Chapter 44 Loyal Minister
Because the emperor did not make a clear announcement, even if he had copied out something so treasonous, Eunuch Huang did not dare to act on his own. He just took a confidential envelope and sealed it with colored paper himself, and sent someone to call the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard who shared the responsibility with him, both to communicate and to share the burden.
The cabinet duty room is divided into two parts, north and south. One is where the scholars and ministers on duty work, and the other is where the scribes of the Imperial Household Department take a rest. In order to clear himself of any involvement, Lu Wenfu, the commander of the Imperial Household Department, was in charge of checking the subordinates. After the message was passed, Lu Wenfu rushed over and only took a quick glance at the colored paper. His face was also filled with red, orange, yellow and green, which was brilliant. But after all, he is His Majesty's most trusted confidant, a brother brought up from his hometown in Hubei. Lu Wenfu was silent for a moment, but still took the initiative to shoulder this responsibility:
"As a minister, how dare I look at this kind of thing? After it's sealed, send it to the palace and ask His Majesty to make your own decision! I'll sign my name with the factory owner."
Eunuch Huang said he dared not, and then immediately ordered someone to fetch a red pen and sign on the envelope accordingly. He also melted the beeswax with a candle and carefully sealed it with a stick, making it seem very solemn, as if he was really handling some extremely treasonous document. But soon, the Jinyiwei who were searching the Silijian came back to report, each holding a few cloth bags in their hands - all of them were fragments of scripts that the eunuchs of the Silijian had privately kept, which could basically form a series.
To be honest, it is really puzzling that eunuchs are so keen on erotic stories. But the fragments of these cloth bags were indeed extremely powerful weapons. They stunned Eunuch Huang, who was holding the confidential envelope, and made him speechless. Obviously, even if all the envelopes in the cabinet were collected, they would not be able to hold all the spectacular and several kilograms of broken books left over from the Imperial Household Department. All the previous pretense of confidentiality was really ridiculous!
So, things like deserting your duty also depend on your talent and experience. After all, the important officials are all masters who have studied hard for ten years. I cannot say what their moral level is, but at least their skill points in reading leisure books under the teacher's nose are maxed out. Apart from the Minister of Works Wu, who was so bold and careless for a moment, few civil servants were caught in the act; compared with the bags of evidence written by the Imperial Household Department, the gap was particularly glaring.
Eunuch Huang took this assignment with great enthusiasm, originally intending to take the opportunity to warn the civil servants who were against the eunuchs, so he made things very tense; but he didn't expect that he would be pecking his eyes at by the birds after hunting geese all day, and when he saw the masterpieces left by his godsons and grandsons on the ground, his face became longer than that of a donkey.
Damn it, I don’t even have the tools anymore, but I’m still obsessed with it!
Eunuch Huang was slapped on the face in public, and his face turned purple and he couldn't utter a word. Another person in charge, Lu Wenfu, had no intention of making things difficult for the ministers. Seeing that the eunuchs were losing momentum and remained silent, he took the initiative to take over the task and ordered his subordinates to bring chairs and invite the ministers to sit down and rest. He also personally went to greet several frightened nobles and calmed them down one by one. He also specially greeted the prince of Duke Mu:
"Thank you for waiting, Your Highness. We are just following your orders."
The prince was in a daze, and was stunned when he saw Commander Lu, and then his eyes wandered unconsciously - before traveling through time, Mu Qi was well-read and had mixed tastes. He once read the eighteen past events that Master Feixuan and his grandfather's brother had to tell, and was very proud of it, thinking that he had excellent taste - of course, Lao Deng had such a good appearance; Commander Lu could be described as "magnificent in appearance" and in good shape; regardless of what the relationship between the two was, at least it would not offend the audience!
However, it is inevitable to feel guilty when you kowtow to your fellow fan in front of the real person. The prince replied hesitantly for a few words and quickly changed the subject:
"…Since it is an order from the Lord, as a subject, of course I have no choice but to obey it. How can I say it is hard work? I just don't know what important things the Lord wants to search for?"
