My life skills in Daming Liver

In fact, even Xiong Kuang did not expect that Zhang Juzheng's father would be left behind in Jingzhou City.

In fact, this incident was also a coincidence. As the Prime Minister of Zhongshu, Zhang Juzheng was supposed to bring his family to the capital.

However, because Zhang Juzheng had too many old subordinates in Huguang, everyone wanted to leave the front line. In order to calm people's hearts, Zhang Juzheng could not evacuate his family members to the rear in a big way.

It was okay to do this in the past. Now, whether in the southeast or the Mingting area, various newspapers are flying all over the sky. Before the Huguang War started, Prime Minister Zhongshu evacuated his family to the rear and let the soldiers die on the front line. Such reports were exposed , then Huguang does not need to fight, Mingting's morale will collapse.

Therefore, Zhang Juzheng never brought his family from Jingzhou to the capital.

No one expected that Huguang would fall so quickly.

What Liu Shiyan has in his hands are the elites that Zhang Juzheng brought along.

Although Liu Shiyan is not a famous general in the world, he is still above the standard. Moreover, he is an upright and honest general. He has won the support of soldiers and has the financial support of Huguang. Zhang Juzheng also hopes that he can hold Hanyang even if he cannot regain Wuchang. .

But the result was that the cavalry of the Southeast New Army rushed onto the stage of history again, broke through Liu Shiyan's flanks, defeated Liu Shiyan's troops, and the entire Mingting Huguang New Army was annihilated.

When Hanyang fell, Xu Xuemo, the prefect of Jingzhou, immediately declared martial law in Jingzhou City, and no one was allowed to enter or exit.

Not to mention the grievances between Xu Xuemo and Zhang Juzheng, what he did was also a normal operation.

Jingzhou is a big city, and there are some powerful people in the city.

In the previous battles, there were cases where the dignitaries in the city wanted to leave the city, giving the Southeast New Army an opportunity to approach the city wall and blow open the city gate.

Therefore, after the fall of Hanyang, Xu Xuemo, the prefect of Jingzhou, immediately declared martial law in the entire city, and no one was allowed to leave the city.

As a member of the Zhongshu Prime Minister Zhang Juzheng's clan, the Zhang Mansion is naturally the target of everyone's attention.

If Xu Xuemo sends Zhang Juzheng's family out of the city, then others can follow him out of the city.

In order to stabilize the people in the city, Xu Xuemo resolutely ordered Zhang Mansion to be guarded, and asked Zhang Mansion to set an example for everyone in Jingzhou and defend Jingzhou City.

Now that Xu Xuemo has committed suicide for the Ming Dynasty, his identity as a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty has been confirmed. The reason why he did not let Zhang's father leave the city at that time should not be a personal grudge with Zhang Juzheng, but really for the sake of defending the city.

Next, the new Southeast Army entered the city too quickly, and the soldiers in Jingzhou City also defected too quickly.

The soldiers guarding Zhang Juzheng's residence were too eager to make progress. As soon as the Southeast New Army entered the city, they immediately took control of Zhang's residence and dedicated the Zhang family's credit to Xiong Kuang.

Xiong Kuang also had a headache after receiving this hot potato. He could only send troops to guard Zhang's mansion, and then sent someone to ask the governor's mansion for instructions on how to deal with Zhang Juzheng's family.

This time, the order from the Governor's Office was returned very quickly, less than half a month.

After Xiong Kuang received the order, he immediately said to the adjutant beside him:

"The Governor's order has come. Follow me to see the Zhang family!"

In mid-August, the capital.

Due to the chaotic military and political system of the Ming Dynasty, and the huge explosion in Wang Gong Factory that had just occurred in the Ming court, it was not until August that the Ming court received the exact news that Jingzhou and Xiangyang had fallen, and the entire Huguang fell into the hands of the Southeast.

Then the news reached the capital that the father and family of Prime Minister Zhang Juzheng had been captured by the Southeast New Army.

This once again added fire to the already tense situation in the capital.

It can even be said that the crisis caused by Zhang Juzheng's father falling into the hands of the Southeast New Army was greater than the fall of Huguang.

When Huguang fell, anyone with a little knowledge of military affairs would know that Huguang would definitely not be able to hold on after losing Wuchang.

Without Wuchang, cargo ships from the southeast can drive straight in from the lower reaches to deliver supplies to Wuchang.

The southeastern army can leave the city from Wuchang at any time and attack the flat Han River plain.

Wuchang's strategic location is very important. If Wuchang is lost, Huguang will be lost sooner or later. This is very clear to anyone with a little knowledge in the Ming Dynasty.

But Zhang's father fell into the hands of Southeast, which brought about a crisis of legitimacy for Zhang Juzheng's rule.

