Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 197 The nobles were impressed by Jiajing: Your Majesty is a wise ruler born with divine power!
"Your Majesty, I am not afraid of anything."

"I am just worried that after submitting the case to the Three Courts, those evil-minded people outside will take advantage of the situation because they think Your Majesty will still be polite to them, so they will continue to vent their anger on the traitors, and then Your Majesty will be angry again."

Mao Ji replied cautiously.

Zhu Houcong smiled; "Why would I be angry?"

"I am determined to be a benevolent ruler, how could I blame others so easily?"

"As long as you follow the rules, even if you make a mistake, I will forgive you if I can."

Zhu Houcong added.

Mao Ji said yes, and then said: "Your Majesty, Xia Liangsheng, the chief priest of the Imperial College, and 45 others have impeached Wang Shouren, Zhang Fujing, Gui E and others for their academic misconduct. They are the offshoots of Leng Bao and Duan You, and are flatterers. However, Your Majesty has shown too much favor to these people, which will only make public opinion despise them."

"What do you mean by 'disdainful of public opinion'?"

"When the elder Liang Gong left, he gave me a recommendation for talented people to emulate the virtue of Wu Hou, and said that Wang Yangming, Zhang Fujing, Gui E and others were wise ministers. I hope I can use them more!"

"Now you say they are flatterers. Is it Lord Liang who helped me to secure the throne and started the new policy who is disloyal, or are you disloyal and want to eliminate dissidents?"

Zhu Houcong asked about Mao Ji.

Mao Ji hurriedly emphasized: "Your Majesty, I did not say they were flatterers, it was Xia Liangsheng and others who said so!"

then.

Mao Ji added: "I don't think they want to exclude dissidents. They may be impeaching the prime minister because they see the change of the prime minister and want to curry favor with the new prime minister, so they do this. But they don't know that Your Majesty is a monarch who is calm on the outside and wise on the inside. How could he sit idly by and watch the attacks of his friends? That's why they are so bold. But no matter what, it's up to Your Majesty whether to listen or not!"

"What do you think?"

Zhu Houcong asked.

Mao Ji said: "We should question him and make him answer the questions, and then punish him for his deception and jealousy based on his attitude!"

"allow!"

Zhu Houcong replied.

As he himself said, he ruled alone but not in a chaotic manner.

Therefore, in order to ensure that the ruler and his subjects are united and government affairs are not chaotic, he will cooperate with the Prime Minister when he balances yin and yang and balances the officials in the court.

Mao Ji felt much more at ease because of this, and thought to himself that although the emperor was powerful and arbitrary, he was also wise and intelligent. He would not really treat the prime minister like a slave, but would try his best to listen to him.

This made Mao Ji's desire to retire as soon as possible fade.

But when he thought about how he had personally proposed not to give Princess Yongfu silver directly but to grant her a low-interest loan, he couldn't help but frown and look melancholy.

Because he knew that he was personally cutting off the hopes of all conservative scholars and officials to prevent the emperor from controlling the world's currency by instigating the royal family to ask the emperor for silver.

even……

He also caused the royal family to help the emperor manipulate the world's currency, and the conservative literati would certainly hate him for this.

But Mao Ji asked himself that he had no choice at that time.

If he were to be told, as a prime minister he would undoubtedly be suspected of fawning on the emperor and the powerful, and would still be criticized by conservative scholars.

Although these conservative scholars are happy to see this result, they will not express their gratitude to him openly, but will take this opportunity to add insult to injury and step on him in order to demonstrate their own integrity.

If he said no, he would offend the powerful and might even offend the emperor, which was not the result he wanted to see.

Therefore, he could only follow the emperor's purpose and say that he could grant benefits but not silver directly.

In this case, he would only be hated by conservative literati, and in his opinion, being hated by these people was much better than being hated by the emperor.

What's more, he could justifiably say that he was asking His Majesty for benefits for the people, not because he was really afraid of the powerful.

After thinking about it this way, Mao Ji's worry was reduced a lot.

"Give up asking the royal family to beg for silver. This path is no longer feasible now."

When Wu Yipeng, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, came to see him, Mao Ji said this to Wu Yipeng.

