Because the Jinyiwei received instructions from above, they just let these non-Donglin scholars gather in front of the Metropolitan Procuratorate to curse the Donglin Party. They only showed up in the evening.
Donglin officials in the Metropolitan Procuratorate were also helpless about this.
In the end, they gradually got used to non-Donglin scholars abusing their Donglin Party outside.
And because of this, more and more civil servants who had no good impressions of the Donglin Party began to succumb to Fang Shihong, because anyone with a discerning eye knew that the royal guards were all on the side of the Fang family, and they naturally knew that the Fang family was currently the most powerful in the court. of.
Therefore, more and more civil servants began to help Fang Shihong disgrace the Donglin Party, and then published a book "The Scandal Chronicles of Donglin People", which recorded the scandals done by some scholar-bureaucrats of the Donglin Party. Things like climbing ashes, adultery, prostitution, etc. were all exposed and publicized everywhere.
Many scholar-bureaucrats who were neutral or unwilling to form factions began to read this book with interest and read it one after another.
Even the people in the streets and even the sergeants and nobles knew some of the scandals of the Donglin Party, and felt that the Donglin Party was not a gentleman.
For a time, the reputation of the Donglin Party became very bad in the capital.
In the end, Han Xu, the great scholar, Sun Ruyou, the minister of rites, Li Ruhua, the minister of the official affairs, and other important officials in the court couldn't stand it anymore, and couldn't help but talk to Fang Congzhe about it.
"Yuanfu, various demonic books have appeared in the market now, such as "Revelation of Donglin Clique's Disasters for the Country" and "Records of Scandals of Donglin People". It is said that they are all caused by the secret manipulation of your son. Aren't you going to take care of it?"
Han Xu asked.
"If you want to say that Donglin formed a clique for personal gain, I think those who criticize the Donglin people in this way are considered to have formed a clique for personal gain! If this continues, it will not only damage the image of the Donglin people, but also the image of my entire Shilin. This will make future generations still What do you think of us scholar-bureaucrats? Mr. Ge, your Majesty is going too far! You must stop it!"
Sun Ruyou also said the same thing.
Fang Congzhe pretended to be angry and said: "Don't tell me about that treacherous son. Now I want to beat him to death! And the bunch of scribes around him, all of them have no shame and tried their best to encourage him to do this. I wanted to kill that treacherous son." He was imprisoned and no outsiders were seen. You guys guess what the scribes said. They secretly said that I tortured my son and that tiger poison would not eat its seeds. However, I not only broke my son's legs but also imprisoned him like a prisoner. Listen to me. , I was told by them that I am worse than a beast!"
Fang Congzhe sighed as he spoke and said: "The servant is in trouble now! The servant is not a human being inside and outside! Do you think that the servant secretly instigated his son to do this? No! Although the servant is mediocre and incompetent, he does not want to see the court fall into Party strife, seeing how the people among our scholar-bureaucrats are so divided, but there are some things that I can’t do, I even broke the traitor’s legs, but someone still comes to look for my traitor!”
Han Xu, Sun Ruyou and others saw Fang Congzhe complaining and didn't know what to say.
For a moment, Han Xu had to make a suggestion: "But we can't let this matter go. Why don't we go to His Majesty and ask His Majesty to decide this matter."
"Yes, we cannot allow these demonic books and rumors to continue to circulate in the market. If they continue to spread like this, the image of those people in Donglin will be really ruined. This will also affect His Majesty's view of all our civil servants."
Sun Ruyi started talking.
"Then come to your Majesty."
Fang Congzhe nodded and replied.
Therefore, the assistant minister of the cabinet, the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Rites jointly reported the matter to Zhu Youxiao, and asked the emperor to personally rule on the matter.
Zhu Youxiao therefore said: "In reply to them, I already know about this matter and sent an order to Fang Shihong to come to the palace to see me."
"According to the order!"
Wei Zhongxian replied.
Next, Zhu Youxiao met with Fang Shihong in Qianqing Palace.
Because of Fang Shihong's inconvenience, Zhu Youxiao spared him the gift and only asked: "Were you secretly instigating these "Revelation of Donglin Clique's Disasters for the Country" and "Records of the Scandals of Donglin People"?"
"I dare not deceive Your Majesty! I arranged for my bookstore to do all this."
Fang Shihong replied.
