The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 670 People’s support
In the fifteenth year of Hongzhi's reign, it was early morning on the first day of the Lunar New Year.

Liu Jian and Li Dongyang arrived outside Zuoshun Gate early, waiting to enter the palace to greet the New Year. However, only a few people came that day. Among the six ministers who came early in the morning, only Lin Han, the minister of rites, came.

When everyone met, basic New Year greetings were indispensable, and then Liu Jian called Li Dongyang aside.

Li Dongyang spoke first: "Why do negative plans come in the future?"

In Li Dongyang's view, yesterday Liu Jian went to Ma Wensheng first, and the Minister of Civil Affairs initiated today's kneeling to remonstrate, but even Ma Wensheng, the initiator, seemed to be a deserter.

"Wait a minute," Liu Jian said, "it should come sooner or later."

Li Dongyang then told about his meeting with many officials in the court yesterday: "I have met all the people I should have met, or asked someone to pass on the message, and the answers given were the same. I must respond today, but... …”

"But what?" Liu Jian frowned.

Li Dongyang sighed and said: "I heard that early this morning, His Majesty issued an edict, saying that today's New Year's Eve celebration is cancelled, and everyone can decide whether to come. I'm afraid that Your Majesty already knows our intentions and is already on guard against this. Yes. People will not come because of this.”

Liu Jiandao: "If it's just a few people, it doesn't matter to the overall situation. The people who are coming now... are fine too."

Just as he was talking, Lin Han also came over to say hello to Li Dongyang and Liu Jian.

"Two pavilion elders, in this new year, the government and the public will have to rely more on us." Lin Han smiled with a smile on his face, and his face was full of spring breeze. "I heard that His Majesty is still in poor health today, why don't we go back earlier?"

Liu Jiandao: "Hengda, you don't know what day today is, do you?"

"What?" Lin Han looked confused.

Li Dongyang quickly gave Liu Jian a hand, probably to remind Liu Jian that he didn't even say hello to Lin Han about something.

Just as he was talking, someone not far away wanted to pay Lin Han New Year greetings. Lin Han could only turn around and deal with it in embarrassment.

After they walked away, Liu Jiancai glared at Li Dongyang and asked, "Didn't you look for it?"

Li Dongyang said: "Have you forgotten? You also said before that some people were not invited but brought here by fighting. Some things you said yesterday are different from those you said today. Some people came today. , you have to stay, if you inform us in advance or find various reasons to evade it.”

Liu Jian frowned.

This matter was indeed discussed in private between him and Li Dongyang.

To put it bluntly, Lin Han and other relatively neutral people were coerced into today's kneeling remonstrance occasion, making them embarrassed to leave even if they wanted to.

Liu Jiandao: "With Lin Hengda's popularity and ears, how can he not know what happened today?"

Lin Han could not possibly not know the implication.

Li Dongyang said: "What if he deliberately pretends to be confused?"

Liu Jian was unable to respond for a while.

Lin Han looked like he didn't know anything, but it could also be that Lin Han was pretending to be confused. Otherwise, why would he invite them to leave so early in the morning?

……

……

Time is gradually passing.

Liu Jian originally thought that more and more people would come to the palace gate, but when the sky was already bright and the sun was rising in the sky, there were still only a few people arriving, and the number of people coming was getting less and less.

Liu Jian is also wondering which link went wrong.

Cheng Minzheng arrived relatively late. As soon as he arrived, he got together with a few people from the Hanlin Academy, talking and laughing, as if he didn't know what happened today.

Li Dongyang walked over and called Cheng Minzheng aside. The people in the Hanlin Academy also wisely got out of the way. However, at the same time, Wang Hao, Yang Tinghe, Liang Chu and others had just arrived, and Li Dongyang had no time to deal with them for the time being.

"Keqin, what's going on today?" Li Dongyang asked.

Cheng Minzheng said: "Are you talking about today's court meeting, and I have something to report to His Majesty? Is it about speaking out for officials, or... continuing to participate in the impeachment?"

Li Dongyang said with a straight face: "Both."

"Hiss." Cheng Minzheng took a breath and said, "Bin Zhi, this matter is a bit difficult. Don't you know that His Majesty's attitude is very resolute this time? And His Majesty asked people from Dongchang and Jinyiwei to block him along the way. As for today As soon as many people left their homes, someone told them that today's meeting was cancelled, and that if they came, they would be responsible for the consequences... How did you let everyone come? "

"Is there such a thing?" Li Dongyang was also shocked.