The Jinyiwei and the Dongchang have joined forces in such a threatening manner. It can't be that they are fighting just for these special editions, right? Well, it is indeed inappropriate to bring the Emperor's notebook to the cabinet, but since the founding of Da'an, have there been fewer rumors about the successive emperors? Various jokes and stories have been circulated to this day, and have even been innovated and reborn in the fierce market competition, showing a tendency to reach the pinnacle of literature... Maybe one day when the highest literary achievements of all dynasties are counted, including the poetry and prose of the Han Dynasty, the regulated verse of the Tang Dynasty, and the lyrics and songs of the Song Dynasty, this dynasty may even be able to make it onto the list with its rumors and jokes.
In this kind of atmosphere, Master Feixuan should have been immune to rumors long ago. Why is he so agitated? Besides, the Imperial City Department, the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guards all know their limits and generally would not use such insignificant obscenities to blaspheme and stir up anger; how could Lao Deng have such good ears that he could know the cabinet's underwear so clearly?
Could it be that there is a damn traitor in the cabinet?
Lu Wenfu hesitated for a moment, and probably for the sake of Duke Mu's Mansion, he spoke:
"I don't quite understand. Your Majesty didn't say it clearly."
In fact, it’s more than just not stated explicitly. When Master Feixuan and Emperor Wanshou summoned their confidants to give orders, apart from repeatedly emphasizing confidentiality and caution, they did not even explain the procedure. Moreover, their expressions were grim and unpredictable, and they did not seem to be interested in answering questions for their subordinates. Commander Lu had followed Master Feixuan for decades since he was a child, and now he was considered to be able to understand the emperor's intentions. However, no matter how hard he tried, he could not guess the true intention behind this weird statement, and could only do things according to the rules.
...Of course, now there are several sacks of notes from the Imperial Household Department alone, so the so-called "confidential" and so on can only be wishful thinking. I don’t know how to get through this hurdle in the palace now that things have turned out like this.
Hearing the commander's reply, the prince was greatly surprised:
"It's the Eastern Depot and the Imperial Guards. Dozens of them blocked the palace gates and raided the cabinet in broad daylight, but there wasn't even an imperial decree?!"
No matter how makeshift the cabinet is, it is still the central government’s most important body, the focus of national confidence and trust! Can such a major matter involving the running of the country and the regulations of the court be handled so casually? People will be horrified in the future, and who knows what kind of changes will be triggered!
Where are the rules of the court when they act so unscrupulously and without any basis? Where is the royal decency? Where is the order of the state apparatus? How could the emperor of Xiyuan act so recklessly?
The Jinyiwei envoy showed a little embarrassment and looked away slightly. But his wavering expression had clearly revealed the answer - obviously, as the world's number one monk who had been loitering in Xiyuan for decades, building large-scale projects and practicing Taoism without moving once, it was meaningless for him to talk about dignity and propriety with Master Feixuan.
Only by understanding this point can one understand how poignant and earnest, and to the point, Hai Gangfeng’s words in his later work “Memorial on Public Security”, “lead away by false thoughts” and “the mind is confused and the emotions are biased”, are.
Even though he had known Lao Deng for a long time, Mu Qi stared blankly for a moment, and finally couldn't help but sigh:
"In the past, I have seen people's buildings rise and fall, and their houses have been confiscated countless times. I never thought that the cabinet would gradually come to attack! It is known that such a powerful place cannot be killed immediately if attacked from the outside. 'A centipede will not die until it is stiff'. It must first commit suicide from the inside before it can be completely defeated!"
At this point, he couldn't help shaking his head. Perhaps it was because he did not have the talent and ambition of Jia Tanchun, he could not squeeze out those tears no matter how hard he tried; but his disapproval was clearly expressed in his words. This was almost a blatant criticism of the monarch. Commander Lu was stunned for a moment and didn't dare to say a word.
