prosperous age

Chapter 260 Chapter 259

Wei Guangde, the instigator of the impeachment storm, has once again had a good time in front of his colleagues these days.

He casually impeached two of them, and the impeachment was successful. Wei Guangde was naturally a little proud, but Chen Ju never sent any further news.

This news, of course, is whether he can go to Junzhou to check the bad deeds of King Hui.

If it continues to rise, Wei Guangde can't count on it.

In this day and age, he was already a cadre who was promoted by rocket, so he was only pursuing the position of a seventh-rank censor of the same level. The goal should not be too ambitious, and it is still possible to achieve it.

Geng An had quietly set off back to Junzhou two days ago, and he had to go back to prepare more evidence of King Hui's crimes. After all, many people were forced by King Hui to leave their homes and hide.

The current Junzhou is already considered a half-empty city, and it was all rectified by King Hui.

Those who study and have daughters at home have long since run away.

King Hui likes to tease scholars too much, and scholars also want to save face. They are afraid of being entangled by King Hui and losing face, so they can only hide, because even if it is useless to sue the government, Zhizhou has to go around King Hui's mansion.

In addition, it is necessary to arrange for the evidence of King Hui's usurpation, some of which are acceptable, and some he has to go back and check first to find evidence.

However, when leaving Wei's house, Geng An knelt in front of Wei Guangde to express his gratitude, and said that as soon as Wei Guangde went to Junzhou, Geng An would contact relatives, friends and local prominent families to jointly give Wei Guangde the Wanmin Umbrella.

Thinking about it, if the people of Junzhou were really harmed by King Hui, it would not be impossible to send Wanmin Umbrellas. Although Wei Guangde was not in charge of Junzhou, naturally there was no way to protect the people of Junzhou from wind and rain.

Over the years, when officials leave office, no matter whether they are retired or promoted, it is common for people to gather to see them off, but it seems that I have never heard of sending Wanmin umbrellas or plaques.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde couldn't help but feel a little itchy, what a shame.

The so-called Wanmin Umbrella is actually a large umbrella with many small silk strips on it, and the name and family origin of the person who is presented as a gift.

In ancient times, when a magistrate left office, the local gentry and merchants had to express a little bit of retention. The more common way was to send "Wanmin Umbrella", which means that the parent official, like an umbrella, covered the common people of one side, and gave it away. The more umbrellas there are, the more face the official has.

If when the official is dismissed or demoted, there are still people in the local area offering umbrellas or even blocking sedan chairs, which means that the official is definitely a clean or good official, and the local people are also kind and righteous.

Of course, such a ceremony will definitely deteriorate in the later stage.

In fact, in the beginning of the land of China, in order to commemorate the departed upright officials, the common people often asked local famous teachers to write inscriptions and engrave steles to commemorate them.

However, in the Tang Dynasty, local officials often forced the local gentry and common people to set up merit monuments for themselves in order to show their vanity and merit to their superiors, so as to show that they loved the people like their sons and benefited the people of one side.

When the matter developed here, it completely changed, so that the Tang Dynasty regime at that time had to issue an order to the world, prohibiting the engraving of names for officials.

Unable to engrave a stele, in order for the common people to express their reluctance to the officials, Wanmin Umbrella and Merit Plaque came into being.

Of course, for local officials who are really memorable, the local gentry will often ask the court to ask for a special order to allow the local government to engrave a monument for them, but the procedure is very troublesome.

At this time, the Wanmin Umbrella and the Merit Plaque had not yet been spoiled by the civil servants of Ming Dynasty, so the attraction to Wei Guangde was not small.

But back to reality, Wei Guangde has known in the past two days that many people in the imperial court have started to try their best to grab the position of imperial envoy for investigation.

Wei Guangde's hope of winning this position in the first place was in vain. Chen Ju said that Emperor Jiajing had no plans to cut through the mess quickly, so neither Huang Jin nor Gao Zhong dared to take the position at the time. this matter.

Up to now, Wei Guangde's first chance is definitely gone.

In the past, such errands would mostly fall on people from the Ministry of Rites and the Metropolitan Procuratorate. After all, it was their job. Wei Guangde from the Imperial Academy had little hope of being selected.

Based on this, Wei Guangde didn't bother to go out of his way.

Maybe there might be some glimmer of hope in sending money to Yan Shifan, or getting a deputy envoy, but Wei Guangde didn't dare.

It's not that you don't dare to give money, but that you sent money to get a deputy envoy's errand, and when you came back from Junzhou, you didn't get the Wanmin Umbrella, but you got it as a deputy envoy, isn't it a slap in the face?

Wei Guangde didn't want to do the job of offending others, so naturally at this time, he didn't want to fight after he became a little rational.

