An inner court meeting itself is also a performance stage for the cabinet.
But even if the Shangting Department did not participate in the discussion, it does not mean that they are not qualified. It is just that because Zhang Zhou is not around, no one is willing to confront the cabinet.
When several people came out of Qianqing Palace and walked outside the palace, Xie Qian deliberately mentioned in front of several people, "Even if His Majesty didn't say it, how can there be no cabinet matters outside of the six ministries?" Now is the time when the old and the new are replacing each other, and the cabinet is no exception."
Zhang Mao smiled and asked, "Yu Qiao, what you mean is that you want to take the initiative to give up your position."
Xie Qian said, "It still needs to be mentioned. It depends on what your Majesty decides. However, with this round of changes, except for the promotion of a former right minister of the Ministry of Rites to the left minister of the Ministry of Personnel, it seems that everything in the Hanlin Academy is still peaceful. Is it possible that this time? This change has nothing to do with Hanyuan colleagues."
"I don't know."
Zhang Mao laughed.
He himself also knows that the so-called members of the Shangting Department are just a cover.
Wu Xun, who would really listen to his words
Ma Wensheng said, "The three elders are highly respected, and they can't live without anyone now, but we, the ignorant old ministers, are It’s time to step back. However, the three of them are working hard, so it’s not impossible to increase the number of ministers in the cabinet.”
This is actually more like what he said to Lin Han.
It also seems to be to clarify the meaning of what Xie Qian said before. In fact, Xie Qian is not taking the initiative to give up the throne. It is more like he is guessing whether the emperor has added cabinet ministers and whether he has any concerns about the Hanlin Academy. System officials' intent to change.
Lin Han seemed very calm about this. He knew that he, the Minister of Rites, was also controversial, and others would not be too convinced by him, just like the previous court officials were not convinced by Xu Qiong.
Zhang Mao pretended to be confused and jokingly said with a smile, "Now that Duke Lai is no longer a bachelor, there is no need to worry about him joining the cabinet. Otherwise, he can be a top-down person." It is not the duty of a minister to make suggestions to His Majesty, manage the army, and act arbitrarily, which is not the duty of a minister." It's not reasonable to let him join the cabinet."
"Okay Yu Qiao." Li Dongyang interrupted Xie Qian, "There was a lot of delay today, so I'd better go back to deal with the various yamen earlier. Regarding personnel appointments, we should wait until after the meeting. Don’t lament for no reason here.” The victory is certain, and the court will be in chaos from now on."
This is more like a feeling after losing the battle with Zhang Zhou.
It was also because Tu Yun was not here.
Otherwise Xie Qianfei will question him.
I said before that I didn’t want to fight, but I had to fight, but in the end, the emperor and Zhang Zhou worked together to suppress the matter of participating in the impeachment. So far, the disaster has not been able to criticize Zhang Zhou, but it can’t be said that it will be completely eliminated in the future. No chance, but it’s not that easy to take Zhang Zhou’s fault and lose the attack
Now that there is discord between the emperor and his ministers, the emperor has begun to make deals with ministers when making appointments to officials at the ministerial level. It is no longer the time when civil servants made arbitrary decisions about the government.
You old ministers, if you fail to participate in the impeachment, just pat your butts and leave. From now on, it will not be those of us who stay in the court who bear the consequences of the failure of the struggle
Waiting for the three cabinet members After separating from the rest of the people.
Li Dongyang reminded, "Yu Qiao, you know you don't need to express your emotions in front of outsiders, but you still said that before, what do you mean?"
Xie Qian said, "I just want to tell them, Whatever happens in the future, I will count on the cabinet to take care of it."
Li Dongyang shook his head and said, "Why do I feel that you seem to be discouraged and want to withdraw from the court and never take part in the affairs of the court?"< /p>
"Haha." Xie Qian just smiled and did not answer directly.
The reason why Xie Qian complained was because he felt that he had been cheated. Once he had the thought of slacking off, he no longer wanted to be arrogant.
Liu Jian asked, "Have you recently seen the memorials from Nanjing's garrison officials, lieutenants and the Nanjing Military Department?"
"Never seen it." Li Dongyang turned around and said, "Nanjing Military Department The Minister of Finance transferred the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. The various yamen in Nanjing should be calm at this moment. After all, Zhang Bingkuan has not arrived yet. Could it be that he thinks that Zhang Bingkuan will do something in Nanjing?"
Liu Jiandao, "If your Majesty makes a temporary appointment, He is the minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, so there is no need to think too much about it. But if you want him to stay in Nanjing until the end of the year, you dare to say that your majesty has not assigned him another job."
