Chapter 1477: Waves Higher Than One

According to Zhao Hao's feedback, Zhang Xianggong decided to wait for seven days. If the emperor's illness did not improve after seven days, the subsequent offensive could be omitted. In order to avoid going too far and bringing disaster upon oneself.

In fact, Gao Ge Lao was more concerned about the emperor's condition than he was. After all, the doctor who was treating the emperor was the one recommended by Gao Gong. And it was Gao Huzi who persuaded Empress Chen to give up her original choice.

If the emperor was cured, it would be a great achievement, and the Prime Minister would be given the title of Grand Tutor at least for his wisdom and discretion. But if he failed to cure the emperor, he would be guilty of a thousand deaths!

In order to pray for the emperor, he organized all the officials in the court to pray for blessings. The monks and Taoists in the capital were also mobilized to pray to the gods and Buddhas in the sky, hoping to lend Emperor Longqing another 500 years...

I don't know if it was because of the magic doctor of the Zhairen Medical Association, or because of the boundless power of the sincere prayers of the government and the people. Anyway, starting from the third day, good news kept coming out of Qinghe County. First, the emperor's high fever was basically gone; then he could wake up for a while every day, and then the time he could wake up became longer and longer, and he could even use some soup medicine and bird's nest...

On the seventh day, the sores on the emperor's body finally began to scab over, and his mental state improved greatly. It was said that he could even sit up for a while!

"Hahaha, great!" Gao Ge Lao had been unable to sleep or eat for the past seven days, his eye sockets were sunken, his hair and beard were disheveled, and he looked like a ghost. He rushed out of the duty room with joy after hearing the news, waving his hands and shouting in the yard. "Thank God, thank our ancestors! Our emperor has passed this test!"

Seeing that Mr. Yuan was so happy, the cabinet officials also ignored the requirement of "this is an important military area, please keep silence" and started jumping and cheering to make their boss look less stupid.

Zhang Juzheng was also among the cheering crowd, but his smile seemed a little forced.

Alas, I knew it wasn't that simple. I still have to do it...

~~

After the crazy celebration, Gao Ge Lao had the good news spread throughout the capital. Firstly, it would reassure the court and the people that the emperor was safe; secondly, it would highlight his wisdom and judgment in turning the tide; thirdly, it would also let those evil-minded villains give up their ideas as soon as possible!

Gao Gong himself was fully recovered. He ignored his subordinates' advice to go back home to rest, and had all the state and ministry affairs that had been piled up for several days moved to the main hall. He wanted to draft them all in one go with a unanimous vote!

Pan Sheng submitted his resignation, and it is approved!

Gao Yi, the Chancellor of the Chancellery, petitioned to reinstate Zhang Siwei as Junior Chancellor of the Chancellery and an attendant officer of the Eastern Palace? Approved!

Wen Xuanlang wanted to transfer the head of the Household Department, Wang Wenhui, to be the assistant magistrate of Ningxia, and it was approved!

Song Zhihan will also be sent out as a counselor to the Zhejiang Provincial Administration Commissioner's Office to guard the Hangzhou-Jiaxing-Huzhou Road.

In fact, the reason why he had accumulated so many memorials without drafting them was not only because he was restless and didn't want to work, but also because he didn't want that damn eunuch Feng Bao to take advantage of the emperor's serious illness and falsely convey the imperial eunuch's order.

Now that the Emperor is well, I believe that eunuch will not dare to act recklessly again. Lord Gao must of course race against time to make up for the lost time!

Lord Gao was criticizing non-stop when suddenly he froze there as if he had been cast under a spell.

"What's the matter, Mr. Yuan?" Zhang Juzheng, who was busy working with him opposite, hurried over to check, and saw a memorial placed in front of Lord Gao. As soon as he glanced at the words on it, he knew it was the one submitted by Liu Fenyong.

Because he was the one who helped to consider the appropriate wording.

Because Liu Fenyong was not a censor, the memorial he used had no special mark and was not discovered in advance by Han Ji of the Ministry of Public Administration. It was mixed in with a pile of memorials submitted by various ministries and sent to the cabinet.

Actually, Liu Fenyong's letter was not out of place, because since the emperor was ill, officials from all walks of life have submitted memorials, hoping that the emperor can take care of his health and stop lingering in the flowers. As an old official of the palace, Liu Fenyong naturally had to submit a letter to pay respects and give advice.

But his first sentence destroyed Gao Ge Lao's good mood!

"Your Majesty has been on the throne for six years, and the government seems to be in good order, but the power is gradually shifting!"

Your Majesty, you have been on the throne for six years. It seems that the government has been revived, but in fact, your power has gradually been transferred to others...

Then he said, in fact, it is not that the officials of the court are not obeying the imperial edict, but because Your Majesty is lazy, so the power has fallen into the hands of others. Your Majesty does not read any memorials, not only will you not hear the words of the loyal and honest, but it may also lead to "the power of the corrupt officials will be blocked and the situation will be formed from now on"!

He also said that the censors now submit reports not for the sake of the country, but to "attack others in order to vent their anger, curry favor with the powerful, and make connections to recommend and promote people in order to build a party of their own..." and so on.

The censors have become tools for the corrupt officials to bite their enemies and collude with their cronies!

Although Gao Gong was not mentioned in any of his sentences, every word hurt Gao Gong's face. This kind of innuendo is the most abominable trick, which can hurt people internally, but they can't get angry directly. If he gets angry all of a sudden, wouldn't he be confessing himself? It means that he is a "power traitor" and his group is a "party of ** friends"?

