"Hong'er, you are finally back. My mother-in-law is almost dying of anxiety."
It also only took Zhu Cixiang ten days to return to Nanjing from Beijing. As soon as he returned to the palace, Zhang Yan couldn't help but complain, but there was an expression of relief on her face.
"Auntie, it's been hard for you these days. I didn't expect that the child hadn't had an accident for several months, but now he has an accident as soon as he left."
Seeing that she was even more haggard than when he first arrived last year, Zhu Cixi said apologetically.
I know she must have been under tremendous pressure in the past twenty days or so.
"Auntie, it's nothing, but Ma Aiqing and the others were really tortured, especially Ma Aiqing, who was under tremendous pressure," Zhang Yan said.
Zhu Cixi believed this. After all, the ancients cherished their reputation, even the Red Lady was no exception, let alone a civil servant like Ma Shiying who wanted to be a minister of the ZTE.
"Auntie, please tell me about the current situation first!"
"Hong'er, you must be very tired after traveling and traveling all the way. No matter how anxious you are, you don't want to rush now. Why don't you have a good rest overnight and talk about it tomorrow?"
Zhang Yan couldn't help but feel concerned when she saw that he was tired from all the work.
"No, I just need to get a general understanding of it. Let's go to the imperial study room first!" Zhu Cihong waved his hand.
"Oh well!"
Then the two of them came to the imperial study room. Zhang Yan gave a brief introduction, then looked at Zhu Cixiang and said worriedly: "Hong'er, almost all the literati in Jiangnan have united together, and the literati and gentry in other provinces have also expressed their support. It's a big mistake.
The goal is to never give up.
Recently, there have been two large baskets of memorials filed by officials from various places to impeach Ma Aiqing. I see that they are clearly trying to slander Ma Aiqing, but in fact they are resisting the New Deal. How should I deal with it?"
"Don't worry, ma'am. These so-called scholars are most afraid of death, and they also know how to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. There are very few of them who really dare to fight to the end. Let me show them what an iron-blooded regime is."
Zhu Cihong waved his hand, then called Xu Lan in, pointed to the two boxes of memorials and said: "Xu Lan, burn these memorials first, put them here to occupy space, and then take people to arrest Gao Hongtu. The charges are,
Inciting literati to slander and slander court ministers."
"It's Your Majesty."
Xu Lan waved, and several female soldiers immediately came in and carried the box out.
"Hong'er, Gao Ai... Gao Hongtu is quite famous among the scholars in the south of the Yangtze River. Wouldn't it be inappropriate to arrest him directly like this? After all, our Ming Dynasty has never been punished for words, and we can make trouble after hearing the news."
Zhang Yan said carefully,
"Our Ming Dynasty is not guilty of words, but they are no longer just talking, but taking actions. Not only do they write books and biographies, they also erect kneeling statues and spit. The nature is completely different.
It is unheard of to blatantly humiliate a first-class minister of the imperial court. If he is not severely punished, the authority of the imperial court will be gone in the future, and he must be killed to serve as a warning to others."
"But this matter can't be entirely blamed on Gao Hongtu alone?"
"Anyway, we are inseparable from him. If old man Qian Qianyi is not here, he has the highest reputation. And in Nanjing, if you don't attack him, who will do it?"
Zhu Cixiang would not have the patience to investigate who was the leader. Anyway, he would just catch the most prestigious person and do it.
He didn't intend to kill him, so he was sent to Qiongzhou.
Zhang Yan opened her mouth when she saw him saying such unreasonable things, and finally had to smile bitterly.
Immediately, Zhu Cihong ordered someone to call Ma Shiying over.
"Your Majesty, Ma Shiying, bows to my emperor. Long live my emperor. Long live the emperor."
"Ma Aiqing, there's no need to be polite. Sit down. I've heard about everything that happened recently. I can't help you."
"This veteran is incompetent and has betrayed His Majesty's trust and trust. He deserves death..."
As soon as Ma Shiying's buttocks touched the stool, she fell to her knees on the ground. She burst into tears at the end, obviously holding back her grievances.
"Well, Ma Aiqing doesn't have to blame herself. It's because I didn't think everything through. I can't blame the cabinet and the six ministries for this matter.
Don't worry, Ma Aiqing, I will definitely uphold justice for you. I will never let those literati slander and slander Aiqing, nor will I let Ma Aiqing be infamy for thousands of years.
