prosperous age

Zhu Xixiao's entry into the palace was naturally because of the turmoil in Prince Liao's mansion today.

Now the General Affairs Department is crazy busy. More and more officials are arriving there and handing in their own memorials, all of which are impeaching the King of Liao for not being a minister.

Even the ministers who didn't realize the seriousness of the problem at first, after hearing that many of their colleagues had gone to the Secretary of the General Administration to deliver the memorials, they all wrote impeachment memorials and sent them over.

Even if the King of Liao was fine, with so many officials involved in the impeachment, small things would become big things, so they came.

With such a big commotion in the capital, Jin Yiwei's spies noticed it immediately, and then reported it to the commander.

The news of the prince's intention to rebel came out under his nose, which startled Zhu Xixiao, commander of the Jinyiwei, and hurriedly checked the Huguang files, but found no rebellion documents from the Liao king, but there were many illegal activities involving the Liao king.

As an eagle dog, if the ministers made such a big noise, Jin Yiwei had to report to the emperor immediately, so he came here.

At this moment, Zhu Xixiao lay prone in the center of the hall, not daring to move.

The temporary note has been delivered to the emperor, but Emperor Longqing on the throne has not responded for a long time.

Zhu Xixiao knew that this matter was evil, and it seemed that the officials from Huguang made it up, with the purpose of bringing down the Liao King.

The so-called rebellious heart is simply non-existent.

After reading the dossier, Zhu Xixiao had already figured it out on the way to the palace, knowing what King Liao had done in Jiangling.

He figured it out, but he couldn't tell the emperor directly, he could only let the emperor figure it out for himself.

"Do you know the reasons for the impeachment of those people? Is it just echoing what others say or is there any basis?"

After a long time, Emperor Longqing asked.

"Your Majesty, I have only read a few memorials, most of which are based on the fact that the King of Liao erected a banner against the imperial envoy without authorization, so he believes that his actions are intended to rebel."

Zhu Xixiao immediately raised his head and replied, and at the same time carefully observed Emperor Longqing's face, and found that there was neither panic nor anger, which was very strange.

It stands to reason that the emperor should be terrified and then angry when it was reported that the vassal king was rebelling.

The panic is that since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there have been many vassal kings who have been divided into feudal lords, and one of them has made rebellious remarks, which actually means that other vassal kings may also have this intention, which has brought about instability in the throne.

Although those vassal kings seemed to be kept in captivity like pigs, after so many years, no one could say whether they had prepared in secret.

At the beginning, King Ning rebelled, not because that generation of King Ning had the idea, but according to the preparation for several generations, only when the generation of King Ning thought that Emperor Zhengde lost his virtue, the monarch and his ministers were at odds, and the world was unstable, did they brazenly raise the flag of rebellion.

Anger, of course, was aimed at the rebellious feudal lord, as well as dissatisfaction with the supervisor of ceremonies and the factory guard.

However, as far as the information Zhu Xixiao knew, the King of Liao had no objection at all, and the people below would naturally not be able to find out, but they were afraid that the one on the throne would take the wind and rain.

"Jin Yi will step up the secret investigation of other vassal princes' palaces. Things in the capital will also be reported in a timely manner in the future."

Emperor Longqing didn't plan to show Zhu Xixiao any favors and powers, he still had great trust in Cheng Guogong's family.

"According to the order."

Zhu Xixiao felt relieved.

Although after changing the emperor, it seems that the new emperor still trusts their family more, but after all, the emperor and the courtiers, they don't know what emperor Longqing's attitude is towards the Duke of Cheng.

Now it seems that the emperor really has no intention of reducing his own rights.

"Go on, continue to closely monitor the movements of officials in Beijing, especially their dealings with Huguang, let me check them all."

Emperor Longqing ordered again.

After Zhu Xixiao exited the main hall, Meng Chong bent down and said in a low voice: "My lord, there is such a big incident at King Liao's side, let's see if we need to invite the cabinet ministers to discuss it."

"No need, what they mean is actually contained in the memorial."

This memorial is the result of the cabinet meeting, so the cabinet's attitude is actually to punish the Liao king.

Judging from the content of the memorial, the cabinet tends to focus, but this is not in the emperor's interest.

Why did the emperors of the past dynasties generally not severely punish the vassal kings for making mistakes unless they committed heinous crimes? That is because they wanted to maintain the authority of the royal family and their superior status.

Previously, although Emperor Longqing was angry, he had no intention of imposing heavy punishment on King Liao. The fundamental reason was that his succession to the throne was too short and he needed to be kind.

But the current situation is a bit troublesome. The officials in the capital, who were quick to adapt to the situation, took action and demanded severe punishment for the King of Liao.

It is not what he wants to see when civil servants compete for fame and the royal family loses face.

It's just that the current direction of the court makes him a little hesitant, worried that it will cause a big disturbance in the second year of Longqing.

