Guo Pu, the elder of the Three Dynasties and Gu Mingfu, was walking in the palace in a hurry and his face was as dark as water.
Guo Pu is already sixty-nine this year, and is already in his late seventies. Although his health is quite good, as usual, he has reached the age where he can become an official.
Therefore, he has submitted two memorials begging for bones this year. However, after asking the empress dowager of the two palaces for instructions, the emperor did not approve it twice. Instead, he gently persuaded and tried his best to persuade him to stay, and even gave him a red silk python suit.
Not to mention, the Empress Dowager Rensheng also gave Guo Pu ten boxes of Longxu Cake. The Empress Dowager Cisheng was even more generous. She also gave a golden tortoise, a golden crane each, and a picture of a hundred years of life.
The Empress Dowager Cisheng also sent a message to Guo Pu alone, saying, "After the emperor's wedding, the Ai family cannot see each other in person every day, but rely on Yuanfu to take care of them. Yuanfu was ordered by the late emperor to take care of him. How can he bear the sudden resignation of Biyi and help Biyi wholeheartedly?" Don’t say any more words.”
If Gao Gong was firmly in the position of assistant at that time, it mainly relied on the prestige inertia brought from the Longqing era to the Wanli era, and Long Qing's last words before his death, "Whenever something is unresolved, just ask Mr. Gao." So the reason why Guo Pu's assistant position is relatively stable is that in addition to being "the last assistant minister who cares about life" and the support of Gao Pingxi within the Gao Party, the rest all depends on the strong support of the empress dowagers of the two palaces. .
The empress dowagers of the two palaces do not have much political talent, but they have one advantage, that is, they are extremely insistent on the ancestral system. It seems that in their view, governing the country depends on the cabinet first, and the cabinet first depends on Yuan Fu. Therefore, they have always relied heavily on Guo Pu, the old Yuan Fu.
Guo Pu sometimes even doubted whether the late emperor had made any explanation, because this idea was very similar to the late emperor's idea when he used Gao Gong to manage politics. It doesn't matter if I can't do it, just let Yuan Fu do it. I will listen to Yuan Fu.
However, what happened today is too difficult and something big might happen.
You know, since the emperor's wedding in the fifth year of Wanli, the queen mothers of the two palaces have not directly met with the court officials for three years. To some extent, it should be regarded as a transitional period now. After getting married, the empress dowagers of the two palaces began to slowly treat him as an adult.
But this is also a dangerous period, a stage when the empress dowagers of the two palaces conduct their final inspection of the emperor. If this period passes safely and smoothly, the emperor will formally take charge of the throne at some point and truly rule the world from then on. However, if major mistakes are made during this period, it is not impossible for the empress dowagers of the two palaces to severely punish the emperor.
Moreover, if an extreme situation occurs and the empress dowagers of the two palaces can reach an agreement, they may even seek the support of the outer court to establish a new monarch. King Lu is also the son of the late emperor, and because he is underage, he is currently in the palace, and It is said that Queen Mother Li was very fond of him.
The possibility of such an extreme situation as establishing a new king is of course very small. However, as Gu Mingfu, Guo Pu had to consider whether he could persuade him to stop the situation if the situation was serious enough.
Such a major event cannot be accomplished by the empress dowagers of the two palaces on their own. At least they must have the support of important ministers. She and Zhang Siwei will definitely not support it. There is no doubt about it, but what about Shen Shixing and Yu Youding?
Even Xu Guo cannot completely rule out the possibility. Although he is a disciple of Gao Gong, he is from Nanzhili, and he is actually greatly influenced by psychology.
If the empress dowagers of the two palaces want to establish a new monarch, and she and Zhang Siwei oppose it, then a situation will arise. Once Shen Shixing, Yu Youding and Xu Guo support the two palaces and the matter is finally completed, the cabinet will inevitably There was a shock, and he and Zhang Siwei were probably going to take their places, and the remaining positions belonged to the three of them.
At that time, Shen Shixing can take over as assistant, Yu You Ding will be promoted to second assistant, and Xu Guo will follow closely.
Under such temptation, it's hard to say where they stand.
