Shu Liang brought a lot of news.
Among them, the most eye-catching one is of course the news that Zhang Fu and others secretly contacted Yang Shan and were active in the court to welcome the Emperor back.
"Based on that man's testimony, the slaves contacted many courtiers, but they made it clear that there were four people who would try their best to rescue the Supreme Emperor, namely Yang Shan, the minister of Honglu Temple, Luo Tong, the right deputy imperial envoy, and Shaoqing of Dali Temple. Xue Xuan, Taichang Temple Shaoqing Xu Bin."
"Among these four people, Yang Shan has good relations with the British government, and Xu Bin has good relations with the Dingxi Houfu. According to investigation, the two of them also collected money from the two houses for the purpose of contacting other ministers."
After listening to Shu Liang's words, Zhu Qiyu frowned, feeling a little troubled.
Yang Shan and Xu Bin were people that Jinyiwei had already tracked down. Lu Zhong had already ordered people to keep them under strict surveillance. They had indeed seen a lot of people these days.
But there were not many courtiers who could be sure to be won over by them, and they were not of high rank.
What really gave Zhu Qiyu a headache was Luo Tong and Xue Xuan.
Luo Tong was previously a doctor in the Ministry of War. After the troops from the Tumu Campaign reported to Beijing, he was promoted to the right deputy governor of the capital, cooperating in guarding Juyong Pass.
During the War of Wala, although Juyong Pass was not reached first, from beginning to end, Juyong Pass gathered a large number of people from all over the pass, thus ensuring the smooth implementation of the strategy of strengthening the wall and clearing the country.
When people on the border were panicked and the border generals retreated without a fight, it was Luo Tong who made a prompt decision and imprisoned all the escaping border generals, temporarily stabilizing the military morale in the Juyongguan area.
Although these cannot be regarded as military achievements, they are still achievements and cannot be ignored.
In other words, he is the person who should be credited with merit in this battle of Oara, and he is the person recommended by Yu Qian.
As for Xue Xuan, although his official position was not high, he did not make any achievements in this battle.
However, his reputation among scholars is very high!
There are two main reasons for this.
Xue Xuan's official position was not high, but he himself was one of the few great masters in the court who focused on Confucianism. The "Hedong School" he founded is known as one of the two cultural traditions of the Ming Dynasty.
Another context is Wang Yangming's "Xin Xue".
In the decades before Wang Yangming was born, Xue Xuanke could be said to be the leader in the literary world of the Ming Dynasty, and he had high prestige among the entire literati.
Although his entire system has not yet been formed, his influence among Shilin is already very large.
After Xue Xuan became an official, he spent a period of time in the Metropolitan Procuratorate as a supervisory censor, and was later transferred to Dali Temple.
What really made him famous among scholars was that he presided over the case of Wang Zhen's nephew Wang Shan raping the concubine of a Jin Yiwei officer.
At that time, Wang Zhen was at the height of his power, but Xue Xuan resisted Wang Zhen's pressure and reversed the case in court.
Although he was unsuccessful in the end, he was first sentenced to prison, and then demoted to serve as a civilian. He won a lot of praise among the scholars.
After being dismissed from office, Xue Xuan lectured everywhere and gathered many disciples, and his reputation as a Neo-Confucian master gradually spread.
Later, the Civil Engineering and Military News came that Xue Xuan, as one of the officials persecuted by Wang Zhen, was naturally reinstated.
Therefore, pure idealists are the most troublesome.
Xue Xuan and Wang Wen, to a certain extent, are the same type of people.
For Wang Wen, he firmly believed that all the faults in the Tumu battle were due to the Supreme Emperor, so once the Supreme Emperor came back, it would be very harmful to the country.
But for Xue Xuan, he believed that etiquette and law were the foundation of the country, and the king was the foundation of the country.
As a great master of Neo-Confucianism, the order of etiquette is something that he will defend to the death, so he firmly believes that the Supreme Emperor must be welcomed back.
