There is a hall on the east side of Fengtian Hall, which is decorated like a court meeting.
There is a dragon chair in the middle. Behind the chair is a white jade landscape screen. In front of the screen are two precious fans. In front of the dragon chair is an incense burner. The smoke curls up and fills the room with fragrance.
There are nine steps in front of the dragon chair. Under the steps, there are civil servants on the left and civil servants on the right.
Surrounding the dragon chair, there were dozens of Han generals, as well as eunuch leaders, palace maids and guards who were coming and going. They all walked very lightly and did not dare to move beyond the slightest distance.
Sitting on the dragon chair is a seventeen-year-old boy with a thin face and only a little baby fat left on his cheeks. In his bright eyes, the hint of cunning that used to be revealed has long since turned into a gloomy, angry and serious look.
His demeanor made the civil servants lower their heads, fearing that they would attract the emperor's wrath.
He is Zhu Houzhao, and he is also Zhu Shou. Today is the first day of February in the third year of Zhengde.
For more than a month, the two major groups, the eunuch party and the civil servants, have continued to take action, disrupting the Ming Dynasty's political system to the point of almost getting out of hand.
Zhu Shou looked at the old god Li Dongyang, Yang Tinghe with an equally serious expression, Jiao Fang with a sneer, and Liu Jin beside him who showed no expression, and the anger in his heart had reached the extreme.
These four are my most trusted ministers and the pillars of the Ming Dynasty!
But look at what they have done this month?
Cases, one after another, one serious official case after another, were played over and over again by the four pillars.
The first case to break out was the case of Shandong Governor Zhu Qin.
Zhu Qin was a Jinshi in the eighth year of Chenghua. He was in the same class as Yang Yiqing, Chen Jin and Liu Yu. In the early years of Zhengde, he patrolled Shandong as the right deputy capital censor. He had a good relationship with Wang Yue. Because of Wang Yue's death, he and
Liu Jin was like fire and water. Later, he banned alcohol in Shandong. His Jinan official Zhang Yuankui forced people to death while handling the case. In order to prevent the victims from appealing, he and the prefect Zhao Huang violated the laws of the Ming Dynasty and caused more harm to the victims.
He gave me some money and settled the case.
In the Ming Dynasty, this matter was actually a minor case, and realistically speaking, as the official and the prefect, they were fully capable of covering up the matter, but they were given more money. Even if it was placed five hundred years later, Zhang and Zhao
It also belongs to the category of good officials. It will not kill the plaintiff's family and set another classic case for the Ming Dynasty law.
Uh, I'm going too far. Anyway, after all, this thing forced someone to death, and it is illegal. Money given out of conscience is reasonable but illegal.
Later, this matter was discovered by the factory guards who investigated the world. Boss Liu took matters into his own hands and removed Zhao from the post of prefect. Zhang Tui was demoted to guard the border areas. When he was about to kill Zhu Qin, Li Dongyang came to visit.
Lao Liu, shall we make a deal?
The transaction conditions proposed by Prime Minister Li were too much for Boss Liu to resist. Although the two sides were sworn enemies, everyone was equal in the face of interests. Boss Liu graciously let Governor Zhu go back to his hometown.
.
However, a few days ago, Zhang Cai and Li Dongyang were about to have a big fight, so they brought this matter up first. Boss Liu had a grudge against Li and Zhu, and the previous favor had been paid off, so he pretended not to notice.
to this matter.
So Zhang Cai convicted Zhu Qin of a crime, saying that when he was the governor of Huguang Zuo, he made a big mistake that made people and gods angry. Therefore, Governor Zhu was imprisoned in Jinyiwei Prison again. On the day he came out, it seemed that
No time in sight.
Before Li Dongyang started to put forward conditions to continue the deal with Boss Liu in order to rescue his gang members, Zhang Cai unexpectedly threw two more major cases: the Wu Yan case and the Yang Nanjin case.
Li Dongyang could only stare at Zhang Cai: Zhang Shangzhi, you are so cruel!
