There are bursts of spring thunder and rain falls like a river.

After hearing what his father said, Xu Fan was shocked.

"Father, think twice! Your Majesty is at the opposite extreme from the late emperor. He is too indulgent and trusting of eunuchs. Those eunuchs also rely on your Majesty's favor to do whatever the emperor wants and even try to seize power!"

The young minister hurriedly advised Xu: In just over a year, the East Factory's spies have spread all over the capital, and the Imperial Horse Bureau has also begun to regroup. The Imperial Household Department has also sent eunuchs to harass the locals, and there are already signs of seizing power. If they really seize the military power..."

Xu Fan shuddered and said, "I'm afraid the Zhengde incident will really happen again..."

Xu Jie nodded, General Xu’s analysis was correct again.

Emperor Longqing was indeed different from the previous emperor. He was extremely dependent on the eunuchs around him. In the first year since he ascended the throne, he repeatedly promoted and lavished honors on the eunuchs in the palace. It can be said that when one person succeeds, everyone around him will benefit.

This was not as simple as rewarding a few eunuchs. You had to know that both the northern and southern capitals had 24 inner court offices, plus the eunuchs guarding the provinces, eunuchs in charge of weaving, eunuchs in charge of taxation... a total of 40,000 to 50,000 eunuchs.

Moreover, it had power - the Imperial Household Department; it had soldiers - the Imperial Stables; and it had money - the Textile Bureau. Therefore, it was a political force that could not be ignored.

Even during the Zhengde reign, eunuchs controlled the court inside and outside. The cabinet ministers and the six ministers were all their lackeys and cronies. Their power was so great that it seemed to have reached the height of the late Han Dynasty and the late Tang Dynasty.

Fortunately, Emperor Zhengde later realized his "mistake" and took the initiative to kill Liu Jin and exile the Eight Tigers. Later, Emperor Jiajing learned the "lesson" of the Zhengde Dynasty and severely restricted the power of eunuchs. In addition to the eunuchs in charge of weaving and taxation who continued to make money, the eunuchs' arrogance was completely extinguished by the Silijian and Yusimajian.

However, the civil service group always remained vigilant against the eunuch group, and always took it as their responsibility to prevent them from reviving with the help of imperial power.

Well, the safest way is to make the imperial power itself weak and powerless, so that those eunuchs have no way to borrow strength...

That's why Xu Fan reacted so strongly when he saw the emperor and the eunuchs trying to take back the military power.

"You are right. In the past, I would have advised against it." Elder Xu sighed and said, "But now, I don't want to protect the people below from the wind and rain anymore. Let them get wet in the rain and sober up."

"I see!" Xu Fan suddenly realized, "Father means that we should vote to pass it, then spread the news and let the three of them clean up the mess?"

"Yes." Xu Jie nodded, and said in a calm tone with obvious resentment: "When the time comes, they will know how much I, the Prime Minister, have suffered for them."

Lord Xu did have reason to be angry - did you think Emperor Longqing was so obedient when he first came to power?

He is in his thirties, in the prime of his life, has received a good royal education, and is the country's eldest ruler with a complete team of both internal and external officials!

At the beginning, Longqing was also ambitious and wanted to be a capable ruler!

After ascending the throne, he wanted to restore the system of eunuchs guarding the entire country during the Zhengde period, he wanted to go to Mount Tai to offer sacrifices, and he wanted to restore the eunuchs' military supervision... He had many outrageous ideas one after another, and it was Lord Xu who, under tremendous pressure, extinguished the emperor's ideas one by one, and at the risk of breaking with the emperor, he killed Gao Gong.

This is how the imperial power was put into a cage... Oh no, this is how the current harmonious situation of the Holy Emperor ruling with ease was created.

But some people actually ignore the truth and take the blame for you, and hope that I will step down?

Well, I won’t care this time. You guys try it for yourself and see how it feels to be stung by a bee!

