In the first month of the lunar month, the court begins, and everyone in the court returns to his or her place.
Everything seemed to be back on track as usual. However, when the ministers lined up and stood by the Jinshui Bridge and looked at each other, everyone understood that everything was actually different.
In the first morning court in the eighth year of Jingtai's reign, a lot of things were settled. The Ministry of Punishment submitted the final list of those who rebelled against the party in the Nangong Incident. The prince once again read out in public the decree of the Queen Mother, deposing the emperor as a commoner and imprisoning Fengyang high wall.
Subsequently, the emperor ordered people to issue an edict. The first offenders were Chen Mao, Marquis of Ningyang, and the governor Zhang Xian. He commanded the envoy Meng Jun to deprive him of his title. He planned to behead him in public ten days later. All were sent to the border and were never allowed to return to Beijing.
In addition, the emperor also issued an edict stating that the emperor's sister-in-law, Empress Duanjing Qian, was in the lower position and failed to dissuade the Supreme Emperor from plotting rebellion, which was a breach of moral integrity. He should be stripped of his title in memory of his deep love for the Supreme Emperor and his wife. , still treated her with the courtesy of the queen, and ordered her to go to Fengyang Gaoqiang with her. The remaining concubines of the Supreme Emperor and the princes and princesses had nothing to do with this matter and were not involved. They were still raised in the Nangong Palace and worshiped according to the regulations.
It should be said that this way of handling undoubtedly demonstrated the emperor's generosity and magnanimity, and made all the ministers lament the emperor's kindness and generosity.
However, the only thing that caused dissent was...the Emperor had too many concubines. The Emperor did not abide by the draft system that was previously changed. Over the years, whether it was to cover up others' eyes or to really engage in sensuality, after all, Nangong is now Among them, there are forty or fifty concubines with rank titles.
In addition, the emperor issued an edict before and the concubines in the palace were not buried since then. This also means that the court has to support so many concubines until their death. This is not a small sum of money. Therefore, Shen Shangshu of the Ministry of Revenue Objections were raised immediately.
"...Your Majesty, there are many concubines in the Nangong Palace, and many of them are coquettish people. They will seduce your Majesty, and there is really no benefit in staying in the palace. Previously, the Ministry of Rites had a system, and all the concubines in the harem should enter the palace according to the draft system. All the concubines in the Nangong Palace, The Supreme Emperor granted the title at one word. This was an unintended move and should be corrected. Therefore, please release all the concubines who have been newly-registered after the Supreme Emperor returns to the court and have nothing to show for them, and release them out of the palace so that they can make a living on their own."
It can be seen that Shen Yi has been holding back these words for more than a day or two. Over the years, Nangong has been feasting and living extravagantly every day. When the emperor is happy, he will make several concubines for fun, although all the money spent is from the inner treasury. However, Mr. Shen, as the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, has always insisted that what is in the internal treasury belongs to the national treasury, and he is very dissatisfied with this.
Not to mention that the Supreme Emperor has been deposed now, even when the Supreme Emperor was still in Nangong, he often complained about this matter.
Moreover, this time, he had obviously made a lot of preparations. As soon as this proposal came out, it received responses from many ministers. A few of them had objections, and they were also talking about whether it was appropriate to directly release the emperor's concubine. , proposed to build a Buddhist temple following the example of previous generations and send these concubines to pray.
Of course, Zhu Qiyu did not choose the latter in the end, but agreed to Shen Yi's request and sent back all the concubines in Nangong and asked them to leave the palace on their own. In addition, considering that most of them were from Jiaofangsi, Most of them had no relatives outside, so he specially ordered people to give some gold, silver, and silk to them. Of course, that was all a story later.
Regarding the placement of the concubines in Nangong, it is just a small episode. As Shen Yi said, these concubines were not in compliance with the regulations when they were originally canonized. Therefore, they are just corrected now. Although it is slightly controversial, but , and not many people were entangled. What really attracted their attention was the next thing, that is, the reward for the officials who contributed in the Nangong incident.
Since someone is guilty, then naturally someone has merit. Compared with how to punish the guilty, these ministers in the court are obviously more concerned about how to reward those who have merit. After all, the latter is related to the future power status of the court. There will be new changes.
The first to bear the brunt was the nobles' side, headed by Zhu Yi, Duke of Cheng, who led the imperial army to directly suppress the rebellion. Together with the commander of the fifth regiment's battalion, Yongkang Hou Xu An, and the commander of the sixth regiment's camp, Yongshun Bo Xue Fu, who were granted the title of Fengtian Yiyun. Xue Fu was given the title of Yongshun Marquis by the sincere Xuanli military ministers, and was given a coupon for the whole family, which was quasi-hereditary.
