Daming talker

Chapter 625: How to win? (Please give me a monthly ticket!)

Lin Tailai couldn't help but sigh in his heart. It turned out that Wang Tianguan had been in the court for too short a time and was not yet familiar with many of the tactics.

Why waste words with Lu Guangzu now? Just take off your official hat in front of the emperor to show your resignation!

The emperor obviously thought that Wang Tianguan’s speech just now was quite interesting, and he would definitely not accept his resignation on the spot.

Then wouldn’t the outrageous accusations against Lu Guangzu be completely resolved?

However, it is normal for an old literary and artistic man who has been dissolute for more than 30 years to feel a little uncomfortable when he suddenly rises to the top of the political situation.

There is no other way. I have to support the official I chose, even if I have to grit my teeth.

Therefore, Lin Tailai had to personally step down again and report to the emperor: "Important personnel matters in the court are often decided by imperial recommendation!
Just now, Lu Guangzu opposed Wang Shizhen's proposal and advocated that all eight nominees should be retained. It would be a good idea to ask the other ministers for their opinions. "

Then he continued, "Now that the position of the head of the Ministry of Revenue is vacant, we should start with the Ministry of Rites."

Once you explain the specific implementation details like this, your superior will generally agree to it without any objection.

After a moment's hesitation, Yu Shenxing, the Minister of Rites, replied: "I agree with Lu Guangzu and retain the nominations of eight people."

This answer surprised everyone a little. You, Yu Shenxing, made the decision to change the ceremony cymbals song, which obviously meant you were starting to help Lin Tailai. How come you are suddenly standing against Lin Tailai now?
The Minister of War Wang Yi'e does not have much factional color. Generally speaking, he follows whatever the Prime Minister says and always agrees with him.

But this statement was rather sudden, and he had no time to communicate with the Prime Minister, so he could only follow his subconscious and say: "The nominations of eight people should be retained."

After all, half of the eight people were arranged by the Prime Minister, so it would be difficult to deny it.

The Minister of Justice Sun Pi Yang was supposed to escort the captured chieftain to the West Market and supervise his execution, but he was also called to the Meridian Gate.

He had no choice but to support Lu Guangzu, who was supported by the Qingliu forces. He replied: "The previous nomination should be retained and should not be invalidated without reason."

Zuo Tongzheng Xu Shen had a similar mentality to that of Minister of War Wang Yi'e, and he also subconsciously followed the Prime Minister and replied, "The nominations of eight people should be retained."

There are three vacancies among the nine ministers who are qualified to participate in major personnel recommendations in the court, and the remaining six are here.

Except for Wang Tianguan, the Left Censor-in-Chief, the Minister of Rites, the Minister of War, the Minister of Punishments, and the Left Vice Prime Minister all expressed the same opinion.

The cabinet ministers, who theoretically had no part in the personnel nomination process, remained silent and watched from the sidelines as spectators.

Perhaps because they are bystanders, they see things more clearly, but the more the grand secretaries looked at the situation, the more they felt something was wrong and their expressions changed.

Here it comes again! Here it comes again! The familiar routine appears again!
Some time ago, Lin Tailai pretended to be weak like this, shrinking constantly as if he was being beaten up.

It happened again today, as if everyone in the court was collectively bullying him!
Perhaps because the ministers were standing closest to the emperor, they had already caught a glimpse from the corner of their eyes that the emperor's brows were slightly frowned.

After listening to the speeches of the ministers, Lin Tailai could not help but sigh to the sky, beat his chest and stamp his feet, and roared at Lu Guangzu in a low voice: "Why, why is this?
How could a meritorious person like me have committed such an unforgivable crime?

Why is it that a meritorious official like me, who has only been back in the court for a month, is being targeted by almost all the court officials? "

Under normal circumstances, no one dared to respond to Lin Tailai's words, and everyone could only curse him in their hearts.

The hero who returned from a bloody battle complained in court, and whoever responded would be in trouble.

However, the fourth cabinet elder Zhao Zhigao suddenly said: "Perhaps it is you, Lin Tailai, who has behaved improperly and aroused public anger."

This shocked everyone again. It was like the sun had risen today, and Zhao Zhigao actually criticized Lin Tailai in public!

Lin Tailai immediately retorted: "This is a nomination and recommendation matter for the outer court, and has nothing to do with the cabinet! Please don't say too much, lest you be suspected of exceeding your authority!"

King Shen, King II, King III: "."

Are you referring to Zhao Si or the other three?

How can you control the situation if you can't speak?

Emperor Wanli looked at the "initiation" Lu Guangzu and asked, "What else do you want to say, Mr. Lu?"

Lu Guangzu took a deep breath and said earnestly, "Your Majesty! Among the eight nominated people, there are many honest and upright people who deserve to be promoted.

How can they all be invalidated for some inexplicable reasons? If this gets out, their reputation will be ruined for no reason, which is not in line with the state's way of employing people!

Your Majesty certainly cares about the heroes who contributed to the great victory, but don’t you care about other loyal ministers as well?”

There is no other way now. Reasoning is useless. We can only find ways to influence the emperor's emotions.