Seeing Gao Ge Lao's face was as red as a pig's liver, but he couldn't get angry. Zhang Juzheng secretly laughed, but his face was filled with righteous indignation and said: "This Liu Fenyong, just advise the emperor, why do you have to make alarmist remarks, saying that the Ming Dynasty will be ruled by corrupt officials and the treacherous party will run rampant!"

"He is not trying to persuade the emperor to take care of his health and make decisions alone!" Zhang Juzheng raised his head, and Gao Gong gritted his teeth and said, "He is clearly slandering me in a roundabout way! He has even sprayed this nonsense in my face!"

"Not really, we are all friends, and he is from the same hometown as Mr. Yuan, right?" Zhang Xianggong said hypocritically, "I don't think he has any bad intentions. He is probably exaggerating just to get the emperor to pay attention to him."

"Hmm..." Gao Gong pulled his shaggy beard and fell into deep thought.

Zhang Juzheng's statement was not entirely without reason. Liu Fenyong was usually eccentric and full of complaints. He thought he was a talented person who was not appreciated, but in fact he was a fool. Gao thought it was just right for him to keep the imperial seal for the emperor, so he was the only one among the old people in the palace who was not reused. Could it be that he really made a shocking statement in order to attract the emperor's attention and overdid it?

"If you really want to know the reason, just call him over and ask him," Zhang Juzheng suggested again.

"Humph, he doesn't have that much face!" Gao Gong snorted coldly, threw Liu Fenyong's memorial into the yellow silk box presented to the emperor, and said, "This will not be drafted. Just present it to the emperor as he wishes."

"Mr. Yuan, the emperor has not yet fully recovered. He will probably be angry when he sees this memorial." Zhang Juzheng hurriedly reminded.

"Then present it when the emperor is in good spirits..." However, Gao Gong wanted to use this method to test whether he was still in the heart of Emperor Longqing.

Because he also heard rumors in the palace that the emperor got the disease because Meng Chong, whom he recommended, took him to the Eight Great Hutongs and infected him. This was also the reason why Meng Chong was now silent.

Gao Ge Lao blamed himself for letting such a fool be the eunuch in charge of ceremonies, and he was also very worried that the emperor would vent his anger on him.

This roundabout memorial is a good opportunity to see what the emperor's attitude is...

~~

As a result, Emperor Longqing's reply consisted of only three words: "Got it."

This confused Gao Gong, and he wanted to ask Meng Chong for clarification, but the eunuch Sanben told him that Yin Gong was sent to Wudang Mountain to fulfill the wishes of the two empresses. It is said that the two empresses made a wish to Zhenwu Emperor that if the emperor could recover quickly, they would rebuild the emperor's golden body...

However, the eunuch who scattered the manuscript told him that these three words were indeed the emperor's original words. Because it was the manuscript submitted by the old ministers of the palace, the factory official read it to the emperor, and the emperor did not get angry after listening to it, but just said, "I know."

The emperor was not angry? Was he not angry that Liu Fenyong criticized him? Or did he fail to hear the hidden meaning of Liu Fenyong's words? Gao Gong did not know.

He wanted to greet the emperor in person and ask for clarification, but the two palaces refused on the grounds that the emperor still needed to rest.

This panic of being isolated from the emperor made Gao Ge Lao feel extremely irritated, but he soon stopped caring about it because more explosive revelations were coming!

~~

The third impeachment was submitted by Cao Daye.

However, after Cao Daye lost his backing, he was bullied by Han Ji and others for more than a year. He had lost the aggressiveness of a newborn calf. Although he wanted to take revenge, he did not have the courage to file a petition.

Especially after learning that the emperor was in good health, he dared not talk nonsense anymore.

However, last night, Zeng Shengwu showed him the emperor's comments to Liu Fenyong. He said, "Look, Liu Fenyong scolded Gao Ge Lao, but the emperor was not angry. He just said 'I know' in a nonchalant way. Would you have dared to imagine this in the past?"

Cao Daye admitted that it was indeed unimaginable that the emperor did not protect Gao Ge Lao.

In fact, when Feng Bao read Liu Fenyong's memorial to the emperor, he deliberately omitted those sensitive words. His reason was also very strong, in order to avoid making the emperor angry.

Therefore, the emperor had no idea that Liu Fenyong was alluding to Lord Gao, and of course he wasn't angry.

Gao Gong was unaware of the truth, which only added to his fear. Cao Daye was unaware of the truth, which gave him great strength, and he really thought that Gao had lost the emperor's favor and Zhang would take his place.

What else is there to worry about? Hurry up and take revenge! You can also make great contributions to Zhang Ge Lao and get back on his good side. Why not?

So the next morning, he handed in the impeachment letter that he had already written!

Because he was the Imperial Censor of the Ministry of Revenue, the impeachment report was sent to the Ministry of Public Administration and had to be kept and delivered separately, so Han Ji saw it first.

The title alone was enough to make his scalp tingle with fear - 'Your Highness Cao Daye's Memorial on the Ten Faults of the Minister Gao Gong's Great Disloyalty'!

The imperial edict was sealed with wax. According to the law, the Ministry of Public Security was only responsible for sending and receiving documents, so it could not be opened. It should be sent to the Imperial Household Department intact to show that the memorials were sent to the emperor. Then the Imperial Household Department would send it to the Cabinet for approval... This was the formal process.

However, Lord Gao is now extremely powerful, and Han Ji is even more unscrupulous. He directly tore open the seal and was scared to death by the explosive content.

So he skipped the step of sending it to the Imperial Household Department and quickly took the impeachment letter and ran to Wenyuan Pavilion!

"Master, this is bad, someone is going to overturn the table!"

ps. I have finally figured out the emperor’s question...I will write another chapter.

(End of this chapter)