prosperous age

After a day, Huguang sent back the memorial about the evil deeds of the Liao Palace, which has become known throughout the court.

However, during the daytime yesterday, the officials talked more about the atrocities committed by Liao King Zhu Xian in the fief, and only a very few officials found Hong Chaoxuan's last description.

However, Shi Duchen, the deputy envoy of Huguang Press, was ignored by most people.

But at night, in the Qin Lou Chu Pavilion, when the Beijing officials gathered to drink and chat, it was only mentioned, and many people saw the opportunity in an instant.

Although most officials did not take this seriously, some people still recognized Shi Duchen's point of view, thinking that even though King Liao had no intention of rebelling, he did.

The great banner was not something that he, the king of Liao, could produce. It was a great banner that opposed the imperial envoys who were ordered to investigate the case.

Therefore, early this morning, the Department of General Affairs became lively again. Many officials sent the impeachment memorial written overnight to the Secretary of General Administration, hoping to grab a good position and appear in front of Emperor Longqing first.

The reasons for impeachment, in addition to the long excerpts of the crime facts of the Liao king in the selected memorials of the Hong Dynasty, emphasize that the Liao king Dayu had the heart of disobedience and should be severely punished.

The news from the Secretary of General Administration will soon be transmitted to the cabinet, but due to the procedure of passing the memorandum, it has not been fed back yet.

In the Qianqing Palace, after Emperor Longqing sat on the throne, the first memorial that Meng Chong handed over was drafted by Zhang Juzheng on behalf of the cabinet to impeach the king of Liao for his crimes.

The memorial was sent to the Supervisor of Rituals yesterday, but it was quite late. Emperor Longqing had his own activities at night, and of course he would not review the memorial until midnight like those diligent emperors like Zhu Yuanzhang.

If you have that spare time, you might as well lie down in the gentle countryside of the harem.

Moreover, the matter of the Liao king is actually not a big deal in the eyes of the Beijing officials.

Everyone is under the control of Jin Yiwei, but it is not the vassal kings who rebelled back then, who want to mobilize everyone to suppress the rebellion.

Therefore, the supervisor of ceremonies wisely did not inform the emperor, but let him enjoy himself in the harem.

However, during the day, Emperor Longqing still had to deal with some memorials.

Of course, the director of ceremonies picked out the more important things to report, and the rest would be handed over to them for approval.

"King Liao? Zhu Xian?"

To be honest, the old Zhu family has a lot of relatives. Now there are dozens of vassal kings in various places in Ming Dynasty. Emperor Longqing was stunned when he heard Meng Chong's name of Zhu Xian, king of Liao, wondering where these relatives were. towards.

Don't think that he only issued an order two months ago to send an imperial envoy to investigate the matter, but he has long since forgotten it.

If it weren't for the return from the imperial envoy, if no one mentioned it, the matter would have been wiped out immediately.

"My lord, the King of Liao is the King Zhen of the Liaojian in Hongwuzhong. He was first granted the title of Liaodong. At the beginning of Yongle, it was changed to Jingzhou. The son of Jian, Wang Guinuan, passed on to Xian six times."

Meng Chong hurriedly reminded, "Last time, because the imperial censor Gao Guangxian was impeached again, the emperor sent Hong Chaoxuan, the minister of the criminal department, as an imperial envoy to investigate the case."

"I remember that no one impeached him last year, and they sent someone to impeach him at that time, right?"

Emperor Longqing was recalled and spoke.

"The emperor has a good memory. That's true. It was Chen Xingshang who impeached him at that time."

Meng Chong flattered Emperor Longqing.

"Have you verified the content of those impeachments?"

After receiving the memorial, Emperor Longqing didn't open it to read it, but asked about Meng Chong.

The eunuch who was in charge of ceremonies must have read the memorial and the cabinet proposal before. He asked this question because he wanted to get a general idea first.

"All the crimes have been verified, but the emperor, I dare not say anything, so you should see for yourself."

Meng Chong pretended to be very nervous and said, "This memorandum was written by the assistant minister Zhang Juzheng Zhang Xueshi after the cabinet ministers discussed it. It was approved and reported by all the cabinet ministers. The imperial envoy and deputy envoy for this investigation will follow. The memorandum."

"Ok?"

Hearing what Meng Chong said, Emperor Longqing frowned, knowing that something serious might happen to the Liao Palace, otherwise the cabinet would not draft a proposal, but would write a memorandum separately, so solemnly, the matter should be serious.

But Meng Chong lowered his head down, thinking about collecting the money from the Zhang family last night and taking care of things by himself, it doesn't matter how the emperor handles it.

Of course Zhang Juzheng knew that it didn't matter whether the so-called crimes were serious or not, it mainly depended on how the emperor decided the punishment.

To put it bluntly, his memorial is just the basis for the emperor's punishment.

Therefore, in his plan, the process of delivering the book to the emperor in the palace is also very important. The emperor must be made aware of the seriousness of the matter so that he will be punished severely.

