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

Chapter 575 Debate
Hong Zhong was far away on the Japanese island, but he also heard about the situation at the imperial court.

Li Zhong, the inspector of the Censorate, came to the Japanese island with Hong Zhong this time. He handled many cases and killed many people.

Now, hearing that everyone in Peking was impeaching Hong Zhong, he couldn't help but say to Hong Zhong with a worried look on his face: "Sir, the civil officials in the court are impeaching you. Do you think the emperor and the prince will punish you?"

Hong Zhong narrowed his eyes, pondered for a moment, and said to Li Zhong: "Don't worry, this matter will not implicate you. I will definitely protect you, no matter what!"

Li Zhong was stunned for a moment. He obviously felt that Hong Zhong misunderstood his meaning, so he hurriedly said: "My lord, you misunderstood. This is not what I meant."

"I just can't bear to see you do so much for me, yet you are ruthlessly abandoned by the court in the end."

Hong Zhong was also stunned, staring blankly at his subordinate. Although Li Zhong was not promoted by him personally, he was the one who brought him to the Japanese island. He had done so many things in the Japanese island this time, and he should have been promoted when he returned. Who knew that the civil servants at the court would be so stressed out.

Hong Zhong knew what those civil servants were worried about. They were simply worried that the imperial power would be unlimitedly expanded, which would make it easier to deal with them in the future.

Those who could write a letter to impeach Hong Zhong were undoubtedly unclean themselves, so they would argue with reason.

Hong Zhong understands these political struggles better than anyone else.

He looked at Li Zhong deeply and said with a smile: "Thank you, Lord Li, this is the grievance that we as officials must endure."

"We are the emperor's officials, and we should share his worries. Since we are officials of the Ming Dynasty, we are his subjects, and we should consider everything for him."

"There is no such thing as abandonment or not. No matter how the emperor and the prince handle it, there are deep meanings behind it."

"If you want to be promoted, you have to endure the necessary grievances. Why did Emperor Taizong demote Li Ji before Emperor Gaozong ascended the throne?"

Hong Zhong was clearly giving Li Zhong some advice. This young official had only been in the officialdom for a short time and did not understand many things or the rules of the officialdom.

If they don't understand these things, they will suffer in the officialdom in the future. If the leaders above don't teach them about these unspoken rules of the officialdom, they will need to figure them out on their own for a long time and suffer a lot before they can figure them out.

Li Zhong naturally understood what Hong Zhong meant, and hurriedly bowed and said, "Thank you very much for your advice, sir."

Hong Zhong pressed his hand and squinted his eyes and said, "Besides, the prince may not give up on me."

"If the emperor is in charge of this matter, he will most likely demote me, but I will definitely be reappointed in the future."

"Zhengxin, you must remember that when you are promoted or demoted, you must understand the intentions of the higher-ups. Some demotes and dismissals are not because the emperor hates you, but just to balance the current situation."

Li Zhong nodded in agreement and asked cautiously, "Sir, the one in power now is the Crown Prince, and we came to the island on the orders of the Crown Prince. You just said that if the Emperor handled this matter, he would demote him, so what if it was the Crown Prince?"

Hong Zhong was silent for a moment, then said, "The prince has a strong temper, he may not handle it this way, and the prince will definitely ask Chen Ce for his opinion. With Chen Ce's wisdom, I think there must be a thrilling struggle going on in Beiping, and the final result must be a crushing victory for Chen Ce!"

Li Zhong was a young official after all, and was not familiar with the high-ranking officials in the court. He asked curiously, "Chen Ce? Who is this?"

"Marquis Tai'an."

Li Zhong said: "A marquis, and a marquis without real power, can he influence the prince's decision?"

Hong Zhong sneered, "He is not a marquis without real power! It is not an exaggeration to call him the imperial tutor of the Ming Dynasty. The prince was trained by him!"

"He was also the one who personally conquered the Japanese island!" "Jiao Fang, Liu Jian, Yang Tinghe, which of these people is not a great figure? But are there any traces of them in the court now?"

hiss!
Li Zhong took a deep breath. From what Hong Zhong said, could it be that all these people were killed by Chen Ce?
This is too horrible!

Hong Zhong took a sip of tea calmly and said, "Wait. If he wants to make a move, I will be fine. If you wait until we return to Beijing, I will move your position."

Li Zhong hurriedly bowed and said, "Thank you, sir."

"No need to thank me. I have seen how each of you performed on the Japanese island."

……

In the seventeenth year of the Hongzhi reign, in early July, a drizzle fell in Peking.

The majestic Qianqing Palace was silent, but hidden beneath the quiet drizzle was a huge storm.

It is a storm between the civil service group and the imperial power!
Dozens of scholars from the Hanlin Academy, the Six Departments' Secretaries, and civil servants from various government offices knelt outside the warm room, begging for an audience with Emperor Hongzhi.

However, Emperor Hongzhi was no longer in the warm room, and only the Crown Prince was in the room.

This group of civil servants have submitted petitions to the court countless times, begging the court to deal with Hong Zhong, but both the crown prince and the emperor have ignored the matter.

Although Ma Qi, the Imperial Censor of the Ministry of Rites, dragged two cabinet elders into the water, it didn't seem to have much effect.

Even after the cabinet stepped down, there was still no movement and the court still ignored them.

In desperation, Ma Qi personally brought officials to the Qianqing Palace to cry and complain.

At the same time, a memorial from the Shaanxi Provincial Government was delivered to Zhu Houzhao's desk.

This memorial was sent by Zhang Cai, the right minister of Shaanxi. He strongly supported Hong Zhong and tried his best to defend the court. He believed that local officials were corrupt and if judicial procedures were followed, local officials would have more time to destroy evidence.

He also cited the example of Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, arguing that when Zhu Yuanzhang killed corrupt officials, he never went through judicial procedures, so the court's move was precisely in accordance with the ancestral system.

After reading Zhang Cai's memorial, Zhu Houzhao's eyes lit up. As expected, Zhang Cai really started to submit memorials.

It seems that this guy is very ambitious. Zhu Houzhao immediately asked Liu Jin to send this memorial to the cabinet and let the cabinet people take this memorial to Jieshi Zhong and others to read.

When March and others learned that they were summoned by the cabinet, they stopped kneeling outside the warm room and immediately swarmed into the cabinet.

Fei Hong severely criticized Ma Qi and asked him to disband these people immediately, and then showed him Zhang Cai's rebuttal memorial.

Seeing that Zhang Cai actually argued for the Crown Prince and Emperor Hongzhi, and his argument was well-reasoned, Ma Qi was furious. Now he had no time to take care of the palace, and immediately began to look for someone to refute Zhang Cai's memorial.

The struggle between civil officials and imperial power began to become increasingly chaotic with the addition of Zhang Cai.

Xie Qian and Fei Hong just watched indifferently without expressing any opinions, but with the joining of Zhang Cai, they seemed to guess that Zhu Houzhao had also begun to fight back!

(End of this chapter)