I'm Emperor Chongzhen?!
The 'Rope Emperor' who hanged himself on the crooked neck tree on Coal Hill in history?
After confirming his current identity, Xue Wuchen sighed helplessly.
He had transmigrated, and to top it off, he had become the infamous 'Rope Emperor' of history, Emperor Chongzhen.
As a former graduate student of the history of ming, he had a profound understanding of this 'Rope Emperor's' life.
His family background was impeccable, but his elders were truly unreliable.
His great-grandfather, Emperor Jiajing, didn't hold court for twenty-four years, obsessed with alchemy.
His grandfather, Emperor Wanli, didn't hold court for thirty years, a super homebody, never stepping out of the imperial palace once in his forty-eight years on the throne.
His brother, Emperor Taichang, enjoyed being a carpenter, naturally having no interest in court affairs, and even fostered the historically famous powerful Eunuch, Wei Zhongxian.
As for Emperor Longqing and Emperor Taichang in between, it's better not to mention them. Historically, Emperor Longqing was described as 'magnanimous,' which is a more insulting description for an Emperorthan cursing his ancestors. Emperor Taichang, Emperor Taichang, was on the throne for only twenty-nine days.
All the good times were enjoyed by his ancestors; by Emperor Chongzhen's era, the Great Ming was a complete mess.
The court was corrupt, factional disputes were constant, military power was declining, the jianzhou jurchenswere rising, and the imperial palace was infiltrated like a sieve.
The entire Great Ming was rotten to the core.
Furthermore, the Chongzhen reign coincided with the Little Ice Age, bringing continuous natural disasters.
In the First year of Chongzhen, the sky in all of Shaanxi was red like blood; the second year brought drought, the third year drought, the fourth year drought, the fifth year great famine, the sixth year great floods, the Seventh year of the Tianqi reign brought autumn locusts, the eighth year in September brought drought to Xixiang, and floods to Lueyang submerging civilian houses; the ninth year brought drought and locusts, the tenth year saw no autumn harvest, the eleventh year in summer saw locusts obscuring the sun, the thirteenth year a great drought, the fourteenth year a great drought…
And there was also the world's largest plague, causing countless deaths.
Continuous natural disasters and court corruption led to popular uprisings. Later generations, when speaking of Emperor Chongzhen, most often used four words: 'Its fate is sealed.'
The debts owed by his ancestors and endless natural disasters all fell upon Emperor Chongzhen alone. 'The harder you work, the luckier you get' did not apply to Emperor Chongzhen.
Because the truth was, his efforts accelerated the demise of the Great Ming.
In his 17 years on the throne, he replaced 50 Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet, and the frequency of replacing the grand secretary was alarmingly high, with the longest tenure being eight years and the shortest less than a month.
He got rid of 17 governors-general, 2 Ministers of War, and replaced the Minister of Justice 17 times. Whether by divine will or something else, the number 17 appeared very frequently.
Some later generations said Emperor Chongzhen's biggest mistake was killing Yuan Chonghuan, while others said his biggest mistake was heavily relying on Yuan Chonghuan.
But Xue Wuchen, who specialized in the history of ming, understood that Emperor Chongzhen's biggest mistake was not killing Yuan Chonghuan, who was later called 'Round Fatty.'
It was killing Wei Zhongxian.
Wei Zhongxian deserved to be killed and to die, but not in that manner, and certainly not so quickly.
It was precisely because the Eunuch Faction was completely purged that the Donglin Faction, with no one to check them, quickly grew powerful and controlled the court. The Great Ming completely lost control from that moment on.
Emperor Taichang's most criticized aspect was fostering Wei Zhongxian, but Emperor Taichang's most remarkable aspect was also fostering Wei Zhongxian.
Because in the Sixth year of the Tianqi reign, the Donglin Faction was almost wiped out by Wei Zhongxian.
If Emperor Taichang had not died, there would have been no more factional disputes in the court, because most of Wei Zhongxian's five banners, five tigers, ten children, forty monkey grandsons, and five hundred adopted grandsons came from the former Zhejiang, Qi, and Chu factions.
But Emperor Taichang died, Emperor Chongzhenascended, the Eunuch Faction was completely eradicated, leaving the Donglin Faction as the sole dominant power.
Emperor Taichang, in his prime, fell ill after falling into a lake and died without recovering.
It truly echoed the saying, 'The Zhu Clan Imperial Familyis easily soluble in water.'
