Ming Dynasty: At the beginning, the house was ransacked and the ancestral temple was burned down.

Chapter 205 Zhang Chonghui’s idea: Unless the emperor dies!
Time flies, more than half a month has passed.

Emperor Wanli's calmness made his ministers completely uneasy.

But now there is no one in the cabinet, so even if you want to make a fuss, there is no place to make a fuss. Submitting a petition is like a stone falling into the sea, which is of no use at all.

After a period of discussion, the few remaining officials in Beijing came up with a solution that was not a solution.

……

Qianqing Palace.

Emperor Wanli once again saw the eunuch Tian Yi, whom he disliked very much, come to serve him.

Tian Yi still didn't waste any time, he just knelt down and kowtowed:
"Your Majesty, I know you don't like me, and I know even more that I will be sentenced to death for what I said today, but I still want to report the situation to you!
Right now Zhu Yuanfu is seriously ill, the cabinet has been empty for half a month, there are piles of memorials with no one to review them, and the Silijian is also filled with memorials from officials from various departments!
"Your Majesty, the officials have been kneeling outside the Meridian Gate for a whole day and night! Even if you don't do this for the officials, you should still think about our ancestors and the country!"

Tian Yi's words were tantamount to seeking death.

After hearing this, Zhu Yijun sneered and said, "Tian Yi, you are really a good servant of mine. You are a eunuch who comes to give me advice. Do you want to do the work of a civil servant?"

"I dare not!" Tian Yi burst into tears and said sincerely:

"Your Majesty, I am only a eunuch, your servant! I risked my life to give you advice, all for your sake, and for the sake of the Ming Dynasty!"

Looking at Tian Yi lying on the ground crying, the sneer on Zhu Yijun's face did not disappear for a long time.

Tian Yi was just a eunuch, and Zhu Yijun could kill him with just a few words.

But what about those ministers who knelt outside the Meridian Gate for a day and a night?

Of course it is possible, after all, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty holds the power of life and death over everyone.

But Zhu Yijun couldn't do that. All he could do was sneer and say helplessly:
"They just want to be promoted, so let's give them all the promotions at once."

Zhu Yijun’s meaning was very clear. He could give him a new position, but he still had to continue running the mine!
After all, money is more important than anything else!

As for the replacement of an official? Just replace him.

Anyway, no matter who becomes an official in the Ming Dynasty, it will just be a new group of people to curse him, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

"Your Majesty is wise!" Tian Yilian did not even have time to wipe his tears. He quickly took out several memorials that he had prepared long ago and presented them to the emperor:
"Your Majesty, these are the candidates recommended by the Ministry of Personnel to join the cabinet, as well as the list of officials to be filled in various ministries and provinces. Please take a look."

Zhu Yijun did not take the memorial. He could guess whose names would be on the list without even looking at it.

"Forget it." Zhu Yijun sighed and gave the order weakly:
"Pass on my decree. Effective immediately, Li Tingji, Guo Zhengyu, and Fang Congzhe will join the cabinet.

As for the replacement of other official positions, let these new cabinet members take care of it."

Zhu Yijun casually mentioned the names of the three new cabinet ministers. It was obvious that he had already thought about this matter.

In other words, he had already been selecting candidates for the cabinet.

The three new cabinet members are not only from different regions, they also seem to belong to different parties, and on a daily basis they seem to have almost nothing to do with each other.

In fact, the three of them were all Jinshi in the 11th year of Wanli.

"I obey your command!" Tian Yi wiped his tears with relief. Feeling that the Emperor had finally 'listened to advice', he became confused again and asked:
"Your Majesty, I am stupid. These three people are all Jinshi in the 11th year of Wanli. I don't know... who should be appointed as the second assistant of the cabinet? Is it... Li Tingji?"

Li Tingji was the second runner-up in the first class of the imperial examination in the 11th year of the Wanli reign. He was an honest official for many years and was highly praised.

Logically speaking, even if Tian Yi did not ask, Li Tingji would still be the second in command of the cabinet.

The reason why Tian Yi asked this question specifically was mainly because among the three newly admitted Jinshi of the same year, there was one who was the prince's favorite teacher, Guo Zhengyu.

This time, Zhu Yijun was silent for a long time. After weighing the pros and cons, he finally made a decision and said:
"Forget it. After all this trouble, I'll just grant his and their wishes."

"Ah?" Tian Yi's red and swollen eyes were full of confusion. He rarely came to serve in front of the emperor, so he didn't understand the meaning of the emperor's words at all. He could only ask blankly:
"Your Majesty...what do you mean?"

"What I mean is..." Zhu Yijun looked at Tian Yi and said in an ambiguous tone:

"Doesn't the Ministry of Personnel particularly like to recommend Yu Shenxing to join the cabinet? Then let Yu Shenxing join the cabinet and serve as the cabinet's second assistant!

