Hongwu Daming: Why hasn't my son rebelled?

Chapter 183 The Hu Weiyong Case Begins
On the day Zhu Yuanzhang left, Hu Weiyong couldn't close his mouth in reluctance.

Li Shanchang has retired, Liu Bowen said that he is still sick, and the rest of the generals, Xu Da doesn't care about the government, Lan Yu and others are Hu Weiyong's friends.

In the entire officialdom, this Hu Weiyong can be said to be covering the sky with one hand. After all, the emperor and the crown prince are not in Yingtian Mansion, so Hu Weiyong has the final say in this officialdom.

Even in the early dynasty, those officials were no longer the emperor, but Hu Weiyong, Prime Minister Hu Weiyong, who were waiting above the main hall.

I saw all the officials standing in the hall, and Hu Weiyong was the latest to come, striding in from outside the hall, stepping on the red carpet that only emperors can walk on.

The officials on the side were dumbfounded, but they didn't dare to say anything, and bowed their bodies one by one.

And the rest of the resentful officials groaned with a flick of their sleeves.

Hu Weiyong walked to the front with a normal expression on his face, then turned around and said to the officials:
"My fellow ministers, I have read all your papers, so I will choose a few to talk about today."

Isn't what he said is no different from what Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang usually said?

And after Hu Weiyong finished speaking, the servants below, you looked at me, I looked at you, and no one came out to speak for a while.

Hu Weiyong turned around again and walked straight towards the emperor's seat.

Those officials looked stupid, but fortunately Hu Weiyong did not sit directly on the emperor's seat.

If this is the case, even those officials who followed Hu Weiyong would not dare to continue to follow Hu Weiyong. This is a serious crime of rebellion!

Hu Weiyong just walked up a few steps, showing that he was different, then turned around, said with his hands behind his back:
"Okay, let's start discussing..."

These ministers also breathed a sigh of relief, and then began to discuss with Hu Weiyong.

But when these literati were discussing government affairs, they didn't know that the guards and eunuchs were staring at them one by one.

In this Yingtian mansion, Hu Weiyong has already controlled the officialdom, called the wind and rain, and enjoyed the supreme glory brought by power.

Whether it was Li Shanchang or Xu Da, who could be as powerful as me?
Hu Weiyong was complacent, and thought that such days would last for a month or two.

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It's just that when Hu Weiyong was enjoying the pleasure of power in Ying Tianfu.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang was waiting with his three sons, Zhu Qi, King of Liao, Zhu Di, King of Yan, and Prince Zhu Biao, in Fengyang County not far from Yingtian Mansion.

Naturally, they didn't come to Fengyang to worship their ancestors, but they seemed to come to Fengyang for a temporary vacation. Anyway, Zhu Qi was tired every day and had nothing to do, so he went to Zhu Yuanzhang's place to say goodbye in the morning.

Then I studied with the prince Zhu Biao. In fact, it is learning, which is to be lazy.

Zhu Qina is such a salty person, it is impossible for me to learn the Four Books and Five Classics.

Every time he went to the study, he said that he had a headache. Anyway, when he just crossed over, he was not in good health.

It is not impossible for the old disease to recur at this time.

The prince Zhu Biao was also very pampering and protective towards his younger brothers. Seeing that Zhu Qi was unwell, naturally he would not force him to study in the study.

So every time Zhu Qi greeted Zhu Yuanzhang, then Prince Zhu Biao, and then it was time for free activities.

However, when Zhu Qi was moving freely, he didn't completely ignore what happened in Tianfu. After all, he was the leader of Jinyiwei, and the information related to Jinyiwei had to go through Zhu Qi's side.

Jin Yiwei didn't have any other special things recently, they just saw the ugly appearance of those officials in Yingtian Mansion.

Hu Weiyong is domineering, and the officials are fawning on them behind Hu Weiyong's back.

If you want to destroy a person, then hold him high and let him go crazy first.

Seeing him building a high-rise to entertain guests, seeing his building collapse, it is almost Hu Weiyong who is talking about.

But Zhu Qi thought about it in private, Hu Weiyong would be so presumptuous like today, naturally there are reasons for his personal personality, but more is the result that Zhu Yuanzhang wants to see.

In Hu Weiyong's view, Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor, may not be able to do without the help and assistance of his prime minister, Prime Minister Hu.

But Zhu Yuanzhang's ability has been one of the best among all emperors since ancient times.

It can be said very clearly that even without the assistance of the prime minister, Zhu Yuanzhang can handle government affairs in an orderly manner by himself.

