Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 367: Killing Yan Shifan and Going to Sea with the Emperor

Xia Yan ignored Yan Song. He naturally didn't need to be partial to Yan Song and just sat back.
"Why did Lord Yan do this? He allowed the young master to be greedy and embezzle the state treasury. The legal system is no longer the same as before, and you will not be implicated. As for the fault of not educating your son properly, Xia will naturally not pursue it. There is nothing to pursue. There are differences between wise and foolish descendants. What can you and I do about it?"

Yan Song knew that he had offended Xia Yan before, and it was already magnanimous of Xia Yan not to use this opportunity to defeat him. It was impossible for him to show favoritism for him, but he still wanted to fight for it.

After all, Yan Shifan was his own flesh and blood, and the imperial court was always harsh on corrupt officials. He didn't know why his son dared to do such a thing, but now he could only kneel in front of Xia Yan with all his might: "Prime Minister, please have mercy on me!"

Yan Song pleaded with Xia Yan for all sorts of reasons. Upon seeing this, Xia Yan helped Yan Song up and said, "Please stand up, Lord Yan. You and I are from the same hometown. Although your son was involved in the embezzlement of state funds, he was not the mastermind. He was just involved. His crime is not punishable by death. Since you are begging me so much, I will keep this matter secret. However, you should warn your son to concentrate on studying and cultivating his character. Don't do such illegal things again! Otherwise, even with your face, Lord Yan, I will never let him go easily."

When Yan Song saw that Xia Yan promised not to report his son Yan Shifan, he felt relieved and was naturally grateful.

But in fact, Xia Yan said this only to temporarily calm Yan Song's heart. How could he, who had never tolerated any grain of sand in his eyes, allow the existence of a national parasite just because of Yan Song's plea?

Therefore, after Xia Yan finished his duty in the cabinet and retired, he immediately passed the evidence given to him by Gao Shi to Hai Rui, who was now known as the Iron-faced Censor.

Today's Censorate is no longer the same as it used to be. Since the post of Left Censor-in-Chief became a military official, it has become difficult for the civil service group to corrode the supervisory function of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition, with upright officials such as Hai Rui serving in the Censorate, the civil servants now understand that as long as a case falls into the Censorate, there is basically no way to turn it around.

However, Yan Song also had confidants in the Censorate, but his confidants were limited to telling him that there was an imperial censor who wanted to impeach his son Yan Shifan, and they could no longer stop the imperial censor from impeaching his son.

Therefore, Yan Song soon learned that his son had been impeached.

Yan Song was shocked and frightened. He was surprised that Xia Yan had fooled him. Xia Yan, the chief minister of the cabinet, did not give him face in the end. What was even more cruel was that he reported the matter to Hai Rui for impeachment! He was afraid that Hai Rui was an iron-faced censor who was impartial and would also dig up some of his dirty deeds. If Xia Yan helped him again, wouldn't he lose his job?
Eager to save his son and protect himself, Yan Song immediately asked to see Emperor Zhu Zailei, and knelt down in front of Zhu Zailei, then burst into tears:
"Your Majesty! I am an old minister who is foolish and has not taught my son well, which has led to my son's lawlessness and collusion with corrupt officials to embezzle state funds. However, my son is young and inexperienced in the ways of the world, and he does not know that what Yan Maoqing and others did is illegal, so he only knows how to show off, which has led to him being used by corrupt officials. Therefore, I beg Your Majesty to forgive my son's death penalty for the sake of my decades of hard work for the Ming Dynasty and my son's ignorance! Moreover, I only have this one son, and now I am in my eighties, and I cannot be without an heir! Woo woo!"

Emperor Zhu Zailei did not know that Yan Shifan had committed a crime at this time. Now seeing Yan Song so heartbroken, and because of Yan Song's recent discord with Xia Yan, he had recently developed a good impression of Yan Song. Now seeing Yan Song crying so sadly, he was naturally moved.

Moreover, as an emperor, he had also experienced the pain of losing his children, and the current crown prince was just a son born in middle age. Even now, he only had two sons, which was quite desolate. Seeing Yan Song like this, he felt a sense of sympathy. After taking the memorial submitted by the Censorate and reading it, he did not care much about the corruption of Yan Shifan and Yan Maoqing, and could only comfort Yan Song:

"Your Excellency has made great contributions to the country and is old and respected. Even if your son is not virtuous, I will not be mean and ungrateful. And your son is indeed only involved in the corruption, not the main culprit. I promise you that I will not sentence him to death. Can you rest assured?"

Zhu Zailei asked as he spoke.

Upon seeing this, Yan Song hurriedly kowtowed to express his gratitude.

Therefore, Zhu Zaile instructed the Ministry of Justice to treat Yan Shifan leniently and spare him the death penalty of skinning.