Li Dongyang fell into deep thought.
This is also what Liu Jian gained from this inner court meeting.
Zhang Zhou will not return to the capital for a while. It seems that the emperor wants Zhang Zhou to temporarily avoid the disputes in the court, let Zhang Zhou hide his power and bide his time, and wait a few months before he will be transferred back to the capital to become minister of the Ministry of War or something like that. position.
But the emperor is obviously not in a hurry, and it seems that Zhang Zhou's tenure as Minister of War in Nanjing is a lasting thing. Then we must consider what Zhang Zhou, a minister who has won the emperor's trust, can do in Nanjing. Whatever the emperor brought, even the emperor was not in a hurry to transfer him back.
"We can't let him go to the southwest to quell the rebellion and calm the people," Xie Qian said coldly with a strange sound coming from the corner of his mouth.
"It's not like that." Li Dongyang said, "But what will happen in Nanjing?"
Liu Jian couldn't answer either.
As the capital of the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing had a court team, but most of the time they were just nobles waiting to die. Even if the Minister of War in Nanjing was involved in the regulation of military power in Southern Zhili, there was no such thing. Zhang Zhou went to the south to use his troops.
Xie Qian said, "I heard that the so-called governor of the Bohai Sea seems to have also gone south."
"What to do?" Li Dongyang obviously didn't know about this.
Xie Qian shook his head and said, "This job was temporarily assigned by His Majesty. The duty is to build ships in Jinghai, but I haven't heard of serious banditry happening along the southeast coast. First the northwest, then Liaodong and North Korea." ,NowWe need to rectify the southeast again. You, Li Binzhi, can understand it, but I can't either. It's better not to ask me. ”
It’s not that Xie Qian didn’t understand, but he didn’t want to delve too deeply into it, so he just told Li Dongyang what he knew.
Leave it to Li Dongyang and Liu Jian to analyze it themselves.
As Li Dongyang said, he was indeed a little disheartened and felt that being a cabinet minister in the court was a bit meaningless.
Liu Jian and Li Dongyang were suppressing him. At the same time, there was Zhang Zhou's influence squeezing beside him. A group of pig teammates seemed to be fighting Zhang Zhou, but they ignored the biggest issue of the holy will. They always wanted to dig a hole to bury Zhang Zhou when things couldn't be done. The civil servants had changed from the original They have been working steadily and become a breakaway group, and have even become unrealistic.
As Zhu Houzhao and his party entered the ground in Shandong, they had been away from Beijing for six days.
Zhu Houzhao was on the way. It was a lot of fun, but for Liu Jin, Qiu Ju, Gao Feng and Ma Yongcheng, it was a bit torturous. They were waiting for the Jin Yiwei to chase them back, but after entering the ground in Shandong, they couldn't even see the pursuers. , let alone the local government doing anything.
Because the news of the prince’s disappearance was not announced to the public
It made them feel that they seemed to be following a fake prince, because this boy Zhu Houzhao seemed to be. The emperor had forgotten about it.
After the ship docked that afternoon, Zhu Houzhao arranged for Gao Feng to hire a car because he wanted to go to Qufu with Sun Che and the others to visit Xuansheng Temple. This is also a way for Zhu Houzhao to ask his pursuers, that is, to transfer boats and cars and not play cards according to the same routine. In this way, even if the pursuers find the clue of the ship, they will lose it if they follow the line.
"Eunuch Gao, should we discuss it? This is not an option. ”
Ma Yongcheng’s status in the East Palace is not inferior to Gao Feng.
Gao Feng is the oldest in the East Palace, nearly sixty years old, and is regarded as the mature and prudent one. .
Qiu Ju and Liu Jin can count on the prince to protect them, but Ma Yongchen himself has military achievements, and he does not want to interrupt his "official career" or even lose himself because of accompanying the prince south.
Gao Feng said, "What can you do to stop the prince?"
Ma Yongcheng looked back and made sure that Liu Jin and Qiu Ju had not followed him. "Those two just want to fool around with the prince, but if we return to the capital, won't His Majesty chop off our heads? We agreed that we would only leave the city to Tongzhou at most, and the palace guards will definitely catch us, but we haven't seen anyone yet. The longer we delay, the more unstable our minds will be. ”
“Who says it’s not the case?”
Gao Feng also had a headache.
When they first left the palace together, the four of them were all forcibly pulled out by Zhu Houzhao. It's like Zhu Houzhao threatened to kill the Zhang brothers.
