Ming Empire

Chapter 153 Another Farce

Sun Chuanting and Cao Yue followed Zhou Tingru, Chen Xinjia, Wang Chengen and other ministers who greeted them, and went directly into the Forbidden City.

They arrived in Beijing in the morning, and when they arrived outside the Forbidden City, Emperor Chongzhen was still presiding over the Minghui.

Chongzhen let them enter the palace directly to attend the court meeting.Of course, this was a deliberate arrangement. Emperor Chongzhen wanted to meet the two men who had made great achievements in the defense of Datong in public, and honor them in the palace to show their specialness.

Under the leadership of Wang Chengen, the chief eunuch in the palace, Cao Yue and Sun Chuanting followed the welcoming ministers, passed Zhengyang Gate, Chengtian Gate, and arrived at Taiji Gate where the court meeting was held.After arriving at Taiji Gate, Wang Chengen signaled Sun Chuanting and Cao Yue to wait outside the hall, and he, Zhou Tingru, Chen Xinjia and others advanced to the hall to report.Cao Yue and Sun Chuanting had to straighten their bodies and wait outside the hall, waiting for the propaganda.

After a while, there was a call in the hall for Sun Chuanting and Cao Yue to meet in the hall.

After adjusting his official robes again, Cao Yue followed Sun Chuanting and entered the Taiji Gate.

Inside the Taiji Gate, Emperor Chongzhen sat on the throne, and two rows of civil and military ministers stood in line in the hall. Zhou Tingru and Chen Xinjia, who had just come to greet him, also stood in the line.Cao Yue followed Sun Chuanting and bowed to Emperor Chongzhen, but before they finished saluting, Emperor Chongzhen had already got up from the throne, walked quickly to His Highness, and personally helped Sun Chuanting and Cao Yue up one after the other.

"Sun Aiqing, Cao Aiqing, you two defeated the Jiannu under the city of Datong, annihilating tens of thousands of Jiannu, and achieved a brilliant victory. I am very pleased, I am very pleased, haha, great!" Chongzhen Emperor Longyan Dayue , took Sun Chuanting's hand, patted it hard, and then patted Cao Yue's shoulder, laughing loudly: "I really didn't expect that with only 5 people in Datong, I could achieve such a huge victory, and the vitality of Jiannu was so strong." Injured, come back in embarrassment, haha, like this, Jiannu will never dare to invade the south easily again, I will regain peace in the northern border of the Ming Dynasty. I will amnesty the world to celebrate this joy. The two lovers and all the soldiers who have made military exploits , I have great rewards!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Sun Chuanting and Cao Yue had no choice but to thank you quickly.They all knew that what Emperor Chongzhen said was rewarded heavily, and it was not too much, so don't expect extravagant rewards in money and things, at most it is the promotion of official positions.

Emperor Chongzhen expressed his appreciation and trust to Sun Chuanting and Cao Yue with body movements, and immediately announced that Sun Chuanting would continue to be in charge of the military affairs of Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Hubei, Sichuan and other provinces, and was going to lead the army to wipe out the bandits and rebellions. He was the Minister of the Ministry of War of Jin Dynasty.He encouraged Sun Chuanting in the palace, asking him to lead the army and fight well, and the court would give him all support, hoping that Sun Chuanting could put down the bandit rebellion as soon as possible.

Sun Chuanting was very satisfied with the promotion of his post by the imperial court, and immediately knelt down and thanked Long En.

In front of the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty, Emperor Chongzhen praised Cao Yue in particular, saying that Cao Yue had the demeanor of his father, and the tiger father had no dogs. He was glad that it was a great coup to make an exception and reuse Cao Yue.In order to honor his achievements, he planned to marry Princess Zhu Yu of Kunxing to Cao Yue, and make Cao Yue his son-in-law captain.

Because Cao Yue was very capable and good at training troops, Emperor Chongzhen planned to continue to let Cao Yue train the army.Today's Beijing camp is far less effective than before, and he plans to use Cao Yue as the admiral to supervise the Beijing camp.

