Zhu Youtang closed Han Junyan's first memorial and said calmly: "Pass the contents of this memorial as well."
A few days later, Liu Dang was shocked when they learned that the Minister of War, Han Junyan, whom they had worked so hard to elect to power, was not grateful, but actually wrote a letter of impeachment to the emperor.
Liu Dang thought that he must not sit still and wait for death, so everyone gathered in the house of Liu Ji, the chief minister of the cabinet, to discuss countermeasures. Now Liu Ji also has a big head. He just went to the Xinuang Pavilion of Qianqing Palace to meet Zhu Youtang not long ago. What Zhu Youtang said is still vivid in his mind. I wanted to stay quiet for a few days and sort out my thoughts, but I didn't expect that trouble would come to my door right away.
As the leader of the Liu Party, everyone came to discuss countermeasures and also asked him to come forward and write a letter to fight back. Everyone agreed that the emperor had to give face to the chief minister of the cabinet.
When Liu Ji learned that all the core members of the Liu Party came to the door, he did not meet them directly. Instead, he arranged for them to have a quarrel in the lobby to relieve their anger, while he sobered up in the study.
"I have already said that Han Junyan, a young man, is not worthy of supporting him, but you still don't believe it! Now it's okay, he has exposed everyone's bottom, brought trouble to His Majesty, and our image will be smeared again Come on!" The person who spoke was Wei Zhang, the Prime Minister of Dali Temple.
"Brother Wei, calm down. What's the use of talking about this now? The urgent matter now is to discuss what to do." Zou Mo, the right minister of the Ministry of Revenue, said.
Wei Zhang was impatient and became even more angry when he heard it. He cursed: "This is nothing to discuss. I will go back and write to your Majesty to impeach Han Junyan now. Can he alone be able to speak out against a group of us?"
Li Guang, the Minister of Rites, has been following Liu Ji during this period, and the city is deeper than before. He calmed down and analyzed the situation, shook his head and objected: "No, according to what I have known about him for many years, this person is stubborn and stubborn. It's a bit pedantic. If we write a letter to impeach him, he has never seen such a battle. In a hurry, he went to ask Xu Pu and others for help and joined Xu Pu and others. Isn't this making wedding clothes for others? "
"Li Shangshu means not to attack him too hastily, but to take his time. First, stabilize Han Junyan and stop him from writing a petition for impeachment, and then find a way to deal with him?" Lu Ling, the left minister of the Ministry of War, asked.
Li Guang sighed: "Exactly, this matter can only be delayed and cannot be rushed. Of course, this is also my personal opinion. In the end, I have to wait for Mr. Ge's decision."
In his heart, Lu Ling looked down on Han Junyan, who had been the censor before and then became the Minister of the Ministry of War. He couldn't wait for Han Junyan to be laid off, and then directly take over as the Minister of the Ministry of War. So he remonstrated: "What Li Shangshu said is reasonable, but I'm afraid Han Junyan doesn't buy our account. It's better for the elder to come forward and write to Your Majesty to transfer him out of the capital. It would be better to transfer him to the border areas in the southwest." land."
After saying that, Lu Ling looked at Li Guang quietly. At this moment, Wei Zhang couldn't bear it any longer. He slapped the table and shouted: "What's wrong with the pavilion today? You haven't come out for so long! Why should such a thing be delayed?" , I am more powerful than any of you in impeachment, so you have to wait, I will go back and write to Your Majesty overnight to impeach Han Junyan, and let’s see whose writing skills are better!"
After saying that, Wei Zhang rolled up his sleeves and left. Everyone shook their heads and sighed. At this moment, Liu Ji, the chief assistant of the cabinet, walked out of the side hall.
When everyone saw Liu Ji finally coming out, they all stepped forward and saluted: "I have met Mr. Ge."
Liu Ji waved his hand and motioned for everyone to sit down. At this time, Li Guang stepped forward to pour a cup of tea and said with a wry smile: "Mr. Ge, that Han Junyan..."
"Needless to say, I just heard it in the side hall, and I understand what you are thinking. Li Guang is right, this kind of thing can only be done slowly and not hastily. Dogs jump over walls when they are anxious, and rabbits bite when they are anxious. Woolen cloth!"
Liu Ji took a sip of tea and continued: "Although Han Junyan is pedantic, he is an honest man, but if you are planning to write a letter to impeach him, he will be desperate. At this time, if Xu Pu and the others take the opportunity to hand over an olive branch, saying to help him out of the predicament. , do you think Han Junyan will accept it or not? The Minister of War is very big, how can the person who worked so hard to help him be given to Xu Pu and the others so easily?"
Lu Ling, Zou Mo and others asked: "Then what should we do according to what Elder Ge said?"
"Have you all read Han Junyan's memorial? The main person impeached in the memorial is Wei Zhang. I have reminded him long ago that when it is time to make money, he will make money, and when it is time to stop, he will stop. Fortunately, not only did he not Restraint only worsened the situation. Hundreds of officials in the court had already known about his dirty deeds! Yan Guan never impeached him, but it was just because of my face! Now that the incident has happened, the only choice is to abandon the car to protect him. You are so handsome, make your position clear and let Wei Zhang and Han Junyan quarrel with each other."
As soon as Liu Ji said this, everyone was shocked. After all, Wei Zhang had worked with him for more than ten years, how could he just give up?
Lu Ling said: "Mr. Ge, it's me who Han Junyan is impeaching." In Lu Ling's view, he didn't care at all whether Wei Zhang was alive or dead, he only cared about his own interests.
