Chapter 63: Retreat to Advance, Act as You Will

After the court discussion.

Zhang Juzheng, Gao Yi and Lu Diaoyang came to the Ministry of Personnel, and together with the Vice Minister of Personnel Shen Shixing and the Chief Censor of the Ministry of Personnel Li Zaiting, they held a small meeting regarding what had just happened in the court.

Several cabinet ministers looked unhappy.

Just when he had just come to the Ministry of Personnel, the inner court sent someone to deliver a message, asking for an inventory of all inner court personnel, reduction of staff, and asking the Ministry of Personnel to make preparations for arrangements.

Arrangement? The palace maids could be dismissed from the palace, so what other arrangements could be made for the eunuchs? Either they could be sent to Nanzhili or to guard the mausoleum. This was nothing more than informing the outside court.

Everyone present knew that this was an attempt to take advantage of this trend to reorganize the inner court.

In the past, such incidents would be labeled as isolating the inside and the outside, and several senior eunuchs would be impeached.

But at this critical juncture, no one dared to openly cause trouble for the emperor.

Zhang Juzheng looked at Li Zaiting with an unhappy expression and said in a deep voice: "What exactly does your majesty want us to do? Yingfeng, why don't you tell us the truth."

Yingfeng is Li Zaiting's courtesy name.

Li Zaiting shook his head: "It happened suddenly, how could I know that what was said in court was really from my heart, not from your majesty's instruction."

He shouted in the court that he wanted to beat Hu Qi to death, which made several ministers think that he had received instructions from the emperor. Now they all wanted to find out the truth from him.

But unfortunately, he really didn't know.

Lu Diaoyang also questioned Li in the court: "Your Majesty is about to move into the West Garden, why are you still hiding it! Li Jieshizhong, if you let Your Majesty go to the West Garden, we will all be sinners!"

The emperor kept saying that he wanted to go to the Western Garden to cultivate himself and improve his moral character, but that did not mean he would give up influencing the government.

Since you want to learn from Sejong, what you give up is not power, but the world!

By then, there will be another sage monarch who controls the government but ignores the people.

Lu Diaoyang glanced at Li Zaiting. This man was probably the second Yan Song.

Li Zaiting just smiled bitterly and shook his head.

Several people were about to speak.

Gao Yi interrupted him and said, "Your Majesty, what do you want to do? Shouldn't the Prime Minister personally submit the petition? Why are you pressuring me here?"

He had already lost his patience. The palace had caught fire overnight and the princess had died. Even though everyone advised the emperor not to think too much about it and that it was just a coincidence, what would the emperor himself think?
What's more, during the court meeting this morning, Hu Qi took this opportunity to jump up and down. Who would dare to pat the emperor's chest and say, "Your Majesty, don't let conspiracies enter your mind. The court officials are not that bad."

How is that different from adding fuel to the fire?
They are all living people. Even if we cannot empathize with the emperor's surprise, suspicion and anger, we can at least understand them.

This is why they gathered in the Ministry of Personnel to discuss.

Gao Yi no longer wanted to save face for others, and looked at Shen Shixing again: "Is it really done by you Nanzhili folks?"

Shen Shixing was from Changshu, Suzhou Prefecture, South Zhili, but when he worked for the New Party, he was not deeply influenced by his hometown party.

But Gao Yi didn't care about anything and just went straight to the point.

Shen Shixing kept his head down and remained silent.

Being called upon at this time, he raised his head and met Gao Yi's gaze: "Lord Gao, although I am from Nanzhili, I have never regarded myself as a fellow villager. Heaven and earth can bear witness to this."

Gao Yi refused to give in and continued to ask, "Minister Shen is now in charge of the Ministry of Personnel, which is very important. I don't believe that no one has contacted you."

Shen Shixing remained silent.

After a long while, he sighed and said, "Someone sent the Imperial Academy to investigate Shen Yikuan and secretly tried to win me over, but I didn't take the chance, nor did I find out who was behind it."

