Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 436: Dadu Xian Really Hurt Me

Li Shishi almost gritted his teeth and said, "This is too much!"

Pei Yuan asked, "Does Dadu Xian still think about this Minister of Rites?"

Li Shishi said decisively, "Even if it means my death, I will never let them succeed!"

Pei Yuan asked meaningfully, "What if the court asks about this..."

"The imperial court?" Li Shishi sneered.

The imperial court is nothing but a bunch of people who can't stand seeing him do well, so why be so hypocritical?

Pei Yuan sighed upon hearing this, "It is good that the Grand Secretary has such determination. It is a pity that although we have seen through the thieves' evil plot, we have also done a lot of useless work."

"In this case, we have worked so hard to plan for Enko, but we don't know who will benefit in the end."

Li Shishi recalled that when he was organizing people everywhere to promote Enke, those guys were so happy and agreed so readily.

At this moment, I suddenly understood.

It turned out that they not only wanted to take away his Minister of Rites, but also wanted to take away the imperial examination that he had worked so hard to promote.

Li Shishi felt as if his heart was bleeding.

He asked Pei Yuan unwillingly, "Then Brother Pei, what do you think we should do?"

Pei Yuan said calmly and rationally, "Two ways. One is to completely destroy this Enke so that no one can get it."

"But if I do this, I'm afraid that Dadu Xian will attract the hatred of all the scholars."

"If things fail, those despicable people might use this plan, which has already gained widespread consensus, to curry favor with scholars. In the end, not only will they fail to stop Enke, but they will also bring themselves into trouble."

"If the governor of Dadu is hated by so many scholars, I'm afraid even King Ning will have doubts."

As soon as Pei Yuan said this, Li Shishi immediately rejected it.

He couldn't bear such a big pot. Even if he had to swallow his anger, he wouldn't dare to become the enemy of all the scholars in the world at this time.

"Then I wonder what your second method is?"

Pei Yuan immediately gave a second suggestion in a very insidious way.

"Let's, uh, no, it's best not to let others get what you can't get."

Li Shishi was puzzled when he heard this, "But didn't my brother just say that we can't ruin this imperial examination?"

Pei Yuan explained, "Of course I'm not ruining this Enke. You've spent so much effort to promote this."

Hearing Pei Yuan's words, Li Shishi felt even more upset. "So, what do you mean, brother?"

Pei Yuan said to Li Shishi, "What is yours is yours. Since you have been the one who pushed for this, the credit should be yours. Why don't you take advantage of the current situation when people's hearts are unstable and immediately start writing letters to make the matter of the Enke public in advance?"

Li Shishi was shocked when he heard this and hesitated, "Is this okay? The imperial examination is the responsibility of the Minister of Rites. If I step in to take over, I'm afraid it will attract a lot of criticism."

Pei Yuan looked at Li Shishi and said calmly, "Who cares about them?"

After hearing Pei Yuan's words, Li Shishi felt relieved of his resentment.

Yeah, who cares?!

Didn’t the imperial court use the Minister of Rites to keep him on hold, hoping that he would hand over the position of Left Censor-in-Chief?

Then why don't I just pick out the Enke incident and reap all the fruits of my tenure as Minister of Rites in advance? !

Those guys can't just come out and blow their own horn and say they had no intention of letting themselves secure the position of Minister of Rites and wanted to leave the fat piece of cake for the real candidate.

After realizing this, Li Shishi felt that he was incredibly strong at this moment!
I'm going to turn evil!

He was previously being held hostage by the imperial court, but now he is going to hold the imperial court hostage instead.

Then Pei Yuan continued, "There's more to it than that."

Li Shishi is in high spirits, can he be even stronger?!
He hurriedly urged, "Brother, please speak."

Pei Yuan said, "I wonder if the Grand Secretary has noticed the turbulent situation in the court now."

As an important representative of Prince Ning in the court, Li Shishi was also very concerned about current affairs. He immediately asked, "Are you talking about the incident between Yang Yiqing and Yang Tinghe?"

Pei Yuan said, "Not bad."

Li Shishi cursed, "There are no good people among these guys. It's just dog biting dog."

Pei Yuan asked Li Shishi, "In your opinion, who has a better chance of winning?"

Li Shishi was not blinded by anger, and still gave a fair evaluation, "Yang Tinghe is a big tree with deep roots, Yang Yiqing may not be able to do anything about it."

"Besides, I heard that Zhang Yong, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department, is also gradually losing power in the inner court. Yang Yiqing's ability to directly intervene in the affairs of the court is greatly affected. It is hard to say what will happen in the future."

