Qingning Palace.
The Queen Mother Zhou sat there, not as lazy as usual, but as if she was very concerned about court affairs, and sitting in front of her was her good grandson Zhu Youtang.
"Emperor, Ai Jia actually wants to ask, what do you think of the British Duke? He has been loyal and good for several dynasties. The Ming Dynasty can continue to this day, and some people have contributed to it. Even if You respect Bingkuan, but you can't just throw the British prince into a remote mountain and let him fend for himself in the northwest."
The Queen Mother Zhou's words seemed to be speaking for Zhang Mao.
Zhu Youtang said, "Royal grandmother, my grandson's intention is actually to let the British princes show off their martial arts for their old heroes. I will not encourage them to live in the shadow of their ancestors, just like protecting the country." Just like the father-in-law, the grandchildren also entrusted them with important tasks, but they failed to live up to their expectations."
"Oh, you are already an old man, and you will be like this if you don't rely on your ancestors. You can send someone else. A capable person will take over his errand, so everyone will be happy."
Empress Dowager Zhou's words also surprised Zhu Youtang.
In the past, Queen Mother Zhou would only be so persistent when it came to the Zhou family or matters involving his concubines.
Now Empress Dowager Zhou obviously wants to interfere in court affairs.
A noble lady in the harem, no matter how powerful she is, is just the emperor’s grandmother. How can she dictate to the emperor’s servants?
Zhu Youtang said, “That’s not the case. Okay."
"Are you afraid that Bingkuan won't be happy?" Queen Mother Zhou asked.
"Absolutely not. Bingkuan has no opinion on the British expedition. It is my decision to change everything in the past. This has nothing to do with Bingkuan." Zhu Youtang habitually went to Zhang's place. Zhou spoke.
He was afraid that the old lady would misunderstand that this was all Zhang Zhou's "conspiracy".
Empress Dowager Zhou said, "The Ai family also feels that Bingkuan is not such a person. Some people have malicious rumors that he, Zhang Bingkuan, wants to be in power, so he will exclude Duke Baoguo and Duke Ying, but the Ai family gets along with him. "But, don't you know who he is? He is easygoing by nature, how can he be so fussy about it?"
"That's what the imperial grandmother said." Zhu Youtang became excited.
The eyes are shining.
On the matter of praising Zhang Zhou, he seemed to be able to reach a consensus with the Queen Mother Zhou.
But he didn’t know that sometimes the old fox just took his pulse and deliberately followed his wishes and said a few words that he liked to hear.
Empress Dowager Zhou sighed, "But you also know that no matter how well Bingkuan does, no matter how humble he is, there will always be criticism from others."
"My son will punish those people." Zhu Youtang clenched his fists.
It seems that whoever goes against Zhang Zhou will never end with him.
"You have to convince people with virtue, not force. Ai Jia knows that it is difficult to take back the decision you made. Is Ai Jia the kind of old man who doesn't know how to advance or retreat? In this way, even if you can't temporarily Transfer the British public back, and give his family more rewards so that his family will know your attitude."The Empress Dowager Zhou seemed determined to help Zhang Mao.
Zhu Youtang said, "Grandmother, I want to ask you, has anyone told you anything?"
"No . "Empress Dowager Zhou said, "The Ai family is just telling you as a person who has been through it. If you can't get along with the old ancestors, you can't get along with your throne. Don't forget that they caused some troubles decades ago. "
Zhu Youtang looked obviously cautious.
Although the Queen Mother Zhou did not say it clearly, she probably knew that this was about the incident of seizing the door.
Wu Ren Even the emperor dares to scheme, let alone his fellow ministers
"The Ai family is just afraid that you will make the relationship too tense and end badly. Sometimes you value Bingkuan, but you don't want to think about Bingkuan. His popularity in the court depends on the support of the Governor's Mansion. If he loses ground in the Governor's Mansion, who will support him? Even if some grass in the court is against him, once the wind is not right, they will Not sure. On the other hand, the grass grows firmly on the side of some old ministers, whether the wind blows or not. ”
The Empress Dowager Zhou naturally adopted an attitude of “this is all for your own good”.
Actually, Zhu Youtang didn’t like hearing this, but in the face of the old man Madam, he couldn’t find a reason to refute.
“Emperor, a country cannot be governed by one person. No matter how good Bingkuan is, he is just a single tree. No matter how you use him, don’t be cold. The civil servants in the court may not be able to hold on to the concerns of the old heroes in the court when things happen to their family and country, but these old heroes can all be at your side. "Empress Dowager Zhou continued to be persuasive.