Liu Ji smiled slightly, pointed at Lu Ling and said: "What are you impeaching? Are you impeaching you for marrying the wife of the seventh wife? Your Majesty doesn't even look at these things about you. Besides, every hero has three wives and four wives. Concubine, there is nothing to be afraid of! But Wei Zhang is different. The evidence of his corruption crime has probably already reached the Jin Yiwei. If we continue to lose our relationship with Wei Zhang, everyone will have no choice but to be buried with him. The Chinese New Year is coming soon, so please calm down and calm down. Even if you don’t think about yourself, you should also think about your wives, children, and children. Zhang Peng died only a few days ago, have you forgotten?"
Liu Ji's words deeply touched everyone's hearts. It is true that officials are ruthless, and people are even more ruthless! The relationship between everyone and Wei Zhang for more than ten years is so small compared to the interests in the future. Only the interests of friends in the officialdom are eternal!
…
In the evening, Zhu Youtang had just come out of Su Yin's room. Before he returned to Qianqing Palace, he heard Wei Zhang's letter impeaching Han Junyan.
Looking at Wei Zhang's sharp memorial, Zhu Youtang wanted to laugh a little. In the memorial, he was competing with Han Junyan. You impeach me with six articles, and I will reply to you with seven articles. However, compared to Han Junyan's wording, most of Wei Zhang's impeachment charges were made out of nothing!
Zhu Youtang threw it aside after reading it, intending to keep it in mind. The final outcome of the matter would have to wait until Mou Bin investigates. But what Zhu Youtang couldn't understand was that didn't Wei Zhang claim to be Liu Ji's right-hand man? Liu Ji didn't have anyone to speak for him? I originally planned to use this incident to give Liu Dang a good blow, but it seems that I still overestimated Liu Ji, an old fox.
In the past few days, Wei Zhang and Han Junyan wrote at least four or five memorials every day. They said nothing to each other, and neither of them gave in to the other. At first, Zhu Youtang thought it was quite interesting and would open it and look at it. Later, he just presented it to him and threw it away without even looking at it.
Under this situation, except for the other members of the Liu Party who did not participate as usual, Xu Pu and others have been quietly observing the development trend of the matter.
After quietly observing for a few days, Xu Pu and others came to the conclusion that Wei Zhang has now become an abandoned son of the Liu Party and has no backing to speak of! How could Wang Shu and Xie Qian, who had always disliked Wei Zhang, let go of this opportunity, and began to write letters to impeach Wei Zhang.
When Wei Zhang saw that the matter was beginning to become complicated, Han Junyan was no longer the only one impeaching him. Even Xie Qian, a newly appointed minister in the cabinet, and the prestigious Wang Shu also joined the battle. As several leaders began to impeach Wei Zhang, some low-level officials who had offended Wei Zhang in ordinary times also took advantage of the situation to add insult to injury. For a time, the Nuan cabinet was full of memorials to impeach Wei Zhang.
He was quarreling in the court, but none of his good "teammates" came out to speak for him. Seeing that the pressure was increasing, Wei Zhang couldn't bear it anymore, so he asked his chief assistant Liu Ji for help.
"Master Wei, please come back. My master is not feeling well and will not see guests today." Liu Ji's housekeeper said indifferently.
Wei Zhang had no choice but to find someone else, but others, like Liu Ji, declined with various reasons today. Anyway, they just wanted to see him.
This went on for several days, and Wei Zhang couldn't bear it any longer. He remembered that he had talked about government affairs, drank wine, and talked about everything with them before. In just a few days, these people's faces have changed, making me feel a little strange.
A few days ago, the housekeeper of Liu Ji's house came out to politely reject him. Today, the door is closed and the housekeeper doesn't come out. Wei Zhang was already angry. When he saw such a situation again, he felt a surge of anger in his heart. He knocked on the door and cursed: "Liu Ji, you are an ungrateful person. Without my help, could you have brought down Mr. Wange? Don’t you know how many things I have done for you and how many names I have supported you? Now you have become the chief minister of the cabinet and have turned your back on me. Since you are ruthless, don’t blame me for being unrighteous!"
Suddenly the "door" creaked, and a dozen servants with sticks rushed out from inside. They beat Wei Zhang hard and killed them all. Wei Zhang was a scholar, how could he suffer such a situation. In the end, Wei Zhang was beaten to death and sent back to his home.
At the same time, Mou Bin had searched for various evidence of Wei Zhang's crimes and submitted them to him. After Zhu Youtang read it, he cursed: "I have always wanted to rectify the administration of officials. I thought that corrupt officials were in the local area, but I didn't expect that they are in the imperial court."
"Instruct Mou Bin to arrest Wei Zhang immediately, and anyone who colludes with him in corruption and bribery will be sent to prison."
As soon as the imperial edict came out, Tiqi immediately went out. Some of them had cheated by giving gifts to Wei Zhang. Now they were hiding in northwest, Suzhou and other places, and they were all captured by Tiqi.
Zhu Youtang knew that Wei Zhang had many disciples in his hometown, so he decided to publish his corruption story in the first issue of the Beijing News. First let the people of the world know who Wei Zhang is and whether the emperor should deal with him.
After the position of Prime Minister of Dali Temple became vacant, Xu Pu, the second assistant, immediately wrote to recommend someone, and Zhu Youtang readily approved it. Liu Dang knew that there had been a lot of trouble recently and that the prison was rising. After Wei Zhang's fall, his own strength had been reduced. It was also the end of the year. He didn't want to make any more troubles, so he kept his tail between his legs.
