Tang Dynasty Xie Lu Lang

Chapter 449 Disturbing the Spring Palace
Since the change of prime minister, every court assembly has become a fascinating spectacle.

Previously, the dispute between the two prime ministers, Li Yuanhong and Du Xian, brought various government affairs to a standstill and made progress difficult. Many decrees were also forced to be shelved, and various problems remained unresolved.

Now that the new prime ministers have taken office, they have swept away the previous problems, and all affairs are being carried out rapidly, giving people a sense of rapid change in the political situation.

This is certainly not because all the current prime ministers are honest gentlemen who prioritize the overall situation and are not fond of vying for power. Rather, it is because they each have their own duties and had their own areas of expertise and management before becoming prime ministers. Now, they have clear divisions of labor and manage their own affairs well, so there are naturally few conflicts between them.

This refers to the prime ministers Xiao Song and Yuwen Rong, who were in charge of military affairs and finance, respectively. As for Pei Guangting, he was not very prominent and had not yet defined his own scope of authority.

This was directly reflected in the matters presented at the court assembly. Xiao Song and Yuwen Rong each occupied almost half of the court assembly time to report on the policies they had decided and implemented, while Pei Guangting mostly just stood in the ranks with everyone else, staring wide-eyed at the two men's reports.

Today's court assembly was no exception. After the officials entered the hall to pay homage to the emperor, the prime minister, Xiao Song, was in charge of the opening ceremony, giving a report on the military affairs of various border regions, including Hexi and Longyou.

With the capture of Shibao City by Prince Xin'an, the Tang army's operational range on the Hexi Corridor and Longxi border expanded significantly, no longer being blocked by the Tibetan army east of Chiling.

Today, Tang cavalry are scattered throughout eastern Qinghai. They are constantly eliminating a series of Tibetan strongholds in the east, forcing the Tibetan army to retreat. The main force of the Tibetan army stationed in the former Tuyuhun territory has also been successfully forced to retreat to the west of the sea, where they can only rely on strongholds such as Fusi City for passive defense.

The situation on the frontier was excellent, and the emperor was overjoyed, repeatedly expressing his intention to reward the meritorious soldiers who had distinguished themselves on the frontier.

Yuwen Rong's next report was less exciting. Expenses both inside and outside the court had surged. Although Yuwen Rong was actively expanding his sources of revenue, the increase could not keep up with the increase in expenses.

Although the financial situation was not optimistic, Yuwen Rong remained optimistic and put forward many creative ideas. In particular, on the problem of bad money that had plagued people's livelihood for many years, Yuwen Rong's focus was not on whether to ban or destroy private money or bad money. He advocated increasing the scale of official minting of coins and increasing the amount of coins minted to put into the market, while strengthening the control over copper and tin in the private sector.

Another point is that Yuwen Rong proposed a reform of the salt tax, which would strengthen the control over the sales scope of salt with the aim of stabilizing the market while keeping the current management model of salt pond production unchanged.

Others might think that Yuwen Rong's move was not very significant, but Zhang Dai understood that Yuwen Rong was gradually bringing the salt industry under state control. Only by controlling all aspects of salt production and sales could there be sufficient administrative power to promote the implementation of the salt-making system.

The two prime ministers spoke eloquently, while Pei Guangting simply stood solemnly in the ranks, which had become his recent norm, to the point that the officials secretly called him "the standing prime minister."

However, besides the prime ministers and other high-ranking officials in the front row, there was another person in the back who attracted attention: Zhang Dai, who was wearing court robes and a ceremonial hat.

The official hat was a unique headwear for censors. Whenever it was necessary to impeach a minister in court, the censor would wear the official hat when entering the court.

Today, Zhang Dai entered the court in this manner, and the officials, who were lining up in the outer court hall waiting to begin the court session, noticed this and were quite surprised. Firstly, many people were unaware that Zhang Dai had also assumed the position of censor, and secondly, they were naturally curious about who he would be targeting this time.

So when the prime ministers finished presenting their reports, many people subconsciously turned to look at Zhang Dai, who was standing behind the assistant ministers of the Ministry of Personnel, wanting to see what he had to say. Even several ministers who were supposed to be presenting their reports stayed in the inner ranks of the guard, ready to watch Zhang Dai's performance, since their matters were not urgent.

Seeing that the ministers in the front ranks were no longer stepping forward to present their reports, Zhang Dai, not wanting to disappoint anyone, stepped forward from the ranks. He walked slowly to the front of the hall steps, held up his memorial with both hands, bowed in the hall, and called out, "Your subject, Zhang Dai, Acting Censor, has something to report."

The sage, seated atop the hall, looked down upon the audience. Upon hearing this, he said, "Granted."

After receiving permission, Zhang Dai immediately stood up, turned to face the court officials, and after searching around, finally found Xue Tao, whose forehead was covered in cold sweat and who was already uneasy. He then pointed at Xue Tao with the memorial in his hand and shouted loudly: "Xue Shaoqing of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, please step down from your regalia to hear the impeachment!"

There are various forms of impeachment by censors, but the most direct and intense method is impeachment by public proclamation, which involves reading the impeachment document aloud in the court, in front of the emperor and all the civil and military officials, and announcing the crimes of the person being impeached.

For the person being impeached, this is both a form of pressure and a public humiliation. Zhang Shuo was impeached in court, and his situation at the time was extremely embarrassing.

