The Prosperous Era of Longwan

It was getting dark, and several chamberlains hurriedly left the East Pavilion with a large pile of memorials in their hands. They wanted to send the documents processed by the cabinet this afternoon to the Supervisor of Ceremonies for processing.

For the drafted memorials sent by the cabinet, the eunuchs would re-read them all, pick out the important ones and submit them to Emperor Jiajing for final decision, while some unimportant memorials with established precedents would be directly approved.

Huang Jin, the eunuch in charge of the ceremonial department, is of course not working in the duty room at this time. He is still waiting beside Emperor Jiajing. After all, he is an old man who has been with Emperor Jiajing for decades, and he was like this when he was in Anlu.

The eunuch Gao Zhong who now sits at the top of the eunuch's list of rites is the eunuch Gao Zhong. As the chief official among the ceremonial eunuchs Bingbi, he is the largest official here at this time.

The eunuchs below were carefully looking through the memorials sent by the cabinet and the drafts above, and then divided the memorials into several piles before sending them to Gao Zhong and other eunuchs.

At the moment, Gao Zhong and the other two eunuchs Bingbi were just drinking tea and chatting slowly, watching the eunuchs under their command at work, and they also wanted to go through the memorials that were finally classified.

There are established procedures for memorials reported from below, such as requests for disaster relief, petitions for gifts, and impeachment. They can be sent to the corresponding Yamen for processing according to regulations.

Only some special memorials need to be picked out separately, so although there are many memorials, most of them are actually routine memorials. They are just things that the officials below go through the motions. They may even be handed over with the original memorials with a little polish. .

It's just that Gao Zhong has been a little careful about these special memorials in the past two days, but everyone in the Supervisor of Ceremonies knows that His Majesty seems to have a bad temper in the past two days, and they all thought it was because they were worried about mistakes, so they became more active.

"Huh"

At this time, an eunuch who was reading the memorial suddenly let out a surprised sound, then covered his mouth with his left hand, and nervously raised his eyes to look at the three eunuchs above.

"What's going on? What's all the fuss about?"

Gao Zhong could only hold the tea cup calmly and blow on the tea gently. The eunuch holding a pen next to him was already holding an orchid and pointing at the eunuch who was attending the meeting.

The eunuch hurriedly put down the memorial in his hand and knelt down on the ground. He said in a panic: "If you disturb your father-in-law, your slaves will die."

"If you have something to say, tell me something."

The big eunuch took back his hand and said rudely to the attendant eunuch, "If it's nothing important, see if I don't tear your dog's mouth apart."

"Yes, yes, godfather."

The eunuch did not dare to get up, but picked up the memorial on the table again and raised it above his head and said: "This is the memorial of Wei Guangde, editor of the Hanlin Academy, impeachment. Impeachment."

"If you hadn't held the memorial, I would have smashed you to death with a teacup."

The eunuch Bingbi said very dissatisfied.

This man was his adopted godson. He was usually a little startled, but he didn't expect that he would still be like this after so long. It seemed like he had to get rid of him.

If it was someone from another family, he wouldn't be too lazy to take action. Naturally, he would have to reprimand his godson himself to prevent the other two from interfering.

This is the Supervisor of Ceremonies, and there is no room for such irresponsible people.

"Yes, that's what godfather taught me."

The eunuch kowtowed hurriedly.

"Tell me, who is Mr. Wei impeaching again? Last time, Liu Dazhang was impeached. This time, he won't be impeaching Yin Tai, right?"

Eunuch Bingbi heard that he was the one who impeached Wei Guangde, and thought of Liu Dazhang, whom he had impeached before. At that time, he had caused quite a stir in the Clerk of Ceremonies. Without him, the war in Xuanfu had affected the court's sensitive nerves.

Wei Guangde didn't realize it, but for a newcomer like him to dare to impeach the current right governor and the commander-in-chief of the army on the battlefield, it was very laughable.

According to the unspoken rules, as a newly-minted scholar, such impeachment would usually only end with 50 blows each.

However, after the Xuanfu war report was sent to the capital, the joke that we thought we could see had a 180-degree turn. Wei Guangde won and Liu Dazhang was dismissed.

This battle also gave Wei Guangde, who was not in the capital, some invisible glory, but he didn't feel it at all.

Now that they heard that Wei Guangde was impeaching someone again, the eunuchs in charge of rituals were naturally very curious, who would be impeached this time?

"It's not about impeaching Lord Yin, it's about impeaching King Hui."

The eunuch in charge hurriedly explained.

"King Hui?"

The eunuch Bingbi frowned slightly and did not continue speaking. Instead, he looked back at the other two people.

Gao Zhong nodded and made some kind of hint.

The eunuch Bingbi yelled and scolded: "You bastard, send the memorial to our house for a look."

