As all forces came to a conclusion on Gao Pragmatic's triumphant return, the situation in the capital that had been overwhelmed by dark clouds was immediately improved. Especially on this morning, the emperor summoned the ministers of the cabinet to meet with his Majesty in the Wenhua Palace. After that, it can be said that the clouds parted and the sun appeared, and the sky was clear and clear.
Early that morning, the Director of Ceremonies sent someone to notify the elders to go to the Wenhua Hall to hold an imperial meeting. At this moment, Shen Shixing, a bachelor of Zhongji Palace, Xu Guo, a bachelor of Jianji Palace, Wu Dui, a bachelor of Wenhua Palace, Wang Jiaping, a bachelor of Wuying Palace, Wang Xijue, a bachelor of Wenyuan Pavilion, and Liang Menglong, a bachelor of Dongge Palace, all came to Wenzhou. When His Majesty saw him in the Hua Palace, Chen Ju, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony and eunuch, summoned the ministers to see him.
Zhu Yijun, who had just recently been blessed with a daughter, was in great spirits. He even arrived at the palace in advance. When he saw the elders coming in, he said with a smile on his face: "Gentlemen, there is no need to be polite. Please take a seat."
The elders in the pavilions are all good people. One look at the emperor's complexion, demeanor, and tone, and he knew that the queen was extremely happy to give birth to a princess for him this time. Even though he was discussing important matters today, he was also smiling. Yingying.
The Empress has been infertile for many years. The outside world has always suspected that her vitality was damaged during her first childbirth, and she might not be able to get pregnant again in the future, so she even caused a dispute over the country. The reason why the emperor did not agree at that time was that the queen was still young and there would be a chance to give birth to a legitimate son in the future. If the crown prince was granted the title first, it would be too difficult if a legitimate son was born.
Obviously, the mainstream views in the imperial court at that time did not agree with this statement. Only the Gao pragmatic family firmly stood on the side of the emperor. If they accepted death, they would have to wait for the empress's legitimate son. Later, through various means, the struggle for the country's foundation was temporarily suppressed, but everyone knew that as long as the Queen's legitimate son was not born, this matter would not be over at all.
However, this time the queen gave birth to a princess, which caused a major turning point in the whole incident. Although the princess is not a prince, her actual status in the Ming Dynasty depends entirely on the emperor's attitude towards her, but the Queen's rebirth is the key to this matter. This means that "the Queen may have difficulty getting pregnant again" which most courtiers originally agreed to The "facts" have been overturned.
Since I can give birth to a princess, what’s so strange about giving birth to a prince in the future? Because of this incident, many people who participated in Wang Xijue's struggle for the country regretted it.
Although Emperor Taizu had strict rules and the harem of the Ming Dynasty basically had no political influence, if the queen gave birth to a prince in the future, and the prince grew up and ascended the throne, I remembered that someone in the palace almost caused me to lose my status as prince before I was even born. , what kind of mood should that be?
Of course, the elders in the Wenhua Palace are basically not worried about this at the moment. After all, their age is here. Judging from the energetic appearance of the emperor today, it is estimated that they will not be able to survive that day—— Presumably, even if the new king in a few decades is really the Queen's unborn legitimate son, he probably won't hold such a deep grudge against their descendants, right?
In any case, it is certain that the emperor is very happy now, but the elders will not really "dismiss the courtesy". They still bowed to see His Majesty, and after thanking him, they sat down separately.
Today's Wenhua call was requested by the emperor, so Zhu Yijun had to take the initiative to speak, and he was very direct: "Yesterday, Da Situ's essay arrived in Beijing. You must have read it, so I won't go into details. I just want to ask. Gentlemen, how should the court respond?”
I would also like to mention this matter. After Gao Pragmatic's remarks were sent to the cabinet yesterday, the cabinet did not form a unified opinion, so it did not post a vote. Instead, it was directly dismissed on the grounds that "this matter should be governed by the Sacred Heart". Sent to the Supervisor of Ceremonies. The emperor's question now seems to bring up old matters again. The implication is that I am not satisfied with your attitude yesterday and must give you a clear explanation.
However, it was no longer yesterday. Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue had already formulated a new plan. They no longer planned to fight Gao Pragmatically to death, but changed their thinking and completely implemented the flattery.