However, the Minister of Punishments Tu Kai rejected this, stating that according to the Outline of the Constitution promulgated by the Ming Dynasty, anyone guilty of the serious crime of corruption in the dynasty, regardless of whether they were a prince or an official, would be beheaded and skinned. This was especially true for Yan Shifan and others who were suspected of embezzling 300,000 silver yuan.

This surprised Emperor Zhu Zailei very much. He had not expected that he would be rejected by officials on criminal justice.

In fact, this was justifiable in terms of the ruling procedure, and Zhu Zailei could not refute it, because according to the "Outline of the Constitution", the legislative power was in the hands of the emperor, and the punishment of beheading and skinning corrupt officials was a clear decree made by the Zhengde Emperor Zhu Houzhao in accordance with the ancestral example of Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang.

Now Emperor Zhu Zailei could not disobey the law. He could only make new laws, or, at the request of the legislators who were currently under the management of the Dali Temple, abolish the decrees of Emperor Zhengde in accordance with the provisions of the constitutional outline.

Logically, it would not be difficult to find an official from the three judicial systems to petition the emperor to change the decree, but the problem was that Emperor Zhengde was not dead yet, and Emperor Zhu Zailei could not dare to arbitrarily change the decree left by Zhu Houzhao just because of Yan Shifan.

then.

Zhu Zailei then continued to throw the ball to his father, Zhu Houzhao, the Emperor Emeritus of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Zaile directly sent someone to deliver the memorial proposed by a legislative proposer to amend the law and the fact that he intended to exonerate Yan Shifan to Zhu Houzhao by express horse.

Yan Shifan never expected that by some strange coincidence, his fate would fall into the hands of the retired Emperor Zhu Houzhao.

You should know that before this, he had conspired with Zhao Wenhua and others to let the retired emperor Zhu Houzhao return to Beijing, and was prepared to help the new emperor put the retired emperor under house arrest and help his father overthrow Xia Yan and become the prime minister.

"We treated Gao Shi well, but we never thought he would still expose us to Xia Yan!"

Yan Maoqing was extremely angry. At this moment, he was already in jail. As a treacherous minister who had thrived in the original history, he was imprisoned before he could make a name for himself in this life. This showed the difference between the current Ming Dynasty and the original Ming Dynasty.

Yan Shifan, who was also in prison, couldn't help but smile bitterly:

"Things haven't gotten so bad that we'll be beheaded. My father is at least the second assistant in the cabinet. I believe the emperor wouldn't want to see Xia Yan and his people harming us like this. Although our lives are now in the hands of the retired emperor, he doesn't know that you and I are secretly against him. He might spare us for my father's sake."

Although Yan Shifan said this, he didn't really believe it in his heart. However, he could only think this way.

After receiving the memorial about amending the law and the request on how to deal with Yan Shifan and others, Zhu Houzhao just smiled, and then bluntly rejected the request to reduce the punishment for the crime of corruption, and clearly demanded that Yan Shifan, Yan Maoqing and others be beheaded together.

……

"Your Majesty, the law cannot be abolished lightly, and corrupt officials cannot be forgiven lightly. Investigate Yan Shifan's collusion... and punish him by beheading and skinning him!"

When the imperial edict was delivered to Yan Shifan, he almost fainted from fright and said in horror: "So, the emperor doesn't even give my father face and still wants to kill me?" "I am innocent! I don't want to die!" When Yan Shifan asked, Yan Maoqing in the next cell had already started crying.

Zhu Houzhao did not know many officials of the Ming Dynasty, but that did not mean that he did not know Yan Shifan. He had no intention of using Yan Song because Yan Song was quite capable. That's why Zhu Houzhao used Yan Song and helped him step by step to his current position as the second assistant of the cabinet. Now that there is conclusive evidence that Yan Shifan committed a crime, Zhu Houzhao would naturally not let Yan Shifan go. He would naturally get rid of him as soon as possible to prevent him from causing greater losses to the Ming Dynasty.

After all, according to Zhu Houzhao's understanding of history, Yan Shifan was still very treacherous in the original history.

However, because of this, the rift between Yan Song and Xia Yan became even deeper.

Yan Song did not dare to resent Zhu Houzhao and knew that he could not resent the retired emperor Zhu Houzhao, so he only hated Xia Yan. In his opinion, it was Xia Yan who caused all this to happen.

It was natural that Emperor Zhu Zailei wanted to see the chief minister and the second chief minister regard each other as enemies.

But these have nothing to do with Zhu Houzhao at the moment. Zhu Houzhao has now gone out to sea, preparing to inspect his thousands of miles of sea borders. In his opinion, when he returns from his inspection, Japan should be incorporated into the territory of the Ming Central Empire.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao's purpose of going to sea was also to get rid of Zhu Yizhuo's surveillance. No matter how filial Zhu Yizhuo behaved, he could not tolerate a person sent by the emperor following him.

