Chapter 679 Shocking the Government and Opposition
In early July, it rained heavily in Chang'an.
Rainwater gathered from the eaves of the Daming Palace into pillars and fell into the drainage ditch at the foot of the palace wall.
Mu Rong is leading the eunuchs to clear the blocked drains.
In fact, he, as the favored eunuch beside the emperor, no longer needed to do such menial work, but Mu Rong just wanted to leave the depressing atmosphere of the imperial study room.
The people of Chang'an were very eager for this heavy rain. Chang'an has become hotter since July, and a cool heavy rain finally dissipated some of the heat.
"Freshly released "Chang'an Daily"!"
In the square in front of the Imperial College, children are selling the latest "Chang'an Daily". This is the best-selling place for newspapers. Every morning, many Chang'an orphans get newspapers from the newspaper distribution points and then carry them to the Imperial College for sale.
The prison students in the Imperial College would also buy a newspaper when they went out to eat in the morning.
Yan Zhenqing, who was offering sacrifices to the Imperial Academy, looked at these orphans who were wearing pockets and carefully hiding newspapers in their raincoats. He felt a little unbearable in his heart. He took out a few Qianyuan treasures and wanted to buy all the newspapers in the children's hands.
The newsboy was ecstatic at first, but soon after seeing the Qianyuan treasure in Yan Zhenqing's hand, his expression changed and he started to shake his head wildly.
Only then did Yan Zhenqing realize that the Qianyuan treasure had depreciated again these days, and this little money was simply not enough to buy the newspaper in the child's hand.
Yan Zhenqing gave him a few more coins, and the child smiled happily, handed all the newspapers in his arms to Yan Zhenqing, and left happily.
Yan Zhenqing came to his office in the Imperial College with the newspaper under his arm.
From the beginning, "Chang'an Daily" only forwarded news from Di Bao, and now it has mature sections on current affairs, popular science, business, history, and novels. It has gradually become a daily necessities for readers in Chang'an.
However, Yan Zhenqing does not like newspapers that like to exaggerate headlines. In his opinion, newspapers only incite emotions and do not benefit the country at all.
After putting down the newspaper, the headline was indeed about Shi Siming's peace talks.
After the news of Shi Siming's peace talks reached Chang'an, a political earthquake occurred in Chang'an.
As Guo Ziyi's memorial was sent to Chang'an, the turmoil of the earthquake became even greater.
Prime Ministers Pei Mian, Miao Jinqing, and Zhang Hao made it clear that the imperial court should refuse Shi Siming's surrender, and should follow the advice of frontline general Guo Ziyi and work harder to completely eliminate the rebel forces in Hedong.
The remaining prime ministers Cui Huan, Li Lin, and Li Xian said that the court should accept Shi Siming's surrender and end the war in Hedong as soon as possible. Both the court and the people needed to recuperate.
Three votes to three, Cui Guangyuan chose to abstain.
The political hall could not reach a unified opinion, and the other yamen of the imperial court became a mess.
From the end of the month to the beginning of July, there were more than ten fights in the Imperial College where Yan Zhenqing worked, all of which were fought between prison students with different views because of different political opinions.
I heard that there were several fights at the Yushitai, but they were suppressed by the Yushitai Zhongcheng.
Various departments in the imperial court were also debating whether they should accept Shi Siming's surrender.
Two important ministers on the front line, Guo Ziyi, insisted on continuing to attack Shi Siming, while Li Fuguo requested the court to accept Shi Siming's surrender as soon as possible.
The political affairs hall could not reach a unified opinion, and various ministries argued endlessly. The front page of "Chang'an Daily" every day was about Shi Siming's surrender, and the people of Chang'an were also involved in the debate on this topic.
Yan Zhenqing was of course firmly opposed to the imperial court accepting Shi Siming's surrender.
His elder brother Yan Gaoqing persisted in resisting Anlushan in Hedong after Anlushan's rebellion, and was eventually executed by Anlushan.
Hedong Fanzhen and Yan Zhenqing not only had family hatred, Yan Zhenqing himself also believed that Hedong Fanzhen should be completely pacified in order to rebuild the Tang Dynasty on this basis.
Rather than just tinkering with it like a paper poster, it gets passed over.
Yan Zhenqing turned to the second page and stood up suddenly.
This turned out to be new news, and it was new news that Yan Zhenqing didn’t know yet!
When did the important officials of the imperial court learn about the latest news from the newspapers?
But after reading it, Yan Zhenqing was sure that this was new news!
Qingzhou general Nan Jiyun and Yanzhou regiment training envoy Zhang Wu disobeyed the emperor's imperial edict and destroyed the remnants of Shi Chaoyi's troops in Qingzhou and killed Shi Chaoyi.
Prince Li Chu in Bianzhou impeached Nan Jiyun and Zhang Wu and requested that they be imprisoned and punished!
Yan Zhenqing was stunned. At this juncture?
He walked to the window and looked at the falling rain pillars. The storm in the court was coming again.
Sure enough, as the prince's impeachment memorial was sent to the political hall, eleven censors submitted a letter together with the prince to impeach Nan Jiyun Zhangwu.
Immediately afterwards, ministers from the Ministry of War and other relevant departments also submitted memorials, all of which supported the prince's opinion and requested that Nan Jiyun and Zhang Wu be severely punished.
