Chapter 321 The court discussion, the impeachment of King Jianning
The emperor was a little upset.
The war between the two capitals was not going well, Suiyang City was in danger, but the imperial court had no troops to rescue it.
Li Heng was a very insecure emperor.
When he was the crown prince, Li Heng fought with the powerful Prime Minister Yang Guozhong. He was afraid every day that he would be deposed by his father.
When he was the prince, Li Heng was taciturn and never drank, for fear that his drunken words would be recorded by spies from the Eastern Palace.
After so many years in the East Palace, Li Heng was still lingering on the verge of deposing the crown prince.
Li Heng naturally knew how miserable the situation of deposed princes in the past dynasties was. He tried his best to act as a submissive but capable son and carefully maintained his status in the court.
But if compared with the later days, it was still good when I was the prince.
An Lushan rebelled, and the emperor fled from Xijing.
While on the road, Li Heng saw soldiers mutiny more than once.
The night he arrived at Maweipo was something Li Heng would never forget.
In order to appease the soldiers, the emperor personally ordered the execution of his most beloved concubine, and killed the powerful prime minister Yang Guozhong.
In order to appease the soldiers, the emperor gave all the treasures brought out of the palace to the soldiers, so that they could continue to move forward.
Li Heng separated from the emperor at that time, and with the help of Shuofang Jiedu envoy Liu Hou, he went north to Lingwu to stay in the Central Plains to quell the rebellion.
There were constant dangers along the way. Li Heng tried his best to raise gold and silver and appease the soldiers every day.
Even Zhang Jieyu, who served him, had to mend the soldiers' clothes when she was pregnant, which won people's hearts.
When he thought of this, Li Heng smiled. During the days when he went north to Lingwu, he was the loyal guard of King Jianning and saved him in danger several times.
After arriving at Lingwu, although Li Heng ascended the throne, he was often bullied by the unruly Lingwu generals.
Li Heng had to look magnanimous and continue to raise military resources to bribe these proud and powerful generals.
This is also one of the reasons why Li Heng left Lingwu immediately after the war in the Central Plains became a little better.
What really made Li Heng feel the power of being an emperor was when he moved to Fengxiang Mansion.
Taxes from Jianghuai were continuously delivered to Fengxiang Mansion. With money and food in hand, Li Heng became more confident.
After controlling the army's supplies, he could challenge generals like Guo Ziyi and even force Guo Ziyi to attack the two capitals first.
After controlling the money and food, Li Heng could also support his officials. Those officials who fled from the two capitals gathered in Fengxiang Mansion.
All these things made Li Heng realize an important thing -
The emperor cannot be without money!
How could the emperor have no money?
However, the money in the treasury does not represent the money that the emperor can control personally.
The money from the treasury can be used to pay salaries to officials and rewards to generals, but every penny spent from the treasury is watched by everyone from the prime minister down to the little prince.
When the emperor wanted to use some money to reward his beloved concubine or reward his favorite generals, the treasury would make irresponsible remarks and even directly deny the emperor's request for funds.
Li Heng gradually understood that the money in the treasury was not his own money. What he could really freely use was the money in the internal funds.
This time King Jianning donated 10,000 livestock to him, which reminded Li Heng of his capable son again.
What the son gave to me was of course money from the internal funds. Li Heng sent Yu Chaoen, a confidant of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and ordered him to count the horses, cattle and sheep sent by King Jianning to Fengxiang Mansion and send them to the internal funds.
But the fish sent out today reported back, and the Ministry of Revenue also received the news and sent Duzhi Lang Yuanzai to intercept the horses, cattle and sheep at the gate of the city.
As a result, the two sides argued for a long time and could not decide whether to send these horses, cattle and sheep to the national treasury or internal funds.
"Excuse me, everyone!" Yu Chaoen knelt on the ground and said to Li Heng, who had already taken off his court clothes.
Most of the time, Li Heng was still a generous emperor.
Years of hard work as a prince have worn away his edges. Li Heng's ears are soft, which is something that the entire inner court knows.
But today's emperor is different from before. At this time, he is sitting on the imperial couch and looking coldly at the door.
Li Heng really couldn't understand that he was also the emperor, and his father, the emperor Li Longji, could manipulate the ministers. Thunder, rain and dew were all the emperor's favor. The ministers paid homage to the emperor and obeyed his words.
Li Heng still remembered the blissful banquet hosted by the emperor for Yang Yuhuan, which really filled the pool with fine wine.
At the banquet that day, Li Bai fell drunk by the wine pool. Gao Lishi held Li Bai's boots and wrote a poem praising Yang Yuhuan.
Li Heng also participated in the blissful banquet. In addition to the huge wine pool, all the wine glasses in the entire banquet were made of gold, and the huge hall was filled with precious spices.
All kinds of rare foods that even the prince Li Heng had never seen were brought here. On that Lantern Festival, Li Heng even ate Yang Yuhuan’s favorite lychee!
What a luxury, what a gorgeous night.
The emperor can waste money like this, his own son gives him gifts, and the Ministry of Revenue comes to rob him.
Li Heng didn't understand why these courtiers treated him like this.
But in today's current situation, we still need the support of these courtiers.
Li Heng said: "That's all. I want these miscellaneous animals to reward the soldiers. Since the Ministry of Husbandry wants them, just give them to the Ministry of Husbandry."
Probably because the emperor also felt aggrieved, he added: "If the soldiers ask for rewards again, let them go to the Ministry of Revenue to ask for them in the future!"