Now that there are so many things going on, let our Mr. Yu come in and wade into this muddy water!"

……

The new cabinet list was announced soon, and some were happy, some were worried, and some were anxious.

The happiest people were Guo Zhengyu and the Donglin Party members behind him, Li Tingji who was full of enthusiasm to reorganize the administration of officials, and Fang Congzhe who was shocked that "I am also involved?"

Those who are worried are naturally those people who are also one in a million chosen ones but have missed the chance to join the cabinet. Ye Xianggao is one of them.

Yu Shenxing was happy to learn that he had entered the cabinet, but he was more worried and uneasy.

So much so that the first moment after he learned the "good news" of joining the cabinet, he hurried to Lao Zhao's house to find Zhang Chonghui, who had gone to great lengths to "stuff" him into the cabinet.

……

Zhao Mansion.

When Yu Shenxing arrived at Zhao's house, Zhang Chonghui was sawing wood in the yard.

After sending away the extra servants, Yu Shenxing came up and said bluntly:
"You should have known that the Emperor has summoned me to join the cabinet! I don't know why, but I always feel like something is wrong!"

"So fast?" Zhang Chonghui was puzzled for a moment, then laughed:
"I thought the emperor would continue to make trouble for a while, but I didn't expect him to let you join the cabinet so soon. It seems that the emperor wants you to join him in this mess."

"Wade into muddy waters?" Yu Shenxing frowned and asked, "Are you talking about the emperor opening a mine?"

"Yeah." Zhang Chonghui responded with only one word.

"That won't do!" Yu Shenxing straightened his back and said angrily:

"Since the emperor has allowed me to join the cabinet, I must persuade him to stop this evil mining business!"

"What if the emperor doesn't want to?" Zhang Chonghui asked with interest, and finally put down the saw he had been holding for a while.

"Then I will die for my advice!" Yu Shenxing's firm eyes showed his determination to die. He firmly believed that he had already put life and death aside. He was not afraid even if he was dismissed from office and exiled to a bitter and cold place.

Seeing Yu Shenxing's fearless appearance, Zhang Chonghui just shook his head and smiled, saying: "Yu Keyuan, you are too stupid."

Yu Shenxing was not angry at being called stupid, but asked curiously, "What do you mean?"

"What else is there to say?" Zhang Chonghui explained:
“This time, even though the three main halls were burned to ashes, the emperor refused to stop mining, which shows that the emperor is determined to collect this private wealth!

The emperor is still the emperor after all. He cannot twist the emperor’s arm against the thigh. You can give him death-defying advice and he may not listen.

If you really want the emperor to stop mining and making money, what you should really do is to solve the problem fundamentally.

Instead of doing useless things like those censors who jump up and down all day long, criticizing and denouncing others."

After hearing the words "useless things", Yu Shenxing fell silent. After all, it was true that the censors had been scolding the emperor for many years, but the emperor never listened.

But on second thought, it seems that the only thing the censors can do is to jump up and down and criticize...

"Then how can we solve the problem fundamentally?" Yu Shenxing asked again.

Zhang Chonghui picked up the saw again and slowly sawed the wood while saying:

“Problems are created by people. Instead of trying to solve the problem, it is better to solve the person who created the problem.”

Such words that could kill people were said so lightly by Zhang Chonghui.

Yu Shenxing's eyes widened almost instantly, and layers of sweat broke out on his back!

"Are you crazy?" Yu Shenxing warned in a low voice, "What do you want to do? Do you want to kill all of us?"

Zhang Chonghui stopped sawing wood, turned his head to look at Yu Shenxing, and said calmly:

"Keyuan, let me be frank with you. I know the emperor. Given his personality, he will not stop the mining unless he dies."

……

Yu Shenxing almost ran away, he was really frightened by Zhang Chonghui's treasonous words!

While running away, he could hear Zhang Chonghui's deliberate "loud request" from behind him——

——"Lord Yu, my fifth uncle will take part in the autumn examination of Shuntian Prefecture in two months. He is the Minister of the Imperial Treasures appointed by the emperor himself. When the time comes, don't deliberately erase his paper just because he is the descendant of a criminal!"

Yu Shenxing, who was on the run, knew very well that Zhang Chonghui was asking him to help with some arrangements.

This was to prevent Zhang Yunxiu from being deliberately targeted by certain examiners during the autumn examination because of his sensitive identity as the descendant of a criminal, thus causing him to fail.

Yu Shenxing knew better that the real purpose of the other party's effort to send him to the cabinet was not only to make Zhang Yunxiu pass the imperial examination, but also to let him send Zhang Yunxiu to the Hanlin Academy and the cabinet in the future!

