The Prosperous Era of Longwan

After a day, the report about the evil deeds in the Liao Palace was sent back from Huguang and became known throughout the court.

However, during the day yesterday, the officials talked more about the atrocities committed by King Zhu Xian of Liao in the fiefdom, and only a handful of officials discovered Hong Chaoxuan's final description.

The memorial written by Shi Duchen, the deputy envoy of the Huguang Ancha Division, was ignored by most people.

But in the evening, when the officials from the capital gathered to drink and chat in the Chu Pavilion of Qin Tower, someone mentioned it, and instantly many people saw the opportunity.

Although most officials disapproved of this, some people still recognized Shi Duchen's point of view and believed that even though the King of Liao had no intention of rebelling, he did commit rebellion.

The great banner was not something that he, the king of Liao, could produce. It was a great banner that opposed the imperial envoys who were ordered to investigate the case.

Therefore, early this morning, the General Affairs Department became lively again. Many officials sent the impeachment memorial written overnight to the General Affairs Department, hoping to grab a good position and appear in front of Emperor Longqing first.

The reasons for impeachment, in addition to lengthy excerpts of the criminal facts of the Liao king from the Hong Dynasty memorials, emphasized that the Liao king had disobedient intentions and should be severely punished.

The news from the General Affairs Department will soon reach the cabinet, but due to the procedure of transmitting memorials, there has been no feedback yet.

In the Qianqing Palace, after Emperor Longqing sat on the throne, the first memorial handed over by Meng Chong was the memorial drafted by Zhang Juzheng on behalf of the cabinet to impeach the King of Liao for his illegal activities.

The memorial was sent to the Office of Rites yesterday, but it was already late. Emperor Longqing had his own activities in the evening, and of course he would not review the memorial until midnight like those diligent emperors like Zhu Yuanzhang.

If you have that free time, you might as well lie down in the gentle countryside of the harem.

Moreover, the affairs of the King of Liao were actually not a big deal in the eyes of Beijing officials.

Everyone was controlled by the Jin Yiwei, but it was not the feudal kings who rebelled in the first place who had to mobilize everyone to suppress the rebellion.

Therefore, the Director of Ceremonies was very wise and did not inform the emperor, but allowed him to enjoy himself in peace in the harem.

But during the day, Emperor Longqing still had to deal with some memorials.

Of course, the more important things picked out by the Chief of Ceremonies are reported, and the rest are left to them to approve.

"King of Liao? Zhu Xian?"

To be honest, there are quite a lot of relatives in the old Zhu family. There are dozens of vassal kings in various parts of the Ming Dynasty. When Emperor Longqing heard Meng Chong announce the name of Liao King Zhu Xian, he was stunned, wondering who this relative was. toward.

Despite the fact that he had just issued an order two months ago and sent an imperial envoy to investigate the matter, he had long forgotten it now.

If it hadn't been for the imperial envoy's report, and if no one had mentioned it, this matter would have been completely forgotten.

"Your Majesty, the King of Liao was King Zhen of the Liao Dynasty in Hongwu. He was first granted the title of Liaodong. In the early years of Yongle, it was changed to Jingzhou. Wang Guinuan, the king of Jian, was passed down to the Xian six times."

Meng Chong hurriedly reminded, "Last time, because the imperial censor Gao Guangxian was impeached again, the emperor sent Hong Chaoxuan, the minister of the criminal department, as an imperial envoy to investigate the case."

"I remember that no one impeached him last year, and someone was sent to apply for it at that time, right?"

Emperor Longqing's memory was recalled and he spoke.

"Your Majesty has a good memory. That's true. It was Minister Chen who petitioned for impeachment at that time."

Meng Chong flattered Emperor Longqing.

"Have all the contents of the impeachment been verified?"

After receiving the memorial, Emperor Longqing did not open it and read it, but asked about Meng Chong.

The eunuch who was the Supervisor of Ceremonies must have read the memorial and the cabinet draft before. He asked because he actually wanted to get a rough idea first.

