admiral Zhang firmly disagreed: I haven't slapped you in the face enough, you have to kneel down and beg for mercy.
We all know that Zhang Yong's character is extremely cruel. He is a master who even dares to beat Liu Jin and Boss Liu. It is impossible not to beat Chen Jin until he kneels down and begs for mercy.
His character soon led to the death of Zhou Xi, a powerful little thug. And Zhou Xi's death also made him determined to kill Boss Liu. This is a story for later, so I won't mention it for now.
In short, character determines destiny.
The relationship between Zhang Yong, Zhou Xi, Chen Jin, and Liu Jin is complicated. Before the night that decided the outcome in the fifth year of Zhengde, everything was still unknown.
Chen Jin was desperate, and at the end of the first year of Zhengde, he finally surrendered and fell into the arms of Admiral Zhang.
Soon, he was appointed as the right deputy censor of the capital, governor of the military affairs of Guangdong and Guangxi, and went to quell the rebellion of the Tong people in Maping and Luorong.
Governor Chen could not defeat Admiral Zhang, but he was able to deal with the rebellious Tong clan. He led the chief military officer Mao Rui and 130,000 Ming soldiers to suppress the Tong clan's dissidents, and was promoted to Zuo Du Yushi for his merits.
During the war, everything was fine. After all, Governor Chen's military ability was real.
But after the war, Governor Chen was blinded. He arrogantly believed that all Miao people were stupid.
As I write this, I can't help but think of the ethnic policies of a certain dynasty, which are quite different but have the same purpose.
The Miao people do not produce cut cakes, but they like fish and salt, so Chen Jin said: We can use cut cakes, oh, no, fish and salt to control the Miao people.
So the court agreed with him and allowed the Han and Miao people to trade with each other in the hope of national harmony and joint development of the Southwest.
This kind of slap on the head by the court princes caused very serious sequelae: the Miao people felt that normal trade was not enough, and they wanted to grab more things. Anyway, the Han people are kind, and they are easy to bully if they are kind. I have to use a pound of
Cutting cake, oh, wrong again, it is mountain product, in exchange for 160,000 fish salt!
The Han people are not fools, and of course they firmly disagree with this practice of forced selling and buying. So the Miao people became angry: You are destroying national unity! Anyone who destroys national unity must be killed.
So in the Yongtong Gorge area, countless Miao people united and killed many Han civilians who undermined national unity.
The princes of the court now knew that the policy was wrong, but the face of the court was important. A few civilians died. It was not a big deal. Anyway, the Miao people did not rebel, so they forcibly suppressed the ethnic minority.
Vendetta.
The people of Xunzhou kept this matter in their hearts. They did not dare to scold the emperor and the elders, so they composed a song: "It will never be connected, and I will be buried in the river. Who is the author? Oh, Mr. Chen!"
The meaning is just one sentence: Chen Jin is a bastard who brings disaster to the country and the people.
This incident aroused great repercussions. Chen Jin could no longer stay in Guangxi. What should he do? His benefactor, Admiral Zhang, said: Since it is difficult to stay in Guangxi, he should return to Nanjing and sit on the bench for a few years to wait for the situation.
Once it calms down, I'll find a way for you...
How can it be so easy to be transferred from the border of Guangxi to the prosperous land of Qinhuai, which is ten miles away? First, there must be a vacancy, secondly, you must have the right boss, and finally, you must have money. All three are indispensable.
At the end of the second year of Zhengde's reign, the long-standing position of Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing was vacant, and the boss Zhang Yong was able to do so. He made a private deal with Liu Jin and won this position for Chen Jin.
In the past, Chen Jin would have been able to take office, but now the situation is wrong, and Concubine Wang Zhao is waiting to receive the money.
Who dares to owe money to the emperor’s favorite little wife? Not even Mr. Liu.
So Chen Jin had no choice but to take out the money, hold his nose, and hand it to a distant cousin of Wang Zhaofei, cursing in his heart: "What a bitch concubine!"
The problem arises here.
We all know that the words and deeds of politicians may be hidden from the common people, but they can never be hidden from the top officials of the central government.
If the private transactions between Zhang Yong and Liu Jin were normal, then Chen Jin's buying an official position had already touched the political bottom line of the Ming Dynasty.
This is something Li Dongyang and others will never tolerate.
Every dynasty, ancient and modern, has its political bottom line.
As mentioned in the previous article, Zhu Shou wanted to rectify the regiments of the capital and used the hundreds of thousands of soldiers as a training ground for soldiers of the Ming Dynasty Martial Arts Academy. However, his actions met with unanimous resistance from the eunuch group and the civil servant group, because
He touched a political bottom line of the Ming Dynasty: it could not cultivate new power groups.
This is an unspoken rule between the eunuch group and the civil servant group. The meritorious group has become vassals and history, so they cannot be resurrected. Therefore, even the emperor will be blinded if he encounters this line.
Some people may say: The Ming Dynasty Martial Arts Academy is also a cultivator of nobles, why is it not strangled?
Three years later, only 1,500 people graduated from the martial arts academy each year, and these people were scattered among the various armies of the Ming Dynasty. Less than one tenth of them survived the war, and even fewer were able to climb to high positions.