Gao Yi nodded, and indeed they were secretly connected.

Under normal circumstances, if a royal daughter died or a fire broke out in the palace, no one would take it seriously. But the key to success lies in the moment when someone colludes to do something.

When Gao Yi thought of this, he felt even more sorry for his disciple.

He stood up and looked at Zhang Juzheng: "Yuan Fu, I want to ask His Majesty to summon me for an audience. Will you go?"

Zhang Juzheng felt his knuckles and fell into deep thought.

Now he is in a dilemma.

This is not a question of whether to persuade the emperor or not.

Once he was caught by the emperor, he would inevitably be pushed out to confront Nanzhili head-on.

He had been unwilling to do this before.

The Kaocheng Law has already brought him enough hatred. Now people inside and outside Northern Zhili are starting to spread rumors that he is corrupt and likes to imitate the late emperor by taking aphrodisiacs. Who knows how much dirty water will be thrown at him in the future.

His reputation was already in jeopardy before he even got to the stage of measuring the land, and he really didn't want to provoke the people of Nanzhili again.

It was the emperor who pushed forward Hai Rui and appointed Wang Zongmu to do this matter in order to stir up trouble in the Lianghuai salt administration.

But now, facing a fierce counterattack, the emperor was dissatisfied with standing idly by, but could no longer tolerate his impartiality.

This move was made openly in the court, forcing all the ministers to take sides and pushing everyone to the edge of the cliff.

It’s okay for the emperor not to take care of government affairs. The previous emperor was like that, and everyone is very satisfied with him.

But it is not acceptable for the emperor to control the government and not do his job. This is what Emperor Sejong did. If I don’t do it, you can forget about it.

This was why Gao Yi and Lu Diaoyang were afraid. They saw this and were afraid that the emperor would learn from Emperor Shizong.

But... Zhang Juzheng saw deeper.

He couldn't say that he knew the emperor very well, but based on his intuition, the emperor would not do such a thing.

The emperor may not want to do it anymore!
I’m afraid he wants to follow the example of Emperor Wuzong, abandon the court officials and start anew!
Occupying the Western Garden did not mean that he could not summon court officials.

If by then a villain like Li Zaiting were to take charge and exercise the imperial power, setting up a small Leopard Room or a small cabinet, it would be even more troublesome than following the example of Sejong!
Unfortunately, I didn’t get the bottom of it from Li Zaiting.

When Zhang Juzheng thought of this, he finally sighed and stood up.

He looked at Shen Shixing: "Rumo go find Jia Daiwen and watch him."

We can't let these people collude again.

If the situation escalates again, it will not be solved by appeasing the emperor.

Then he turned to Lu Diaoyang and instructed him, "Go find Zhang Siwei and tell him that Wang Chonggu is a high-ranking official. If he wants to take charge of the Beijing camp after entering the capital, then what is the point of him coming to the capital?"

The Beijing Camp was originally agreed upon between him and the emperor.

The Jin Party wanted to use the Ministry of War to control the Beijing camp, but they also needed to give the emperor some warning before persuading him.

After saying these two sentences, Zhang Juzheng nodded to Gao Yi.

"Let's go and ask His Majesty to summon us."

……

Qianqing Palace.

The first and second assistants requested to be summoned for an audience, and the emperor naturally agreed readily.

But the two were still stopped and made to wait in a side hall.

Because the emperor was summoning other court officials.

Hai Rui, the Chief Censor, was trying a case when he got the news and immediately went to the palace to ask to see the emperor.

The Governor of the Beijing Camp, Gu Huan, was summoned into the palace by the emperor.

Zhang Juzheng and Gao Yi sat in a side hall waiting quietly. They both keenly noticed that the number of eunuchs and palace maids in the Qianqing Palace was nearly half less than before.

The two of them looked at each other and sighed deeply.

While waiting, Hai Rui was led out of the hall by Jiang Keqian.

Gao Yi stood up directly: "Hai Yushi!"

Hai Rui also returned the greeting.