This may also be the helplessness of being a member of the royal family.

Zhu Houzhao had another purpose for going to sea, which was to go to the West and to Great Britain to deal with the issue of his son's rule over England.

Zhu Houzhao could see that his eldest son Zhu Zaile was quite capable in ruling the Ming Empire. At least he was good at hiding his ignorance and kept to himself. He used his son, the retired emperor, to suppress the southeastern gentry for him, while he himself played the role of a good guy on both sides.

As the retired emperor, Zhu Houzhao did not expose his son's tricks. He was even relieved by this, because he knew that the Ming Empire would not encounter any major problems under Zhu Zailei's rule.

At that time, Zhu Zailei's mention of the Tudor dynasty in England in his letter alerted Zhu Houzhao, forcing him to decide to go to England.

After all, in history, it was from this era that Britain began to grow stronger step by step, defeating the Spanish Empire, undergoing the bourgeois revolution, entering the era of the Industrial Revolution, and eventually becoming the world's first modern civilized empire on which the sun never sets.

Zhu Houzhao had to prevent the British bourgeoisie from continuing to grow along the original historical trajectory and gradually becoming a threat to the Ming Dynasty.

"It may not be enough to let my son become the King of England, because with the rise of the British bourgeoisie, these people will not take their king seriously," Zhu Houzhao now thought.

Looking at the Ming steam warships gradually going away on the sea in the distance, Zhang Yan, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department, who was ordered to come to persuade the retired emperor Zhu Houzhao to return home on the grounds of the Yishou sacred tree in the capital, could not help but ask Zhu Yizhuo: "May I ask, Your Highness, did the retired emperor really go out to sea?"

"Of course. The Ming Dynasty has been established for nearly two hundred years, and this is the first emperor to go to sea. What a pity!"

Zhu Yizhuo said as he bowed again in the direction of Zhu Houzhao's departure. Zhang Yan also hurriedly followed suit, but at the same time he couldn't help but murmur in his heart:
"Your Majesty and the court officials tried every means to get Your Majesty to return to the capital, even going so far as to have the Crown Prince personally serve and show filial piety, but unexpectedly they still failed to stop the Emperor from wanting to leave. I wonder how Your Majesty felt when he found out."

……

"Did your royal grandfather really go to the West?"

Zhu Zailei was indeed very surprised when he learned the news that Zhu Houzhao went to the West, and he couldn't help but ask Zhu Yizhuo who had already returned to Beijing.

Zhu Yizhu nodded: "Grandpa Emperor said that the whole world is his inheritance, the earth is his imperial garden, and there is no place in the world that he cannot visit. He will not come back until you conquer Japan and make it his retirement home. Now he wants to travel around the world."

"We can't let the emperor stay overseas for too long. Who knows if there will be disloyal people in these overseas vassal states who intend to imprison the emperor and use him to control the princes? After all, as the emperor himself said, the whole world is his foundation. Many of the overseas countries were established by him. Who wouldn't want to keep this god like him in his own golden cage?"

Zhu Zailei couldn't help but say so.

However, Zhu Zailei had no other choice now and could only secretly make up his mind to make the Ming Dynasty more prosperous and maintain its advantageous position as more developed than other countries. Otherwise, he was really worried that his father who went to sea would become an excuse for other countries to attack the Central Empire.

It was Zhu Houzhao's first time to cross the ocean, and it was naturally new to him personally, but what was different was that now the entire earth could be said to be truly his territory. Except for the glacier-covered areas around Antarctica and the Arctic Ocean, there were also some countries in the western part of the Eurasian continent where there was no separation of religion and politics. Almost all the monarchs of countries that could be reached on the sea were his ministers.

Therefore, although Zhu Houzhao was going out to sea, it was more like playing in the lake of his own private garden. The several warships, tens of thousands of officers and soldiers, and other service personnel he brought could dock at any port at any time.

As a result, Zhu Houzhao truly felt the changes that the industrialization of the Ming Empire brought to the world.

The coast of the Ming Dynasty is densely dotted with ports, ships are crowded like a jungle, and factories and high-rise buildings fill the coast.

Many overseas areas outside the coastal areas have become plantations and mining areas. A lot of food and raw materials are transported from these places to the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty's industrial products are transported here for use by the Ming Han nobles who migrated here.

This was naturally the result of Zhu Houzhao setting up the Food Bureau and turning overseas areas into food and raw material bases.

Today, the inland area of ​​the Ming Central Empire has completely become an industrial zone and ecological tourism area, while the overseas area has completely become a mineral development and agricultural production area.

Of course, the exploitation of farmers and workers by capital is even more obvious overseas. Fortunately, Confucian education maintains the rule here, so it is no wonder that the gentry are more eager for overseas life.

Thanks to the book friend 20170905132616435 for the 500 Qidian coins reward

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(End of this chapter)