Zhu Houzhao didn't explain clearly that he would kill them, but he said that he would cause "accidents" for them, such as "accidental falling into a well" or something like that, the eunuch of the East Palace. Who doesn’t know that Zhu Houzhao was doing all kinds of things? If this was really done by a little prince,If there was an "accident", his death would be in vain.
"I thought that if I followed the prince out, I would be caught early. As long as I tell His Majesty the whole story, even if I am punished, it will only be a physical pain. Who would have thought that the palace guards are so incompetent?" Ma Yongcheng hated Henran said, "Now we should try to find a way to leave clues for the people behind, so that even if we are caught, we can have an explanation when we go back. It can be regarded as meritorious service."
Ma Yongcheng is tantamount to "turning back." .
Since Jin Yiwei and other pursuers cannot find us, we will leave clues for them and help them find people.
This is the only way to save this life.
"If the prince knew this, and was taken back, do you think the prince would let the person who betrayed his whereabouts go?" Gao Feng was obviously a little afraid of things.
If you offend the prince, you will die accidentally. If you obey the prince, you will be beheaded by the emperor. Either way, you will die.
Ma Yongcheng said anxiously, "We're here now, and we still don't want to be guilty and meritorious. We really don't want this head."
Gao Feng said, "Liu Jin came to our family before and said he had a good idea. ”
Ma Yongcheng said angrily, “After all this time, you actually believe that Liu Jin, if he hadn’t instigated him, His Highness would not have thought of going to Jiangnan to find Mr. Zhang and push us into a pit of fire. I guess the prince’s Those who threaten people are all from that guy.”
“It’s Mr. Zhang.” Gao Feng said, “If you leave clues for the pursuers, your Majesty may not let us go, Prince. If you know it, you will not be lenient. I am afraid that you will die without knowing. Who else can help people like us for this plan?"
"You mean" Ma Yongcheng. He stared at Gao Feng with wide eyes.
"I just tried to find a way to notify Mr. Zhang and ask him to secretly send someone to protect the prince. His Majesty knew that the prince was with Mr. Zhang, so he felt relieved. And this was exactly the trick of Shouning Hou and Jian Changbo. Just to push everything to Mr. Zhang's side, His Majesty will feel that the prince is doing everything to find Mr. Zhang. Only in this way can we get through safely."
Gao Feng was walking in the direction of the carriage. While reminding in a low voice.
Ma Yongcheng said in surprise, "That guy Liu Jin still has some brains."
Gao Feng said, "Think about it, the prince has done something wrong, not to mention his own head, the clan members can't do anything about it." Preservation. But if the prince is under the protection of Mr. Zhang, your majesty can rest assured that we have no big responsibility. It is best to ask Mr. Zhang to intercede."
"Is it useful?" Ma Yongcheng asked.
"It all depends on man-made things. For example, Mr. Zhang said that there is a conflict between the prince and the third prince, or that the prince's destiny must be to have a Qianlong travel south of the Yangtze River, who can occupy the Ming Dynasty and stabilize the dragon's veins. In short, the prince's southward movement "If we say it's fate, then we're just following God's will," Gao Feng said as if he was talking nonsense.
Ma Yongcheng opened his mouth and said, "This is also what Liu Jin said."
Gao Feng said, "Some of it is what he said, and some of it is what I thought. Although Liu Jin is good at flattering, he has a messy head. It's easy, I thought he didn't care about his own lifeWe are all grasshoppers on a rope, don't think about those who have it and don't have it. We should quickly find a way to notify Mr. Zhang, which is the right way. ”
Zhang Zhou’s speed going south was much faster than that of Zhu Houzhao.
The distance was getting farther and farther.
But no matter how fast he went, there was no way for the imperial court to pass the news. The post horse was fast, and soon Zhang Zhou knew about Zhu Youtang's addition of a child, his concubine, and the fact that Zhu Houzhao ran away from home.
Zhu Youtang could conceal it from the courtiers and use the excuse that the prince was banned. If he doesn't come out to study, it won't be too strange that the lecturer in the East Palace can't see him. The seventh month has not passed yet, and the Jingyan Autumn Lectures have not yet resumed, so it is still easy for the court to deal with him.
But Zhu Youtang has always been easy to deal with. They were looking for his son. As soon as Zhu Houzhao disappeared, he informed Zhang Zhou with a secret order and asked Zhang Zhou to figure out Zhu Houzhao's route.
"The prince is missing"
When Tang Yin passed away. When the letter was sent and Zhang Zhou had to tell him the news in person, he was so surprised that he couldn't open his mouth from ear to ear.