Guo Pu's brows furrowed into the character "Sichuan", thinking hard about these interest disputes and the possible attitudes of the empress dowagers of the two palaces. At the same time, he was worried about the emperor. Guo Pu was also responsible for teaching the emperor like Gao Gong in recent years. Some kind of In a sense, he now regards Zhu Yijun as his disciple.
But this disciple has a special status. He is the emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He has caused such a big trouble. Guo Pu has to consider not only protecting him, but also the subsequent education. Agreeing that deposing the emperor is not among Guo Pu's considerations. Not to mention that once the emperor is deposed, the foundation laid by the Gao Party for many years will be dug up. Guo Pu cannot tolerate the turmoil in the country that will be caused by deposing the emperor.
Fortunately, although the cabinet is within the palace, it is far away from Cining Palace, and there is a detour in the past, so Guo Pu still has time to calculate the pros and cons and think about responses.
He suddenly thought, if Su Qing was still here, what would he do in the face of such a situation?
The emperor ignored the instructions of his ancestors and took the two princesses out of the palace privately and ran to his ministers' homes. He left them alone and the four of them stayed alone in a small building for nearly three hours.
what is this doing
If this kind of thing spreads to the people, I don’t know what kind of dirty look it will be made into. I’m afraid it will become the biggest scandal involving the princess in the two hundred years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.
Gao Jingshi and Zhu Yijun were both Guo Pu's disciples. Guo Pu still had basic confidence in their character. At least he would not think that anything scandalous would really happen if the emperor took the two princesses to Gao Jingshi's place. But the people always like to speculate on this kind of thing, and then spread rumors about it. In the end, who knows what it will become.
After all, Empress Dowager Li was not politically sensitive enough. The source of her anger was that the two princesses had an inexplicable admiration for someone after they were taken out by Zhu Yijun. This was something that could never be allowed in the harem system established by Emperor Taizu. of.
But Guo Pu knew that although the reputation of the two princesses did not matter, the real big trouble now was that Queen Mother Li did not realize the crux of the problem. Instead of blocking the news, she publicly punished the emperor and the two princesses.
If the news spreads that a young emperor who has no pro-government and is punished for violating the ancestral system, if handled improperly, it may cause shock to the whole country.
Under this issue, what is the reputation of the princess and what role does Gao pragmatic play in it? Those are all trivial issues that are not worth mentioning.
He, Guo Pu, is Gu Mingfu. The first thing to consider is the stability of the country. If the country is in turmoil because of this, how will he face the late Emperor under Jiuquan and Gao Gong in the future?
Guo Pu, who had a lawsuit on his head, turned around a palace gate and suddenly bumped into a person head-on. The person quickly supported Guo Pu.
Guo Pu concentrated to look, but it was Huang Mengyu's nephew Liu Ping.
Liu Ping supported Guo Pu and apologized profusely. Guo Pu knew that he and his uncle Huang Mengyu were both Gao Pragmatic's important allies in the inner court, so naturally he would not be angry. He was about to say "no problem" and leave, but Liu Ping didn't know. But he took the opportunity to support him and whispered, "The factory supervisor has learned about what happened just now. He has now rushed to Ciqing Palace to find Empress Dowager Chen. At the same time, he also sent someone out of the palace to inform Gao Yude of the news."
When Guo Pu heard this, he quickly thanked him, "I have the factory supervisor and Eunuch Liu. I don't know what else the factory supervisor has to explain."
Liu Ping laughed loudly and said, "Mr. Guo Ge is too polite. It's our fault that we were careless and bumped into Mr. Ge. It's our family's turn to apologize."
Then he pretended to bow and apologize, and then whispered, "The factory supervisor said that before Gao Yude returned to his hometown in the sixth year of Wanli, he told him that if anything happened in the palace, just stick to one principle. Your Majesty is fine, everything else is a trivial matter. So the factory supervisor asked us to tell you, sir, to ask you to take care of the Emperor."
When Guo Pu heard that Gao Pragmatic had an affair with Huang Mengyu two years ago, he couldn't help but narrowed his eyes and nodded slowly, saying, "Thank you, factory supervisor, for reminding me. I understand."
Liu Ping smiled, bowed and said, "Mr. Ge, you're welcome, please go slowly."