Yu Shenxing didn't think he could do all these, and he would never do anything for personal gain or corruption!
Fortunately, the other party only asked him to ensure that Zhang Yunxiu would not be maliciously targeted. He was still willing to help in this regard.

As for the road ahead...it depends on Zhang Yunxiu's real ability.

……

After so much trouble, the cabinet finally became lively again.

With the entry of Yu Shenxing, Li Tingji, Guo Zhengyu and Fang Congzhe into the cabinet, a new "fight" began again.

The 25th year of Wanli passed by day by day with great fanfare, like the vibration of butterfly wings.

This year was an extremely unfortunate year for Emperor Wanli Zhu Yijun.

Not only did he lose a woman he loved at the beginning of the year, but even the three main halls left by his ancestors were burned down by a strange fire.

But as an emperor, he didn't even have the ability or courage to rebuild the three main halls...

This year was slightly better for the ministers.

At least this year, His Majesty the Emperor finally agreed to fill many vacant positions.

They no longer have to do the work of several people and only get one person's wages.

Of course, gray income does not count.

This year, the cabinet chief Zhu Geng finally felt relieved because he had the help of Yu Shenxing, a capable second-in-command.

Whenever someone came to the cabinet to cause trouble, as an "honest man", he just needed to stay quiet and not say anything, because Yu Shenxing would come out to protect him anyway.

Zhu Geng was relieved, but Yu Shenxing was not so relaxed.

To Shen Xing, the Prime Minister Zhu Geng, who passed the imperial examination in the same year as him, was a fake honest man, and the other three cabinet ministers who entered the cabinet with him also seemed a little abnormal.

Guo Zhengyu is a straightforward and strong-willed person, but he is also a little too irritable and excited.

Li Tingji was an honest person, but he was too idealistic and even a little pedantic.

Fang Congzhe is a kind person, but he is too smooth and always likes to flatter others.

It is not easy to enter the cabinet, and even harder to be a cabinet minister.

Only after experiencing it did Yu Shenxing finally understand the helplessness of Zhang Juzheng, Shen Shixing, and Wang Xijue.

The Ming Dynasty had a vast territory. There were natural disasters here and famines there. Money was needed everywhere, but the national treasury was becoming increasingly tight.

The central government was even more troublesome. The Emperor was only thinking about mining and making money for his own benefit. His colleagues in the court impeached each other and there was constant infighting.

Yu Shenxing got a headache when he thought of this.

However, compared to these troubles, what gave Yu Shenxing the most headache was - fighting!
Because war means spending money!
……

Over the years, the Ming Dynasty has been at war almost every year.

After finally resolving the Haobai Rebellion in Ningxia, war broke out again in Korea.

At this moment, the war in Korea was in full swing, and the Ming Dynasty was also in unrest.

A Miao chieftain named Yang Yinglong rebelled!
Yang Yinglong was the hereditary envoy of Bozhou Xuanweisi. Since the fifth year of Hongwu, the Yang family had inherited the throne here from generation to generation, and it has now gone through 29 generations.

This person was not a good person. As early as the 17th year of Wanli, Yang Yinglong had already begun to openly oppose the court.

However, the imperial court at that time did not pay much attention to Yang Yinglong's rebellion.

After all, local chieftains' rebellion was nothing new to the Ming Dynasty.

Yang Yinglong was also a cunning man. On the one hand, he pretended to the imperial court that he would provide manpower and money to atone for his sins. But on the other hand, he went back on his word and led the Miao soldiers to attack many towns in Sichuan, Guizhou, Huguang, raping and looting, committing acts of rebellion!

The imperial court certainly would not allow Yang Yinglong to do such a mess, so in the 21st year of Wanli, the imperial court immediately ordered the troops to be divided into three groups to encircle and suppress the rebel Yang Yinglong!
It is not known whether it was because the imperial army was too weak, or because the commanding generals were incompetent, but in this encirclement and suppression campaign, the Ming army was caught off guard by the enemy who used the tactic of "making a feint to the east and attacking in the west" and the pretense of "pretending to surrender"!

In that battle, the Ming army suffered a crushing defeat and most of them were killed or wounded!

The Ming Dynasty army, which had always been brave, was defeated by a group of local soldiers. The imperial court was naturally shocked when it learned the news!

Because the Korean War was raging at the time, the court had no manpower to "properly" deal with Yang Yinglong!
Therefore, the imperial court chose to "temporarily" give up suppressing the rebels and instead decided to appease Yang Yinglong first.

