In March, the people of the capital were looking forward to the return of spring. But they did not expect that after all their anticipation, a sandstorm would come.
The wind from the northern frontier roared in with millions of yellow sands. The yellow sands filled the sky, making it dark and gloomy. Even the sun in the sky became dim, and the world seemed to have lost its luster.
The entire capital city was left to be ravaged by flying sand and rocks, which made doors, windows and shop signs rattle. The bare branches danced like demons, and even the red walls of the Forbidden City seemed to be shaking. I don't know how many glazed tiles of the Golden Palace were blown off.
The young eunuch hurriedly went against the wind and worked together to close the heavy palace door, thus blocking out the howling sounds of ghosts and wolves outside.
The sound of the wind in the hall suddenly stopped, and the roar of Emperor Wanli became clear.
"Great! Mr. Zhang controls me in every aspect, telling me to be frugal and self-disciplined, to restrain myself and return to propriety, but he himself is arrogant and extravagant, sleeping with Hu Ji every day, and eating sea dog pills! He told me not to get close to flatterers and beware of eunuchs, but he colluded with Feng Bao and played with me, an orphan and a widow, in his hands! He also indulged slaves, sold official positions, plundered and accepted bribes, and there are mountains of rare treasures in his house!"
The emperor looked insulted, deceived and harmed. His face turned red with excitement and he knocked everything in front of him to the ground.
Although Wanli had no feelings for Zhang Juzheng before, he was still his teacher who had taught him with great difficulty and helped him govern the country for 15 years. So even though the eunuchs around him and the censors below were saying bad things about Zhang Juzheng, he still didn't dare to deny Zhang Juzheng directly.
Firstly, the dead are the greatest, and he was afraid of being accused of being ungrateful; secondly, the stigma left by Zhang Juzheng was too heavy, and denying him would be denying the history of the Ming Dynasty in the past fifteen years. Wouldn't all the rewards and gifts he had given to Zhang Juzheng in the past, which were out of sincere gratitude and corny compliments at the time, become a joke?
Therefore, Wanli only dared to secretly overturn Zhang Juzheng's new policies and indiscriminately reinstated those anti-Zhang officials, but was unwilling to step forward and directly criticize Zhang Juzheng himself.
However, the "Last Words on the Sickbed" presented by the East Factory, as well as other evidence collected by Zhang Jing of Zhang Juzheng's deceiving the emperor, forming cliques for personal gain, taking bribes and committing illegal acts, and being extravagant and licentious, completely evaporated his rationality. In other words, he finally found an excuse to settle accounts with Zhang Juzheng in a fair and open manner.
I don't want this to happen, but he and Feng Bao have deceived us, an orphan and a widow, so badly!
If he does not punish these extremely treacherous, hypocritical and dictators, then wouldn't he be a blind idiot as an emperor? How can he win the support of the people in the future?
A histrionic personality like Wanli, once he gets over the psychological barrier, he will immediately add drama to himself, making himself feel pitiful.
He beat his chest sadly and cried to the old eunuch Zhang Hong: "Over the years, I am the emperor, but my spending is strictly restricted. I don't even have money to reward concubines and maids. I have to record it in a book first and pay it out when I have more money in the future. Do you know how embarrassing it is when I keep accounts? Even for prostitutes, people pay directly..."
While Zhang Hong was crying with the emperor, he thought to himself that the brothel would have to be willing to give credit.
"And my grandfather, who was loyal to the frontier army and made quilts for them, reported him to the Empress Dowager when he made a mistake, and he was punished to stand in the snow for half a day." The Wanli Emperor became more and more angry as he spoke, "All the officials in the court lined up to give him gifts, so of course he didn't need to make money by cheating! Because his servant You Qidu is richer than my grandfather!! Ma Boyi, he stole the power and wealth of the master and used it for his own benefit. It really makes me angry to death!!"
What he hates most is why officials don't give me gifts...
~~
In fact, what made Wanli most depressed was that even with the "Last Words on the Sickbed" and the evidence collected by Zhang Jing, he could only smash plates and bowls behind closed doors. He couldn't get angry in public!
Although Gao Gong's revelations were explosive, they all revolved around the secrets of him, his mother, and his royal father. How could he reveal them to the world?
Just when he was feeling extremely frustrated, Zhang Cheng, the eunuch on duty in the Imperial Household Department, came hurriedly into the bedroom.
Zhang Cheng is also Zhang Hong's adopted son and Zhang Jing's sworn brother. Today, the inner court is completely controlled by them.
"Your Majesty, there is Xiao Ding's impeachment. As the matter is of great importance, I brought it directly to Your Majesty!" Zhang Cheng winked at Wanli.
Xiao Ding is Ding Cilu. He, Xiao Yangyang Keli, Xiao Li Li Zhi, and Xiao Jiang Jiang Dongzhi were the four Vajras who initially defected to Wanli. They were deeply loved by the emperor and cooperated very well with the eunuchs Zhang.
"Is it that exaggerated?" Wanli frowned, took the impeachment and opened it.
Ding Cilu impeached Gao Qiyu, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Academy Scholar, for setting the topic "Shun also ordered Yu" when he presided over the Yingtian County Examination in the seventh year of Wanli, which was to flatter the former Grand Tutor Zhang Juzheng and to persuade him to accept the throne. This was extremely disrespectful.
Ding Cilu said that the so-called "Shun also appointed Yu" was, on the one hand, to compliment Zhang Juzheng on his merit of saving the world like Yu, and on the other hand, to use the words "Shun and Yu abdicated" to promote the idea that those with virtue should rule the world.
The subtext is that the throne should not be passed down from father to son, but should be passed on to another like Shun and Yu did. The sinister intention of this title is obvious, it is to prepare public opinion for the contemporary Yu to accept the abdication!