Wu Yipeng was quite disappointed after hearing this: "Why is this?"

Mao Ji hurriedly explained the reason.

Wu Yipeng understood Mao Ji after hearing this, and just sighed: "Well, as long as the emperor does not use the money for war and construction, there is nothing wrong with it. But it is inevitable that the local big households will reduce the interest rates for the common people."

"This is good, at least it can help alleviate the difficulties faced by the common people."

Mao Ji followed up with another sentence.

Wu Yipeng nodded, and then said: "We in Nanzhi want to urge Mr. Zhenze to join the cabinet, I wonder if the prime minister is?"

Mao Ji was stunned after hearing this, but he realized in his heart that if Wang Ao entered the cabinet, it would probably take away his influence in front of the emperor. After all, Wang Ao was the teacher of the late emperor and his reputation was much higher than his own.

However, when he thought that the emperor was strict but not cruel or stupid, and was willing to trust the prime minister, he did not want Wang Ao to join the cabinet.

But on the surface, Mao Ji still pretended to smile: "This is a good thing! If Mr. Zhenze can enter the cabinet, there will undoubtedly be more gentlemen in the court!"

"With Yuanfu's words, I feel relieved!"

Wu Yipeng also replied with a smile.

He was now afraid that the chief minister of the cabinet, Mao Ji, was worried that Wang Ao's influence was too great and would affect their favor after he entered the cabinet, so he asked Mao Ji in advance.

But he didn't know that Mao Ji didn't want Wang Ao to join the cabinet.

of course.

As Mao Ji took the initiative to compromise, the officials, gentry and wealthy people in the world were indeed tactful and stopped instigating the royal relatives to ask the emperor for reward silver. They even decided to stop the royal relatives from asking the emperor for reward silver. They would rather let the emperor keep the silver in the inner treasury than let the royal relatives use it to lend at low interest rates.

Besides.

Since the order to let the prince consort review the land survey had been issued by the cabinet, officials and gentry began to cooperate seriously with the land survey and changed all the hidden fields that were fraudulently sent back. This can be said that the new policy was not destroyed in the end and did not become a mere formality.

Let’s talk.

After Guo Xun learned about these things in the capital in Nanjing, he couldn't help but sigh, and he felt a greater sense of awe for Zhu Houcong in his heart.

"Your Majesty is truly a wise and handsome king!"

"If a noble like me wants to remain rich and powerful for a long time, I really can't be careless or disrespectful in the slightest!"

After Guo Xun sighed like this, he called Xie Chang, the commander-in-chief who was closest to him in the Weiwu Camp, to come over and said, "I have decided to give you a gift of wealth."

Xie Chang was overjoyed after hearing this, and quickly knelt down on one knee and said, "I would like to thank you, Lord Marquis!"

"Take these account books, write a petition in your own name, and have someone give it to Zhang Cong, asking him to find an official to accuse me of withholding military pay and eating empty pay."

As Guo Xun spoke, he handed Xie Chang the account book that could be used as evidence of his crime of withholding wages from the officers and soldiers of the Weiwu Camp and eating up the empty wages.

Xie Chang was shocked, and hurriedly bowed his head and said, "I dare not!"

"What's wrong with this!"

"I asked you to sue, so I won't blame you!"

Guo Xun said in a deep voice.

Xie Chang looked up at Guo Xun and said, "My Lord, I don't understand. If you want me to do this now, why did you withhold the soldiers' pay and even eat the empty pay?"

"What do you know? This mighty camp is the emperor's army."

"If I am not greedy at all and do not take anything, and the officers and soldiers of the Mighty Camp love me endlessly, then how can the Mighty Camp know about the emperor?"

"Only if I am greedy and take things, and let the people in the Mighty Camp resent me, then the army's morale will not be on my side, but on the side of the emperor. As long as the emperor makes some adjustments, he can regain the army's morale at any time."

After Guo Xun said this, he asked Xie Chang: "Do you think that I, the great Marquis of Wuding, who is as rich as a country, would really be interested in this little bit of military pay? And I would ruin my reputation for such a small amount of money, just to make the emperor feel at ease to let me lead the army!"