Yang Yinglong was also worried that the imperial army would take real action to deal with him, so when faced with the imperial court's offer of amnesty, he decided to withdraw and swore to the court that if he could be pardoned, he would do his utmost to protect the territory and the people of the Ming Dynasty and would never commit crimes again!
Seeing Yang Yinglong's positive attitude in admitting his guilt, the imperial court also upheld its usual policy of leniency towards the chieftains in the southwest. In the end, it only decided to remove Yang Yinglong from his post as chieftain and require him to "pay 40,000 gold coins to help with wood harvesting."

Yang Yinglong didn't want to take responsibility in the first place, and the reason why he agreed to the court's appeasement was mostly just verbal talk.

When he heard that the imperial court was going to remove him from his chieftain position, how could he be willing to do so?

Yang Yinglong was unwilling to accept this, but his second son, Yang Kedong, suddenly died while being a hostage of the imperial court!

His own son died in the hands of the imperial court in such an unclear manner. This time, Yang Yinglong had completely broken off relations with the imperial court!
So, in the 24th year of Wanli, he officially and publicly announced that he would rise up against the Ming Dynasty!
Yang Yinglong really rebelled this time, just like Haibai did back then.

However, since the Ming Dynasty had been focusing on the war against Japanese invaders and aiding Korea in recent years, the rebellion of Yang Yinglong in Bozhou had been shelved and the Ming Dynasty had not been able to deal with it for the time being.

This led to Yang Yinglong becoming more and more arrogant and presumptuous. Now, he has even attacked many areas including Jiangjin, Nanchuan, Hejiang, Huguang, etc.!

If Yang Yinglong does not live in peace, the imperial court will inevitably deal with him sooner or later.

However, at this time, Yang Yinglong also caused great internal troubles to the Ming Dynasty.

These things have already given Yu Shenxing a headache, but something even more troublesome is about to happen!

……

Time flies, and it is August, when the golden osmanthus is fragrant.

As the saying goes, some people are happy and some are sad.

Yu Shenxing, who became a cabinet minister, had a headache every day. He was about to face the first hurdle since entering the cabinet, and he had long forgotten how fragrant the osmanthus flowers were when he passed the imperial examination at a young age.

However, Zhang Chonghui was extremely happy because God rewards those who work hard. Zhang Yunxiu, who studied hard day and night, actually lived up to expectations and passed the exam in one try!
Zhang Yunxiu, who was already an official with a favorable position, passed the imperial examination and became a juren easily.

When Emperor Wanli Zhu Yijun heard the news, he was stunned...

"What? Zhang Wulang has only been studying for a few years? And he has already... passed the imperial examination?"

Zhu Yijun was completely shocked. After all, there are many scholars in this world who have studied hard for decades but are still only scholars!
Maybe it was because he remembered the "child prodigy" who could have passed the imperial examination at the age of twelve but was obstructed by the well-meaning governor of Huguang and failed, so he didn't pass the examination until he was fifteen, or for some other reason, but Zhu Yijun soon stopped being so shocked.

"A child prodigy... Could it be that the son of a child prodigy is also a child prodigy..."

Zhu Yijun muttered with lifeless eyes. After a while, he asked someone to bring Zhang Yunxiu's autumn examination paper.

It would have been fine if he hadn't looked at it, but once he did, Zhu Yijun's mood became more complicated.

Coincidentally, at this moment, Tian Yi, whose words were not often liked by the emperor, was nearby.

Zhu Yijun, with complicated thoughts, just thought about it and muttered:
"Wang Chong said in Lun Heng that the phoenix and the unicorn have different species, just as turtles and dragons have different species: turtles give birth to turtles, and dragons give birth to dragons. It is indeed so..."

Tian Yi just thought that the emperor was just saying it casually. After all, scholars always like to mutter a few incomprehensible words from time to time.

So Tian Yi echoed, "Yes, Your Majesty, this is what happens when a dragon gives birth to a dragon, a phoenix gives birth to a phoenix, and a mouse's son will dig holes."

"A mouse's son can dig holes?" Zhu Yijun glanced at Tian Yi and smiled, which was a rare smile, but it was a bitter smile.

The emperor didn't know whether the mouse's son would dig a hole or not. He only knew that when Zhang Juzheng taught him...

……

"Mr. Zhang, the phoenix and the unicorn have different species, just as turtles and dragons have different species: turtles give birth to turtles, and dragons give birth to dragons. What does this mean? Does it mean that everything has been predetermined since the moment of birth?"

"Your Majesty, I think that although this is a metaphor for what kind of parents give birth to what kind of son, it is also a metaphor for what kind of teacher will teach what kind of disciple."

"Like a master, like a disciple... So, Mr. Zhang, will I be like you in the future?"

"This... maybe."

"What if it doesn't happen?"

Zhang Juzheng did not answer, but Zhu Yijun already had the answer.

will not.

(End of this chapter)