Cheng Minzheng looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping, then he leaned over and said, "Everyone is afraid. Many people can't see the real meaning of impeaching Duke Cai. If it's just Regarding Yu Qiao's matter... it should be left to the Ministry of Justice to fight for it. After all, Yu Qiao's case has not yet been settled. Doesn't it mean that there is no chance of turning around? Isn't this a violation of the emperor's will? "

In this matter, Cheng Minzheng was sincerely trying to persuade Li Dongyang to stop.

As a relatively neutral person, how could Cheng Minzheng not see the emperor's partiality for Zhang Zhou?

Now the emperor is using fair and honest means to punish Xie Qian, who formed a party for personal gain and participated in the impeachment of frontline generals, which had a negative impact on the war situation. However, your traditional civil servants want to use some tricks to burn this fire on Zhang Zhou...

The emperor didn't want Zhang Zhou to be involved, and he didn't even let Zhang Zhou come out to participate in the discussion. Your actions are simply putting yourself on the opposite side of the emperor.

Cheng Minzheng said: "In other court affairs, people in the court may not hesitate to stand here, but when it comes to Yu Qiao and Cai Guogong, this matter... is difficult to classify. Some people are actually... …It’s hard to balance both sides.”

Li Dongyang frowned and said: "In your opinion, some people helped Yu Qiao during Tingju just because of their feelings, but in fact their hearts are towards Zhang Bingkuan?"

"Haha." Cheng Minzheng said with a bitter smile, "It sounds unpleasant, but in fact... it's almost the same. Who allowed the people Yu Qiao participated in to make contributions in the Northwest War? Recently, the Hanlin Academy is also discussing the promotion of Pinglubo to the rank of nobility. What happened, plus Uncle Xin Xin... If this continues, I'm afraid it will be... Oh!"

This also makes Cheng Minzheng no longer a human being.

He really wanted to stand by Liu Jian and Li Dongyang, but they didn't regard him as one of their own. He also wanted to be a good old man and mediate.

But on this issue, how could he possibly convince Liu Jian and Li Dongyang, the leading civil servants? So he would rather take the risk of being criticized and come today, and even persuade some people to come... As a result, Li Dongyang will feel that he has not done enough.

……

……

The waiting continues.

When Li Dongyang returned to Liu Jian, he roughly counted the number of people present. There were only more than 30 people present. Compared with the more than 400 people from the capital, not even 10% of the people present today were middle- and lower-level officials. Almost no one was present.

Liu Jiandao: "Still not notified enough? Can't we tell each other?"

Li Dongyang said with a helpless look on his face: "They don't even want to come, let alone get involved. Who should they tell them to?"

"Ahem." Liu Jian might have been choked by the wind, or it might have been that what he saw in front of him had hit him so hard that he couldn't help but cough.

Li Dongyang waited for him to calm down and then said: "Your Majesty has been on guard for a long time and sent people to each house to say hello. Just on the way here today, many people were blocked. Some people had to do it out of necessity."

He said that in a polite way.

He didn't have the nerve to say that they didn't like to come in the first place, but it just so happened that the emperor sent someone to stop them, and each of them decided that they didn't want to attend the court meeting or pay New Year's greetings to the emperor today, so they all went back.

It's like going downhill.

"Binzhi."

Not far away, Ma Wensheng also arrived.

Also coming with Ma Wensheng was Fu Han, the left minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. They came to support Liu Jian and Li Dongyang, but they arrived late.

Ma Wensheng came over. There were people who wanted to wish him a happy new year, but he stretched out his hand to temporarily stop them.

Ma Wensheng came with a strong purpose and walked straight forward and said: "You may not know that someone came to the door of the mansion this morning to bring out what the palace said. It may have a big impact on today's events."

"What about the joint signature?" Liu Jian asked.

"There are also fewer co-signers. Originally, there were many people who could have co-signed, but when they heard that they needed to come here today to remonstrate, they backed down. In front of you two, they may be embarrassed to The words were spoken clearly, but from my side..."

Ma Wensheng was helpless.

In fact, even people like Ma Wensheng don't really want to come today.

Kneeling and remonstrating, even going against the emperor, just to get the emperor to suppress Zhang Zhou and intercede for Xie Qian, this is not reliable no matter how you hear it.

Everyone in the government and the public knows the emperor's attitude. If you want to impeach Zhang Zhou, you must first point out the areas where Zhang Zhou did not do well... As a result, Zhang Zhou is now in the spotlight, and he is not in Beijing, so he has not had a direct conflict with you. , you just regard Zhang Zhou as your formidable enemy... From any point of view, it is inappropriate to suppress Zhang Zhou.

Fu Han came over and said, "I also went to the Qintian Prison... and said there has been no corresponding weather events recently."

This involves another way to suppress Zhang Zhou.