"All the charges have been verified, but Your Majesty, I dare not say anything, so you should see for yourself."

Meng Chong pretended to be very worried and said, "This memorial was written by the assistant minister Zhang Juzheng and Zhang Xueshi after the cabinet ministers discussed it. It was approved by all the cabinet ministers and reported. Later, there were the chief envoy and deputy envoy of the imperial envoy to investigate the case. memorial."

"Um?"

Hearing what Meng Chong said, Emperor Longqing frowned. He knew that something big might have happened in the Liao Palace, otherwise the cabinet would not draft a draft, but would write a memorial separately. It was so solemn, and the matter must be serious.

Meng Chong lowered his head, but what he was thinking about was collecting the Zhang family's money last night. He had taken care of it himself, and it had nothing to do with him how the emperor would handle it.

Of course Zhang Juzheng knew that for these so-called crimes, it actually didn't matter whether they were serious or not. The main thing was to see how the emperor decided the punishment.

His memorial was simply the basis for the emperor's punishment.

Therefore, in his planning, the process of handing the book to the emperor in the palace was also very important. He wanted to let the emperor know the seriousness of the matter, so that he would be severely punished.

Zhang Juzheng also knew that it was unrealistic to get rid of the Liao vassal, but there was still a chance to just kill Zhu Xian's prince.

Zhu Xian had no heirs, so his successors could only be his cousins, which was equivalent to changing the line to inherit Liao Fan.

In this way, Zhu Xian will never turn over.

As a commoner, the Zhang family has plenty of opportunities to take revenge, and he can also take his time to play.

His arrangement was indeed very clever, and it really hit Emperor Longqing's pain point.

Hearing that Meng Chong said he didn't dare to speak, his interest grew. Originally he just wanted to give him a casual punishment and let it go, but now he really wanted to take a closer look at what outrageous things the Liao king had done in his fiefdom. , so that the eunuchs around him didn't dare to talk about it.

When he first opened Zhang Juzheng's memorial, Emperor Longqing was stunned for a moment before he saw the first crime against King Zhu Xian of Liao, and then became furious.

Yes, the first paragraph of this impeachment memorial, which was re-edited and transcribed by Zhang Juzheng, points out a fact that even the emperors of the Ming Dynasty could not accept, that is, King Zhu Xian of the Liao Dynasty asked Zhu Shuxi for the title of crown prince, but the Ministry of Rites has been suppressing the approval.

The lack of approval was not due to Zhang Juzheng's obstruction, but because the Ministry of Rites found clues during the verification and believed that the canonization could not be granted.

Zhang Juzheng told the cabinet ministers that King Zhu Xian of Liao had no heir. He was not telling the truth, but speaking in official terms.

Zhu Xian had a son named Zhu Shuxi, nicknamed Chuan'er, but there was a problem with the child's biological mother because she was a married woman.

Lefu, in fact, are women from the Lehu family. They are untouchables whose profession is singing and dancing. They are mostly the family members of criminals, or they can also be called "official prostitutes".

Lefu belonged to the untouchable social class in the Ming Dynasty society. They were the lowest class of people who were worse than slaves. Many of the women in the Ming Dynasty were official prostitutes. This was also the continuation of the palace prostitute system since the Tang and Song Dynasties.

The Ministry of Rites will not recognize the son of a lowly Ji and the King of Liao under any circumstances.

Not to mention asking for sealing, even if you want to be registered, you can't do it.

Zhu Yuanzhang has always attached great importance to Zongtong, and of course he would not allow such a thing to happen, so he had already emphasized this matter in the "Huang Ming Ancestor Instructions".

In the Ming Dynasty, the sons of happy women were called peanuts, and the court strictly prohibited the use of names or titles, which meant that these people were not regarded as clan members.

The so-called son of King Zhu Xian of the Liao Dynasty was born to a happy woman, so it is not certain whether he was his child or not.

