"But he did commit a big crime!"
Zhu Youxiao glared at Fang Congzhe.
Fang Congzhe lowered his head first. He had guessed that the emperor would answer this way.
And next.
Fang Congzhe only continued: "Your Majesty, please forgive me for speaking frankly. It doesn't matter whether he has committed a big crime or not! Because he has a great reputation, even if he really committed the crime of treason, the whole military Lin is not willing to believe it! Because if he believes it, he will lose the entire image of the scholar. After all, people like Li Sancai, who are respected by most gentry, represent the entire image of the scholar. He is different from people like Zhou Yanru; many The principle people adhere to is, how could a famous scholar like Li Sancai seek evil intentions? Therefore, it is not that the entire Shilin community is unaware of Li Sancai's crimes, even more so than you, Your Majesty!
But this time, you can also see that Shilin and others who are related to Li Sancai will not admit it and are not willing to believe it, even if the evidence is solid! Many of them are not really stupid, but they really don’t want to believe it! This is why, except for the silent officials in the court, almost the entire Shilin is resisting you this time! "
"As for Huang Kezuan and other loyal ministers, they do not dare to betray their emperor and do not dare to go against the people's will, so they can only commit suicide!"
After Fang Congzhe said that, he looked up at Zhu Youxiao with great emotion.
"It seems that there are still few civil servants like Zhang Juzheng!"
Zhu Youxiao sighed.
Fang Congzhe thought to himself: "No one wants to be whipped after death or even harm their family. If I hadn't been forcibly tied to a rope by you, I would have gone home and lived in peace in my old age."
Zhu Youxiao suddenly glanced at Fang Congzhe at this moment: "I will not compromise!"
When Fang Congzhe heard what Zhu Youxiao said, he did not show any disappointment, as if he had already guessed that the emperor would answer this way. Instead, he glanced at Zhu Youxiao calmly.
But then, he pretended to be rude and asked: "Does Your Majesty really want to force all the loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty to death?"
"If they really want to make that choice, then I won't be the only one forcing them to death!"
"Isn't the whole Shilin you just mentioned forcing them to death? Why do you let me compromise and not let them compromise? How else can I compromise? Is it because I want to hide in the deep palace for decades like a temple? Is it political, or do I have to obey your words and compromise while watching Chao Gang become more and more chaotic?"
Zhu Youxiao gritted his teeth and asked.
Fang Congzhe replied calmly: "But your Majesty is the lord of the world. Whether the Ming Dynasty revives or declines in the future, it must be completed by your Majesty. No matter what the results are, future generations will judge for themselves. Your Majesty only needs to do your best!"
"Then you are still Yuanfu of the Ming Dynasty! Your responsibility is not to make peace, but to come up with solutions. I don't care so much now. You can only adapt to me as the king, not me to adapt to you. You Fang Congzhe must give Come up with a solution that can maintain the majesty of Chao Gang; Li Sancai must be killed! Those scholars who made a fuss about the Jinyiwei must also be killed! If you civil servants can't do it, then I will abandon you civil servants and directly let the eunuchs or military attachés kill them In the future, whether the eunuchs are dictatorial or the warriors are dictatorial, I would rather be as vigorous as Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, rather than compromise and be a benevolent monarch and a de facto puppet!"
The more Zhu Youxiao talked, the more excited he became.
Fang Congzhe became calmer as he went to the back, and suddenly said calmly and solemnly: "Your Majesty! In this case, I suggest using a villain. Li Sancai is a hypocrite. Naturally, he is good at disguising and taking advantage of the situation to cover himself. It is difficult for a minister who is loyal to the country to act recklessly. To deal with such people, you can only use real villains, because villains do not care about the safety of the country and Your Majesty, but only care about personal honor and disgrace. However, villains can easily harm the country. Your Majesty, you are really determined to use villains to maintain your life. Authoritative!"
