Chapter 138: Factional Strife

After the court session ended, Hong Taiji was pleased—everything he had planned to accomplish was settled. But his eldest son Hooge wore a bitter, miserable expression all day long, as if his parents had just died.

Hooge went to Hong Taiji almost every day to wail and complain, which irritated Hong Taiji greatly. In his mind, he was calculating how to replenish troops for his foolish son's Plain Blue Banner.

When Hong Taiji first became Great Khan, he had once boasted a big claim, saying that he would never casually confiscate the niru of other banner lords' subordinates. Even if a banner lord committed a crime and was punished by having his subordinates' niru taken away, the surrendered niru could only be distributed among the other leading Beiles within that same banner.

As a result, things had now become rather awkward. His eldest son Hooge's Plain Blue Banner had been crippled by the Ming army—what was to be done? Surely the Plain Blue Banner couldn't be struck from the rolls! Would the Eight Banners become Seven Banners?

Each banner's population was allocated in advance. Now that the Plain Blue Banner's able-bodied men had all been killed off, could they possibly send old women in heavy armor onto the battlefield? That wasn't realistic either.

Since he couldn't draw population from other banners, Hong Taiji could only transfer some niru populations from his own Two Yellow Banners to give to the Plain Blue Banner, barely patching it up to keep it going.

As a loyal follower who had trailed behind Hong Taiji since childhood, Prince Jirgalang knew exactly how to read the room. Hong Taiji only needed to give him a look, and he carved out eight niru from his Bordered Blue Banner and gave them to Hooge. Hooge was deeply grateful, calling him "dear uncle" repeatedly.

With someone taking the lead, the other banners saw they could no longer play dumb, and had no choice but to hold their noses and accept their bad luck, casually giving one or two niru each. Dorgon and Dodo each gave one niru as well, though those were all old, weak, and crippled soldiers with families in tow.

Originally, Hooge had firmly refused the kindness of the Two White Banners, shouting every day that he would never accept them! But later—true fragrance!

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The Great Ming, Northern Zhili.

The Qing army's invasion through the passes had severely damaged productivity in the capital region. Officials everywhere were busy with postwar reconstruction work.

Many of the Ming's officials were still very industrious—they worked tirelessly to carry the court's disaster relief funds and supplies back to their own homes, greatly improving their standard of living.

Zhu Cilang had returned to the palace life he'd led before the campaign. Every day he rose early and stayed up late attending morning court to hear governance matters. After court, he went to the Wenhua Hall to study. At noon, he attended the noonday court at Zhu Youjian's side, meeting with important ministers. In the afternoon, he accompanied Zhu Youjian in reviewing memorials and listening to imperial instructions.

In short, a full day was more exhausting than marching to war. Marching was physical labor; this was mental labor. Every day he not only had to memorize the names and positions of court officials, but also analyze and speculate on which faction they belonged to, and how to use them.

Through his understanding over these days, Zhu Cilang learned that the current power structure in the Great Ming court was roughly as follows: the Donglin Faction represented the interests of Jiangnan's landlords, bureaucrats, and merchants, while the eunuch faction represented the interests of bureaucrats, landlords, and merchants from Shandong, Huguang, Shanxi, Northern Zhili, and elsewhere.

The eunuch faction was not entirely made up of eunuchs—rather, it was a political faction formed by bureaucrats who attached themselves to the power of palace eunuchs. It included the Qi faction, the Chu faction, the Zhe faction, and the Xuan faction.

Although Cao Huachun was a eunuch, he had been part of the anti-Wei faction back in the day, a staunch supporter of the Donglin Faction, and could be considered a Donglin man himself. Thus, the power relationships at court were tangled and extremely chaotic, making it very troublesome for Zhu Cilang to sort them out.

After Wei Zhongxian died, the eunuch faction suffered a major blow yet still did not collapse, mainly because there were simply too many of them. Added to that, later Chongzhen deliberately propped up the eunuch faction to suppress the Donglin Faction, and the eunuch faction gradually grew powerful again.

According to Zhu Cilang's judgment, Wen Tiren was certainly eunuch faction, as was Xue Guoguan in the Grand Secretariat. Because after Wen Tiren became Chief Grand Secretary in the third year of Chongzhen, starting from the ninth month of the fourth year of Chongzhen, eunuchs were sent out in all directions—supervising armies were arranged in all the outer court ministries and the nine frontier garrisons.

