prosperous age

Chapter 1039 1130 Punishing Liu Tai

"Then how can we help Master Zhang regain his face?

  Do we really need to punish Liu Tai?

The Queen Mother said that it is against the ancestral system for censors to be convicted for citing opinions."

The little emperor continued.

Wei Guangde was delighted when he heard the little emperor say this.

It is obvious that both the two empress dowagers in the harem and the little emperor in front of them, although they have the awareness of maintaining the imperial power, they do not understand how to use and maintain the imperial power.

Feeling a bit of a failure.

Yes, this is what Wei Guangde was thinking at this moment.

I once taught the little emperor the power structure of the court and analyzed the rules that operated therein, but it was obvious that the little emperor only understood the operation of the court but had never thought about the deeper things.

Perhaps, this little emperor is more suitable for his actual age.

How can an emperor be burdened by any ancestral system?

The so-called ancestral system was actually formulated by the emperor.

Once formulated and implemented, it became the ancestral system for future emperors.

To put it bluntly, under the premise of maintaining imperial power, there is no unchanging ancestral system.

Civil servants can say this to oppose policies that the emperor wants to enact but that all officials oppose.

But if it came from the emperor's mouth, it would be abnormal.

These will only be understood one day by the emperor as he grows older and gains more experience.

The only exception may be the little emperor's grandfather, Emperor Jiajing, because when he was in seclusion, he did not receive any teachings from the civil officials in the court, and he figured out the truth completely on his own.

This is also the reason why he fought with all the officials in the court at the beginning of his reign, even if he got broken heads and bloodied, because he understood the essence of the court system.

If it had been handed over to the officials, they would have been taught to abide by the ancestral system from a young age and kept it firmly in mind, then the series of reform attempts after the Great Ceremony Deliberation would not have happened.

The Ming Dynasty never attached importance to the education of princes and only paid attention to the education of princes. Naturally, no one expected to meet a precocious Emperor Jiajing who did not play by the rules.

"Your Majesty, do you still remember what I taught you about the structure of power in the court?"

In Wei Guangde's opinion, even if he, as his teacher, didn't enlighten him, the little emperor would figure it out on his own after a few years.

Although the little emperor should understand why his teachers did not speak more directly, he would still be dissatisfied.

This is why the imperial tutors of every dynasty would enjoy great glory in the first few years after the emperor ascended the throne, but often had to choose to retire after a few years.

It was not only because of his old age, but more because the emperor had realized that what the teachers taught them was too empty. They only talked about general principles but never said what they should really teach.

Wei Guangde was too young. If there had been no storm, he could have stayed in the court for at least another twenty years, or even longer.

However, Wei Guangde will not do so. When he reaches 60, he will consider his physical condition and start planning his retirement life.

Well, he used to envy those retired old men who received social security when they turned 60.

With a generous pension, he travels around the world freely.

"Rights structure?"

After a little thought, the young emperor remembered what Master Wei had taught him. He divided the exercise of power in the court into two parts, which were actually the inner and outer courts.

In Wei Guangde's introduction, the imperial power was referred to as the inner court, and the outer court naturally referred to the cabinet and the six ministries.

When first introduced, Wei Guangde only briefly mentioned the duties of the Kedao, which were not within the scope of the Outer Court and supervised the Outer Court.

"Inner and outer court?"

The little emperor asked in a low voice.

Wei Guangde nodded, "But your majesty seems to have forgotten that there is another piece."

"What is it?"

The little emperor was surprised.

"It seems that Your Majesty has really forgotten."

Wei Guangde smiled faintly and said, "It's the censor."

"The Kedao is responsible for supervising the outer court. I know that."

The little emperor was even more surprised.

"But, I also said that the Ministry of Education is not within the Outer Court and operates independently. Your Majesty may have forgotten this."

Wei Guangde still kept smiling.

"I remember."

The little emperor did not admit it because he did remember it, but he just didn't take it seriously.

Wei Guangde looked at the palace maids and eunuchs standing a few steps away and waved his hand to ask them to leave first.

Several palace maids and eunuchs retreated as ordered, but the two personal eunuchs were a little hesitant. It was not until the little emperor glared at them with dissatisfaction that they left in disgrace and exited the side hall of Wenhua Palace.

There was no one around. Wei Guangde took a sip of tea and sprinkled it on the desk. Under the surprised gaze of the little emperor, he stretched out his hand and drew three circles on the clean desk next to him. He muttered, "Inner Court, Outer Court and Imperial Examination, these are the three circles.

I explained the outer court clearly at the beginning, and it is much simpler for the inner court. Your Majesty will understand it in the future, but it seems that I still need to talk about it now.

Although it is the inner court, it actually represents the emperor and the imperial power.

The greater the imperial power, the more restricted the power of the outer court will be, and vice versa.

