Why did the emperor rebel?

Chapter 818 Has the little prince resumed his title today?
"...Recommendation, an ancient good law, is seen everywhere in officials today. If they are virtuous, they are good at political affairs, they are limited by their qualifications and years, they are subservient to subordinates, and those who have literary talents and are worthy of appointment are hidden among the people, and officials The Dismissal Committee has no stolen criminals who are serious about their feelings and have talents and learning. They will listen to the officials of the fourth grade and above who are on tour outside the country. Those who commit crimes have committed crimes, and those who commit crimes sit together. The leader is at the disadvantage. Give it my best."

Thanks to Cheng Jing's previous edicts, he has cultivated a long pulse, which is enough to read this lengthy edict.

The amnesty of the world is not just the forgiveness of sins.

Take the edict read out just now as an example. There are more than [-] amnesty items up and down. Going down to ordinary military households, artisan households, common people's labor, criminal cases, refugee household registration, exiles, etc., it can be said to benefit all aspects.

The real officials, soldiers and civilians celebrate together.

Even, for many ordinary ministers, this is also great news, because, among the edicts of amnesty to the world, there is one, which is the last one just now, which relaxes the assessment of seniority and speeds up the process of selecting officials. schedule.

For many young officials who aspire to official careers, this is a good opportunity that comes only once in decades.

If there is no accident, the next time I wait for this kind of opportunity, it will either be the Crown Prince's crown marriage, or... ahem...

In short, this kind of opportunity is rare.

However, this is for those officials below the third rank. For the senior officials above the third rank, it is basically a carrot and a pit. Although there are still pits, this kind of position is no longer such a wide selection. It's here.

Therefore, for them, the overall situation is polarized.

Some of them are the Qiqing who already knew the content of the edict, the cabinet ministers, and some elders who have long been hopeless in their official careers.

The other part is the majority, many ministers in their prime of life. For them, this edict is also of extraordinary significance.

One is because many of the matters in it require them, the backbone, to be responsible for the implementation, and they must be thoroughly understood.

The second is because, often in this kind of imperial edict issued to the world, as long as you carefully figure it out, you can actually see a lot of ways, and then gain insight into the political trend in the court.

For example, any minister who has an understanding of the court's practice of amnesty for the world and has a relatively keen political sense.

After listening to the edict carefully, they found two problems.

First, in this imperial edict, the amnesty of criminal cases, taxation, and labor are all biased towards civil affairs. As for the military and political aspects, all directions are mentioned, but the only thing that does not mention the stop and amnesty of garrison pursuit .

This is to be expected, but it is also worth noting.

To put it bluntly, if a happy event like amnesty for the whole world can't shake the court's determination to rectify the army, then anyone who wants to make a fuss about this matter must weigh it carefully.

Second, it was also the most concerned by the nobles and military officials present. The imperial edict did not mention anything about the pardon and reinstatement of the military officials who were conscripted during the Civil War.

If it is said that when the emperor ascended the throne, the public opinion was too turbulent, so he did not mention this matter, then now, he should be pardoned.

but.

And more importantly, the civil war was not completely absent from the edict, but most of the civil servants were targeted.

"In the 14th year of Zhengtong's conquest, he was given to the chief censor and other officials in the matter. First, he did not ask for the imperial edict to give the gift because he had not passed the examination. If the descendants should not be hired, Xu Ling sent his son to the prison to study in order to honor righteousness."

For the military and civilian officials who died in the Civil War, most of the civil servants and military officials gave posthumous rewards.

However, there are still some omissions, part of which is mentioned in the edict just now, because the time of entering the official position is not long, and the evaluation period has not been reached, so those who have never received a seal will be awarded according to the full-year evaluation, and Xu Yin will have a son.

The other part, in addition to the ordinary military officials and army, is represented by the Duke of Chengguo, and some honorable families are still pending.

You know, even Uncle Ningyang, Chen Mao, who was demoted for a crime, and Uncle Huichang, Sun Zhong, who was dismissed for a crime before, in this amnesty, according to the usual practice, the one who should be reinstated should be reinstated. Ascension of nobility.

However, the Chengguo Mansion, the Xiuwu Mansion, and the Yongning Mansion, which had been unable to seize the title because of the civil engineering battle, were not mentioned at all.

This is not a good sign!
Not to mention the fact that the noble families are united, the status quo of these noble families, in fact, to a certain extent, shows the current situation of many noble families.

