Tongzhou.
"Master, there is news from Jiangnan that Xu Guangqi's mother, Qian, is dead."
Xu Shilin reported to his head in the dark room of a deep house.
This high-ranking official, who was the head of the Xu Shilin family, only nodded slightly after hearing this: "When an official's parents die, the official himself will have to worry about Ding You. He will be dismissed from his post and return to his hometown to observe filial piety. Otherwise, he will have to seize his affection. With the emperor's nature, he will seize his affection, so Just wait and wait for the emperor to break with the righteousness of the world, and Xu Guangqi himself will not trap his father in injustice and ignore human ethics, unless he really wants to destroy his conscience and become the enemy of the world!"
"What the master said is that this is a dead end game, and they can't come back. When Zhang Juzheng controlled the imperial court, he was deprived of his love by the temple because of his father's death. Although he succeeded in wresting his love, Zhang Juzheng also completely offended the people of the world, and ended up in the end. The result was that more than ten members of the family starved to death. If the emperor cared about filial piety and human ethics, he should have released Xu Guangqi and returned to his hometown Dingyou. If he did not care about filial piety and human ethics, it would only cause the Xu family to completely break with the world's gentry!"
Xu Shilin echoed.
"I hope that the emperor can let Xu Guangqi and Dingyou return to his hometown. This at least shows that the emperor is still afraid of violating the way of the saint. In this way, we can continue to use the way of the saint to control the emperor in the future! Even if the emperor becomes a soldier, we will Can we wrest back the power of soldiers and horses from the warriors! Wu Xun in the early days of the Republic of China and Jiang Bin in the Zhengde Dynasty, none of them can eventually be our rivals as scholar-officials! I am afraid that scholar-officials like Xu Guangqi have the same ambitions as Zhang Juzheng and are desperate If we unite with the Emperor, many people will surely die!"
The official sighed as he spoke: "I don't know if this Xu Guangqi is Zhang Juzheng, or if he has the heart of a Bodhisattva. He would rather commit suicide than let a large number of defenders of the Tao suffer!"
"What the master is saying is that no matter what, among the three close associates of the Emperor, Fang Congzhe, Xu Guangqi, and Sun Chengzong, Xu Guangqi is the most threatening. Although Fang Congzhe has the highest official position, his abilities are limited and his character is cowardly. As long as the courtiers overpower the Emperor, he will He must be a coward, but to be honest, Sun Chengzong was not very talented, and his knowledge was not as good as Xu Guangqi's. However, Xu Guangqi was the first to advocate that the emperor train new soldiers, and he was also the first to propose strengthening control over Korea and jointly strangulating the Donglu. This shows that this person is quite capable. He is wise and strategic, and he is quite willing to use his wisdom and strategy only to be loyal to the king, rather than whether we, the scholar-bureaucrats, can have the power to rule the world for the emperor."
Xu Shilin continued.
"Well, those who are only loyal to the emperor in everything and ignore the interests of our civil servant group will be pulled down one by one!"
As the official spoke, he slapped the huanghuali table with his palm.
…
"This is a good thing! This time there is finally a reason to expel Xu Guangqi from the court. It is the only one who can drive away a traitor from the court!"
Zhou Shunchang, an official of the Donglin Party, also laughed and talked after learning from Zuo Guangdou and others that Xu Guangqi's mother, Qian, was missing.
"That's right! The laws of heaven and human relations, it depends on whether the emperor, Xu Guangqi and others care!"
Lian Guoshi also started talking with a smile.
"If Xu Guangqi can resign this time, we will have to fight over who will take over as Minister of War. We will ask the court to recommend it and return the power to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. We can no longer allow the emperor to pass the cabinet special slip. Otherwise, if this continues, Mr. Ye and others will not be able to join. Pavilion! It’s hard for the imperial court to be in full swing!"
Zuo Guangdou started talking and glanced at Qian Qianyi.
Qian Qianyi laughed: "You can let the news out and go against the people of the world. Those who only follow the emperor's influence will surely bring trouble to the court! Let other courtiers in the future also be vigilant and don't really harm their parents for the sake of their own wealth."
…
"Vicious! Whoever gets closer to the emperor will have no parents. If I don't strengthen the power of factory guards, even the truly loyal officials among the civil servants will not dare to follow me wholeheartedly. After all, no one who is loyal can ignore When it comes to filial piety, those who care about filial piety cannot care about the life and death of their parents! And I am afraid that there has been more than one case of killing parents in our court!"