At this time, the group had already passed Xuzhou, and there were only about four days' boat ride left from Nanjing.
Zhang Zhou said, "The prince escaped from the palace privately and was covered by the carriages of Shouning Hou and Jianchang Bo. After leaving the city, he abandoned the carriage and seemed to have hired an ox cart to go to Tongzhou. It is said that he boarded a ship in Tongzhou, but he was followed along the way. After crossing the ship, we did not find any. There is also news that the prince is actually going to the Western Mountains, and that going east is just a cover. There is also news that the prince hired a carriage to go north."
"Wait. Tang Yin frowned and said, "Where have you gone?"
"Where else can you go? Naturally, come to Nanjing with us." " Zhang Zhou said.
"Hiss, the prince came to Nanjing to be the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty. If anything happens, the Ming Dynasty will fall into turmoil. "Tang Yin is also very anxious.
Once the prince's destination is Nanjing, it is likely to be related to Zhang Zhou, and Tang Yin may also be involved.
Zhang Zhou smiled and said, "Then It used to be that your Majesty now has a new heir, the third son of the emperor, Zhu Houxuan. You don't know much about the prince's personality. This child is not old, but he has many opinions. Sometimes you even feel that he is not like a childish child, but like an old-fashioned fox. "
Tang Yin frowned.
This is your evaluation of the Ming Dynasty's crown prince
How disrespectful.
"No matter what guise he uses , in fact, the fundamental reason why we can't find it is not where his destination is, but because he blended into the crowd, probably in disguise. Even Jin Yiwei could not imagine that an inconspicuous boy in the crowd could be the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty. "
Zhang Zhou said with a smile.
Tang Yin asked, "If the prince runs away from home, senior brother is not worried."
"It is always a training for the prince. Bar. "Zhang Zhou didn't take it too seriously.
The public security along the Ming Dynasty was actually not bad. At least the canal line was the top priority of the Ming Dynasty's public security. There would be river bandits, thieves and bandits along the way. It's really not like that.
Under Zhu Youtang's rule, the national power of the Ming Dynasty was also prosperous, and those pedantic civil servants of the Ming Dynasty pursued it.Even if he ruled by inaction, the bandits in the Central Plains were not very rampant until the early years of Zhengde, so Zhang Zhou was not too worried about Zhu Houzhao's safety.
"Senior brother, where is he?" Tang Yin asked.
Zhang Zhou shook his head, "Because of this matter, we can't leave in a hurry and slow down our journey south."
Tang Yin said, "But you are already the Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing."< /p>
The transfer order has arrived. As the Minister of War in Nanjing, Zhang Zhou should rush to take up his post.
But now that the prince's safety is involved, Zhang Zhou has also received help from Zhu Youtang, so it is reasonable to slow down. Is his personal career more important, or the prince's safety? Zhang Zhou's heart The scale does not need to weigh, but should care about what Zhu Youtang thinks in his heart.
"Bohu, don't stay here anymore. You and Xu Jing each lead a group of people, one way up the river and the other by dry road, in order to find the whereabouts of the prince within ten days." Zhang Zhou said.
"Then what?" Tang Yin felt that his task was very heavy.
Ten days is like finding a needle in a haystack. Finding a child is obviously a bit difficult.
Zhang Zhoudao, "The goal of escorting me north is too unsightly for you, so just escort me south, to Nanjing."
"Your Majesty will not pursue the case," Tang Yin asked.
"I will explain the situation to Your Majesty. Now we need to ensure the safety of the Crown Prince. As for where he is, it is not the most important thing. After all, he will be punished by Your Majesty after he returns to Beijing. Then it is better to follow his wishes and go to Jiangnan." Zhang Zhou seemed to be very open-minded about this matter.
Tang Yin frowned and said, "I'm afraid that Your Majesty won't even let my senior brother go."
Zhang Zhou shrugged and said, "What does this have to do with me? I'm just helping to find people and protect Zhou Quan. The prince left the palace without consulting me, and without being pushed around by me. I escorted him to Nanjing in a relatively safe way, and waited for the court to send someone to take him back. I was still wrong."
Tang Yin thought for a while and couldn't help but nodded.
He was also thinking that as long as Zhang Zhou abdicated his responsibility, Tang Yin would not be involved, and he would even gain a good impression on the emperor by protecting the prince.
As for meritorious service, there is no need. The prince’s disappearance is the highest secret in the DPRK.
As long as he doesn't get into trouble, being able to find and protect the prince is also a way of showing that the emperor thinks he is capable. Please remember to bookmark, the latest and fastest website is free to read without anti-theft