The Ming Dynasty started with saving the eldest grandson

Chapter 462 The Kong Family Must Disappear

I just didn’t think about who Lao Zhu was before.

Chen Jingke helped him point out the problem and quickly came up with a solution.

"We know what to do about this matter. After some time, we will work together with Li Xue and the Kong family to solve it."

Hearing this, Ma Niangniang, Zhu Xiongying, and Chen Jingke had roughly guessed what he was going to do.

They also think this solution is pretty good.

Since you have jumped out to challenge the imperial power, it is only natural that you should take some blame.

After that they discussed some details before going their separate ways.

Old Zhu and Empress Ma returned to the palace together.

Empress Ma dismissed the eunuchs and took out a small locked box from the secret compartment under her pillow.

When I opened it, there was a thick stack of manuscripts inside.

Lao Zhu took out a few pages of white paper from the box and started taking notes.

The content was exactly what Chen Jingke had just said, and he also gave his own comments.

The general idea is to warn future generations to learn from it and never make such mistakes.

Empress Ma added on the side.

It took me nearly half an hour to finish writing these things.

Old Zhu handed the paper to Madam Ma and said with a smile, "Another fortune left for our descendants."

Empress Ma took the pages of paper, carefully placed them in a box, and then locked and hid it.

Then he jokingly asked, "Not feeling bad anymore?"

Old Zhu smiled and said, "Why are you upset? It hasn't caused any irreversible consequences."

"The more problems Jing Ke points out, the happier we are."

"If he can't point out the problem one day, we won't feel at ease."

Madam Ma sighed and said, "Jing Ke is growing very fast."

Old Zhu agreed and said, "Yes, in the past he just relied on his knowledge to apply it mechanically."

Many of his policies have problems of one kind or another.

When problems arise during implementation, it is difficult for him to react in time and provide feasible solutions.

They were all implemented only after being perfected by Zhu Yuanzhang, Madam Ma, and Zhu Biao.

To put it bluntly, he was just pointing out a general direction at that time.

How to do it specifically depends on others to think and analyze.

"Now he has learned to analyze specific problems specifically."

"The promotion of the court and the crackdown on factions should be what he has analyzed recently."

Madam Ma nodded and said, "Given his personality, if he had seen it before, he would have said it earlier and would not have endured it until now."

Old Zhu said with relief: "Even if the new policy encounters problems in the future, he can make timely adjustments. This is what a qualified loyal minister should be like."

"We can only rest assured if he assists Xiongying in the future."

Ma Niangniang smiled and said, "It's really difficult for him. He has to write books, make suggestions for reform, and study at the same time."

"Now even medical skills have been put aside."

Lao Zhu said: "A small doctor treats people, a great doctor treats the country."

"The small improvements he made to national policy saved more lives than he could have saved in his entire medical career."

"Besides, he has Old Five to pass on his medical skills to him, so there is nothing to regret."

Empress Ma naturally knew what was more important, and she just sighed, not thinking that studying medicine was more important than governing the country.

After chatting for a few more sentences, she asked:

"Are you going to abolish the court on the grounds of forming a Neo-Confucian faction?"

Old Zhu laughed and said, "Is there a better excuse than this?"

"We formulated the law of court recommendation with the intention of respecting the ministers and hoping that everyone can work together to solve the problem."

"But Neo-Confucianism used this method to form cliques and attack dissidents."

"We are also forced to abolish this good policy. If you want to blame someone, just blame the science."

Ma Niangniang laughed and scolded: "You are really evil."

Old Zhu said proudly: "How can it be called black-bellied? What we call is shrewdness and foresight."

Madam Ma laughed and said, "Isn't this the same idea?"

After laughing, Lao Zhu continued:

"As for combating party strife, we think we don't need to pay too much attention to it."

"Without the imperial nomination, the officials will not only not benefit from forming cliques, but will be suppressed instead."

"Naturally, no one wants to form a party."

"In the future, when the imperial court investigates corrupt officials, it will no longer deliberately pursue their accomplices."

"After some time, when the official atmosphere changes, no one will mention this matter again."

"We keep this one, so that our descendants can have a legal excuse to clean up the court."

When the emperor needed it, he would bring out this article to clean up the court.

When the emperor no longer needed it, this policy was left untouched.

Of course, the prerequisite is that the emperor is capable and can control the government.

What if the emperor is incompetent and cannot control the government?
It doesn’t matter whether there is such a policy or not.

The previous dynasty did not include crackdown on factional strife in the law, but factional strife still occurred frequently.

There was the Factional Persecution in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the Niu-Li Factional Struggle in the Tang Dynasty, and the New-Old Factional Struggle in the Northern Song Dynasty was even more brutal.

Zhu Yuanzhang agreed with Chen Jingke's analysis, but he was never a blind person and had his own ideas.

