Fang Shihong glanced sideways at his father, turned the wheelchair, and said: "You broke your son's legs and prevented him from going out to make friends. Can't you let your son invite friends to your home?"
"friend?"
Fang Congzhe said angrily: "A minister on the right of the Ministry of Rites, and a censor of the capital of Zuo, when did your friends become so impressive?"
"You don't care about that. Although their official positions are not low, they are willing to be friends with their sons, and you can't control them."
Fang Shihong replied directly to his father.
"you!"
Fang Congzhe pointed at Fang Shihong and was furious.
"You can beat me to death. Anyway, I've broken my leg now, so there's not much point in living. Besides, you gave me my life. If you beat me to death, I'll repay you."
When Fang Shihong saw this, he replied directly.
Fang Congzhe retracted his hand helplessly: "No matter what, you can't make friends with them. They are all speculators and shameless scholars. Don't you know that?!"
Fang Shihong sneered: "As if you and I are not ashamed of those scholarly gentlemen, why do you look down on them? Their reputation among scholars is not as bad as yours now."
Fang Congzhe was speechless by his son's rebuke, so he could only use his father's authority to suppress him: "In short, you can't associate with these people!"
Fang Shihong signaled his servant Mo Yu to stop pushing him. When the wheelchair stopped, he looked back at Fang Congzhe and said with a cold face and tears in his eyes: "My son has his legs broken by you now because of the threats from those Donglin gentlemen. I can't go out to have fun, and I can only stare at the courtyard wall in a daze when I get home, but my son knows that you can't be blamed for this!"
"The only thing to blame is those Donglin gentlemen who pushed you too hard. They slandered me before for beating the man in the brothel to death, and now they force you to break your leg. Therefore, my son has to avenge you!"
"Furthermore, my son also knows that you are hated by many people because of the emperor's favor. In the future, you can only follow in the footsteps of Yan Song or Zhang Juzheng. Moreover, my son knows that you are also ambitious. The temple did not give you a chance. You I have always regretted this, but now that the emperor has given you the opportunity, you will not let it go. Otherwise, in the beginning, you would not have hesitated to unite with the Qi, Chu and Zhe parties to fight against Li Sancai in order to fight for the position of cabinet minister, and even to protect Li Sancai. In exchange for Ye Xianggao's recommendation, you successfully entered the cabinet and disappointed all the gentlemen in Donglin;"
"Therefore, my son knows that our Fang family has formed a feud with the gentlemen of Donglin. My son is not only retaliating against them, but also suppressing them for you, my father. Now my son wants to publicize the ugliness of these gentlemen by uncovering the posts. My son also We need to make a group of people, fight with those so-called gentlemen, and make them miserable! Besides, we northern gentry should not let their southern gentry bully us!"
"Even if my father wants to follow in the footsteps of Yan Song or Zhang Juzheng, my son would rather be Yan Shifan and die a grand death than be like Zhang Jingxiu who was forced to commit suicide!"
"My son has promised that Gu Kunshan will become the Minister of the Ministry of Justice in the future and Feng Quan will be the governor of Southern Zhili in the future, so that the two people agree to work together to discredit these Donglin officials. Both of them are from Hanlin, and their writing skills are not inferior to those of Donglin officials. people!"
…
Fang Congzhe looked at his son in silence. He never thought that his son would be so scheming.
"How can you be sure that you can make them the Minister of Punishment and the Governor of Southern Zhili?"
Fang Congzhe asked. This was the first time he had asked his son such a thing.
Fang Shihong laughed: "In the current situation, no scholar-officials with a bottom line would choose to offend the people of the world and ruin the entire country for His Majesty. Only people like Gu Kunshan who have no bottom line do not care about this. The court can only use They, so in fact, the court will use them whether the son agrees or not, but now the son agrees to them, it just makes them mistakenly think that the son has this power!"
With that said, Fang Shihong asked Fang Congzhe: "I guess you have already recommended these villains that you also look down upon to His Majesty, right?"
Fang Conzhe glanced at his son in surprise and said, "Go on."
