Daming talker

Chapter 547: Exiled to the army.
Shen Shixing felt that this kind of conversation was not the right way to go, and he had to say something that would be inconvenient for Wang Xijue to hear.

So he said to Wang Xijue: "Jing Shi should go back first. If you have anything else to say, we can talk at Wenyuan Pavilion tomorrow."

The fact that Wang Xijue took the initiative to visit the Shen Mansion tonight is enough to show his humble attitude, and there is no need to say anything else.

After Wang Xijue left, Shen Shixing said to Lin Tai: "Did you find today that the emperor is actually very tolerant towards you?
It was not until you exposed the emperor's deception that the emperor became really angry.

But looking at your later beating with the imperial cane, you still have enough energy to go on parade after the beating. If the emperor didn't acquiesce, how could the factory owner let you go like this?"

Lin Tailai answered proudly: "That's because my loyalty is as clear as the sun and the moon, and the emperor in the ninth heaven can also feel it!"

In fact, Lin Tailai was also very curious in his heart. Why did the emperor "suppress" and "forgive" him at the same time? Did he have the aura of a protagonist?
Or was it because he had never submitted a memorial requesting that the eldest son be made Crown Prince, which aroused the emperor's favor?
"You are talking nonsense!" Prime Minister Shen could not help but scold him, and then said: "That's because the emperor once sent a secret letter to ask me what you, Lin Tailai, think about the matter of establishing a crown prince."

Is there such a thing? Lin Tailai immediately asked curiously: "How did the old senior respond?"

Prime Minister Shen said with a hint of pride: "I secretly reported back that Lin Tailai didn't care who was the Crown Prince."

This means that if I hadn't laid the foundation first, would the emperor have been so tolerant of you? You, Lin Tailai, should not be ungrateful!

Lin Tailai seemed surprised. "It turns out that it wasn't just the other three who betrayed me to the emperor. You, old senior, were also there! You were even the first one!"

Shen Shoufu: "."

We really don’t have the same opinion today, so get out of here!
After coming out of Shen's house, Lin Tailai suddenly realized and solved the previous mystery.

It turned out that the emperor judged that he had a very high "united front value" through information from various channels, so he thought of using small tricks to win him over.

For example, when the Grand Secretary is summoned, he will take himself along; or, he may use the Grand Secretary to suppress himself and force him to break with the cabinet, and then he may show favor and promote himself.

Just like when it was time to liquidate Zhang Juzheng, the emperor first encouraged and promoted the "Three Red Men".

And now, the emperor needs someone to stand up and share his worries and fight against the momentum of supporting the eldest son.

It’s just that today, Imperial Concubine Zheng and the Third Prince kept making trouble and “forced” their united front targets to rebel, and the Emperor had no choice.

It seems that it was indeed the right decision to constantly make enemies with the Zheng family.

From now on, as long as you are careful and don't jump too much, your situation during the national disaster will be much more stable.

After all, in the eyes of the emperor, he was "forced to rebel" by Concubine Zheng and the third prince, and was fundamentally different from those ministers who sought to gain credit for supporting the emperor and use the emperor to improve their reputation.

When Lin Tailai returned home, it should have been late at night, but there was a noticeable increase in the number of pedestrians in the West City officials' residence area tonight.

It seems that tonight is not a peaceful night. I don't know how many people are making joint visits and preparing for the coming political storm.

The next day, the cabinet drafted an edict to punish Lin Tailai based on the emperor's oral order the day before, which included dismissal from office, removal of his official title, and exile to a remote frontier army.

After the imperial edict was sealed, it reached the six ministries, but was rejected by the Imperial Censorate and was not issued.

In order to appease Concubine Zheng, the emperor bypassed the cabinet and the six ministries and sent his imperial edict directly to the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of War, but the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of War still protested.

The emperor issued another decree to punish the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of War, but this time the cabinet again sealed it back and the decree was still not issued.

Therefore, after several rounds of wrangling between the emperor and his ministers, the issue of Lin Tailai's punishment was temporarily deadlocked in terms of procedures.

Just as Lin Tailai said, the emperor needs to maintain his authority, but the ministers cannot easily let the emperor succeed. After all, Lin Tailai is now almost equivalent to political correctness.

At this time, the emperor had another method, which was to directly send the Jinyiwei to arrest people, then lock them up and force the ministers to negotiate conditions before releasing them.

But Emperor Wanli did not want to go this far. The situation was already chaotic enough, and the emperor did not want to create any more trouble.

During the days when the emperor and his ministers were arguing over Lin Tailai, a large number of censors took the initiative to impeach the three cabinet ministers below the prime minister.

Some people attacked Elder B in order to protect Elder Jia, some attacked Elder C in order to protect Elder B, some attacked Elder A in order to protect Elder C, and some even attacked both of them at the same time.

There are many different offensive and defensive combinations, each with its own purpose, but in essence they all want to bring down others and protect their own people.