Next, Fan Guang, the Bo of Jing'an, who was ordered to help seal the nine gates and suppress the rebellion, Li Xian, the Duke of Feng, Yang Hong, the Marquis of Changping, and Liang Yao, the Bo of Baoding, were granted the title of Feng Tianyi Guards to promote sincerity and declare power, and Fan Guang was given the title of Jing'an. Marquis, Baoding Bo Liang Yao was given the title of Marquis of Baoding, and he was given a coupon, which was quasi-hereditary, but he was not replaced. He gave Li Xian, the Duke of Feng, a coupon, which was not hereditary. He promoted Yang Jie, the eldest son of the Marquis of Changping, to be the governor of Tongzhi.
Regarding this reward, in fact, there have been rumors in the court for a long time. After all, when the Nangong Incident happened, many people could see clearly that the person who was ordered to command in the city was Jing'an Bo Fan Guang, and his cooperator was Baoding Bo Liang Yao. .
As for Feng Guogong Li Xian and Changping Marquis Yang Hong, Li Gongye went to the top of the city to boost morale, but Yang Hong has been on a sick bed in the past few years and cannot get up. In fact, most of these rewards are for Yang Jie.
After all, Yang Jie made great contributions to the grassland back then. However, due to various reasons, he could not be rewarded for his achievements. He just took this opportunity to reward him.
However, after the decree was announced, there was a mixture of joy and sorrow in the court. There is no doubt that with this decree, a new noble group in the Jingtai Dynasty was formally formed, headed by Duke Cheng, Duke Feng, and Marquis Jing'an. , the situation of Changping Hou and many others co-existing was established, which meant that the sequence of military ministers was about to truly enter a stable period again. From the perspective of the stability of the court, this was a good thing, but it also meant that the military ministers had regained their position in the court. Enough voice.
You know, in addition to these high-ranking nobles, a group of new generals also emerged in this battle with the rebels led by Chen Mao. Perhaps for them, this is not a particularly big war, but , but its significance is extraordinary.
Because they are escorting, their military exploits are different from ordinary military exploits, which is enough to support them to become the backbone of military ministers in the future. This also means that after this, if they want to regain the absolute advantage that civil servants had over military ministers before, it will become extremely difficult. Difficult, so in the eyes of some ministers, this is not something to be happy about.
Of course, no matter what they thought, everything was a done deal after all.
There are rewards for the nobles, and the civil servants are no exception. Although in this incident, the civil servants did not have much credit except Yu Qian, but the greatest ability of the civil servants is to be able to speak well. Will put gold on his face.
The first is Yu Qian's problem. At first, there were some voices in the court who believed that Yu Qian was mobilizing troops privately and violated the regulations. Even Yu Qian himself felt the same way. For this reason, he immediately returned the talisman after returning it. He was put on an apology form and banned from the house.
However, as the emperor summoned the important ministers of the court and vaguely revealed a few words, the direction of the entire court quickly changed. The bosses tacitly changed a new statement, blurring out all the details, and directly It is said that Yu Qian followed the imperial decree and brought the angels to the fifth regiment camp to mobilize troops to quell the chaos, as if there was no such thing as holding Xu An with a sword at all.
Therefore, Yu Qian naturally became the number one hero in suppressing the rebellion. In detail, his achievements were even greater than those of Cheng Guogong Zhu Yi. Naturally, the rewards were also greater.
It is said that the emperor once asked privately whether Yu Qian should be knighted. Yu Qian was so frightened that he hurried out of the palace. After entering the palace to persuade him, the emperor reluctantly gave up the idea.
But despite this, in the end, Yu Qian's rewards were very enviable. He was granted the title of Fengtian Yiwei, a loyal civil servant, a first-rank special officer, Guanglu doctor, a first-rank Youzhuguo, a young master, and a son of Zhunyin as a Jinyiwei. The commander of the envoy, whose son was the commander of the Qianshi, was awarded the title of three generations according to the regulations, and his wife was given the title of first-grade imperial concubine, and she was eligible to enjoy the imperial temple.
Forget everything else, but this last one shocked everyone when it came out.
Even now, when they heard that the eunuch who announced the decree had read it clearly, the ministers still felt unbelievable.
You must know that since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, those who are worthy of enjoying the Imperial Ancestral Temple, in addition to the 21 founding heroes of the Taizu era, are the five Jingnan heroes of the Taizong era. Among these 26 meritorious officials, only Yao Yao is worthy of enjoying the Imperial Ancestral Temple. Guangxiao was born a civil servant, which means that Yu Qian will be the second civil servant in the entire Ming Dynasty to be worthy of enjoying the Ancestral Temple. This honor is not unimportant.