There is nothing we can do about this.

This matter also started when Zhang Juzheng forced Emperor Longqing to let him serve as regent when Emperor Longqing was seriously ill.

At that time, what Zhang Juzheng took over from Gao Gong was the governing framework of a virtual king.

But this was no problem in Gao Gong's hands, because Emperor Longqing trusted Gao Gong, took the initiative to grant Gao Gong the monarchy, and supported all Gao Gong's reforms.

At that time, the ministers and people of the Ming court were loyal to the emperor, and the emperor delegated power to cabinet ministers such as Gao Gong, so the officials were loyal to the cabinet and the people paid taxes to the Ming court.

This logic has been practiced in this land for thousands of years, and most people can accept it, at least they will not feel confused by it.

But since the death of Emperor Longqing, the entire ruling logic of the court has changed.

On the surface, it was still the royal family, that is, the queen mother behind the curtain authorized Zhang Juzheng, and You Zhongshu Sheng acted as the emperor to govern the world.

However, because the case of Longqing's death is complicated and confusing, there are various versions on the market today. Some even say that Emperor Longqing died because Zhang Juzheng prevented him from drinking water, causing Emperor Longqing to die of thirst.

This rumor and another rumor are that Emperor Longqing was poisoned by red pills donated by Empress Dowager Li's father and brother. These two rumors are the two most widely circulated versions.

Both versions of the rumor are equally outrageous.

If the emperor was really poisoned to death by Empress Dowager Li's father and brother, why could Empress Dowager Li continue to be the empress dowager, and why did the emperor's decree allow her to listen to politics behind the curtain?

The same applies to the rumor that Zhang Juzheng thirsted to death as the emperor. If Zhang Juzheng really did such a thing, could the officials allow him to continue to be in power?

However, these rumors have noses and eyes, and the government cracks down on the rumors, but they are still unable to eradicate them.

This rumor also seriously damaged Zhang Juzheng's legitimacy in power.

Although the truth of the rumors is unknown, the people in the capital knew about the rift between the royal family and Zhang Juzheng.

And the ministers knew that Zhang Juzheng, who was using his auxiliary power to force Empress Dowager Li to withdraw from behind the curtain to listen to politics, would definitely have a battle with the relatives of Empress Dowager Li.

After losing the banner of the emperor and the political legitimacy of "loyalty to the emperor".

Zhang Juzheng could only look for the legitimacy of his governance from other aspects.

He will definitely not be able to use Southeast’s “sovereignty lies with the people” approach.

We should also talk less about the divine right of kings. In the future, when the little emperor grows up, or Empress Dowager Li wants to hang the curtain again, the power of kings will be a huge obstacle to Zhang Juzheng's governance.

At this time, Zhang Juzheng could only start to advocate other things, such as "benevolence", such as "faithfulness", and "filial piety".

Especially "filial piety", as part of the family routine, Zhang Juzheng advocated "filial piety" and "fatherhood". As part of traditional morality, these are used to resist the impact of the "new morality" in the southeast.

This also made the Ming court become the banner of the conservative gentry. There were also some gentry who were dissatisfied with the "collapse of rituals and music" in the southeast and tried their best to escape to the Ming court.

In traditional moral principles, the position of "filial piety" is the most important.

Zhang Juzheng was also the most advocating filial piety. He wrote many articles in succession, calling for the promotion of these traditional morals and resisting the phenomenon of "father not father, son not son, husband not husband, wife not wife" in the Southeast.

Now that Zhang Juzheng's father has fallen into the hands of Southeast, it is a huge impact on the traditional moral system he built.

If Zhang Juzheng changed his tune at this time and said that he was willing to sacrifice his family for the Ming Dynasty, then the traditional morality he had constructed before would immediately counterattack him, and the entire Ming Dynasty would think that he was a hypocrite and an unfilial son who did not hesitate to sacrifice his parents for power and position. beast.

Zhang Juzheng not only lost his legitimacy to govern, he even lost his qualifications as a human being.

But if Zhang Juzheng negotiates with Southeast and spends a huge price to redeem his father, the entire government and the public will attack him for "using a public weapon for private use" and attack him for betraying the country for his own selfish desires.

Zhang Juzheng was now in a dilemma.

History is often so magical. There are many major events that seem to be spectacular, but they just happened when they happened, and finally became an event in the textbooks.

These major events sound important and seem to have affected the entire historical process, but in fact they were not important in the eyes of contemporary people.

However, some seemingly trivial things can affect the hearts of people all over the world, and ultimately affect the entire history with some strange chain reactions.

Just when Zhang Juzheng was having a headache about how to deal with his biological father, his son Zhang Jingxiu suddenly broke into his study.

"Dad! Grandpa is going to be released!"

I feel a little cold and have a headache