Zhang Juzheng knew it was unrealistic to get rid of the Liao Fan, but there was still a chance to just cut Zhu Xian's prince.

Zhu Xian has no heirs, so the heirs can only be his cousins, which is equivalent to changing the successor of the Liao clan.

In this way, Zhu Xian will never have a chance to stand up.

As a common man, his Zhang family has a lot of opportunities to get revenge, and he can play slowly.

His arrangement of this hand was really ingenious, and it really hit Emperor Longqing's pain point.

Hearing that Meng Chong dared not speak up, he became interested. Originally, he just wanted to punish him casually, but now he really wants to take a closer look at what the king of Liao did in the fief. , so that the eunuchs around him dare not speak.

When opening Zhang Juzheng's memorabilia first, Emperor Longqing was stunned for a moment before he saw the first crime of Zhu Xian, king of Liao, and then furious.

Yes, the first paragraph of Zhang Juzheng’s polished and transcribed impeachment memorandum pointed out a fact that even the emperors of the Ming Dynasty could not accept, that is, Liao King Zhu Xian asked Zhu Shuxi to be crowned heir, but the Ministry of Rites has been suppressing it.

The lack of approval was not due to Zhang Juzheng's interference, but because the Ministry of Rites found clues during the inspection and believed that it could not be canonized.

Zhang Juzheng told the cabinet ministers that Liao King Zhu Xian had no heirs, not the truth, but official words.

Zhu Xian has a son named Zhu Shuxi and nicknamed Chuan'er, but there is a problem with the child's biological mother because she is Lefu.

Lefu, in fact, are women from the Lehu family. They are untouchables whose profession is singing and dancing. They are mostly the family members of criminals, or they can also be called "official prostitutes".

Le Fu belonged to the social class of the untouchables in the society of the Ming Dynasty. They were the lowest level people who were not even as good as slaves. Many of the Le Fu in the Ming Dynasty were official prostitutes.

No matter what, the Ministry of Rites would never recognize the son born to Jian Ji and King Liao.

Don't say please seal it, even if it is included in the book, it will not be done.

Zhu Yuanzhang has always attached great importance to Zongtong, and of course he would not allow such a thing to happen, so he has long emphasized this matter in "Emperor Ming Zu Xun".

In the Ming Dynasty, the sons of Le Fu were called peanut sons, and the imperial court strictly prohibited them from asking for names and titles, that is to say, they were not regarded as the clan.

Liao King Zhu Xian's so-called first son was born to Le Fu, so it is not certain whether it is his child or not.

Zhang Juzheng impersonated the Liao king as the son of a happy wife, Chuan'er, and was brought up to the forefront by Zhang Juzheng to stimulate Emperor Longqing, because since the Jiajing Dynasty, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty have attached great importance to the lineage.

How Emperor Jiajing inherited the great treasure was based on the order of presidents.

If the Zongtong is in chaos, the consequences will be disastrous.

As for the erection of the banner that Wei Guangde, Chen Yiqin and others valued, it was actually not such a serious crime in the eyes of Emperor Longqing.

But Zhang Juzheng paid attention to this point, but kept refusing to mention it. He planned to use it as a trump card to attack Zhu Xian, king of Liao Dynasty. The big banner was just a so-called crime to divert everyone's attention.

After all, his position in the cabinet is awkward.

It's just that I didn't expect that the impeachment memorial that I thought I would spend a long time with Chen Yiqin and Wei Guangde would pass so easily in front of these two, but he still has to use this trump card, so he told Chen Yiqin to go back and polish it, transcribe it, and then play it. Just to carry private goods.

Sure enough, Emperor Longqing was no longer interested in reading the following thirteen crimes, but asked Meng Chong directly: "What's the matter with Chuan'er, the son of Le Fu? What's the matter with please seal the name?"

"Your Majesty, this is before the King of Liao reported to the Clan Mansion that his son Chuan'er should be included in the register, but the Ministry of Rites and the Clan Mansion found that Chuan'er's identity was unknown and his mother was from a humble family, so they kept holding back and did not agree. .”

Meng Chong said hastily.

If it wasn't for yesterday's incident, he wouldn't have known about it at all.

But after reading the memorial in advance, I naturally found out the details.

Today, when the emperor asked questions, he naturally answered fluently.

"Hmph, why didn't the Ministry of Rites report it?"

Emperor Longqing was still angry, and continued to ask.

"If the Ministry of Rites does not approve it, it will naturally not be reported. Moreover, this is not a glorious thing."

Meng Chong hurriedly replied.

After hearing this reason, Emperor Longqing relieved some of his anger.

That's right, I was so angry when I found out about the news. The people in the Ministry of Rites are still considerate to me, knowing that I don't like it, so I don't approve or report it, so I don't have to be angry.

Thinking of this, Emperor Longqing nodded, and continued to look down, feeling the creeps soon.

According to Zhang Juzheng's next list of Liao King Zhu Xian's crimes, if he just made him furious in the front, it would be really difficult to say later.

