Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 258: Distinguishing Loyalty from Treachery

This kind of disaster caused by poetry and prose is not uncommon in all dynasties.

Some of them do have different aspirations, and they show it in their poems and essays.

But some of them are fabricated and there are hidden political struggles behind them.

There are many sharp-minded people in the court. For them, whether Prince Beijing Shui Rong really has rebellious intentions is not the point.

But this happened at a very delicate time.

Border troubles in Liaodong are frequent, inspections of the nine borders are urgent, and officials to control the nine provinces need to be determined as soon as possible.

Prince Beijing Shui Rong is the most popular candidate for the command of nine provinces. He is recommended by the cabinet and nobles and has a high profile in the court.

And his original style of being hesitant and reluctant, and writing a letter to express his humility, made the matter seem like a natural outcome.

But at this critical juncture, such a thing happened.

When children in the streets sang this short poem in their childish voices, it gradually became known throughout the streets.

The censors of the Censorate began to report the news, and two memorials impeaching Prince Beijing Shui Rong appeared at the September court meeting.

The meaning is basically the same: Shui Rong, the Prince of Beijing, is a prince, but his behavior is vain, his mind is narrow and evil, he connects with scholars, invites fame, and is suspected of having ulterior motives.

There was an uproar in the court. The officials in the cabinet and among the nobles who had been pushing Prince Beijing to be the commander of nine provinces suddenly lost their way and lost their voices.

Emperor Jiazhao kept the two impeachment memorials in his palace without issuing them, and did not make any comment, thus creating a sense of intimidation.

Prince Beijing Shui Rong was terrified and asked to go to the palace to defend himself.

After waiting outside the palace for half a day, the Deputy Chief Eunuch Guo Lin sent a eunuch to deliver the message.

It is said that the emperor is summoning the Minister of War Gu Yankui, who is now discussing the war in Liaodong and has no spare time.

The Censorate has its own wise decision on impeachment. The innocent will be innocent, and it is up to the Prince of Beijing to do so.

At that time, there were officials who were going in and out of the Meridian Gate on official business, and they saw with their own eyes that Prince Beijing's face was ashen and his appearance was gray.

Two candidates for the nine-province governor, one was prevented from entering the palace to defend himself, while the other was summoned to the palace to discuss border issues.

This extremely contrasting news spread quickly, and court officials also learned about it through different channels. The emperor's inclination was obvious.

At the court meeting the next day, many officials wrote to the emperor, saying that border troubles were frequent in the north, and the nine important border towns urgently needed inspection and rectification, and the officials in charge of the nine provinces were of vital importance.

The Minister of War Gu Yankui, as the head of the Ministry of War, is an expert in military affairs, mature and prudent, upright and capable of taking on responsibilities, loyal and courageous, and is capable of taking on the important task of commanding nine provinces.

The cabinet and noble officials who had originally recommended Prince Beijing Shui Rong either stopped speaking out or turned against him at the last minute.

……

The palace city of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Qianyang Palace.

Emperor Jiazhao looked through the reports submitted by officials from various departments during the morning court session, several of which strongly recommended Gu Yankui as the commander-in-chief of nine provinces.

The emperor glanced at it casually and threw it aside in boredom.

Guo Lin, the deputy chief eunuch, held a gray-white secret book in his hand. This was a secret report just submitted by the head of the Shenjing Department of the Central Railway Department.

"Your Majesty, according to the investigation of the Central Vehicle Department's spies in the Prince of Beijing's Palace, the Prince of Beijing held an autumn chrysanthemum poetry banquet, and the person who served as the recorder of the poetry banquet was a guest named Chen in the palace.

The poem with presumptuous intentions was spread in the market. King Beijing once asked the recorder named Chen about the origin of this poem.

According to Chen the recorder, the participants in the banquet wrote a considerable number of poems and essays, but only a few excellent ones were recited and appreciated at the banquet.

The rest of the poems and essays were collected by Chen Lushi, who compiled them into a book after the poetry banquet and gave them to the participants for their appreciation.

According to Chen Lu Shi's recollection, the original manuscript of this poem was also among them. The poem was signed by Mr. Huxi of Wuzhou, but his real name was not left.

It was common to use pseudonyms in poetry and prose, but this pseudonym was quite unfamiliar and it was not clear who it belonged to, and the registrar at the time did not care.

There were four people from Wuzhou who attended the poetry banquet. After verification, all four denied that they were the authors of the poems.

These four people were all famous people in Wuzhou and were also well-known in the capital. Without any concrete evidence, King Beijing did not want to make things difficult for them, as he was also afraid of ruining his own reputation.

Therefore, it is still unclear who wrote this poem.

Or maybe Prince Beijing knew the truth himself, but now that it had happened, he was afraid that he would be unable to extricate himself, so it was very likely that he deliberately concealed it.

However, no one can tell how this short poem, which was unknown at the poetry banquet, became so well-known. The people from the Central Carriage Company once asked the children who sang it. Some children learned it from other children, while a few children said they heard it from peddlers. The details cannot be verified.

