Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 380 Zhang has a serious illness
Wan'an left excitedly.

In his opinion, he had done something remarkable.

It was a perfect opportunity for him that the foreign minister had the chance to meet the emperor, and could even use it to break up the political alliance between Li Zisheng and Zhang Luan, and have the opportunity to continue to advance the plan of changing the crown prince.

More importantly, he would have the opportunity to meet the emperor with the miracle doctor he found among the people. This was equivalent to bypassing Li Zisheng and giving him more opportunities to meet with the emperor. For the ministers during the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, this was undoubtedly a manifestation and symbol of the highest position in the country.

After Wanan left.

Wei Tai still stood not far from the emperor, waiting for orders.

Zhu Jianshen frowned and asked, "Do you think Wan'an is trustworthy?"

Wei Tai was stunned.

Ask if Wanan is trustworthy?

This is like questioning whether Li Zisheng and Zhang Luan are no longer worthy of the emperor's trust!

Wei Tai replied respectfully: "Your Majesty, regarding the matter of treating your illness, I have also searched for famous doctors among the people, but no one is sure, let alone dares to come to the palace to treat you. Even... now even the people in the Imperial Hospital are... helpless."

Zhu Jianshen asked coldly: "Have you forgotten how you reported to me in the beginning?"

Now Wei Tai was speechless.

Zhu Jianshen had previously ordered an investigation into Zhang Luan's background. Wei Tai was the eunuch commander of the Eastern Depot at the time, and it was he who took the lead in sending people to Hejian Prefecture to conduct a background check on Zhang Luan. After all, the emperor had doubts about whether Zhang Luan had medical skills and whether he was qualified to treat illnesses.

The reason why the emperor did not use Zhang Luan for a long time was not that he was worried that Zhang Luan, the prince's father-in-law, would murder him. It was more because the emperor did not trust Zhang Luan's medical skills. It was not until his illness was terminal and there was no other way to treat him, and with Li Zisheng's strong recommendation, that the emperor finally summoned Zhang Luan into the palace to treat him.

Zhu Jianshen said, "I don't believe that a pedantic scholar who has spent half his life studying can become a good doctor overnight... You can ask someone to check and learn more about this person's background... Alas, I can only... wait for death in peace."

"Your Majesty, you can't say that."

When Wei Tai heard this, his voice choked and he couldn't help wiping away tears.

"Put away your mercy. I don't need pity from others."

Zhu Jianshen glared at Wei Tai and said, "Go quickly when I ask you to do something. Don't think about offending anyone, and don't even think about standing with anyone... Do you know why I suddenly stopped using Tan Chang?"

Wei Tai was cautious and did not dare to answer.

The emperor suddenly abandoned Qin Chang. Although Wei Tai was not clear about the specific reason, he knew that Qin Chang must have touched the emperor's sore spot in some way.

Zhu Jianshen said with a straight face: "No matter how much I trust Li Zisheng, you can't get too close to him, let alone join him in targeting the ministers in the court. Even if those ministers are indeed unreasonable, you must avoid suspicion."

"Yes."

Wei Tai understood immediately.

This refers to the fact that Li Zisheng had previously cooperated with Zhang Luan, the crown prince and others to target two cabinet ministers, Wan'an and Liu Ji, using the deficit in Tongzhou warehouse as an excuse.

The last time Qin Chang appeared in public was to inquire about Li Zisheng's attitude towards the Tongzhou warehouse incident. Neither the emperor nor Wei Tai knew what the two had said, but it was this targeted meeting that led to Qin Chang's direct dismissal.

Of course, it also has something to do with Qin Chang’s lack of ability.

If Qin Chang was really capable and could manage state affairs in an orderly manner like Huai En, he would not have been kicked out by the emperor.

……

……

"It's settled."

In the cabinet duty room, Wan'an looked very proud and told Liu Ji everything about his meeting with the emperor.

Liu Ji asked in surprise: "Your Majesty, do you really believe that Zhang Luan is a liar who fishes in troubled waters? But I heard that even the doctors in the Imperial Hospital are somewhat in awe of him. If he is really a quack, why would he be so?"

Wan An said disdainfully: "Those petty people in the Imperial Hospital know nothing!"

Liu Ji felt very uncomfortable after hearing this.

I thought to myself, he is a professional doctor, and a leader in the medical field. You know him but he doesn’t, right?

"Don't you think about it? A person who has never treated anyone and has never heard of any family background in medicine suddenly jumps out one day to treat people and even claims to be able to bring the dead back to life. If this isn't a liar, what is he?"

Wan An asked coldly.

Liu Ji thought about it for a while and nodded, "That's true, but he really got promoted. At the same time, he is the biological father of the Crown Princess. There's no need to cheat people with something like curing illnesses, right?"

"Humph!"

Wan An sneered and said, "Do you think I don't know his evil intentions? He just wants to gain benefits for the prince by treating His Majesty. At some point, he even did some... treasonous actions."

"You mean he dared to murder..." What did he mean by murder? Liu Ji didn't dare to say any more.

Wan An asked, "Then tell me, at this critical moment, he went to treat the emperor. What was he trying to achieve? Wouldn't it be better for him to stay at home and wait for the crown prince to ascend the throne and serve as his father-in-law? Why did he have to come out and show off everywhere? Can you say he didn't have any ulterior motives?"

Liu Ji thought about it and nodded sincerely: "It is indeed unreasonable... But, is it possible that he did not take the initiative to treat Your Majesty, but was forced out by someone?"

