The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

A court discussion in the inner court ended with the emperor's "good decision-making".

When the three cabinet members returned to the room, Cheng Minzheng had an excuse to leave. He also saw that today's incident was very unfavorable to the cabinet and wanted to avoid it, but was stopped by Li Dongyang.

"Keqin, what do you think of today's events?" Li Dongyang asked.

Cheng Minzheng said: "His Majesty said that he would give it some time and let the Jin Yiwei investigate. Maybe there will be a turn for the better."

Li Dongyang shook his head and said: "In my estimation, Your Majesty will sentence Qiao to death, or... sigh!"

Even if you don't die, you still have to shed your skin.

Cheng Minzheng said helplessly: "His Majesty set the rules for Tingju long ago, but now we are just following the rules. Who would have thought that there is still a Yanwu Hall, but now there is someone in the Yanwu Hall? Could it be... just find someone to do it?" A memorial?"

Li Dongyang looked at Liu Jian.

Liu Jiandao: "It doesn't matter what the opinion of the Yanwu Hall is, it just depends on your Majesty's opinion. If Your Majesty doesn't want this, how could the people in the Yanwu Hall do this? After all, the wind has changed."

Cheng Minzheng asked: "In this case, is there still room for making amends? This is what I think. If there are some people in the cabinet that your Majesty has to consider, or... how should I put it, or your Majesty intends to let the cabinet and There is some distance between us, do we have to... hold on to some past things? "

Nominally, the cabinet must have one person in charge of the Shangting Department, and this person happened to fall on him. Now when it comes to the dispute between the Shangting Department and the cabinet, Cheng Minzheng is saying that neither side regards him as one of their own.

Cheng Minzheng sighed: "The recent affairs of the Shangting Department are all completed by others. I go there occasionally. I am too busy with the affairs of the cabinet, and there are also matters of the Hanlin Academy waiting for me, alas!"

The target of the attack is directly aimed at the two-faced Cheng Minzheng.

The most critical point lies in Zhang Zhou.

……

Who made the emperor insist on letting him serve in the Shangting Department?

"Haha." Li Shishi said with a smile, "Liaodong is a good place, full of talented people. Think about it, the Ming Dynasty leveled the grassland, and now the grassland Tatars don't dare to move. Where should we attack next? We must subdue the women first. Real man! This trip to Liaodong has already used troops, and you used your talents to the best of your ability."

Cheng Minzheng seemed to realize at this moment that Liu Jian was taking out his anger on him and had no choice. The best way was to avoid it quickly, so he ignored Li Dongyang's strange look and handed over his hand without saying a word. Left the cabinet.

Ministry of Punishment.

Liu Jian asked: "Keqin, you often come in and out of Shangting. Is this all you have?"

Cheng Minzheng also hated this.

"But……"

Liu Yu asked: "I don't know what my official position is..."

Li Shishi said: "I don't know that your official position is assigned by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, but I heard that this time you were transferred to Liaodong and were responsible for the transportation of grain and grass there."

Li Dongyang obviously understood. We have to follow the emperor's wishes and bring Zhang Zhou to the cabinet. Maybe things will not be so complicated.

Li Shishi, the right servant, handed the "pardon letter" to Liu Yu on this day, which meant that Liu Yu was free.

At this time, Cheng Minzheng could only express his thoughts tactfully.

……

Some things really can't be said directly.

Li Dongyang said: "Zhang Bingkuan, on the other hand, is neither in the Supreme Court nor in the cabinet, but he is still a member of the Hanlin Academy. So this time, even though he is the Minister of the Ministry of War, he did not make a sound at all regarding Yu Qiao's affairs. "

"Liaodong?" Liu Yu didn't quite understand.

Liu Yu had many questions that he wanted to ask, but he couldn't.

Because after all, Li Shishi was not the person responsible for the appointment and removal of his official position, so he could only use some gossip to frustrate him.

Li Shishi said: "Why are you in such a hurry? Go back and rest for two days, and you will be exhausted here. If you have no place to go, I still have a small courtyard in Beijing where you can stay."

"no, I'm fine."

Of course Liu Yu didn't need Li Shishi to help him. Even though he was down and out, he was still somewhat powerful.

In his opinion, there would still be people trying to curry favor with him outside the yamen gate, and the property he had left behind through Jiaotu Sanku could still be put to use.

Liu Yu suddenly thought of something again and asked, "Thank you, Mr. Ge..."

"Don't think about it, Mr. Xie Ge." Li Shishi said with a smile, "I thought his case would be settled before the year, but now it seems that it is probably hanging in the balance. Not only will it not be solved before the year, but he may also be questioned about the death penalty after the year. , and now he has been sent to death row! What a good man!