This attack was both insidious and vicious. Even though Wanli knew that this was an attempt to frame Zhang Juzheng, he still became furious.
He recalled the time in the eighth year of the Wanli reign when he was almost deposed.
Because of a small mistake... He had long forgotten what the mistake was. But he would never forget that he was punished by his mother to kneel in the ancestral temple and read "The Biography of Huo Guang" for a whole day.
Although he managed to escape the danger by chance because of Empress Dowager Chen's desperate plea, he was forced by his mother to issue an edict of repentance.
Zhang Juzheng's "Edict of Confession" was even more merciless, scolding him as worthless. But he had no choice but to publish it with a humiliated heart...
Afterwards, he felt that his prestige had been ruined and he was ashamed to face the people of the world. He hid in the palace for several years and could not recover. As a result, he developed a habit of not wanting to see people and became a true "otaku"!
Ding Cilu's impeachment of Gao Qiyu completely stirred up the long-standing resentment in Emperor Wanli's heart.
Of course, Wanli did not believe that Zhang Juzheng wanted to usurp the throne. Zhang Taishi had already become a withered bone in the tomb, and he did not take any action. But it was absolutely true that he did not take himself, the emperor, seriously and compared himself to Yi Yin.
It was mentioned in the impeachment that Zhang Juzheng actually accepted the flattery as "Yi Yin" from others!
It is true that Yi Yin was a wise minister in ancient times who assisted King Cheng Tang in establishing the Shang Dynasty, but he also exiled Taijia!
Taijia was the grandson of King Tang. After he succeeded to the throne, he was tyrannical and immoral, so Yi Yin exiled him to Tong Palace, which was King Tang's mausoleum. He ruled for three years, and only welcomed Taijia back to the throne after he repented.
As a teacher and regent, Zhang Juzheng often disciplined the emperor strictly. Didn't he regard himself as Yi Yin?
He was the wise minister Yi Yin, so wouldn't I, the emperor, be the unjust Taijia? !
How can this be tolerated?!
"I am still Taiyi!" Wanli snorted coldly, threw the impeachment letter in Zhang Cheng's face, and sneered: "Send it to Wenyuan Pavilion. I want to see how the cabinet will vote?!"
~~
As soon as Zhang Cheng delivered the impeachment letter to Wenyuan Pavilion, the people who were drinking at Li Zhi's house got the news.
Li Zhi finally put his heart at ease. He had originally arranged for Zou Yuanbiao to join forces with several senior officials to file a lawsuit, but when Zou Yuanbiao saw that the four people from Donglin's party had been taken away and never returned, he felt that things were not that simple.
Zou Yuanbiao thought about it and backed off. Li Zhi asked him if someone was putting pressure on him but he refused to say anything... He was no longer the reckless young man who was full of enthusiasm. Ten years of guarding the border had taught him a lot.
Li Zhi had no choice but to let Ding Cilu submit the petition. However, without a world-renowned figure like Zou Yuanbiao leading the way, he could not invite high-ranking officials of the second and third ranks such as Qiu Yu, Zhao Shiqing, and Yu Maoxue to co-sign it, and thus could not achieve the effect of a king bomb.
Then they could only win by numbers, so he arranged for a group of censors to co-sign with Ding Cilu, and asked them to assist in defining the case from different angles.
Fortunately, the two-pronged approach worked like a genius and really hit the emperor's sore spot, prompting him to step to the forefront!
"Now, it depends on whether our Prime Minister dares to challenge the Emperor." Li Zhi picked up a piece of cold shredded ear with chopsticks and chewed it happily.
"Of course they wouldn't dare to do that." Yang Keli and the others laughed and said, "This is a serious crime of treason, everyone should avoid it!"
"However, it seems that the Prime Minister and the people of Jing are related by marriage, right?" Ding Cilu suddenly remembered something and said.
"So what? The Prime Minister has been a stranger to Zhang for a long time. I have suffered humiliation under his hands over the years. It is a kindness of Yuan Weng not to add insult to injury." Li Zhi shook his head decisively and said, "Is he crazy? Would he take on such a big prison for the people of Jing? Isn't he afraid of repeating Xia Guixi's mistakes?"
"Yes, yes." Everyone nodded.
"Suppose, I mean if," Ding Qilu was the one who fired the shot, so of course he was more worried. "What if the prime minister took the blame for him?"
"This..." Several censors fell silent and looked at Li Zhi.
Li Zhi swallowed the cold-mixed shredded ear slowly, took a sip of Lao Baigan, and sneered, "Then get rid of him together and completely clear out the cabinet!"
"That's too difficult. Just like Jiang Dongzhi said that day, Yuan Fu's reputation is too high, it's hard to shake him." Several people nodded.
"You're overthinking, little brother." Li Zhi said quietly, "How many days has Zhao Xiuning been the Prime Minister? In terms of power and omnipotence, he is far inferior to Yan Fenyi back then. In terms of meritorious service to the country and high public trust, he is also far inferior to Xu Huating later. But what about Fenyi and Huating? Without the emperor's word, they were sent home."
"Don't you understand? There is only one master of the Ming Dynasty, and that is the emperor. No matter how high a minister stands, he cannot touch the sky. He will fall back to the ground when the wind blows." Little lamb Keli also echoed complacently.
"That's true." Ding Cilu frowned and said, "I'm afraid the emperor can't make up his mind. Zhao Xianggong is also the emperor's teacher, and he has a close relationship with the emperor."
"We still have our last killer move, what are we afraid of?" Li Zhi tilted his head back nonchalantly and drank the wine in the glass.
"You mean..." Everyone understood and laughed, and the tense atmosphere in Alexandria just now disappeared instantly.
ps. There will be another chapter soon.