However, before Emperor Chongzhen could finish his sentence, someone immediately stood up and strongly opposed the matter.

The one who stood up to oppose was Liu Zongzhou, the censor of Zuodu. He strongly opposed Cao Yue, who was about to marry the princess and became the captain-in-law, to continue to be in charge of the army on the grounds that Emperor Chongzhen's move violated the ancestral system.

With impassioned words, Liu Zongzhou lamented that if the emperor changed the ancestral system and let the captain-in-law, who could not participate in the government, take charge of the capital camp, then all the laws and regulations formulated by the ancestors could be amended in private. In the chaos, he tearfully demanded that Emperor Chongzhen should not favor Cao Yue in every possible way just because he favored Cao Yue, and hand over the general and political power to him, otherwise there would be endless troubles.

Liu Zongzhou's words immediately aroused the sympathy of many ministers, and many people stood up and demanded that Emperor Chongzhen not act willfully.No matter how many contributions Cao Yue has made, no matter how much ability he has, if he wants to marry Princess Kunxing and become the captain-in-law, he cannot hold an important position in the court.This is the formulation of the court program formulated by Emperor Taizu, and no one can change it.

Moreover, many people strongly opposed Emperor Chongzhen's marriage of Princess Kunxing to Cao Yue, and Cao Yue did not agree with the conditions for being elected son-in-law.

In the late Ming Dynasty, the imperial court had regulations that prohibited the children of civil and military ministers from becoming son-in-law candidates. The son-in-law had to be selected from low-level officials or common people’s families. Cao Yue’s father was a high-ranking official before his death, and there were even greater posthumous titles after his death. It doesn't meet the requirements at all.

Faced with the objections of the ministers, the excitement of Emperor Chongzhen disappeared a lot at once. He also walked back to the hall, sat down on the royal seat, and frowned to listen to the audience's performance.

Under the excitement of the crowd, more people stood up against the emperor marrying the princess to Cao Yue.

Those who do not object to the marriage of Princess Kunxing to Cao Yue believe that if the emperor wants to choose Cao Yue as the captain-in-law, then Cao Yue must be removed from the position of the General Army of Datong, and he cannot hold other positions, let alone participate in any form. affairs of state.

Speaking of later, many people stood up to accuse and even impeach Cao Yue, saying that when Cao Yue was in Datong as the commander-in-chief, he manufactured a large number of muskets and ammunition privately, and threatened to ask for money and food from the acting king Zhu Chuanqi in order to expand the army. The behavior was very bad, which aroused the anger of the people and the dissatisfaction of the officials in the court, and asked Emperor Chongzhen to punish Cao Yue severely.

Sun Chuanting was also implicated, and several ministers came forward to accuse him of "collaborating" with Cao Yue in Datong, extorting millions of taels of silver from the acting king Zhu Chuanqi through very bad means as military pay and withholding part of it into his own pocket, almost letting him Dai Wang was desperate and hanged himself. These officials wanted Emperor Chongzhen to blame Sun Chuanting and Cao Yue, and to anger the people.

No one expected that what was originally a public commendation to meritorious ministers turned into a denunciation of Cao Yue and Sun Chuanting, two great military exploits, by many ministers. Emperor Chongzhen's face was very ugly.He originally wanted to take the opportunity of being in the palace to reward the two heroes, to elevate his eyebrows, to boost the morale of the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, and to encourage the officials of the court, but he did not expect it to become a farce.

Fortunately, Zhou Tingru, the chief assistant, and Chen Xinjia, who was about to be promoted as the second assistant, stood up to smooth things over and supported the emperor, which kept the farce in the court from going any further.

Cao Yue, who stood on the side with a cold face, and Sun Chuanting, who also looked depressed, looked at each other silently. The treatment of the heroes of the Ming Dynasty is like this. If you go out, how many people will be disheartened, and who else is willing to fight for the country?
"If the government doesn't reform, if such shameless ministers don't get rid of, no matter how hard we try, we can't save Daming," Cao Yue seemed to light up when this idea came to him!
(End of this chapter)