However, the ministers turned a blind eye to Wanli's threats and continued to write letters of persuasion.

Under pressure, the Minister of Rites Xu Xuemo also requested the establishment of a crown prince and conferred titles of imperial concubine on Wang and Zheng.

Wanli did what he said and demoted them all. He also issued a strict decree, saying: "The canonization is not for the purpose of succession. The order of succession has been clearly stated many times. How can they know the affairs of the palace? How crazy! Anyone who speaks nonsense again will be severely punished!"

In addition, the timing was particularly good at that time. Many censors, such as Zhang Yangmeng, Li Zhi, Ding Cilu and others, hoped to use the emperor's hand to overthrow Zhang and restore the status of censors.

She was unwilling to make the relationship with the emperor too strained. As a result, Wanli, under pressure, successfully appointed Concubine Zheng as Imperial Noble Concubine.

The successful completion of this matter also gave Wanli an illusion that as long as he persisted in doing something, he would succeed.

What followed was a brief honeymoon period between Emperor Wanli and the censors. He hid behind the scenes, directing the censors to constantly tear apart the ministers promoted by Zhang Juzheng, and for the first time he felt the joy of being a chess player.

He thought he could enjoy this happiness forever, but he did not expect that Zhao Shouzheng, who looked harmless and was sitting opposite him, actually had a chess player of a much higher rank behind him giving him advice.

As a result, Wanli was defeated in this game of chess after just a few moves. The expansion of the anti-Zhang campaign led to the government shutdown and the paralysis of the court! He was also morally defeated...

If Hai Rui had not cleverly suggested the plan to pray for rain, he would have taken advantage of the situation and announced the end of the overthrow of Zhang, and might have been killed last year.

But Wanli forgot that if it is a dog, it will bite people. If it doesn’t bite Zhang’s party, it will bite others.

Under the guidance of Mr. Zhao, an enthusiastic citizen who wished to remain anonymous, the Paw Patrol soon set its sights on another of Wanli's dogs, the East Depot. It was a dog-eat-dog situation.

But Wanli was initially rebellious, and later, for unknown reasons, refused to dismiss Zhang Jing, no matter how the Paw Patrol argued. This saved the factory owner, but it completely backfired on him - when the censors saw that they could not bring down Zhang Jing, they pointed the finger at the emperor. They mainly criticized him for two things: one was that he was sick all day and did not go to work, but in fact he was vigorous and had fun in the harem.

This is easy to say, as long as you are thick-skinned enough, it won't affect your mood. But the second thing made Wanli very upset - the censors turned around and focused on the issue of the crown prince again!

Because when the Emperor canonized the Imperial Noble Consort in the 15th year of Wanli's reign, in order to calm the situation, Wanli had written in black and white on the imperial edict that "the order of establishing the crown prince has been repeatedly issued." Now the censors are seizing on this point and demanding that the Emperor appoint a crown prince as soon as possible to stabilize the country!

What’s more, the amazing thing about this matter is that it can make all officials put aside their prejudices and factional differences and unite to deal with the emperor.

With the big guys cheering and supporting them, the censors became completely excited and kept chasing the emperor and shouting at him.

Wanli personally loosened the bridle for the censors, but it finally bit him...

Seeing that the situation was about to get out of hand, Zhao Shouzheng had no choice but to come out and smooth things over. It was the same old trick, first appeasing the censors, and then negotiating terms with the emperor.

Your Majesty, if the queen gives birth to a legitimate son, it will be difficult to deal with it. Why don't we let the eldest prince go out to study first? First, it will not delay the education of the next generation, and second, it can appease the ministers. What do you think?

Wanli thought, "You are playing me for a fool." He knew that his grandfather believed in the prophecy of the Taoist priest "Two dragons cannot meet each other" and was unwilling to see his father or make him the crown prince. Instead, he sent his father out of the palace to study and trained him according to the standards of the crown prince. Since then, the prince's going out of the palace to study has been regarded as a tacit recognition of his status as the crown prince.

But Wanli had to give face to his Prime Minister. In the past two years, he has come to appreciate the kindness of Zhao Xianggong. Without Zhao Xianggong to take the blame and clean up his mess, he would have been unable to survive. So he said, "Yuan Zi is weak," and let's wait until he is eight years old.

