"Your Excellency, there are a large number of students from the Imperial College and common people making trouble outside the Yansheng Palace. If it is not stopped, it will probably cause a civil uprising!" An official in the Ministry of Works ran to Fan Jingwen and said quickly.
"How many students are there? How many civilians are there?" Fan Jingwen asked.
"The total number of students is less than 400, and the number of civilians is probably several thousand or even tens of thousands."
"Have the people from Shuntian Prefecture gone?"
"We went, but they have too few people. If a riot really breaks out, they can only stop the students, but not the people."
"What do the people at the Imperial College and Shuntian Prefecture say?"
"They asked the elders to represent the cabinet to quell the matter," the official replied.
"Tell Shuntian Prefecture and the Imperial College and let them figure out a solution themselves." Fan Jingwen said coldly.
"But..."
"No buts!" Fan Jingwen said seriously, "This matter was not caused by the cabinet. Letting the cabinet intervene now is equivalent to pushing the blame onto the cabinet. Let them go after whoever caused the trouble."
Fan Jingwen's reply quickly reached the scene.
The governor of Shuntian Prefecture was in tears.
The matter has become so serious, who is responsible?
He knew it in his heart, but didn't dare say it out loud.
If these students were the only ones causing trouble, he would have gritted his teeth and sent people to arrest them.
But the problem is that there are countless people at the scene.
Especially the families of those people who were arrested for spreading "rumors".
It was because of their involvement that the matter became so serious.
Who arrested the person?
Jinyiwei!
In other words, this trouble was caused by the Jinyiwei.
Fan Jingwen asked him to find someone who caused trouble, but he would not dare to go even if he was beaten to death.
But if we don't go, the situation will quickly get out of control.
If the people were to rush into Duke Yansheng's mansion, the consequences would be disastrous.
In desperation, the governor of Shuntian Prefecture sent people to the Pacification Office to ask the Jinyiwei to step in to quell the incident.
Li Ruolian was not in the Zhenfu Division. He was standing on the city wall with Chongzhen, observing the situation in the Yansheng Mansion with a clairvoyance.
The distance between the Yanshenggong Mansion and the imperial city wall is less than a hundred feet.
Although I couldn't see the specific situation, I could see the direction of the crowd.
"Report!" A Jinyiwei quickly climbed up the city wall: "Lord Fan has no intention of showing up. He asked Shuntian Prefecture and the Imperial College to solve the matter on their own."
"Ha!" Chongzhen sneered: "Pass the order down, encourage some students to go to the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Works to petition!"
"Yes!" The Jinyiwei left quickly.
Chongzhen knew very well that if he wanted to defeat Duke Yansheng, he could not do it alone.
He would first drag the cabinet into the water, and then all the officials in the court.
This can only be accomplished if the court and the people are unanimous.
Chongzhen's order soon reached the scene of the riot.
"Duke Yansheng is not in the capital. It's useless for us to stay here. We might as well go to the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Works to petition." A student shouted.
The department that interacted with Duke Yansheng on a daily basis was the Ministry of Rites, while the Ministry of Works was the office of the Cabinet Chief Minister Fan Jingwen.
This proposal quickly reached a consensus: "Yes, go to the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Works to petition."
"Let's go together."
Students are in front, and the people are behind.
The long line stretched as far as the eye could see.
When they passed by the imperial city, they alarmed the soldiers of the Yongwei Camp in the city.
"Sir, there are countless people passing by outside the city." A general said to Liu Wenyao, who was temporarily in charge of the Yongwei Camp.
"What are they going to do?" Liu Wenyao asked.
"They said they were going to petition the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Works."
"Send a few people to lead them so that they don't get lost." Liu Wenyao said with a sinister smile.
"Yes." The general also left with a smile.
The team arrived at the gates of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Revenue first.
The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Revenue both sent out yamen runners to lead them, fearing that they had found the wrong place.
In the Ministry of Works, Fan Jingwen finally could not sit still any longer.
The petitioning team was getting closer and closer to the yamen, and he could no longer ignore it.
"Ask the Minister of Rites Huang Jin to come over. I want to discuss this with him."
As soon as Fan Jingwen finished speaking, someone outside the door reported: "The Minister of Rites Huang Jin wants to see you."
"Let him in."
Huang Jin's voice came before he arrived: "Lord! Lord Fan, what should we do?"
"Don't panic," Fan Jingwen said calmly, "Let's discuss it slowly."
"Don't discuss it, just run! They're coming over soon, and when they do, they can drown us with just a mouthful of spit from each of them."
Looking at Huang Jin's "incompetent" appearance, Fan Jingwen smiled bitterly in his heart.
Is Huang Jin really incompetent?
No!
An incompetent person cannot be the Minister of Rites.
He pretended to be incompetent in order to put the entire initiative of the matter on himself so that he could get rid of the responsibility afterwards.
As the chief minister of the cabinet, Fan Jingwen could neither pretend to be incompetent nor sit idly by.
I can only go ahead with it.
He glanced at Huang Jin, then gave an order: "Immediately ask the Ministry of War to mobilize the troops of the Five Cities Military Division to prevent these people from taking advantage of the chaos to cause trouble. At the same time, inform His Majesty of this matter to avoid any suspicion from His Majesty."
"This move by the Lord will only temporarily prevent the situation from escalating, but it will not calm it down." Huang Jin reminded from the side.
"No need to remind me, I know." Fan Jingwen replied unhappily.
It is not as easy as imagined to calm the situation.
The students are easy to deal with. Just tell them that Yanshenggong is on his way to Beijing.
He promised to make the truth public after the confrontation.
Students are reasonable people and will definitely leave if they get the promise.
The trouble is the families of the detained people.
If they are not released, the people will definitely not leave.
The people who detained the civilians were the Jinyiwei, and releasing them required the consent of the Jinyiwei.
He sent out several groups of people, but failed to find Li Ruolian.
While they were thinking, the petitioning students and common people came to the outside of the Ministry of Works.
The people from the Zhongcheng Bingmasi came to support as soon as possible, and formed several human walls with the officers from the Ministry of Works to keep the people out.
Soldiers from the four cities in the east, west, south and north were also on their way.
After making sure that the situation would not become chaotic, Fan Jingwen ordered: "Let the students and the people send a few representatives each. I want to talk to them personally."
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