The eunuch hurriedly closed the memorial in his hand and sent it to the eldest eunuch.

After taking the memorial, the eunuch opened it and looked at it anxiously.

The memorial was not long, but it contained a piece of pleading. After reading the memorial and the pleading, and then looking at the cabinet draft, I naturally suggested handing it over to the Metropolitan Procuratorate for investigation, and then deal with it after the investigation results were available.

Such a vote is naturally based on the precedent of the impeachment memorial. Naturally, we cannot say that impeachment is what it is. There must be an investigation process, and the court must confirm the merits before making a conclusion.

After reading the memorial, the eunuch delivered the things.

Ordinary impeachments and strife within the civil service, as long as it does not involve Beijing officials or officials of fifth grade or above from other places, they can directly criticize it. Anyway, it is a dog-eat-dog fight among the civil service groups, and they only need to watch the joke from the sidelines.

But not now. Now Wei Guangde is impeaching a prince.

Wei Guangde's status with Emperor Jiajing was not low, and all three eunuchs Bingbi knew this.

King Hui seems to have been very favored in the past, but he has been in trouble recently and seems to have fallen out of favor.

"This has to be submitted to His Majesty for a decision."

The eunuch next to him delivered the memorial to Gao Zhong after reading it. Gao Zhong was doing the errand of delivering the memorial these days. Only when Gao Zhong was unwell or for other reasons would it be their turn to deliver the memorial to Emperor Jiajing.

Gao Zhong took it and read the memorial and the paper carefully, smiling to himself. This Wei Chuanlu was very organized in his work and knew what could and could not be written.

"Leave it here for now, and I'll present it to His Majesty."

At this point, the steps of the Supervisor of Ceremonies have been completed. The rest depends on whether Emperor Jiajing has the intention to pursue the royal family members.

Although Wei Guangde did not say that King Hui had acted arrogantly, he only pointed out that King Hui was rampant in lawlessness in the fiefdom and did many things that were harmful to nature and justice. However, the document accompanying the memorial was very scary. He left the fiefdom without authorization and exceeded the regulations. The prince's palace also privately built Long Live Mountain to train dead soldiers.

Gao Zhong already knew the news from Chen Ju beforehand, so he just pretended to twitch his face slightly, but the other two eunuchs didn't know that and were frightened the moment they saw the paper.

Whatever the prince did in the fiefdom was reported to the local officials. What was done in the palace was watched by someone in the inner court.

There was no news beforehand, so it was already clear what this meant.

There may have been problems with the people they sent to Prince Hui's Mansion, so the reports missed a lot of important information.

Fortunately, it seems that these things are not their business. If the sky falls, there will be big men to hold it up.

The eunuchs below continued to screen the memorials sent in, divided them into two categories and sent them to the three eunuchs. They took the memorials and browsed them briefly. Those who were unsure were sent to Gao Zhong and waited. Presented to Emperor Jiajing later.

As the Chief of Ceremonies finished processing the memorial, Gao Zhong said to the two young eunuchs behind him: "Take the memorial and follow me. You two will rest first, and I will go to Xiyuan first." ’

The duty room of the Chief of Ceremonies was not in Xiyuan, but in a row of rooms in the easternmost part of the Forbidden City near the palace wall. Each of the two young eunuchs followed Gao Zhong out with a stack of memorials in their hands, and went straight to Xiyuan. .

No matter whether the group entered or exited the Forbidden City or entered Xiyuan, they were not interrogated. After all, it was Gao Zhong who led the group. Although he was no longer the eunuch of the Imperial Horse Guard, his power in the palace remained the same.

After entering Xiyuan, they soon arrived outside Yongshou Palace. Gao Zhong did not immediately lead people to deliver all the memorials. Instead, he stood outside and winked at the young chamberlain on the side.

The little chamberlain understood, walked carefully to the palace door, looked inside, and then gently waved to the inside, conveying some secret signals.

Not long after, a chamberlain from the Yongshou Palace came out quietly. When he saw Gao Zhong standing outside the palace gate, he immediately quickened his pace to greet him.

"Godfather, my son wishes you well."

That eunuch was naturally Chen Ju. When he saw Gao Zhong coming, he naturally knew what was going on.

It was also around this time that the memorials received by the Supervisor of Ceremonies arrived in the past day, but they always went directly in.

Today, when his godfather called him out first, Chen Ju knew that the impeachment memorial that Wei Guangde mentioned must be in it.

"How is your Majesty feeling?"

Gao Zhong just nodded slightly to Chen Ju's greetings and then asked.

After following Emperor Jiajing for a long time, I also figured out this man's temper.

Writing memorials is also a skill, and you need to find the right time. If the time is right, big things can become small things. If the time is wrong, big things can become big things, and vice versa.