It seemed like he was feeling pity, but he was still smiling.

This makes Liu Yu unable to understand Li Shishi's mentality, but now he only cares about going home to recuperate. This time in prison, he has been tortured, and he also wants to leave this ghost place as soon as possible.

……

……

Princess Yongkang returned to the capital.

After returning from Santun Camp, she went straight to her house. She was in a good mood on the way home this time, because Cui Yuan had officially become the Marquis of Jingshan, which meant that her husband had become the Marquis of the Ming Dynasty, and the official positions in the family would be hereditary in the future. .

After returning from this trip, she immediately asked people to prepare gifts to send to Zhang Zhou.

"Your Highness, why are you giving gifts to our prince-in-law when Cai Guogong is tormenting him?" Naturally, the mother-in-law didn't understand.

On the way back, Yongkang complained every day about Zhang Zhouguai taking her husband, and also said that Zhang Zhou was "revenge for private revenge", but ended up giving him gifts when he came back, which was a perfect example of the inconsistency between words and deeds.

Yongkang said: "What do you know? This gift is for him to treat the consort well. If he doesn't give it, what should he do if he wears small shoes? He has obtained the title, but whether he can return to Beijing now depends on Cai Guogong's words. Brother Huang Now you don’t listen to me, what else can I do?”

It was not to thank Zhang Zhou, but to curry favor with Zhang Zhou and ask Zhang Zhou to send her husband back to the capital as soon as possible.

The mother-in-law thought for a while, and realized that the princess's thinking was also very strange. It would be better not to explain it.

"Your Highness, I just heard that Mr. Xie Ge has been questioned about capital crimes and may be sentenced to death row." The mother-in-law said again, "There have been people visiting the house in the past two days, and all the disciples have been dismissed. Most of them heard about the promotion of the consort. Mr. Hou, come here to congratulate me.”

"What congratulations? They are just a bunch of villains who follow the trend. What does Mr. Xie Ge's matter have to do with me?" Yongkang obviously didn't want to deal with those troublesome things. The mother-in-law said: "There are many people here, including ministers from the court. They all seem to be concerned about this matter, and they also want to know what you and our consort have to say about this."

"Really?" Yongkang was a little satisfied and said with a smile, "It seems that from now on our Princess Mansion will be able to care about the important affairs of the court. It is no longer like before when no one comes to give gifts during the holidays. Everyone calls me a liar. What's going on in the capital? Hasn't it brought benefits to the Prince Consort?"

"Your Highness, you are wise. If someone comes to ask again, will you drive them away?" The old woman continued to ask.

"No, you should receive them if you should, but there is no need for the poor relatives of the Prince Consort's family. They all want to benefit from the Prince Consort, and they don't care about their abilities. Why should they rely on the Prince Consort to help them? If it is The court officials who come will be given tea. Isn't the courtyard in the west wing empty? Let them come in, sit down and drink tea, talk about the affairs of the court, and tell me everything they heard. I will know better. "

"Yes."

"If someone asks about the opinions of me and the consort, just say that we have no right to speak in the court, and we cannot influence His Majesty's opinions. There is nothing we can do about whoever wants me to intercede."

"Your Highness, are you saying that they deliberately talked about Mr. Xie Ge here to ask you to plead for mercy?"

"Otherwise? These people know where they want to fly as soon as they lift their wings. Do you really think they just care about us? They just want to use the convenience of me entering the palace to let me go to Mr. Xie Ge. Please forgive me, but now, we no longer rely on this group of people, and we are not the same people as Mr. Xie Ge. "

The mother-in-law seemed to understand something and nodded: "Yes, you are the eldest princess and you are a member of the royal family."

"Wrong." Yongkang said with a smile, "We are Zhang Bingkuan's people, and the opinions of that group are ours. If the emperor is on Zhang Bingkuan's side, we are in agreement with the emperor. Let those people also know that we Since they are an upstart, they should stand with the mainstream of the court, they are outdated. "

Mother-in-law: "..."

I thought you, the eldest princess, had a lot of backbone, but it turned out that you were already ready to surrender.

Are you still scolding Zhang Bingkuan like this?

I basically planned to wear a pair of trousers with Cai Guogong.

It is a pity that the civil servants in the court thought they could bring Cui Yuan to the "right path". Now it seems that even if Cui Yuan does not want to join Zhang Zhou, the eldest princess will make her husband a wise man who understands current affairs.

……

……

Duke Cai's Mansion.

On this day, Jiang Pingyu was still talking to Han Qing about the renovation of the ancestral home of the Zhang family in the south of the Yangtze River. The so-called ancestral home was not the big house that Zhang Ye inherited, but the old home of the Zhang family outside the city. I don’t know where to find it. Touched out.