When his father, Emperor Jiajing, was in power, he dared to impose a large-scale court stick on courtiers, but he didn't have the courage now, and he was worried that there would be discord between the monarch and his ministers.

If there are people like King Ning lurking again, this country will be unstable.

So at this time, Emperor Longqing actually had a general direction in mind, which was to follow the wishes of the officials and severely punish the King of Liao.

It's just that this degree is a bit difficult to control. The cabinet saw it and knew that such a situation would happen, so it recommended severe punishment. However, Emperor Longqing still had to think about what kind of punishment would be reasonable.

Involuntarily, he thought of Emperor Jiajing's way of dealing with difficult issues, which was to delay, wait a few days and see.

At this time, in Wenyuan Pavilion, the memorials sent by the Secretary of the General Administration to the palace had already been registered with the Supervisor of Rites and sent here. Seeing the memorials doubled as before, all the cabinet ministers frowned.

They all want to see these things.

Don't think that the content of all memorials for the impeachment of King Liao can be ignored, and then draft a few templates directly.

This way of dawdling, once an official talks about the memorial, I can't answer it myself, and I dare not think about the consequences.

"It is still necessary to resolve the affairs of Prince Liao's mansion as soon as possible, otherwise today's memorial will be like this, and there will only be more in the next two days."

Zhang Juzheng said.

For him, of course, he hopes to cut through the mess quickly and understand this matter as soon as possible.

No matter what the emperor decides in the end, it's the same anyway.

He hoped that Emperor Longqing would punish King Liao severely, but he did everything that could be done, and he had to resign himself to the fate of the rest.

"It's also a coincidence that Huguang reported that the drought in Huguang this year has been severe, and taxes in various places have been greatly reduced. After the salaries are distributed to the clan, I am afraid that even the salaries of officials in the province will not be distributed."

Yin Shizhen spoke at this time.

This memorial was assigned to him this morning, and he is not stupid. When he got in touch with the Liao Palace case, he knew the hope of Huguang.

In fact, cutting the feudal clan is the common interest of the civil official group, but they also know that without a truly ambitious emperor, it is basically impossible to cut the feudal clan, and they will lose their heads.

Of course, the civil official group does not do nothing. For example, the Liao king of this generation was too disgraceful in Jiangling, and the officials of Huguang formed a group and united to say that the Liao king rebelled, hoping that Emperor Longqing would expel the country in this name, so that Huguang would Without the salary of King Liao, although the remaining county kings have a lot of salary, at least there will be no more princes and county kings in Huguang.

The issue of feudal kings has actually always been a persistent disease that has plagued Ming Dynasty.

After the death of Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Jianwen promoted the reduction of feudal vassals because he saw that the enfeoffment system was not conducive to centralization.

It's just that his level of military adviser is too low, he didn't understand the priorities, and his methods were too cruel, which gave Zhu Di an excuse to launch Jing Nan.

Of course, Zhu Di is not ignorant of the disadvantages of conferring feudal vassals, but what he relies on to be in power, he will naturally not slap himself in the face after he ascends the throne.

Therefore, he just changed the "cracking the earth to seal the king" set by Lao Zhu, and all the kings of Sai moved inward, took away their military power and carried out captivity.

By the time of the Hongzhi Dynasty, the issue of the clan had already been exposed. After the Zhengde and Jiajing dynasties, the situation became more and more serious, and it has become a big public problem.

In fact, judging from Emperor Jiajing's continuous cutting of the feudal clan in the later period, he already had this plan, that is, as long as the feudal king made a big mistake, he would take the opportunity to cut the feudal clan. King Hui and King Yi hit each other with guns, and he took the opportunity to remove them.

So when Wei Guangde impeached King Hui, it was not that he had great influence, but that he just met Emperor Jiajing's wishes.

As for why the feudal vassals cannot be cut with great fanfare, in fact, the main reason is the lack of legal basis.

The "Emperor Ming Ancestral Precepts" set by Lao Zhu is there, and cutting down the vassals is actually a violation of the ancestral precepts.

Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism was designated as the official philosophy by Ming Taizu in the early Ming Dynasty. The faithful implementation of the ancestor's precepts is a manifestation of filial piety culture in Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.

On this cultural and moral level, if the emperor of the Ming Dynasty made major revisions to Taizu's policy, it would be unreasonable on the moral level.

Modifying Ming Taizu's policy as "unfilial" is a legal issue that any emperor can hardly bear.

Emperor Jiajing was considered to be the most powerful emperor in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and he was also the most determined person to reform, but he didn't dare to touch the fundamental things, and he only made changes at the corners.

Li Chunfang, Chen Yiqin and others were discussing how to draft these impeachment memorials, but Wei Guangde was extremely regretful at the moment, regretting his lack of historical knowledge.

You know, the Manchu Qing Dynasty also had a similar system, but it seems to be better. If you know how the Manchu Qing Dynasty played, then the Ming Dynasty can find a way to slowly copy it.

