Corrupt official in the Red Chamber

Chapter 190 is up
"Wu Jingzhong, Wu Jingzhong, I always thought you were an honest person, so I entrusted you with the important task of serving as the chief minister of the cabinet. I didn't expect that you were also a slippery man."

Wu Jingzhong was shocked. This was the Emperor's evaluation of himself, a 180-degree turn.

"My dearest minister, I am loyal and never change. Please give me a warning from the Supreme Emperor."

The Supreme Emperor ignored Wu Jingzhong and turned to ask the emperor, "How do you think Wu Jingzhong should be dealt with?"

The emperor was stunned by the emperor's troubles.

How is this going?Aren't we discussing how to deal with Jia Rui now?How to deal with Wu Jingzhong?

So he quickly said: "My son, I don't understand what my father means."

"Wu Jingzhong falsely accused ministers, excluded dissidents, and tried to control the court. Shouldn't he be punished?"

Not only the emperor, but also Wu Jinzhong and others who were kneeling below were shocked.

From the Emperor's tone, they had sensed that the Emperor wanted to protect Jia Rui to death.

This result was something they never expected.

The worst outcome expected by the three bachelors was for the Supreme Emperor to reprimand them, and then the matter would be reduced to a trivial matter.

After all, this is not without precedent.

The attempts by civil servants in the past dynasties to impeach traitors would not succeed immediately. Most of them had to go through dozens or even dozens of impeachments and pay a bloody price to bring down the traitors.

Therefore, this time the three bachelors did not think of knocking down Jia Rui at once. However, they wanted to stir up a storm. Then, as they did, the young civil servants below immediately followed suit to impeach Jia Rui. Rui?
The emperor opened his mouth not knowing what to say.

The Supreme Emperor stopped looking at the emperor, turned around and stared at Wu Jingzhong fiercely, and said sternly: "You attack the ministers without any basis and want to dominate the court. As long as I am alive, I will never let you and others have such wishful thinking. "

Having said this, the Supreme Emperor fiercely shouted to Wang Hao, the commander of the Jinyi Army below: "Take this sycophant and send him to prison. I want to see who he is colluding with, how dare he be so lawless." .”

Wang Hao quickly stood up and waved to the outside. Seven or eight soldiers in uniforms immediately rushed in from outside. Then they came behind Wu Jingzhong, beat him up, and dragged him out.

Wu Jingzhong was a little anxious at this time. If you go to jail, you will be found guilty even if you are not guilty. What's more, he has been the chief assistant for more than ten years. No one will believe him if he says he is clean under his butt.

"Long live my lord, for the sake of my over ten years of hard work, please forgive me this time. For the sake of my going to the south of the Yangtze River with you to put down the rebellion, please forgive me this time."

Wu Jingzhong seemed to be really anxious, and he directly called the Supreme Emperor "Long Live Lord".

Wu Jingzhong's words also reminded the Supreme Emperor of what happened back then.

When the Supreme Emperor was still the crown prince, he went to the south of the Yangtze River on the orders of Emperor Taizong to put down the rebellion. Wu Jingzhong was with the Supreme Emperor at that time.

Over the years, Wu Jingzhong worked tirelessly with the Supreme Emperor without any complaints. This made the Supreme Emperor distrust him and made him the chief minister of the cabinet, taking over the court on his behalf.

However, the Supreme Emperor only softened his heart a little. He immediately narrowed his eyes and shouted to Wu Jingzhong:
"No need to say more, go to prison and reflect."

After finishing speaking, the Supreme Emperor waved his hand, and the soldiers in uniform immediately dragged Wu Jingzhong down.

After Wu Jingzhong was dragged off, the Supreme Emperor looked at the other two cabinet ministers.

He Chaodong and Li Chengyang were so frightened that they could no longer kneel down.

The Supreme Emperor walked back to the throne, touched several memorials on Long's desk, and thought for a moment with a frown.

If all cabinet ministers were demoted to prison, it would be a severe shock to the court.

The Supreme Emperor was getting older and did not want to go through such trouble anymore, so he did not send all these people to prison as Jia Rui approved.

His idea was that it was best to suppress this matter calmly.

Now he was going to give the remaining two cabinet ministers a step down. As long as they changed their ways, the Supreme Emperor would not pursue the case any further.

"He Chaodong."

When He Chaodong heard what the Supreme Emperor said, he hurriedly knelt forward a few trembling steps and then touched his head to the ground without daring to raise it up.

"What do you think now?"

He Chaodong had been a cabinet minister for many years, and he immediately analyzed the pros and cons.

Now is not the time to confront the Supreme Emperor. If he annoys the Supreme Emperor again, he will have to go to prison to accompany Wu Jingzhong.

So he said firmly with a tearful tone: "After hearing what the Supreme Emperor said, I suddenly realized that I had been deceived by Wu Jingzhong. Now that I think about it, I regret it very much. I ask the Supreme Emperor to severely punish me, so that I can follow suit."

Li Chengyang, who was kneeling behind him, also quickly moved forward and started to say:

"Wei Chen was also deceived by Wu Jingzhong, so he ordered him to be knocked unconscious to ask for forgiveness from the Supreme Emperor."

The Supreme Emperor nodded with satisfaction, and then said: "You two are too loyal to be deceived, but the court has rules and you will not be punished. In this case, you two will be fined for half a year."

After hearing this, the two people quickly kowtowed and thanked him.