And the facts have indeed proved that the prosperous and prosperous foundation that Zhu Yuanzhang laid for future generations is no worse than that of any founding king.

And the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang tolerated Hu Weiyong's taking power for so many years, and now he simply gave up all the power to Hu Weiyong, was to see how far Hu Weiyong could go.

The core of the purpose behind it is to point directly to the prime minister system that has been established for thousands of years.

The emperor sits in the country, and the prime minister rules the country.

This system has been implemented since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but it cannot be tolerated by Zhu Yuanzhang.

Especially seeing the memorials sent from those places, they had to be reviewed and screened by the prime minister before being delivered to the emperor.

How could Zhu Yuanzhang bear it?
And wanting to abolish the prime minister system is not something that the emperor can do with a single sentence. There must be a suitable reason.

Only in this way can the objections of others be reduced, and it will also let those who want to oppose know that he, the emperor, has made up his mind to abolish the prime minister system.

So this is basically a confrontation between imperial power and prime minister, and Hu Weiyong just became a stepping stone for Zhu Yuanzhang to achieve his goal.

In fact, not only Hu Weiyong, but also Yang Xian before him, Li Shanchang, Liu Bowen, etc., these celebrities who are all over the world.

In Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, they are all pawns manipulated by himself.

Use the world as a chessboard, and capable people and strangers as chess pieces.

This is - the emperor!
The more Zhu Qi understood that what Zhu Yuanzhang was doing, the more he respected and stayed away from such things as political courts in his heart.

Anyway, as a little prince who is only thinking about the life of salted fish, I just have nothing to do to make some gadgets that contribute to the country.

For these things, it is impossible to play at all. Everyone in the court is old and cunning, but it is different in Zhu Yuanzhang's hands, and they still have to plant seedlings.

You say that you are playing a political power struggle in front of Zhu Yuanzhang, that is really courting death!

Fortunately, he has no ambitions, let alone the idea of ​​seizing the heir.

Although he already guessed what Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to do, every time Zhu Di came to Zhu Qi's side and asked with a sad face, why he didn't go to Liaodong and Yanyun, Zhu Qi waved his hands, saying that he didn't clear.

This Zhu Yuanzhang made it clear that he didn't want himself and the two brothers Zhu Di to go to the feudal clan so early.

The reason why he said to let himself go to the feudal clan was to numb Hu Weiyong and make him feel that the emperor listened to him very much and would accept his opinions.

The most important thing is to let Hu Weiyong take power alone, to see who in the court are following Hu Weiyong, who are neutral, and who are against Hu Weiyong?

Those who followed Hu Weiyong, needless to say, their fate is obvious.

The case of Hu Weiyong is known as one of the four major Hongwu cases. It lasted for ten years and killed more than [-] to [-] people.

It is conceivable how many officials were implicated because of Hu Weiyong?

Even the Lanyu case after the Hongwu Four Cases was a follow-up development of Hu Weiyong's case.

In this way, the days passed by calmly, but under the calm, the waves were already turbulent.

The Jin Yiwei are constantly collecting evidence, but there is naturally no evidence of Hu Weiyong's direct embezzlement.

But it's unrealistic for those friends who follow him to be as clean as they want.

As long as this person has power, he will inevitably use his power to do evil.

Otherwise, why are these corrupt officials springing up one after another like mushrooms after rain.

Even if Zhu Yuanzhang made them into straw figures and hung them in the government office, they could see the fate of those corrupt officials every day when they passed by, but whenever it came to their own time, they still accepted the silver taels offered by others.

This is all human nature. As long as there is 100% profit, you can risk your life to do something.

Not to mention corrupt officials, their profits are more than 100%, they are nothing but white wolves, and they can have as much money as they want.

Even though Hu Weiyong was able to keep his own rights as clean as possible, it would be very difficult for him to ask his subordinates to do the same.

According to what Jin Yiwei saw more, although Hu Weiyong's hands are very clean, he has done a lot of things to show his rights on weekdays, and even touched the bottom line, not one or two things.

Of course, what I said was not about eating and taking cards or something similar to corruption, but that Hu Weiyong used the emperor's imperial study without authorization when the emperor was not in Yingtian Mansion.

Or in the early dynasty, they walked up the steps that only the emperor could climb, or often drank and discussed state affairs with those generals, and even sighed, feeling that the emperor gave the Wu family's mother too low treatment, and so on. means of the heart.

This is no longer suspicion of guilt, but if a minister does this, it is simply 80% settled and wants to rebel.

