Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 126 Getting rid of Yang Tinghe (Second update, please subscribe, please subscribe first)

Forbidden City.

Guo Rong found Zhu Houzhao: "Your Majesty, Wang Ao is dead!"

"What! Bastard! Who did it? Although Wang Ao is guilty, he is my mentor after all! Therefore, even though he is guilty of a capital crime, I will only exile him!
And who dares to harm him like this now!

What are you Jinyiwei doing in broad daylight? Check it out immediately!
From now on, the number of officers and soldiers in the Jinyiwei Beizhenfu Division will be doubled! Immediately recruit talented people from the poor common people to serve! If I know that any ministers in the court died an unnatural death again, I will not be polite! "

Zhu Houzhao became furious and scolded Guo Rong.

Guo Rong knew that Zhu Houzhao was acting, so he didn't say much and just nodded.

Zhu Houzhao did this in order to take the opportunity to expand the Jinyiwei to protect himself and safeguard his imperial power. After all, he could guess that there must be more and more officials and gentry who were dissatisfied with him in the world, and there would be more and more in the future, so he had to prepare in advance.

However, Zhu Houzhao did not initially think of using Wang Ao's death to expand the Jinyiwei. It was mainly because of Wang Ao's hypocrisy and his intention to let the clean officials force him to return to Beijing that made Zhu Houzhao realize that even if he exiled Wang Ao it would be of no avail. It would be better to assassinate him and take the opportunity to expand the Jinyiwei and increase the monitoring of the clean officials to prevent them from causing trouble.

……

Just as Zhu Houzhao had expected, the Qingliu officials were indeed resentful about Wang Ao's demotion.

"The prince has been demoted, and I, the Qingliu, will lose another capable general!"

"Once the prince leaves the capital, what can we do to fight the turbid current? I'm afraid we will be in danger in the future!"

At this time, Yang Tinghe also secretly met with Yan Hanlin and Zhuang Zhongyun:
"Now that Wang Ao has been demoted from the capital, it is a great loss to us, the Qingliu. We thought that Wang Ao could force Your Majesty to hold a lecture to destroy the capital, but now it seems to be useless. Your Majesty's stubbornness is beyond our expectations!
The best plan now is not to let Wang Ao leave Beijing! He can't even be demoted. If Wang Ao can't join the cabinet, I will have no one to help me when I join the cabinet in the future, and you will not be able to join the cabinet in the future!

Therefore, you must take advantage of the fact that the upright officials and scholars are not happy for Wang Ao, and organize the students of the capital to go to the imperial palace to petition for Wang Ao, and ask His Majesty to severely punish Yan Song, the traitor, and clear Wang Ao's name!"

"But if Your Majesty still refuses, what should we do if all the ministers are imprisoned by the Imperial Guards like they did when they pleaded for Li Dongyang?"

Yan Hanlin asked.

"At that time, Your Majesty dared to kill Li Dongyang because he had solid evidence of regicide! Now if you go again, and you are not suspected of regicide, Your Majesty will not be able to do anything to you. At least I believe that Ma Wensheng and others will not dare to support Your Majesty in punishing the people by law! They will even try their best to stop it! I will also try my best to stop it when the time comes! Even if you don't believe Ma Wensheng, you must believe me. I will stop Your Majesty at the cost of my own life!"

Yang Tinghe said coldly.

Zhuang Zhongyun was somewhat tempted: "In that case, this matter can be done. Li Mengyang's death had already caused resentment among many scholars and literati. Now Wang Ao has been demoted and exiled from the capital, and even had his right hand chopped off. I'm afraid they are already furious! Especially those officials and students from Jiangnan."

At this time, Yang Tinghe's trusted servant came running over and said, "Master, I just got the news that Wang Ao was killed!"

"what!"

Yan Hanlin and Zhuang Zhongyun stood up upon hearing this, and looked at Yang Tinghe in astonishment.

Yang Tinghe was also stunned for a moment, then looked at Yan Hanlin and Zhuang Zhongyun: "It was Yan Song who killed him! It was the Yan Song from the Imperial University who killed him! You say it is and it is not!"

"Yes, it was him! It was Yan Song who killed him! Now this will easily arouse the anger of our upright officials and scholars. Kill the traitor Yan Song! Revolt for Wang Gong! Demolish the Imperial University!"

"Yes, kill Yan Song! Revolt for Wang Gong! Demolish the Imperial University!"

Yan Hanlin and Zhuang Zhongyun both echoed.

"You two go and prepare first. Once it's done and the date is confirmed, you two can come and tell me so that I can go to the palace!" Yang Tinghe said, and then he bowed and said, "I'll leave everything to you!"