Before Zhang Zhou left, he specially allocated dozens of taels of silver, saying that it would be enough to send someone over to take a look.

Because the Jiang family still has some connections in Nanjing, this matter will also be completed by the Jiang family.

But it was Li Chun who came in to tell us: "Madam, the people in the main courtyard said that there have been so many people visiting in the past two days that they can't handle it anymore. Can you send a few more people over?"

"What's going on?" Jiang Pingyu said, "Before I left, didn't I say that people from the court would not come to visit easily? Usually there are only one or two people who come to visit if they have nothing to do, but why are there more now? ?”

Han Qing said: "When I went out yesterday, I saw someone sitting at the door. They said they must see the master."

"Who?" Jiang Pingyu frowned.

I've seen weird things, but I've never seen anything so weird.

The Minister of War in the DPRK is someone that ordinary people can meet at their convenience?
"I don't know. They seem to be scholars. They are wearing plain clothes and are quite young. A few of them are still watching. They seem to be saying... someone in the court has been arrested. It has something to do with our master. They say that our master is also a scholar. We should help.”

Han Qing obviously didn't know so many twists and turns.

At this moment, Lin Yi came out and said: "Madam, in fact, they are here because of Mr. Xie Ge's matter. It is said that Mr. Xie Ge will be sentenced to death, so scholars from all over the capital want to come forward to speak for Mr. Xie Ge. Our master If what they say works, they just want to try their luck here.”

Jiang Pingyu said: "Sister, you know more, how can we understand this? The master is not at home, and we can't control this matter. Let people go out and talk, let them disperse."

"It's useless." Lin Yi said, "Now everyone in the capital is talking about it. Some people think that it was our master who caused Mr. Xie Ge to be imprisoned. They are not here to plead for mercy, but to cause trouble."

"Then...they went too far. Did the master do it?" Jiang Pingyu asked.

Lin Yi shook his head and said: "I heard that it was because of clique formation and other matters. Our master has never taken care of it. However, because Mr. Xie Ge hired people to participate in the impeachment, he promoted them. Later, they won the battle in the northwest. Your Majesty thinks that Mr. Xie Ge is causing trouble for nothing, and he is secretly looking for trouble with Yan Guan. I don’t know the details. "

"Then sister, what do you think we should do?" Jiang Pingyu had no idea.

Nowadays, she is nominally listened to in matters of family matters, but at critical moments, a knowledgeable and reasonable person is still needed to take charge of the overall situation.

Lin Yi said: "It's best to just close the door as the master said. I believe that this matter will fade away in a few days. Furthermore, if the people from the Jinyi Guards and the City Defense Yamen see someone causing trouble at the door, they will definitely send someone Come."

"That's right, let's close the door. Don't go out recently!" Lin Yi said, "Qing'er, you also have distant relatives over there, right? Just give us something to pass on! Now that we are a noble person, who are we? They all came to see me and said that since the master is not at home, everything is inconvenient and I have to harden my heart."

"Yeah." Han Qing also nodded hurriedly.

Jiang Pingyu sighed: "It would be nice if Mingshan was at home. She was guarding the door and no one dared to come in. The master also left for a while, and I don't know when he will come back. This year, there is no master at home, and it seems that there is no one here. So lively.”

……

……

Li Zhang.

Li Zhang was busy sorting out the things at hand, because rumors said that he would step down as the admiral and eunuch of the East Factory at the end of the year. He could only tell the things that he could tell, especially those that could not be passed on to the next person. Solved.

To avoid unnecessary complications.

There are many scandals in the East Factory, and some of them can only be known to the current supervisor. If people behind them know about it, they may use it to make fun of it.

In particular, the person who will take over later is likely to be Yang Peng, who is someone Li Zhang feels he cannot afford to offend. The most important point is that Yang Peng was once the eunuch in charge of Dongchang. He has a wide range of contacts, from when Li Guang was in power to now. , it is naturally not easy to be able to prosper in a few years.

"Father, everything that needs to be done has been done, but there is one thing..." Mou Bin came over to report the matter to Li Zhang.

Li Zhang asked: "Is it Mr. Xie Ge's business?"

"Yes." Mou Bin said, "Mr. Xie Ge is about to be tortured. If the next step is not to use it, His Majesty's side...it's hard to say. There are some things that Xie Ge is stubbornly refusing to say. It doesn't require punishment, and I'm afraid it's inappropriate. ”

"Use what you need, what are you worried about? Are you worried, sir? What should I do if it's not the same when Bachelor Cheng comes in?" Li Zhang said, "Here, everyone must be treated equally!" (End of chapter) )