Does Hu Weiyong have the heart to rebel?All kinds of evidence in history show that there is a little bit of it?It's just that he didn't have the courage.

Winning generals is not to win them over to rebel, because after Hu Weiyong finished comforting the generals, he also said:

"This is all instigated by that old thief Liu Bowen!"

This is clearly an attempt to kill someone with a knife. Knowing that His Royal Highness the King of Liao is protecting Liu Bowen, it is not easy to do it, so let these generals do it against Liu Bowen.

No way, after the emperor comes back, these generals will make trouble in front of the emperor for a while,

Perhaps the biggest wish is to be able to secure the position of prime minister and become a famous prime minister like Shang Yang, Xiao He, and Wang Anshi, who will last forever.

Whether Hu Weiyong has this ability will not be said for the time being, but his mentality and political strategy are obviously not like those of Shang Yang, Xiao He or Wang Anshi.

And after those Jin Yiwei collected a large amount of criminal evidence, Zhu Yuanzhang was not angry or annoyed, so he put away the criminal evidence in his hand one by one.

And in March of the 11th year of Hongwu, less than half a month after leaving Yingtian Mansion, Zhu Yuanzhang had almost collected the evidence at hand.

So one day when the weather was fine and the wind was beautiful, he took Zhu Biao, Zhu Qi, Zhu Di and other brothers back to Yingtian Mansion.

At this time, Hu Weiyong was still in the imperial study, which could only be used by the emperor, looking at the memorial in his hand.

Although he was wearing official robes, his demeanor and movements were obviously no different from those of the emperor.

Not only that, when he convened other officials to discuss matters, he would not discuss them directly in the government office, but let those officials come to the imperial study to find him.

Hu Weiyong's vanity can be said to be firmly satisfied, but when he heard that the emperor came back from outside, Hu Weiyong was also suddenly taken aback.

He didn't expect that Zhu Yuanzhang would come back so soon. How could it be possible that it only took half a month to go to Liaodong in his impression?
When Hu Weiyong thought about it again, he felt as if he had been struck by a bolt from the blue, and his whole body went limp.

The emperor returned so abnormally, did something happen?

And this matter, could it be directed at himself.

The first thing Hu Weiyong thought of was whether some officials secretly handed Zhu Yuanzhang an envelope in private and came to impeach him again.

He didn't think about any problems on his side, but when Zhu Yuanzhang led people to the imperial study.

Hu Weiyong was already standing by the door at this time, Zhu Yuanzhang did not enter in a hurry, but stood outside the door looking at Hu Weiyong and asked:
"During the time I was away, Hu Xiang really worked hard. I don't know if my imperial study is still in Hu Xiang's taste?"

After hearing these words, Hu Weiyong suddenly remembered that if the emperor knew that he had worked in the imperial study, he might not be happy.

He hurriedly started complaining about his sufferings, and it was nothing more than being told that daily memorials were sent from various places, and there were many people in the government office.

That's why I was in this imperial study room, and I borrowed it to review memorials, but every time I went in, I would kneel on the ground and use a low table to work.

If it weren't for Zhu Yuanzhang's investigation in advance, the eyeliners in the palace would report about Hu Weiyong every day.

Zhu Yuanzhang almost believed Hu Weiyong's nonsense.

After Hu Weiyong finished crying, Zhu Yuanzhang also said with a distressed face:

"Then you have worked hard, sit on the chair and rest quickly."

After Zhu Yuanzhang finished speaking, he dragged Hu Weiyong into the imperial study, and Hu Weiyong also looked flattered.

However, I was really flattered to see Zhu Yuanzhang pulling him to sit next to the main table in the imperial study, which is usually where the emperor sits.

Zhu Yuanzhang patted Hu Weiyong on the shoulder and said:
"Hu Xiang, are you happy with this position?"

happy?Isn't that for sure.

It's just that Hu Weiyong is already on pins and needles.

"Your Majesty, the imperial seat is naturally comfortable and happy."

Zhu Yuanzhang sneered, and then said:

"You feel comfortable and happy, then I will take this seat for you to use when you go to Jinyiwei Prison!"

After saying these words, Hu Weiyong was taken aback for a moment, but the Jinyi guards behind him had already walked up.

Even though Hu Weiyong was begging for mercy and calling for grievances, the guards in Jinyi did not stop at all, and in order to prevent Zhu Yuanzhang from hearing any unpleasant words, they even blocked Hu Weiyong's mouth.

Following the Kongyin case, the Hu Weiyong case that shocked the official circles of the Ming Dynasty, just like this, kicked off the prelude.

(End of this chapter)