In any case, the No.1 bombardment of King Hui was himself, and everyone saw the credit for this, although it was a bit like a dog taking a mouse.

At this time, the political wind in the capital had already spread in all directions, and the news spread to Henan, and the official circles in Henan were also shaken.

In recent years, Henan officials have regarded Junzhou Zhizhou as a dragon's pond and a tiger's den, and no one is willing to take office easily.

Without him, because that is King Hui's territory.

Although the imperial court restricted the clan's right to interfere with the local area, but King Hui did not interfere with the local area, but violated the law and discipline in the local area, and the local officials had nothing to reason with.

To deal with clan princes, there must be an imperial decree from the emperor.

Ever since Zhu Houxuan, king of the Hui Dynasty, had conflicts with the Zhizhou Chen Ji due to the "cutting the piano" case, and wrote to the imperial court to impeach Chen Ji, at that time the imperial censor Luo Ang and the imperial censor Wang Sanpin tried to state the facts and wrote a letter to defend Chen Ji. He was furious and arrested them all. Among them, Luo Ang was executed with a rod, and Wang Sanpin and Chen Ji were demoted to the border.

Afterwards, the current king of Hui, Zhu Zaixuan, was also impeached repeatedly, but the results were nothing. Since then, the officialdom in Henan has had to choose to go around the king of Hui, and he can't beat him.

Now that the wind direction in the capital has changed, King Hui has obviously fallen out of favor with Emperor Jiajing, so naturally new and old grudges must be counted together.

Soon, officials from Henan Governor Pan En also began to write letters to impeach King Hui for his crimes, wanting to uproot King Hui at once, and this opportunity should not be missed.

Henan's impeachment memorial was sent to the capital and handed over to the cabinet. At this time, several members of the cabinet were arguing over who should go to Henan to investigate and deal with the case.

Watching the Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites and the Censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate arguing over the candidate, Yan Song and Xu Jie flipped through the newly sent memorabilia on it.

"Pain? This person seems to have been the magistrate of Junzhou?"

Yan Song suddenly put down the memorial in his hand, and said to Xu Jie beside him.

"Henan Governor Paine?"

Hearing that Yan Song seemed to be asking himself a question, Xu Jie put down the memorial in his hand, took the copy of Pan En's memorial from Yan Song, glanced at it, and said with a smile: "He used to be the magistrate of Qizhou, and because of his hard work, he was transferred to Junzhou. , has this experience."

"He's already the governor of Henan, and he cares so much about Junzhou, haha"

Yan Song smiled pointedly.

"It is estimated that in Junzhou, I was not less angry with King Hui. This time I seized the opportunity."

Xu Jie approached Yan Song and whispered.

Yan Song just smiled when he heard the words, so he didn't answer.

"The Metropolitan Procuratorate proposed that Youqian Capital Censor Party Yiping should go, and the Ministry of Rites proposed that Youshilang Yan Na should go. It is better to report the names of the two people directly and see how the emperor chooses. It is meaningless to keep arguing like this. Both of them are qualified. .”

Xu Jie looked back at the officials arguing below, then turned back and whispered to Yan Song.

"Accordingly, it is reasonable to hand over this kind of matter to the Metropolitan Procuratorate. You can read and give me a copy of the memorial, and it won't work if you keep procrastinating."

Yan Song nodded in response.

"Yes, put the proposal of the Metropolitan Procuratorate first, and the Ministry of Rites second?"

Xu Jie nodded knowingly when he heard the words.

In his opinion, to investigate and dispose of the prince of the current dynasty, at least an official of the fourth rank or above must go on tour, so that he is worthy of the status of an imperial envoy.

The other party is a super-grade prince, and the official position may not be able to be suppressed.

It's just that when Xu Jie finished speaking, he saw a hint of sarcasm in Yan Song's yellow eyes.

Discovering this, Xu Jie's heart skipped a beat.

He understands that he doesn't need to be inferior to Yan Song in terms of ability to handle affairs when he is an official, but he lacks understanding of Emperor Jiajing.

Perhaps, Yan Song had already seen the true will of Emperor Jiajing, so that kind of eyes appeared at that moment.

But at this time, Xu Jie could only bury that thought in his heart, nodded and sat back in his original position.

The debate in the East Pavilion was still going on, but the two cabinet ministers didn't put their minds on their debate, they dealt with the memorial sent in a leisurely manner.

After stepping down from the cabinet, Xu Jie was still thinking about the momentary change in Yan Song's eyes earlier.

Xu Jie had already realized that he seemed to have made a mistake, so he wrote the test book. Although he didn't hand it in right away, there must be something wrong.

After thinking about the people in the question book carefully, whether it is Yan Na or Dang Yiping, they seem to be very suitable candidates.

If there is something wrong with it, it is that Dang Yiping is also from Henan and has the same nationality, but this is not an unusable official.