·
Just as Commander Lu had expected, this checkpoint in the palace was extremely difficult. When Huang Shanggang and Li Zaifang cautiously spread out the sacks of horrific evidence one by one in front of the divination table, Feixuan Zhenjun Wanshou Emperor Zhang Liuhe Gongguo Jiangmo Da Zhenren suddenly choked. And then - then Zhenjun's face twisted rapidly, as if he already had the power to "subdue demons."
The two men prostrated themselves on the ground, not daring to even glance upwards. The emperor's breathing gradually became heavier and more intense, as if he was brewing some unpredictable anger; in just a moment, the pent-up volcano was about to erupt and explode, engulfing and burning this small palace, and bringing devastating disaster to all living things.
——However, after taking a breath, the emperor did not have an attack.
No matter how mean, vicious, or stubborn he is, the current emperor is definitely a qualified monarch who is adept at political tactics and shrewd. Unlike his weak son and his eldest grandson whose mental age never broke through fifteen, when faced with humiliation and slander, Master Fei Xuan might fly into a rage and vent his anger at will; but when faced with a major challenge to the imperial power, he could quickly calm down, weigh the pros and cons, judge the situation, plan and counterattack swiftly, instead of imitating his weak eldest son, who would just stomp his feet and shout to the cabinet, "Someone is bullying me!"
The situation today is vaguely similar. Ever since the Great Ceremony Controversy, all officials had been submissive and submissive, and no one dared to disobey the emperor anymore; but in this basket of scraps of paper, Feixuan Zhenjun Wanshou Emperor keenly sensed a kind of vague resistance - daring to circulate the emperor's words was only considered "wanton", but being able to predict the emperor's prediction in advance, clean up the mess first and avoid search, which undoubtedly meant that they had seen through the emperor's true colors and deliberately wanted to deal with the imperial power. For the autocratic monarchy, the latter is probably even more intolerable.
Are eunuchs the only ones who read erotic stories? It's just that the cabinet ministers are more skilled at hiding their identities!
Unfortunately, the more covert and sophisticated the means of resistance are, the more they will inspire the emperor to fight. There is no two suns in the sky, and no two kings among the people. He, Feixuan Zhenjun, is the emperor, the Son of Heaven, and the father of all the people. Since God has given all the nine provinces to him, the cabinet must be 100% loyal to him and will not tolerate even the slightest perfunctory attitude, let alone such a deliberate concealment of the truth!
The emperor took a deep breath and decided to take drastic measures with lightning speed.
The first step of the decisive measures is to decisively strike a heavy blow to the traitors who dare to offend the authority, and to teach a painful lesson to deter future generations:
"Any slave who sees this kind of dirty stuff will be beaten with sixty sticks and thrown into the mausoleum. If they die, they will be thrown into a mass grave. Anyone who dares to touch these things in the palace will be beaten to death, and those who protect them will be punished as well. Tell the six palaces what I said, so that they will not die unjustly."
To be honest, it would be fine to ban books involving the emperor himself, but it is indeed a bit inhumane to eradicate all books with pornographic content and deprive the eunuchs and palace maids of their last pitiful hobby. But there is no other way. No matter whether it was the Imperial Household Department or the Eastern Depot, no matter how powerful and influential they were, they were ultimately just the emperor's slaves, and life and death, honor and disgrace were just a matter of a word.
Those inside the palace could be beaten to death, but the situation outside the palace had obviously spread and was out of control, making it a bit difficult to deal with.
"As for the man surnamed Wu in the Ministry of Works..." The emperor sneered, "He likes to read storybooks, so I will let him read as much as he wants. First, you arrange for someone to impeach him for his careless words and deeds, and then imprison him at home and hand him over to the Jinyiwei for custody; order him to copy all the storybooks on the market into books every year and check them one by one. I want to see his tricks!"
——To be honest, Zhenjun has already begun to have some vague doubts about Minister Wu. It’s just that it’s hard to explain at the moment, so I might as well lock him up and keep a close watch on him to see if there are any changes in the situation. .
In a rage, the two eunuchs trembled as they obeyed the order, not daring to say a word more on behalf of their trusted followers.
Master Fei Xuan let out a sigh of relief and glanced at his confidant:
"You guys made such a big noise, did anyone say anything?"