Then the Supreme Emperor looked at the other ministers and said:
"There is no need to tell you anything about Jia Rui in the future."

All the ministers quickly knelt down and said, "I obey the order."

The Supreme Emperor waved his hand, and the ministers below each stood up and stood in the class again.

Even the dozen ministers who supported Wu Jingzhong and wanted to deal with Jia Rui now stood back in despair.

Then, the Supreme Emperor glanced at Prince Yizhong, and then said:

"The King of Yizhong County lost his manners in front of the Lord. He stayed behind closed doors for three months and copied the Scripture of Filial Piety." The King of Yizhong County did not dare to refute now, so he quickly stood up and knelt on the ground to thank him.

The ministers below looked at each other, and these people also noticed that this incident was probably caused by Prince Yi Zhong.

The Supreme Emperor was trying to beat Prince Yizhong, so no one stood up to intercede for Prince Yizhong.

"Now that there is a vacancy in the cabinet, we will take this opportunity to discuss and fill the cabinet."

At this time, no one had time to think about Jia Rui's affairs, and all focused on the position of the bachelor.

The cabinet bachelors do not hold any actual positions in the six ministries, but the cabinet has huge real power and is the goal that all civil servants aspire to.

Even the eyes of the emperor sitting next to him began to twinkle.

But before the ministers and the emperor below could ask for someone, the emperor sitting above him spoke.

"Since no one has any good candidates, I will make my own decision."

The emperor and ministers were stunned. Who said we had no candidates? We just thought about it for a while, and you just took over the conversation.

This is obviously because they don't want us to mention people.

However, after the Supreme Emperor spoke, the ministers below did not dare to refute any more, so they had no choice but to admit it.

"I think Shen Jian is good. Let him fill the vacancy and join the cabinet."

Shen Jian, the Minister of Civil Affairs, hurriedly came out of the office and knelt on the ground, "I thank the Supreme Emperor for his kindness."

In this way, a great scholar was sent to prison, and another great scholar stood up again.

As people say, the imperial court is iron-clad and the bachelor is smooth.

This time, the counterattack against Jia Rui launched by Prince Yizhong ended with a bachelor being imprisoned and Jia Rui being fine.

Then the ministers below were no longer interested in playing anything, and this thrilling morning court came to an end.

After leaving the Huangji Hall, other ministers went home and those from the yamen went to the yamen, but Jia Rui took a detour and went to the Dragon Head Palace of the Supreme Emperor.

As soon as Jia Rui arrived at the palace, the eunuchs below hurriedly gathered around to fawn over him.

"Master Marquis, you are shocked today. Those ministers really don't distinguish between good and bad. They don't share the worries of the Supreme Emperor, and they still blame you."

"That's right, in my opinion, the Supreme Emperor's treatment was too light. All these people should be killed."

Jia Rui listened to the compliments from these people, with a relaxed smile on his lips.

To be honest, he seemed to be indifferent on the surface these past two days, but actually he was scared in his heart.

Now that the clouds of the day have dispersed, Jia Rui feels extremely relaxed.

Then Jia Rui took out some golden beans and the like from his arms and threw them to the eunuchs as a reward for them.

Just when everyone was making a fuss, a voice came, "What are you making all the fuss about? The Emperor heard it inside."

Jia Rui took a look and saw that it was Zhao Jin.

Jia Rui was still very respectful to the eunuch who was second only to Dai Quan, so he stepped forward to salute him first.

"I've met Brother Zhao."

Zhao Jin also quickly helped Jia Rui up, and then patted Jia Rui's shoulder to comfort him: "Brother, I also heard what happened in the morning court today. Don't take it to heart. Those people in the previous court have no regard for us, the Emperor's confidants. I’ve long since grown tired of it, sooner or later it will happen one day.”

Zhao Jin regarded Jia Rui as one of them, but in the eyes of outsiders, Jia Rui was really on the same side as them.

In the eyes of people like Dai Quan and Zhao Jin, Jia Rui was no different from them except that he was not clean.

Jia Rui didn't seem to hear the meaning in his tone, sighed, and then said: "It's my unlucky brother, too, that I offended the emperor and Prince Yizhong."

"Brother, everyone in the court knows that you are not at odds with the emperor, but what's the problem with Prince Yizhong?"

Jia Rui rolled his eyes and said helplessly: "Some time ago, King Yizhong asked me to promote a doctor from the Ministry of Rites to serve as an inspector in Shanxi. Didn't he ask me to refute it? I'm afraid it's because of this incident and Brother, I’m in trouble.”

Zhao Jin was also a little surprised after hearing this.

Going from being a doctor in the Ministry of Rites to serving as an inspector in Shanxi is a step to the top. Although Jia Rui had some rights, he would not dare to do such a thing.

No wonder Jia Rui refused to agree. Even he himself didn't dare to take on this matter.

While they were talking, everything the two said had been reported to the Supreme Emperor.

The Supreme Emperor, who was sitting on the kang, also sighed after hearing the report from the people below.

Jia Aiqing really worried about herself and the court, and also offended everyone in the court.

With the rights I have given to Jia Aiqing, if I want to be loyal to the prince, it is not just a word?He even did it secretly without telling himself.

However, for the sake of the court and herself, Jia Aiqing actually refuted Prince Yizhong and brought trouble to herself.

It seems that in this court, I still have to count on Jia Aiqing, and others may not be reliable.

(End of this chapter)