For most of the mansions, especially the mansions with their sons and generals accompanying them, their titles are of course intact, but such a large family cannot live on the title alone.

The young children of each house, whether they are secretly entrusted, or become officials, or join the army, must have a future, and the family business must continue to operate.

However, under this kind of political signal from the imperial court, it is actually the entire honorable family that is affected.

The titles of these families are like a signal. If their titles cannot be restored, it means that the Civil War has not yet passed, and it means that most of the mansions that have been conscripted, the future of the children , will be full of hardships.

This is not the result they want to see.

Therefore, after listening to the edict, even in such a ceremony, many honorable military officials still couldn't help but look at each other and discuss in low voices.

Relatively speaking, the civil servants were quieter, but after only a moment, many ministers showed doubts and frowned.

It wasn't because they were dissatisfied with the edict, but because, counting the time, His Royal Highness should have finished his thanks and returned to Fengtian Hall to be congratulated.

However, looking to the east side, there was no sign of His Royal Highness returning, nor did the ceremony officer on Danchi continue to guide him down.

The joy didn't stop, but the ministers below were already looking around, and there were faint voices of discussion.

The head of civil servants, Mr. Hu who was still dozing off just now, woke up the moment Cheng Jing's voice fell.

Seeing this situation, the old man also frowned and looked up at the emperor.

However, before he asked the ritual officer next to him to ask questions, when he looked up, he saw two eunuchs hurried out from the small door on the east side, and went straight to the imperial driver.

From a distance, although I couldn't see the specific situation clearly, but seeing the eagerness of the two servants and Eunuch Wynn's ugly expression after listening to their whispers, many ministers expressed their concern. realized.

It seems that something happened...

Sure enough, as Wynn came forward, after reporting a few words in the ear of the emperor, the emperor said something immediately after.

Afterwards, Cheng Jing on the side bowed his hands and took the lead, came to the front of Danchi, and said.

"Your Majesty ordered that the crown prince's exit from the pavilion was completed, and the imperial edict is exempt from congratulations today, so that all civil and military officials will enter the Wenhua Palace in imperial uniform tomorrow, and congratulate them on the table!"

Sure enough, something went wrong!

Several civil servants present at the scene looked at each other with serious expressions.

The note for leaving the pavilion had already been handed in, and the emperor nodded. There was no problem with the preparations. Up to now, the progress has been very smooth.

In this case, if there were no particularly serious accidents, no matter what, the emperor would not be able to interrupt the ceremony at will.

But the fact is right in front of our eyes, the emperor's oral order has been issued, and today's ceremony is over no matter what follow-up procedures.

Fortunately, after several times of the emperor's shamelessness in important ceremonies, the deacon on Danchi was also carefully selected by Hu Wei.

Hearing the emperor's dictation, he immediately reacted, signaled the ceremonial officer beside him to whip his whip three times, making the venue quickly quiet, and then said loudly.

"bye!"

When the officials bowed their heads and bowed down, they were overjoyed, accompanied by a loud shout from the eunuch.

"Get off!"

This time, the ceremony of the crown prince's exit from the cabinet finally came to a 'successful' conclusion.

However, although Yu Jia got up, the ministers present still had to leave from the east and west sides under the guidance of the guide officer.

After leaving the gate of the palace, without the imperial censor, the elders finally breathed a sigh of relief, scattered like birds and beasts, and gathered together in twos and threes. It was a pity that they didn't congratulate the prince face to face today.

After all, according to the usual practice, when the crown prince receives congratulations, he will be rewarded.

But it doesn't matter, there is still tomorrow...

Most of the elders went back to the yamen happily to work, while a few people looked at the sky and planned to go back to have lunch first, and squint for a while.

But as an important minister, he is not so lucky.

Outside the palace gate, the sedan chairs of several elders were not far away, but they all stood tacitly at the palace gate without moving, and even the few ministers who were supposed to go directly to the cabinet were waiting in the palace together. the door.

Sure enough, not long after, Wynn hurried out with a team of servants, glanced at everyone, he was relieved, and said.

"My lords are invited, Your Majesty has summoned you, hurry up and enter the palace with our family."

So, a group of elders finally arrived at the Wenhua Palace.

It's just that the one sitting on the seat is not His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, but His Majesty the Emperor.

"Your Majesty, my lord, long live my emperor!"

The scope of this summoning is not small, but those who can be present are all people of extraordinary status, and they are both civil and military.

