After following Chongzhen for so many years, the two of them had a tacit understanding. At that moment, Wang Chengsi sang and drank loudly, "If there is anything to do, start early, and if nothing happens, withdraw from the court."
As soon as Wang Chengen finished speaking, someone among the courtiers below stood up and said loudly: "Your Majesty, I have my own notes."
The first person to stand up was Xiangcheng Bo Li Guozhen.
Speaking of Li Guozhen, he was once highly trusted by Chongzhen and was regarded as one of the most favored ministers. It has been recorded in history that when he went to court, others knelt down and he was the only one standing next to Chongzhen, with no courtesy in his eyes. However, he did so, but Chongzhen never meant to blame him.
In the same history, Li Guozhen was also one of the first ministers to surrender to Li Zicheng, but the ending was not happy. Liu Zongmin, a reckless man, came to help him pay and chase the stolen goods, and later he was pissed to death.
He was so trusted, but this time when Chongzhen was in trouble, Li Guozhen never showed up from beginning to end. Now that the Ming Dynasty seemed to have hope again, he came.
Fearing that there was something wrong with him, this time he did not go to Chongzhen's side to join in the fun as usual. Instead, he knelt down and worshiped with other ministers. This move was actually his intention to test Chongzhen.
He didn't know if some of his recent actions had made the other party angry, so he didn't dare to make a mistake.
But he still became the first person to submit a memorial. This shows that he still has confidence in himself, and he also believes that Chongzhen will not do anything to him, let alone punish himself.
"Li Aiqing, what's the matter?" Chongzhen looked calm. When he said these words, there was no clue or any other bad signal on his face.
Seeing that Chongzhen still called him "Love Qing" and his tone was the same as before, Li Guozhen felt courageous. He took a half step forward and clasped his fists and said: "I congratulate your majesty on your great blessings. You have been favored by heaven and defeated Chuang." Thief, keep the Ming Dynasty stable for thousands of years..."
As soon as he opened his mouth, there was a flurry of flattery.
According to Li Guozhen, the Ming army was able to defeat the intruders only because God was blessing Chongzhen, and Chongzhen was diligent in governing the country, which led to this great victory.
In the past, Chongzhen was very useful to Li Guozhen for flattering him. But this time, he only had a smile on his face, but in fact he was extremely bored.
He hated himself for not realizing what kind of birdman this was.
Fortunately, I thought he was the minister who knew me best, but now it seems that besides flattering and being obedient, what else can he do?
To be loved by God?
Yes, this is not a mistake. After all, God sent Zhu Changwu here when he was in danger.
But if God is really helping us, why are there so many natural disasters? If it weren't for the fact that the people really had no food to eat, they would not rebel, and the intruders would not be so powerful.
At this moment, Chongzhen didn't listen to a word of Li Guozhen's flattering words. He just looked at him, wanting to see what else he could say.
Li Guozhen didn't think about this. When he saw Chongzhen listening to him very seriously, he immediately became energetic. In his words, he compared Chongzhen to the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and to the world. The first king, Bi has been the first emperor throughout the ages. Judging from his meaning, it seems that even the achievements of a person with a bowl at the beginning are far inferior to Chongzhen.
He said these words one after another. He didn't feel disgusted, but the other ministers who heard these words felt ashamed.
cough.
The cough was not loud, but it was enough to attract attention in the quiet Zhongji Hall, and it also interrupted Li Guozhen's continued flattery.
When he noticed that the person coughing slightly was Chen Yan, the current elder of Daming Pavilion and the former chief assistant, he then remembered the mission he had come to today. He quickly ended his flattery and changed the topic: "Your Majesty, the Ming Dynasty is what it is today because we have always acted according to the ancestral system, so that the society is stable and the people can live and work in peace and contentment. But now there is a minister who casually After changing the ancestral precepts, I also ask Your Majesty to uproot the rebels and rectify them, punish them, and restore a bright and prosperous world."
Finally coming to the topic, Chongzhen knew that this was what Li Guozhen really wanted to say, or it could also be said that it was what these ministers who appeared today wanted to say.
"Oh? There is such a person. Who is so bold? If you ask Li Aiqing to speak out, I will definitely not tolerate it."
Seeing that Chongzhen seemed very angry, Li Guozhen was overjoyed. When he spoke, he called out his name and said: "Your Majesty, I am impeaching Zhu Changwu, the commander of the Jinyi Guards, for tampering with the ancestral system and disbanding the military household. If so, Where will the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty be recruited in the future? Isn’t this violating the ancestral system?”
"Your Majesty, what Uncle Xiangcheng said is true. In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, in order to stabilize the world, Taizu established military households, farmers, merchants, craftsmen, etc., so that there would be no chaos after the world was in order. But now However, Zhu Changwu, the commander of the Jinyi Guards, made changes at will. This is going to cause cholera in the world. Please punish him severely." Ge Lao Chen Yan clasped his fists and looked very indignant.
