The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 397

An inner court meeting itself is also a performance stage for the cabinet.

But even if the hearing office didn't participate in the discussion, it didn't mean they were ineligible. It was just that no one was willing to confront the cabinet because Zhang Zhou was not around.

When the few people came out of the Qianqing Palace and walked outside the palace, Xie Qian deliberately said in front of the few people: "Even if His Majesty didn't say it, how can there be no cabinet affairs outside the six ministries? Now it's the old and the new. When changing, the cabinet is no exception!"

Zhang Mao asked with a smile: "Yu Qiao, what do you mean, you want to take the initiative to give up your position?"

Xie Qian said: "I still have to mention it. It depends on your Majesty's decision. But this round of changes, except for a former right servant of the Ministry of Rites who was promoted to the left servant of the Ministry of Officials, it seems that the Imperial Academy is still calm. Could it be that this change has nothing to do with Han Yuan's colleagues?"

"I don't know."

Zhang Mao laughed.

He also knew that the so-called member of the hearing office was just a cover.

A Wu Xun, who would really listen to what he said?
Ma Wensheng said: "The three cabinet elders are highly respected. Now we can't do without anyone, but we are stupid old ministers. We should step down gradually. But the three work hard, and it is not impossible to increase the cabinet ministers appropriately."

In fact, these words are more likely to be said to Lin Han.

It also seems to be dispelling doubts about the meaning of what Xie Qian said earlier. In fact, Xie Qian did not intend to voluntarily abdicate, but more like guessing whether the emperor has increased cabinet ministers, and has the intention of changing the officials of the Imperial Academy system.

Lin Han seemed very calm about this. He knew that he, the minister of the Ministry of Rites, was also controversial, and others would not be too convinced of him, just like the courtiers were not convinced by Xu Qiong before.

Zhang Mao pretended to be confused and joked and said with a smile: "Duke Lai is no longer a bachelor, so there is no need to worry about him joining the cabinet. To be able to run an army, he is indispensable in doing things... It is not the duty of a courtier to act arbitrarily."

Xie Qian said: "I will be a Hanlin for a day, and I will be an Hanlin for the rest of my life. Even if His Majesty wants to let him into the cabinet, isn't it reasonable?"

"That's it, Yu Qiao." Li Dongyang interrupted Xie Qian, "I have a lot of delays today, so I should go back earlier to deal with the affairs of the various yamen. Regarding the appointment of personnel, we must wait until after the court, don't be here for no reason Feeling."

Xie Qian said with a smile: "Yes, we are just worrying for nothing, only Zhang Bingkuan can be said to be the winner, and the court will be very chaotic in the future."

This is more like a feeling after losing the fight with Zhang Zhou.

It was also because Tu Yu was not around.

Otherwise, Xie Qianfei questioned him carefully.

I said before that I don’t want to fight, I have to fight, but in the end, the emperor and Zhang Zhou jointly suppressed the impeachment matter. Up to now, the disaster has not been able to attack Zhang Zhou, but it cannot be said that there will be no chance at all in the future, but I want to take Zhang Zhou. How could it be so easy for Zhou Dangcha's fault to be attacked?

Now that the monarch and his ministers are at odds, the emperor has started to make deals with the ministers for the appointment of officials at the Shangshu level. It is no longer the time when civil servants dictated the court.

You old ministers, failed to participate in the impeachment, patted your ass and left. In the future, won’t those of us who stay in the court bear the consequences of the failure of the struggle?

……

……

After the three members of the cabinet are separated from the rest.

Li Dongyang reminded: "Yu Qiao, you know that you don't need to express your emotions in front of outsiders, but you still said that before, what is your intention?"

Xie Qian said: "I just want to tell them that if they don't have anything to do in the future, they can count on the cabinet to take care of it."

Li Dongyang shook his head and said: "Why do I feel that you seem to be disheartened and want to withdraw from the court, and never ask about court affairs?"

"Hehe." Xie Qian just smiled and didn't answer directly.

The reason why Xie Qian complained was more because he felt that he had been cheated by others. Once he felt slack in his heart, he didn't want to suffer from that useless air again.

Liu Jian asked: "Have you recently seen the Nanjing garrison ministers, middle officials, and Nanjing Military Department's performances?"

"I've never seen it before." Li Dongyang turned his head and said, "The Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing transferred the Minister of the Ministry of Officials. The garrison in Nanjing should be calm. After all, Zhang Bingkuan has not arrived yet... Could it be that Zhang Bingkuan will have something in Nanjing? As?"