Torrential rain and thunder came headlong, sweeping across the country and no one was spared; the swift deterrent effect of the imperial power of killing the chicken to scare the monkey had been achieved; what followed was the time for careful thinking of political schemes and deceptions. The True Lord must carefully understand the circumstances of the search, deduce the traitor who deliberately concealed the truth, so as to facilitate the punishment, arrest and bailout of people in the future, and slowly clean up the court.
Under such heavy pressure, Eunuch Huang was in a state of panic and dared not hide anything. He could only rack his brains and tell the whole story clearly:
"After I and the others announced the decree, no one dared to object. But later, the prince of Duke Mu rushed to the cabinet, and it seemed that something went wrong and some misunderstanding occurred..."
He honestly told the prince everything he had said about "rebellion". Then the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, who was kneeling beside him, supplemented it and repeated the prince's strange theory about "suicide". These remarks were truly incredible. Even in such a solemn and rigid atmosphere, several eunuchs could still hear the lawsuits on their minds, and some even risked their lives to raise their heads and secretly peek at the hem of Master Feixuan's Taoist robe.
...To be honest, this inexplicable madness is consistent with their impression of the Prince of Mu. But if he was going crazy somewhere else, it would be fine. But the emperor is in a rage now. If he is irritated by a few words, wouldn't it be a catastrophe?
But unexpectedly, although the True Lord snorted in a gloomy tone, there didn't seem to be any great anger in his tone:
"...He still has such a stupid brain and such a big mouth. I have reprimanded him so many times, why doesn't he change?"
Indeed, he had reprimanded him many times, so much so that the Imperial Household Department had a special file bag to store the templates of the emperor's reprimands for the Prince of Duke Mu, which were readily available and quick and convenient. When reprimanding him specifically, he also made optimizations for different scenarios; if the Prince had trouble making the elixir, templates A and B would be used; if he had trouble with his foul mouth, template C would be used; and if he accidentally got into a fight with someone, template D would be used. Stable and reliable, with assembly line operation, it fully demonstrates the high quality of Silijian.
Hearing the emperor's words, Li Zaifang boldly replied:
"It is because of the emperor's great benevolence that he can forgive me again and again."
"I am not forgiving to everyone." The emperor said calmly, "The only people I can tolerate in my life are those who don't have any ulterior motives towards me. It's just that there are too many people with ulterior motives in the court. After all, there are only a few honest and stupid people who can be trusted. As for the prince of Duke Mu..."
At this point, Master Feixuan couldn't help but pause, as if he was at a loss for words in the face of the prince's words and deeds - obviously, judging from the prince's various behaviors, he can neither be considered a straightforward man nor a stupid man, and he might even have some cunning thoughts; if one had to force a description, probably only calling him a madman would be appropriate - of course madmen also have thoughts, but the thoughts they use cannot be understood by normal people no matter what, so it is actually not much different from having no thoughts at all.
...However, having just expressed such an expectation of easing tensions, it seemed difficult to suddenly label the son of a noble as a lunatic. The emperor paused for a moment before continuing calmly:
"… As for the prince of Duke Mu, he is always loyal no matter what. I only value this point about him, and I won't bother with him about other things."
When Master Feixuan finished speaking slowly, the three confidants who were crawling in front of him trembled all over at the same time. The True Lord sat cross-legged on the Guatai, looking down from above, and could see the expressions of his subordinates clearly, but he remained calm and allowed his confidants to repeatedly ponder his statement.
Since the True Lord ascended the throne, he has praised his subjects for their loyalty to the emperor, patriotism and dedication to work, and he has said at least eight hundred nice things; but how can those empty words spoken in public in the outer court compare to the lectures given in the secret room to the confidential inner court? This understated statement might be more important than tens of millions of imperial edicts!
Such a weight is natural. In order to make this statement, the emperor had been planning and speculating in his mind for an unknown period of time. He had also been privately paying attention to the words and deeds of the Prince of Mu over the past few years. Only after he had examined them one by one and was sure that they were correct did he dare to make this decisive characterization.