Gao Yi asked, "Does your Majesty have any instructions?"

Hai Rui looked back and forth at the Prime Minister and the Second Prime Minister with a strange gaze, making the two of them feel uncomfortable.

This was already somewhat disrespectful, but Hai Rui was completely unaware of it.

He shook his head with an incomprehensible expression: "His Majesty has asked me to go to Lianghuai."

He added meaningfully: "Pay special attention to safety."

Hai Rui will set out to inspect the salt production in Lianghuai the day after tomorrow.

After he finished the trial today, he planned to make a report to the emperor.

As a result, as soon as he returned to the Censorate, he heard about what happened in the court meeting today and rushed over immediately.

The report turned into a request to stay. Hai Rui felt that the emperor could not support the court alone and was really worried about leaving the emperor alone to support the government.

Besides, the emperor's announcement of moving to the Western Garden really scared him!

But... what touched him was that when the emperor summoned him, he did not look depressed, nor did he seem to abandon the world.

His Majesty said in person that the move to Xiyuan was only for safety reasons and had no other intention.

Instead, he gave me some instructions on some matters concerning Lianghuai.

When he proposed to stay in the court, the emperor kept reassuring him and said that he could handle it.

The key strategy at the moment is to wait for the tax revenue from Lianghuai salt to come in before he can do anything, and this matter can only be entrusted to Hai Rui.

Such a holy king!
Hai Rui had no idea what these people in the cabinet were doing. They actually let the emperor fall to such a pitiful level!
The more I think about it, the more I despise these people.

Zhang Juzheng also stood up: "Censor Hai, be careful with your words!"

He was also very angry today.

I had never agreed with the emperor's decision to attack Lianghuai in the first place, so now that I'm facing a counterattack, isn't it a foresight?
But now that he has been counterattacked, he is threatening him!
He is now the leader of the civil officials and should reconcile yin and yang and steadily implement the new policy. Does he have to do what the emperor wants and beat all these civil officials to death?
Besides, although he and Hai Rui had no personal grudge against each other, they were not the same kind of people, so he was naturally impolite in his words.

Hai Rui was scolded, but he didn't refute it. He just nodded and said, "I should learn from Yuan Fu's 'be extremely cautious'."

After saying this, he bowed and left.

Zhang Juzheng took a deep breath and suppressed his unhappiness.

Hai Rui passed by and walked away for a distance, as if he was still not satisfied. He turned his head and looked at Zhang Juzheng: "Prime Minister, you are just a minister, so you naturally need to balance yin and yang and put the overall situation first."

"But your majesty is the emperor, he just needs to move forward courageously."

After saying this from the bottom of his heart, he finally felt much better and strode away. Zhang Juzheng was irritated by Hai Rui's lecture.

At this moment, an eunuch came out and said, "Two Grand Secretaries, His Majesty invites you two to come in."

The two men then drew their attention back, put aside what they had just done, asked the eunuch to lead the way, and the two followed behind.

As soon as I reached the inner room, I saw Gu Huan, who was wearing a sword and shoes, walking out.

As soon as they met, Zhang Juzheng and Gao Yi were both shocked!
Zhu Yijun explained thoughtfully: "I allowed the Marquis of Zhenyuan to wear armor and a sword."

Zhang Juzheng found the situation even more difficult.

They are already wearing armor and carrying swords. The emperor is hinting that he wants to use nobles and eunuchs and alienate court officials!
Gu Huan bowed as a greeting.

This simple movement made the armor jingle.

Gu Huan held down his sword and left without waiting for the two men to return the greeting.

Gao Yi was in no mood to care about the affairs of the nobles.

As soon as he entered the palace, he could no longer hold back and said directly: "Your Majesty, Hu Qi can be sentenced to death. I beg Your Majesty not to move the palace!"

Zhu Yijun did not answer for a moment.

He stood up and looked at Gao Yi: "What crime did Hu Qi commit that he should be sentenced to death?"