If His Majesty wants to find out the truth, he should capture those four famous scholars from Wuzhou and the recorder named Chen, and you will definitely gain something under the three trees. "

……

Emperor Jia Zhao sneered: "It doesn't matter who wrote this poem, what matters is that it was written for Prince Beijing!"

"The kingship of a different surname is hereditary for three generations. Isn't this grace enough?

He still did not know how to be content with his lot, and pretended to be polite to the wise, gathering together for drinks with celebrities, and seeking fame, but ended up doing something so humiliating as this.

It would be fine if he had the outstanding literary talent of Jia Cong, or the knowledge of classics and ancient history of Prince Jiashun.

He is obviously just a military hero who has read a few books and knows a few words, but he insists on putting on such a scholarly demeanor.

He also regards himself as a rising star among the four kings and eight dukes. Even when it comes to matters like the removal of the title of Ningguo Mansion, he takes the lead in commenting. He doesn't know how to advance or retreat and has no idea what's going on!
The court officials recommended him to be the governor of nine provinces, and he would have just waited for the emperor's decision, but he insisted on making a scene to submit a memorial to humbly resign, creating momentum and seeking fame, which attracted flattery and praise from the court officials.

The upright and brave spirit of the military hero is gone, but the trickery and deception of the civil officials have been fully learned... "

Guo Lin felt a chill in his heart as he listened to Emperor Jia Zhao's words, which became colder and colder, and full of sarcasm.

He really didn't expect that the Prince of Beijing, who was known for his handsome demeanor, looked as ugly as if he had been stripped of his clothes in the eyes of the emperor.

But if you think about it carefully, it is not surprising. The emperor is extremely wise and does not tolerate any injustice. If you act pretentiously in front of him, you will only expose your own ugliness.

The last time Ningguo was stripped of his title, Prince Beijing had tried to stop this in Qianyang Palace. He spoke eloquently and with eloquent words, and Guo Lin saw it with his own eyes.

I am afraid that Your Majesty would be disgusted at that time, and finally he had to issue an edict to strip Ningguo of his title but retain his title for three years as a measure to ease the situation.

……

Emperor Jiazhao asked again, "Are there any officials in the court who will attend the Qiuju Poetry Banquet this time?"

"Your Majesty, some people in the Cabinet and the Three Judicial Departments received invitations, but no one attended the banquet. Many officials in other government offices with the name of Wenhua were invited to the banquet."

"Jia Cong of Rongguo Mansion also received an invitation. It is said that Prince Beijing admires Jia Cong's literary reputation and attaches great importance to this matter. He specially asked the chief secretary to personally deliver the invitation.

It was just that Jia Cong had been running back and forth between the Firearms Workshop and the Ministry of War recently and had been very busy. The Chief Clerk had gone to the three gates three times before he met Jia Cong.

However, Jia Cong said that he has been busy with royal affairs recently and has no time to attend the meeting. It is said that Prince Beijing is very unhappy about something. "

After hearing this, Emperor Jiazhao's expression softened slightly and he picked up a memorial that he had picked up earlier.

That was the memorial just submitted by Jia Cong, Director of the Firearms Department of the Ministry of Works.

It says that the English gunsmith Masido, who was recruited by the Firearms Department, had traveled to Portugal in his early years and met many Portuguese national gunsmiths.

Through his connections, the Firearms Bureau was able to purchase ten newly cast Portuguese cannons from the Portuguese at a price of fifty thousand taels. This matter required an imperial judgment.

The memorial also provided a detailed explanation of the performance of the falconet gun, and even included strategies for subsequent improvements and imitations of the gun.

Emperor Jiazhao read the memorial carefully twice and placed it gently on the imperial desk.

Emperor Jiazhao had long paid attention to and understood the knowledge of artillery.

Since the establishment of the Musket Battalion in the Five Military Camps, Emperor Jiazhao had ordered spies from the Central Chariot Division to collect information on firearms everywhere.

They even sent elite troops to travel to foreign countries on foreign merchant ships to investigate the movements and current situations of the barbarians. However, the sea routes were long and it was difficult to predict when they could bring back useful information.

According to hearsay from the Central Vehicle Division, Emperor Jia Zhao had also heard of the French cannon, which was said to be a new type of Western iron cannon.
However, the Portuguese were thousands of miles away from the Great Zhou, and without channels and information, it was like trying to catch the moon in the air if they wanted to buy their artillery.

But Jia Cong actually did it.

Jia Cong's brilliance has been too dazzling in the past two years. Moreover, he is a descendant of the Jia family, which includes four kings and eight dukes, and he is a cunning and scheming person.

All these made Emperor Jiazhao, who was always suspicious and prudent, take a wait-and-see attitude and wait for a few years to see what would happen.

If Jia Cong was just an ordinary official's son, or even a child of a poor family, Emperor Jia Zhao would have used such a person without hesitation.

But even so, even he, who always had high standards, had to admit that Jia Cong was an extremely capable person who was often able to do things that others could not, which could be said to be rare in his life.

The development of the firearms industry in the Great Zhou Dynasty was almost entirely driven by him alone.

He glanced at the impeachment and recommendation memorials on the imperial desk, his eyes slightly fixed, and said: "Guo Lin, call the cabinet attendants to the palace to draft the imperial edict!"

(End of this chapter)