Reborn Ming Dynasty as Emperor

Chapter 478
This ink corruption case caused by cholera was resolved in a short period of time, but it caused a lot of shock in the government and the public. After all, it involved a minister, a young supervisor of the imperial pharmacy, and the prefect of Shuntian. High-ranking officials, but also the nature of collusion between internal and external ministers.

This is why Zhu Youxiao has to deal with it seriously. After all, the collusion between internal and external ministers is a ban. If you don't deal with it strictly, it is difficult to guarantee that you will not be ostracized by these colluding ministers in the future.

However, because the case was handled very quickly, the impact on the government affairs of the imperial court was not great. The control of the cholera epidemic was still going on in an orderly manner, especially after Cheng Ji appointed a cabinet member to personally preside over the affairs of Shuntian Mansion. The work efficiency is significantly faster.

In less than a month, the daily increase in the number of infected people has returned to normal, and has gradually stabilized, which shows that the intervention of the imperial court has had an effect.

Of course, these phenomena are not good news for Li Mingrui. His younger brother has been sentenced to death, and he has also been deprived of the crown prince and Taibao's promotion. This undoubtedly shows that His Majesty intends to hit his reputation among civil servants , the implication is that he does not want himself to be the next chief assistant, so as not to create a political situation that overly suppresses the conservatives.

Li Mingrui knows that he has no chance to be the chief assistant of the cabinet, and His Majesty has now let Cheng Jiming, the new leader of the conservative faction, take full responsibility for the epidemic control. Obviously, he intends to let Cheng Jiming give him a chance to make meritorious service, so as to find an excuse to promote this man. Cheng Jiming, let him achieve the political qualifications that are equal to his own.

Li Mingrui is in a bad mood. He doesn't dare to hold grudges against Ming Emperor Zhu Youxiao. After all, no matter whether it is Guo Yunhou's family or Li Mingrui's family, Zhu Youxiao has the grace to rebuild them, so Li Mingrui will only hate him now. Ji Ming and Wu Youke hate Cheng Ji Ming, a dignified cabinet scholar who has nothing to do but wants to make an epidemic statistics, and he also found clues about his brother and Guo Yunhou's corruption.

From Li Mingrui's point of view, this is obviously a deliberate aiming the gun at his reformers, and even wants to drag himself into the water directly.

And the reason why Li Mingrui hates Wu Youke is also because Wu Youke is too inexperienced to be an official. He clearly knows that the internal affairs of the imperial court are deep, but he directly informs His Majesty about the matter of medicinal materials, so that there is no way for him to turn around at all. room.

Of course, Li Mingrui would not argue with Wu Youke, he naturally knew that people like Wu Youke did not pose any threat to him, not to mention that His Majesty always valued such people very much, unless he had evidence of Wu Youke's rebellion Otherwise, it would be difficult for His Majesty to make up his mind to attack Wu Youke.

Therefore, what Li Mingrui is thinking now is how to fight back against Cheng Jiming and the conservatives behind him.

As expected by Li Mingrui, as the emperor, Zhu Youxiao did not intend to let Li Mingrui be the chief minister of the cabinet. Therefore, after the cholera epidemic was brought under control and basically eliminated, Zhu Youxiao immediately ordered the six ministries and seven secretaries to be summoned. Kai Tingtui refers to the addition and promotion of cabinet members. Of course, this is the period of Zhu Youxiao's dictatorship.

However, it was Lu Xiangsheng who Zhu Youxiao finally decided to serve as the chief assistant of the cabinet, that is, the grand scholar of Jianji Temple. Therefore, this is a rare honor for Lu Xiangsheng, and Yang Sichang, Wen Tiren and Yang Tinglin were co-elected into the cabinet.

In addition, as expected, Cheng Jiming was added a Shao Fu because of his effective control of cholera and the discovery of a major case of ink corruption to prevent the spread of the plague. They are on equal footing, even half a level higher than Li Mingrui, because Li Mingrui has already been deprived of the title of Prince and Taibao.

As soon as he left the court meeting, Li Mingrui couldn't help but left Qianqing Palace with a smile in surprise. At this time, he didn't have many people willing to approach him. If it is too close, it may also be implicated in the corruption case.

On the other hand, Shang Zhouzuo, who had just entered the capital as the censor of Zuodu, didn't have any scruples. Seeing Li Mingrui walking in front of him alone, he came over: "Why does Mr. Li Ge look unhappy?"

"Ming Jian (Shang Zhou Zuo's word Ming Jian) ​​was just joking. Why has this old man been depressed? Why, several colleagues have been promoted to rank today. If you don't go to congratulate Ming Jian, why do you come to my deserted place?"

Li Mingrui said with a smile.

As the former governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Shang Zhouzuo, an enlightened official who is more enthusiastic about commerce and foreign trade, is naturally closer to the reformist Li Mingrui. I don’t like to join in the fun.”

As he said that, Shang Zhouzuo couldn't help pulling Li Mingrui to the side: "Mr. Li Ge, this is the first time for an official to come to Beijing to be an official, and I still don't understand some things very well. Could you please take a step to speak."

Li Mingrui was quite moved when he saw that Shang Zhouzuo did not avoid suspicion and wanted to get close to him, so he nodded.

Then Shang Zhou Zuo, the royal censor of Zuodu, pulled Li Mingrui aside and asked, "Old Li Ge, I dare to ask you, now His Majesty doesn't let you be the first assistant, but let someone else be the first assistant. Why do you intend to promote such an old stubborn Ji Ming? Could it be that His Majesty has changed his original intention and started to follow the old ways?"

Hearing what Shang Zhouzuo said, Li Mingrui couldn't help laughing, shook his head and said: "You still haven't seen what your majesty is thinking, think about it carefully, although your majesty has been promoted to become a basal destiny, you have not made him a basal destiny after all. As the chief assistant of the cabinet, Lu Ge, who has always ignored government affairs and only focused on military affairs, was the chief assistant of the cabinet, and some of the new cabinet ministers were not from the Imperial Guard system. From this point, don’t you What did you find?"

Shang Zhouzuo thought about it carefully, and couldn't help saying: "Let the belligerents enter the center of the empire, your majesty is going to take the hegemony route."

"Well, the officials in charge of the army have always been independent of the innovation and conservative factions. Now His Majesty is vigorously promoting them. It is obvious that it not only means to balance us, but also to strengthen the implementation of foreign operations. I am afraid that the clouds of war will be clouded again soon. gone."

As he said that, Li Mingrui said again: "However, this is a good thing for us. It is always the war that comes first, and the business that comes after. On the contrary, those old stubborn people don't want to see it. From their point of view, these are The militarism is a waste of people's wealth, just wait, these people will anger His Majesty!"

After hearing this, Shang Zhouzuo couldn't help but nodded. At this moment, he finally understood the real intention of His Majesty Zhu Youxiao's arrangement of cabinet members and hierarchical order.

(End of this chapter)