It is the third day of the ninth lunar month in the seventh year of Wanli.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs reported to Zhao Yumin that he had impeached Ling Yunyi, the minister of the Ministry of War, for "conniving the servants and doing evil in the capital of good deeds." Please stop.
On the same day, Lin Yicai, the censor of Guangdong Province, impeached Ling Yunyi, Minister of the Ministry of War, for being "arrogant and indulgent in lawlessness during his tenure as governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and was ridiculed by the times; murderous and ruthless", and asked him to stop.
It is normal for Zhao Yumin and Lin Yicai to impeach officials. However, both of them were only Jinshis in the fifth year of Longqing and had very little qualifications. However, they impeached the Minister of War at the same time. Anyone with a discerning eye would know that something was wrong at a glance.
The struggle in the imperial court is different from leading troops to fight. Generally speaking, the idea of "using all your strength even when a lion fights a rabbit" is not popular.
One of the most common ways is to first send a junior official under his command to impeach a minister to see the emperor's reaction to the matter. If the emperor immediately issues an order to reprimand the minister for his nonsense, it means that the minister is a saint. The family is still there, whether to continue the impeachment depends on the situation.
And if the emperor does not respond at all after receiving the memorial, it generally means that the minister may have lost the emperor's trust. At this time, the impeachment can be stepped up and more powerful people can be sent to continue the impeachment until the emperor feels the "raging public sentiment." until the minister is ordered to be dealt with.
Of course, generally speaking, after being impeached, the minister will take the initiative to stay in hiding and either go to court to defend himself or go to court to beg for his return. If the emperor loses trust in the minister, but he still misses some old feelings, then You may just accept the resignation as a matter of course, and usually don't dig into it in detail. After all, it is customary to give preferential treatment to civil servants. Saving some face to others also shows that you are kind.
Zhao Yumin and Lin Yicai are the harbingers of this "rebellion", the two pebbles who "throw stones to ask for directions".
Let me explain a little here. Originally, in the historical Longqing five-year examination, the chief examiner and deputy examiner were Zhang Juzheng and Lu Tiaoyang respectively. However, due to the influence of Gao Pragmatism, it finally became Guo Pu as the chief examiner and Zhang Juzheng as the deputy examiner. , so a large number of the seat masters and room masters of this year's Jinshi have changed.
Zhao Yumin and Lin Yicai were the Jinshi selected by Guo Pu this year. Among them, Zhao Yumin was from Changye, Shanxi, and Lin Yicai was from Tong'an, Fujian.
Ling Yunyi rushed to the capital the day before yesterday. Yesterday he went to see the emperor with an uneasy mood. He was told that the emperor had given lectures in the Wenhua Palace and asked him to postpone his return. He had to go to the Ministry of War as usual without being received by the emperor. Xin, at that time Ling Yunyi felt that it was going to be bad.
Many people feel that good premonitions will fail nine times out of ten, while bad premonitions are just the opposite. They are basically guaranteed to work. The same is true for Ling Yunyi. On the second day after taking up the new job, he was arrested and sentenced to death.
He had no choice, because even Shen Shixing, a cabinet elder with a similar academic background, gave him ambiguous answers and no accurate words at all, let alone others. So he had no choice but to go to court and ask for resignation - -Self-defense It is impossible to defend oneself, and it will be impossible to defend oneself in this life, because although Shen Shixing did not give him any guarantee, he told him that he might have bumped into the two princesses that day.
This is tantamount to being caught in action and still defending yourself! Regardless of whether you like it or not, you can only resign as usual.
However, the emperor seemed not to be satisfied yet, and he was impeached twice. The cabinet voted calmly to say that Ling Yunyi still had merit in putting down the rebellion in Guangdong and Guangxi. However, the vote did not mention anything about the impeachment this time.
The emperor's reaction was very emperor, and he didn't criticize a word. This is what is called staying in the middle without making any progress.
So sure enough, the next day, there was another impeachment. The impeachment was no different from yesterday, except that the people who were impeached were changed. They included Song Zhihan, the Yin of Shuntian Prefecture, Hu Wei, the censor of Shuntian Patrol Bureau, and five other people. people.