Zhang Cai stared back at Prime Minister Li: Li Binzhi, let’s learn from each other. I have carefully read your impeachment report hundreds of times, hundreds of times!…
What happened to these two major cases?
Wu and Yang were both generals of the civil service group, and they were from the same faction as Li Dongyang.
Wu Yan is a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy. He belongs to the noblest among the nobles. He is the kind of high-end literary youth who moans and groans after eating too much all day long. However, he is qualified to be the first literary youth in the Ming Dynasty because his family is very rich and is from Yixing, South Zhili.
The richest man in the county.
Even Boss Liu once wanted to beat his Qiu Feng because of his reputation, saying: "Old Wu, how about exchanging an official position for money?"
Like Ouchi Yoshihei of Japan, Wu Xueshi often suffered from literary illness from time to time. When he saw Boss Liu asking for bribes, he would say directly: "Old Liu, g, u, n!"
Is it true that someone with money is the boss? Mr. Liu was furious and decided to use his own methods to show Lao Wu: Only those with power are the boss!
Just when Zhang Cai wanted to get Li Dongyang, Boss Liu said: "Lao Zhang, kill Lao Wu, and I will give you a salary increase."
So handsome guy Zhang casually mentioned a crime, dismissed Wu Yan from office, and threw him into prison.
Anyway, Jinyiwei is the backyard of Mr. Liu's family. If you don't throw it away, it will be for nothing.
As for Wu Yan's crime, to be honest, if all the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty were beheaded, one or two of them would definitely not be punished enough. But if half of them were beheaded at random, the chance of making a mistake would be almost zero.
And everyone can find the basis for execution from the "Da Ming Law", and no one is unjustly accused. It is said that this is very similar to a certain era in later generations.
Therefore, the cases handled by Mr. Zhang are basically not overturned.
Li Dongyang's only way to make a comeback is to find the chips he can trade with and make a deal with Lao Zhang's eldest brother Liu Jin.
The Yang Nanjin case is listed at the end, not because this case is complicated, but because Prime Minister Li has no intention of helping this former poet friend.
Because Yang Nanjin is not worthy of Prime Minister Li's transaction.
In the face of political interests, poetry friends are useless.
Yang Nanjin is a good man. As mentioned before, he beheaded all the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty. Among them, one or two were unjustly accused, and he was among the very few.
This person is not incorruptible, but he is quite upright, and he has a lot of skills as an official. The requirements for political officials really cannot be too high. Upright officials like Yang Nanjin are already very rare, so his economic problems are also
Just pretend you didn't see it.
There is an example that illustrates his integrity: During the period of history that Zhu Shou had not traveled through, he was at odds with Liu Yu, the boss of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. He was the one who was kicked out by Zhu Shou to become the Maritime Governor of Yizhou. Liu
Liu Yu wanted to mess with him, but Yang Nanjin became angry. He took off his official uniform on the spot and threw it in front of Liu Yu: "I quit! I won't serve you, a powerful traitor!"
After saying that, he slapped his butt and ran out of the capital that day, walking more than two hundred miles! Even Liu Jin couldn't chase him back, so he had to remove his civil servants and let him return to his hometown for retirement.
Therefore, this kind of upright official is worthy of our appreciation, but he will definitely not be appreciated by Prime Minister Li.
If you don't have a thick face, a dark heart, and a clean asshole, you cannot become a qualified politician. Since he is not a politician, why would Prime Minister Li hand over his own interests to fight for an official position for him?
However, Zhu Shou didn't think so, because he felt that his imperial power structure had a fatal flaw: the civil servants and eunuchs were making too much noise, which would affect the stability of the Ming Dynasty.
The biggest evidence to support his idea is the Zhejiang Silver Mine case.
The eunuchs are pressing harder and harder, and they have committed three major cases. Naturally, Li Dongyang will not be helpless. How can Prime Minister Li's methods be underestimated?
The Zhejiang Silver Mine Case came into being.
At the end of the second year of Zhengde, in accordance with the memorials of eunuch Qin Wen and others, Ming Dynasty reopened the silver mines in Zhejiang, Fujian and Sichuan.