When Chongzhen had first ascended the throne, he had supported the Donglin Faction, recalling those eunuchs of the eunuch faction one by one from the provinces and grinding them into the dirt.

As for the newly appointed Minister of War Yang Sichang, he was hard to judge. Zhu Cilang temporarily categorized him under the eunuch faction.

His judgment was that Lu Xiangsheng belonged to the Donglin Faction. The fact that Lu Xiangsheng was not allowed to succeed as Minister of War—the Grand Secretariat's recommendation must have given Chongzhen considerable reference.

The one thing that surprised Zhu Cilang was that the Minister of Revenue Hou Xun was actually not a Donglin member! This was a figure who appeared on Wei Zhongxian's "Donglin Roll of Generals" list!

In the fifth year of Tianqi (1625), Wei Zhongxian's ally, the Left Vice Censor-in-Chief Wang Shaohui, imitating the style of "Water Margin," compiled 108 Donglin members into the "Donglin Roll of Generals." That was quite something!

"Earth-Subduing Star, Long-Armed Ape, Shanxi Circuit Censor Hou Xun"—that was the grand name Minister Hou had left on the "Donglin Roll of Generals." Who knows what grudge Wei Zhongxian had held against him back then to put him on there as well.

Hou Xun had a remarkably sharp eye for talent. He had recommended four extraordinary men to the court: Yuan Chonghuan, Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting, and Zuo Liangyu—every single one a famous figure of the late Ming.

Actually, judging whether a minister was a Donglin member was simple. Donglin had two notable characteristics. One was holding a jinshi degree—if you lacked a jinshi credential in officialdom, sorry, Donglin didn't want you. Of course, Hou Xun was a jinshi by origin.

The second characteristic was having lectured at the Donglin Academy, or having studied at the Donglin Academy. In other words, only those who had at least some connection to the Donglin Academy counted as pure Donglin.

The second-tier Donglin, or Donglin-like members, though lacking the above two characteristics, proclaimed themselves Donglin, had ironclad relationships with Donglin people, and were acknowledged by Donglin members as political allies or as sharing common political demands and propositions.

For example, Huang Daozhou, Ni Yuanlu, and others. However, these two Donglin big shots were currently both in unemployment, having been taken down by Wen Tiren.

One tier lower still—those who had helped Donglin people, lectured elsewhere, and had interconnected relations with the Donglin Academy. For example, He Wuzou, who had served as a Grand Secretary but was also disposed of and dismissed from office by Wen Tiren.

Aside from being a jinshi by origin, Hou Xun possessed none of the other characteristics—he wasn't even the tier below that, not even counting as a Donglin peripheral.

Through this period of studying court governance, Zhu Cilang also discovered a problem: there weren't many Donglin members at court, or rather, there were almost no Donglin members at court who could get a word in.

The saying "Donglin ruins the state" contained considerable exaggeration—at the very least, it didn't hold true during the Chongzhen reign. The Donglin Faction mainly made trouble during the Southern Ming period, and they bore great responsibility for the Southern Ming's downfall.

The Donglin Faction was now doing so poorly that many people had begun seeking new patrons. For example, some attached themselves to Zhu Cilang to become Crown Prince partisans. The Crown Prince's crackdown on the Shanxi merchants damaged the eunuch faction's interests, which aligned with the Donglin members' goals.

Zhu Cilang was also considering whether to find an opportunity to promote these people. After all, if he wanted to use them to keep fighting tooth and nail against the eunuch faction and help him eliminate political enemies, he needed to give them some sweeteners. Otherwise, just trying to get something for nothing—who would still follow him?

The tree desires stillness but the wind will not cease. There has never been anyone in this world who could remain completely aloof from political struggles yet still rise meteorically.

Those who could temporarily avoid such struggles were either people whose positions weren't high enough, whose targets weren't obvious enough to invite jealousy, or people in specialized professional work who would find it difficult to climb to the next level.

The court struggles of the Great Ming weren't as brain-burning as one might imagine. It was simply a matter of each person picking their side, then using morality and ritual propriety to attack opponents, displaying their essay-writing talents before the emperor, performing to the fullest—seeing who could be the first to convince the emperor.

Of course, those who understood psychology had a great advantage. Wen Tiren, for example, was a psychology expert, skilled at grasping Comrade Zhu Youjian's heart rate. His political struggles were truly second to none.

Thanks to book friend: Youying Zhihun z for the tip!