After Zhu Youxiao heard what Fang Congzhe said, he glanced at Fang Congzhe and said to himself: "Old fox, since you already have a solution, why did you say such depressing words in tears at the beginning and ask me to compromise? I finally figured it out. , you are testing me, but fortunately I was not deceived by you using Huang Kezuan's death. I am really disheartened and have lost my fighting spirit!"
"It doesn't matter, there are few true gentlemen and few true villains. Most of them are hypocrites. It doesn't matter if we use a few true villains, as long as we can make the Ming Dynasty strong."
As Zhu Youxiao spoke, he said in his heart: "As long as you can realize your ideals, you can even be friends with the devil!"
"I proposed to appoint Gu Bingqian, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, as the Minister of the Ministry of Punishments. This person has always been flattering, fond of flattery, evil influence, and shameless scholar. I do not like his behavior, so I did not allow him to be ranked among the six ministers. However, I think that, If this person were the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, he would not dare to commit suicide, because as far as I know, this person even cherishes his clothes, which shows that he is greedy for life. Moreover, he has flattered me several times, but I did not pay much attention to him. "
Fang Congzhe answered without thinking, as if he had already thought of the ideal candidate for Minister of Punishment.
"Yes! Immediately draft a decree to appoint Gu Bingqian as Minister of the Ministry of Punishment!"
Zhu Youpiao naturally knew about Gu Bingqian.
Because he knew that Gu Bingqian was a famous eunuch leader in history. As Fang Congzhe said, his reputation among the scholar-bureaucrats was indeed bad.
…
"I obey the decree!"
Fang Congzhe replied.
Next, Fang Congzhe returned to the cabinet, and taking advantage of the absence of other ministers on duty, he immediately drafted a special summary of the imperial edict for Gu Bingqian to be the Minister of Punishment, and gave it to the eunuch of the clerk's office, who then handed it over to the eunuch of the clerk's office for approval.
Because it was recommended by Chief Assistant Fang Congzhe and Emperor Zhu Youxiao agreed, the imperial edict that Gu Bingqian was appointed Minister of the Ministry of Punishment was issued very quickly.
Neither the cabinet nor the Supervisor of Ceremonies wasted any time.
But Fang Congzhe still sighed after watching the envoy leave the palace with the imperial edict appointing Gu Bingqian as the Minister of Punishment, and then returned home.
However, what Fang Congzhe didn't expect was that when he returned to his home, he saw Gu Bingqian bidding farewell to his son in the main hall of his home. Along with Gu Bingqian was Feng Quan, the censor of Zuoqiandu.
Fang Congzhehan's face turned down. He had a premonition that his son seemed to be more restless after his leg was broken, and seemed to be forming a clique. He thought to himself: "My father broke your leg because you were restless, and you are still not honest." !”
"The master is back!"
At this time, the housekeeper of Fang Mansion shouted.
As a result, Gu Bingqian and Feng Quan hurriedly greeted Fang Congzhe with a flattering smile, and bowed their hands: "Yuan Fu!"
Fang Congzhe felt bad because he really didn't like the behavior of Gu Bingqian and Feng Quan, especially when he saw that these two people were following his son's path.
He felt even more disgusted when he thought that he had recommended Gu Bingqian to be the Minister of Punishment.
But as a mature politician, Fang Congzhe did not show his emotions directly. He just nodded lightly: "You two are not in the ministry, why did you suddenly visit the humble residence?"
"Back to Yuanfu, we came here at the invitation of Brother Fang. Because we thought that Yuanfu's home is no better than other places, we didn't dare to neglect it, so we had to ask for leave to come here."
Gu Bingqian replied with a smile.
Feng Quan also nodded in agreement. Seeing Fang Congzhe's serious look, he felt a little uneasy.
Fang Congzhe said nothing more and just returned to the main hall.
Gu Bingqian and Feng Quan could also see that Fang Congzhe didn't like them, so they left here angrily.
As soon as the two left, Fang Congzhe asked his son Fang Shihong: "When did you associate with them?!"
