Ming Dynasty: I risked my life to teach the prince, the emperor begged me not to die

Chapter 281 Xu Jing's Letter
The rainstorm showed no sign of stopping. Chen Ce returned to the courtyard in Huaihua Hutong, half of his body wet. He had just finished taking a shower when Liu Hong knocked on the door.

Liu Hong brought a letter sent by Xu Jing from the southeast.

Before Xu Jing went to the southeast, Chen Ce told him to integrate into the officialdom of the southeast, observe more, learn more, and develop more personal connections.

Chen Ce opened the window of the study a little, and the fresh air mixed with soil and rain washed over him, and his thoughts instantly became clear.

He opened the letter sent by Xu Jing. Xu Jing first asked Chen Ce whether he was in good health and whether his old illness had recurred. He also explained that everything was fine in the southeast and that he maintained a good relationship with his colleagues.

Chen Ce was not worried about Xu Jing's ability to deal with people and things, he continued to read the letter.

Then Xu Jingcai started to talk about business. Since March, Japanese people began to appear frequently on the southeast coast. These Japanese slaves often harassed coastal villagers and robbed their homes.

He secretly investigated and found that there were several big merchant families in the southwest who were engaged in spice, cloth and porcelain business. These big merchants made a lot of money through smuggling.

After the Japanese invaders entered the southeast, these merchants acted as guides for them, so that the Southeastern Commandery of Preparing for Japanese Aggression failed in its repeated attempts to suppress them.

Xu Jing also discovered that the government in the southeast and this group of big businessmen had a collusion of interests, and he secretly collected a lot of evidence.

He sent the account books and letters containing evidence through Liu Hong, but Chen Ce did not look at them.

Xu Jing finally asked Chen Ce what he needed to do now.

Chen Ce put the letter down and rubbed his forehead. The imperial court still did not pay much attention to the southeast and ignored the Japanese pirates.

Long ago, Chen Ce had reminded the court through Zhu Houzhao that the threat of Japanese pirates in the southeast was not caused by the Japanese but by the Chinese.

However, the court's focus at that time was on the northwest. There were occasional Japanese pirates in the southeast, but they did not break out and did not pose much of a threat to the southeast coast. It was normal that the court did not pay attention to it.

Chen Ce sighed and said to himself, "Let me be the eternal sinner."

He was unwilling to govern the southeast, and even wanted to see frequent Japanese pirate attacks in the southeast, and it would be best if the threat of Japanese pirates could arrive in advance.

He slowly picked up his pen and wrote back to Xu Jing: "Don't pay any attention to it. Leave it alone and let the Japanese pirates wreak havoc on the village."

Only if the Japanese pirates' army is large enough, their invasion of the southeast is serious enough, and they can even develop to a scale that threatens Nanzhi, can they arouse the anger of the imperial court.

He wanted to watch the Japanese invaders grow stronger and stronger, and wanted to watch the people in the southeast suffer.

Because only when the hatred between Han and Japan becomes great enough, will the Ming Dynasty have an excuse to send troops to attack the Japanese... and destroy their country!
For the rest of his life, he hoped to see the Ming Dynasty destroy the Japanese nation and even develop the Japanese islands into a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty.

In this way, a part of the vassal states could be dispatched to Wa Island to let them rule Wa Island, so that they would not have to cause trouble in the country, thus killing two birds with one stone.

But to achieve this ideal, the hatred between the Ming and Japan must be great enough, which requires the Japanese to commit heinous crimes in the southeast!
That's why Chen Ce said, let him be the sinner himself!

Perhaps no one will ever understand him. If someone knew, they would probably point at Chen Ce and call him a hypocrite!

I don’t care about these strategies. If we can destroy the Japanese invaders, the necessary sacrifices... are worth it!

During this period, the Ming Dynasty also needs to strengthen its national strength. Only when the country is strong can it march its troops eastward to conquer the seas!
……

March in Peking was not peaceful.

Li Mengyang's articles were still sharp, and he spared no effort in impeaching Zhang's uncle, which made Li Mengyang famous throughout the Ming Dynasty.

Zhang's uncle was speechless, thinking, "Can't you find someone else to scold? That bastard from Changningbo Zhou's family is not much better than us, right?"

Is it right to keep scolding our brothers?
Li Mengyang had a great influence in the literary world, and most of the officials in the court were of literati origin. Zhang's uncle had bullied this group of scholar-officials many times before.

Under the leadership of Li Mengyang, more and more memorials were submitted to impeach the two uncles of the Zhang family. Emperor Hongzhi had no choice but to summon the two uncles of the Zhang family, severely reprimanded them, and ordered the Ministry of Justice to imprison the two uncles of the Zhang family, as an explanation to the group of civil servants in the outer court.

Emperor Hongzhi has already made great concessions. Logically, anyone with some sense should stop. After all, Zhang's uncle has been dealt with, and your goal of clearing your reputation has been achieved.

But Li Mengyang was not satisfied. Today, he privately invited many bureaucrats to gather in Meiyuan to discuss a joint memorial, asking Emperor Hongzhi to execute the two uncles of the Zhang family and restore peace to the people of Beiping!

Many people went to the Plum Garden today. A group of Hanlin officials including Lun Wenxu went there, as well as some censors, and even some scholars from the folks and a group of young men and women who came to watch the fun all went to the Plum Garden.

This time the momentum was huge.

The rain subsided, and Zhu Houzhao and Chen Ce walked side by side on Zhengyang Street, holding umbrellas.

A sedan stopped in front of Chen Ce and Zhu Houzhao. Su Hanmei lifted the curtain and asked Chen Ce, "Mr. Chen, are you also going to the Plum Garden to support Lord Li?"

Su Hanmei's father was an unknown minor official in the Honglu Temple, who was resting in the sedan chair at this time.

Chen Ce was confused and asked, "What do you mean by supporting Lord Li?"

Su Hanmei said, "Ah? Don't you know? Lord Li Mengyang organized a group of people in the Plum Garden today, and he plans to join forces to write a letter to the court, asking the emperor to kill the two evildoers of the Zhang family."

Chen Ce: “…”

He glanced at Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Houzhao: "..."

Your two uncles are so unlucky. They have been targeted by Li Mengyang.

Zhu Houzhao said: "Aren't they all imprisoned in the Ministry of Justice? Is that not enough?"

Su Hanmei shook her head and said, "Lord Li said that this is just a temporary measure of the emperor. The two uncles-in-law don't need to go to the Ministry of Justice to go through the motions."

Well, it seems that this is really the case. It is impossible for my father to really deal with these two uncles.

Although they do have a bad reputation, they don't need to be killed, right?

Chen Ce glanced at Su Hanmei and reminded her, "Miss Su, you'd better not join in the fun."

"What?" Su Hanmei was puzzled.

Chen Ce said: "Because the two uncles of the Zhang family will not be in any danger, the emperor will not kill him. Those who join in the fun today will be retaliated against twice as much tomorrow!"

"Do you really think Li Mengyang can kill the two uncles of the Zhang family?"

Su Hanmei said suspiciously: "I don't know, I'll just go and watch the fun."

Chen Ce asked, "Does your family have a strong background? If you don't have a powerful background, it's better not to join in the fun, otherwise you will definitely be implicated."

Su Hanmei thought about it and said to Chen Ce: "Oh, okay, I understand. Thank you for reminding me, Mr. Chen."

After Chen Ce left, Su He asked Su Hanmei, "Who is he?"

Su Hanmei said: "Dad, he is a friend of mine, let's go back."

"Ok?"

(End of this chapter)