Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 24: Extermination of ten clans and infighting within the cabinet!
If it was a sunny day, Yan Song's double sedan chair would usually be parked at the foot of the stone steps of the main hall of Yuxi Palace. Today, a heavy rain came suddenly, and the two eunuchs on duty had already carried the sedan chair to the eaves outside the door of the main hall of Yuxi Palace and waited for Yan Song to come out.

According to the Ming system, princes or old and sick ministers could ride in a sedan chair carried by two people in the Forbidden City with special permission.

The so-called two-person sedan chair is nothing more than a special chair with the backrest and two sides sealed with a whole piece of wood, leaving only the front empty for people to sit on. On rainy or snowy days, it is allowed to add a cover on top and a curtain in front. Two bamboo poles pass through the two sides of the chair, and two people carry the poles by their hands or shoulders.

From the 21st year of Jiajing, Zhu Houcong moved into the Western Garden, and the practice of riding in a sedan chair carried by two men in the Forbidden City became the practice of riding in a sedan chair carried by two men in the Western Garden.

Yan Song was the Prime Minister and enjoyed riding in this sedan chair from the age of 70 to 81. It was raining today, so the eunuchs on duty had already covered the sedan chair and added a curtain in front of it.

Xu Jie, Gao Gong, Yan Shifan and Zhang Juzheng were not qualified to ride in the sedan chair, so the eunuch on duty prepared a large umbrella for them and stood beside the sedan chair.

Xu Jie and Yan Shifan supported Yan Song and almost carried him from the passage outside the temple to the door of the main hall.

It was only five meters from the gate of the monastery to the door of the main hall along the passage, but it seemed as if Yan Song, Xu Jie and Yan Shifan had walked for twenty years.

During the twenty years since he took charge of the cabinet, so many storms have beenfallen. Can the curtain and the umbrella covering the sedan chair block them all?

Yan Song looked at the dark and gloomy sky, and could not help but recall the day in the 24th year of Jiajing when the emperor allowed Xia Yan to resume the position of chief minister of the cabinet in order to warn him.

Xia Yan ordered that his opinion should not be sought when approving official documents, and he dismissed and exiled those he had promoted and appointed.

For those who have been in high positions for a long time, the emperor's warning is like the collapse of heaven and earth, while the emperor's estrangement will make people feel abandoned by heaven.

The threshold of the high Yuxi Palace gate was right under their feet. Xu Jie and Yan Shifan used both hands to try to carry Yan Song over, but Yan Song stopped, pushed their hands away, lifted his robe, and slowly stepped over with one leg, then the other.

Seeing Yan Song step out of the door, the people who had been waiting in front of the Yuxi Palace for a long time hurriedly came forward to greet him.

Xu Jie and Yan Shifan, who were still standing inside the palace gate, noticed the person coming and immediately had a bad feeling and stepped out.

Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng, who were lagging behind, were taller in stature, so even though their vision was obstructed, they could still see the person coming clearly.

Yan Maoqing, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice.

"Your Excellency, the Emperor has issued an edict that Chief Inspector Ouyang has been thrown into the imperial prison." Yan Maoqing reported briefly.

In ancient times, subordinate officials respectfully called their superiors "Xian".

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Censorate was called Xiantai, and in the Tang Dynasty, the censors were called Xianchen. After the Ming Dynasty's reform, the censors in the Censorate had a high status, especially the Left and Right Censors-in-Chief, who were regarded as the chief censors by all civil and military officials.

Ouyang Bijin was a close friend of Yan Song. When faced with this disaster, Yan Maoqing came without stopping, regardless of the weather.

Yan Shifan was stunned.

One of the Nine Ministers, the most important mouthpiece of the Yan Party in the past, was thrown into the imperial prison like this?
Xu Jie's heart was originally filled with the joy of jumping for the power of performance appraisal and assessment, but now it finally stopped.

The deer is dead!
It turns out that when the civil service group was running for power and performing hard in front of the emperor for power, power had already been allocated to someone else.

Xu Jie felt like an actor on the stage.