In his opinion, what would really cause big trouble is the court recommendation.

It just explicitly cracked down on factionalism and magnified the negative consequences of court promotion.

Now that the reason for the court's promotion has been eliminated, it is not a big problem to crack down on factionalism.

Ma Niangniang was a little worried and was about to persuade him, but she heard Zhu Yuanzhang say:

"Besides, if we are wrong, considering the relationship between Xiong Ying and Jing Ke, we can just scrap this rule."

"I believe that all officials would be happy to see this provision abolished."

Upon hearing this, Empress Ma couldn't help but nod her head. It was indeed so.

Even if the officials tried to stop it with the ancestral laws, Xiong Ying would abolish it with an iron fist given his prestige and character.

Don't worry about these issues at all.

So she felt relieved and said nothing more.

Let’s try this way.
-
What happened in the court became more and more mysterious, and soon it became a story that the emperor was so angry that blood was shed and the oars were floating. As a result, the ministers would rather die than surrender and uphold justice.

In the end, the emperor was forced by his ministers to admit his mistake and punished the evil king.

Old Zhu became a complete villain, while the Neo-Confucian school headed by Zuo Chuan and Chen Ying became honest officials who spoke up for the people.

These people were the most popular for a while.

Normally at this time, the Jinyiwei would come out to stop the rumors.

However, this time for some unknown reason, the Jinyiwei seemed to have disappeared and were basically nowhere to be seen.

Although the various government offices wanted to take charge, it was obvious that their deterrent power was far from enough.

The more they intervened, the more excited the people became.

How does the saying go: They are anxious, anxious, anxious.

Especially the release of the latest edition of Daming Daily brought the matter to a climax.

The first version was no longer the speech of the retired emperor, but told the story of Xiang Ling, a powerful general in the Han Dynasty.

This is to praise the uprightness of the officials.

These people were even touted as the conscience of the Ming Dynasty, the guardians of morality, and so on.

This made the rational school even more excited and trembled all over.

Are etiquette and law going to be back in our hands?

Fang Xiaoru is a good man. When we are in power, if he is willing to kneel down, we will give him a chance to repent.

The influence and authority of newspapers are unquestionable, and the people are even more impressed by the Neo-Confucian school.

For a time, the Neo-Confucian school was the most powerful.

In fact, those who opposed Zhu in the court were very frightened at first, fearing that they would be retaliated against.

Especially the increasingly outrageous rumors outside made them even more anxious.

After a few days of no movement in the court, they gradually felt relieved.

The flattery from newspapers and the public made them feel even more elated.

At this time, Chen Ying, who had been dismissed from office, was jumping around and making connections:

"We are righteous, so why should we be afraid? It's nothing more than death." "The Holy Emperor will never treat loyal ministers like this."

"Everyone, I am holding a literary gathering at my home. Please come and show me your presence."

So the ministers began to visit each other.

Wine is indispensable for literary gatherings. One can imagine what people will become once they are touched by alcohol.

His mouth is like a loser, spewing all kinds of nonsense without thinking.

After they sobered up, they were terrified. What if they were liquidated?
However, after a few days without any response, they felt relieved, and then they became even more arrogant.

Just at this time, various rumors also spread from the palace.

What kind of emperor emeritus beat the Prince of Dai to the point that he couldn't take care of himself, and was planning to depose him from his title and send him to Fengyang to guard the imperial mausoleum?

Fortunately, Empress Ma persuaded him to give up.

The ministers were surprised at first. The emperor did not take revenge on them, but took out his anger on his son?
too weird.

But everyone quickly gave their own answer.

The emperor is old now and no longer has the murderous intent he once had.

After all, he has abdicated for many years, and most of the current ministers were promoted by Your Majesty (Zhu Biao).

This time when he regained power, his control over the political situation was certainly not as good as before, and he did not dare to carry out large-scale massacres.

This reason was quickly recognized by everyone.

As a result, the Neo-Confucian school celebrated and seemed to have seen a bright future.

They not only talked about it, but also began to speak out actively in the court, expressing their opinions and views on everything.

Especially the new policy, there are many slanderous words.

Although Zhu still insisted on the new policy, he did not punish anyone for it.

This made the ministers believe that their guess was correct.

The victory made the Neo-Confucian school more united, and they prepared to gather more strength to launch a final challenge to the imperial power.

Completely establish victory.

However...things don't go as smoothly as they thought.

At that time, it was not only the Neo-Confucian school but also other schools of Confucianism that stood up to challenge the imperial power.

Now everyone is praising the Neo-Confucian school and regarding them as the guardians of morality.

Other schools of thought were completely ignored.

Moreover, the united Neo-Confucian school was intentionally or unintentionally excluding other schools.

Other schools of thought were not happy with this and began to attack them.

