Compared with the Shandong and Yanyun clan bosses who were brutally purged, the foreign clan bosses seemed to be safe.
In the previous turmoil, the foreign officials who were captured were all chickens, ducks, cats and dogs. They did not have much power or status and would not affect the foundation of the foreign faction.
They thought that things would just end like this, and that the foreign faction would be the only faction to survive in this anti-corruption storm and purge, besides the Yuancong faction.
Yelu Chenghui and Yelu Yuanyi even felt quite lucky for this, thinking that they had finally survived.
However, on the second day of July, Yelujin, an important member of the foreign clan and the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, suddenly reported to Emperor Su Yonglin in his real name, claiming that the heads of the foreign clan, Yelu Chenghui and Yelu Yuanyi, had formed a party for personal gain.
He said that Yelu Chenghui and Yelu Yuanyi took advantage of their early experience of following Su Yonglin to form a political alliance with a group of foreign officials in the court who later joined and were eager to join forces to fight against the Shandong scholars.
They are just subordinates of His Majesty the Emperor and do not have the qualifications to command various departments in their positions, but in fact this is not the case. Each of them has strong appeal.
For example, Yelu Yuanyi held the position of Minister of Civil Affairs, but he was able to order some officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Rites to do things.
As Minister Zuocheng, Yelu Chenghui could also order foreign officials from various departments to serve him.
He listed some examples that he knew of Yelu Chenghui and Yelu Yuanyi using members of factions in other departments to do things, and told this to Su Yonglin.
He finally said, I have known about these cliques for selfish purposes before, but I did not tell His Majesty the Emperor. This is my fault. Now I hope to make up for it and tell His Majesty all these shady things, so that His Majesty will never be used with ulterior motives. People are blinded.
Even if he is blamed by others for this, he will not hesitate.
Because he is only loyal to His Majesty the Emperor and will not show any mercy to anyone else.
As soon as this incident occurred, the foreign clan, which had suffered serious losses but was not in danger of being destroyed, was directly detonated by the bomber Yelujin, causing the foreign clan to self-destruct instantly.
Yelu Chenghui and Yelu Yuanyi, who were named by Yelujin, as well as a series of middle-level and grass-roots foreign officials, were not able to escape. Su Yonglin, who was in a rage, captured them all and threw them into prison for strict interrogation by the Third Judicial Department.
We must ask them about the results of their forming cliques for personal gain.
Everyone knows that this kind of behavior makes the emperor more angry and taboo than corruption.
Some things are open secrets in the political arena. Everyone knows them, but they cannot say them out. Once they are said out, it will be bad.
Just like the foreign factions, the Yanyun faction and the Shandong faction, no one would believe that the emperor did not know the existence of these factions, or even their objective existence, but the emperor never took action and pretended that they did not exist.
Because no one found out, no one made this matter public, everyone tacitly ignored it and pretended it didn't exist. They didn't tell anyone who asked, and if they kept close contact, they just said they were friends.
Can't I make friends as an official?
This is normal, isn't it?
But once someone exposes it, once someone puts these things in the sun for people to observe, and people can clearly see who and who group together to form a political alliance against outsiders, then the situation will be completely different.
Once forming parties for personal gain becomes an open matter, it must be a situation where everyone calls for a fight. Otherwise, the country will fall into extremely fierce party disputes, and political affairs will become a vassal of the party struggle, and become a sharp knife for the party to attack differences, instead of benefiting the people. well-being.
This is very dangerous.
At least a rational emperor cannot allow this to happen. Anyone who dares to jump will be killed with a knife.
As a [reasonable] emperor, Su Yonglin certainly could not allow this to happen, so he decisively smashed his iron fist and beat these people to death.
Yelu Chenghui's minister Zuocheng was dismissed, Yelu Yuanyi's minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs was dismissed, and a group of officials below were also dismissed from their positions.