The smelting technology of the Ming Dynasty was backward, and the output of Japan's Iwami Silver Mountain was not high at that time. Silver from the Americas had not yet had a chance to be shipped to China...
It should be noted that in the second year of Zhengde, Magellan was still fooling around with the expedition of Almeida, the first Portuguese governor in India. Crossing the Pacific had not yet entered his mind, so if the silver from the Americas wanted to become the Ming Dynasty's economy
Motivation, there are still many years of waiting time.
Without the silver from Japan and America, how miserable would the Ming Dynasty’s mining industry be at that time?
According to historical records, during the Chenghua period, gold mines were opened in twelve counties of Huguang, and 550,000 miners were recruited a year. Countless people died, and only thirty-five taels of gold were obtained!
As a result, the mines in the Ming Dynasty were opened and closed at one time, which was a very happy situation.
The mine supervisors and responsible officials in Zhejiang felt that this was unreliable, and since there was not much oil and water, people could easily die, so they told the court: "There are no silver mines in Zhejiang!"
When the elders saw that the melon was not sweet and the girl was unhappy, Zhejiang paid 20,000 taels of silver every year and let the matter go.
Originally this matter should have gone away, but Prime Minister Li brought it up again: Who said there are no silver mines in Zhejiang? Who dares to talk such nonsense?!
After checking, it turned out that none of the people talking nonsense were from the Li Party or Yang Party. They were all mine supervisors and officials from the Eunuch Party group.
Prime Minister Li was extremely angry: You are derelict in your duties! Investigate, investigate strictly without missing a thing!
As the saying goes, if you don't check it, no one's butt will be clean.
As a result, thirty-seven mine supervisors, large and small, and fifty-two civil servants at all levels were kicked into prison one by one by Prime Minister Li.
Zhang Cai almost vomited blood on the spot: Lao Li, you are cruel, I will kill two and a half of you, and you will kill nearly a hundred of us!
Prime Minister Li smiled leisurely: Zhang Shangzhi, do you know that Dongyang is not my real surname, it is my name that ends with the smile.
Boss Liu can't do anything to Li Dongyang, but that doesn't mean he won't sue Li Dongyang.
He cried to Zhu Shou: Your Majesty, Lao Li hit my face until it was swollen. This was a dog beating without looking at the owner's face. He was beating me, an old dog, and he was actually wiping your face.
Face.
According to Boss Liu's past methods, Li Dongyang will be disgraced if not stripped of all his skin after this blackmail lawsuit.
But he didn't expect that Zhu Shou didn't react at all after hearing his black condition.
It was not until today's Xiaochao meeting that Mr. Liu realized a hint of the emperor's intentions from Zhu Shou's gloomy expression.
"Xuan, all the people involved in the Zhejiang mining case were banished to Yizhou." Zhu Shou did not ask any of the big bosses for their opinions, nor did he understand the ins and outs of the case. He even did not give any face to the eunuchs at all, and directly banished Zhejiang.
Silver mine case finalized.
You must know that although most of this group of people are from Liu Dang's faction, the eunuch group is closely connected and there are many other factions who were accidentally killed. Therefore, Zhang Yong, Gu Dayong and others also look very bad.
The emperor is mighty! The emperor is rising! The officials of the civil service group felt happy in their hearts when they saw the expressions of the eunuchs.
"Xuan, Zhu Qin, and Yang Nanjin were banished to the Suzhou Guards; Wu Yan was punished by losing two thousand stones of rice and two thousand stones to Datong."
Li Dang was not happy for long. Zhu Shou's second decree swept directly towards them, leaving everyone completely confused.
Is the emperor trying to make peace? The big bosses are all muttering in their hearts, that's fine, each of them will fight three big things, and the matter will be settled.
We have been fighting for more than a month, and to be honest, we are all a little tired.
However, the following facts proved that in the Zhengde Dynasty, if anyone underestimated Zhu Shou's ability, he would even lose his underwear.