Crown Prince Zhu Cilang quickly walked up to Li Banghua, clasped his hands and said, "Greetings, Your Excellency the Imperial Envoy!"
The other officials knelt down one after another, shouting, "Greetings, Your Excellency the Imperial Envoy."
During the Ming Dynasty, the ways lower-level officials addressed their higher-level officials in private changed frequently.
At first, I used to add a big word.
The magistrate was called "Da Lao Ye", the secretary was called "Da Zhong Han", and the inspector was called "Dama Tai".
After using it for a period of time, the officials became unhappy because many official titles had been overused by ordinary people.
At that time, people called doctors "dafu" or "langzhong", teahouse waiters "daboshi", and craftsmen "dasiwu".
For this reason, the officials decided to raise their seniority.
Privately, the title of the county magistrate was changed to "Taiye", the prefect to "Tai Zun", the minister to "Tai Shi", etc...
However, the title of the Imperial Envoy has not changed, and is uniformly called "Your Excellency" or "Imperial Envoy".
After the ceremony, Li Banghua came to Zhu Cilang and handed him a letter, "This is a secret letter that your majesty asked me to pass on to your highness the crown prince. Please keep it well."
Zhu Cilang took the secret letter respectfully and put it in his arms.
He glanced behind Li Banghua and then said, "I have prepared a banquet in Chunhe Hall to welcome you, Mr. Cabinet. You must not refuse."
"I appreciate your kindness, Your Highness. I am busy with official business this time when I go south. I can just have some home-cooked meals at the post station. I won't bother Your Highness." Li Banghua did not give Zhu Cilang any face and directly rejected his dinner invitation.
He did this for two purposes.
One is to protect yourself, the other is to protect the prince.
It had been a year and a half since the prince arrived in Nanjing, and he was unsure of the prince's position.
It would be fine if the prince stood on his side, but if the prince stood on the side of Nanjing officials and nobles, he would definitely be in danger.
All kinds of accidents were waiting for him, such as falling into the water after drinking and slipping after drinking.
No matter what accident happens to him, the prince will be implicated.
In fact, he was not afraid of death, but he was afraid that death was meaningless.
What's more, the mission of this trip south was to collect the tax arrears owed by the gentry.
He can't die before the mission is completed.
Zhu Cilang didn't know the whole story and thought that Li Banghua looked down on him, so he snorted coldly and left.
Li Banghua sighed in his heart.
This prince is too naive. He needs more training so that he can keep his emotions under control.
After the prince left, some of the officials who had come to greet him followed him.
The remaining dozen or so people were all old acquaintances of Li Banghua, and they all came up to him to reminisce about the past.
On the surface, it seemed like they were reminiscing about the past, but in reality, they were using words to test Li Banghua's bottom line.
If they can bear it, they will find a way to cooperate with Li Banghua to make everyone happy.
If they can't bear it, they will do the opposite.
Li Banghua directly avoided the topic and instead talked about some trivial matters.
After chatting for a while, everyone got nothing out of it and left in disappointment.
After the others had gone far away, Shi Kefa came up to Li Banghua and bowed, saying, "Lord Li, how are you?"
"I hope you are well," Li Banghua bowed in return, "Xianzhi, you have lost weight (Shi Kefa's pen name is Xianzhi)."
"Alas," Shi Kefa sighed, "I'm so busy with official duties that I can't help but lose weight."
"Who holds the military power in Nanjing now?" Li Banghua asked in a low voice.
Shi Kefa thought for a moment and said, "In theory, to mobilize the military power in Nanjing, you need the official document of the Ministry of War and the order of the crown prince. Only with these two documents can the nobles mobilize and command the troops. But the reality is different from the theory. The crown prince and the nobles each have thousands of private soldiers. They only recognize people and not procedures."
etc...
Shi Kefa looked at Li Banghua in a daze: "Why are you asking this, Lord?"
"Nothing, just asking." Li Banghua answered casually.
Shi Kefa nodded doubtfully and continued to communicate with Li Banghua.
After chatting for a while, Shi Kefa turned and left.
Li Banghua drove towards Nanjing City in a horse-drawn carriage.
After passing through the city gate and walking along the street, the imperial envoys' team soon arrived near the post station.
When Li Banghua was about to get off the car, he found that the postmaster of the post station was directing the postmen to pick up things.
Looking closely, I realized that they were picking up paper.
Yellowed pieces of paper were scattered all over the ground, flying around at the mercy of the wind.
"Go and see what's going on." Li Banghua ordered the servants around him.
The servant quickly came to the postmaster and asked, "What are you doing?"
The postmaster was a little flustered when he saw the imperial envoys coming, and he explained hastily: "No, nothing. Please come in, the room and hot water are ready."
"Nothing?" Li Banghua's servant was not so easy to fool. He picked up a piece of paper and glanced at it.
It would have been fine if I hadn't read it, but my face changed suddenly after reading it.
He pointed at the postmaster's nose and asked, "Tell me, who told you to do this?"
The postmaster knelt on the ground with a plop: "I don't know, a few scholars passed by just now, and when they walked to the door of the posthouse, they suddenly threw the papers in their arms to the door of the posthouse and ran away."
"After reading the above content, I knew someone was causing trouble, so I hurriedly ordered the postmen to clean up. But before they could finish, the imperial envoy arrived."
The servant glared at the postmaster fiercely, then turned around and handed the paper to Li Banghua.
Li Banghua took a quick glance and then sneered.
The paper reads:
The government wasted money, and the treasury was empty. Since ancient times, the treasury was empty because of the people or the merchants.
Now the people are in rebellion, and the court dare not provoke them.
The imperial court did not dare to offend the merchants who transported military supplies to the border.
Since the common people and merchants could not afford to offend them, the court thought of increasing taxes on scholars.
It's totally unheard of.
Li Banghua, as the chief minister of the cabinet and the head of the civil officials, not only did he not speak up for the scholars, but he also helped the tyrants to commit atrocities and acted as a lackey of the court. He was simply shameless.
Poor, so sad!
The content on the paper was very harsh.
Not only did he criticize the court's policies, he also accused Li Banghua of being a running dog of the court and bringing shame to scholars.
"This is definitely organized and premeditated. Please give the order to arrest the people!" Zhang Boxing, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War, stood up.
"No need!" Li Banghua continued to sneer, "If scholars have no emotions, what's the difference between them and the dead? They are just being used by others, that's all."
"Put a row of tables and stools at the door, and let the word out that any dissatisfied scholar can come here and sit and curse."
"If you're thirsty, I'll bring you water. If you're hungry, I'll feed you."
"I respect him as a man if he dares to come here!"
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