A feeling of humiliation surged in his heart, and Xu Jie could no longer bear it. He felt a sweetness in his throat and blood flowed from the corners of his mouth.

His body was swaying so much that he could hardly stand.

Zhang Juzheng behind him sighed softly, took two quick steps, and supported Xu Jie.

It's like a chicken and a dozen eggs!

I lost my wife and lost my troops!
Perhaps it is referring to the Yan father and son and Xu Jie at this moment.

Yan Song did not react at all when he heard the news of his old friend. Despite his age, he walked straight from the stone steps of the main hall into the rain. When the eunuchs on duty saw Yan Song, one of them immediately raised the pole behind the sedan chair so that the pole in front of it could touch the ground so that Yan Song could step over it. Another eunuch immediately lifted the curtain of the sedan chair and waited for Yan Song to sit in it.

When Yan Song passed by the sedan chair, the two eunuchs carrying the sedan chair froze in place.

Is there something wrong with Lord Yan's eyes?
After all, the son loved his father, so Yan Shifan quickly took an umbrella from the eunuch, opened it and chased after him.

The umbrella covered the top of the head, but Yan Song was furious, "Take it away!"

Yan Shifan subconsciously tilted his umbrella, and the spring rain fell on Yan Song again. Yan Song's old body trembled involuntarily, "This rain is still as cold as it was twenty years ago."

"Dad!" Yan Shifan's cry was almost as if he was ready to sacrifice himself.

Ouyang Bijin's fate.

Let him vaguely see his future ending.

Before the Yan Party and the Qingliu merged, Ouyang Bijin was considered a relatively upright and honest person in the Yan Party. Even such a person was sent to the Jinyiwei Prison, what about others?
Perhaps in the emperor's heart, both he and his old father have become worn-out shoes.

Yan Song then slowly turned his head to look at his son, Xu Jie, Gao Gong, and Zhang Juzheng, his head and face dripping with water, and it was unclear whether it was rain or tears: "I have blocked the wind and rain that the emperor called for for twenty years, and I have also blocked the wind and rain that you raised for you in front of the emperor.

The entire "Twenty-one Histories" only exterminate nine clans, but my Ming Dynasty is the only one that can exterminate ten clans!

Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, if you also abandon me like a worn-out shoe, I am afraid that no one will protect you from the wind and rain in the future. "

The emperor intentionally did not mention that the Imperial Guards were given the power to inspect and assess under the Performance Evaluation Law.

Change rice to mulberry.

It was the cabinet that first proposed this strategy in front of the emperor. The emperor was able to see the pros and cons of changing from rice to mulberry in such a short time, and the debate between Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng in court played an indispensable role.

It seemed that the Yan Party and the Qingliu Party had merged, and the civil service group had completed its reorganization. However, due to the non-cooperation of two important figures, Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng, this merger lost much of its meaning.

Gao Gong sneered at Yan Song's words, and when he was in Prince Yu's Mansion, he drew a clear line between himself and Xu Jie's hypocrisy. He listened to Yan Song's "persuasion in the rain" without any ripples in his heart.

Without saying a word, he took an umbrella from the eunuch and walked into the rain.

Different road non-phase plan.

Zhang Juzheng, who was supporting his mentor Xu Jie, slowly let go of his hand in response to his mentor's earnest gaze.

He also held an umbrella and walked into the rain, following Gao Gong's vague figure.

As soon as Yan Shifan loosened his grip, the umbrella rolled away in the wind and rain.

In the vast white curtain of water, Yan Song, Xu Jie and Yan Shifan let the heavy rain hit their heads and faces.

The sedan chair was brought in front of him again. Yan Song did not insist on getting wet in the rain anymore. He stepped over the sedan chair pole and said to Xu Jie before getting on the sedan chair, "Shaohu, don't be soft-hearted."

In the past twenty years, he has been killing people, imprisoning people, dismissing people, and employing people.

It was his people who saved money for the Ming Dynasty's treasury, it was his people who fought wars at the border, and it was his people who dealt with those who had grudges against the emperor.

The two capitals and thirteen provinces are all his students and former officials. It is not difficult to deal with two cabinet ministers!

(End of this chapter)