Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1028: Intended for Pei Gong
"The Prime Minister! The Second Prime Minister! Marquis of Ningshan..." Zhu Shenzhui was alert, but did not let Gu Guoen continue speaking. He directly called Wen Tiren and others.

As the emperor spoke, Wen Tiren, Zhang Zhifa, Wang Jinwu, Chen Qiuyu, Chen Xinjia and others stood up one after another and saluted the emperor.

"How do you explain the impeachment made by Gu Guoen, the Minister of Justice?"

"Your Majesty! Although Gu Guoen, as a censor, has the right to report rumors, the things he impeached are completely nonsense. I have never colluded with the Jiannu and sold out the country!" Wen Tiren's face was livid. He had been the prime minister for so long, and he had never been short of impeachments. After all, as the saying goes, it is a mediocre person who does not attract jealousy. As the head of all officials, he was the target of public criticism and had always been the target of attacks by the censors. But Wen Tiren thought that even if he had some shortcomings in his personal morality, he had never had any selfish intentions in national affairs, and he did not care about those impeachments at all.

But what Gu Guoen said today really pissed Wen Tiren off. Gu Guoen actually pinned such a crime on him. How could this be impeachment? It was clearly an attempt to put him to death! Moreover, Wen Tiren knew very well what was going on in Korea and Liaodong. The Ming Dynasty had finally taken advantage of the chaos in Korea to stir up civil strife in the Qing Dynasty, causing Hauge to rule in Korea and Dorgon in Liaodong to be at odds with him. In this case, why couldn't the Ming Dynasty properly support Hauge to deal with Dorgon?

As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Once the civil war between Hauge and Dorgon breaks out, the pressure on the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong will be greatly reduced, which is of great benefit.

This matter is very confidential and not many people know about it. Let's not talk about where Gu Guoen got the information. The problem is that something that is obviously beneficial to the Ming Dynasty is turned into treason in Gu Guoen's mouth. How can Wen Tihen tolerate this?

Wen Tiren immediately refuted, and not only him, the deputy assistant, Zhang Zhifa, was also excited and insisted that it was absolutely not true. Zhang Zhifa was not young anymore, and he was able to become the deputy assistant by sheer luck. If he had not relied on Wen Tiren, he would not have been able to enter the cabinet with his ability. After becoming the deputy assistant, he always followed Wen Tiren's lead, and Zhu Shenzhu continued to retain Wen Tiren after entering Beijing, which allowed Zhang Zhifa to sit firmly in the position of deputy assistant.

However, Zhang Zhifa himself knew that he might not be able to serve as the second assistant for too long. This trend became increasingly obvious, especially after Wang Jinwu entered the cabinet. Zhu Shenzhui reset the number and proportion of cabinet members and, more importantly, broke the pattern of the cabinet being dominated by civil officials.

As a noble and military representative, although Wang Jinwu could not become the first assistant, it was certain that he would replace Zhang Zhifa as the second assistant. Moreover, Zhang Zhifa knew his own abilities. In addition, he was old and his energy was not good enough. These days, Zhang Zhifa had been thinking about leaving the cabinet and finally returning home. As long as he completed this step, he would be successful and return home peacefully. In addition, he could give up the position of second assistant to Wang Jinwu, leaving a good impression in the hearts of the emperor and Wang Jinwu and others.

So, Zhang Zhifa is now preparing to retire, but when he is about to retire, Gu Guoen throws such dirty water on him, even accusing him of colluding with the Prime Minister to sell out the country. How can Zhang Zhifa bear it? Once this crime is put on him and cannot be shaken off, Zhang Zhifa's lifelong hard work will go to waste, which Zhang Zhifa cannot accept at all.

"Gu Guoen, you just impeached me and others for collaborating with the enemy and secretly negotiating peace with the Qing army. You also kept saying that you have hard evidence. Where is the hard evidence? Produce it! If you can't, don't blame me for punishing you as the Second Prime Minister!" Zhang Zhi was so angry that he was shaking all over, and he immediately refuted and retorted.

Gu Guoen took a step forward and was about to speak when another official stood up from the court. This person had a loud voice and spoke first: "What does the Deputy Minister mean by this? As a censor, Lord Gu has the right to report rumors. This is the ancestral system established by Taizu. Could it be that the Deputy Minister wants to destroy our Ming system?"

As soon as these words came out, everyone's attention was immediately attracted. Everyone looked closely and saw that the person who stood up to speak was actually the Right Censor-in-Chief Song Shan. Song Shan said: "Everyone knows why Taizu established this system back then. If the censors have no such power to impeach court ministers, why should this position be set up in the court? How can we supervise all officials? Moreover, Lord Gu has just asked clearly, where are the former Jiannu Zhenglan Banner troops who surrendered to our Ming Dynasty? Where are the guerrilla general Jingwuer people? What are the soldiers and horses of Shandong General Li Youtong's navy on Jeju Island doing now? Where did the materials transferred from Shandong to Korea go these days? Please answer these questions, if you can solve everyone's doubts, it will naturally be Lord Gu's fault, but if you can't explain it clearly, there must be a problem!"

"Master Song is right!" Just as Song Shan finished speaking, another person stood up. This person was Xie Zaiyang, a doctor in the Ministry of Rites. He echoed, "The Jiannu rebelled since the Wanli period, and rose to prominence in the Battle of Sarhu. For decades, the Jiannu have been entrenched in Liaodong and eyeing the interior of the country. They are a great threat to the Ming Dynasty and even a great enemy! After the Ji Yi Incident, the Jiannu entered the interior of the country and committed all kinds of evil in the Ming Dynasty, burning, killing, looting and almost turning the capital into a wasteland. The Ming Dynasty and the Jiannu have a blood feud. There is no two suns in the sky and no two masters in a country. The Jiannu called himself a false emperor in Liaodong, and his ambition is obvious!"

