That night, Xia Yan, the popular minister of the Ministry of Etiquette, finished his social activities, returned home exhausted, and sat in the study drinking tea.
Xia Shangshu felt that he might be the person who entertained the most in the capital. There was no way, who made him popular? A popular Minister of Rites and an ordinary Minister of Rites are two different creatures.
Being popular has two meanings. One is that there are many people who want to find him. The other is that there are many people who he needs to find.
As a high-ranking official who has risen rapidly in a short period of time, he needs to put more energy into socializing and win over people from all walks of life to supplement and strengthen his foundation.
Someone came in and presented a stack of greeting cards. These were all delivered to the door today. In fact, there are some such messages every day.
Xia Shangshu cheered up and scanned the cards one by one. On a certain greeting card, he saw the name Qin Dewei again, but it was undisturbed and he conveniently put it aside.
He knew who the name was, but the person it represented was so small that it wasn't worth the time to reply right now.
Regarding Huo Tao's matter, it will be discussed by the court the day after tomorrow, so we should carefully consider how to arrange it.
The day after tomorrow, the ministers who participated in the court meeting began to gather. As per the old rules, this court meeting was still held in the East Chamber outside the Meridian Gate.
In court discussions like this that are particularly confrontational and controversial, each side will often have a "chief general". The choice of chief general is not fixed and varies from person to person.
For example, in today's court meeting, the subject is Huo Tao. The leader of that side must be Zhang Fuking, the chief minister of the same party as Huo Tao, and the leader of the zero side is Huo Tao's biggest enemy, the popular Minister of Rites, Xia Yan.
And according to tradition, the generals will not speak easily, and their respective supporters will mainly argue with each other.
The civil service system of the Ming Dynasty has been mature for a long time, and everyone is familiar with these routines.
It should be said that it is a kind of political correctness for officials all over the world to despise the great rites and meritorious officials. Zhang Fujing and Huo Tao, two people with relatively stubborn personalities, are even more unpopular.
However, Zhang Fujing has been in power for so many years, and it is not without his party members. There are also people who help to speak out, so there are some noisy meetings in the court.
Immediately, Censor A took the lead and fired: "Huo Tao's three major crimes are: first, collaborating with his ministers to commit misdeeds! Second, harming the local area and beating officials! Third, insulting officials' family members and having bad conduct! So clearly, and
Why talk too much!"
Then someone in the matter retorted: "Although Huo Tao was traveling with Mai Xiang, it would be an exaggeration to forcefully say that the internal ministers were colluding with each other for evil!
In addition, the other crimes were all committed by Mai Xiang, how can we blame Huo Tao for this?"
It is also an old practice, let Ke Dao start the show first.
Censor Jia mocked: "Huo Tao and Mai Xiang were on the same boat during the journey of thousands of miles from Guangdong to Shandong, and then you said that the two of them have nothing to do with each other? Do you really think that all the kings in the court are blind?"
Party B insisted on the matter and said: "The facts are unclear at present, and most of them are hearsay. How can we convict based on what people say?"
At this time, he took over the matter and said: "There is a letter from Shandong Province that talks about this matter. How can it be just hearsay and the facts are not clear?"
Censor Ding responded tit-for-tat: "Most of the local petitions are general, the causes and consequences are unclear, the details are unclear, and there are many doubts. How can we convince the public?"
A more senior Censor of Qiandu, Shi Wu, stood up and said: "The things are generally correct, and there is local evidence to prove that Huo Tao is guilty!
Even if we send people to investigate the details you mentioned in detail, can we still make generalizations?"
The debate gradually began to escalate, and big shots at level three or above began to intervene.
Huang Zongming, the right minister of the Ministry of War, said: "We have to let Huo Tao return to the capital first! If we want to clarify the facts, how can the person involved be absent?"
Mao Bowen, the deputy censor of the left capital, said coldly: "Why should Huo Tao return to Beijing and send an imperial envoy south to Shandong? Is it possible that the facts are still unclear?"
The atmosphere has thus entered a heated stage, but no one knows what the outcome of today's debate will be.
Zhang Fujing, the first assistant, and Xia Yan, the popular minister of rites, remained silent and motionless.
At this moment, Wang Shizhong, the Minister of Punishment, suddenly walked in from outside.
We didn't see Wang Shizhong just now, so everyone thought that Mr. Wang was lazy because he was old. After all, he was almost seventy years old.
I saw Wang Dasikou holding a document in his hand and saying to everyone: "Feng En has written a confession!"
Everyone: ""
You, Old Man Wang, must be confused! Everyone is talking about Huo Tao here, why are you suddenly jumping out to talk about Feng En?
No matter how important Feng En is, can he be compared with Huo Tao?
Although Huo Tao is only a third-rank official, he is a star figure and the most important official!
There are also rumors that Wang Hong, the current Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, may add the title of Right Capital Censor to the Governor of Jingying. In the future, his work will focus on military affairs, so the actual work of the Ministry of Personnel may be handed over to Huo Tao.
Moreover, Wang Hong is not young yet and may become an official at any time, so Huo Tao is the best candidate to be the next Minister of Civil Affairs.
Therefore, the Huo Tao issue may be an issue that will affect the future political structure, and even ten Feng En will not be able to compare with it!
At this time, Wang Shizhong came here and said what Feng Enzhao said. Isn’t it really just a joke? If Feng En is to be tried, go back to your Criminal Department for trial. Don’t cause trouble here!
Wang Shizhong didn't care about everyone's attitude, but still raised the documents in his hands and said loudly: "Everyone, listen to me!
Feng En said in his confession that last year, when he was a minister, he impeached Zhang Yongjia, Fang Nanhai, and Wang Zhongzai as three traitors. The purpose was to recommend Huo Tao to come out of the mountain, saying that only Huo Tao can save the country! "
The Dongchaofang, which had been bustling just now like a boiling pot, suddenly fell silent, and all the officials in the imperial court were collectively stunned.
What the hell is this? If you, Feng En, want to steal the scene, you shouldn't do this, right?
When Huo Tao Maixiang committed the crime, he attacked your Feng En family! You are the victim!
And then you are here to ignore past grudges, show generosity, and wear your forgiveness hat so neatly, how can others help you fill up with righteous indignation?
Many people looked at "chief general" Xia Yan. They all knew the relationship between Feng En and Xia Yan. Feng En's appointment last year was probably to help Xia Yan criticize his political opponents.
But at this time, Feng En suddenly made such a confession. Is it also related to Xia Yan?
But what exactly is this idea? Everyone can’t understand it at all!
Even if you want everyone to cooperate, you must first understand the ideas, and then you can unify your thoughts and form a joint force! If you don't even understand the ideas, how can you cooperate?
Not to mention our own people, but also the people from the enemy's family, from the first assistant Zhang Fujing to the great scholar Fang Xianfu, and the right minister Huang Zongming of the Ministry of War, were all stunned.
Because I really can't understand, what exactly happened, or is there some huge conspiracy by Xia Yan?
They are both very intelligent people, but they can't figure it out. If this is a conspiracy, what else can the other party do next?
But at this moment, the most confused person in the Dongchao room was none other than Xia Yan himself. He also felt extremely confused about Feng En's behavior.
Then Xia Yan suddenly thought that Feng En's weird methods were very similar to the ghost-like methods he used when he was in Jiangning County, Nanjing two or three years ago!
Wang Tingxiang finally understood a little bit why Qin Dewei asked him to just sit on the sidelines and not speak easily.