"Last year, a large number of Donglin officials resigned. His Majesty did the opposite and approved all of them. He also allowed you to temporarily serve as the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and appointed officials from all over the world to various important positions. However, you did not blindly appoint private parties, and still Based on the principle of balancing the forces in the DPRK and in order to reassure His Majesty, most of the ministers in the two capitals are neutral and independent ministers. The only exceptions are people like Gu Kunshan and Wei Kaizhou, the left minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing. Now that Huang Meilin, the Minister of the Ministry of Justice, is gone, you cannot recommend Wei Guangwei to come to the capital to execute Li Sancai and others, because it would take too much time. You will naturally recommend Gu Kunshan (Gu Bingqian) who is qualified and serves as the minister of the Ministry of Rites in the capital. , a native of Kunshan) serves as the Minister of Justice!"
Fang Shihong started talking eloquently.
Fang Congzhe laughed: "You should know that I don't have a good impression of Gu Kunshan."
"As the chief minister, you have been listed in the central committee for so long. Is it possible that you still recommend ministers because of your personal likes and dislikes, rather than what is beneficial to you?"
Fang Shihong asked back.
"What about Feng Quan's appointment as governor of Nanzhili? How can you be sure that he will hold this position in the future?"
Fang Congzhe asked again.
"Are you taking the test for your son?"
Fang Shihong replied, and then said: "Obviously, your Majesty's current toughness has long dissatisfied many scholar-bureaucrats in the world, especially the Jiangnan gentry. In the future, it is inevitable that the grain supply will be cut off and the tax will be serious, and with your Majesty's actions By nature, I will never allow these gentry to behave like this and plunge the Ming Dynasty into chaos. Your Majesty will definitely pursue the tax and force these Jiangnan gentry to pay the full amount of taxes and grain to ensure smooth water transportation. Who is the most suitable person to do such a thing at this time? , naturally it is people like Feng Quan who has the deepest hatred for the Donglin Party, and Feng Quan is the censor of Zuoqiandu, so he is the most suitable to become the governor of Southern Zhili and suppress the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River."
Fang Congzhe fell silent and looked at his son in disbelief.
Fang Shihong felt very proud when he saw his father looking at him like this, so the corners of his mouth raised slightly.
And Fang Congzhe said: "You guessed wrong! How can a father let a villain succeed! Like the ministers in the court, my father has been trying his best to persuade His Majesty to forgive the death penalty of the troublemaker, and even the death penalty of Li Sancai."
"Don't lie to your son! Do you care about the success or failure of villains? Do you care about the life and death of those scholars? Do you care about the life and death of Li Sancai? You and the Donglin Party have always been on the same side. Li Sancai was dismissed from his post as a civilian It’s your masterpiece! You just don’t want to openly stand on the opposite side of all the scholar-bureaucrats and support His Majesty’s execution of Li Sancai.”
Fang Shihong sneered and said: "If my son guessed it right, you must have gone to the palace with all the ministers to ask His Majesty to forgive them. Even when you met the Emperor alone, you ostensibly spoke to the troublemaking scholars and Li Sancai. , but in fact, they are taking advantage of His Majesty’s nature, while constantly talking about how Li Sancai cannot be killed and how famous he is. In fact, they are irritating Your Majesty and making Your Majesty feel that Li Sancai must be killed even more, right?”
"Hmph! You're so smart!"
Fang Congzhe quickly denied it, and said seriously, "Your father, I always speak from my heart!"
"Tell this to your disciples. You can't let Li Sancai live. He is your mortal enemy. If he cannot be punished this time, it means that the court can't do anything to him, and it means that you can't do anything to him." You can't do anything to him, that is to say, he will do anything to get you. You will definitely not let this happen. In fact, you want to kill Li Sancai more than His Majesty! But you are just more hypocritical than His Majesty, and you dare not express your stance directly. .”
Fang Shihong started talking.
"Asshole!"
Fang Congzhe suddenly shouted loudly and cursed at Mo Yu: "Who taught him these bastard words! How dare you imagine your father to be such a person!"