Liu Jian said: "If His Majesty temporarily appoints him as Secretary of the Ministry of War in Nanjing for the transition, you don't need to think too much about it. But if you want him to stay in Nanjing until the end of the year, do you dare to say that Your Majesty has not appointed him another mission?"

Li Dongyang fell into deep thought.

It was also Liu Jian's harvest at this inner court meeting.

Zhang Zhou did not return to the capital for a while. It seemed that the emperor wanted Zhang Zhou to temporarily avoid the disputes in the court, so that Zhang Zhou could hide his power and bide his time. After a few months, he would be transferred back to Beijing to serve as Minister of the Ministry of War.

But the emperor is obviously not in a hurry, and it seems that Zhang Zhou's appointment as Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing can last for a long time. Then we have to consider what Zhang Zhou, a minister who has won the emperor's trust, can bring to the emperor in Nanjing, and even let him The emperor was not in a hurry to call back.

"Isn't it to let him go to the southwest to suppress the rebellion against the people?" Xie Qian said coldly with a strange sound from the corner of his mouth.

"It's not like." Li Dongyang said, "But what will happen to Nanjing?"

Liu Jian couldn't answer either.

As the accompanying capital of the Ming Dynasty, even if Nanjing had a court team, most of the time they were nobles who were just waiting for death. military.

Xie Qian said: "I heard that the so-called governor of Bohai Sea seems to have gone south as well."

"What are you going to do?" Li Dongyang obviously didn't know about it.

Xie Qian shook his head and said: "Your Majesty placed this job on a temporary basis. The duty is to build a ship in Jinghai, but I have never heard of any serious bandits on the southeast coast. First in the northwest, then in Liaodong and North Korea, and now in the southeast." , you, Li Binzhi, can understand it, but I can't either, so don't ask me."

It's not that Xie Qian didn't understand, but he didn't want to delve into it too much, and just told Li Dongyang what he knew.

Leave it to Li Dongyang and Liu Jian to analyze by themselves.

And he himself... As Li Dongyang said, he was indeed a little disheartened, and felt that it was meaningless for him to be a court minister.

There are Liu Jian and Li Dongyang on the top, and Zhang Zhou's forces are running on the side. A group of pig teammates seem to be fighting with Zhang Zhou, but they ignore the biggest issue of holy will. It was buried... Wenchen has changed from a steady and steady approach to a detachment, and has even begun to be unrealistic.

……

……

As Zhu Houzhao and his party entered the ground in Shandong, they had left Beijing for six days.

Zhu Houzhao had a lot of fun along the way, but for Liu Jin, Qiu Ju, Gao Feng, and Ma Yongcheng, it was a bit of a torment. He wanted to wait for Jin Yiwei to chase them back, but after entering the ground in Shandong, they even chased after them. I can't see it, let alone what the local government has done.

Because the news of the prince's disappearance has not been announced to the public...

Let them feel that they seem to be following a fake prince, because Zhu Houzhao seems to have been forgotten by the emperor.

After the ship docked this afternoon, Zhu Houzhao arranged for Gao Feng to hire a car, because he was going to go to Qufu with Sun Che and the others to worship the Xuansheng Temple. If you change trains, you don't play cards in the same way, so even if the pursuers find the clue of the ship, they will lose it if they follow the line.

"Gao Gonggong, should we discuss it, this is not a solution."

Ma Yongcheng's position in the East Palace itself is not as good as Gao Feng's.

Gao Feng is the oldest in Dongchang, nearly sixty years old, and is regarded as a mature and prudent one.

Qiu Ju and Liu Jin can count on the prince to protect them, but Ma Yongcheng himself has military merits, and he doesn't want to cut off his "official career" or even lose his life because of accompanying the prince to the south.

Gao Feng said: "What can I do? Where is the prince going, can you stop him?"

Ma Yongcheng looked back to make sure that Liu Jin and Qiu Ju didn't come out, and he said: "Those two just want to play around with the prince, but if we return to the capital, won't your majesty chop off our heads? The most agreed is to go out of the city to In Tongzhou, the palace guards will definitely catch us, but we have not seen anyone until now... The longer the time drags on, the more unstable our heads will be."

"Who said no?"

Gao Feng also had a headache.

When they first left the palace together, the four of them were forcibly pulled out by Zhu Houzhao, as if Zhu Houzhao threatened to kill the Zhang family brothers.

