Whether Zhu Hao was talking to Zhu Si or Sun Jiao, they were all conveying the same idea.
When Yang Tinghe was in the government, everything we did was not to seize power, but to suppress Yang Tinghe's prestige and influence in the government and the public. As long as this goal was achieved, even if we lost control of some places, it was worth it.
Because after Yang Tinghe retreats, if Yang Tinghe's prestige does not fall, then his people will continue to occupy important positions in the court and threaten the imperial power. Only Yang Tinghe's prestige can no longer support the situation, and Zhu Si will have reason to attack Jiang Mian, Mao Ji, and Qiao
Yu, Lin Jun and others take action and tell them to get lost.
By that time, Zhu Si had complete control over the court, and power was obtained without any struggle.
Now to calculate the gains and losses of a corner of the northwest, it seems important, but in fact it is of little significance.
Sun Jiao understood this and stopped asking any more questions.
…
…
At the court meeting.
Zhu Si ordered Tang Yin and Zhu Mingyang to jointly investigate whether there was cheating in the relevant examinations. The three-day deadline was coming in a blink of an eye. Tang Yin had no official status. Naturally, Tang Yin would not come forward for such a matter of reporting in front of the palace.
Zhu Mingyang gave a detailed explanation to the officials at the court meeting.
The content of Zhu Mingyang's report in public was actually just a little bit...
The so-called rumors of imperial examination fraud are all false.
After Zhu Mingyang withdrew, Zhu Si spoke highly of him: "It's rare that the Zhu Qing family was able to find out the matter in just three days, and the Qing family involved in the case was cleared. It's really gratifying. Now.
Make this matter public to calm public opinion."
Lin Jun, the Minister of Punishment, said: "Your Majesty, those who spread such rumors should be punished for spreading false statements."
Perhaps in Lin Jun's view, the way to calm public opinion cannot be for the imperial court to passively investigate and then come forward to explain to the scholars. Instead, it should arrest a few scholars who spread rumors and punish them, so that the rest have to keep silent.
Kill the chicken to scare the monkey!
Zhu Si looked hesitant, frowned and asked: "Lin Qing's family, is this necessary?"
Lin Jun said firmly: "Yes!"
As the Minister of Punishment, in charge of the Ming Dynasty's prisons, it seems that Lin Jun intends to set rules for those scholars. You cannot question the court at will, let alone allow the court to conduct self-examination to calm your discussions.
To put it plainly.
Shameless on you?
Then punish and serve!
Zhu Sidao: "There's no need to look at it. First of all, they just question whether the people who got the top few in the examination are really qualified academically. Secondly, they don't mean to criticize the imperial court. So, there is no need to mobilize troops, right?"
Lin Jun was very angry: "Your Majesty, questioning the imperial examinations of the Ming Dynasty is criticizing the government and must be severely punished!"
"well!"
Zhu Si sighed: "Lin Qing's family, what I want is to calm public opinion, not to make a big deal out of a small matter. If you insist, wouldn't it go against my idea of ruling the country with benevolence? After all, scholars still have to respect it."
Zhu Si means, do I respect you enough?
I listened carefully to your opinions, and now I am trying to reason with you.
If you, Lin Jun, want to set rules for ordinary scholars on behalf of the imperial court, can I also set rules for you scholars who are officials?
How come you don’t know how to compare your feelings to others?
Lin Jun wanted to say something else, but when he saw Jiang Mian winking at him repeatedly, Lin Jun could only retreat bitterly.
This scene happened to be captured by Zhu Si.
Zhu Si thought to himself: "Sure enough, as Zhu Hao said, Yang rarely comes forward when trouble comes, leaving his followers Jiang to charge into the battle. This group of people is really colluding and corrupting the Ming Dynasty. They don't regard themselves as ministers at all... Hmph
, does the imperial court belong to them or to me?"
"Okay, publicizing the investigation results to the outside world will be left to the Ministry of Rites." Zhu Si said seriously.
Mao Cheng, the Minister of Rites, came out to receive the order.
The controversy regarding fraud in the examination seems to have ended with this tacit understanding between the emperor and his ministers.
…
…
The court's idea is very good. If there is a public controversy, the court will investigate and give
The following explanation, even if it is "refuting rumors", the people below should be honest and not question it again.
This kind of refutation of rumors was also painstaking. Otherwise, why would the etiquette department be dispatched all at once to Tang Yin, who had already retired from office and had suffered greatly from the fraud in the imperial examination?
But the ideal is beautiful, but now it is very cruel.
After the imperial court's refutation of the rumors was released, instead of having a positive effect, it actually added fuel to the fire. It can be said that it instantly ignited the public opinion of the scholars in the capital.
We discussed that there was something fishy about this interview, but the imperial court sent someone to conduct a symbolic check and told us that there was no such thing?
What are you doing?
In the past, it was just a discussion among scholars, but now it has developed into someone going to the Confucian Temple to sit quietly and cry.
In the Ming Dynasty, crying in the temple was a very effective form of protest. It was mainly initiated by Jiangnan scholars because they saw the emperor's preferential treatment of ordinary scholars. If they were like Lin Jun and severely punished some scholars, they would not dare to mess up.
coming.
It was they who saw the casual discussion before and forced the court to investigate themselves. Although the effect was not obvious, they were still willing to go further.
If you make a fuss, the result may be overturned, and those who don't win the tribute will have a chance to make a comeback.
If there is no trouble, then we can only wait until three years later and come back. Who knows if something will happen again by then?
No scholar is willing to admit that he or she is incompetent in knowledge, especially when those who take part in the examination are the best scholars in each province, and they are candidates who have been selected from the thousands of troops in the provincial examination.