What Wei Guangde knew was that the princes enfeoffed by the Qing Dynasty did not have fiefs, they only had the salary allocated by the court and the income from their own farmland.

But the princes of the Qing Dynasty could be officials in the court, and they actually received two salaries.

How to achieve both, Wei Guangde scratched his head but couldn't figure it out.

Before Emperor Longqing was still in the palace, he had asked him to make a plan for clan reform, but in fact he hadn't thought of any good ideas until now.

The reason for this is that he didn't know how Man Qing did it.

And over there, the four cabinet ministers also reached an agreement that public opinion cannot be violated, and as cabinet ministers, they must also stand on the side of the hundred officials.

"Now, our cabinet has to agree on how to punish King Liao?"

From the very beginning, Li Chunfang tried his best to avoid the punishment conditions proposed by the cabinet, but he knew that someone from all the officials would come forward to impeach him, but he didn't expect that there would be such a big noise on the first day.

According to the news from the General Affairs Department, there are still many officials gathered there, and now the scribes inside have become soft-hearted about copying memorials.

Now standing at the gate of the General Administration Department, there are far more people entering than going out.

"What other punishments can there be? Let's see what happens to King Hui and King Yi who have done many evil things. The worst punishment King Liao can give is this."

Yin Shixuan directly threw out Wang Zang, taking out the court's most ruthless trick against the vassal king.

"No, King Hui was abolished because he was stealing and concealing evil intentions, while King Yi was because he resisted the imperial edict and was rude to the emperor. Although the King of Liao also did many evil things, he did not."

Chen Yiqin originally wanted to say that the King of Liao did not harbor evil intentions or resist the will, but the next moment he thought of setting up a banner, and now all the officials are saying that this is treason, and it seems that this can also be used to eliminate the country.

Zhang Juzheng was very happy to see that Yin Shizhen and Chen Yiqin, who had been dissuading him from dealing with the King of Liao before, had acquiesced in severe punishment, especially Chen Yiqin's sudden pause.

"In someone's opinion, King Liao has done all kinds of evil things, and he has committed many acts of overreaching. You can refer to the cases of King Hui and King Yi."

Yin Shizhen said that cutting off the nobility and eliminating the country was just the worst possible outcome, and suggested that cabinet ministers should be mentally prepared. In fact, he did not hope to use this method in his heart. After all, it would have some impact on the emperor, and he did not care about family ties.

Although Chen Yiqin said it was impossible, he was obviously aware that there seemed to be precedent for such an operation.

Now, Zhang Juzheng finally showed his fangs in the cabinet. He knew that according to the "Emperor Ming Zu Xun", he could not kill Liao Wang, and the most severe punishment was to remove the prince and imprison the country, and he was running for this goal .

Although the arrangement was a bit hasty, as long as he successfully triggered the impeachment of hundreds of officials, half of his goal was achieved, and the rest was up to God's will.

"Shan Loan, what do you think?"

Li Chunfang's question brought Wei Guangde back to his senses, recalled a little, although he didn't pay attention to their conversation, but he heard the content, but he didn't pay attention.

Thinking about it now, Wei Guangde knew that Zhang Juzheng was the main knife, which was consistent with the meaning expressed in the previous memorial, which meant that the Zhang family had enmity with the Liao King, and he was taking revenge.

He raised his eyes and glanced at Zhang Juzheng, then lowered his head and thought about it.

It is possible for the King of Liao to destroy the country without an heir. To eliminate a vassal state, you can also warn other suzerains.

In particular, the matter of expelling the country they mentioned is indeed a bit big.

"If your majesty asks, I think it's better for the cabinet to punish King Liao by reducing his rank and imprisoning him. The matter of expelling the country is too serious, and his majesty needs to think twice."

Being repeatedly mentioned by them about King Hui reminded Wei Guangde of his first impeachment.

At that time, Emperor Jiajing's original intention was to reduce the title and imprison King Hui, but King Hui was afraid of the high wall and chose to set the palace on fire to commit suicide, which ultimately angered Emperor Jiajing and drove him out of the country.

Afterwards, King Yi did the same thing, but ordered him to correct his mistakes, release all the detained people and dismantle the system of arrogance. Unexpectedly, King Yi directly scorned the jade issued by the clan mansion to ask whether he could make window paper, which made him annoyed. The emperor directly cut the nobles, imprisoned the country and served as a one-stop service. All the royal family of King Yi moved to the Zhou Palace and were taken care of by the Zhou Palace.

Zhang Juzheng kept looking at Wei Guangde, and he let out a sigh of relief when he heard that he also agreed to cut the noble and imprison him. The matter of expelling the country really had a great impact.

Although he really wants to achieve this goal, he also understands that he needs to figure it out slowly.

"If it's a good loan, what's your opinion?"

Li Chunfang spoke at this time.