Lin Tailai suddenly interrupted and said, "From what you said, Lu Guangzu, apart from these eight people, there are no other honest and upright people in the Ming Dynasty who deserve to be promoted?

If we want to select people who are honest and upright, then why can't others do the same? For example, I, Lin Tailai, am very honest. "

Lu Guangzu: "."

The emotions that had been gathered with great difficulty suddenly deflated.

Puff! Suddenly someone couldn't help laughing.

Everyone was wondering who was so bold, but when they heard the laughter that seemed to come from the direction of the throne, they knew everything was fine.

"How dare Lin Tailai talk nonsense!" After laughing, Emperor Wanli quickly scolded again.

Lin Tailai said in a more earnest tone than Lu Guangzu: “Your Majesty’s previous dismissal of officials was intended to protect meritorious officials and ensure their safety.

But now it seems that there are too many dissatisfied people in the court, and I am afraid that even Your Majesty will be afraid to act rashly. I beg you to let me retire and return home, so as not to cause Your Majesty any more trouble."

Everyone: "."

Retiring at the age of 24? Could you, Lin Tailai, be more hypocritical?

Emperor Wanli weighed the matter again, made up his mind, and issued an edict:

"No need to say more! All previous nominations for the Minister of Revenue, Minister of Works, Minister of the Supreme Court, and Minister of the Imperial Household are invalid!"

Lu Guangzu, who had been opposing Lin Tailai today, became really angry and said bitterly:

"You must not do this. Your Majesty, please withdraw your order! Otherwise, the reputations of these eight people will be ruined. How can they still stand in the court?
I hope Your Majesty will give them some respect, considering that most of them are veteran officials who have worked hard for many years!"

At this moment, Lin Tailai jumped out again and said, "Lu Guangzu! At this time, you still don't forget to fight for power and profit, and want to dismiss the Minister of Personnel Wang Shizhen?"

Wang Tianguan: “?”

I finally managed to keep a low profile again, why was I mentioned again? What did Lu Guangzu's desperate remonstrance have to do with me?
Lin Tailai continued, "Just now, you, Lu Guangzu, believed that if all eight nominees of the Ministry of Personnel were invalidated, the Minister of Personnel would be seriously derelict in his duty.

Now, why don't you tell me how to punish the Minister of Personnel who failed in his duties? Should he be dismissed? Or do you want to use this as a threat? "Lu Guangzu was choked. He just used a big hat to hit someone and suppress Wang Tianguan, but he didn't think about how to implement it.

Without occupying the moral high ground, and in front of the emperor, he tried hard to protect the eight nominees and forced the Minister of Personnel to resign. This would appear to be very overbearing and would definitely cause the emperor to be extremely disgusted.

When everyone saw this, they could finally confirm that Lu Guangzu was no longer able to turn the situation around.

He is not as sharp-tongued as Lin Tailai, not as hypocritical as Lin Tailai in playing the victim, not as accurate in accusing others as Lin Tailai, and not as good at muddying the water as Lin Tailai. How can he win?

Lu Guangzu was so distraught that he stopped talking.

He suspected that if he continued to fight, he would not even be able to keep his position as the Left Censor-in-Chief.

He doesn't care about the official position, but the Qingliu forces need this Left Censor-in-Chief!
The Minister of Works Song Xun has passed away, and the Minister of Punishments Sun Pi Yang is not a staunch figure and may not be reliable at times, so his fellow comrades must not lose him, the Left Censor-in-Chief!
Everyone thought the meeting was about to end, but then they heard Emperor Wanli say to Lin Tai:

"I am now thinking that the reward given by the court to you as a meritorious official is indeed too little and should be supplemented. If you have any other ideas, please tell me."

Anyone who has worked in the court for more than a year knows that if the answer is not good, this will be a fatal question!
If we say that Lin Tailai just took advantage of the emperor's suspicion of factionalism and successfully struck a large group of people.

Now the emperor began to have some new doubts about Lin Tailai, who had won a great victory.

This question of asking Lin Tailai what other reward he wanted was probably a test. It was neither right nor wrong to ask for it.

As the saying goes, serving the emperor is like serving a tiger, this is exactly what it means.

Under the gaze of the ministers of the cabinet and the eunuchs of the Imperial Household Department, Lin Tailai seemed to strike the snake with the stick and said: "I do have two ideas!"

Emperor Wanli laughed and said, "Tell me!"

Lin Tailai continued, "First, I beg Your Majesty to grant me leave to visit my family and to return to my hometown temporarily to honor my parents.

I will spend two months setting up the Communications Department, and we will be able to go south in October and return to Beijing next spring."

Emperor Wanli asked in return: "Doesn't that mean that you, the Nine Yuan Emperors of this dynasty, cannot attend the two great ceremonies of the Winter Solstice and the New Year's Day?"

Lin Tailai: "."

If Your Majesty can be diligent enough to attend court, especially the biggest court meeting of the year, he, Lin Tailai, will dare to eat the ivory official badge around his waist!

Everyone understood what the emperor meant. It seemed that the emperor was in a good mood and was even telling jokes.

