"Good news?"
The ministers exchanged glances and immediately shook their heads.
"Could it be news from Goryeo again?"
"It must be the Koreans who reported the details of what happened a few days ago!"
They immediately thought of this matter.
"How many wins did they report this time? If they only reported a few hundred or a thousand, then forget it."
"If you quote several thousand, that would be a bit excessive."
Wang Chengen smiled and shook his head.
"The situation in Goryeo is not enough to make His Majesty so happy."
"It's good news from Liaodong."
This surprised the assembled officials.
What good news could there be from Liaodong?
"Could it be that they've already captured Guangning?" someone said jokingly.
Wang Chengen glanced at the man.
"I never expected that this gentleman would actually guess correctly."
"It is indeed good news from Guangning."
"However, it wasn't our imperial troops that broke through Guangning, but Mangultai in the city who surrendered himself."
These words caused almost everyone in the room to be shocked.
Even the ministers who believed the court was destined to win this battle were shocked, their mouths agape, staring in disbelief.
"What? The Jurchens surrendered?"
"This...this is impossible!"
Wang Chengen's expression darkened slightly: "What? Do you ministers think I would dare to spread false military intelligence?"
Upon hearing this, the courtiers all shook their heads.
Wang Chengen is not Wei Zhongxian; he doesn't have that kind of guts.
"But... why should we?"
"Why did Mangultai surrender the city?"
Hearing the surprised murmurs of his ministers, Wang Chengen smiled.
"My lords, I've already told you about this matter."
"His Majesty also instructed me to tell you that the imperial court has achieved a great victory in Liaodong, which is truly a joyous occasion."
"Each of you gentlemen is required to write a congratulatory poem."
“As long as you write it down, you can leave the palace.”
Upon hearing this, the courtiers disregarded their surprise and hurriedly said, "Then please, Eunuch Wang, prepare pen and ink as soon as possible."
They were so hungry they couldn't stand it anymore.
Wang Chengen nodded and waved to those behind him.
The eunuchs, who were already prepared, immediately came in and brought over the writing brush and ink.
The ministers immediately lowered their heads and began to write.
They were mostly from the imperial examination system.
It wouldn't be difficult for a scholar who can write such a good essay to write a few poems.
Soon someone wrote a poem and presented it to Wang Chengen with both hands.
"Eunuch Wang, I've finished writing it. May I leave now?"
Although they looked down on eunuchs, they had no choice but to submit to the circumstances.
Wang Chengen didn't even look at the poem; he just stared at the minister.
Upon recognizing the man, a cold smile immediately appeared in his eyes, and he thought to himself:
"This man is from Southern Zhili. When His Majesty wanted to crack down on the gentry in Jiangnan, he even submitted a memorial to oppose it."
"This is a perfect opportunity to teach him a lesson!"
Wang Chengen then pretended to lower his head, glanced at the congratulatory message the man had sent, and then shook his head and sighed, "My lord, it seems you've been an official for too long and have forgotten how to compose poems and essays."
"This congratulatory message is so crude and vulgar that you should go back and rewrite it."
Upon hearing this, the minister actually thought for the first time that it was because his writing was poor.
"In that case, I'll go back and revise it."
He hurriedly retrieved the congratulatory message and returned to the palace.
Seeing this man's fate, the other ministers who had already written congratulatory poems dared not come forward and instead lowered their heads to revise them.
After a long while, two people came forward.
These two men, one surnamed Qian and the other surnamed Zhang, were both top scholars in the imperial examinations during the Wanli era.
They were naturally extremely confident in their writing skills.
However, Wang Chengen also knew that these two were from Southern Zhili.
So he didn't even glance at the congratulatory poems from the two of them.
"My lords, there is a problem with your congratulatory poem. You should go back and revise it."
Now, none of the ministers could see that something was wrong.
It's understandable that the minister's initial writing was subpar.
But if the congratulatory poems of these two top scholars also have problems, then whose congratulatory poem can be considered acceptable?
Immediately, someone slammed their hand on the table and stood up: "Wang Chengen, what do you mean by this?"
"Isn't this targeting us?!"
"Let me tell you, don't think that just because His Majesty trusts you, you can do whatever you want!"
"Don't forget what happened to Wei Zhongxian!"
Wang Chengen smiled and shook his head.
"Gentlemen, please don't label me. How could I dare to emulate Wei Zhongxian?"
"It's really because the two ministers' congratulatory poems were poorly written."
At this point, Zhou Yanru had already noticed something amiss.
He casually wrote a limerick on a piece of paper and then went over to hand it to Wang Chengen.
Wang Chengen glanced at it and praised it highly: "Lord Zhou's poem is truly excellent, it is simply brilliant."
"Lord Zhou, you may leave now."
Zhou Yanru immediately understood.
He whispered to Wang Chengen, "Eunuch Wang, isn't what you're doing a bit inappropriate?"
“I know that if you dare to do this, it must be because His Majesty has approved it.”
"But it's not a good thing for you to make enemies with so many ministers all at once."
"In my opinion, you should stop now. There's no need to offend them too much."
Zhou Yanru was willing to betray Wang Chengen, hoping to find an ally in the palace.
Wang Chengen smiled at him, as a response to his kindness.
But then he shook his head and said, "Lord Zhou, I don't quite agree with what you said."
"There is only one sun above my head, and there can only be one sun."
"The worse my relationship with these ministers is, the more satisfied the sun above me is with me, and the safer I am."
Zhou Yanru was taken aback for a moment, then exclaimed with emotion, "So that's what you were thinking, Eunuch Wang."
"Looks like I was too talkative."
He walked out, shaking his head.
At that moment, several ministers came over with congratulatory poems in the main hall.
They were all dependent on Zhou Yanru, and seeing their boss leave unharmed, they naturally wanted to try their luck.
Wang Chengen still didn't even look at them and simply told them to leave.
The remaining ministers reacted in various ways upon seeing this.
Those ministers who had no connection with the gentry of Jiangnan breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that Wang Chengen was not targeting them.
But the other corrupt ministers were furious.
"Wang Chengen, what exactly do you mean by this?"
"Why can they get through so easily, but we can't?"
Those two top scorers stomped their feet on the spot.
"What exactly is your standard?"
Wang Chengen sneered, "Gentlemen, we are all seasoned foxes, so stop pretending to be stupid."
“You all know in your hearts that I’m targeting the person, not the issue.”
He was about to say some harsh words to these ministers, telling them to stop talking badly about the emperor behind his back.
Then I heard footsteps behind me.
A member of the Imperial Guard rushed over, panting, and said, "Where is His Majesty? Urgent military situation at the front!"
Seeing this, the ministers who were still angry seemed to have seized a good opportunity.
"Haha, there must be another unexpected development at the front!"
"I knew it! How could Mangultai surrender so easily? This must be a feigned surrender!"
Some people disregarded everything and grabbed the Imperial Guard.
"Tell me immediately, has the Liaodong campaign been lost?"
The Imperial Guard was completely dumbfounded; he hadn't expected any of this.
He said blankly, "This isn't military intelligence from Liaodong, it's from Goryeo..."
The minister was somewhat disappointed, but quickly rallied.
"Korean ones are fine too!"
"Tell me quickly, has the situation in Goryeo deteriorated again?"
"Has Hauge regrouped and marched south to capture Hanjing?"
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