Unexpectedly, the six ministries, nine officials, and the chancellors and vice ministers all came together to speak up for the cabinet. The censors were stunned.

Please, this is a major case of treason. Aren't big shots supposed to protect their reputation? Why are you holding hands and jumping into the fire pit?

Emperor Wanli was also confused. This was different from the script he had imagined. Didn't they say that officials all over the country had suffered from Zhang Juzheng for a long time? Didn't they say that I am the light, I am the electricity, I am the only miracle?

"When I take action, everyone should be silent as a cicada, not daring to breathe! Why are all the ministers rushing over me?" He was puzzled in the Qianqing Palace.

"Not all of them have submitted their opinions. There are also You Zongxian Qiu Yu, Shao Zongchan Zhao Shiqing, and Shao Sikong Yu Maoxue who have not spoken out..." Zhang Cheng comforted the emperor.

"Why don't you say that the Minister of Justice didn't file a complaint either?" Wanli said angrily, "I vindicated them and vented their anger. Should I thank them for not biting back?"

"Yes, yes." Zhang Cheng shrank his neck and asked cautiously, "Then Your Majesty, what should we do next?"

"What should we do? I have sent the blank memorial of impeachment of Ding Ci, Lu Can and Gao Qiyu to the cabinet. The meaning is clear, right?!" Wanli said coldly, "They are openly defying me!"

Zhang Cheng's mind flashed back to the previous scene——

"I am still Taiyi!" The emperor snorted coldly, threw the impeachment in his face, and sneered: "Send it to Wenyuan Pavilion. I want to see how the cabinet will vote! "

Flashback ends.

His face was still aching slightly at this moment. I guess the emperor's face must be burning as well?

At this moment, Wanli thought of his grandfather, who was also in this Qianqing Palace, facing the cabinet ministers who had no respect for the emperor, right?

At that time, Emperor Sejong Suk was only sixteen years old, ten years younger than himself. Moreover, the Queen Mother was closer to the foreign officials, and all the censors stood against him.

My grandfather was so isolated and helpless at that time, and the difficulties he encountered were ten times greater than his own. However, he still gritted his teeth and persevered, and finally won the Great Ceremony Debate and successfully suppressed the civil service group under him!

Grandpa's successful experience has already pointed out the direction for me - Calabash Brothers will definitely come to save me! Oh no, as the emperor, he is invincible!

In this contest between the emperor and his subjects, the key for the emperor is to grit his teeth! As long as he is determined not to give in, the victory will definitely belong to the emperor in the end!

Now, how can I bow my head in the place where my grandfather once fought?

As soon as he thought of this, Wanli felt that his whole body was filled with strength again!

He put away his anger and panic, and imitated his grandfather's tough and calm expression and said, "Whatever we have to do, we can just go home! Without Zhao the Butcher, can I still eat hairy pigs?"

~~

Zhang Hong quickly conveyed the emperor's intention to the Paw Patrol.

Li Zhi and others were actually frightened by the reactions of the ministers. They had offended all the big leaders. How could they survive in the future?

Moreover, the censors were also divided. Jiang Dongzhi and other officials from the Jiangnan faction drew a clear line between themselves and the censors, and turned to protect their master...

For a time, the science and technology department was in a precarious situation and seemed to be on the verge of collapse.

Fortunately, Emperor Wanli expressed his determination to "stick to the end" in time, which gave them peace of mind.

"I told you, Your Majesty is very much like our ancestor, and he will never bow to his subjects!" Li Zhi heaved a sigh of relief and said, "We made the right move!"

"Yes, although we are isolated now, the more times like this, the stronger the emperor's favor will be!" Little Ding Ding's eyes were red, and his face was excited, as if the person who was scared and sleepless for days and nights was not him. "The emperor will never give up on us!"

"As long as we can get through this, we will be the emperor's most loyal ministers, and rapid advancement in career will be just around the corner. There's an 80% chance that we can even become a cabinet minister like Mr. Zhang and Mr. Gui!" Little Lamb Keli also encouraged everyone.

"What is there to be afraid of? Go!" Li Zhi cried out. Now that things have come to this, he can only grit his teeth and bear it.

So more than twenty censors jointly submitted a petition and refused to give in!

They are indeed professional trolls, as they actually found a serious crime from the corners of the "Great Ming Code" and accused these high-ranking officials of "speaking highly of the good governance of ministers"!

"Any officials and common people who speak highly of the good governance and talents of the prime ministers are traitors! They must be interrogated and their backgrounds must be clear. The criminals will be executed, their wives and children will be enslaved, and their property will be confiscated by the government. If the prime ministers know about it, they will be guilty of the same crime. Those who do not know will not be punished!"

——《Ming Dynasty Code·Officials Code》

The censors protested, saying: "It is forbidden to speak up about the good governance of ministers. Recently, the ministers resigned and petitioned to keep Ju Zheng. They praised his virtues and achievements and wrote many memorials. This is the height of flattery and shameful! For more than 200 years since our ancestors, no censors have been impeached or dismissed for discussing matters. This is a gradual obstruction and cannot be allowed to continue!"

The meaning is very simple, that is, all the ministers who support the Prime Minister have committed crimes! This is the legacy of Zhang Juzheng's dictatorship. Whenever the Prime Minister wants to resign, they will definitely try to retain him, sing his praises, and flatter him. It is really flattering! And we, the Paw Patrol, are the dogs of the Emperor, so we can't let the people below beat us, Your Majesty! Woof woof!

Not only did they attribute the ministers' joint efforts to protect the Grand Secretary to Zhang Juzheng's legacy, but they also reminded the emperor not to abolish his own minions. This counterattack by the censors was quite skillful.

