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

Chapter 483 Trial voyage
The court meeting ended in a bizarre atmosphere. Emperor Hongzhi chose to believe Chen Ce and paid for Chen Ce's political ambitions.

But it was destined to go against the wishes of the cabinet, and inevitably created an additional barrier between the emperor and his subjects.

However, Emperor Hongzhi was no longer willing to consider the cabinet's ideas. He wanted to accomplish another great feat within his lifetime. If this voyage to the West was successful, Emperor Hongzhi could completely rely on the destruction of the Japanese islands and his feat of voyages to the West to leave a strong mark among the emperors of the Ming Dynasty.

But he was destined not to be too crazy. If tens of thousands of envoys and soldiers on their voyages to the West were accidentally killed, Emperor Hongzhi would face tremendous pressure from public opinion.

So after retiring from court, he left Chen Ce alone again. Even though he trusted Chen Ce's navigation chart, he had to be cautious at this time.

After discussing with Chen Ce, Emperor Hongzhi and Chen Ce reached a consensus to first send two ships and a team of hundreds of people to sail in the nearby waters to verify the authenticity of the nautical chart.

In this way, even if something happened, Emperor Hongzhi would not bear too much pressure from public opinion.

Just when Chen Ce was leaving the palace, he heard the news in the streets that the Ming Dynasty was about to sail to the West, and folk storytellers were singing praises to Emperor Hongzhi.

Liu Jian?!
Chen Ce knew that this move must have been made by Liu Jian in order to retaliate against Emperor Hongzhi for going against his wishes in the Wuying Hall.

He was indeed very bold. He was only the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, but he actually dared to openly oppose Emperor Hongzhi. He didn't even want to pretend?
Public opinion was running high, and the sentiment against the voyage to the West was becoming increasingly intense. If anything happened during the voyage, the consequences would be immeasurable, and it would also cause enormous damage to the prestige of Emperor Hongzhi.

Did he want to use this method to persuade Emperor Hongzhi to stop his wrong idea of ​​traveling to the West?

After hearing the news in several restaurants and teahouses, Chen Ce just frowned slightly, did not stay any longer, and slowly returned home.

……

The cabinet was destined not to take charge of the navigation trial, so the matter naturally fell on Chen Ce.

Chen Ce also decided on the personnel for the trial voyage, and asked Hong Zhong and Yang Yuzhen to lead 100 personnel from the Jinyiwei, Dongchang and the Five Military Governor's Office to set sail from Liujiagang in Taicang, Jiangsu.

On the first day of November, Hong Zhong and Yang Yuzhen quietly set out from the capital and headed straight for Jiangsu.

Although this trial voyage was not publicized to the public, the news spread quickly. When Hong Zhong and Yang Yuzhen just walked out of Zhengyang Gate, many people spontaneously came to see them off.

Qin Hong and Xu Guan stood on the city gate, watching the scene below the city side by side with Chen Ce.

Snow flakes fell on the umbrella. Qin Hong also noticed something and said in confusion, "On this trial voyage, very few people knew about it, but it was still leaked."

A hint of sadness inevitably appeared on his weathered face.

There has been a lot of public opinion in the past few days that the leaders of this voyage were Emperor Hongzhi and Tai'an Marquis Chen Ce, especially Chen Ce, who was the chief planner of this voyage...

Qin Hong and Xu Guan had both heard about the recent high-profile public opinion. Although the public now had extremely high opinions of Emperor Hongzhi and Chen Ce, the two old foxes were still aware of the risks involved.

It was obvious that someone was targeting Chen Ce.

First, you hold him up high. If something happens, he will fall down and be smashed to pieces. This is really cruel.

The person who could do these things was undoubtedly a high-ranking official of the Ming Dynasty. As for who it was, Qin Hong and Xu Guan didn't even need to check, as they knew it was Liu Jian, the chief minister of the cabinet.

Qin Hong glanced at Chen Ce and said meaningfully: "Chun Jian, don't worry about this matter..."

He was really afraid that Chen Ce's temper would lead him to take direct action against the Prime Minister of the Cabinet.

But Chen Ce certainly didn't have that thought in mind, he just smiled and said: "It's okay, he's helping, this is a good thing."

"Let more people know about this, and my fame will spread even further in the future."

Qin Hong: “…”

Are you really so sure that nothing will go wrong on this voyage? You are too confident.

You should know that your so-called nautical chart is merely based on your own judgment of historical materials. No one can guarantee whether there will be any problems during this voyage.

Qin Hong pondered for a moment and said, "Chun Jian, have you ever thought about what might happen?"

"Leave yourself a way out. If something goes wrong, the cabinet will definitely criticize you. What will you do when so much public opinion attacks you?" Chen Ce smiled and said, "That's impossible."

Qin Hong: “…”

Xu Guan: “…”

……

cabinet.

Liu Jian came to the duty room early in the morning to warm up the stove. Li Dongyang and Xie Qian arrived late. There was no court meeting today, so the two elders arrived a little late.

Seeing Liu Jian holding a cup of hot tea and reading a newspaper, he couldn't help but glance at Liu Jian and said, "Lord Liu, there has been a lot of noise outside recently."

"Although Tai'an Hou is young and hot-tempered, there is no need to treat him like this, right?"

"And this matter may not have put the emperor in a difficult position."

Liu Jian: “?”

He looked at Li Dongyang in confusion and asked, "What's wrong?"

Liu Jian had very little contact with people outside these two days and had no idea what was happening outside.

Li Dongyang said helplessly: "Recently, there are rumors that the emperor and Chen Ce are organizing a trip to the West."

"Today, Chen Ce recommended Hong Zhong to go out to sea for a trial voyage, and so many people went to Zhengyang Gate to see him off... Lord, isn't this your doing?"

"If you go against the emperor like this, even if the emperor has a good temper, he will probably be secretly angry."

Liu Jian: "When will this old man..."

After a moment of silence, Liu Mo's face suddenly changed!
He pursed his lips, his face looked a little ugly, and he wanted to argue something. Finally, he sighed helplessly, shook his head and said to Li Dongyang: "Go to work."

Li Dongyang looked at Liu Jian again, and finally didn't say much.

Only Liu Jian sat on the armchair in a daze, with a gloomy expression.

It seems... the Emperor is not happy with me. He wants me to step down just for Chen Chunjian?!
I have been diligently tutoring the emperor these years, and now I am being treated like this?

Thinking of this, Liu Jian couldn't help but feel sad and a little dazed.

Liu Jian had no idea about the rumors outside, and he had never done anything about it. Even though he was dissatisfied with Chen Ce, he would never use such means to deal with Chen Ce.

He doesn't care whether the voyage is right or wrong, nor does he want to pay attention to it. Why should he care about a strategy that is doomed to fail?
He simply didn't want the Ming Dynasty to sacrifice too many people.

"Your Majesty...is finally no longer weak."

"He's starting to show his man-eating fangs."

Liu Jian murmured in a low voice that as the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, he was afraid that he would not have much time left to sit in this position.

……

Qianqing Palace.

Emperor Hongzhi stood outside the main hall of the warm room, feeling the snowflakes hitting his body, his brows furrowed, and he felt a little blocked in his heart.

Ever since returning from Japan, Emperor Hongzhi felt that something seemed to be wrong with his health.

(End of this chapter)