Lin Tailai added: "The second idea is that I heard that there is a spear enshrined in the Wufeng Tower of the Meridian Gate, which was used by Emperor Chengzu in the past.

If Your Majesty is willing, you may give me the Emperor Chengzu's spear, so that I can use it to boost morale when I go out to fight again in the future."

The ministers were very surprised. How did you, Lin Tailai, know that?
Even these old ministers heard about it for the first time today. They had never been to the Meridian Gate before, let alone the Five Phoenix Tower.

The fourth eunuch, Chen Ju, was even more puzzled. Why did Prime Minister Shen always look at him? Could it be that he was the one who informed Lin Tailai?

Emperor Wanli was equally surprised and asked the eunuchs around him, "Is there really such a spear in the building?"

The throne of Emperor Wanli was set in front of the Wufeng Tower, and he summoned ministers in front of the tower instead of entering it.

Zhang Cheng, the eunuch who had inspected the building before, replied, "There is indeed a spear enshrined in the building, which was passed down from Emperor Chengzu. It is said that Emperor Chengzu held it in his own hands during the conquest."

Emperor Wanli, who was fat and had difficulty walking, was too lazy to go into the building to see it in person, so he told Zhang Cheng:
"It has been said since ancient times that a sword is given to a hero, and the same is true for a spear. Go and take it down and give it to Lin Tailai. It will also be a good story!"

This reward, which is extremely sacred in name but of little use in reality, is worthy of the hero who won seven battles and was the first to capture the city. No one in the world can say it is not right!
"No!" The third cabinet minister Wang Jiaping blurted out somewhat inappropriately.

Lin Tailai already has armor bestowed by the emperor. If he also gets a spear bestowed by his ancestors, will he still be able to enforce the law if he starts a war in the capital?

Facing the emperor's gaze, Wang Jiaping quickly said, "It is extremely inappropriate to hold a weapon in front of the emperor!"

Emperor Wanli said magnanimously: "No problem, just take the spear and go down!"

Not long after, No. 1 Zhang Cheng and No. 2 Sun Xian came out of the building holding a rusty iron spear and stood far away from the emperor's throne.

Lin Tailai took a few steps forward, bowed, and solemnly took the rusty iron spear.

Then Emperor Wanli said, "Lin Tailai, please go down first! I still need to talk to the ministers about the gathering of mining thieves in various places!"

Damn it! Lin Tailai ran down with his iron spear in hand! The emperor wants to open a mine, so he ran away quickly!
The big pits that occurred during the Wanli Dynasty were not only the disputes over the national foundation, but also mining and mining taxes, which were all big pits that were hard to please.

Thinking of this, Lin Tailai suddenly felt that it was not necessarily a bad thing for Wang Situ to be in mourning at this time.

If the dispute over the national foundation was a big pitfall for the Ministry of Rites, the Minister of Rites was forced to be on the front line.

Then mining tax and commercial tax would be big traps for the Ministry of Revenue. The Minister of Revenue would definitely use public opinion to oppose the Emperor's direct dispatch of mining supervisors to mine and collect taxes.

If Wang Situ continues to serve as the Minister of Revenue, I'm afraid he will soon fall into a trap.

As for why the emperor was thinking about opening a mine to make money at this time, Lin Tailai could understand it.

Speaking of the imperial palace's finances, in addition to the more than one million gold and silver coins from Jiangnan every year, as well as other income from imperial farms and pastures, the simplest and most convenient way was to move silver directly from the Taicang Treasury into the inner treasury.

However, the Taicang treasury had been running short of silver since the past two years, and the military deployment in Ningxia this year had cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Therefore, even if the emperor wanted to move silver directly from the national treasury, he couldn't do so and had to find another way.

While Lin Tailai was thinking about the national treasury issue, he subconsciously wanted to get away from the Meridian Gate as quickly as possible to avoid being called up to discuss the "gathering of mine thieves" issue again.

So Lin Tailai subconsciously jogged all the way from the Meridian Gate to the Zuoye Gate.

So the court officials who were still lingering under the Meridian Gate, waiting to see what was happening, saw from afar that Lin Tailai rushed out from the Zuoye Gate with a dark red spear that seemed to be stained with blood.

Thinking of Lin Tailai's famous martial arts skills on the streets of the capital and the rumors that he had fought in the palace, the more than 100 ministers who remained here collapsed on the spot and turned around to move towards Duanmen.

Did Lin Tailai kill his way down from the Meridian Gate? What happened at the Meridian Gate? Why didn't other ministers come down?
The Jinyiwei officers on duty at the Meridian Gate drew their swords and shouted, "Put down your weapons!"

The imperial guards also raised their weapons and were on high alert.

Lin Tailai was stunned, then he raised his spear and said loudly: "This is the spear of Emperor Chengzu, which was enshrined in the Five Phoenix Tower and was given to me by His Majesty!
In addition, His Majesty has also ordered that the eight people nominated earlier come out!"

The crowd that had stopped moving fell into chaos again, and some people were so weak that they could not stand.

Lin Tailai came to announce the imperial decree holding the imperial iron spear. What did this mean? Was it to retaliate according to the imperial decree and stab the people named to death on the spot?

(End of this chapter)