The emperor still didn't respond, and Ling Yunyi was frightened and went to Shu again to resign.
On the third day, the drama finally came to a head. Wang Guoguang, the censor of Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, personally took action to impeach Ling Yunyi, the minister of the Ministry of War, for being "irrespective and unprofessional." Please stop!
The Censor of Zuodu was the first person in the Imperial Procuratorate, known to the world as the General Constitution. He was in charge of the inspection and evaluation of officials, participated in the maintenance of rules and disciplines, specialized in correcting and impeaching hundreds of officials, defending wrongdoings, and supervising various departments. He was the emperor's eyes, ears, and officials. Any minister who is treacherous, a villain who builds the party, who bullies the government and disrupts the government shall be impeached. Any official who is corrupt, corrupt, and violates official discipline shall be impeached. Any scholar who is academically dishonest and who writes a letter stating that chaos will become a constitution and hopes to be promoted and used shall be impeached. During the pilgrimage, inspections were conducted to see if the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs was deposed. The heavy prisoners in the prison were sent to the outer court, and together with the Ministry of Punishments, they were pacified in Dali Temple.
Although it is not unique, it is indeed rare for the dignified censor of Zuodu to come forward to impeach a minister. As usual, when the censor of Zuodu comes forward to impeach a minister, the emperor cannot continue to pretend to be deaf and dumb, and must have a reply.
Therefore, the emperor's reply came quickly this time: Ling Yunyi relies on his small achievements, does many harsh things, is arrogant and lawless, and deeply disappoints me. With immediate dismissal pending investigation, the Procuratorate and the Ministry of Punishment should select cadres to go to Jiangxi, Guangdong We will investigate thoroughly and report in detail.
It is said that most court officials did not know that the incident on that day involved "colliding with Feng Jia". They only knew that Ling Yunyi had a conflict with Qian Guan Zheng Gao Pang Shi, who was known as the "Xiaoge Lao" in previous years, even if they knew the inside story. Shen Shixing and others also stood there blankly and were speechless for a long time after seeing the emperor's imperial writings.
Not to mention Ling Yunyi himself. He had been staying in the house because of the impeachment. Suddenly he received such a severe order. His legs went weak on the spot and he collapsed on the ground. Finally, the angel who was ordered to deliver the order sent someone to "Tuck yourself up and kneel down to receive the imperial edict."
Gao Dang, who had almost fallen into a dual leadership system due to Gao Gong's death more than a year ago and Gao pragmatism's return to his hometown, had been cautious for a long time and even felt that it was about to fall apart. Suddenly, it exploded with astonishing lethality. Not only was it easy He overthrew a new minister, and he was so powerful that he was unstoppable!
It’s not about accepting an imperial edict, not about staying idle, or even about being promoted to an official position.
In the eyes of most people, what is the crime Ling Yunyi committed? Wasn't it just that he had a conflict with Gao Pragmatic over a shelter from the rain? Although his actions were indeed excessive, he is the dignitary minister of the Ministry of War, and you, Gao, Being pragmatic is nothing more than a new imperial examination candidate. Even if it is Jieyuan, so what, it is still a civil examination, not even a Jinshi!
But the emperor's treatment was so decisive and merciless!
What does this mean?
In the eyes of these officials who did not know the truth, this could only mean one thing: Gao Jingshi's status in the eyes of the emperor far exceeded that of Ling Yunyi, the Minister of War!
However, there was something even more surprising next. With the emperor's edict, the three assistant ministers of the cabinet reported as usual. They reported that their recommendation was inappropriate and they resigned from their respective posts.
The emperor's reply was still very quick: The ministers are upright in their duties and recommended based on merit. There is nothing improper. Ling Yunyi is solely responsible for the blame. What does it have to do with the ministers? It is better to appoint an assistant as soon as possible and refuse to resign.
He also sent another lieutenant to the Guo University Scholar's Office and gave Gao Jingshi two sets of four new books each, two volumes of Zhouyi (Gao Jingshi's classic), two Hu pens, two boxes of Hui ink, two Duan inkstones, and two new paper knives.
.
The government and the public looked sideways upon hearing this, and people at the time privately said: Gao Dang is still here.