It can be said that this article alone is enough to make the civil servants present feel proud. You must know that being worthy of the treatment of the Ancestral Temple is, in a sense, more rare than the title of Duke. Some people even wish to have it. Shaobao, no, he should be called Shaoshi Yu. I wish that Master Yu could die right now, so that he could get this treatment.
Of course, this is a joke. The reason why this honor was successfully announced was not only due to Yu Qian's own achievements and the favor of the emperor, but also because the nobles had too much limelight this time. Therefore, civil servants must recommend The momentum of one person coming out to kill the other. Otherwise, a lot of people would have jumped out and objected to this level of treatment.
As the highlight of civil servants, Yu Qian is the most critical focus, but it is not all of the rewards awarded by civil servants.
After all, no matter how heavy the reward is for Yu Qian, it is only for one person. He alone is obviously not enough. Therefore, other important ministers in the court also received some rewards. As usual, the six ministers, censors, and cabinet ministers also received some rewards. He received some rewards of gold, silver, wealth, and silk, but these can be ignored. What the civil servants really strive for are the rewards for the subordinates of the East Palace.
During the Nangong Incident, the prince stood firmly on the side of the emperor. After learning the news, he went to report it to the emperor as soon as possible, and stayed by the emperor's side throughout the whole process. Such a move, no matter what was said below. , but at least now, it should be rewarded.
But the prince is the crown prince, so the credit of the prince should naturally fall on the subordinate officials of the East Palace.
However, on this point, the courtiers rarely disagreed, especially among the civil servants, who were quarreling over this.
Some people believe that the subordinates of the East Palace did have merits for Fu Bi, but after all, they had no direct role in this matter. Therefore, their merits should be calculated according to Fu Bi's merits, not for their contribution to quelling the chaos.
Representatives of this faction were headed by Tianguan Wang Wen, including Shen Yi, the Minister of Household Affairs, Wang Ao, the Minister of War, and Zhang Min, the cabinet minister.
Others feel that the prince is the East Palace and his actions are inseparable from the East Palace. Therefore, the assistant officials of the East Palace should naturally be rewarded according to their contribution to quelling the chaos.
Representatives of this group were headed by Yu Shiyue, the Minister of Justice, and included Chen Xun, the Minister of Industry, and cabinet ministers Xiao Xi, Sun Yuanzhen, Zhu Jian and others.
In fact, this was the main content of the quarrels in the court during the period a year ago, and even because of this, the nobles really saw a big joke.
You know, usually this group of civil servants unite to argue with them, but this time, there is no objection to the rewards of the nobles, but it is their own rewards that are so quarrelsome, it is really hard not to gloat.
Of course, the nobles are having fun, but those who are really immersed in the court are looking for the inside.
This dispute was apparently about how to describe merits, but in fact, it was about the position of the crown prince of the East Palace.
Again, if something like this happens to the Supreme Emperor, it will no longer be possible to stabilize the throne of the East Palace. Although the Crown Prince made the right choice in this incident, the Supreme Emperor was deposed as a commoner. In fact, it was This means that the prince not only lost his most powerful support, but also shouldered a heavy burden.
From now on, the legal system, character, ability, etiquette and laws of the East Palace will be questioned in all aspects. In fact, there has been no direct speech from the DPRK. On the one hand, it is because the matter in the Nangong Palace has not yet been completely settled. On the other hand, it is also because the emperor is still maintaining the East Palace, but even so, the constant tests from the government and the public, both inside and outside the palace, have already begun.
On the surface, the core of this dispute is the subordinates of the East Palace, but in fact, it is actually suppressing and curbing the development of the power of the East Palace.
This is true in the court, and it is also true in the palace. Others don't know, but the important ministers in the court more or less have a general understanding of the situation in the harem.
In previous years, family banquets were always held in Jingyang Palace. The emperor's biological mother, Empress Dowager Wu, always preferred the imperial concubine Hang, and had a cold relationship with the empress of the middle palace.
However, this year's family dinner, the Queen Mother took the initiative to propose that the family dinner be held in Kunning Palace. How could it not be thought-provoking?
Of course, this sign is just beginning to appear now, but it can be predicted that this sign will only become more and more abundant and more and more prosperous...
The affairs in the palace were just an interlude. There was a long debate in the court. In the end, the emperor made the decision. He believed that the prince had meritorious service and had to refer to the assistant ministers in the east palace.
Therefore, in this award, except for the masters of the East Palace who received symbolic rewards, the other subordinates of the East Palace basically received new awards, such as Xu Youzhen, Shen Jing, Ni Qian and other senior officials , and even received assignments other than those from the East Palace, and could substantially participate in the government affairs of the court...