Thinking of this, Xue Wuchen narrowed his eyes slightly. A dignified Emperor merely fell into water, yet his illness was treated for two years, worsening with each treatment, eventually leading to his death. It seemed that not only the imperial palace was infiltrated like a sieve.
The Imperial Medical Academy must have also been thoroughly rotten by then.
Emperor Taichang's death was definitely not the work of the Eunuch Faction; they were born because of Emperor Taichang. So, the person who secretly plotted to kill Emperor Taichang was already obvious.
The Donglin Faction.
They saw Emperor Taichang's plans and wanted to live, wanting to eliminate the Eunuch Faction led by Wei Zhongxian. Emperor Taichang had to die, and then they would enthrone Emperor Chongzhen, who had been educated in the four books and five classics since childhood.
Yet, these civil officials, who dared to assassinate an Emperor and spoke of morality, all eventually surrendered to the jianzhou jurchens, leading to the subjugation of the vast Central Plains by barbarians for several centuries.
Too many cultural treasures were erased, too many good things left by ancestors were extinguished.
The Ten Days of Yangzhou, the Three Massacres of Jiading, the filling of Sichuan Province by Guangdong and Guangxi—rivers of blood flowed, and vengeful spirits obscured the sun.
In the Eighty-One Days of Jiangyin, the entire city perished for the country, refusing to shave their heads and change their clothes, with not a single surrender. In this battle, the Manchu Qing lost three princes and eighteen generals.
Truly epic and moving.
Furthermore, it was the Manchu Qing's closed-door policy, focusing their swords and energy entirely on preventing Han Chinese from maintaining their rule and rejecting the Industrial Revolution, that later led to the Eight-Nation Alliance and the Japanese invasion.
Vengeful spirits, spread across the Central Plains.
This was a humiliation for China, and even more, a sorrow for China.
And the last Han dynasty, the Great Ming, was an eternal regret for countless people.
After taking a deep breath, Xue Wuchen, now Emperor Chongzhen, looked at the night sky and murmured softly, "It's still not too late."
It really isn't too late. It is now the twenty-fourth day of the eighth month of the Seventh year of the Tianqi reign, the first day of Emperor Chongzhen's ascension. There are still 17 years until Emperor Chongzhen's historical suicide on Coal Hill.
At this time, Hong Taiji, the Jianzhou Jurchen ruler, had just ascended the throne, East of the Liao River had not yet been completely lost, and the Little Ice Age had only just begun.
The plague and great drought had not yet shaken the foundation of the Great Ming, the courier at the Post Station in Yinchuan had not yet rebelled, and Mao Wenlong was still on Pi Island, poking Hong Taiji's back door.
More importantly, Wei Zhongxian was still alive.
And even more importantly, those formidable figures he knew were all still around.
Sun Chengzong, Sun Chuanting, Lu Xiangsheng, Hong Chengchou, Cao Wenzhao, Cao Bianjiao, Zuo Liangyu, Zhou Yuji, Zu Dashou, Man Gui…
The late Ming Dynasty was fundamentally different from other dynasties. Other dynasties, in their later stages, lacked capable people, but Emperor Chongzhen had countless formidable individuals at his disposal in the late Ming.
Even Qin Liangyu, the commander of the White Pole Soldiers, known in later generations as the 'Tyrannosaurus of Sichuan and Chongqing,' and some descendants of the Qi Family Army were still alive.
But these formidable individuals were, in history, worn down one by one, dying tragically without reinforcements or provisions.
"Ming soldiers, if not fully paid, are invincible."
This saying is incorrect, because the true saying is, "Ming soldiers, if not fully paid, can be defied by Heaven."
If they were well-fed, well-clothed, and received their pay, they could punch a hole in the sky. But in the late Ming, almost no official army received full pay.
The Great Ming was not without money or grain, but these funds and provisions were not in the hands of the court, nor would they reach the soldiers.
He withdrew his gaze from the night sky: "Since I am Emperor Chongzhen, these regrets will no longer exist, and those heart-wrenching sorrows must never happen again."
As long as there are enough money and provisions, a mere 100,000 jianzhou jurchens in armor cannot hope to overthrow the Great Ming, or slaughter and enslave the Central Plains.
That fellow who delivered express mail in Yinchuan will also never have the chance to rebel, but the prerequisite for all of this is that he must first deal with one person.
Thinking of this, he turned his head to look at Wang Chengen, the close Eunuch who served Emperor Chongzhen in history and was his hanging companion: "Eunuch, summon Wei Zhongxian to see Us!"