Your Majesty is still young and cannot exercise the power of the emperor, so the two dowagers will take charge of the administration."

This time, Wei Guangde explained the power structure and operating rules of the Ming Dynasty to the little emperor in detail. The little emperor confirmed it based on what he knew and nodded continuously.

Don’t think that Wei Guangde’s telling these things to the young emperor will be detrimental to his future exercise of “power as prime minister”. In fact, after the young emperor takes power, he will understand all these things, unless he is a confused emperor.

But if this is true, then it can only be said that Zhang Juzheng and other emperors were incompetent and raised an incompetent person.

Giving the young emperor a clearer understanding of power in advance would also strengthen his status in the emperor's heart. Even though others may not say it, Wei Guangde said it, so at least he has a clear conscience.

For such ministers, promotion or demotion actually depends on the emperor's decision.

“After talking about these two circles, the remaining one is the Kedao circle.

Although the rank of the censors was not high, their status was extremely prominent and they possessed extensive and important powers, including admonishing the emperor, impeaching officials, and supervising the administration of officials, thus forming a deterrent force on the court.

Strictly speaking, whether the performance evaluation system is good or bad is not an issue, but the fact that the six departments are responsible to the cabinet actually violates the balance of the tripartite structure."

Wei Guangde did not avoid talking about it just because it might be disadvantageous to the outer court, but directly stated the deep meaning of it.

After Wei Guangde finished speaking, the little emperor frowned and thought for a long time before hesitating and saying, "According to Master Wei, what Liu Tai said in the memorial seems to be correct?"

"It's not a question of right or wrong. I've said before that the Kedao is responsible to Your Majesty, but Your Majesty is young and cannot exercise power, so the Queen Mother is acting on his behalf.

According to Liu Tai, this is not acceptable and violates the ancestral system.

In fact, speaking of the matter at hand, when the inner court cannot exercise power independently, the appropriate strengthening of the outer court is conducive to the stability of the court. Before Your Majesty takes power, the current power structure is actually correct.

This is the strength of Liu Tai’s memorial. He said everything that was right, but unfortunately he was alarmist and did not take the actual situation into consideration at all.”

Wei Guangde analyzed, "If Master Zhang did this when Your Majesty was in power, it would be considered treason, but that's not the case.

The reason why Liu Tai made such a memorial was that he was actually angry about the fact that his uncle had previously issued an edict to him.

The victory in Liaodong was not the credit of the Inspector-General. The governor and the local general had reported it themselves. His haste to report the victory showed that he had ulterior motives and was exceeding his authority.

Shen's edict is absolutely correct.

Even though he made some contributions in the war, the main responsibility of the inspector was still to supervise the local officials in Liaodong, and he was resentful of the imperial edict. "

After a few days of understanding, Wei Guangde actually knew some other things, but it was really inconvenient to explain them in detail in front of the little emperor.

That is, Liu Tai had a good relationship with the censor Fu Yingzhen, who had been punished and demoted before, or in other words, the censor Fu Yingzhen's ideas were also Liu Tai's ideas.

When Fu Yingzhen first submitted the memorial, he only pointed out the harmful effects of the performance evaluation system and requested the emperor to abolish it, but he did not impeach Zhang Juzheng.

Although the political ideas were different, they were still within the range that Zhang Juzheng could barely accept.

Although according to his temper, in order to thoroughly implement the performance evaluation system, Zhang Juzheng still did not show mercy to Fu Yingzhen, but his real purpose was to make an example of him.

Out of friendship with his fellow villager, Wei Guangde negotiated and mediated with Zhang Juzheng, and finally got the man out. He was only sent to a distant place, which was already enough of a courtesy.

You know, one of the purposes of severely punishing Fu Yingzhen is to prevent similar incidents from happening.

But unexpectedly, it finally happened.

Zhang Juzheng must have felt regretful in his heart for letting Fu Yingzhen go, especially since this impeachment was directed at him, his student.

Wei Guangde naturally found it difficult to say these words.

So we can only put all the blame on Liu Tai and let him bear the anger.

At this moment, a young eunuch outside the door shouted to the inside: "Your Highness, the news from the Imperial Household Department just now is that the third letter of resignation from the Prime Minister has been delivered."

"what?"

The little emperor was horrified.

Previously, after Zhang Juzheng submitted a petition to refute Liu Tai's memorial, although the palace tried to comfort him with kind words, Zhang Juzheng obviously did not accept it and stayed in his mansion without going out.

Even though the palace issued consecutive decrees of rewards, Zhang Juzheng still submitted his first retirement petition a few days later.

After the memorial was presented, the young emperor and the empress dowager summoned Zhang Juzheng. Zhu Yijun expressed that he did not believe Liu Tai's impeachment and wanted to punish Liu Tai to vent his anger.