Zhang Juzheng brought Chuan'er, the son of the Liao Dynasty's concubine, to the throne in order to disrupt Zongtong. Zhang Juzheng mentioned it to the forefront to stimulate Emperor Longqing because since the Jiajing Dynasty, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty had attached great importance to Zongtong.

How Emperor Jiajing inherited the great treasure was based on the order of presidents.

If the clan was in chaos, the consequences would be disastrous.

As for the erecting of banners that Wei Guangde, Chen Yiqin and others valued, in fact, in the eyes of Emperor Longqing, it was not such a serious crime.

However, Zhang Juzheng paid attention to this point, but never mentioned it. He planned to use it as a trump card to attack King Zhu Xian of Liao Dynasty. The official document was just a so-called crime to divert everyone's attention.

After all, his position in the cabinet is awkward.

He just didn't expect that the impeachment memorial that he thought he would spend a long time with Chen Yiqin and Wei Guangde passed so easily in front of these two people. However, he still had to use this trump card, so he told Chen Yiqin to go back and polish it, copy it, and submit it again. Just to bring in private goods.

Sure enough, Emperor Longqing was no longer interested in reading the following thirteen charges, but directly asked Meng Chong: "What's going on with Chuan'er, the son of a happy woman? What's going on with asking for a name?"

"Your Majesty, this is the time when the King of Liao reported to the Clan's Mansion that his son Chuan'er should be registered. However, during the verification, the Ministry of Rites and the Clan's Mansion discovered that Chuan'er's identity was unknown and his mother was of low status, so they kept suppressing the request. .”

Meng Chong said hurriedly.

If it hadn't happened yesterday, he wouldn't have known about it at all.

However, after reading the memorial in advance, I naturally found out the details.

When the emperor asked today, he naturally responded fluently.

"Hmph, why didn't the Ministry of Rites report it?"

Emperor Longqing was still angry and continued to ask.

"If the Ministry of Rites does not approve it, it will naturally not be reported. Moreover, this is not a glorious thing."

Meng Chong replied hurriedly.

After hearing this reason, Emperor Longqing relieved some of his anger.

Yes, I was so angry when I knew the news. The people in the Ministry of Etiquette were considerate of me and knew that I didn't like it, so they didn't approve or report it, so I didn't have to be angry.

Thinking of this, Emperor Longqing nodded and continued to look down, and soon he felt creepy.

According to the crimes Zhang Juzheng listed next for King Zhu Xian of Liao, if the first one just made him furious, it would be really difficult to get out later.

The first crime was that after the late emperor's edict of mourning came, he refused to mourn for five days, and even indulged in drinking and hunting.

The second crime is to commit adultery with concubines such as aunts and uncles, forcing women to rape them, or burning them alive in coffins, or picking off their arm flesh with a knife.

The third crime is beating the guest of honor to death, imprisoning the county king, blackmailing the clan members, killing the official school, taking someone's wife, taking someone's property, digging someone's grave, burning someone's corpse, countless.

Crime 4: Using cannon, burning, cutting and other non-criminal punishments to gouge out people's eyes, burn people's faces, and burn people's ears.

The fifth crime is to cause chaos in the palace by allowing the servants to erection and desecration.

Crime Six: Founding a Li Palace and privately making talisman seals.

The seventh sin is favoring a private person, using official titles such as Hou, Bo, Jinwu, etc., and giving python clothes and jade belts.

The eighth crime is to insult the officials of prefectures and counties, and to despise the officials ordered by the emperor.

The ninth crime was to ask for a gold seal to engrave a demonic book, to conspire with the King of Hui, and to seize and refuse to surrender under the imperial edict.

At the end, just like Hong Chaoxuan, he told the story of how King Zhu Xian of Liao actually erected a large banner with the four characters "Litigation of Injustice" in the palace of Liao King to confront him after he knew that the imperial court sent an imperial envoy to verify his wrongdoing.