They have no clear crime, so they cannot be punished according to the clear law, but the more they cannot be punished according to the clear law, the more dangerous they are.
After all, the Ming Law is for people to see, and there are clear requirements for punishment. However, if the Ming Law is not dealt with, the danger will be greatly enhanced.
So Yelu Chenghui, Yelu Yuanyi and all the foreign officials involved in the matter were deposed as common people and sent to Jishi Prefecture. From then on, they were not allowed to return to the capital. All their own welfare benefits were also cut off, and their descendants Two generations will be imprisoned and will not be allowed to take the imperial examination.
Su Yonglin did not meet Yelu Chenghui and Yelu Yuanyi again. He only heard that the two men cried bitterly and begged the officials of the Third Division to see Su Yonglin again and explain to him some things that had not been explained before.
They hoped that through explanation, Su Yonglin could take back his life and avoid the worst outcome. They felt that what they had done could be explained to the emperor. As long as they explained, the emperor would definitely understand their difficulties.
So they begged and even hugged the thighs of judicial officials without even giving up their dignity.
But this request was cruelly rejected.
Su Yonglin did not accept their request. He felt that it was unnecessary. They and their family were not purged and executed because Su Yonglin gave them his last tenderness.
But they have to take the road to Jishizhou, there is no other way.
Yelu Chenghui and Yelu Yuanyi were completely desperate.
They didn't expect that a few days ago they were high-ranking officials in the empire, holding power and calling the shots, but a few days later, they would become prisoners.
Is politics actually such a scary thing?
Can a high-ranking official of the empire become a prisoner in an instant?
Afterwards, the two men scolded Yelujin as if they were waking up from a dream, angrily scolded Yelujin with all the dirty and vicious words they could think of, and cursed him viciously.
But this didn't make sense. They were ordered to leave for Jishi Prefecture within two days.
Of course, as a special treatment, they did not have to do hard labor. Their task was to farm. They needed to cultivate the land and produce enough food to feed themselves, and also provide the court with a sufficient share of food.
This is already preferential treatment.
Early on the morning of the fourth day of July, Yelu Chenghui, Yelu Yuanyi and their family were escorted to Jishi Prefecture by soldiers from the Yanyun Corps. They set out in a hurry and could only make the most basic preparations. Most of their family property was not allowed to leave. Take away only a small part of what you can take away, which counts as the most basic living expenses.
Most of them can only walk with two legs, and only a few old people are qualified to ride in the car. For this reason, the government specially approved them two mules as their privilege.
As sinners, Yelu Chenghui and Yelu Yuanyi had to carry shackles and march towards the city gate with faces ashen as death.
When leaving the city gate, the two reluctantly looked back at the familiar street scene of Zhongdu, as if they wanted to carve this last scene into their minds, for fear that if they could not carve it in this time, they would end up in the long and painful years of the Western Frontier. among the forgotten.
The soldiers of the Yanyun Corps faithfully carried out the escort order and drove them away quickly without allowing them to stay longer.
Not long after leaving the city gate, Yelujin, riding alone, was waiting in a small pavilion in the west of the city.
He prepared a table of wine and food, and seemed to be waiting here to see them off.
The officer responsible for escorting the two families came forward to ask, and Yelujin showed the token given to him by Su Yonglin.
"This is your Majesty's permission. Special matters will be dealt with. It won't take long, half an hour at most. Please be lenient."
The officer saw the token and showed it to the instructor beside him. The instructor nodded.
"At most half an hour."
"Thank you."
Yelujin thanked the officers and instructors, and then took out the silver piece that Su Yonglin had given him from his pocket to thank them.
As a result, when the escorting officer and instructor saw him, they shook their heads and retreated, leaving quickly, as if they had seen something terrible that they could not avoid, for fear of being associated with it.
They quickly went to the side and ordered the escorting army to bring Yelu Chenghui and Yelu Yuanyi.
Yelujin was stunned for a moment, but there was nothing he could do but take the silver piece back.