Empress Dowager Li also appealed to the emperor's emotions and explained to him with reason, saying that the late emperor left us an orphan and a widow, and it was all thanks to you that we were taken care of.

The emperor is still young and state affairs are busy and complicated. If you really leave, what will you do for us mother and son?

He said that the emperor would definitely make the decision for him and told him not to worry too much.

Persuasion was fruitless, so Zhang Juzheng could only go back and rest for a while.

A few days later, the second resignation letter was submitted. The empress dowager and the young emperor pondered for a long time, and finally Zhu Yijun issued an edict to retain Mr. Zhang, saying that Mr. Zhang's loyalty to the country was not only known to him, but all the ancestors of the Zhu family knew that evil villains must be severely punished.

I hope Mr. Zhang will think of me and not mind what others say.

But now that the third letter of retirement has been submitted, the situation is a little different.

It seemed that Zhang Juzheng was determined to leave.

Although Wei Guangde had not seen the memorial at this time, he was also frowning, feeling that Zhang Juzheng was too reckless and treating state affairs as a child's play.

After the copy of the memorial was delivered to the Wenhua Hall, Wei Guangde shook his head after reading it.

In this memorial, Zhang Juzheng's true intentions were fully revealed, and only a very few people who understood Zhang Juzheng could understand the mystery.

In the memorial, Zhang Juzheng admitted that he had to leave, and said that his current position was to act as an agent for the emperor, which was the emperor's business.

The words I represent are also the emperor's words. Liu Tai is actually right when he says that I abuse my power.

Because I represent the Emperor, your words and actions are either powerful or blessing.

During the three years since the Emperor came to power, I have offended many people, and these people hate me to the core.

As long as I don't leave for one day, these people will not feel at ease. If I don't leave for a year, these people will not feel at ease for a year. If they are not at ease, they will attack me.

This time when the emperor impeached Liu Tai, the empress dowager believed me, but what about next time?

Although I have an open mind, I am afraid of what people say. I once again hope that the emperor will allow me to resign and return home.

Zhang Juzheng's tactic of retreating to advance was really powerful. In fact, he was just testing to determine the empress dowager and the young emperor's views on this matter and their attitude towards him.

If the two Empress Dowagers and the young emperor had believed Liu Tai's words at all, it would have been difficult for Zhang Juzheng to continue implementing his subsequent reform proposals, and they would have felt resentful.

In this way, if a few more people attack him, he will definitely step down.

Only when he was sure that the Emperor and the Queen Mother still trusted him as always, did he have no reason to mention resigning and returning home.

Because Zhang Juzheng knew very well that only if the little emperor and the two empress dowagers always stood on his side, his source of power would be endless and he could continue to implement his political ideas.

"Your Majesty, this Liu Tai is spreading rumors and misleading the people. It is better to deal with him as soon as possible."

Wei Guangde understood, but was worried that the little emperor didn't understand, so he reminded him.

"But he is a censor."

The little emperor was actually a little confused at this time. Wei Guangde had just said that the "crimes" that Liu Tai impeached were all true, but they were just exaggerated. It would have been enough to just issue an imperial edict, but now Wei Guangde suggested to punish him.

This is naturally wrong in the little emperor's worldview.

  Liu Tai is dedicated to the public, why should he be punished?

"Your Majesty, this is the first year of the implementation of the Performance Evaluation Law, and all parties have reacted strongly. If Liu Tai is not severely punished, as the memorial said, there will be no peace in the court.

There will be people who will file impeachment petitions again and again and will not stop until he is forced to step down.

If we want to ensure that the implementation of national policies is not hindered, Liu Tai must accept the most severe punishment to serve as a warning to others. "

Wei Guangde saw that the little emperor still didn't understand what he meant, so he could only continue, "As for the ancestral system that your majesty is worried about, the so-called rumors and reports, the talented ministers have already said that they are the knives in your majesty's hand, as long as the handle is in your majesty's hand.

The impeachment will only be effective if Your Majesty wants to chop there. If Your Majesty has no such intention, you can simply ignore such memorials.

Your Majesty, please do not be led by the memorials of the Ministry of Personnel, but guide them to act according to your will."

Wei Guangde has taught enough today. The little emperor may understand what he said today in a few years, but he may not understand it now.

It doesn’t matter whether he understands or not, as long as the Queen Mother understands.

Zhu Yijun couldn't figure it out, so he naturally went to discuss it with the Empress Dowager, but the final decision-making power still lay in the hands of the Empress Dowager.

As for Wei Guangde, he should just fulfill his duties as a cabinet minister and consult on government affairs.

After today's classes, this incident happened again. Wei Guangde said goodbye and left Wenhua Hall to return to the cabinet to handle government affairs.

Later, the palace issued an order to "order the Jinyi Tiqi to go to Liaodong to bring Liu Tai back to Beijing for questioning."