Zhu Youxiao nodded: "Yes! You are very good at organizing a group of people to do this kind of thing, but this kind of thing cannot be done by people among the people. It must be done by the imperial court to build momentum for the imperial court's new policy and educate the people for the imperial court." In order to contribute, I decided to establish a Chongwen Temple, with the officials being Chongwen Temple Minister and Shaoqing, who would be responsible for the distribution of world-wide books, newspaper articles, etc.;
If books and whistle-blowing articles that have not been authorized by Chongwen Temple are not allowed to be circulated on the market, Chongwen Temple has the right to inspect relevant illegal books and whistle-blowing articles;
I have decided to give Chongwen Temple a supervisory staff of 700 people. Jinyiwei will serve as 500 people, responsible for inspecting relevant prohibited bookstores, and 200 people will be used to recruit literati who work for Chongwen Temple, all of whom will be of the seventh rank;
You will first serve as the Shaoqing of Chongwen Temple, the fourth rank, and act as the chief minister of Chongwen Temple. You will be fully responsible for this matter. Can you do a good job? "
Fang Shihong was overjoyed after hearing this. He understood that this meant that he had to control the review of books and articles all over the world for the imperial court. There was a lot of room for power to operate, and it was undoubtedly more conducive to him controlling the literati and officials who were against him.
Therefore, Fang Shihong said hurriedly: "I thank your Majesty for your kindness! I will definitely live up to your Majesty's trust!"
“Then it’s decided!
In addition, I will allocate another 200,000 taels to you as most of the funds to set up Chongzhu bookstores in major towns in thirteen provinces in the two capitals. Your family and others can contribute more, and the income from the bookstores will be contributed according to the investment in the future. Proportional income distribution;
Among them, I will account for the majority. From now on, this Chongwen Store will be a government-run bookstore, and 10 to 20% of the profit will be used to expand the business scale of Chongwen Store;
I will ask a company to allow some important documents, such as outstanding articles in imperial examinations, to be sold only by Chongwen Shop. In addition, it has the right to issue and ban. Therefore, Chongwen Shop can make a lot of money in the future. You should understand that this is undoubtedly I have given you the wealth of the Fang family, but if you do not do well, I will take back this wealth;
Also, Chongwen Temple belongs directly to me. I will give you a token so that you can go directly to Qianqing Palace to see me and directly report to me the latest situation of Chongwen Temple in controlling the culture and education of the Ming Dynasty. This matter is related to the world's cultural context and cannot be taken lightly. "
Zhu Youxiao continued.
He had long decided to set up a cultural institution to control the circulation and publication of books all over the world, and he had long thought of using his status as the son of Fang Shihong's chief minister to recruit a group of literati as the foundation of this institution, Chongwen Temple.
After all, as the emperor, Zhu Youxiao himself would definitely not be able to directly recruit literati with condescension. That would also make the literati feel too proud and feel that they are great and favored by the emperor, which would make them even more domineering.
In addition, although the Hanlin Academy in the Ming Dynasty was a gathering place for the emperor's literati, the Hanlin Academy has now become a place to train prime ministers. Therefore, the civil servants in the Hanlin Academy are very noble and will not easily be willing to control the world's literati for the emperor. .
In addition, Zhu Youxiao did not have the energy to take charge of this matter himself.
Therefore, when Zhu Youxiao asked Wei Zhongxian to send people from Dongchang to instigate Fang Shihong to secretly make friends with scholars, he decided to use Fang Shihong and the group of literati he had made friends to set up an organization to control the world's literati, and asked Fang Shihong to do it for him, because he discovered Fang Shihong's identity and his sociable ability made it easy for him to attract a group of literati. For example, he did a good job in ruining the Donglin Party this time.
"I obey the decree!"
Fang Shihong replied.
"Chongwen Temple not only manages the distribution of books and newspaper articles in the world, but also continues to control public opinion in the world. The exposure of scandals and disasters of some Donglin officials this time can make the people of the world more aware of who is the person who serves the country and the people. But this is not enough. To control public opinion, Chongwen Temple must serve the overall interests of the Ming Dynasty and be loyal to me! And I will next decide to innovate and eliminate the shortcomings. The first thing is to ensure and increase the revenue of the treasury and make up for the shortfall. Therefore, you must serve this purpose. And for this reason, I ask you to bring out the Liao rates first and criticize Li Ruhua, the former Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue. He said that his suggestion to introduce Liao rates was a bad policy of the Ming Dynasty, and used this to force Li Ruhua and other veterans to agree to the imperial court's implementation of the imperial examination. Enacting laws and even reforming matters such as the recovery of taxes and the clearing of land and acres of land!"
Zhu Youxiao started talking.