Regarding Gao Zhong's question, Chen Ju thought about it and then replied thoughtfully: "Your Majesty was not in a very good mood this morning. You know that General Longhu is gone, and your Majesty has been in a bad mood these past few days.

After taking the newly refined elixir in the afternoon, His Majesty became more energetic and fierce again, and even laughed a few times, but just now."

"What's going on now?"

Gao Zhong immediately asked.

"Earlier, the young general entered the palace again, shouted at His Majesty twice and ran away. Your Majesty may have thought of General Longhu again, so he doesn't speak much now, fearing that he may be in a bad mood."

Chen Ju replied.

"not talking?"

Gao Zhong nodded. His Majesty's silence showed that he was not in a high mood, but he was still reasonable and would not lose his composure even if something big happened. It was a good time.

If Emperor Jiajing is in a bad mood, this memorial will bring disaster and fortune.

In any case, the previous generation of King Hui supported His Majesty's practice of the art of immortality. If he misses the cat while talking about King Hui, there is no telling that Your Majesty will choose to let him go.

Emperor Jiajing's behavior and actions were very unique. Not to mention Gao Zhong, even Huang Jin could not feel the emperor's pulse sometimes, so they could only make rough estimates.

"You go in and tell me."

Gao Zhong ordered Chen Ju. After Chen Ju turned around and entered the palace, he took out Wei Guangde's memorial from his sleeve and put it into the memorial held by the eunuch beside him.

Not the first one, but seemingly randomly placed in the middle of the memorial.

Not long after, Chen Ju went out again and saluted Gao Zhong: "Godfather, Your Majesty asked you to send the memorial in."

Although Emperor Jiajing devoted most of his time to cultivation, as long as he was not practicing behind closed doors, he would deal with the memorials sent to him every day and generally would not procrastinate.

And strangely enough, although the civil and military ministers of the entire dynasty said that taking too much of the elixirs prepared by His Majesty was bad for the health, Emperor Jiajing had been taking them for decades, and his health has always been very good. After so many years, he even It has not been passed down to the imperial physician.

Several people entered the Yongshou Palace and soon entered the main hall.

Today Emperor Jiajing did not rest in the main hall, but in the side hall, leaning on the bed, with a finely crafted jade Ruyi in his hand, and a copper chime in front of the bed.

Beside the bed, Huang Jinshi stood beside him. When he saw Gao Zhong coming in, he just nodded slightly.

Wei Guangde's guess was actually correct. After Gao Zhong's fall, he was transferred to the Supervisor of Ceremonies. Here, naturally, he could only turn to Huang Jin and obey his orders.

After Gao Zhong thought about what Wei Guangde said, he quietly discussed it with Huang Jin.

Huang Jin was the absolute confidant of Emperor Jiajing, and he was very loyal to the emperor. He had known that King Hui had gone out of his fiefdom to play. Well, young man, it happened so many years ago, so naturally he didn't take it to heart.

But after Gao Zhong quietly told him about King Hui's arrogance, Huang Jin became very dissatisfied with King Hui.

It's not a big deal for the palace to overrun the palace. You dare to build Long Live Mountain in the palace and raise a large number of dead soldiers. What are you doing?

In fact, Dongchang has detected the news that some clans and dignitaries secretly raised dead people, but those families did not support many people, mostly just a few people, far less than the hundreds of people Wei Guangde said.

Although Wei Guangde only said that the news came from Geng An, he did not investigate. He is not afraid of this. He will find out when the time comes. He will send someone to Henan.

Moreover, what is even more frightening is that the personnel sent by the inner court actually concealed the information. This is what he, as the admiral of the inner court, cannot tolerate.

As in the past, Huang Jin asked the two young eunuchs to take turns reading the memorial. Gao Zhong was on the side table preparing to approve it, and then waited for Huang Jin to stamp it before sending it to the cabinet.

From time to time in the side hall, there could be heard the dull beating sound of bronze chimes, and each memorial was processed in the tacit understanding of the emperor and his ministers.

"King Hui?"

When a young eunuch read Wei Guangde's memorial, Emperor Jiajing stood up and sat up without comment, shook his head left and right twice, and then said: "Show me that piece of paper."

Wei Guangde's memorial only talked about his encounter with Geng An and what he had accused him of. The memorial also mentioned attaching Geng An's petition, which made Emperor Jiajing a little interested.

Perhaps after getting used to reading the memorials of courtiers, it might also be fun to read what ordinary people wrote and know what those clans did in private.

However, as Geng An's paper was handed into his hand, his calm cheeks gradually darkened.

"Huang Jin, Gao Zhong, do you know what's on the paper?"

When Emperor Jiajing asked, he was naturally not asking whether he had read the pleadings, but whether the inner court knew about King Hui's violation of regulations.

When the words fell, Huang Jin looked confused but immediately fell to his knees, while Gao Zhong had already knelt down and kowtowed: "I don't know."