Zhu Youtang said, "My grandson doesn't think so. If something happens, it's not necessarily who will take care of it. "
"Well, you can think so, but don't say it out loud, especially don't let them know. Let's do this. It happens that the married woman is about to enter the palace recently. The Ai family will let them ventilate it first. Everyone has settled down. If there is anything going on in the court in the future, we will discuss it more and come to the Aijia. I will not force you to call the British Duke back. You can help him fight this battle, and the Aijia will not say anything."
Zhu Youtang came out of Qingning Palace feeling angry, but he didn't know where to vent his anger.
With his past benevolence and filial piety, he would never be angry with Queen Mother Zhou. , but now he obviously felt that the old lady was a little biased towards Jiu Xun.
Li Zhang, who was following behind, was careful not to say anything, for fear of being offended.
"Who is talking to the emperor?" The Queen Mother mentioned Bingkuan's affairs and found out who had met her and said hello." Zhu Youtang suddenly became angry at Li Zhang.
"Yes. ”
Li Zhang felt aggrieved.
Who am I provoking?
Obviously I am just a bystander, how can this be related to me? It's related
Zhu Youtang said angrily, "Now that someone is ventilating, they can reach the inner palace. Now that I have dealt with the ministers, do I still want to scheming with my family members?"
Li Zhang did not dare to pick up the fight this time
He could tell that the emperor had some objections to the old lady.When Tai gave Zhu Youtang a few words of advice on court affairs, Zhu Youtang not only didn't get angry, but also felt grateful.
But now
"I will send rewards to the Duke of Cai. As for the British Duke, there is no need. I will also give a hereditary official title of Commander of the Royal Guards, and in addition, I will give Bingkuan the land and residence." He deserves to find millions of taels of silver for me," Zhu Youtang said.
"Yes."
Li Zhang felt a little relieved.
It would be great if the emperor could find a solution to the problem. If he cannot find a solution, then he is unlucky.
The emperor's current strategy is to increase Zhang Zhou's position and give him more rewards. If the emperor's mind is balanced, he probably won't be so entangled in this matter.
At Xie Qian’s house.
On the same day, Li Ke came to visit Cai Feng and informed him that several people involved in the impeachment of Wang Shouren were imprisoned. Xie Qian suddenly felt that something was wrong.
"When did it happen?" Xie Qian asked.
Cai Feng also looked very anxious and said, "It was just after noon today. He was taken away directly from the Yamen. I thought it was just a routine questioning, but who knew that he was taken directly to Beizhou?" The Zhenfu Division didn’t come out before nightfall. Everyone in Kedao felt that the situation was serious, but there was nothing they could do now.”
Xie Qian waved his hands and said, “It’s useless to tell me. You can't ask Jinyiwei for help. Since they dare to arrest people, they must have orders from above."
Cai Feng said, "Look, is it possible?"
"What do you want to say? Why should you be careful?" Xie Qian gave a stern lesson.
The general meaning is that even if you think this matter is related to the instructions of our cabinet, you cannot associate this matter with other matters.
If the matter comes to these people, it will be stopped. Otherwise, if the situation escalates, who will get them out?
" Mr. Ge, please think of a way quickly. If you are in prison, According to past experience, you will be punished if you stay overnight. These are just a few writers. They have never seen this kind of battle. If it is going to cause trouble"
"I still Don’t you know that their body bones can’t withstand the torture?”
“Alas”
Xie Qian said, “Go back first and go through the back door. Don’t let anyone see you. Try again next time.” If you have anything to do, ask someone to send you a letter. Don’t go directly to the front door. Or just say it directly to the superior.”
Cai Feng said, “Do you think you dare to say such a thing to the superior? This is going to cause trouble.” No, I will be reprimanded by His Majesty again."
"You are just too forward-thinking. Although this incident is not caused by you, you have gone too far, so you might as well join in the impeachment. , it’s better to participate in the impeachment separately, it’s always a shame.”
Xie Qian obviously also wanted to shift the responsibility to Yan Guan.
But he seemed to know that he couldn't push it away.
If the emperor insists on taking action on those who participated in the impeachment of Wang Shouren, it will be difficult for them not to expose the person who taught them to do this, and then Xie Qian is likely to be involved.
Xie QianlianGo to Li Dongyang's house at night.
This was also the only time he visited Li Dongyang at night in the past two years, and it was because of DPRK-China affairs.
After all, we usually don’t meet each other when we look up, so there is absolutely no need to have such a private meeting and just follow what others say.
"Tell me first, did His Majesty order the arrest, or did the Jinyiwei handle it on their own?" Li Dongyang seemed very calm.
Xie Qian was startled.
He immediately understood that what Li Dongyang meant was that the Jin Yiwei did not always obey the emperor's orders. Sometimes Li Zhang also had the power to give orders, and Zhang Zhou also interfered a lot with the Jin Yiwei.