Zhang Juzheng finally couldn't help but speak up: "Your Majesty wants to use this matter to control us. Since we are here, we should just come up with a set of rules. Why bother to argue back and forth?"

This is because one is so anxious that one loses the ability to maintain one's energy.

Zhu Yijun slowly walked down from the main seat on the imperial steps.

He waved his hand and asked all the eunuchs to leave.

Then he walked down the imperial steps, seemed too lazy to move, and simply sat down on the steps, causing the two of them to look at each other in surprise.

Zhu Yijun sat on the stone steps, leaning back, supporting himself with his elbows, his legs crossed, not caring at all about his status as a monarch.

He did not answer Zhang Juzheng's question, but instead said something irrelevant: "The treasury still has 2.7 million taels."

Zhang Juzheng frowned, and Gao Yi didn't understand why the emperor suddenly talked about money.

Zhu Yijun continued, "Gu Huan has been in charge of the Beijing Camp for ten years after the Gengxu Incident. Even though his influence has declined a lot, if we put aside the soldiers who are not paid for nothing, he can still mobilize 70,000 camp guards."

Gao Yi was puzzled, but Zhang Juzheng's expression changed drastically: "Your Majesty..."

Zhu Yijun raised his hand to stop him.

He leaned his elbows on the stone steps and continued, "The Imperial Horse Guard has 20,000 men, and I can command 15,000."

"Including the Jinyiwei and the Dongchang, there are about 15,000 of them."

Gao Yi also understood what the emperor meant and was at a loss.

Even though the two of them were high-ranking ministers with great skills in cultivating their Qi, they could not help but break out in sweat on their foreheads.

Zhu Yijun continued: "Sun Yizheng alone was able to embezzle more than 100,000 taels of silver during the confiscation of his property. There must be a lot of silver deposited in the capital."

"There are also many people who are loyal to the emperor and patriotic."

"Hai Rui, Chen Dong, Li Zaiting, Wang Xijue, and others, I can't even count them all."

At this point, he paused and said, "Not to mention, all the ministers in the cabinet are always on the same page with me."

Zhu Yijun looked up so that he could not see the factionalism in the central government, the deep-rooted factions in the local areas, or the panic-stricken expressions of the two cabinet ministers.

He seemed to be mumbling: "Emperor Wu of Wei used the emperor to control the princes."

"Now, I am the Son of Heaven."

He paused, looked at Zhang Juzheng and Gao Yi, and said in a cold but stubborn voice: "Gentlemen, tell me with your talents."

"I can rely on these millions of resources, a hundred thousand troops, the righteousness of the emperor, good ministers and brave generals..."

"Conquer the world again!"

As soon as the words fell, the faces of the two changed drastically.

What does this mean? It's obvious that everything has to be started from scratch!
This is a true rebellion by the emperor!
The two finally couldn't hold on any longer and fell to their knees.

Zhang Juzheng said anxiously: "Your Majesty! How can the situation have come to this point!"

Gao Yi was already kneeling on the ground crying: "Your Majesty, the two capitals and thirteen provinces depend on you, you must not be impulsive!"

Putting aside the talk of countless lives being lost, the situation has not deteriorated to this point yet!

Zhu Yijun sighed.

He climbed up from the imperial steps, brushed the dust off his butt, and helped the two old ministers up.

He said softly, "It's not yet this stage."

"I just want to ask, if I want to go to Daming Mountain again... will you two follow me?"

This was the step Chongzhen should take, but it was also his final choice - he really didn't hesitate to do so.

During the reform, which emperor didn’t want to go to Daming Mountain again?
The reason why he didn't do that now is because there are still people like Hai Rui and Zhang Juzheng. Now it depends on whether these people are worth his continued help.

Zhang Juzheng was in great pain: "Your Majesty! This statement shakes the foundation of the country! I cannot answer it!"

Gao Yi grabbed the emperor's hand and held it tightly: "Your Majesty, although the court is full of complicated issues, there are solutions. Please take back what you said!"

Zhu Yijun did not answer.

Just looked at the two of them quietly.