After all, the Ming Dynasty had its own system that prohibited the submission of memorials to praise the virtues of ministers, so no one could submit a memorial to praise their own people. They could only protect their own people by attacking other ministers.

This led to an unprecedented chaos. It can be said that the court was in complete chaos.

Lin Tailai, who was in the eye of the storm, was very quiet. He kept his door closed to visitors and stayed at home obediently.

Like Lin Tailai, the three other grand secretaries who stayed indoors included Xu Guo, Wang Xijue and Wang Jiaping.

Under an impeachment of this intensity, it was impossible for them to continue working. They could only submit their resignations as per convention and pretend to be awaiting punishment at home.

So Prime Minister Shen was the only one left in the cabinet, and he had to shoulder all the troubles alone.

At this moment, he missed his colleagues especially, even Xu Er who had been drifting away and Wang Si who always sang the opposite tune.

As for those memorials impeaching other cabinet ministers, Shen Shoufu, who became the sole prime minister, did not dare to take the initiative and had to send them all to the emperor for personal review. There were a lot of them every day.

Emperor Wanli was almost driven crazy by this chaotic situation, especially when ministers and censors submitted memorials, they would always mention the issue of the country's foundation.

After all, the source of this situation is still due to the problem of national foundation.

This morning, just as Emperor Wanli climbed up from Concubine Zheng, he saw Zhang Cheng, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department, waiting outside the palace gate with a large stack of documents in his arms.

Emperor Wanli could not help but complain to Zhang Cheng, "Recently, there have been many discussions, with people taking what is right as wrong and what is wrong as right, confusing each other!
I haven't even had time to read one book of discussion, and now there's another one of debate. I'm so overwhelmed that I can't finish reading it even by evening!

Now I can't see the words clearly under the light, how can I read them one by one?"

Zhang Cheng also responded helplessly: "It is a troubled time of spring, it will be fine after it passes."

Emperor Wanli was still dissatisfied and said: "What's even more annoying is that among all these memorials, none of them really helped me to relieve my worries and spoke for me!"

It is difficult to tell the truth, so Zhang Cheng can only deal with it with silence.

After successive emperors’ squandering, how much of your Zhu family’s political credibility and the sanctity of imperial power is left?
In the distant past, there was Emperor Yingzong who killed Yu Qian, in the recent past, there was Emperor Shizong who messed up the Great Ceremony Debate, and even more recently, there was Your Majesty who settled accounts with Zhang Juzheng.

To this day, among the ministers, who would dare to risk his entire life and property and stand wholeheartedly on the side of the emperor?
For people like Lin Tailai and Shen Shixing, being able to remain relatively neutral is already very good.

If he said the above words, he would lose his head, so Zhang Cheng could only keep them to himself.

So Emperor Wanli sent another secret letter to Prime Minister Shen to ask what should be done.

Prime Minister Shen replied to the secret memorial, "If you want to pacify the court, please pacify the cabinet first; if you want to pacify the cabinet, please pacify Lin Tailai first; if you want to pacify Lin Tailai, please consult the officials first." Then Emperor Wanli issued an edict, ordering the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of War, and the Censorate to hold a joint trial and sentence Lin Tailai, who had committed violence in the palace, beaten and injured eunuchs, bullied royal relatives, and disrespected the emperor!
Generally speaking, the highest level of trial is the joint trial by the Three Courts, which refers to the Censorate, the Ministry of Justice, and the Supreme Court.

This time, Lin Tailai was in charge of the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of War, and the Censorate, which was a higher standard than the joint trial of the Three Departments.

The next day, officials from the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Military Affairs, and the Chief Censor of the Censorate all attended the meeting and gathered in the lobby of the Ministry of Personnel.

But Yang Wei, the official of the Ministry of Personnel, and Wu Shilai, the left censor-in-chief, and other followers of Prime Minister Shen were quite puzzled because they did not receive any call from Prime Minister Shen.

I don’t know what the Prime Minister was thinking, he just completely ignored it.

Lin Tailai, who had been staying at home, was also brought over and stood on the platform to be tried.

Perhaps because the injury from the beating in the court had healed well, Lin Tailai now looked energetic and in high spirits.

He looked at the officials in the hall and greeted them warmly: "Hey! Doctor Chen, you are here too. Thank you for your petition a few days ago!"

Chen Younian, a Langzhong in the Ministry of Personnel's Selection Department, had been an official for many years and had experienced several ups and downs, but he had never experienced such a disgusting moment.

In recent years, countless colleagues have fallen into the hands of Lin Tailai, but this time the emperor has ordered a severe punishment for Lin Tailai, but he wants to petition for Lin Tailai and stop the emperor from punishing him severely!

Chen Younian could only sneer and say sarcastically: "Your injuries healed really quickly."

Lin Tailai laughed and said, "The medicine is good, the medicine is good! After all, our Lin Mansion has accumulated rich experience in treating injuries over the years, and the medicines are becoming more and more sophisticated."