"Bin Zhi, you just know it's impossible." Xie Qian was a little anxious.
Aren’t you, Li Dongyang, over the top?
No matter how much influence Li Zhang and Zhang Zhou have on Jin Yiwei, how big of a deal is it for them not to know how big of a deal they dare to mess around?
"Yu Qiao, do you think that His Majesty may investigate this matter further and eventually fall on you and me?" Li Dongyang asked.
"Does this need to be said? Your Majesty is obviously serious. I still don’t know what happened, and I don’t feel what Zhang Bingkuan did."
Xie Qian also Can't figure it out.
Logically speaking, there were actually powerful eunuchs involved in this matter. If there was really any news about the emperor, someone would have secretly informed him.
But not now.
Suddenly the emperor issued an order to arrest someone, and Xie Qian didn't even know about it without Cai Feng's reminder.
Li Dongyang said, "The matter of impeaching Wang Bo'an is itself debatable. Although Wang Bo'an mobilized troops, there were some irregularities, but it did not violate the principles of generals in the northwest. It would be better if Zhang Bingkuan grabbed the courtiers and said If we don't do this, we will first arouse His Majesty's anger, and then mention someone who is involved in impeaching Wang Bo'an. It would be strange if His Majesty is not angry."
"Are you saying that Zhang Bingkuan is still up to something?"
Xie Qian looked puzzled.
Li Dongyang said, "If I were Zhang Bingkuan, I might do this."
Obviously Li Dongyang had foresight about this, but it was only because Liu Jian and Xie Qian proposed it at the time He didn't object much to the strategy.
It’s just that he didn’t calculate that in fact it was not Zhang Zhou who was fanning the flames, but Lu Wan.
As for Xiao Jing, he clearly knew the progress of the matter, but did not inform the cabinet because he wanted to protect himself.
Xiao Jing was not trying to protect himself, but to preserve the inheritance order within the Supervisor of Ceremonies. To put it bluntly, he was protecting Wei Bin.
Xie Qian said, "What should we do?"
Li Dongyang breathed a sigh of relief and said, "If this is really the case, if your Majesty wants to question the officials who participated in the impeachment, you can only pretend not to know. You must not When discussing rescue in court, no matter how your Majesty convicts you, we don’t need to criticize you.”
“Bin Zhi, that’s what we let them do."What did you do, just give up on them?" Xie Qian seemed very confused.
It was us who asked them to participate in the impeachment of Wang Shouren. Now that something happened, we just stood by and watched
Li Dongyang said "If we come forward, we will add fuel to the fire, and His Majesty may be waiting for us to come forward, and then he can blame you and me. Is it more important for you and me in the government, or for them?"
"This"
Xie Qian is a little angry.
This is the harm done to those officials. It is clear that everything is caused by us, but we are powerless to do anything about the suffering they are about to encounter.
p>
Can’t live with my conscience
“This is the best outcome for them. "Li Dongyang said.
Xie Qian said, "What if they really involve you and me?"
Li Dongyang asked, "What do you think your Majesty will do then? Your Majesty will question you and me face to face. Or should we be sent to prison? As long as you don't come forward and pretend not to know, Your Majesty will not do anything to you or me. ”
A dead pig is not afraid of boiling water.
The emperor will not take the initiative to break the harmonious relationship with civil servants. Even if someone reports on their cabinet members, the emperor will turn a blind eye. Eye.
But if the cabinet members went to the court to plead for Yan Guan who was imprisoned, it would add fuel to the fire and force the emperor to blame them.
"Alas" Xie Qian looked very unconvinced
"Zhang Bingkuan" Li Dongyang's focus was entirely on Zhang Zhou, "He can do such a thing quietly. This means that he no longer intends to serve as a minister with me. If this is the case, then it is time to step up his plans and make the British Duke bear a grudge against him. ”
“How do you plan for Wang Bo’an to send troops there?” Regarding the art of war, he could not guess where the Tatars were, and the Tatars had always been active around Ningxia and would not give the Ming Dynasty soldiers and horses a chance for a decisive battle. "Li Dongyang said.
Xie Qian said, "But he won't be defeated."
Li Dongyang said, "As long as he has nothing to gain, then we will personally come out to impeach him." To waste money and gain nothing is to harm the country and the people. He has also participated in all his bad deeds in the past."
"We"
Xie Qian is a little confused.
This Didn’t you mean to arouse the conflict between Zhang Bingkuan and Zhang Mao? Why do we need to come forward in person?
Li Dongyang said coldly, “Don’t worry, no matter who comes forward, Mr. Zhang should know who is rising. Let him end up where he is now, and then he will naturally know who to hate." Please remember to bookmark this chapter after finishing it, the latest and fastest website for free reading without anti-theft