After Guo Xun said this, Xie Chang suddenly realized.

Then he asked, "Why did the Marquis ask me to expose you at this time?"

"Jiang Mian was imprisoned, the emperor's consort reviewed the land survey, and Princess Yongfu's gift of silver was changed to a gift of interest. No matter how you look at it, it can be seen that the emperor is still very comfortable with the power and still has the ambition to reform."

"We, the military officials, must follow the will of the emperor in order to keep our wealth and even gain greater wealth!"

"If the emperor wants to start protecting the status quo, we will naturally take what we should take and deduct what we should deduct without letting the emperor know. But if the emperor has no intention of protecting the status quo, then we will naturally let the emperor know our dirty deeds!"

"Only in this way can we show our loyalty and survive the reform instead of becoming the price paid for it."

"The Nanzhi gentry is an example, as are the nobles such as Li Quanli and Liang Yongfu."

"In addition, since the emperor is determined to continue the reform, he naturally needs to consolidate the morale of the army and rectify the problems of withholding military pay and eating empty salaries, so as to keep the army from being confused. It would be best to let the etiquette faction that advocates reform to rectify the morale of the army and make the military academies more inclined to support the etiquette bureaucrats!"

Marquis Wu Ding started talking.

After hearing this, Xie Chang said, "So, the Marquis asked me to give these account books to Zhang Cong, intending to send the Yili faction to win over the army?"

"That's right!"

After Wu Dinghou nodded, he asked Xie Chang to stand up, and then patted him on the shoulder: "The emperor still needs to use the etiquette faction, and you should get closer to the etiquette faction."

"Thank you for your advice, Lord."

Xie Chang immediately bowed and expressed his gratitude.

Wu Dinghou handed the account book to Xie Chang and said, "Go!"

"Yes!"

……

……

After Zhang Cong received the evidence from Xie Chang that Wuding Marquis Guo Xun had withheld military pay and eaten up the military pay, he immediately understood what Guo Xun meant and made an appointment to meet with the Censor Gui E that evening.

Gui E naturally would not refuse this opportunity to enhance his reputation which Guo Xun had brought to his lips. After receiving the evidence, he immediately began to write a memorial to impeach Guo Xun, and presented the impeachment of Guo Xun at the court meeting early the next morning.

Zhu Houcong was naturally furious about this, so he ordered the Jinyiwei to arrest Wuding Hou Guo Xun and bring him to the capital, and ordered Zhou Shangwen to temporarily control the Weiwu Camp, and demanded that he bring the Weiwu Camp and the Yongwei Camp back to the capital after the land survey was completed.

The arrest of Guo Xun by Zhu Houcong also shocked the ritual-protecting faction in the court. They did not expect that Gui E, who advocated ritual, would impeach Guo Xun.

But now they don't have much energy to pay attention to this matter. They are more concerned about how to convict Jiang Mian.

Because after being tried by the three judicial officials, Jiang Mian admitted that he did have spies in the inner court, and even instructed the spies to burn the palace to warn the monarch after he received clear orders.

Therefore, the only question left now is how to convict Jiang Mian.

At the Tianchao meeting, the Left Censor-in-Chief Li Kun first said to Zhu Houcong: "Your Majesty, although Jiang Mian is a traitor, he was a veteran of two dynasties and the chief minister of the cabinet. Can you pardon him from the death penalty by using the Eight Opinions on Leniency?"

The Minister of Justice Yan Yishou also said: "I second the motion!"

Seeing this, Zhu Houcong asked his ministers, "Who else advocates giving Jiang Mian a break?"

At this time, many court officials looked at each other, and then many of them stood up and said almost unanimously: "Your Majesty, please review the eight proposals and pardon his death penalty to show your benevolent policy of leniency to scholars and officials!"

"You said that you want me to show my benevolent policy of being lenient to scholars and officials."

"But Lord Huian disagrees with me on how to treat the scholars and officials."

Zhu Houcong then instructed Huang Jin, "Huang Jin, read the last letter of Huian Gong presented by Huian Gong's grandson Liu Chengxue to the ministers!"

"Yes!"

(End of this chapter)