When Zhu Youxiao thought about Xu Guangqi's mother Qian, he couldn't help but think to himself again.
And this also made Zhu Youxiao feel the cruelty and insidiousness behind the disputes in the court.
For a moment, Zhu Youxiao couldn't help clenching his fists. He became more and more certain that the road to reversing the trend of history was not so easy. He could only be ruthless and more vicious than others. Instead of judging anyone with good intentions, he could only judge anyone with the greatest kindness. To judge others maliciously.
"Especially when people who are closer to you on the pyramid of power offend you, you will be less merciful, and your kindness and conscience can only be used for those who are farthest from you on the pyramid of power. Those are the people of this world. The majority of the people are silent and have no voice."
After thinking this, Zhu Youxiao suddenly shouted: "Wei Zhongxian!"
Wei Zhongxian came over in a hurry: "My servant is here!"
"What changes have occurred within the DPRK recently?"
Zhu Youxiao asked.
"Your Majesty, except for the Grand Sima himself and a few courtiers, most of them are spreading wild rumors that the Grand Sima wants Ding You! Some of the officials from the so-called Donglin Party stayed up all night to discuss the matter, and they were more active than when they released the results in Dabin. They talked lively about the death of their mother, and the slaves felt that these people were nothing! They also formulated corresponding contingency plans, saying that if the emperor seizes her love, they would encourage hundreds of officials to participate in the impeachment of Xu Guangqi. If the emperor does not seize her love, they will How to use the incident of the Minister of the Ministry of Military Affairs to encourage officials to ask the emperor to recommend appointments, saying that the emperor can no longer appoint ministers at will, so as to return the power of recommendation to the Ministry of Personnel, instead of letting the cabinet have the power of appointment. In addition, they are planning how to use this matter to force the Xu family to stop providing money to the inner court."
Wei Zhongxian replied.
Zhu Youxiao nodded after listening.
The so-called giving the power of recommendation to the Ministry of Civil Service and not letting the cabinet have the power of appointment actually means to control the power of appointing officials in the hands of the civil service group.
Because the cabinet belongs to the palace organization, behind it is the emperor.
The emperor appointed officials through the cabinet.
Naturally, the civil servants did not dare to explicitly say that they wanted to seize the emperor's power to appoint officials, so they could only say that they wanted to seize the power of the cabinet.
In the political arena of the Ming Dynasty, there were often disputes between the officials and the cabinet, and the essence behind them was the struggle for power between the scholar-bureaucrats and the emperor.
Therefore, Zhu Youxiao knew what these people were planning, so he laughed: "It's really a storm that is about to come. Seeing that the cabinet cannot be controlled by themselves, they are simply preparing to fight for the power of the cabinet." Go to the official department."
Zhu Youxiao raised his forehead as he spoke: "Let's pretend nothing happened. Now your Dongchang just secretly digs out the person behind the attempt to kill Qian!"
"My slave obeys the order!"
Wei Zhongxian replied.
…
So, in the following days, it was strangely quiet inside and outside the court.
Emperor Tianqi was not only concerned about military training at Huangzhuang every day but also planned the enrollment of students in the second phase of the Martial Arts Hall, as well as the manufacturing of firearms and corresponding equipment.
The inner court seemed to be busy only with Tianqi's selection of concubines.
In the outer dynasty, disaster relief should be provided and military pay should be reissued. Because a large number of corrupt officials had just been executed, no one dared to float away at will, so there was no mutiny among soldiers.
Liaodong still only sent thousands of Zhejiang soldiers to harass Nurhaci's Jianzhou Ministry. They only killed people but did not build cities. They ran away after fighting. Although this time the Zhejiang soldiers were sent out because Nurhachi had learned a lesson before and was prepared in advance, which made the Zhejiang soldiers They failed to wipe out a whole group, but they also beheaded hundreds of Donglu.
Other border towns did not suffer major changes due to the confiscation of Shanxi merchants, because the emergence of Shibosi still allowed the grain trading of border generals in these places to continue. However, unlike Shanxi merchants, Shibosi took them into their hands. After harvesting the grain, most of it was stored instead of sold to the Jurchens.
But during these peaceful days, many Donglin civil servants in the DPRK could not sit still.
"We all know the news of the death of Xu Guangqi's mother. How come after so long, he, Xu Guangqi, still doesn't know about it and why hasn't he resigned from his post and returned to his hometown?"
Zhou Shunchang therefore spoke to other Donglin Party officials.
