Yongli Ming Dynasty

Chapter 336 Gentleman
He Wuzuo is sitting at the desk in the study in Guangzhou He Mansion. The magnolia flowers outside the window are in full bloom, with branches full of white.

Zhejiang Province Censor Chen Zheng hurried into the room with a serious look on his face. When Chen Zheng saw He Wuzuo behind the table, he immediately spoke

"Teacher, I have already found out everything. After His Highness returned to the palace yesterday, he sent someone to get the fish scale atlas of Chaozhou and Huizhou from the Ministry of Revenue and bring it to the palace."

He Wuzhuo heard this, but his face was calm, and a look of understanding flashed in his eyes.
Others in the court did not know, but He Wuzuo and other cabinet ministers knew very well that His Royal Highness the Regent had already planned to deal with Chaozhou and Huizhou.

After the recapture of Chaozhou and Huizhou, His Royal Highness the Regent directly dismissed all the officials in the two prefectures, regardless of their rank, and a large number of official positions were immediately vacated in Chaozhou and Huizhou.
Chaozhou and Huizhou were the largest prefectures in Guangdong Province after Guangzhou, and they were close to the imperial capital Guangzhou at that time. Naturally, they were rare and good positions, but in the end, none of the parties in the court intervened. Instead, Chen Bangyan led the miscellaneous officials of the Guanzheng Hall to control the two prefectures.
Why didn't He Wuzhuo, Lu Daqi and other cabinet ministers send people to the two prefectures? It was because they already knew that His Royal Highness the Regent was going to deal with the gentry in the two prefectures and distribute the land in the two prefectures to the soldiers in the army.

He Wuzuo and others had thought about stopping this matter. Although the gentry of Chaozhou and Huizhou deserved to die, they were still decent gentry after all.
How could the court confiscate the land of the two prefectures like this? If this becomes a routine, what will happen in the future?

However, the dissuasion of He Wuzuo and others ultimately failed, and the cabinet failed to stop this matter. On the one hand, His Royal Highness the Regent had won a great victory over the Qing invaders and his prestige was high. On the other hand, there was no unity within the court.

In order to defend the city, Zhu Lang forced Lü Daqi, Su Guansheng, Liu Yuansheng and other civil and military officials to use their seals on the document granting land.

In other words, this matter was not only the will of His Highness, but also the two cabinet ministers and more than a dozen civil servants above the fourth rank were also involved in this matter.
Under such circumstances, it was almost impossible to change the land grant, and the civil officials in the court soon faced a problem:

When the land was distributed to boost morale, the seal was used freely. Now that the war is over, where are they going to find hundreds of thousands of acres of land to distribute to the soldiers who participated in defending the city?
Although the court had just won a great victory in Guangzhou, there were still a large number of Qing troops in Fujian and Jiangxi provinces who could attack at any time. The court was counting on the soldiers to defend the land and resist the enemy, so no one dared to delay the reward of the army.
At that time, the imperial court only controlled Guangxi and Guangdong provinces. If they did not move against Chaohui, they would have to strike at Guangxi or the prefectures in Guangzhou.

The two prefectures of Chaozhou and Huizhou surrendered without firing a single shot, which made His Majesty the Regent very angry and also gave the court a legitimate reason.
After some discussion, the cabinet ministers agreed to confiscate the land of the two prefectures and distribute it to the troops.

Since the granting of land cannot be stopped, it is better to cut someone else with the knife than to cut yourself.

The court decided to confiscate the land of the two prefectures. Then the court faced another problem: who would confiscate the land of the two prefectures?
Lu Daqi is a person from another province, but He Wuzuo is a scholar from Guangdong Province.
If He Wuzuo inserted his men into the Chaozhou and Huizhou prefectures, and His Royal Highness the Regent took action against the gentry of the two prefectures, would he do it or not?