As soon as this memorial was reported, the ministers and assistant ministers submitted their resignations one after another, went home to be lazy... uh, and waited for processing.

Now, the only anti-Zhang faction left in the capital were Right Censor-in-Chief Qiu Yu, Left Vice Minister of Personnel Zhao Shiqing, Vice Minister of Revenue Yu Maoxue, etc. Facing the strange looks from his subordinates all day long was very embarrassing...

Then, the officials of the various ministries, including the officials of the seventh rank and above, all signed a petition to keep their superiors. They also said that if this was considered a "crime of criticizing the good governance of the ministers", then all of us should be beheaded...

"Hmph, who are you threatening? I won't let them beg me to come back to work!" Wanli looked at the long list of names on the memorial, his heart twitching.

And he had a box of memorials like this in front of him.

Thinking that in a few days, memorials from Nanjing and other provinces would come pouring in like snowflakes, Wanli felt exhausted and could only look at the portrait he had specially hung on the wall to find strength.

The Emperor Jiajing in the imperial portrait is wearing a Yishan crown and a dragon robe, sitting on the dragon throne with a smug expression that says "I want to win, so you all have to lose." It seems as if he is saying to his grandson:

Don't bow your head, or your crown will fall off! Don't give in, or the civil servants will laugh!

"But grandpa, this feeling of 'I will go even if there are thousands of people against me' is really unpleasant!" Wanli murmured, "I really miss the time when Mr. Zhang was here..."

"Puh! What are you talking about?!" He suddenly woke up and almost slapped himself. What was there to miss about that evil hypocrite? He was so mean!

"Let them know that I am not afraid of their resignation! The court can function without anyone!" Wanli was full of strength again, gritting his teeth and said, "Three-legged toads are hard to find, but two-legged scholars are everywhere!"

He decided that if he couldn't change the mindset, he would change the people. Of course, he didn't want to change all of them, but just focus on changing a few high-ranking officials in the cabinet, which should have the effect of making a warning... right?

So Wanli began to think about personnel arrangements, but he couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he tried.

Because he didn't know much about the foreign officials. The officials whose names he knew and who were qualified to serve in the cabinet had already resigned. The ranks of those in the Paw Patrol were too low. He couldn't directly promote a seventh-rank official to a second-rank minister, right? That would be too absurd.

Logically, the Ministry of Personnel should have asked for recommendations at this time, but everyone from the Minister to the Director of the Ministry of Personnel had already given up, so he couldn't just ask a clerk, right? He had no choice but to ask Zhang Hong to go to Li Zhi's house again and ask the censors to recommend a few candidates.

Li Zhi and others were very excited after hearing the order. They discussed it enthusiastically all night and almost quarreled so much that the roof fell off.

Although they were only asked to recommend, not to be appointed as officials, but if even the Shangshu and Daxueshi were recommended by themselves, wouldn't that be enough to brag about for the rest of their lives? Wouldn't it be easy for them to walk on in the future?

It was not until dawn that everyone reached a consensus and submitted a report.

The first candidate was Wang Xijue, who almost forced Zhang Juzheng to death. The chef was originally an official in the Imperial Household Department, in charge of the Hanlin Academy, and had also served as the principal and vice principal of the Imperial College in the north and south. He had sufficient qualifications and students and former officials all over the world. Because of his eye-catching performance in the love-stealing incident, he was highly respected in the country, so it was natural to recommend him to the cabinet.

Moreover, Wang Xijue was Li Zhi's tutor, and Yang Keli and Ding Cilu were the principals of the Imperial College, so naturally he received the unanimous support of the three.

The other two candidates were Zhang Yue, the former Nanjing Minister of Justice. During the storm of love, all the ministers in the two capitals submitted petitions to retain Yuan Fu, but he was the only one who sent a petition to ask Ju Zheng to attend the funeral, which angered Zhang Ju Zheng. When the officials in the capital were being examined, he was impeached and dismissed from his post and has lived in idleness ever since.

The censors recommended him to be the Minister of Personnel.

He also recommended He Yuan, a former assistant minister of the Ministry of Personnel, to serve as the Left Censor-in-Chief. He was also impeached and dismissed from office because he disobeyed Zhang Juzheng.

As for the three royalist Right Censor-in-Chief Qiu Yu, Left Vice Minister of Personnel Zhao Shiqing, and Vice Minister of Revenue Yu Maoxue, they were excluded because they refused to speak up for the censors.

We just want them to know that we recommended you to the position! We can recommend you and others as well!

~~

When Wanli saw the candidates, he thought they were perfect, so he directly ordered the three people to be reinstated!

The imperial decree ordered that it be sent urgently to Taicang, Yuyao, and Guangchang, Jiangxi, over an area of ​​800 miles!

However, an embarrassing scene occurred. After receiving the imperial edict, the three of them all declined the emperor's kindness...

Zhang Yue said, "Ministers should be recommended by the court. It is not proper to select them by imperial decree. I hope your Majesty will think twice."

He Yuan said bluntly, "The imperial court has established a precedent for our ancestors, and it is the hope of the wise. Now the emperor has ignored the opinions of the people and appointed a humble minister with the imperial decree, which is actually to anger the ministers, and is not the behavior of a sage monarch..."

Wanli's nose almost got crooked with anger. Good fellow, I want to promote you to be a minister, but not only do you not appreciate it, you scold me? This is too ungrateful, isn't it?!

However, compared with Wang Xijue, these two people's memorials are nothing compared to Wang Xijue's...