Under the scorching red sun, everyone held their breath and concentrated.
After hearing what Hai Rui said, Mrs. Li immediately took a few steps back, as if struck by thunder. She was speechless and at a loss for a moment.
Hai Rui's words indeed seemed to send Empress Dowager Li into the eighteenth level of hell. Just as he used to make fun of Jiajing's reign when he was admonishing her, now he was making fun of Li's family when he was admonishing her, and even made fun of it. The words also had the intention of threatening the Li family if they wanted to let the Li family end up like the Zhang family of Queen Hongzhi.
At this time, Mrs. Li asked Hai Rui with slightly trembling lips, "Who are you?"
It is generally difficult for people in the harem to see foreign ministers, so although Mrs. Li has heard about Hai Rui for a long time, she has never met her in person.
"The Minister of Household Affairs, Hai Rui!"
Hai Rui immediately bowed to the ground and replied.
Li took another step back suddenly, then burst into tears. She pointed at Hai Rui with trembling hands and said through gnashing of teeth:
"You bullied me too much!"
After Mrs. Li said this, she looked at Hai Rui aggrievedly and asked sternly: "How could you say that to me! And it was Hai Rui who said that to me! Do you know that when the late Emperor spared your life, it was me who did it for you? What you said! How could you!"
"How could the Queen Mother break the rules when the late Emperor was here!"
"Although I am grateful for the Queen Mother's personal favor, doesn't the Queen Mother feel that by doing so, she has put herself in an immoral position?!"
"In this case, after the Queen Mother is a thousand years old, how can she have a virtuous and beautiful posthumous title? I'm afraid it will not be beneficial to her ears!"
After Queen Mother Li said this, Hai Rui continued to question her.
"I!"
Queen Mother Li was speechless and blushed like blood, so she had no choice but to turn around and walk away.
"presumptuous!"
Zhu Yijun turned around and shouted at Hai Rui.
Then, Zhu Yijun said in a deep voice: "As my son, how can I sit back and watch you insult the Holy Mother like this!"
"Come here, Hai Rui scolded the Holy Mother too much and sent her to prison! The three judges sentenced her to death!"
After speaking, Zhu Yijun issued an oral order.
Zhu Yijun, who had been emperor for more than ten years, had also been with bureaucrats like Hai Rui for more than ten years. How could he not know Hai Rui's true intention of admonishing the Queen Mother Yan at this time?
Precisely because Zhu Yijun understood, Zhu Yijun took the initiative to cooperate, severely ordered Hai Rui, pretended to be angry, and wanted to punish Hai Rui to death.
Hai Rui didn't beg for mercy.
The Jin Yiwei escorted him smoothly.
Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue looked at each other.
Chen Jingbang, Minister of the Ministry of War, couldn't help but whisper: "The person who can reach this stage is really not an ordinary person."
At that time.
Queen Mother Li stopped in her tracks because Zhu Yijun did this. She looked back at Zhu Yijun with aggrieved look, and then she hid her face and left.
"Farewell to my mother."
Zhu Yijun said something, then turned around and went back to the house, giving instructions: "Continue to discuss the matter. The vacancy of the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs will not be recommended for the time being. I will leave the left minister to take care of the ministry affairs for the time being."
"According to the order!"
Yang Weize, the Minister of Punishment, and Zhao Jin looked at each other and understood the emperor's thoughts.
…
"Why does Hai Rui scold me like this?"
Ms. Li, on the other hand, was getting more and more angry because of what Hai Rui said about her on the way back. After all, it was Hai Rui who said she was immoral, which made her feel like her life's hard work had been wasted, which made her feel even more bitter.
You must know that Li was very concerned about the evaluation of him by civil servants and officials, and had always restrained himself in order to gain a reputation as a virtuous man.
In Li's life, the first person he cared about was the civil servants from other dynasties, and the second was the Queen Mother Chen.
Therefore, Mrs. Li came to Mrs. Chen and told Mrs. Chen everything about today's events. In order to defend herself, she deliberately found someone who was also very authoritative in her mind to prove that she was not wrong.
"This Hai Rui is really too arrogant! The late emperor should have killed him in the first place!"
When Mrs. Chen saw Mrs. Li's face stained with tears, she cursed first.
Li felt even better and said, "Fortunately, Jun'er didn't take his side, otherwise my sister wouldn't know how to deal with herself. I'm afraid she would have to go see the late emperor!"
Mrs. Chen hugged Mrs. Li and said, "Sister, don't be too sad. As you said, Jun'er is a filial man. It's not in vain that you worked hard day and night with him for ten years in Qianqing Palace."
Li did serve Wanli well when he became emperor and studied hard and stayed with him in the Qianqing Palace for ten years. Of course, she also had a sense of supervision. It was even longer in history. It was not until the eve of Wanli's wedding that she moved out of the Qianqing Palace. In order to prevent Wanli from indulging in beauty. , before Wanli's wedding, only ugly and older maids were selected to serve Wanli.
Now, Mrs. Chen said this, Mrs. Li felt even better, and said: "What my sister said is that he is just too cruel to his younger brother. Even if his younger brother is wrong in all kinds of ways, he can't send him away." To come so far away and break his legs to separate our mother and son is not just to insult Yijin Yiwei."
"It's said to be a royal guard, but it's the emperor's own military guard!"
"The safety of the entire harem depends on the guarding of the royal guards, and there is no room for sloppiness. Otherwise, if the imperial guards feel that the emperor does not care about their dignity, will they be able to betray because they are not humiliated and because people outside respect them more?"
"So for the sake of the safety of the entire inner court and the foundation of the entire Ming Dynasty, Jun'er sometimes needs to care about the dignity of the people of the world, and needs to treat the people of the world as innocent. It does not mean that he can only value his own family after he becomes the emperor. People can do whatever they want to everyone in the world."
Chen said.
"That's what my sister said!"
"It's okay with Jun'er. He is the emperor. If he wants to do this, he can't say anything."
"I only hate Hai Rui now, why did he scold me like this!"
"I am the Queen Mother!"
As Li said that, she looked at Chen aggrievedly again and said, "What can the Queen Mother do wrong?"
"The Queen Mother is always right!"
Mrs. Chen echoed with a smile, not intending to accuse Mr. Li directly, but just smiled and said: "But he should be the most kind in the world!"
"If sister really wants to sit back and watch Jun'er kill Hai Rui, a minister who even the late emperor called upright, because of you, then it will reflect that you are unkind, and sister, you are at fault."
"So, you'd better send a kind edict to intercede for Hai Rui, and persuade Jun'er to go easy on you and not punish him."
Chen continued.
"I!"
Only then did Li realize that she seemed to be on the receiving end of the fire. Not only did she have to accept the fact that the emperor had dealt with her youngest son in this way, but she also asked the emperor to be lenient with Hai Ruiwang.
Although Li knew that she could only do this now, she still had difficulty making up her mind emotionally, so she remained silent.
As soon as Hai Rui was taken to prison, he said to Bai Yiqing:
"Tishuai doesn't have to lead the way. I'm very familiar with the criminals here."
"No!"
"Mr. Gomine, you are not familiar with me."
"You don't know, the prison has been greatly reformed now, and there is a large lecture hall. You should go and give a lecture first, because after hearing that you were imprisoned, more than thirty Confucian scholars suddenly came to plead guilty and imprisoned just now. To attend your class."
Bai Yiqing said with a smile.
Hai Rui was quite surprised.
At this time, Shen Defu poked his head out of a cell and shouted:
"That's right, Mr. Gangfeng, please tell me how you went from admonishing your father and remonstrating your mother to becoming a minister. Is there any secret in this?"
(End of chapter)