Given the temper of His Majesty the Regent, if He Wuzhuo dared to disobey his orders, he would probably be dismissed immediately.
But if he dealt with the two governments according to the imperial decree, he would immediately be accused of suppressing the villagers, and He Wuzuo's reputation among the scholars in Guangdong Province would be ruined.
Several ministers in the court took this into consideration, so they allowed Su Guansheng's people to control the two governments.

Su Guansheng entered the cabinet as a student in the Longwu Dynasty to assist in government affairs. The court and the public all regarded him as a flatterer. Su Guansheng did not care about his reputation, but Lu Daqi and He Wuzuo and others did not care. Since the affairs of the two governments were thorny, they simply did not get involved.

In fact, the people in the court had not forgotten about allocating land to the army, but everyone in the court subconsciously ignored it.
The situation was urgent that day, and the ministers in the court had no choice but to agree to punish the gentry of the two prefectures and confiscate their land.
But now the situation in the court has stabilized, and it is no longer necessary to immediately rally the troops as it was then.

If that's the case, then why not postpone it for a while? Maybe His Highness will forget about it. This way, the court won't have to take action against the gentry of the two prefectures, and everyone will be happy.

After His Highness led the army to war last year, the officials in the court also tacitly agreed not to mention this matter again.
But yesterday, the wounded soldiers in the army brought up the issue of granting land to His Highness, and His Highness was obviously not prepared to delay it any longer.

He Wuzuo was thinking about the impact of Chao Hui's incident on the court, when the door opened again and Ye Tingxiu, the Right Deputy Censor of the Inspectorate, suddenly broke into the room.
Ye Tingxiu held a piece of letter paper in his hand and said directly after entering the room

"Xiantai, I just got news from the Ministry of Revenue that His Royal Highness the Regent has transferred the fish scale books of Chaozhou and Huizhou Prefectures to the palace. His Royal Highness may be using the names of the two prefectures to take action this time."

He Wuzuo looked at Ye Tingxiu who looked anxious, but his brows were slightly frowned. Ye Tingxiu was the Right Deputy Censor-in-Chief after all. Although it was urgent for His Highness to deal with the affairs of the two governments, why was he so flustered that he was even worse than Chen Zheng?
He Wuzuo gestured with his hand and said softly
"Qianzhai, please take a seat first. I already know that Your Highness wants to divide the land between the two prefectures."

Ye Tingxiu was stunned at first, but then he reacted and immediately said

"Xiantai, this is not about the division of land, this is the latest news, Xiantai should read it first."

Ye Tingxiu handed the letter to He Wuzuo behind the table. He Wuzuo took the letter and looked at the contents on the paper. His expression became more gloomy.
After reading the contents of the paper, He Wuzuo could not help but stand up and said angrily
"The imperial court has always been sympathetic to scholars, so all the people in the world are loyal to the imperial court. This is also the foundation of the imperial court."

"The imperial court is currently fighting the Qing invaders. Your Highness's harsh treatment of scholars will surely alienate scholars all over the world. This is absolutely not feasible."

He Wuzuo looked at Ye Tingxiu below and asked in a deep voice:

"Where did this news come from? When did you learn about it?"

"I only know that the news came from the Ministry of Revenue. I learned about this matter in the government office after noon today, and immediately came to report it. This matter cannot be wrong. I am afraid that the heads of various departments have already known about this matter."

Ye Tingxiu hesitated for a moment and then spoke again

"I heard that several clerks from the Ministry of Revenue were taken away by the Jinyifu this afternoon."

"Xiantai, what should we do now? The day after tomorrow is the day of the grand court session. I'm afraid that His Highness will have to deal with this matter in court during the grand court session."

He Wuzuo heard this, but just waved his hand and asked Ye Tingxiu to sit down, then sat back in his chair, looking at the letter in his hand with a frown on his face.
After Ye Tingxiu sat down, he took a sip from the tea bowl on the table, then sat on the chair, frowning and thinking.
Ye Tingxiu thought for a moment, and seeing that He Wuzuo had been silent for a long time, he was about to speak, but suddenly he saw Chen Zheng in the room, so he also spoke

"Does Ting Biao have anything else to do?"