Yan Hanlin and Zhuang Zhongyun bowed and said, "Master, rest assured!"

After Yan Hanlin and Zhuang Zhongyun left, Yang Tinghe's trusted servant couldn't help but ask, "Master, didn't you say we don't have to do anything? Why do we let them do it?"

"You don't have to do anything. I, Yang Tinghe, did nothing in the first place," Yang Tinghe said with a smile after taking a sip of tea.

The trusted servant thought about it and asked hurriedly, "Master, can they succeed in this?"

"It would be great if it succeeds. If it succeeds, it means Zhu Houzhao is sensible. If it fails, it would be even better! By then, the gentry in the world will hate such a tyrant even more. Wouldn't it be more popular if we kill him? But no matter what, Yan Hanlin and Zhuang Zhongyun must die. The next time they come to find me through the secret passage, I will kill them directly in the secret passage!"

Yang Tinghe said.

His trusted servant quickly agreed.

Then, Yang Tinghe ordered again: "Prepare the sedan chair and go to Master Ma's residence!"

Now that Wang Ao has been demoted, the two assistant ministers' positions in the Ministry of Personnel are vacant again. Yang Tinghe has to fight for them no matter what.

……

Zhu Houzhao also received news from Gu Dayong.

"Your Majesty, we have found out that Yan Hanlin and Zhuang Zhongyun have been looking for him in Li Mengyang's mansion recently. The whereabouts of these two people are quite secretive. However, your Majesty, the spies you asked us to plant in Yang Tinghe's mansion in advance said that he often appears in Yang's mansion! But we have never seen him go out or come in through the front door or back door. He only appears in the mansion, like a ghost."

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but ponder after hearing this: "Yang Tinghe?"

Although many people nowadays do not take Yang Tinghe seriously, Zhu Houzhao has always taken him seriously. The reason is very simple. In history, it is very likely that Yang Tinghe was the one who killed Zhengde, and the possibility is very high!
Emperor Zhengde went south to quell the rebellion of Prince Ning, but it was unexpectedly suppressed in advance by Wang Yangming. However, Emperor Zhengde also got to know a lot of evidence of collusion between Prince Ning and Yang Tinghe, so he intended to replace Prime Minister Yang Tinghe. Otherwise, he would not have suddenly visited Yang Yiqing who had retired and returned home.

However, not long after visiting Yang Yiqing, Emperor Zhengde suddenly fell into the water, and then fell ill after entering Beijing. Later, when the imperial physician's treatment was ineffective, Emperor Zhengde wanted to change doctors, but was rejected by Yang Tinghe, who said that Emperor Zhengde's physical weakness was caused by excessive indulgence and that he did not need to change doctors if he just rested well. However, Zhu Houzhao died soon after because of this.

Of course, these are just Zhu Houzhao's current speculations. As a time traveler, he cannot get any evidence. But now that he has become Zhu Houzhao, no matter whether Yang Tinghe has committed regicide or not, he cannot let Yang Tinghe off easily! Moreover, the people of the Western Factory have found out that Yang Tinghe may have colluded with some clean officials to plot something.

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but ask, "How is Yang Tinghe doing recently?"

"He is relatively low-key, but he is a diligent official. He has never participated in any gatherings of clean officials, but he has visited the cabinet and officials of the six ministries. His performance in the imperial examination was also the first in the Zhanshi Mansion!" Gu Dayong replied.

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but pick up a memorial submitted by Wang Shu at this time: "No wonder the latest person to be promoted as the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel is Yang Tinghe!"

"You go down and continue to closely monitor Yang Tinghe and the two clean officials. Also, call Liu Jin!"

Zhu Houzhao laughed after he said this, and thought to himself that if he was not a time traveler, perhaps at this time he would really use Yang Tinghe just based on this memorial and the comments of the officials. What's more, Yang Tinghe was his teacher. But now, Zhu Houzhao naturally would not use Yang Tinghe anymore, and he wanted to get rid of him!
After all, Zhu Houzhao was also worried that he would be harmed again by Yang Tinghe in the future, and if there hadn't been too many things happening recently, he would have taken action long ago. Otherwise, he would not have specifically instructed the Western Factory to place spies in Yang Tinghe's mansion.

Liu Jin came at this time: "I wonder what the emperor wants?"

"Send an order to Yang Tinghe, asking him to come to the Taiye Lake in the Western Garden to see me tomorrow! Swim with me in the Taiye Lake!"

Zhu Houzhao waved to Liu Jin, asking him to lean over and whispered, "When the time comes, you..."

(End of this chapter)