The so-called "emperor's scheming" is always unfathomable. 【Read full text】
At the beginning, the reason why Wen Guanliang suddenly fell from power was because Emperor Deqing did not express his opinions for a long time and allowed officials to criticize and impeach without restraint, resulting in the situation that Wan Fu pointed out, which caused Wen Guanliang to lose face and lose face in both the government and the opposition. He lost all his prestige and eventually had to resign and leave.
Now, Emperor Deqing was also dissatisfied with Prince Zhu Heyu for rejecting his kind offer of protection, so at the beginning, he allowed officials from various factions to criticize the Prince and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, presumably to teach the Prince a lesson.
However, after all, Zhu Heyu is the prince and the future emperor. Of course, he must be beaten when it is time to beat him, but he must continue to protect him when it is time to protect him.
Therefore, just when officials from various factions were about to reach their climax in criticizing and impeaching the prince, Emperor Deqing finally spoke.
"Oh? There was such a huge flaw in the preparations for the Southern Tour?" Emperor Deqing seemed to have just learned the news. He looked shocked, and then said angrily: "The prince came out to speak! The preparations for this Southern Tour are... You are in charge. Is what the officials said true? Did the preparations for the southern tour really cause such great public dissatisfaction? "
It seemed like a question, but in fact it gave the prince a chance to defend himself and put aside the matter of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.
Hearing Emperor Deqing's question, the prince looked solemn, stepped out again, and said in a deep voice: "I would like to inform my father, there were indeed a lot of mistakes and incidents in the preparations for the southern tour, and many local officials made mistakes during the actual implementation. , deceived the superiors and concealed the inferiors, and took advantage of the opportunity of preparations to repeatedly oppress the people and exploit the people's wealth. The people were miserable and caused countless public complaints. I only got the news a few days ago, but after these few days A detailed investigation revealed that the matter was not exaggerated and was true. Although I am the person responsible, I dare not shirk the involvement. I only hope that my father can investigate the case strictly!"
The righteous words spoken by the prince had a convincing temperament. However, as soon as he finished speaking, Shen Changmao suddenly stepped out and sneered: "His Royal Highness, these words made him feel clean, as if they all belonged to others. Fault. But since you are solely responsible for the preparations for the Southern Tour, there have been such large-scale mistakes and omissions, and people everywhere are boiling with resentment, without exception. Is it just because of the fault of local officials? Don’t you, Your Highness, have any Responsibility?"
As expected of Shen Changmao. Even Prince Zhu Heyu dared to criticize him directly without any mercy.
Cheng Yuandao, who had just joined the cabinet, came out and retorted: "What Mr. Shen Ge said was wrong. The preparations for the southern tour had its own rules. Although the prince is the person in charge, he is only responsible for coordinating the overall situation. The local yamen are responsible for allocating money and supervising the progress, and are responsible for the implementation. Now there are no mistakes in the aspects that the prince is responsible for. Not only is the schedule completed ahead of schedule, but the money is also saved a lot. The problem is that the local yamen bullies the superiors and exploits the people. ! The prince has been staying in the capital. Although he has been deceived by corrupt officials, what can he do wrong?!"
The attitude of Bao Wenjie, the Minister of Rites, was even more intense. He even went out and said loudly: "Your Majesty, in my opinion, the responsibility lies first with the Ministry of Personnel! There are so many corrupt officials in the local government. I am guilty of unclear inspection of personnel and improper employment of personnel! I hope Your Majesty will learn from it!"
Shen Changmao's sneer grew thicker: "When the preparations for the southern tour were completed ahead of schedule, and you people were praising the prince, why didn't you think of giving the credit to the local government and officials? Now that something has gone wrong, you are thinking of them instead? It turns out that this southern Preparations for the tour. Any merit is all the prince's, and any mistakes are the fault of others!? Haha, the prince has always had a reputation as a sage, and now I know how it came about!"
Shen Changmao's words. He became even more ruthless. After hearing his sarcasm, not only the prince's and his party's faces were livid, but even Emperor Deqing also looked unhappy. Although Zhu Heyu was not popular, he was the prince after all!
At this moment, Huang Yourong came out to speak and dissuaded him: "Old Shen Ge, be careful what you say! How can you judge His Highness the Crown Prince like this?!"
Then, Huang Yourong apologized to Emperor Deqing and said, "I hope your majesty will forgive me. Mr. Shen Ge is too straightforward and his words have never been measured. But I think that Mr. Shen has no ill intentions. He is just worried about national affairs, so his attitude is a bit fierce." .”
As always, Shen Changmao and Huang Yourong cooperated tacitly, one sang a black face, and the other sang a white face.
After a pause, Huang Yourong put on a peaceful expression and said calmly: "Not only the veterans, but also the whole court are well aware of the prince's character. The fault in the preparations for this southern tour is definitely not caused by the prince." As expected, if we say that these things happened because of the prince, the reason is far-fetched. But if we blame the local government blindly, it is wrong. As far as the veteran knows, in order to prepare for the southern tour, the Ministry of Revenue allocated a total of two More than 100,000 taels of silver, although this is a lot of money, but it is used to repair roads, widen rivers, prepare to drive dragon boats, etc., but it is definitely not much, just barely enough."