Pei Yuan said, "That's true. Otherwise, these guys would be beaten to death."

Li Shishi also felt a little regretful.

But Pei Yuan changed the subject and said, "Then I wonder if the governor of Dadu still remembers the incident that the Minister of Revenue Wang Qiong wrote to the emperor a while ago?"

Li Shishi wondered, "What are you talking about, brother?"

Pei Yuan said, "Some time ago, Wang Qiong wrote to the court to request the elimination of redundant officials because the court had too many redundant officials and wasted a lot of money and grain."

When Li Shishi heard Pei Yuan start talking, he immediately understood what he was talking about.

He then continued, "I know about this matter. Wang Qiong's memorial was submitted just in time for Yang Tinghe to take over as the Prime Minister."

"Yang Tinghe needs to do something to see how people react to his appointment as Prime Minister."

"The matter of cutting redundant staff was a big deal and could gather enough feedback, so Yang Tinghe strongly supported it. In order to shirk responsibility, he also pushed the Minister of Personnel Yang Yiqing to the front to do the work."

Li Shishi commented, "At that time, the two of them had a bit of an unpleasant argument."

After finishing his comments, he continued, "It just happened that we had won a great victory in suppressing the rebellion, and we urgently needed to solve the problem of Lu Wan, so we reached a consensus and planned to let Lu Wan take over my position. After he takes office, he will cooperate with Yang Yiqing to complete this task." Pei Yuan reminded, "The previous goal of the court was to clean up redundant officials. This is an offensive job, so Yang Yiqing is certainly unwilling to do it."

"But the court appointed Lu Wan as the Left Censor-in-Chief, and the direction of cleaning up redundant officials was changed to hunting down the remnants of Liu Jin."

"Yang Yiqing originally rose to power by opposing Liu Jin, so he was naturally happy to see this change. And although Yang Tinghe could not harm Yang Yiqing, his main purpose was to demonstrate his authority as the Prime Minister after taking office. It was not particularly important to him who he would deal with in the end."

"It seems that the situation is good in all aspects, but unfortunately, the interests of the Metropolitan Constitution have to be sacrificed."

After listening to this, Li Shishi said with emotion, "If it weren't for my brother who cut me apart, I'm afraid I would still be dreaming."

Li Shishi did not think much about it and asked Pei Yuan directly, "In your opinion, what should I do now?"

Pei Yuan hesitated and said hypocritically, "This is a fight between you civil officials. I'm afraid it's not appropriate for a military man like me to intervene."

Li Shishi said sincerely, "As a friend of mine, why do you have to say such polite words? I am at a loss right now, and I hope you can help me."

Pei Yuan raised his cup and hesitated for a while, but finally drank it in one gulp, sighing, "I didn't want to get involved in these court affairs. The governor really made things difficult for me."

After that, there was nothing to hesitate about.

Pei Yuan said to Li Shishi directly, "Lu Wan has made great contributions, so there must be a position for him among the Seven Ministers. But as long as you hold on to your position as the Left Censor-in-Chief, Lu Wan will have no choice but to make another choice."

Li Shishi reminded Pei Yuan, "Lu Wan is not a Hanlin either, so it is impossible for him to take over as the Minister of Rites. He has been an official in Beijing for many years, so he knows these things better than us."

"Besides, he has made such great contributions. If the court forces him into a dilemma, it is the court's fault. There is no way they can use the Minister of Rites to plot against Lu Wan."

Pei Yuan comforted Li Shishi, "Don't worry, I have already made arrangements. When the time comes, I will make the Minister of War He Jian go away. Lu Wan is a Vice Minister of War, so it is only natural for him to be promoted to the Minister of War. As long as the position of the Minister of War becomes vacant, no one can give a reason to force Lu Wan to move to another position."

After hearing this, Li Shishi fell silent.

You can just get rid of a Minister of War, one of the seven ministers of the imperial court, and do you mean you don't want to get involved in the affairs of the imperial court?

Pei Yuan was not pretending when he said this, but he was indeed quite confident.

Although He Jian used the "Ma Zhongxi case" to worsen the conflict between Yang Tinghe and Yang Yiqing, he became the key third person.

However, as someone involved, He Jian certainly understood that he was not the only one hiding in the dark, there was also a mysterious force behind the scenes that had intervened.

When Pei Yuan first approached him to point out his key role in the "Ma Zhongxi case", He Jian might have considered digging out Pei Yuan's background and finding out who was behind the plot.

But when He Jian was hesitant to take action, the recently popular "virtuous eunuch" Bi Zhen, the eunuch guarding Shandong, suddenly exposed the "Ma Zhongxi case".