There are very few. Even if they climb up, they will be assimilated by other factions and will not be able to form their own power group.
The Tuanying camp is different. With more than 100,000 soldiers, it is a powerful group in itself. Civil servants and eunuchs have divided their respective spheres of influence, turning the Tuanying camp into a concentration camp for the elderly and the weak.
But its foundation is there. If it instills officers into the martial arts academy and forms its own system, then there will be no problem with other factions.
Therefore, it can be seen from this that Chen Jin’s approach touches another bottom line: the factional stability of the regime.
Since Yang Tinghe entered the cabinet, the political factions of the Ming Dynasty have evolved from Liu Lao's solo show to a center with two basic points.
That is to say, the system of Zhu and Liu is the center, with Li and Yang as the basic points.
It's not difficult to understand this.
Zhu Shou was the unique center of power in the Ming Dynasty. The centralized system established by Chong Bago prevented him from being as hard-pressed as the previous emperors of the Song Dynasty.
I am the world, which is a very distinctive feature of the Ming Dynasty's political system. There is no strong restriction on the monarchy. After the enslavement system of "I am the Qing Dynasty", it can be ranked second in the history of Chinese civilization's autocracy.
But Zhu Shou was just a young man. Although he had a high IQ, his political ability was extremely poor, so his father-in-law, Liu Lao, became a useful complement to him.
The Zhu-Liu system will not be allowed to be shaken until a new Liu boss is trained. This is the fundamental reason why Liu Jin was able to dominate the world in the original history.
After Liu Jin, there was no more Liu Jin, just because Zhu Shou had grown up.
His political talent can already match his level of nonsense: about nine years later, in the twelfth year of Zhengde, at Juyongguan, he did not kill Zhang Qin, the censor of the inspection, which shows that the political IQ of the troublemaker emperor has risen to a very high level.
High level….
Since Zhu Shou has grown up, he naturally doesn't need Eunuch Liu's face-to-face instruction. This is what Mou Bin, the former commander of the Jinyi Guards, told Yan Song: "The rabbit dies and the dog cooks."
Let’s put aside the cause of Boss Liu’s death for now. This is the key chapter two years later.
Going back to the beginning of the third year of Zhengde, the Zhu and Liu system did not collapse. With Li Yang assisting these two basic points, naturally the group could not be disbanded.
Chen Jin was able to escape the right and wrong place in Guangxi through Wang Zhaofei's pillow style, and returned to Nanjing to fish and retire, which raised a new problem for two basic points: the concubine interferes with politics!
Why did the Western Han Dynasty fall? Why did the Tang Dynasty decline?
The lessons of history tell us: women can not only hold up half the sky, they can also destroy the other half.
The interference of concubines in politics will bring the already fragile political ecosystem of the Zhengde Dynasty to the brink of collapse.
Therefore, Chen Jin's actions are just a trigger. Whether he will be promoted or not, or whether he will buy an official position, is actually not the point.
The point is: he opened up a political path for Concubine Wang Zhao.
Therefore, Concubine Wang Zhao's ignorance of advancement and retreat violated a very sensitive political bottom line of the Ming Dynasty.
The ministers did not know what Zhu Shou was thinking, and it became increasingly difficult for the eunuchs to figure out the young emperor's true intentions.
But the facts are before our eyes: Chen Jin paid the money, Wang Zhaofei received the money, and Chen Jin evacuated from Guangxi.
Therefore, can Li Dongyang not become popular?
He is the first assistant, and when things touch the bottom line, he should be the first to stand up and fight back.
At this time, personal relationships, personal enmities, and personal grudges are not the focus. In Li Dongyang's eyes, there is only one red line: the interests of the entire civil service group.
In the eyes of Boss Liu, this red line is not that important, because eunuchs and concubines are natural allies!
When the concubines came forward, the first helper they could think of was definitely not the emperor, but the eunuchs who served them every day.
Of course, concubines, like eunuchs, are also very good at pulling big flags into tiger skins. The title of emperor is their biggest support.
At this point, the various factions of civil servants headed by Li Dongyang stood on completely different fronts from Concubine Wang Zhao, Boss Liu and others.
Zhu Shou may really not understand this, or he may be pretending not to understand. No matter what, Li Dongyang will use his own way to make Zhu Shou understand: This is not how the Ming Dynasty works.
Therefore, Prime Minister Li's first move was against the handsome old Zhang Caizhang.
By the way, handsome guy Zhang has been unlucky recently. First, he was screwed by his own boss, and then he collected black money for Concubine Wang Zhao. At the end of the day, he was also involved in a book by Li Cheng.
So handsome guy Zhang was also angry: Li Binzhi, do you really think that I, Zhang Shangzhi, am made of clay?
"I'm glad to hear that the prime minister is like a city, and I hope Master Li will spare no effort to give you some advice on the matter of Zhu Qin, the governor of Shandong." Zhang Cai wrote a letter and sent it to Li Dongyang by his trusted aide.
He prepared to fight a tough battle with Li Dongyang and let Prime Minister Li know that Zhang Shangzhi's methods were not much worse than Li Binzhi's.
Li Dongyang's memorial and Zhang Cai's private message made the political turmoil in Zhengde's three years intensify.