However, Zhang Juzheng would not treat it as lightly as Hong Chaoxuan did. Instead, he focused on writing that this behavior caused violent turmoil in Huguang official circles. Local officials therefore believed that the King of Liao had the intention of treason, and directly sent troops to surround the palace of the Liao King, waiting for the imperial envoy to arrive for investigation.

The desire to rebel.

The first few charges are all about the King of Liao's disrespect for the late emperor, and the subsequent charges show the King of Liao's cruelty to the people and members of his own clan in the fiefdom. The latter charges imply that the King of Liao seems to have disobedient intentions. Finally, a large banner was erected, making Huguang officials think that he was plotting rebellion.

"Are there any other memorials that are important?"

Emperor Longqing had no interest in reading other memorials at this time. Now he was thinking about King Zhu Xian of Liao, and he was thinking about how to punish him.

Not to punish, but to punish.

"Back to your lord, nothing else is important."

Meng Chong lowered his eyebrows and said submissively.

"Well, you can take it back to the Supervisor of Ceremonies to deal with it."

Emperor Longqing ordered. Looking at the memorial in front of him, he continued to open it and read down. He remembered that Meng Chong said before that the memorial was from Zhang Juzheng, and the memorial sent to the imperial envoy to Huguang was behind it.

The chief and deputy envoys presented the memorials separately, which shows that they have differences on certain matters.

As a manager, what differences can there be? This is what he, the emperor, is very curious about.

Soon, he finished reading the memorial written by Zheng Envoy Hong Chaoxuan. Although he was still angry, he nodded slightly.

The memorials selected by Hong Chao are similar to those of Zhang Juzheng, except that they are not as comprehensive as Zhang Juzheng.

But it's normal. Except for the people in the cabinet, the Hong Dynasty must not know about the affairs of the Ministry of Rites when they choose a Minister of Justice.

Next, he looked through Shi Duchen's memorials and frowned.

"No wonder Zhang Juzheng said there was a shock in Huguang. It turns out the root is here."

After reading the memorials of Zhang Juzheng and Hong Chaoxuan, Emperor Longqing also made a comparison. Except for the incident of the son of a married woman, Hong Chaoxuan did not mention the shock to the official circles in Huguang. After all, the King of Liao was now under control and there was no such thing. into an accident.

At that time, Emperor Longqing was still wondering where the words of Zhang Juzheng's memorial to Shuli came from.

Now after reading Shi Duchen's memorial, he understood what was going on.

The teachings of Gao Gong, Chen Yiqin and others were certainly not useless, and the Emperor Longqing they taught was also qualified.

Although liking beauty and treasures does not seem to be the character that a good emperor should have, these are human nature and are not easy to teach. This does not mean that Gao Gong and others cannot teach well.

On the contrary, Emperor Longqing was very shrewd.

However, due to past experiences, the impression that the emperor was dull was deeply rooted in people's hearts, so he simply hid his stupidity.

Anyway, the cabinet and the Supervisor of Ceremonies are assisting in government affairs, so he can be lazy on non-important matters.

Shi Duchen's memorial naturally gave a more elaborate report on the King of Liao's erection of the imperial edict. For example, he originally ordered the mobilization of officers and soldiers to surround the palace of the King of Liao, but here it is said that the officials of Jiangling Mansion were panicked and the officials of the three departments made the decision after urgent deliberation. Out of the siege decision.

And although it was a siege, it was actually just surveillance. Without the emperor's will, they did not dare to embarrass the King of Liao. The palace's purchases continued as usual and were not affected, but the people were very panicked because of this.

The younger ones don’t know, but the older ones still have the impression that the prince from the next province started a rebellion decades ago, which was a major event that caused a sensation in Jiangnan.

"Your Majesty, the commander of the Imperial Guard, Zhu Xixiao, would like to see you."

A waiter came in to report.

"What is he doing here? Tell him to come in."

Although Emperor Longqing was puzzled, he still said. (End of chapter)