Many people were reported and exposed.

Many of the criticisms that were said in private were also exposed.

Old Zhu seemed to have finally found an excuse to take action, and with thunderous means he confiscated the property of these people and exterminated their clans.

However, faced with this result, the Neo-Confucian school was not at all panicked, but rather very happy.

Why?

In Chen Ying's words, "Given the Emperor's previous temperament, if something like this happened, he would definitely track down his accomplices."

"But now they are only dealing with them, without asking about their accomplices."

"What does this mean?"

"It means that the emperor doesn't dare to punish so many people."

Therefore, this result, instead of frightening the rationalists, made them even more enthusiastic.

However, they are not blind and they know that now is not the time to create conflicts.

He reconciled with other schools of thought.

The other schools were just making a fuss to fight for their own interests, and when they saw that the School of Reason was backing down, they stopped making a fuss.

Everyone continued to unite to challenge the imperial power.

Fang Xiaoru seemed to have given in. Every issue of the newspaper contained several pages of articles describing how righteous and upright these people from the School of Principle were.

The idea that princes break the law and become common people has been raised again and again.

One of the articles even wrote directly:

Even if the emperor broke the law, he would have to issue an edict of repentance, let alone the powerful and wealthy.

Then he began to emphasize that under the protection of Neo-Confucianism, the Ming Dynasty would inevitably be a glorious era with strict laws.

Anyone who breaks the law must face justice.

The rationalists had no idea that this was a trap.

They accepted the compliment with great pride and announced to the public that they were upholding the etiquette of swearing to death.

Anyone who breaks the law must accept the appropriate punishment.

Under their leadership, the Ming Dynasty will surely restore the rule of the three ancient dynasties.
-
At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an order to award medals of honor to the soldiers who fought against the disaster in the southeast.

Originally, this medal was to be awarded after a welcoming ceremony was held after the Shenjiying returned to Beijing.

It’s just that due to certain reasons, the Shenjiying cannot return to Beijing for the time being.

Old Zhu decided not to wait for them to come back and send an imperial envoy to the southeast to present the orders.

We can't let the soldiers wait too long.

Then this resolution, which had already been passed, was collectively opposed by officials led by the Neo-Confucian school.

They first denied the contribution of the Shenjiying in disaster relief, believing that the army was too dangerous and must be strictly guarded against.

How can we let them go to the disaster relief and contact the people? What if something goes wrong?

Moreover, the government office contributed the most to disaster relief, and the subsequent relief to the victims and help in rebuilding their homes were also due to the government office.

The Shenjiying was only assisting, the real credit belongs to the government.

How could the emperor only reward the Shenjiying and ignore the contributions of various government offices?
This will chill the hearts of the ministers.

Anyway, they found a lot of reasons and just refused to award the Medal of Honor.

In the end, it was the joint pressure from Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Xiongying, Li Shanchang, Xu Da and others that reluctantly passed this decision.

Although they failed, the officials were very happy.

This time, the retired emperor was humiliated, which was another major victory.

What they didn't know was that the military generals looked at them with eyes full of anger and hatred.

And afterwards, the envoy began to tell each army what had happened that day.

In the process of narration, it is inevitable to add some exaggeration.

The result is predictable.

Middle and lower-level officers and soldiers were not interested in court disputes.

But now it’s different. You officials actually want to ride on our shoulders?

Go fucking a horse.

Especially when they thought about how civil officials oppressed the military during the Song Dynasty, it was even more unacceptable for the soldiers.

A wave of anger against civil servants began to brew.

Time soon came to the end of March, and Jiang Li, who had disappeared for several months, secretly went to Beijing.

Also brought were six large boxes filled with the Kong family's evil deeds.

After reading only a few pages, Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that his face turned red and his teeth chattered:
"I really regret why I didn't kill all these beasts earlier."

Zhu Xiongying even kicked the box and said angrily:

"We must not let them go this time. I want the Kong family to disappear from now on."

Chen Jingke took a deep breath and was also extremely angry.

He knew the matter was serious, but he never expected it to be so serious.

Let's talk about a less serious crime.

The third young master of the Kong family's greatest hobby is to travel around Qufu in a horse-drawn carriage.

Of course, he was not wandering around for no reason, but to make it easier for him to do something bad.

If he saw any pretty woman on the road, he would drag her into his car and rape her.

After the insult, he kicked the person out of the car and continued to look for the next one.

In comparison, being kicked out of the car after being humiliated was already considered lucky.

Those who were good-looking, or had some features that made Young Master Kong want, would be taken away and tortured to death.

This is still a relatively minor crime.

The injuries were quite serious, so Chen Jingke didn't even dare to look down.

Putting down the file in his hand, he took a deep breath and said firmly:

"The Kong family must disappear."

(End of this chapter)