Back at Xu Mansion, there is no need to go to Xiyuan to check the room tonight, and it is rare for Xu Jie to have a rest time.

Not long after returning to the inner courtyard and sitting down, the housekeeper came over with a letter in his hand.

"What's the matter?"

Xu Jie asked casually.

"My lord, I have received a letter from my family. This year, all the tenants said that they were attacked by Japanese pirates and added to the corvee by the government. They couldn't bear it any longer. They asked the government to reduce their rent."

While speaking, the housekeeper handed the letter to Xu Jie.

Xu Jie didn't speak, took the envelope and opened it, took out the letter paper and read the contents of the letter, then sneered: "It's all the imperial court's order, what can I do.

You go down and write a letter telling your family that those who can't pay the rent will not plant next year.

The few in the family have nothing to worry about. Do you want me to explain to the tenants? It’s not that I want to increase their corvee. If I have the ability, I can go to Hu Zongxian to complain. "

"Yes, yes, what the master said is true."

Naturally, the housekeeper would not have any disagreement with Xu Jie on this matter. Although he felt that those tenants were indeed suffering enough, the rent could not be reduced. If the reduction was made, Xu's house would eat and drink.

"If you have to bother me even with a little thing, if there is another similar thing in the future, you will return directly."

Xu Jie said again casually.

Watching the butler go out with the letter, Xu Jie looked away and looked at the bookshelf.

As a scholar, reading has become a habit.

When I was on duty in the cabinet, I read the playbooks from various places all day long. When I got home, my hands and eyes were still a little itchy, and I always wanted to read something.

It's just that when his eyes were scanning back and forth on the bookshelf, his heart suddenly jumped. Xu Jie seemed to understand the meaning of Yan Song's eyes.

In the eyes of these ministers, disposing of a prince's clan seems to be a major event in the world, but in the eyes of Emperor Jiajing?
The tenants in Songjiang's hometown asked for a reduction in the land rent, and the housekeeper felt very embarrassed. It must be the same at home, so the letter was sent.

It's just that at my own level, I see more things, and I think of Hu Zongxian's sins, why should my Xu family be responsible, so I flatly refused.

So for the emperor, is it a big deal to dispose of a King Hui?
Is it really necessary to dispatch officials of the fourth rank or even higher to deal with it as they thought?
The prince, the status is honorable, but these days the prince is a hairless phoenix, apart from being able to domineering in the palace, what is the value of leaving the palace?
The local government should respect them, because they are afraid of being impeached by the prince for being unreasonable, but if they make unreasonable troubles or even demand excessively, the local government will often not save face for them, and at worst ask for a holy order.

King Hui dared to make trouble in Junzhou, mainly because the evil deeds of King Hui's mansion had not been punished before, so that everyone was afraid of King Hui's favor, knowing that he would be retaliated if he could not be sued.

The situation is different now. The emperor's attitude towards Huifan before, and yesterday's blunt warning to the alchemists not to speak to Huiwang, have actually conveyed their meaning very clearly.

Asking Qiandu Yushi or Youshilang to investigate the lawlessness of King Hui, is the configuration a bit high.

If Emperor Jiajing wanted to beat the clan, he probably wouldn't want to see the court pay too much attention to this matter.

Sending a small official to take down King Hui will also have a stronger deterrent effect on other clan princes.

Thinking back to the past few years, the clans from all over the country had collectively met with Emperor Jiajing and cried poorly, complaining about the arrears of Lumi allocated by the imperial court.

In fact, for those clans, they are all their relatives. They only need some soup and water from their nails to be enough for his clansmen to live well. There is no need to count on the imperial court's Lumi.

At that time, Emperor Jiajing was very embarrassed by their crying and poverty, so he forced the cabinet and the Ministry of Households to squeeze out a lot of money and food to make up for the outstanding debts.

Thinking of this, Xu Jie's heart suddenly trembled, and he dealt with King Hui and warned the clan.

The courtiers thought that the imperial court would send officials to Junzhou to investigate the illegal affairs of King Hui, but they rejected the candidates appointed by the imperial court, and sent low-level officials there. .

If it wasn't for seeing Yan Song's strange eyes, Xu Jie would not have reacted to Emperor Jiajing's possible state of mind at all.

Thinking of Yan Song asking him to go to the playbook to nominate candidates selected by the Six Departments of the Nine Ministers, isn't this really cheating himself?
As soon as the memorial written by myself was published, the impression given to the emperor was that he was ignorant and confused.

Whether the emperor really had this intention, Xu Jie was still a little uncertain, but after careful consideration, he found that he still had no way to solve the situation, so he could only bite the bullet and play according to Yan Song's intention.

I just wish I was overthinking it.

(End of this chapter)