This kind of person is actually the most difficult to deal with.
He has firm beliefs, is honest and self-disciplined, has no fear of power, and has no intention of pursuing an official career. No matter coercion or inducement, it is of no use to him.
His personal ethics are impeccable and his official duties are impeccable, but he is not on his side.
This kind of "loyal minister" is the most troublesome to Zhu Qiyu now.
Seeing the emperor's embarrassment, Shu Liang thought for a while and boldly asked.
"Your Majesty, now that their identities have been discovered, it's better to let Dongchang or Jinyiwei arrest them first. Once they get to the prison, everything will be easier to talk about."
Zhu Qiyu didn't say anything, he just glared at Shu Liang, which frightened Shu Liang and quickly knelt down and said.
"Your Majesty, please forgive me. This servant was also thinking about Your Majesty and was temporarily confused. Please forgive me, Your Majesty."
"Get up."
Zhu Qiyu waved his hand and said calmly.
"I won't do it next time. Dongchang I leave it to you, but you have to know your limits and arrest the court ministers without any reason. As you can imagine, if I issue an order to arrest people in front of me, six ministries and seven ministers in the back will attack together. If it really makes trouble for the general, Get up, I can't even protect you!"
To be honest, Zhu Qiyu had considered Shu Liang's suggestion from the beginning.
But it's a pity that, let alone Yang Shan and the others, they haven't taken any action yet. Even if they did, Jinyiwei and Dongchang couldn't be dispatched.
If nothing else, at this time, welcoming back the Supreme Emperor is the true political correctness.
Although these are the only people who were detected by Dongchang, there must be many people in the DPRK who hold this idea.
Among them, I am afraid there are many people from Qiqing.
At least, that's how Yu Qian is.
In the current court, except for Wang Wen, who is firmly against the Supreme Emperor, everyone else is more or less thinking about welcoming back the Supreme Emperor.
After all, even if he is the Supreme Emperor, he is still the king of a country.
The Emperor's one day in the prison camp reminded them all the time how profound the humiliation the Ming Dynasty had endured.
So in a sense, what Yang Shan and others did was in line with the general trend of the DPRK.
Acting rashly will only cause these forces to combine quickly.
A minister of Honglu Temple is nothing, but how can a great Wenzong master like Xue Xuan and a hero of the war like Luo Tong be able to do anything lightly?
Besides, the war has just ended not long ago, and the court has not yet paid attention to this matter.
If such a fuss comes to the surface, then we really can't ignore it.
After thinking about it, Zhu Qiyu ordered.
"Dongchang will do its job. Go back and negotiate with Lu Zhong. Keep an eye on these people first. Try to find out whom they contacted and what they talked about. But don't act rashly. Understand. ?"
For the current plan, we can only keep an eye on people first.
The so-called knowing yourself and the enemy means you will be victorious in every battle.
Find out their plans first so that you can determine what to do next.
Seeing that the emperor's expression improved slightly, Shu Liang felt relieved, quickly accepted the order, and then exited the hall.
After Shu Liang left, Cheng Jing took a step forward, reached out and replaced the cold tea on the table with a new one, and said.
"Your Majesty, Shu Liang is also thinking about you. You don't have to be angry. He still does things in a measured way."
Zhu Qiyu nodded slightly and said.
"I am naturally relieved to hand over Dongchang to him, but these days, Shu Liang's desire to make meritorious service is a bit too strong, and he lacks a bit of his initial calmness. He needs to be beaten and beaten, and he cannot be too impatient. .”
With that said, Zhu Qiyu raised his hand, took out a few memorials from the memorials beside him, put them in front of Cheng Jing, and said.
"Look, these are all to impeach him."
"His actions in Dongchang are certainly ruthless and decisive, but the courtiers are also wary. This Dongchang boss is not easy to do!"
Most memorials from the imperial court must be sent to the General Secretary first, then to the cabinet, and then to the palace.
Although Cheng Jing is now the Supervisor of Ceremonies, not all memorials will pass through his hands.