Xue Tao's feelings were equally complex, a mixture of shame, anger, and resentment. Zhang Dai had solemnly sworn in the Shaoyang Academy that he would not impeach him again, yet he had gone back on his word and chosen such a drastic method as impeachment in the imperial court. This also indicated that Zhang Dai's actions had the support of at least one of the prime ministers present. Since the reign of Emperor Zhongzong, whenever an imperial censor wished to impeach a minister, he had to first submit a petition to the prime minister, and only with the prime minister's permission could he proceed with the impeachment; otherwise, it was forbidden.

Just as Xue Tao was pondering which prime minister wanted to deal with him, Zhang Dai shouted again, "Xue Tao, Junior Minister Xue, please step down from your regalia to hear the impeachment!"

Seeing that he was being ordered by name, Xue Tao felt even more indignant. However, he dared not ignore it any longer and could only steel himself and leave the procession. But he immediately bowed to the emperor in the hall and said, "Your Majesty, I have refused to respond to any of the impeachments made by Zhang Dai. Because recently..."

"Step back and hear my impeachment!"

Zhang Dai roared again, and with the impeachment beginning, he gained the highest authority in the hall. Before the impeachment document was finished being read, even the emperor could not interrupt him at will.

Overwhelmed by Zhang Dai's imposing presence, Xue Tao swallowed back the words that were about to come out of his mouth and could only hurriedly get up and retreat to the lower part of the court, standing respectfully to await punishment.

Once Xue Tao was in place, Zhang Dai slowly unfurled his impeachment document. It was his first time impeaching a minister, and he was somewhat unfamiliar with writing such a document. However, this particular document had been written under the guidance of Pei Guangting within the Secretariat, so he was quite confident: "I have heard that ministers who neither assist the emperor nor benefit the people are merely occupying positions without performing their duties. Such lowly men are unfit to serve the emperor and should be executed! Xue Tao, the Vice Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, is a relative of the emperor and enjoys great favor, yet he has done nothing to benefit the people and has instead disturbed the imperial harem..."

As Zhang Dai read the document, he sighed inwardly. In the end, the old man's attack was still the most powerful. With just the four words "disturbing the spring palace," he had directly maximized the attack and raised the emperor's vigilance to the highest level.

Above the hall, the emperor's brows were slightly furrowed, his eyes unfathomable, and his face showed no emotion as he listened to Zhang Dai read out the impeachment document.

An impeachment document is not a case file, nor does it need to list all the charges in detail. It only needs to summarize the facts and state that the accused is guilty. Therefore, it does not need to be long. Zhang Dai's document was only a few hundred words long. As for the specific charges, they would be supplemented during the subsequent questioning.

To ensure that all the officials in the hall could hear him clearly, he deliberately slowed down his tone, but he still finished reciting in just a few minutes.

After reading the document aloud, Zhang Dai rolled it up again, turned to face the Emperor, and bowed, saying, "Every word in my document is true, and the evidence against Xue Tao, the Vice Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, is conclusive. If any of these facts cannot be verified, then I am willing to accept the punishment of being struck by five sticks!"

Next, a palace attendant hurried down and took the memorial from Zhang Dai's hand, presenting it to the emperor's desk. The emperor raised his hand to take the memorial, read it carefully, and then his gaze fell on the signature of Pei Guangting, the Vice Minister of the Chancellery.

"Zhang Dai, the supervising censor, and Xue Tao, the vice minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, are hereby temporarily detained by the Censorate and will be further investigated after the morning court session!"

Since the court assembly had not yet ended, the emperor simply placed the document on his desk, ordered the palace guards to lead the two men out, and then continued the court assembly.

"Zhang Dai, you brat, what grudge do I have against you? Why are you so persistent and determined to punish me severely!"

After leaving the Xingqing Hall court, Xue Tao couldn't help but glare at Zhang Dai and said through gritted teeth.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Dai sneered: "Young Master Xue, why don't you ask yourself where the court has wronged you? You enjoy the emperor's favor and live off his salary, holding a position without doing anything, and have no ambition to serve the country! Your daughter is favored in the Eastern Palace and enjoys the highest favor among the imperial relatives, yet you have failed to select a virtuous heir! You are a despicable scoundrel, deserving of contempt by all, yet you still claim that I harmed you out of personal grudges. How laughable and shameful!"

"Aren't you ashamed? You are a smooth talker who deceives the Crown Prince. You are outwardly obsequious but inwardly treacherous and utterly shameless! Just the other day, you clearly told the Crown Prince that you would not impeach me again, but now you have gone back on your word. Now that I am imprisoned, you fickle scoundrel will have your ugly face exposed and will no longer be able to gain the trust of anyone!"

Upon hearing this, Xue Tao became even more furious, glaring at Zhang Dai and growling.

"Young Master Xue, you are mistaken. The Crown Prince is pure of heart and family, which is why he listens to your heretical words and remains obstinate. If I were to argue with him to his face, it would be disrespectful and disrespectful, betraying my honesty and mocking the Emperor for being foolish. Therefore, I will first comfort him with kind words, and then, in court, I will plead his case and explain the truth. The Crown Prince is wise, and after hearing this, he will surely realize his mistake and will not need his subordinates to offer any more words of advice."

Zhang Dai then said with a smile, "Since we have suffered injustice in the past, we must change things now. We must not let this fellow continue to pretend and deceive the world! This is also a lesson that you, Xue Shaoqing, taught me about Ma Xielu the other day!"

(End of this chapter)