After all, if you, Ma Shiying, are really slandered as Zhao Gao and Qin Hui, then wouldn’t I, the Shenwu Emperor, become Qin II and Song Gaozong?
Those scholars obviously want to disgrace you, Ma Shiying, but in fact they want to disgrace me, the emperor. They are simply wishful thinking.
I am an eternal sage destined to surpass all emperors in ancient and modern times, and you, Ma Shiying, are also destined to become a famous minister throughout the ages."
"Your Majesty, those scholars do have ulterior motives..."
Seeing that the little emperor saw so clearly, Ma Shiying finally felt relieved, and at the same time he was so moved that he could not speak.
Zhang Yan's face was slightly hot and red, obviously she was embarrassed by Zhu Cixiang's self-proclaimed words just now.
"Ma Aiqing, you go back and continue to preside over the new policy. All land data must be re-summarized by the end of July. You don't have to worry about other things. I will take care of it myself." Zhu Cixiang waved his hand.
"It's your Majesty, I'm retiring!"
After Ma Shiying left, Zhu Cihong issued several imperial edicts in succession.
First of all, Ma Shiying was conferred the title of Grand Scholar of Fengtian Palace and the title of Prince and Grand Master. He achieved this position in one step and became a highly respected minister.
Then he was granted the titles of Nanjing's Minister of Household Affairs, and the Minister of Personnel was granted the titles of Grand Bachelor of Wenhua Palace and Grand Bachelor of Jianji Palace respectively, and they were appointed to manage the affairs of the cabinet.
Re-establish the authority of the six cabinet ministries.
The last one is an edict, the content of which is simpler. From now on, any scholar who holds a position of honor will not be allowed to criticize cabinet ministers in public, and those who violate the rules will be dismissed from their position.
From now on, no one shall take any actions or measures that insult cabinet ministers in public. Violators will be punished depending on the circumstances and impact.
It also stipulated that after receiving the edict, all localities must destroy the kneeling statue of Ma Shiying and destroy all related books that are insulting in nature within three days.
Although Zhu Cixiang did not want to restrict the freedom of speech too much, such malicious insults and slanders of senior court officials were absolutely not allowed.
You can secretly scold the court ministers at home, or even be a scarecrow and poke them with a needle.
However, it is absolutely not allowed to speak nonsense in public, nor is it allowed to set up kneeling statues at the entrance of the government or the academy, spitting, slapping, or insulting others.
After the three imperial edicts were sent to the cabinet, Ma Shiying and all the officials were very excited, especially Ma Shiying and the two ministers.
The Ministry of Punishment followed Zhu Cixiang's wishes and immediately added a crime of defamation to the Ming Dynasty Code, perfected it, and made it known to the world together with the annex to the edict.
Sure enough, after the annexes of the three imperial edicts were sent to various states and counties, officials from various places saw that His Majesty not only did not punish Ma Shiying, but instead added the titles of Grand Bachelor and Grand Master.
He immediately stopped being passive and sabotaged his work, and strictly implemented the contents of the edict.
After depriving some scholars of their academic titles, all localities had no choice but to destroy the kneeling statues at the entrances of academies, and they no longer dared to sign printed books.
When gathering in restaurants and brothels, I would only call him Ma, and I would not dare to mention him by name or use taboos like before. Even my ancestors of eighteen generations would bring it up and scold him.
However, more scholars simply chose to call it quits. After all, looking at the situation, Ma Shiying may not collapse in the short term. It is fun to scold him now, but what will he do when he becomes an official in the future?
If I am not yet in high school, do I still need to take the assessment of the Ministry of Civil Affairs?
Once a classmate or friend who doesn't deal with him secretly reports that he has scolded Mr. Ma before, he will definitely fail the assessment.
As for this kind of sneaky and obscure insults and slanders, Zhu Cixiang didn't care.
Because this kind of thing cannot be managed, as long as it is not too excessive or outrageous, just let them do whatever they want.
After the propaganda supervision is perfected and the royal newspaper is published, it will be just a matter of slowly guiding ordinary people.
In the future, when more people can read and decipher, everyone will be able to decide what is right and what is wrong.
In this public opinion incident, Zhu Cihong did not kill anyone, but only appointed Gao Hongtu, and dismissed dozens of famous scholars.
These are almost all die-hards and die-hards, and in the end they cannot escape the fate of being dispatched.
As for the civil servants in various provinces who impeached Ma Shiying, none of them were punished.
And these officials are not worried about Ma Shiying's retaliation, because almost all officials in various provinces have been impeached.