Eight years old is also the age when the prince usually goes out to school.

Zhao Shouzheng, a gentleman of integrity, naturally believed it and announced that the emperor had said that the eldest son would go to school next year. The officials were very happy, but they did not dare to push the emperor too hard. Besides, the eldest son would be eight years old next year, so there was no need to rush and they just stopped for the time being.

At the beginning of this year, the ministers reminded the emperor that it was time to fulfill his promise. Wanli said that his mother was sick because her brother was going to be enfeoffed. He was not in the mood to take care of his son, so he should be filial first. He would talk about it after the empress dowager recovered and Prince Lu was enfeoffed...

All the officials had no choice but to hold back and wait patiently until now.

After finally sending the plague away, the cabinet members could not wait to ask the prime minister to lead the emperor to urge him to let the eldest son go out to study. Otherwise, this year will be gone! The emperor has an antenna in his mouth and he must keep his word. Is he going to break his promise?

Although Zhao Shouzheng felt tired and saw double when he looked at people, he could not be vague about the matter, so he took the lead in submitting a petition to ask the eldest prince to leave the palace to study.

However, the memorial was ignored. Zhao Shouzheng pressed the issue until the palace announced that the emperor had fallen ill due to excessive grief over Prince Lu's departure. Everything should be discussed after the emperor recovers...

"Fuck you..." Seeing that the emperor was using his illness as an excuse to delay time, Zhao Shouzheng couldn't help but curse.

But he is the emperor, and he has unified the country behind closed doors. What can outsiders do to him?

After waiting for two full months, from the golden autumn season to the cold winter month, the emperor's illness had not yet been cured.

At this time, many gossips about the emperor were spread in the palace. It was said that he spent all day feasting, holding uncensored parties, and even felt that playing with women was not enough, so he developed a new entertainment of finding a group of young and beautiful eunuchs to sleep with him...

Anyway, the rumors are getting more and more outrageous. In fact, no one has ever seen it with their own eyes... Isn't this nonsense? It would be unbelievable if you saw it with your own eyes. But everyone believes it.

First, the romantic scandals among high-ranking officials have always been a popular entertainment content for the public.

Second, Wanli's father, known as the little bee, died on a woman's belly. Although his grandfather was not lustful, he did a lot of ridiculous things, otherwise he would not have been almost strangled to death by a group of palace maids. Not to mention the previous Emperor Zhengde, the founder of the Leopard Room, a lover of other people's wives, and the founder of various indescribable games... It was simply a ridiculous mother opening the door to ridiculous things, and it was ridiculous to the extreme.

Third, the emperor is still young, but he doesn't go to work or show up all day. He stays in the palace all day and doesn't do anything. Is he learning from his grandfather to cultivate immortality? But he hasn't been seen dealing with Taoist priests, but he has rewarded the six palaces with cosmetics money, which has reached a record high of 1.2 million taels this year.

Therefore, everyone has every reason to conclude that the emperor was committing adultery.

Now everyone is ready to show off their skills.

~~

One day in December, Hai Rui was reading case files in the Ministry of Justice. He had kept a low profile since the rain-praying event. Being low-key did not mean not working. He performed his duties as the Minister of Justice perfectly.

Moreover, with the observant Lord Hai in charge of the Ministry of Justice, judicial officials in the two capitals and thirteen provinces were all very cautious when judging cases and consciously put aside their thoughts of corruption and abuse of power, so naturally there were fewer wrongful imprisonments.

The common people also knew that Hai Qingtian had become the Grand Justice, and many families of the wronged who had accepted their fate suddenly saw hope and re-filed their cases. Many old cases were retried, many poor people were vindicated, and a large number of corrupt officials and evil gentry were dealt with.

In short, Hai Rui was very busy every day, and his busyness was very meaningful, but he did not forget his original intention of restoration, which was to keep an eye on Wanli and prevent him from doing anything stupid.

He was very angry about what Wanli did this year. He thought that everything would be back on track after praying for rain, but he didn't expect it to become a new starting point for the emperor's downfall.

Whenever he thought of the miserable conditions of the people and the selfish face of the emperor, he wanted to fast forward and become Bi Gan. However, Zhao Shouzheng was good at smoothing things over, and with the Jiangnan Group sending out three million immigrants every year, the effect of adding more fuel to the fire was still very obvious.