After saying that, Huang Yourong shook his head regretfully, sighed, and then said: "However, His Highness the Crown Prince is young after all. Although he is passionate, he is inexperienced. When doing things, he only thinks about saving national power, and he doesn't have much in the first place. He was still frugally saving money, and by the time it was completed, he had actually saved eighty-seven thousand taels. He thought that the money allocated to the local government must be insufficient, but the local government had no choice but to add more money as a last resort. Taxes have caused the current public grievances. If the prince is really guilty of any crime, it is just that he took it for granted in handling money and then failed to supervise it. "
However, Shen Changmao seemed to be at odds with Huang Yourong, and retorted with a sneer: "Is that really true? As far as I know, when the local government was in charge of the specific affairs, the prince repeatedly interfered, not only taking care of things, but also blindly increasing the progress. If it weren't for the prince's intervention, the local government wouldn't be so urgent in doing things! What Mr. Huang Ge said is too lenient and indulgent."
Huang Yourong looked like he was speaking for the prince and explained: "At most, this is just because the prince lacks experience and ability. It is his first time working for the court, and he is determined to prove his ability to your majesty and the officials, so I'm a little more eager, but if I blame the prince for this, I'm afraid it won't be convincing, right?"
…………
Seeing the three pavilion elders Zhou Shangjing, Huang Yourong, and Shen Changmao using their methods, Zhao Junchen stood behind and observed, sighing secretly in his heart.
It is true that there is no simple person who can become the elder of the imperial court.
Zhou Shangjing stopped talking. A seemingly innocuous inquiry reversed the situation in the DPRK and forced the crown prince Zhu Heyu to the edge. Zhao Junchen learned this kind of sophisticated tactics for many years.
As for Shen Changmao and Huang Yourong, although they have been suppressed by Zhou Shangjing, they cannot be underestimated.
Although Shen Changmao's remarks were fierce, but when you listen carefully, you can't grasp any flaws, and they are just for the sake of justice. The prince and the others can only stand next to each other, and it is difficult to refute.
As for Huang Yourong, he did not change his nature as a smiling tiger. He spoke like a peacemaker and seemed to speak for the prince. He even did not hesitate to argue with Shen Changmao. However, his words all hinted at the prince's "ambition and talent" and put all the blame on the prince. It's on the prince!
"If the two of them are allowed to continue to 'argue' like this, even if the prince is not guilty in the first place, he will still be 'unable to escape the blame' by arguing. Although Huang Yourong and Shen Changmao are usually hostile to each other, they cooperate with each other. They seem to have a tacit understanding, if there is no quarrel between the two of them and they can work together, even Zhou Shangjing may not be able to deal with them, right?"
Zhao Junchen thought to himself, and turned to look at Zhou Shangjing, only to see that Zhou Shangjing had now returned to his position. He remained silent and did not say a word, letting his allies and officials charge into the battle, while he was hiding behind the scenes and taking control of the overall situation. .
Seeing Zhou Shangjing like this, who would have thought that Zhou Shangjing created this situation by himself?
While Zhao Junchen was thinking secretly, Emperor Deqing also felt that Huang Yourong and Shen Changmao could no longer continue to "debate", especially Huang Yourong. How could he help the prince? As he argued with Shen Changmao, the prince's guilt became more and more certain!
In recent days, Emperor Deqing seemed to have developed the bad habit of "looking for Zhao Junchen when in trouble." After looking at Zhao Junchen, he suddenly interrupted: "Shen Aiqing, Huang Aiqing, please stop arguing. You might as well start with Listen to the opinions of other beloved ministers in the DPRK."
Hearing what Emperor Deqing said, Zhao Junchen knew that he would definitely be questioned by Emperor Deqing, so without waiting for Emperor Deqing's signal, he took the initiative and said: "Your Majesty, I have something to say."
Seeing Zhao Junchen take the initiative to speak, Emperor Deqing nodded with satisfaction. His originally solemn expression relaxed slightly and said, "Well, the preparations for this southern tour are the silver allocated by your Ministry of Revenue. Zhao Aiqing, you are also one of the parties involved. One, I think I have my own opinions, so tell me."
At the same time, the eyes of all officials in the DPRK were also focused on Zhao Junchen!
In recent days, while Zhao Junchen continues to be hostile to the prince, at the same time he is forced by Emperor Deqing to support Cheng Yuandao, the die-hard supporter of prince Zhu Heyu, to join the cabinet. This kind of double-handed behavior not only makes the "Zhao Party" officials feel confused, but also All officials in the DPRK were also unsure of his position.
At such a critical moment, Zhao Junchen suddenly spoke, and all the officials naturally paid attention.
…………
While all the officials were watching, Zhao Junchen slowly said: "Your Majesty, it seems to me that since the mistakes of the Southern Patrol have occurred and public resentment has been caused, which has caused such a huge impact, the top priority is not to hold anyone accountable. The responsibility is to find ways to quell the impact!"
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ps: There are three updates today, this is the first one! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian.com to vote for recommendations and monthly votes. Your support is my biggest motivation. Please go to m.qidian. to read.)