The host, Yang Wei, the official of the Ministry of Personnel, said, "Stop talking nonsense! Let's get down to business!"

Zhao Zhigao, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, said: "There is no need to discuss the charges. The emperor's order is very clear. The only thing that can be discussed is the sentence.

Facing the thunder of the nine heavens, being dismissed from office and stripped of one's nationality could be considered a spiritual tempering, but being exiled was the most morale-destroying and the most unacceptable.

If a man like Lin Tailai, who was covered in wounds and weak, was exiled, only one or two out of ten would survive. How could this be a way to preserve morale? How could he explain this to the scholars?
So I think it is enough to dismiss him from office and order him to return home, and there is no need to send him to exile."

Yang Tianguan said: "If we just dismiss him from office and remove his title, it would be a light punishment, and the emperor will definitely not allow it!
We are here to judge, and we also have to consider how to make the emperor accept it, otherwise it is just a waste of time!"

Zhao Huan, the Left Censor-in-Chief, suddenly said: "The main reason why the exiles have weakened the morale is that the journey is long and arduous and the garrison is difficult.

It would be fine to retain the punishment of exile, but instead of sending him to a remote area, how about exiling him to the capital?
There are so many guards in the capital, can't there be room for a criminal soldier?
This way, we can calm the wrath of the thunder and maintain the morale of the people. Isn't that the best of both worlds? "

Yang Tianguan didn't care about his position on this issue. He just wanted to solve the problem as soon as possible, so he agreed and said, "Very good!"

Then he turned to the Minister of War Wang Yi'e and said, "Where to send him after he is exiled is the business of your Ministry of War. You can decide it!"

Chen Younian, a doctor in the Ministry of Personnel, immediately said, "I remind you all that the place of exile should not be anywhere in the city, but should be far away from the government offices, so as to avoid regrets later!"

Everyone imagined that if a person like Lin Tailai was allowed to be a soldier in the city, he would definitely be conspicuous and the consequences would be disastrous.

For example, if Lin Tailai is asked to patrol the Imperial Street, I am afraid that all government offices will be visited every day!
Also, Lin Tailai's identity is too eye-catching. If he wanders around the city, no one knows what consequences will arise.

"Then go guard the city gate!" said the official from the Military Selection Bureau after careful consideration.

This should limit the adverse effects to the greatest extent possible, because the guards of the city gates cannot move around at will.

Hearing this, Lin Tailai immediately said: "Then I will apply to go to Chongwenmen!"

"Dream on!" Chen Younian shouted unceremoniously, "If I ask you to go to Chongwenmen, I'm afraid they will set up a private checkpoint to collect taxes!"

Chongwenmen is the most prosperous gate in the capital, and the Chongwenmen Customs is also one of the most famous customs in the world.

Then Chen Younian made a suggestion: "Let's go to Yongdingmen!"

Lin Tailai refused without a second thought: "It's too far from home, I won't go!"

Then he said: "Xuanwu Gate or Chaoyang Gate!"

"No!" Chen Younian still firmly opposed.

Xuanwumen's commercial importance is second only to Chongwenmen, and it is close to Xicheng, with many dignitaries passing through. It would still cause trouble if Lin Tailai guarded Xuanwumen.

Chaoyangmen is the most important grain transportation channel. How could Lin Tailai be placed there?
Lin Tailai asked again: "What about Deshengmen or Andingmen?"

Chen Younian still firmly opposed: "No!"

There are only these two gates in the north city. Because the imperial mausoleum is in the north, many people come and go to worship the former emperors, envoys, nobles, and eunuchs throughout the year.

Besides, the Imperial College, which gathered thousands of failed scholars, was just in the north. How could we be at ease letting Lin Tailai, who was extremely good at inciting people, go to the north?

Lin Tailai asked again: "Fuchengmen?"

"No!" Chen Younian still said these two words.

Lin Tailai was furious, "This is not okay, that is not okay, what do you want?

Anyway, the Seven Gates of the Outer City are too far, I definitely won’t go there! "

Chen Younian snorted coldly, "No need for the outer city, among the Old Nine Gates, I only agree to send Lin Tailai to Xizhimen!
If it is another city gate, we absolutely disagree and will file a separate petition to accuse you of violating the law!"

Because in this era, Xizhimen was the city gate with the lowest political and economic attributes, and the population density outside the city gate was also very low.

No matter how you look at it, there is nothing sensitive about Xizhimen.

Moreover, Xizhimen and the main government office area in the southeast of the imperial city are almost diagonally opposite each other, so the distance is very safe. There is no need to worry about Lin Tailai causing trouble again!

Therefore, considering all aspects, only the quietest Xizhimen meets everyone's requirements.

Lin Tailai was speechless and scolded: "You guys are too calculating!"

Chen Younian sneered, "I can never have too many schemes against you!"

“That’s it!” Yang Tianguan made the final decision.

He was also a little annoyed with Lin Tailai, and since the Prime Minister hadn't said hello, there was no need to take sides.

(End of this chapter)