Zhu Houzhao also said clearly that he would kill them, but he said that it would cause "accidents" for them, such as "accidentally falling into a well" or something. Who didn't know that Zhu Houzhao was doing anything wrong?If this was really an "accident" forcibly created by a little prince, his death would be in vain.

"I thought that if I came out with the prince, I would be arrested early. As long as I tell the whole story to His Majesty, even if I was punished, it would be just a pain of flesh and blood. Who would have thought that the palace guards are so incompetent?" Ma Yongcheng said bitterly, "Now we Or find a way to leave clues for the people behind, so that even if you are caught, you can have an explanation when you go back, is it a crime or meritorious service?"

Ma Yongcheng is tantamount to "rebelling against the water".

Since Jin Yiwei and other pursuers couldn't find us, we left clues for them and helped them find someone.

Only in this way can this life be saved.

"If the crown prince finds out about this...it's all here, and it's brought back...do you think the crown prince will let go of the person who betrayed his whereabouts?" Gao Feng was obviously a little scared.

Offending the prince is easy to die unexpectedly, obeying the prince is easy to be beheaded by the emperor, it is death anyway.

Ma Yongcheng said anxiously: "It's all here, we don't want to take the blame and make meritorious service, really don't want this head?"

Gao Feng said: "Liu Jin approached our family before and said that he has a good plan."

Ma Yongcheng said angrily: "It's so late, you actually believe Liu Jin? If he hadn't instigated him, His Highness would not have thought of going to the south of the Yangtze River to find Mr. Zhang and push us into the fire pit. I guess the prince's threatening words are all That fellow taught it."

"It's Mr. Zhang." Gao Feng said, "Leave clues for the pursuers. If they are found, His Majesty may not let us go. The crown prince will definitely not let you go lightly if he knows, and he may not know how he died. For the present plan , besides Mr. Zhang, who else can help us people?"

"You mean?" Ma Yongcheng stared at Gao Feng with wide eyes.

"I just want to find a way to inform Mr. Zhang and let him secretly send someone to protect the prince. His Majesty knows that the prince is with Mr. Zhang, so he can rest assured. And this is exactly the trick of Shouninghou and Jianchangbo, which is to push everything to Zhang. Sir, let His Majesty feel that the prince is doing everything to find Mr. Zhang... Only in this way can we get through safely."

Gao Feng reminded in a low voice while walking in the direction of the carriage.

Ma Yongcheng said in surprise: "That fellow Liu Jin... still has some brains."

Gao Feng said: "Thinking about it, it is true that something happened to the crown prince. Let alone our own head, the tribe can't save it. But if the crown prince is under the protection of Mr. Zhang, don't worry, your majesty, we will not be responsible. It is best to let him go again." Please ask Mr. Zhang to intercede..."

"Is it useful?" Ma Yongcheng asked.

"It depends on man's will. For example, Mr. Zhang said that there is a conflict between the crown prince and the third prince, or that in the prince's destiny, there must be a potential dragon traveling south of the Yangtze River, who can occupy the Ming Dynasty and stabilize the dragon's veins... In short, the prince's southward travel is said to be due to destiny. , then aren’t we just following God’s will?” Gao Feng was talking like nonsense.

Ma Yongcheng opened his mouth wide and said, "That fellow Liu Jin also said that?"

Gao Feng said: "Some are what he said, and some are what I think. Don't think that Liu Jin is good at flattering, but he is also good at brains. Do you think he doesn't care about his own life? Now we are all grasshoppers on the same rope, and we can't help it." Don’t think about what’s there, it’s better to find a way to notify Mr. Zhang, that’s the right way.”

……

……

Zhang Zhou went south much faster than Zhu Houzhao.

The distance is getting farther and farther.

But no matter how fast it was, it was not as fast as the post-horse passed down by the imperial court. Soon Zhang Zhou knew about Zhu Youtang's addition, concubine, and about Zhu Houzhao's run away from home.

Zhu Youtang can hide from the courtiers and use the grounds that the crown prince is grounded so that he does not come out to study. It will not be too surprising that the lecturer in the East Palace cannot see him. Easy to deal with.

But Zhu Youtang was always looking for his son. As soon as Zhu Houzhao disappeared, he informed Zhang Zhou with a secret decree, asking Zhang Zhou to calculate Zhu Houzhao's travel route.

"The prince is missing?"

When Tang Yin sent the letter and Zhang Zhou had to personally inform the news, he was already so surprised that he couldn't close his mouth from ear to ear.

At this time, the party had already passed Xuzhou, and it was only about four days away from Nanjing by boat.