Sin one, the first emperor mourned, and after five days he did not mourn, and even indulged in drinking and hunting.

The second crime is fornication from aunts and uncles and other concubines, forcing women to rape women, or burning them alive in coffins, or picking off their arms with knives.

The third crime is beating Yibin to death, imprisoning the county monarch, blackmailing the clan, murdering the official school, taking in the wife, stealing the property, digging up the grave, and burning the corpse, which are countless.

The fourth crime is to goug out people's eyes, burn people's faces, and brighten people's ears by burning, cutting and peeling.

The fifth crime is to desecrate the chaotic palace.

Sin six, creating the Li Palace and privately forging talisman seals.

The seventh crime is to favor and trust private persons, to use official names such as Hou, Bo, and Jinwu, and to bestow python clothes and jade belts.

The eighth crime is to insult officials such as prefectures and counties, and to despise the officials ordered by the emperor.

The ninth crime was to ask the gold seal to publish the demon book, to conspire with the king of Hui, and to pursue it and refuse to offer it.

In the end, just like Hong Chaoxuan, he told the story of Zhu Xian, the king of Liao, who actually erected the four characters of "Litigation of Injustice" in the mansion of the Liao king to protest after he knew that the imperial court had sent an imperial envoy to verify his wrongdoing.

However, Zhang Juzheng would not take it lightly like Hong Chaoxuan, but focused on writing that this behavior caused fierce turmoil in Huguang official circles. Therefore, local officials believed that Liao Wang had the intention of rebellion, and directly sent troops to surround the Liao Palace, waiting for the arrival of imperial envoys to investigate.

The heart of treason.

The first few charges are all about the disrespect of the Liao king to the first emperor, and the later charges show the cruelty of the Liao king to the people and members of his own clan in the fiefdom. Finally, a big banner was erected, making Huguang officials think that they were planning to rebel.

"Other memorials, is there anything important?"

Emperor Longqing had no interest in reading other memorials at this time. Now he was thinking about King Zhu Xian of Liao, and he was thinking about how to punish him.

Not punishment, but punishment.

"Back to your lord, nothing else is important."

Meng Chong said with a low eyebrow.

"Well, take it back to the Supervisor of Rituals and deal with it."

Emperor Longqing ordered, looking at the memorial in front of him, he continued to open it again, looking down, he remembered that Meng Chong said earlier that the memorial of Zhang Juzheng was in the front, and the memorial sent to Huguang imperial envoy was in the back.

The chief and deputy envoys still played separately, which shows that they have disagreements on certain matters.

As the person in charge, he, the emperor, was also very curious about any differences.

Soon, he finished reading the memorial that was making Hong Chaoxuan, and although his face was still angry, he still nodded slightly.

Hong Chaoxuan's memorials are similar to Zhang Juzheng's, except that they are not as comprehensive as Zhang Juzheng's.

But it's normal, except for the cabinet members, Hong Chao must have no knowledge of the Ministry of Rites when he chooses a servant of the Ministry of Punishment.

Next, he read Shi Duchen's memorials again, and his brows frowned.

"No wonder Zhang Juzheng said there was a shock in Huguang. It turns out the root is here."

After reading the memorials of Zhang Juzheng and Hong Chaoxuan, Emperor Longqing also made a comparison. Except for the matter of Le Fu's son, Hong Chaoxuan did not mention the shock in Huguang's officialdom. into an accident.

At that time, Emperor Longqing was still wondering where Zhang Juzheng's words came from.

Now that he read Shi Duchen's memorial, he understood what was going on.

Of course, the teachings of Gao Gong, Chen Yiqin and others were not in vain, and the Emperor Longqing they taught was also qualified.

Although liking beauty and treasures does not seem to be the character that a good emperor should have, but these are human nature, and it is not easy to teach, so it cannot be said that Gao Gong and the others are not good at teaching.

On the contrary, Emperor Longqing was very shrewd.

However, because of past experience, the impression of the emperor's dullness has been deeply rooted in people's hearts, so he simply hides his clumsiness.

Anyway, government affairs are assisted by the cabinet and the director of rituals, so he can be lazy on non-important matters.

In Shi Duchen’s memorandum, he naturally reported the matter of King Liao’s erection of the banner. For example, he originally ordered the mobilization of officers and troops to surround Liao’s palace, but here it is said that the officials of Jiangling Mansion were panicked, and the officials of the three divisions did it after urgent discussions. Out of encirclement decision.

And even though it was a siege, it was actually just surveillance. Without the emperor's will, they didn't dare to embarrass the Liao king. The purchases of the palace continued as usual and were not affected, but the people were very panicked because of this.

The younger ones don't know, but the older ones still have the impression that the prince in the next province rebelled decades ago, which was a major event in the south of the Yangtze River.

"My lord, Commander Zhu Xixiao of Jinyiwei is asking to see you."

A little servant came in to report.

"What is he here for, tell him to come in."

Although Emperor Longqing was puzzled, he still said. (end of this chapter)