After hearing this, Yu Chaoen knelt on the ground and cried, "I am incompetent! I have brought shame on everyone!"
Then he banged his head and banged his head.
Li Heng couldn't bear to hear the voice. Yu Chaoen was the eunuch who had been accompanying him in the East Palace. He said, "It's not your fault that you can't handle this well. Go on, go on."
Originally, the emperor thought that he had given in and the officials would calm down, but what he didn't expect was that at the court meeting the next day, another minister would jump out and take advantage of the situation.
First, a young censor came out to impeach Yan Yunzang, the judge of the Marshal's Mansion, for his ineffective fighting in the Battle of Qingqu and for deserting the battlefield without authorization.
After the impeachment memorial was presented, Li Heng's heart skipped a beat.
He first looked at the imperial censor, Yan Zhenqing, who was standing among the important ministers, and found that there was no reaction on his face. He then looked at Wei Jiansu and others among the prime ministers.
Who is Yan Yunzang? The marshal of the world's soldiers and horses is Li Chu, the prince of the East Palace and the king of Guangping.
The magistrate of the Marshal's Mansion is an official of the Marshal's Mansion, that is, the prince's official.
And Yan Yunzang is the younger brother of Yan Zhenqing, who just took office as the censor Zhongcheng!
More importantly, the reason why Yan Yunzang left his post without permission and temporarily retreated from the battlefield was to protect King Guangping who escaped from the battlefield!
The emperor naturally knew about this matter. The prince was responsible for the Battle of Qingqu and forced Guo Ziyi to march. The emperor also knew it.
However, in order to protect the East Palace, the emperor naturally suppressed this matter.
The battle of Qingqu has clearly been concluded, and all the responsibilities have been taken away by Guo Ziyi.
Now that the imperial censor has jumped out to impeach Yan Yunzang, whose order was this?
It couldn't be Yan Zhenqing, the emperor quickly made a judgment.
Yushi Zhongcheng nominally led the Yushitai, but the authority of the Yushi in the Tang Dynasty was very great, and he was somewhat like an independent prosecutor in later generations. He often went his own way and did not completely obey the instructions of Yushi Zhongcheng.
Not long after Yan Zhenqing took office as Yushi Zhongcheng, he had not yet sorted out the intricate relationships among Yushi, and it was impossible for him to instigate people to write a letter to impeach his younger brother.
The emperor patrolled several suspects, but it was too difficult to see the clues on the faces of these old foxes.
Naturally, this issue cannot be discussed at the Great Court meeting. If we dig deeper, it will be a serious blow to the face of the prince and even the Tang royal family.
Li Heng was also angry that the prince rushed in and ruined the elite army in his hands.
But as the emperor, he knew very well that the prestige of the royal family was integrated.
Maintaining the face of the East Palace is also maintaining the face of the royal family, and even more so, the face of the emperor.
Li Heng, who was sitting on the throne, said:
"In the battle of Qingqu, the prime ministers have reached a consensus, and the general Guo Ziyi has been punished by me. Now that the two capitals have not been restored, the civil servants and military generals still need to work together, and it is not appropriate to cause trouble again at this time."
"What does Wei Xiang think?"
Li Heng asked, naming the minister he thought was most suspicious.
Prime Minister Wei Jiansu came out and said: "What your Majesty said is absolutely true. The battle of Qingqu has been concluded and there is no need for further discussion."
Li Heng nodded, wondering if it was not him who instigated it?
However, Wei Jiansu did not stand back on the Prime Minister's train, but continued:
"The battle of Qingqu does not need to be discussed again, but I have my own intention and want to report it."
Li Heng's heart skipped a beat, and he had an ominous premonition.
But today was a meeting of the imperial court, and the prime minister wanted to speak. Li Heng had no reason to stop him, so he could only let Wei Jiansu continue speaking.
I only heard Wei Jiansu say:
"I am impeaching King Jianning. Li Yan, the general manager of Longyou, falsely reported military merits, plundered the people's fat, and offered them in flattery!"
After saying this, there was a lot of discussion in the court.
Li Heng also didn't expect that the censor's previous mention of the battle of Qingqu was just a false shot!
The real killer move is here!
Li Heng was even more certain that Wei Jiansu ordered the censor to impeach Yan Yunzang, but Wei Jiansu's real goal was to attack King Jianning!
In the Battle of Qingqu, all parties in the court had inappropriate actions. Li Heng had just used the court to suppress the censor's impeachment.
But now that Wei Jiansu has impeached King Jianning, the emperor can no longer suppress him.
"These old foxes!" Li Heng cursed secretly, it turned out that the killer move was here!
However, King Jianning is also his own son, and the Grand Manager of Longyou was also granted the title by himself.
Li Heng said: "Longyou is far away from the Central Plains. Otherwise, let the Zhengshitang select a few capable censors and go to Longyou to investigate before making a judgment."
Li Heng thought of a delaying strategy and sent the censor to Longyou. It would take two or three months to go back and forth. As long as it could be delayed, it would be fine.
But Wei Jiansu was well prepared. He said: "Li Daoyuan, the Sima of Jianning Prince's Mansion, has entered Fengxiang Mansion, and the Uighur envoy seeking marriage is also in the Honglu Temple Post House. Please ask your Majesty to summon the two of them to confront each other in front of the emperor. Did Prince Jianning lie about his military exploits?"