Optimus One Pillar of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 87 Xia Yan who is cheaper than a dog
After Eunuch Huang went to report the matter to Emperor Jiajing, Xia Yan was invited to "drink tea" by someone sent by Emperor Jiajing.

As soon as he entered the Longevity Palace where Emperor Jiajing currently lived, he saw Emperor Jiajing dressed as a Taoist priest, sitting on a lotus seat and meditating.Xia Yan's face was immediately full of regret and sadness, he walked over quickly, and knelt down in front of Emperor Jiajing with a "plop".

His kneeling posture was exactly the same as in "Water Margin" when Song Jiang entered the palace to see Song Huizong after he was recruited. His buttocks were raised high and his face was pressed to the ground. He looked funny and expressed himself to Emperor Jiajing. He is so humble, and no longer has the aloof appearance he had in front of others in the past.

After kneeling down in this weird posture, Xia Yan cried pitifully and begged pitifully: "Your Majesty, I am wrong, I will die. Your Majesty, I will die..."

Xia Yan knelt there, crying, admitting her mistake over and over again.At first Jiajing sat cross-legged, pretending to be a monk and ignored Xia Yan, but Xia Yan's nagging soon made Emperor Jiajing a little annoyed.So Emperor Jiajing opened his eyes slightly and ordered Lu Fang beside him: "Let all irrelevant people go out, close the palace door, and no one is allowed to eavesdrop."

"Slave obeys orders"

After receiving the order, Lu Fang immediately drove out all the eunuchs and maids serving in the palace at this time.He went out and ordered all the soldiers at the door to retreat three feet away from the Wanshou Palace, and told no one to get close to the Wanshou Palace.Then Lu Fang came back, closed the palace door, walked back to Emperor Jiajing and stood aside.

After he, Lu Fang, and Xia Yan were the only ones left in the hall, Emperor Jiajing spoke: "Just now, the servant from Dongchang came to report that you were grading the papers to avenge your personal grievances. You only looked at Wang Daoqiu's name and decided that his papers were nonsense. . Is there such a thing?"

"If I know my crime, I will die."

Without even reading what was written on Wang Daoqiu's paper, he concluded that Wang Daoqiu's paper was unreasonable.Those present at the time were: Yan Song and eight other grading officials, Mr. Li, the minister of Dali Temple, who was responsible for supervising the grading, and Mr. Huang from Dongchang, as well as several young eunuchs who were responsible for serving tea and pouring water and grinding ink.With so many witnesses at the scene, Xia Yan couldn't deny it, so he confessed to the crime without hesitation.

Seeing that Xia Yan admitted it, Emperor Jiajing didn't fly into a rage and gave him a scolding.Instead, he said coldly: "You have always been like this, and you will not tolerate anyone's disobedience to you. In the ninth year of Jiajing, Zhang Cong was the most popular minister. You resent Zhang Cong for promoting Peng Ze but not you?" , you refused to be at a disadvantage and wrote a letter to impeach Zhang Cong and Fang Xianfu, the Minister of Civil Affairs. At that time, I thought that you were all my trusted ministers, so I mediated, but you still fought secretly when you couldn't fight openly."

"When Zhang Cong and Fang Xianfu became the chief ministers of the cabinet one after another, you were making small moves in private. As long as you caught the slightest mistake of those two people, you would instruct your colleagues to impeach them. After Zhang Cong and Fang Xianfu took office, you fought with Huo Tao again. , and finally defeated Huo Tao. You also became more arrogant, and even without any regard for face, you directly asked me for an order to demote Zhang Yuanxiao and Li Sui, who were at odds with you, from the palace."

"At that time, I was a little displeased with your arrogance, but I thought that you were still loyal to me, and that you were a talented person who knew everything about heaven and earth, and was an able minister in governing the world. So although I didn't like you, I still gave you the title You serve as the Crown Prince's Taibao, Young Master, and Crown Prince's Grand Tutor, and I asked you to concurrently serve as the Grand Bachelor of Wuyingdian, and join the cabinet to participate in military affairs. However, I gave you so many titles and gave you the position of Grand Bachelor, but in exchange for that, you will not be able to settle down anymore. Psychological politics, but your more arrogance and greater ambition."

"Since you entered the cabinet, you have shown no dignity and no regard for the court's regulations. A junior who has just joined the cabinet, but relying on my favor for you, you have acted like a fox and a tiger in the cabinet. Everything depends on other cabinet ministers' plans for you. If you had even the slightest difference of opinion, you would point at others and scold them in public, and later ask your associates to write a letter of impeachment. This made Li Shi, the then Chief Assistant of the Cabinet, and Gu Dingchen, the cabinet minister, all walk around when they saw you. , I dare not argue with you on everything. So that you, a junior who has just joined the cabinet, can actually step on the chief minister in the cabinet and take over the power of the government. "

"Later, Chief Assistant Li Shi died of illness. I saw that your relationship with other cabinet ministers had become like that, and your ability in governing the country was indeed better than other cabinet ministers. So I made an exception and included him in the cabinet. The lowest-ranked bachelor was promoted to the rank of chief minister of the cabinet. In order to strengthen your authority and make other cabinet ministers obey you, I also found a reason to promote you to the rank of young master and doctor Guanglu. But even so, You are not satisfied yet, so you made up your own title of Shangzhu Kingdom and asked me to canonize you. Well, in order to make your work smoother and let the courtiers know that I trust you. What I didn’t say, I will give you the title of Shangzhu Kingdom. Let you, Xia Yan, become the first Shangzhu country in the nearly 200 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty."

