"So, this is not something I can do if I don't want to be the first assistant. Our Majesty is determined to force me to join him in drastic reforms. You just asked His Majesty if he really sent someone to secretly instigate the world. What does Hong want to do? I think His Majesty wants me to be loyal to him just like Yan Song is loyal to Shimiao, and also wants me to be loyal to Sheji like Zhang Juzheng is loyal to Sheji!
No matter what, it is hard to disobey the holy will. With the Ming Dynasty looking like this, it is indeed time for a thorough reform and elimination of shortcomings. Shihong is right. After all, they have been scolded by scholars as traitors, so it is better to do something vigorously. Field, it can be regarded as living up to what he has learned in his life and his youthful ambition! "
Fang Congzhe smiled slightly and became energetic as he spoke.
Mrs. Liu also smiled because of this and served a cup of tea to Fang Congzhe: "In that case, Na Shihong has spoken to my heart. Now that you have come to this point, you might as well do a few practical things for the country and the people. In the future, when I leave my name in history, I’m afraid I won’t be able to label the master as a sycophant and a traitor.”
Fang Congzhe laughed: "Whether your reputation will be good or bad in the future will all depend on what kind of king your majesty will be. No matter what, I have a clear conscience when it comes to loyalty. Even if there are any big changes in the future, I can sacrifice my life to save my life."
"By the way, sir, is Li Sancai and Shihong right? Do you really want to kill him?"
Liu asked suddenly.
Fang Congzhe suddenly smiled coldly: "This guy is no match for me! The battle for joining the cabinet was already resolved back then. He was too flamboyant and always liked to use clever tricks. During the temple period, I could get him to be dismissed as a civilian. Now, when I encounter him, As your majesty is such a tough emperor, I will naturally not let him live an easy life. Your majesty doesn’t like people who have too much reputation among the people, and I don’t like them either! I did use the method of openly interceding for him to make your majesty even more reluctant to let Li Sancai live. .”
"master!"
Mrs. Liu looked at Fang Congzhe's confident look, and immediately lay in Fang Congzhe's arms and called out softly.
…
"Li Sancai must die!"
Fuzhou Prefecture.
Ye Xianggao threw the newspaper on the table and sighed.
"How can Mr. Ye see it?"
Fujian Juren Huang Daozhou asked Ye Xianggao.
"You have Fang Congzhe at court."
Ye Xianggao replied and said: "This person is not something Liu Yishen, Han Xu, Li Sancai and others can handle!"
Ye Xianggao said quite depressedly: "It's a pity that Your Majesty refused to use me. Now I can only watch as Fang Congzhe becomes more powerful!"
Then, Ye Xianggao said again: "I, the gentlemen of Donglin, will be in more and more danger in the future, so we have to make a plan. I will write a few letters and you will give them to these people after you go to Beijing to take the exam."
"Please make it clear, Mr. Ye."
Zodiac Zhou replied.
"Leave it to Zheng Sanjun, Zhao Nanxing, and Qian Qianyi. In my opinion, these three people can be the most outstanding among the gentlemen in Donglin, and they may be able to rely on them."
After Ye Xianggao thought carefully, he gave instructions to Huang Daozhou.
After Ye Xianggao gave his instructions, he said to Huang Daozhou: "Based on the current situation, His Majesty will inevitably use people like Gu Kunshan and Wei Kaizhou in the future, just like Feng Quan before. These three people may be able to curb the momentum of these people. At present, It is estimated that Gu Kunshan will be used first, and based on my understanding of Fang Daxing and Gu Kunshan, Fang Daxing will push him out."
…
Gu Bingqian was naturally very happy after receiving the decree that he was appointed as the Minister of Punishment.
After all, this means that he has become one of the Great Nine Lords.
Therefore, Gu Bingqian specially came to Fang Mansion to thank Fang Shihong: "Gu thanked Yuan Fu and Brother Shi for their cultivation. Gu will definitely be grateful."
Fang Shihong smiled slightly because of this: "Why should the great Sikou be like this? This is just the emperor's favor."
"What Shixiong said is that this is naturally a great favor from the emperor, but the operation of Shixiong and Yuanfu are also indispensable, so I am here to express my thanks."
Gu Bingqian said with a smile.
At this moment, Fang Congzhe was about to leave the house.
Gu Bingqian didn't come over when he saw this: "I have met Yuan Fu before."
Fang Congzhe nodded lightly and asked, "How come the great Sikou came to the humble house again when he was on duty in the ministry?"
"I'm here to express my gratitude. Now that I'm able to hold the position of Chief Secretary, I understand that it's all thanks to your recommendation by Yuan Fu."