"Hey!"

Wan An asked mockingly, "Are you talking about Li Zisheng? He is an old man of the crown prince. If he doesn't want to, who can force him? Even if His Majesty asks him to go, can't he say that he is powerless? It is the job of the people in the Imperial Hospital to treat His Majesty, right? Even they know how to refuse and avoid, so doesn't Zhang Laizhan know how to do it?"

After listening to this, Liu Ji thought about it carefully and found that it really made sense!
It turned out that Zhang Laizhan had evil intentions and had been planning to cause trouble since early on.

Wan An said: "The Crown Prince suddenly mentioned the Tongzhou warehouse incident earlier. Who do you think took the initiative to stir up the matter? Was it Li Zisheng? It was Zhang Laizhan!
"This guy can be said to be a big wolf hiding in the dark. When we were fighting Liang Fang before, we were standing aside and watching the show. Now that Liang Fang has fallen, he wants to deal with us."

Liu Ji asked, "The problem is... He is a scholar who just entered the Hanlin Academy and is not even a Jinshi. How dare he go against us? What is he trying to do?"

"What else could he want? To help his son-in-law!"

Wan An was furious and said, "This man did everything he could to help the prince... Think about it, would an average person dare to target Liang Fang, a powerful person who can kill a commoner at any time? But Zhang Laizhan is not afraid of death!"

Liu Ji said: "That makes sense. This man is mentally ill."

Wan An sneered and said, "If you were not sick, how dare you dream of being a student in Xingji? How dare you let your daughter participate in the selection of Crown Princess in the capital? How dare you fight Liang Fang just to be the father-in-law of the Crown Prince? How dare you come out to treat His Majesty without any medical skills?
"Humph, Mr. Zhang is not sick, but seriously ill!"

Liu Ji sighed, "This kind of person is not easy to deal with... If it was an ordinary civil official, we could easily send him out of the palace without even the chance to appeal for justice. But he is the father-in-law of the crown prince, and Li Zisheng is backing him up. Do you think... this kind of person can be easily dealt with?"

Wan An smiled maliciously: "As long as your Majesty believes that he is a fraud, who dares to come out to treat your Majesty without any medical skills and deliberately murder your Majesty, then he will fall into an irretrievable situation."

"How can we prove it? Just talking about his past won't work!"

Liu Ji was a little worried.

Wan An said, "I have asked people to call all those who know Zhang Laizhan from Xingji to the capital, and then to inform Zhu Ji, the commander of the Jinyiwei, and have him supervise the matter. The Jinyiwei will report the results of the investigation, and then I will see how Zhang Laizhan will argue."

"This one……"

Liu Ji thought, is this a foolproof plan?

Even those who are very familiar with Zhang Luan don't know what kind of family training he has. Even if they have never seen him seeing patients, they cannot say that he really can't treat illnesses.

"Why, you have concerns?"

Wan An asked, "Speak out your opinion."

Liu Ji said: "I think the best way should be to expose the cases where he tried to treat a disease but ended up treating a minor illness as a major one or even killing the patient. This would be ironclad evidence and make Your Majesty lose trust in him."

Wan An angrily said, "He has never treated anyone before, where can we find such a person?"

Liu Ji asked tentatively, "Didn't he treat smallpox before? You also said that the sudden disappearance of smallpox in the north recently had nothing to do with his method of growing medicine, so why not use this as a breakthrough point?"

"You mean...?"

Wanan frowned.

Liu Ji said, "My idea is this: we just need to prove that his method of planting medicine is ineffective. Didn't he say that his method of preventing and treating smallpox is very effective? We can put people with smallpox together with those who have planted medicine and those who haven't planted medicine. When they all get sick, won't his trick be exposed?"

"This……"

Wan An frowned slightly when he heard this idea. "The disease of smallpox is extremely dangerous. Who dares to provoke it?"

Liu Ji sighed, "Besides this, I really can't think of a better way. Relying solely on those so-called witnesses is probably... meaningless."

Wan An thought for a moment and nodded, "That's right. Now the prevention of smallpox in the north has been completely relaxed. If it spreads again, it will definitely affect Northern Zhili, and even the capital and the palace. In this case, we should find the censors in the court to impeach Zhang Laizhan and say that he used the method of planting medicine to cause trouble in the court and mislead people. He deserves death."

Liu Ji smiled and said, "That's exactly what I meant. Then I'll propose to His Majesty that we find someone to verify the vaccination method, and then we can dispel his reputation as a miracle doctor."

"well!"

After listening to this, Wan An looked at Liu Ji with admiration and praised him, "I didn't expect you to be so smart... By the way, have you planted the medicine?"

Liu Ji shook his head: "No."

Wan An smiled and said, "That's right. He dared to inoculate himself without knowing the harm of the medicine. He is really not afraid of attracting evil spirits. Not only will I spread the word that his method of inoculating medicine cannot prevent and treat smallpox, but can cause illness and even death to people, and I will also find someone to prove this point."

"I heard that it's just a little prick on the arm, it shouldn't... be fatal, right?" Liu Ji said with some concern.

"hehe."

Wan An sneered and said, "There are so many people in the north who grow herbs. Since this year, no one has died of illness after growing herbs? I say their deaths are related to growing herbs. Who can refute it? And their families will also think that this is the court redressing their grievances. Then, they only need to use a little trick to make Zhang Laizhan... fall into a situation where everyone in the court wants him to be punished."

(End of this chapter)