If some bad astronomical event happens now, the blame can be placed on Zhang Zhou, or it could be caused by someone... But the problem is that Zhang Zhou himself is an expert in this field. Every time something big happens, Zhang Zhou's predictions are ahead of anyone else's. A half-immortal who prepares the people for disaster prevention in advance uses astronomical matters to attack. Isn't this a point of reference?

Ma Wensheng looked around and sighed: "But I didn't expect that there are just so many people here."

Apparently Ma Wensheng also overestimated the unity within the civil service.

As for the six ministers, even the initiators like Ma Wensheng were unwilling to come and kneel down to remonstrate. As a result, today's event was not successfully organized. After he heard that it was deserted here, he hurriedly dared to come, but in fact it was no use.

Others will not rush to help you just because Ma Wensheng is here.

"No matter how many people there are, this memorial...should be submitted!" Liu Jian seemed very insistent.

This is the first time in all his years in office that he has felt so frustrated.

Others could hardly stand.

Before the change, no matter how fierce the fight with Zhang Zhou was, at least the civil servants would unswervingly stand by his side. Even when Tingju Xie Qian was appointed, everyone except Shangtingchu and Yanwutang supported Xie Qian... This gave him the illusion that he could still control the situation, and that was why he launched today's general attack on Zhang Zhou.

As a result, the emperor pulled out the ladder before the attack even started. In addition, those who opposed Zhang Zhou were not so determined in the first place, which led to many people temporarily changing their minds and quitting the job.

Li Dongyang also quickly persuaded: "In this situation, if we jointly sign... I'm afraid it won't have any effect, but it will make some people use the topic to their advantage."

"Yes." Ma Wensheng also hurriedly tried to persuade him, "It's better to think about it in the long term. Don't rush it."

This is telling Liu Jian, originally we still occupied a base of public opinion, but now even the public opinion has gradually turned, how can you still attack Zhang Zhou rigidly, I'm afraid you won't even be able to protect yourself.

When you retreat, who will you rely on to fight Zhang Zhou?
Fu Han said: "If this had happened a few years ago, this would not have been the case."

Li Dongyang said: "A few years ago, Zhang Bingkuan would not be covering the sky with one hand like he is today. Now the only thing your Majesty can listen to is his words. Your Majesty now rarely even goes to court, just looking after Listening to his words makes it difficult for me to admire Tianyan.”

Ma Wensheng smiled bitterly and said: "Your Majesty has indeed been ill recently. There is no doubt about this. No one deliberately stopped him."

Ma Wensheng is relatively neutral on this point.

Because he knew that Zhang Zhou had not mobilized all his resources to fight against them. If he had mobilized, it would not be just them taking action like it is now.

……

……

"How many cabinet elders and ministers are you still waiting for?"

At this moment, someone finally came from the palace.

Those who came were Chen Kuan, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony, and Li Zhang, the eunuch who held the pen. Of course, Li Zhang was also the "sinner" who blocked the ministers from coming to the palace gate today.

Liu Jian led the people forward to greet him, first cupping his hands.

Chen Kuan smiled and said: "Your Majesty heard that you are still here, so he specially ordered to come down and give a banquet here. You don't have to wait until noon, you can go back first after taking advantage of the banquet. If there is any big event, wait until ten days later... ...Or maybe after the Lantern Festival. Your Majesty also wants to have some time off recently."

As he spoke, he waved his hand and Li Zhang left first.

"This is it?" Li Dongyang asked.

Chen Kuan was surprised and said: "Mr. Li Ge, do you still need to ask? Each emperor's tomb has to be worshiped. Your Majesty got up a little late today, and specially asked someone to take the decree and send it to each family. People from the capital camp In addition, there is a decree that everyone in the court will rest for ten days, and the court meeting will not resume until after the Lantern Festival. In other words, His Majesty will basically not interfere within fifteen days. North Korea-China affairs.”

Liu Jiandao: "Aren't you going to do anything?"

"No," Chen Kuan said with a smile, "His Majesty has already approved cases like Mr. Xie Ge's."

"What?" Liu Jian became nervous.

Are you still working hard for Xie Qian, but it's all in vain?
Chen Kuandao: "To be honest, your Majesty understands Mr. Xie Ge's devotion to the country, and does not intend to delay or hinder the war, but the impact caused is very bad. This is not... Your Majesty pardons his capital crime and does not need to exile him. He just treats him as a minor official." After serving as an official for three years, you can resign and return to your hometown."

It's just a demotion, not even a transfer.

As for whether he is a minor official, there is no need to care, but he is not allowed to resign within three years.

Three years later, Xie Qian got out... In short, from now on, there should be no Xie Qian in the court.

(End of this chapter)