The situation in the Ming Dynasty could still be maintained, and the time to become Bigan was not yet ripe. But he could not just sit there and watch, so he quietly prepared a memorial, preparing to fire a shot before the New Year to give the shameless Emperor Wanli a good shock.

While he was reading the case files and drafting a memorial to the emperor, a clerk came in and reported that Luo Yuren, the judge of the Dali Temple, wanted to see him.

The Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice are both central judicial institutions. The Ministry of Justice is responsible for trial, while the Dali Temple is responsible for review and is considered to be the supervisory unit of the Ministry of Justice.

Although the Dali Pingshi was only the lowest-ranking official of the Dali Temple, namely the seventh rank, he was specifically responsible for reviewing litigation cases, so he had close business dealings with the Ministry of Justice.

However, if there is any case, you can just contact the person in charge. It is certainly against the rules to directly ask to see the Grand Chancellor.

But Hai Rui didn't have so many rules and regulations. Anyway, he was very energetic and could run two threads. So he had already ordered his men that if anyone wanted to see him, they were not to stop them...

Moreover, Luo Yuren was also the son of an old friend of Hai Rui.

His father was Luo Zun, who was one of Gao Gong's two generals along with Han Ji. After Han Ji was promoted from the head of the Li Ke department to the right Tong Zheng, it was Luo Zun who took over his position and continued to lead the six departments to fight against Feng Bao and Zhang Juzheng's party.

When the young Emperor Wanli came to court, Feng Bao stood beside the dragon throne and calmly accepted the kneeling of all the officials. Luo Zun then fired at Feng Bao, saying, "How dare you, a servant of the emperor, stand on the throne of the emperor? Should the civil and military officials bow to the emperor or the eunuchs? You are taking advantage of your majesty's youth and are so rude!"

Feng Bao was scolded so much that he never dared to get too close to the throne again.

Later, Luo Zun impeached the Minister of War Tan Lun, saying that he was too old and ill to handle the heavy responsibility - and the recommended successor was Hai Rui.

However, Yang Bo, the Minister of Personnel, strongly protected Tan Lun and said that Hai Rui was slow-witted, so the matter was shelved.

However, not long after, Tan Lun was worshipped at the Sun Altar and he coughed violently and vomited blood. It can be seen that Luo Zun was not slandering Tan Lun, but just stating the facts.

But soon, his teacher Gao Gong was expelled. Luo Zun offended Feng Bao, so naturally he suffered bad consequences and was relegated to a low-ranking official position for 15 years.

It is comforting that his son Luo Yuren was admitted as a Jinshi in the 11th year of Wanli, and later served as the magistrate of Feixiang and Qingfeng counties, doing well in local affairs. This year he was appointed as a judge in the Dali Temple. But everyone knows that this is just a transfer, and he will be promoted again next year.

Luo Yuren follows in the footsteps of his father and is also a crazy fan of Hai Rui. He is also very picky about things and will criticize anyone he doesn't like!

After a while, Luo Yuren was taken to the detention room of the Minister of Justice.

Hai Rui raised his head and smiled, "My dear nephew Luo, what brings you here?"

"I am here to see Lord Hai and wish you a happy new year in advance." Luo Yuren said and kowtowed to Hai Rui.

Hai Rui frowned slightly, realizing that this guy was going to make some big news.

"What did you do?"

"I have submitted a memorial on the Four Precepts on Alcohol, Sex, Money and Anger today." Luo Yuren said frankly, "I expect that I will be imprisoned soon. I feel sorry that I have not met Lord Hai yet, so I took the liberty to come and kowtow to you. This will also fulfill my wish."

"Oh? Do you have a copy?" Hai Rui asked in a deep voice.

Luo Yuren nodded, took out a memorial from his sleeve and handed it to his idol respectfully.

Hai Rui couldn't help but smile bitterly after reading it. It was true that every generation has its own talents, and the new generation is better than the old ones. This person seemed to be even more courageous than he was back then...

This time I don't have to do it myself...

PS. This memorial is truly amazing. I will post a free chapter later so that we can all appreciate this wonderful article.