This gaze was like a mountain pressing down on their heads, making the two men unable to straighten their backs.

The two of them were really living every day like a year and were feeling extremely tormented.

Time passed slowly, and all three of them fell silent.

I don’t know how much time has passed.

Gao Yi finally made up his mind. He suddenly let go of the emperor, bowed again, kowtowed heavily, and was choked with silence.

Zhu Yijun looked at Zhang Juzheng again.

Zhang Juzheng struggled with his conscience for a long time, but seeing Gao Yi's behavior, he finally couldn't resist any more and bowed down to him.

Seeing the two of them lower their heads, Zhu Yijun finally closed his eyes and nodded silently.

He helped the two of them up and spoke in a slower tone, "I am going to the Western Garden, not to abandon the world."

"After this, I will evacuate the palace maids and move them back from the West Garden after the cleaning is done."

"I will not be required to attend court during this period, but I will read all the memorials sent to me, and will summon you to the hearing if I have any doubts."

After hearing this, the two ministers finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhang Juzheng did not respond easily, but pressed on: "Your Majesty, give me a date!"

This kind of thing cannot last long, otherwise whoever the emperor summons will become the spokesperson for the imperial power, which is no different from holding a small inner court.

Zhu Yijun was well prepared and said, "Let's wait until August 17th next year."

August 17th is his birthday.

He is eleven now, and by August 17 next year, he will be twelve years old.

If he fails to run the inner court into an iron bucket within a year, that will be his problem.

Gao Yi also had doubts in his heart, and he tightened his grip on the emperor's hand again: "Your Majesty, you must not follow the example of Emperor Sejong!"

Zhu Yijun patted the back of Gao Yi's hand comfortingly, signaling him not to worry.

Then he looked at Zhang Juzheng and said, "Prime Minister, please take care of the affairs of Lianghuai."

Zhang Juzheng had previously kept aloof, unwilling to offend the people of Nanzhili.

Now that he is forced to express his stance, there is absolutely no reason for him to escape.

Zhang Juzheng felt bitter in his heart, and he cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, please consider the overall situation for what happened this morning."

The emperor had to hide behind the scenes regarding the affairs of Lianghuai and let him take charge. Of course, he had to take it, but Zhang Juzheng also had his own demands.

What happened this morning definitely cannot be charged as treason, which would lead to the execution of nine generations of the family.

Zhu Yijun's face gradually turned cold: "The culprit, I will kill him as soon as possible!"

It would be fine if the nine clans were executed, but there is no reason to let the culprit go.

Zhang Juzheng quickly advised: "This may not be a coincidence!"

The infant mortality rate was already high, and so many of Sejong's children died. How could all of them be to blame?

Zhu Yijun's expression remained unchanged: "I know."

He met Zhang Juzheng's gaze and said, "The death of a child could be due to illness; the fire in the palace could also be an accident. Of course I know that."

Zhu Yijun made no effort to conceal his murderous intentions, and said, "But, this is just too much of a coincidence, so much so that I want to kill someone!"

Productivity determines production relations.

In a feudal society, if you still say "innocent until proven guilty", that would be too unfair to the throne that is under us!

He understands the reason, but he just wants to kill people.

Gao Yi had no connection with Nanzhili, so he directly stated: "The censor Hu Qi played with prophecies and should be put to death!"

Zhu Yijun shook his head and did not express his opinion.

Zhang Juzheng closed his eyes with difficulty and said in a hoarse voice: "Jia Daiwen, the chief censor, ordered this, and he shall be sentenced to death for the same crime."

Zhu Yijun still shook his head.

He glanced at the two men and said softly, "The three clans of the above two people, as well as Zhang Daoming, the Imperial Censor of Engineering, Bi Qiang, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Shen Yikuan, and eight others, will be exiled."

Zhu Yijun smiled and said, "The journey is long. If you die of illness accidentally, you can't blame me."

After that, he turned and left.

　It's too late to return a chapter. I will make up for it tomorrow.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)