Chen Zheng didn't know what the information in Ye Tingxiu's hand was until now, and He Wuzuo and Ye Tingxiu had no intention of explaining.

When Chen Zheng saw Ye Tingxiu coming, he was stunned at first, but then he immediately understood that Ye Tingxiu might have something to discuss with He Wuzuo.

Chen Zheng looked up and saw He Wuzuo nodded slightly, so he bowed to the two of them and left the room. Ye Tingxiu saw the door closed, then looked up at He Wuzuo and said

"Xiantai, the intentions of the palace are unclear. This matter has suddenly spread to all departments. It is obviously not groundless."

"But as the Xiantai said, this is a violation of our dynasty's ancestral system of preferential treatment for the gentry. If this is really implemented, it will alienate the gentry and greatly damage the foundation of the court."

"After the palace took away the fish scale books of the two governments yesterday, I learned that Wu Zhigao, Li Tingzhu and others in the court had colluded with each other."

"It's inconvenient for us to go there in person, so maybe we can borrow some of these people."

Wu Zhigao was from Huizhou Prefecture, while Li Tingzhu was from a prominent family in Chaozhou Prefecture. The two brothers, Li Tingzhu and Li Shichang, were quite famous among the scholars in Guangdong Province. People in Guangdong Province called them the twin gems of the Li family.

He Wuzuo shook his head when he heard this, but before he could speak, there was another knock on the door.
The door opened, and the steward of the He Mansion walked into the room and was about to report, but when he saw Ye Tingxiu sitting on the chair, he hesitated again.

He Wuzuo frowned and said directly

"Why are you hesitating? Just say it directly."

"Yes, the head of the Ministry of Justice, Mr. Wu Zhigao, just sent a letter, saying that he wants to see the master, and also sent some valuable gifts."

Ye Tingxiu, who was standing by, heard this and suddenly said:

"Wu Zhigao and his people also went to see Elder Chen yesterday."

He Wuzuo stopped talking after hearing what Ye Tingxiu said, looked at Ye Tingxiu, and said

"Chen Jisheng saw them"

"As far as I know, there shouldn't be any."

He Wuzuo heard this, but his face was not surprised, and he also said

"Chen Jisheng has always been aloof. If people like him want to do something, even if you put a knife to his neck, he will still do it."

"If he doesn't want to do it, even if you put a mountain of gold in front of him, he won't even look at it. Wu Zhigao and his friends took the things to find Chen Jisheng, but they went the wrong way."

He Wuzuo just said one sentence and then stopped talking. He looked at the manager below.
"Go tell Wu Zhigao that I'm handling official business at the Inspectorate. If there's anything, ask him to come to the Inspectorate to find me."

"Also, return everything they brought."

The steward saw the indifference on He Wuzuo's face and his expression became tense. He responded and left in a hurry.

He Wuzuo looked at Ye Tingxiu who was hesitant to speak and said

"When you go back, tell the people below that they must not have anything to do with Wu Zhigao and his gang. Do you understand?"

Ye Tingxiu was silent for a moment before he spoke.

"So are we just going to watch and do nothing?"

“Now it’s just Chaohui, but the next one will be Guangdong Province.”

He Wuzuo had a calm expression on his face and said

"Of course we can't just sit there and do nothing. You should go find Lord Qu and tell him what's on the letter. Tell him that I have something important to discuss and ask Lord Qu to summon all the other ministers to discuss this matter."

Ye Tingxiu's expression relaxed when he heard this, but then a hint of hesitation flashed across his face.

"Should we invite Lord Su? Lord Su is..."

He Wuzuo glanced at Ye Tingxiu below, but his face was indifferent, and he said

"I invited all the elders to discuss matters impartially. There is nothing to be avoided in court affairs. Why not invite Elder Su?"

"Not only should we invite Lord Su, but we should also invite him openly."

Ye Tingxiu looked at He Wuzuo, who had a calm expression, and his heart was suddenly startled. He immediately reacted, bowed to He Wuzuo above him, and then hurried out of the room.
(End of this chapter)