In short, even with Master Feixuan's incurable suspicion, he could not find any fault with the prince!
Of course, from the perspective of the stability of imperial power, there is indeed nothing wrong with the Crown Prince. His origin and family background are reliable, and his daily words and deeds are also so reliable - if the nobles really have different ambitions, they should at least be polite and humble to gain fame and reputation. How could they act crazy and offend important ministers everywhere? In the dispute over power, deeds are not important, but intentions; judging only by deeds, the Crown Prince is much safer than a large number of nobles and vassal states!
Do you understand the sense of security that a madman can bring to the imperial power?
Besides, a sense of security is secondary. Judging from the emperor's cold-eyed observation in recent days, the loyalty and love of Prince Muguo is absolutely reliable. In fact, judging from his sincerity, he might even be the most loyal and patriotic person in the court, but his crazy behavior obscures his feelings and he cannot show them for the time being.
Regardless of other things, just looking at the performance of the Crown Prince in handling tribute affairs at the Ministry of Rites as ordered, his loyalty is beyond words and impeccable - let me ask, if he was not a sincere and enthusiastic loyal minister, who would have thought of promoting Qingci in foreign vassal states? Let me ask, if he did not put the True Lord first in everything, how could he have argued so hard in the negotiations, and would have done his best to torment the Japanese even if he was accused of mistreating foreigners? Not to mention, the prince worked so hard for so many days to earn a little money from the tribute, but he didn't keep a single cent of it. Half of it went into the national treasury, and the other half went into the emperor's treasury. He didn't even think about himself for a penny!
What could be more convincing than real money? This is the real loyalty that cannot be expressed in words, and this is your sincerity that cannot be compromised!
——To be honest, even with Zhenjun's lack of human nature, when he reviewed these deeds one by one, his heart felt a little warm!
Others who are loyal to the emperor all have other desires, either for money, power, or fame. The emperor has been involved in government affairs for decades and has seen too many such faces. But all these demands are inconsistent with the prince's behavior. If the prince loves money, there is no need to hand over all of his share; if the prince loves power, there is no need to offend important officials in the court; if the prince loves fame... To be honest, if the prince really wants to preserve his reputation, then instead of trying to please the emperor, he might as well silence his own mouth first, which would be more effective.
It is not for fame, money, or power; it is selfless and sincere loyalty and love, the most warm and precious friendship. The ancients used fragrant herbs and beautiful women to symbolize the monarch and his subjects, and used the longing and admiration for the beautiful women to represent the lingering loyalty to the monarch. If this is the case, then other people's admiration for the peerless beauty Feixuan Zhenjun is mostly mixed with some unspeakable desires and scheming. Only people like the Prince of Muguo can offer the most sincere and noble love.
——To put it simply, the prince is terribly in love with Master Feixuan!
Even for a beauty admired by everyone and the King of the Sea adored by tens of millions of subjects, such pure love without selfish motives is extremely rare (even if this love is mixed with a bit of indelible madness). After all, Zhenjun is not a Baozong. In order to cherish this rare love, he is very willing to show the magnanimity that a monarch should have.
...So, after several of his confidants digested the emperor's statement, the emperor made a light-hearted final conclusion:
"That's what the Mu family kid said, but just looking at his kindness, I won't bother with him, and you shouldn't bother with him either. People say that you should protect your children, and I am also a protective person. The prince's behavior is a bit absurd, but the king and his teacher must always protect him."
Although the words were light, the meaning was clear. Master Feixuan is about to do some major things that will shock the court and the country. Considering the sudden turmoil in the court, he naturally has to protect his loyal and trusted ministers in advance. The Prince of Mu was of course a madman, but he was the Emperor's own madman after all, so he had to be prepared.
After giving the instructions, Zhenjun glanced at the three people crawling on the ground and did not repeat himself.
...To be honest, Prince Mu's behavior is more than just a little bit absurd. But since the emperor has already spoken personally and insisted on protecting his most sincere admirer, what else can others say? The three of them kowtowed in unison and dared not say another word.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