He Jian should have understood that the force behind this matter was probably even more powerful than he thought.

If we trace this matter back step by step and look for the traces of Bi Zhen's sudden disclosure of the letter, it is not difficult to find bigger clues.

But for He Jian, it was unwise to break off relations with a newly emerged force when he was being attacked from both inside and outside by Yang Tinghe and Yang Yiqing.

The best option is to take advantage of the situation and seize the opportunity to ask for a price from both Yang Tinghe and Yang Yiqing.

When Yang Tinghe and Yang Yiqing reached a reconciliation with him, he withdrew bravely with the fruits of victory.

Only after he has protected himself and quickly made himself useless can the leverage in the hands of others become cheap and they will give up their control over him.

Pei Yuan believed that He Jian was a smart man, and he didn't mind if He Jian took the bait and ran away.

Being able to get rid of one of the Seven Lords who was in great power without any bloodshed through a series of schemes was already a great victory.

He Jian should be able to exit with dignity soon. If he doesn't want to, Pei Yuan also has ways to help him do so.

Li Shishi listened to Pei Yuan continue to say, "Lu Wan has no chance to be promoted to the position of Left Censor-in-Chief, so he doesn't have to personally take action against his former accomplices. Without this bloody breakup, not to mention that the Qingliu cannot fully trust Lu Wan, I'm afraid even Lu Wan will have the idea of ​​leaving a line of defense with Liu Jin's remnants."

"The previous anti-Liu Jin camp was very powerful, led by strong men such as Yang Tinghe, the chief minister of the cabinet, Yang Yiqing, the minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and He Jian, the minister of the Ministry of War, and a series of officials gathered around them."

"Yang Tinghe has many students of the same age, Yang Yiqing has the Jiangxi faction that he released himself, and the weakest He Jian has also collected the political legacy left after Li Dongyang retired. Faced with such a lineup, Lu Wan, who handed over his military duties, could only wait anxiously for them to give him rewards. He had no choice but to accept the letter of surrender to hunt down the remnants of Liu Jin."

"But what now?"

"The three great masters of the Qingliu School have been, have been, have been split apart by themselves."

"When Lu Wancheng becomes the Minister of War, he will have the qualifications to be the only leader of a faction. By then, how much will he still be afraid of the Qingliu?"

"In this way, the once solid Qingliu forces were dismembered into several pieces. The chess pieces of the Ming court were completely brought to life."

Pei Yuan said, sympathizing with Li Shishi, "This is not a bad thing for us. The more fiercely these seven ministers fight, the less pressure the governor will have, right?"

Li Shishi listened to Pei Yuan's words and had some thoughts in his mind. He asked, "Is Lu Wan reliable?"

Pei Yuan thought to himself, it’s unnecessary for you to ask this question.

In history, although there were many people who participated in King Ning's "breaking through the three gates", and various gods entered one after another, the main force pushing this matter forward was Lu Wan.

This Lu Wan is a super opportunist.

Pei Yuan felt that Lu Wan might be too weak to rely on the remnants of Liu Jin who had ulterior motives, so he simply helped him lay a foreshadowing with Li Shishi in advance.

"I don't know if Dadu Xian knows about Lu Wan's past."

"This guy was too cowardly to take action against the eunuchs, which made his classmates hate him and put him at the top of the list of people who beat up eunuchs. In the end, he was praised by the former Minister of Personnel Wang Shu and became successful."

"After this man became a brave anti-eunuch warrior due to his cowardice, he bribed Liu Jin and became a clean official like Zuo Qiandu Yushi."

"Not long after that, he became the commander of an army of hundreds of thousands, even though he was a civilian official."

"When the eunuch party was destroyed, he was at the frontline suppressing the rebellion and in control of the army, so Yang Yiqing and Zhang Yong did not dare to settle accounts with him. He managed to hold on until he achieved enough merit to protect himself."

"This person's life trajectory is so bizarre, how could he not have extra hope when faced with a choice?"

"If he doesn't completely break with Liu Jin's eunuch party, the Qingliu people won't dare to let him hold a high position in the court without any worry."

Li Shishi finally showed the wisdom of Ning Wang Zhang Liang. "So, I should take the initiative to help Lu Wan and create more dog-eat-dog situations in the court. This way, I can share more pressure."

Pei Yuan pointed out the key point, "The key point is that we cannot target the remnants of Liu Jin's party."

Pei Yuan took great pains to create the current situation, not to help Lu Wan, but to form a political encirclement of Yang Tinghe on the basis of protecting Wang Chang.

(End of this chapter)