Next, more details were transmitted to Chang'an. It is said that when the East Palace envoy was recruiting troops at Shi Chaoyi's camp, Nan Jiyun and Zhang Wu attacked the camp. The envoy announced the order in front of the formation, but Nan Jiyun and Zhang Wu refused to accept the order.
The prince here wrote a letter "please punish the traitors of the country". At this time, the memorial of Zhang Xun who stayed in Luoyang was sent to Chang'an.
Zhang Xun's memorial was very humble. He believed that Nan Jiyun and Zhangwu were his old generals, and he placed the responsibility on himself for his lax discipline. He was willing to resign as a guarantee for the court to forgive Nan Jiyun and Zhangwu.
The atmosphere in the court became subtle again. Previously, Shi Siming besieged Luoyang, but it was Zhang Xun who insisted on defending the city and withstood the situation in Luoyang.
The imperial court has not yet judged Zhang Xun's merits, but if the world is pacified, Zhang Xun's merits will only be inferior to Guo Ziyi's.
The courtiers discovered that Nan Jiyun and Zhang Wu were Zhang Xun's former generals, and the atmosphere in the court became even more subtle.
Not long after the news of Zhang Wunan Jiyun's execution of Shi Chaoyi reached Chang'an, Shi Siming once again submitted a letter of surrender.
This time, the conditions proposed by Shi Siming were similar to the last time, but he required the court to severely punish Nan Jiyun and Zhang Wu before he would surrender to the Tang Dynasty court!
Shi Siming even stated in his surrender that if Datang did not agree to his conditions, he would personally go to Zizhou to avenge his son Shi Chaoyi.
This time, a bombshell was dropped in the even more chaotic situation of the court. The debate in the court changed from whether to accept Shi Siming's surrender to how to deal with Nan Jiyun and Zhang Wu.
The Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple and Yushitai all launched a heated debate on whether Nanzhang and the others had violated Tang law.
Everything from legal principles to military combat precedents were dug out of old papers. These discussions also spread to the Imperial College, and Yan Zhenqing also heard many students debating this matter.
Yan Zhenqing sighed. These debates between the government and the opposition were not important to him.
Whether Nan Zhang and the others have merit or demerit naturally depends on the emperor's attitude.
And based on Yan Zhenqing's understanding of Shi Siming, this powerful man of the world probably didn't care so much about his son. He might just use the topic to test the attitude of the Tang Dynasty court.
If the imperial court really dealt with the two of Nan Zhang, then Shi Siming could go further and propose more surrender conditions.
If the imperial court had not punished Nan Zhang but instead praised them, then Shi Siming might not have surrendered and would have fought to the death with the Tang Dynasty imperial court.
Yan Zhenqing picked up the pen and wrote his strong words on the paper. He firmly opposed the court's acceptance of Shi Siming's surrender. If so, what would the people who died fighting against the two thieves of An and Shi be?
Shi Siming, who rebelled against the Tang Dynasty twice, can still hold a high position. Those who fought against the two thieves for the Tang Dynasty have become a joke in the history books.
Yan Zhenqing wrote vigorously, but the situation in the court had gradually changed.
On July 12, Emperor Li Heng issued an order to the Political Hall and asked the Ministry of War to relieve Nan Zhang and his two men from their military posts and return to Chang'an to wait for participation.
This news reached the political hall, and all the prime ministers expressed opposition.
The emperor did not ask Nan Zhang and the two to write a letter of self-defense, but he had to dismiss them from their military posts first. This already illustrates the emperor's attitude.
Li Heng was even more displeased that no prime minister was willing to use the seal in the Zhengshi Hall. He bypassed the Zhengshi Hall and asked Hanlin scholars to draft the edict, and then ordered the eunuchs to go to Qingzhou to declare the edict.
If it were an ordinary edict, the Zhengshitang could naturally deny it, but this was the emperor's edict to deal with the generals. In theory, the emperor was the general marshal of the world's troops, and the emperor's orders were military orders, so there was nothing wrong with this edict.
In this way, under the watchful eye of the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty, this edict, which had not been confirmed by the Zhengshi Hall, but had not been rejected or rejected by the Zhengshi Hall, was rushed to Qingzhou for 800 miles.
The imperial court fell into an eerie silence on how the emperor should deal with the two Nan Zhangs. At this time, the political affairs hall also reached an agreement to put aside the debate on Shi Siming's surrender and send people to negotiate with Shi Siming first.
Such an important negotiation naturally required the prime minister. The Political Affairs Hall finally decided to send Cui Guangyuan, who was neutral on the matter of Shi Siming's surrender, and Yu Chaoen, the eunuch beside the emperor, to Xiangzhou to negotiate with Shi Siming.
Just when all the court ministers thought the controversy was going to end.
The military governor of Longyou, the Northwestern Defense Ambassador, and King of Yue Li Tan submitted a letter to the imperial court and submitted it to the emperor through the courtyard of the Longyou Governor's Mansion.
The King of Yue clearly opposed the imperial court's acceptance of Shi Siming's surrender. In the end, the King of Yue even wrote:
"If my father accepts the surrender of the Shi thief, I will ask for it myself!"