No matter how stupid Chongzhen was, he understood at this moment that these ministers came to the morning court without an edict today, and they were doing one thing, and that was to target Zhu Changwu.
They even directly called Zhu Changwu the commander and did not mention the official positions of general or young master. This also told Chongzhen that except for the commander of the Jinyi Guards, they did not recognize other official positions.
Indeed, if it were in the past, when it came to an official position of the first rank, such as the Crown Prince and Young Fu, Chongzhen would never make arbitrary decisions. Instead, he would bring it to the court meeting for everyone to review. Only when the ministers agreed, would this edict be implemented? Send it on.
As for the position of general, this is not an official title in the first place. It depends on special periods. Just like an imperial envoy, once the errand is completed, his official position must be returned.
From this point of view, the ministers did not recognize whether it was a false position or a real position. Instead, they directly called Zhu Changwu the commander, just because the Jinyi Guards were under the control of the emperor, and the appointment of a new commander was always left to the emperor.
After all, these ministers who came today are against Zhu Changwu and want to impeach Zhu Changwu.
And they also believed that more than sixty ministers had signed up. Even if Chongzhen liked this person now, due to their pressure, he had to carefully consider the appointment issue. After all, the rule of the Ming Dynasty ultimately depends on the help of these ministers. Otherwise, even if the emperor is exhausted, he will not be able to handle so many national affairs.
Just like this time, after all the government offices in the capital were shut down, bandits were everywhere. If Zhu Changwu hadn't used extraordinary means to kill and kill, the capital would have been in chaos before the Dashun army came over.
The ministers hold all kinds of power, and sometimes they even have to compete with the imperial power. So if the emperor is disobedient, the ministers can discuss whether someone can be replaced. Things like this have happened in all dynasties, and it is no longer a rare thing.
Today more than sixty ministers dared to come to Zhongji Hall to see Chongzhen, relying on this. They didn't believe that even if the man named Zhu Changwu was capable, could he be stronger than the combined efforts of more than 60 of them?
After Li Guozhen and Chen Yan came forward, more than 60 courtiers, including the scholar Qiu Yu and the military officer Jiang Dezhen, also stood up one after another.
These ministers are all people who have received benefits from Yang Guanguang, either 10,000 taels, 5,000 taels, 3,000 taels or even one thousand taels. They just came to stand on the stage, and they do not blame others according to the law. I just came here to get some benefits.
"Yes." Looking at the ministers standing below with firm expressions, who seemed to be neither humble nor overbearing, Chongzhen's anger began to rise in his heart.
Why, when the Ming Dynasty was in trouble, you didn't stand up. You all hunkered down at home. Even if you heard the bell ringing, you could pretend you didn't hear it. Now someone is helping Daming win the battle, and he has just seen a little hope. Why don't you just stop seeing others?
Is this a collective impeachment? Want to show your loyal side?
Not to mention the change of the ancestral conscription system, Zhu Changwu explained to him afterwards. Just say, if Zhu Changwu is withdrawn now, can Ming Dynasty become stronger with these people?
For this group of villains who are incapable of doing anything and are as timid as rats, but on the contrary, do not allow others to be better than them, Chongzhen could not wait to order all of them to be thrown into prison, and then conduct a thorough investigation after ransacking their homes.
Based on what Zhu Changwu said to him before, it would be good if every one of the important ministers of the Ming Dynasty was arrested first and their homes were ransacked to ensure that one out of a hundred people was wrongly accused. It is guaranteed that the amount of silver in their family's treasury must exceed the various salaries they usually receive.
Thinking about these words, they really make sense.
Chongzhen pressed his hands tightly on the dragon chair. He couldn't help but wanted to get angry, but fortunately, he was forced to suppress it at the last moment.
Without it, Zhu Changwu has said that these ministers will be left to him, because he can better squeeze out the final value of these people.
In addition, the current capital city is actually extremely empty. There are only about a thousand imperial guards available. With these people, they are not enough to raid the homes of more than 60 ministers. For the sake of the grand plan, he still needs to be patient.
"Yes." Forcibly suppressing the anger in his heart, Chongzhen nodded, "I know about this matter. I will send someone to investigate it carefully later, and then give an explanation to the ministers."
Chongzhen agreed, which made Li Guozhen, Chen Yan and others relieved.
They were worried before that the current Ming Dynasty still needed to rely on that boy named Zhu Changwu, and they were afraid that it would not be appropriate for Chongzhen to attack him now. But now it seems that the emperor is also afraid that this boy will achieve great success and shock the emperor, so he also has the intention to seduce him.