On the side of civil servants, apart from Jin Lian, Minister of the Ministry of Punishment who is not in Beijing, there are six ministries and seven ministers headed, plus several cabinet ministers, as well as Du Ning, Minister of Dali Temple, and Xu Youzhen, a scholar of Zuochunfang University.

On Wuchen's side, Duke Feng Li Xian, Uncle Xincheng Zhao Rong, Uncle Jingan Fan Guang, Marquis Ningyang Chen Mao who had just been restored to the title, and Marquis Yang Hong Changping.

Basically, the ministers with sufficient influence in the court are almost all here.

At this time, it actually showed the reason why the Supreme Emperor's party was eager to restore the Duke of Chengguo.

Although it is said that both civil and military officials have ranks, the existence of the title of Martial Lord actually depresses the role of military officials' ranks in a disguised form.

For example, on the civil servant's side, the six ministers are only second rank, and they are already important ministers, while on the military minister's side, above the first rank, there are dukes and earls.

This has led to the fact that for important ministers of the same status, civil servants need a second-rank Shangshu, while military officials need a super-rank Duke.

As for the first-rank and second-rank military ministers, they were naturally suppressed, and their status in the court could only be compared to the third-rank servant, or even lower.

From this point of view, judging from the current court situation, there is a strange phenomenon, that is, most of the time, Zhang Xiang, who is the talker of the old nobles, cannot match his status.

Taking the current situation as an example, the military officials present are either princes or earls, but they are in charge of the military mansion.

However, Zhang Xiang, with his back against the British government, has a huge influence among the nobles, but on the surface, he is just a mere second-rank governor and acquaintance.

The official British official has just turned ten years old during the Chinese New Year, so it is inappropriate to see the driver. Others, who do not have enough status, are acting on behalf of the British government to make impromptu decisions in court affairs. How embarrassing is this situation.

Before Zhang Fu, the reason why he wanted to support Ren Li was to solve this situation. However, Ren Li was an outsider after all. As soon as he gained power, he began to secretly erode the power of the British government. Zhang Fu couldn't tolerate it at all. of.

From this point of view, he and Zhu Yi teamed up to put Ren Li in prison, which was actually a helpless move.

At least, compared with Ren Li, Chengguo Duke's Mansion and British Duke's Mansion are bound by in-laws, and Zhu Yi is young, but if he inherits the title, he is undoubtedly qualified to go to the palace.

It can be said that once the title of Duke Cheng is in hand, even if Zhu Yi is not asked for his opinion on the affairs of the court, at least he can attend and predict. This is the status of a Duke.

At the same time, Zhu Yi has no military exploits and is a junior. She can make decisions on behalf of the British government, but it is difficult for her to erode the influence of the British government like Ren Li. She is a more suitable candidate than Ren Li.

Even now that Chen Mao has returned to the title, but with the lessons learned by Ren Li, Zhang Xiang may not dare to repeat the same mistakes.

Therefore, it is inevitable that Chengguo Duke's mansion will be restored.

However, before Duke Cheng's mansion was reinstated, they undoubtedly suffered a disadvantage in such a small court meeting of such a major event.

"Pingshen, all of you are tired all morning, you don't have to stand, sit down."

Although the bosses below were all guessing what happened, the face of the first emperor was very calm, and he even cared about them standing for a long time, and specially gave them seats.

"I dare not wait..."

The elders hurriedly bowed their hands to be humble, but when faced with the pier brought up by the servants, none of them were polite, and sat down with half-pushing.

After tossing for a while, everyone returned to their positions, and the emperor began to talk about business.

"Presumably all of you should have guessed it. Just now when the crown prince went to the Xiezhong Palace, something happened. As a last resort, I had to avoid the ritual of congratulating the crown prince, and changed it to tomorrow, and called the princes to come to discuss. .”

At this time, one needs a supporter, so after a busy day, Hu Dazongbo, the Minister of Rites who is mainly in charge of ceremonial matters, stood up and asked.

"Dare to ask Your Majesty, what is the important thing that needs to interrupt the ceremony?"

The Son of Heaven raised his hand and pressed it, motioning for Hu to sit down, then sighed and said.

"Actually, it's nothing. It's just that when the crown prince went to thank the Holy Mother, the old man came to ask if the ceremony of the crown prince's exit from the pavilion went well. By the way, she wanted to reward the meritorious ministers who played the crown prince's exit from the pavilion."

"Afterwards, the Supreme Emperor talked about the attack on the Fragrant Pavilion the day before yesterday, and the Holy Mother was furious for a moment, and fainted..."

(End of this chapter)