"For your absolute authority in the court, I can say that I have good intentions! But what I get in exchange is not your gratitude, but your indolence and rudeness to me. I am often late when accompanying me, and I am not careful when submitting confidential memorials. Using the silver medal given by the emperor, there were often typos in the memorials to me. He was even bold enough to falsely pass on the imperial edict, secretly executed Guo Xun, the Duke of Yi, secretly befriended the eunuch Gao Zhong, and arbitrarily controlled the sedan chair in Xiyuan. When I am not in court, you will not go to the cabinet and handle government affairs at home. Ministers will come to your house to ask for instructions when they have something to do." "Xia Yan, since I made you the chief minister of the cabinet, do you still have me in your eyes? You still have me. Do you look like a minister? As for the things you have done, if I investigate, which one is not enough for you to return to your hometown and continue to be your minister? Xia Yan, I tell you today, although I pity you for your ability to govern the country I don't want your talents to be wasted in the countryside. But don't show your face. My patience has its limits. Don't force me to kill you."

Emperor Jiajing bit the last two words "kill you" very hard, almost gnashing his teeth.This frightened Xia Yan who was kneeling on the ground. At this moment, he realized how much the current Emperor Jiajing hated him.

So after knowing that he was now troubled by Emperor Jiajing, Xia Yan knelt down trembling in fear and begged pitifully: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, I have always been loyal to Your Majesty and willing to be Your Majesty's dog and horse. In recent years, I have been loyal to Your Majesty." Some of the inappropriate things are entirely because I am old now and my brain is a little unclear. I have absolutely no intention of disrespecting Your Majesty. I hope Your Majesty will understand. Your Majesty, I am wrong, I..."

Next, Xia Yan criticized himself and praised Emperor Jiajing in various ways. The arrogance he used to have in front of others was now replaced by a meanness all over his body, which was even meaner than a stray dog ​​begging for food.

A 66-year-old man knelt at the feet of Emperor Jiajing, crying and humiliating himself, just so as not to lose the black veil on his head. This is the distortion of human nature by power!
Xia Yan's performance was "pitiful", but Emperor Jiajing had been watching his various performances for more than 20 years. He was tired of it and had no interest in commenting on his acting skills.So although Xia Yan's acting skills were very good at the moment, Emperor Jiajing, who had no interest in watching the movie, still winked at Lu Fang next to him.Then Lu Fang, who understood Emperor Jiajing's thoughts well, politely "invited" Xia Yan out.

After politely driving Xia Yan away, Lu Fang returned to Emperor Jiajing and asked very plainly and meanly: "Master, why do you keep such an old dog?"

"Lu Fang, you don't understand this. The Yangtze River is clear, and it has irrigated tens of millions of acres of fertile fields along the banks. The Yellow River is turbid, so is it different from the fact that it has irrigated tens of millions of acres of fields along the banks? Whether the water is clear or turbid, Good water is what can irrigate the fields. Xia Laogou, although his character is contemptible, his ability to govern the country is still very outstanding, and he has to make decisions on major issues. Besides, he is a person If the character is not good and people dislike dogs, then he will not be able to form a party. If he cannot form a party, it is good. If he cannot form a party, it is good. I like lonely ministers."

What Emperor Jiajing said was true. This is why even though he hates Xia Yan, he can still tolerate Xia Yan, an old hairless dog, hanging out under his nose.

After listening to Emperor Jiajing's words, I understood what Emperor Jiajing meant.Lu Fang also sighed, and said with emotion: "This is really hard for you, master. For the sake of state affairs, you have to endure an old dog like Xia Yan. The slave is dull and doesn't understand the principles, but the old dog Xia, the slave is really every time. The first time I saw him, I wanted to go up and give them a big mouth. Who is this? A complete sinister villain! He is still a petty official. Once you give him authority, he will immediately show his face to your master and think he is great. Who are these people?"

"Let's not talk about anything else, let's just talk about your practice, Master! Before Xia Yan entered the cabinet, he was wholeheartedly helping Master write Qing Ci. The ministers in the court considered him Xia Yan to be the best Qing Ci writer. At most. But once you let him join the cabinet and he took over the government, let alone take the initiative on his own. Even if you asked him to write Qingci, he would always be perfunctory and write nothing. What the hell! It’s obvious that I’m just angry with you, my master.”

"And Master, if you give him a fragrant leaf crown, forget it if he doesn't wear it. What are you saying shamelessly? He is a minister of the imperial court, not a Taoist priest. I also advise Master, you should also pay attention to your clothes. The emperor must have an emperor. Like. Master, tell me, Master, how shameless does Xia Yan have to be to say such a thing? Could it be that he used to write Qingci every day and come to Master to invite your favor, wasn't he? Why didn't he say that at that time, He is a minister of the Ming Dynasty, not a Taoist priest? At that time, why didn't he advise you, master, not to practice Taoism? What kind of person is he? He is a despicable villain, which is so disgusting. "

Lu Fang complained about Xia Yan's character. Emperor Jiajing had personally witnessed Xia Yan's tricks.At this moment, he also understood that he, the Nine-Five Supreme Being, had been tricked by that old dog Xia, and was unjustly used as a ladder for him by the old dog Xia.

(End of this chapter)