Gu Bingqian said with a flattering smile.
He could also tell that Fang Congzhe didn't like him, but he didn't expect that Fang Congzhe recommended him to be the Minister of the Ministry of Justice. This made him mistakenly believe that Fang Congzhe was only indifferent to him on the surface, so he was still respectful to Fang Congzhe.
"Currently, the case of Li Sancai and the case of the lawless scholar who forced his way into the Jinyiwei Hall and killed Jinyi's soldiers are still pending. It's all up to the Chief Secretary to ask the various departments of the Criminal Department to handle the matter as soon as possible and not delay it any longer."
Fang Congzhe only talked about government affairs with Gu Bingqian.
Seeing this, Gu Bingqian hurriedly said: "Yuan Fu, don't worry, I will immediately start handling this matter! We will live up to the trust of the court."
Fang Congzhe smiled at this and then got into the sedan.
After watching Fang Congzhe's sedan leave, Gu Bingqian proudly entered the sedan and ordered: "Go back to the Criminal Department immediately!"
Next, as soon as Gu Bingqian returned to the Ministry of Justice, he began to execute Li Sancai and the lawless scholars.
Except for the ministers on the right and left of the Ministry of Justice who were unwilling to participate in the matter and excused themselves from coming because they were ill, most of the middle and lower-level officials and the staff of the Ministry of Justice had no personal opinions about Li Sancai and the lawless scholars, because they were only responsible for doing specific things. , even if they change the emperor or even the court, they basically just follow the orders of the officials above.
Therefore, next, because of the cooperation of Gu Bingqian, the new Minister of Punishment, Li Sancai and the illegal scholar were successfully escorted from the imperial prison to the Prison of the Punishment Department, and then taken to the execution ground to await execution.
Gu Bingqian personally served as the supervisor.
When these criminals were being escorted to the execution ground, the common people would still beat these criminals with rotten vegetable leaves and the like.
The people of this era have always been oppressed by the scholar-bureaucrat class, so they have never had a good impression of officials and scholars.
And only at this time can they take revenge on these officials and gentry.
You know, in normal times, a county magistrate can destroy a whole family of people.
In this era, even an ordinary scholar could capture civilians at will to serve him.
Just like Xu Xiake once mentioned in his travel notes that he also arrested people to cook and carry sedan chairs for him, and even beat people who refused to serve him well.
In this era, it was considered normal for the scholar-officials to enslave the common people.
Therefore, Xu Xiake didn't think there was anything wrong with this, so he wrote it in his travel notes.
But for this reason, except for the rural warriors controlled by the scholar-bureaucrats themselves, most of the common people and the scholar-bureaucrats had no feelings at all.
Therefore, although many scholars sympathized with Li Sancai and these lawless scholars, the common people were not sympathetic and only took this opportunity to vent the dissatisfaction accumulated when they were squeezed by the ruling class.
"Well done! Capture and execute these people who are as bad as Qiao Juren!"
"Kill them, none of these masters are good!"
"Go to hell, you bastards, you evil bastards!"
…
The people did not know who was executed specifically, but they did take this opportunity to vent the hatred towards them among the bureaucrats and gentry they had contact with.
For the scholars and many officials and gentry in Beijing, seeing Li Sancai and these lawless scholars about to be executed, they were in a very bad mood, even very angry.
Most of them were rich, so they stood in the lofts of various teahouses to watch the executions.
Some people gnashed their teeth, some clenched their fists, and some looked at the people below angrily and cursed: "These stupid untouchables! They are just a bunch of mobs!"
…
Of course, Gu Bingqian was also scolded miserably by the bureaucrats and gentry who were watching the excitement around him, but he turned a deaf ear to them and just sat on the execution platform calmly. When the time came, he threw the token away and said: "Execution!"
The lawless men who broke into the Jinyiwei hall to rescue Li Sancai and beat several Jinyiwei to death began to be executed.
One scholar couldn't help but struggled and shouted: "What's wrong with us? We are civil servants. The court should treat virtuous corporals and not kill us! What's wrong with killing a few imperial guards? They are not as noble as us scholars!"
Other scholars also shouted, with similar words.
Even now, they don't feel that it was a big sin to kill Jin Yiwei, so few of them are convinced.
Of course, this is related to the fact that the Ming court began to indulge these scholars too much after Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di.
Click!
Click!
Click!
But no matter whether these soldiers were convinced or not, the steel knife still fell, and these self-proclaimed noble soldiers were still beheaded and bled on the spot.
Emperor Tianqi Zhu Youxiao used this method to formally declare that his imperial authority was strictly forbidden to be offended.
Whoever offends his majesty will die!