"Now that the Holy Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is in power, although the internal strife has been quelled, the external enemies are still there. The Jian Nu and the Ming Dynasty are irreconcilable, so how can we live in peace? When I read history, I can't help but sigh with regret when I think of the Jingkang Incident. The disaster of the Jin people's threat of peace is still before our eyes. The Ming Dynasty cannot follow the example of the Northern Song Dynasty and negotiate peace with the Jian Nu! This is the way to the destruction of the country! Your Majesty!"

"I second the proposal!"

"I also second the proposal!"

"I beg your majesty to thoroughly investigate this matter and punish the culprit severely!"

"I risk my life to make a remonstrance..." At once, several people stood up one after another. Looking down from the dragon throne, the throne was full of heads. Nearly half of them were censors, and there were also officials of all levels from the six ministries. Among them were low-ranking officials like Gu Guoen, and there were also several high-ranking officials. Zhu Shenzhui's eyelids twitched when he saw this scene. He felt extremely angry and felt a little unwell.

Faced with such a situation, Wen Tiren and others would not back down. They knew very well that once they backed down or admitted the matter, today's matter would be out of control. Although Wen Tiren and others understood that this matter was ostensibly aimed at the cabinet, the Ministry of War, Shandong, Liaodong and even Korea, it was actually aimed at Zhu Shenzhui who sat on the throne.

You have to know that the real mastermind behind this matter was Emperor Yongming, and Wen Tihen and others were even more worried that if Zhu Shenzhui could not withstand the pressure, he would directly throw the matter onto them in order to divert the conflict. This would be a big trouble. Secretly negotiating peace with the Jiannu or even treason was a serious crime, with the lighter punishment being dismissal from office and the worse being death.

In order to protect themselves and help the emperor withstand the pressure, Wen Tihen and others could only refute these people in public. For a while, there was an endless battle of words in the court. The two sides were deadlocked and in chaos, leaving many officials who were not prepared at all stunned. At the same time, various changes occurred in their minds. They were thinking about how to protect themselves in this sudden incident, or whether they could take advantage of the situation to fish in troubled waters.

Zhu Shenzhui tried hard to suppress his anger. He had never expected what happened today, and he never thought such a situation would happen.

Now the discussion is no longer about whether to negotiate peace or not, but they are using this as an excuse to deliberately cause trouble. Their intentions are extremely sinister.

Zhu Shenzhu knew that if they continued to quarrel like this, not only would the order of the court be unstable, but it would even get worse and worse, and it would be difficult to deal with it by then. Zhu Shenzhu did not hesitate and winked at Lu Jiude beside him. Lu Jiude stood up and asked the guards to immediately maintain the order of the court in the name of the chief eunuch. At the same time, Zhu Shenzhu did not wait for everyone to react and said that this matter was a serious matter. Although there were censors impeaching, there was no real evidence. It was impossible to make a conclusion based on rumors. Since the censors heard about the matter, they should submit the memorial first. As for the impeached people, the emperor would send people to investigate after reading the impeachment memorials. Everything would be concluded after investigation.

After Zhu Shenzhui's conclusion, some of the censors were still unwilling to give up and took a tough stance, as if they wanted results today. Some even knelt on the ground and kowtowed, crying and snotting, ready to make a death-defying appeal. Others suggested that although the emperor wanted to conduct a thorough investigation, this matter was not a trivial matter. In order to ensure that the truth was revealed and to protect national interests, the impeached officials should be temporarily suspended. In addition, the censors must be involved in the investigation and verification of this matter, which would be fairer.

Zhu Shenzhui ignored these suggestions, stood up with a cold face and turned to leave. As the emperor suddenly left, Lu Jiude shouted "Resign" in a long tone.

After the emperor left, all the officials looked at each other in bewilderment. The officials who had been there before originally planned to make some more trouble, but at this time, the Minister of the Imperial Guard Xu Xiancheng arrived with a team of imperial guards, took control of the hall and cleared the area. They had no choice but to leave in disappointment.

Zhu Shencui strode back to the side hall of the Qianqing Palace. After entering the side hall, his face looked very ugly. He sat down and picked up the teacup beside him to drink, but he didn't expect that the tea in the teacup was cold. Zhu Shencui was so angry that he smashed the teacup directly to the ground.

With a clang, the exquisite teacup was smashed to pieces, and Lu Jiude, who was standing at the door, was so frightened that his heart was pounding. He had been serving the emperor for a short time, and had never seen the emperor get so angry. What happened in the court today also made Lu Jiude feel that something was wrong. He knew that the emperor was so angry that he didn't even dare to breathe.

Smashing the teacup gave Zhu Shenzhui an outlet to vent his anger and calmed his mind a little.

Exhaling heavily, Zhu Shenzui glanced at the fragments on the ground, then shifted his gaze to look ahead, staring intently at the bookshelf beside him, not knowing what he was thinking.

After a long while, Zhu Shenzhui finally withdrew his gaze and said in his usual unhurried voice: "Lu Jiude!"

"The slave is here!"

"Let Zhou Anmin and Xu Xiancheng come to see me!"

(End of this chapter)