Now that there are rumors about fraud in the imperial examinations among the people, they feel that they are being suppressed. In addition, this time the uneducated son of the chief minister of the cabinet, Yang Dun, has passed the exam, and each of them feels that there is a hidden secret, but the court does not want to disclose it to the outside world.
Just announce it.
Maybe even the emperor was coerced by Yang?
…
…
Yang Mansion.
Yang Shen has been officially promoted to minister today.
The first thing he faced after becoming a lecturer was encountering public suspicion about the examination. This suspicion even directly targeted the Hanlin Academy, and many scholars went to the entrance of the Hanlin Academy to cause trouble.
Although they arrested a few, they seemed to be unable to control the situation.
"...The Jin Yiwei sent out to arrest people. Anyone who caused trouble in the government was arrested and punished. However, those who went to the Confucian Temple, Gongyuan and other places were not strictly stopped. Should we inform Shuntian Prefecture or the Wucheng Army and Horse Division to let them see
What’s the situation?”
Yang Shen felt that the problem was serious.
So his suggestion to his father now is to take the person to justice as soon as possible, so that the incident can be settled as soon as possible.
Yang Tinghe looked gloomy, shook his head and said: "Yong Xiu, haven't you ever thought that this matter may be related to His Majesty's behind-the-scenes fueling the flames?"
Yang Shen asked in surprise: "But father, your Majesty has been firmly on your side from the beginning, and even sent people to investigate. Logically speaking..."
"The results of it?"
Yang Tinghe asked.
Yang Shen thought about it for a while and replied, "The result is not satisfactory."
Yang Tinghe sighed: "Perhaps His Majesty's purpose from the beginning was not to calm down the trouble, but to make it worse?"
"this……"
Yang Shen thought to himself, can he still think like this?
Even if you have a bad relationship with the emperor, at least the emperor has no intention of harming you on this matter and always relies on your opinion.
Yang Tinghe said: "Now, my father has gradually figured out that in fact, there should not have been an investigation from the beginning. As long as you ignore the public opinions, the matter will naturally calm down. The fundamental reason for the aggravation of the situation is that your Majesty really
I sent people to check and gave hope to those scholars who failed the exam."
Yang Shen blinked and asked doubtfully: "But... no matter whether His Majesty did it intentionally or not, shouldn't my father put the priority of quelling the resentment of the scholars first?"
Yang Tinghe shook his head: "It will no longer help to arrest the troublemaking scholars, especially those who are the leaders. In the past, it would have been effective just to add Tang Bohu to the matter in the etiquette department, but now it must be done with seniority."
Only if senior officials from the DPRK and Central Government who can calm the trouble take action can it be effective."
"ah?"
Yang Shen became more and more puzzled.
Didn't Zhu Mingyang and Tang Yin do enough before?
Haven’t you checked everything that needs to be checked?
This time things got serious, and instead of thinking about how to arrest people and intimidate those scholars, they actually wanted to investigate themselves. Isn't this what those scholars wanted?
"Then father, what's going on..."
Yang Shen asked half of the question and didn't ask any more.
Yang Tinghe said: "You want to ask my father, when he passed the imperial examination with Xu, if he ever said hello to the examiner? No! Absolutely not!"
Yang Shen hurriedly explained: "That's not what I meant."
"Whether you mean this or not is not important. In short, you have doubts in your heart because you have always despised Yong Xu, just like your father also feels that he may not be able to pass the exam... Even the people around him have such doubts
,How come those ordinary scholars don’t become suspicious?”
Yang Tinghe was a little exhausted mentally and physically.
He suddenly discovered that whenever he was in court, something always bothered him.
Now that a single test has caused such a big commotion, it seems that the little emperor is behind the scenes and is conducting some kind of self-examination openly.
There really is no three hundred taels of silver here!
Why did you believe the little emperor's nonsense then?
Are you so confident that you really want people to check?
"Father, who can come forward now to calm the public opinion of the imperial sergeant?" Yang Shen asked.
Yang Tinghe smiled coldly and did not answer.
Yang Shen could see from his father's smile that asking others to investigate seemed to be of no avail. Only Yang Tinghe himself could act as a giant Buddha and suppress all the demons and monsters.
…
…
The sixth day of March.
There are less than ten days left before the palace examination.
Logically speaking, the turmoil over the examination should have subsided by now, and there would be no further troubles. However, because the scholars were now making more and more troubles, it was no longer possible for the Yushi Yanguan to just sit idly by and report them one after another.
There are many people coming up with solutions.
Some people advocated bringing the scholars who caused trouble to justice, while others advocated a thorough investigation to calm the grievances of the scholars.
Others said they should ignore it and let the scholars go about their business as they pleased.
At the meeting, Zhu Si shook his head and sighed: "I was negligent... If I had not discussed with Mr. Yang Ge from the beginning and asked someone to investigate, this matter should not have happened... This is all my fault!
"
All the ministers couldn't help but look at each other.
Although they also guessed that the reason why there was an investigation and fraud case was related to Zhu Si's previous summons to confront Yang Tinghe alone.
But now that Zhu Si openly admits it, it still makes some people feel uncomfortable.
Such a big matter should not be discussed in the court, but decided privately by the monarch and his ministers?
Are you still making such a big deal?
It is truly up to you, the monarch and your ministers, to take the blame for this.
"Dear gentlemen, do you have any good opinions? I am also tired. There is nothing to do, but some people insist on making trouble. Do I need to step in to calm it down?"
When Zhu Si said this, he was actually hinting to Yang Tinghe that it's time for you to come out and face everything.
Yang Tinghe walked in line: "Your Majesty, since this matter started because of me, it will be ended by me... Give me one day, and I will give an explanation to the world's scholars!"