After receiving the memorial handed over by the emperor, Cheng Jing looked through it and couldn't help but laugh and said.
"Your Majesty, this is all a matter of old sesame seeds and rotten millet. It's a good thing these old men can dig it out."
There are about seven or eight of these memorials, two of which impeach Shu Liang for acting arrogantly in Dongchang and damaging the royal dignity, which is quite justified.
But the rest of the memorial was to impeach Shu Liang for his previous mistakes in the Department of Cherishing Salary, saying that he had deprived the palace of salary and used power for personal gain.
I don’t even know what year it happened, but it was still used for impeachment.
Zhu Qiyu also smiled and said.
"After all, Dongchang is not in the imperial court, and the people inside are not imperial officials. No matter how ruthless Shu Liang treats them, he can't stir up any trouble."
"Impeachment by the imperial court is still somewhat taboo after all. The internal affairs of Dongchang and Jinyiwei are not something they can interfere with."
"So if we want to impeach him, we can only look for his past mistakes."
As he spoke, Zhu Qiyu became serious and said.
"This is what I want to tell you. Now that Shu Liang has been suddenly promoted, and he acts so openly in Dongchang, I don't know how many pairs of eyes have been watching him secretly."
"In addition, he is now eager to make meritorious deeds. It is inevitable that he will be caught in the wrong. If you are kind to him, find an opportunity to give him a heads up as soon as possible. Don't really cause any trouble."
From his previous life experience, Zhu Qiyu knew that Shu Liang was originally a cautious person.
But now, he may have suddenly reached a high position and lost some sense of proportion. If he can't adjust quickly.
It was so necessary that Zhu Qiyu asked him to return to the harem and calm down for a while.
Otherwise, in his current state, Zhu Qiyu may not be able to save him if trouble occurs.
Cheng Jing felt a little moved.
He finally understood why the emperor said so many things to him.
Although the eunuchs in the palace looked beautiful, in reality they were just slaves of the emperor.
When the emperor needs it, the glory is unlimited, but when the emperor doesn't need it, sending him to guard the tomb is a reward.
Admiral Dongchang, to put it bluntly, does the dirty work for the emperor.
Most of the time, when the work is done and the courtiers have been offended enough, it is common for them to be thrown out to appease the public anger.
But the emperor explained to him so carefully, obviously he didn't want Shu Liang to really become the target of the court officials.
This thoughtfulness made Cheng Jing feel very grateful.
Cheng Jing said with a heavy nod.
"Your Majesty, don't worry. When I go back today, I will go find Shu Liang and make sure to let him know your love and care."
Zhu Qiyu felt relieved and put the matter aside for the time being. He picked up the tea cup at hand and took a sip of tea to moisten his throat.
Then, he reached out and flipped through the memorial that Cheng Jing had just sent over, and asked.
"Is there anything important in the memorial sent by the cabinet today?"
In this life, in addition to developing good work and rest habits, Zhu Qiyu also became accustomed to not being so "diligent" anymore.
After the memorials sent up from below were "voted" by the cabinet, he would ask Cheng Jing to go through them again and rank them in order according to the urgency and importance of the matters.
Prioritize important things and deal with them first.
Ordinarily, this matter should be handled by the cabinet.
But now there are only Chen Xun and Gao Gu in the cabinet, and they are too busy to prepare votes, so they let Cheng Jing do it first.
Cheng Jing stepped forward, selected a few from a pile of memorials, put them in front of Zhu Qiyu first, and said.
"Besides the daily affairs, there are a few things in today's memorial that the Emperor needs to read first."
Cheng Jing said while Zhu Qiyu picked up the memorial and read it.
"The first is about the issue of rewards and promotions for civil servants during the War at Wala. The Ministry of Officials has already drawn up a list, but here, there are two people whose ranks are too high. Your Majesty needs to make the decision personally."
"These people are Wang Wen, who directed the battle of Zijin, and Wang Ao, who lobbied for Tuo Tuo Bu Hua."