Zhang Zhoudao: "The crown prince escaped from the palace privately, relying on the carriages of Marquis Shouning and Uncle Jianchang to cover him. After leaving the city, he gave up the carriage. It seems that he hired an ox cart to go to Tongzhou. I found... there are also rumors that the prince is actually going to the west mountain, and the east is just a cover, and there is also news that the prince hired a carriage to go north..."

"Wait." Tang Yin frowned, "Where did you go?"

"Where else can we go? Naturally, come to Nanjing with us." Zhang Zhou said.

"Hiss, the crown prince came to Nanjing? What is the reason? The heir apparent of the Ming Dynasty, if something unexpected happens, the Ming Dynasty will fall into turmoil." Tang Yin was also very anxious.

Once the prince's destination is Nanjing, it is likely to be related to Zhang Zhou, and he, Tang Yin, may also be involved.

Zhang Zhou said with a smile: "That was before. Your Majesty now has a new heir, Zhu Houxuan, the third son of the emperor. You don't know much about the prince. This child is not very old, but he has many opinions. Sometimes you even feel that he ...not like a child, but like an old-fashioned fox."

Tang Yin frowned.

This is your evaluation of the Duke of Ming Dynasty?

How disrespectful.

"No matter what guise he used, the fundamental reason why he couldn't find it was not because of his destination, but because he mixed in with the crowd, probably in disguise. Even Jin Yiwei couldn't imagine that an inconspicuous kid in the crowd, Will it be the prince of Ming Dynasty?"

Zhang Zhou said with a smile.

Tang Yin asked: "The prince ran away from home, senior brother is not worried?"

"It's always the experience of the prince." Zhang Zhou didn't take it too seriously.

The law and order along the way of the Ming Dynasty is actually not bad, at least the canal line is the most important thing for the law and order of the Ming Dynasty. It is really unlikely that there will be river robbers and bandits along this way.

Under Zhu Youtang’s rule, the national strength of the Ming Dynasty was also flourishing. Those pedantic civil servants in the Ming Dynasty pursued the rule of doing nothing. The bandits in the Central Plains were not very rampant until the early years of Zhengde, so Zhang Zhou was not too worried about Zhu Houzhao. Safety.

"Brother, where is he?" Tang Yin asked.

Zhang Zhou shook his head: "With this matter, we can't leave in a hurry, and delay the speed of going south."

Tang Yin said: "But you are already Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing."

The transfer order has arrived, and Zhang Zhou, as Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, should be in a hurry to take up his post.

But now when it comes to the safety of the prince, Zhang Zhou has also been asked for help by Zhu Youtang. It is reasonable to slow down. Is it important for the personal career or the safety of the prince... There is no need to weigh the scales in Zhang Zhou's heart , should care more about what Zhu Youtang thinks in his heart.

"Bohu, don't stay here anymore. You and Xu Jing each take a group of people, one way up the river, and the other way on the dry road, in order to find the whereabouts of the prince within ten days." Zhang Zhou said.

"And then?" Tang Yin felt that his task was heavy.

It was like looking for a needle in a haystack in ten days. It was obviously difficult to find a child.

Zhang Zhoudao: "Escorting the north is too intrusive for you, so you can directly escort the south to Nanjing."

"Your Majesty won't pursue it?" Tang Yin asked.

"I will explain the situation to His Majesty. Now it is necessary to ensure the safety of the prince. As for where he is, it is not the most important thing. After all, he will be punished by His Majesty after he returns to Beijing, so it is better to follow his instructions." I mean, come to Jiangnan for a walk." Zhang Zhou seems to be very open-minded about this matter.

Tang Yin frowned and said: "I'm afraid that His Majesty will not let the senior brother go."

Zhang Zhou shrugged his shoulders and said, "What does this have to do with me? I was just helping to find someone and protecting him comprehensively. The crown prince didn't discuss with me when he left the palace, and secondly, he didn't get teased by me. I escorted him to Nanjing in a relatively safe way." , When the imperial court sends someone to take him back, am I still wrong?"

Tang Yin thought for a while and couldn't help but nodded.

He was also thinking that Tang Yin would not get involved if only Zhang Zhou put aside all the responsibilities, and he would even plant a good impression on the emperor by protecting the crown prince.

As for meritorious service, there is no need... The disappearance of the prince is the top secret of the court.

As long as you don't cause trouble to your upper body, being able to find the prince and protect him well is also a way for the emperor to think he is capable.

(End of this chapter)