"In that case, let's just go all out." Xu Fan took the opportunity to suggest, "Add one more thing, and restore the ancestral system of sending eunuchs to guard the local areas!"

After saying this, he was a little unsure and said, "But my father knelt in the Qianqing Palace for a whole day to abolish this rule."

"It doesn't matter, let them kneel down and try." Lord Xu looked hurt, just like a child shouting "Give me the ball, I want to go home."

"Then let's draft the bill like this." Xu Fan gritted his teeth, picked up the pen, and wrote down the agreed contents on the bill.

"Write another petition for your father to retire due to illness, saying that your father is old, exhausted, weak and ill, and cannot bear the heavy responsibility of being the Prime Minister. Please allow me to retire." Xu Jie ordered again: "Then send it to Li Xianggong."

"I understand." Xu Fan nodded. The prime minister and important officials resigned due to illness, which has always been a common means of retreating to advance, and no one has ever gotten away with it.

However, when Gao Xinzheng resigned last year, the emperor tried to retain him twice and he returned to work. As a result, he was ridiculed by scholars for being obsessed with officialdom and hypocritical...

~~

When the rain stopped, Xu Fan had also written a petition for leave and sent it along with a stack of other petitions to Li Chunfang's duty room.

Li Chunfang saw the young cabinet minister coming over with the memorial, and quickly stood up to greet him: "How can we trouble the young cabinet minister to come here in person? I will bring it back myself when I report to the prime minister later."

"Ah." Xu Fan placed the pile of memorials neatly on Li Chunfang's desk and sighed, "From now on, that room will belong to you, my lord. Others will have to report to you."

"What?" Li Chunfang stood up from his chair in shock. As expected, he saw the "Memorial of Xu Jie, the Minister, Begging for His Retirement" that Xu Fan had placed on the top. He was horrified and said, "Absolutely not. Why is it like this?"

"Why is it so?" Seeing Li Chunfang's panic, Xu Fan couldn't help but complained: "Did the three of you take the Prime Minister seriously yesterday? My father thought he was sincere and devoted, but who would have thought that he would be abandoned by the cabinet officials? Naturally, I was discouraged and stayed up all night. This morning, I wrote this resignation letter to fulfill the wishes of the Grand Secretaries!"

As he spoke, he sighed deeply and said, "The heavy rain earlier was the heaven and earth crying for Yuan Fu..."

Li Chunfang thought to herself, great, even Lord Xu can communicate with heaven.

"Wait a moment here, young minister. I will go find Prime Minister Zhang and Prime Minister Chen to discuss how to persuade Yuan Fu to change his mind."

After saying this, he hurriedly picked up the letter of resignation with a panicked look on his face and went to report the news to the other two university secretaries.

Xu Fan stood in Li Chunfang's duty room, looking at his hurriedly leaving back, a hint of sarcasm flashed across the corners of his mouth.

~~

Zhang Juzheng was in the duty room, staring blankly at a new geometry problem he had been given.

This is the third to seventh volumes of "Elements of Geometry" that Zhao Hao specially asked his disciples to deliver in order to thank them for their help yesterday.

For Mr. Zhao, who is stingy with knowledge, taking out four volumes at once is definitely a sincere gesture for the sake of his idol.

Of course, Bu Gu actually doesn’t like geometry…

It’s just because Bu Gu has obsessive-compulsive disorder.

This problem does not allow me to give up halfway.

Hey, I’ve already finished part of it, how can I do without finishing the rest?

Let’s do it. A family must be together to be perfect.

Thinking of this, Bu Gu’s beard became a lot more wilted.

At this moment, Li Chunfang suddenly walked in quickly and whispered, "The Prime Minister is about to hand in his resignation."

"Oh?" Zhang Juzheng's gaze suddenly shifted from the geometry problem to the resignation letter in Li Chunfang's hand.

Well, now I have a reason not to do the questions for now...

ps. Fourth update, please give me monthly tickets and recommendation tickets~~