Zhu Qiyu nodded and asked.
"What's the reward planned by the officials for them?"
Cheng Jing replied.
"The officials discussed that Mr. Wang Wen was in danger and was ordered to persuade Tuotuo Buhua to withdraw. Later, he was ordered to supervise the military affairs of Bauhinia. He was not disturbed by Yexian's tricks and tried to protect Bauhinia. He commanded the repulse of Yexian's army. This battle should be the first achievement."
"So he was promoted to the first level, and was awarded the title of Guanglu Dafu of the first grade, and Wenxun was granted the title of Zhuguo, the first grade. His father and grandfather were posthumously awarded the title of the first-grade Guanglu doctor, and his wife was awarded the second grade Gaoming wife, and Zhunyin a son. As the commander of the third-grade Jinyi Guards, I will grant Enyi's son to be admitted to the Imperial Academy."
The ancients said that the wife should be given the right to be the wife of the son, which is why it comes from this.
Wang Wen had gone through a lot of hardships in this battle. At the end of the battle, as the admiral who defeated Ye Xian head-on, and in addition to his contribution to lobbying and negotiation, the Ministry of Civil Affairs gave him an almost worthy reward.
Posthumously honoring the ancestors, conferring a royal title on his wife, and two sons from Enyin, this is already considered the highest reward that a civil servant can receive.
Further up, it has to be a military title, but this kind of title, as has been said, cannot be awarded unless you lead the army from the front.
Zhu Qiyu nodded and asked, "Where is Wang Ao?"
Cheng Jing replied: "Mr. Wang Ao has guarded Liaodong for many years. He accompanied Mr. Wang Wen to lobby Tuo Tuo Bu Hua and persuaded him to withdraw his troops smoothly. He also made great achievements."
"Therefore, the Ministry of Officials decided to confer Wen Xunzheng with the second rank of Zhengzhi Shangqing, his wife with the imperial edict of Shuren of the third rank, and Zhunyin's son with the rank of fifth rank, Thousand Households."
Relatively speaking, Wang Ao's rewards are much less, but they are equally enviable.
You must know that the most valuable among this reward are Yin Shuo's Jin Yiwei Commander and Qian Hu.
Although these two positions are fictitious, they are hereditary military attache positions and can be regarded as reserves for formal military attaches. If the court needs them, they may be converted into actual appointments at any time.
During this war, due to the heavy losses in the Civil War, many of the thousands of fictitious grants were directly converted into actual grants.
In comparison, other rewards are not worth mentioning.
Of course, these rewards are just average.
The Ministry of Personnel has a special Ji Xun Division responsible for this matter, and nothing can go wrong.
The reason why they singled out these two people and said that the emperor needed to make the decision himself was because the most important reward was something that the officials could not determine.
That is, promotion!
For officials, having a wife and a son is what they pursue, but the most important thing is official career.
Wang Ao and Wang Wen have made great achievements, and their promotion is certain.
But the two of them are already just one step away from becoming the Seventh Minister. Which position they want to be promoted to is not something that can be decided by the Ministry of Personnel.
Zhu Qiyu originally thought that it would be enough for Wang Wen to join the cabinet after this battle, and he would be able to get away with it based on his lobbying efforts.
But now, Wang Wen's performance far exceeded his imagination.
With the two great achievements of "not being disturbed by Ye Xian's tricks, he resolutely ordered the attack" and "arranging and commanding to repel Ye Xian's main force head-on".
Zhu Qiyu had to change his original idea.
After pondering for a moment, Zhu Qiyu said.
"It was announced to the cabinet that Wang Wen had made meritorious service in this battle and was awarded the title of Young Master. Wang Ao had guarded Liaodong for many years. He should have been awarded the title of Crown Prince and Grand Master according to his merits. The Grand Scholar of Huagaidian, Shangshu of the Jin Dynasty, was admitted to the Zhiwenyuan Pavilion."