Shen Shixing was the first assistant, and he should have been the first to speak at this time. He did not hesitate, stood up and bowed slightly, saying: "Your Majesty, yesterday I opposed the resignation of Da Situ from the Meng Yuan Dynasty. Because at that time I believed that although the campaign against Yuan had gone through two great victories and the two chiefs Tumen and Abadai Saiyin fled to the west, it was not over yet. How could Da Situ, as a minister, leave his post prematurely?"
He deliberately paused here, and as expected, Zhu Yijun asked, "Oh? Listening to Mr. Shen, do you have a new view today?"
This sentence seems to be a casual question, but if you smack it carefully, it seems to be a bit sarcastic. It's just that Zhu Yijun is already an experienced "old emperor". His face is really calm at the moment, and he can't see any other meaning.
The emperor has rich experience, not to mention Shen Shixing, who is completely at the top level of doing things in front of others. Not to mention that the emperor's words are just vaguely sarcastic, I am afraid it is a real sarcasm. Shen Yuanfu can also do it in front of others. He changed his mind and his heart did not beat, and he had a completely "indifferent" attitude.
"Yes." As expected, Shen Shixing looked serious and said solemnly: "I am not good at military affairs. After careful study after returning home last night, I discovered that the Great Situ had already properly arranged the entire war. When he returns to the capital, it will not affect the victory. the result of.
Wei Chen guessed that Da Situ was probably worried that he would have a backlog of affairs after being away from the Ministry of Household Affairs for a long time, so he refused to waste a day and returned to Beijing as soon as possible. Therefore, I now agree with Da Situ's resignation from the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty. "
Shen Shixing's sudden change of attitude not only surprised the emperor, but also all the other cabinet ministers - except Wang Xijue, of course.
Wu Dui said in confusion: "Yuanfu, that's not what you said yesterday..."
"Hey, Mr. Huanzhou, didn't Shi Xing just say that he didn't think clearly about it yesterday?" Shen Shixing turned around and said to Wu Dui with a smile: "Fortunately, it's not too late, don't you think so?"
Wu Dui lost his temper because of his attitude. Although he was suspicious, he could only nod his head and said, "Yuan Fu's words are serious."
Seeing that Wu Dui had been forced to shut up, Shen Shixing looked around at the ministers and asked, "Is there any other minister who has objections?"
Everyone glanced at the emperor subconsciously and saw that the emperor's round and smiling face was extremely kind. They all knew that dissent at this time was just for fun, so they naturally fell silent.
Zhu Yijun was indeed very satisfied, especially with Shen Shixing and Shen Yuanfu who suddenly changed their tune. He nodded to him repeatedly, and then said: "Okay, okay, okay, since the cabinet thinks that pragmatism is here to make a triumphant return, Then such a great achievement should have a triumphal ceremony...Mr. Shen, should the cabinet also make arrangements for this?"
Shen Shixing reacted quickly and immediately replied: "Since it is a triumph, it stands to reason that we can welcome him in the countryside..." He paused here, obviously waiting for something.
Zhu Yijun understood what he meant and said with a smile: "Of course I want to go in person."
This attitude was not surprising to Shen Shixing, and he said calmly: "Then there is only one other problem: Normally, a triumphant army returns victoriously, with great momentum and awe in all directions. But now, Gao Situ only brought five hundred of his servants back to the capital. It’s hard to handle a suburban welcome with such a small number of troops.”
Zhu Yijun was startled for a moment, and said to himself: I forgot about this, but pragmatically, there is a purpose in bringing only the servants back to Beijing, but this matter is not easy to handle.
Gao pragmatic resigned from the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty and returned to Beijing with only 500 servants. The outside world thought that he deliberately gave up military power as soon as possible to prove that he had no ulterior motives and to express his attitude to the emperor.
actually not. Based on Gao's pragmatic judgment, Zhu Yijun would not doubt him just because he was in charge of an army of 600,000 people. This was completely inconsistent with Zhu Yijun's traditional thinking. The characteristic of Emperor Wanli is that he does not trust those he trusts, but trusts those he employs. Since he dared to entrust an army of 600,000 to himself before, it means that he has no worries in this regard.
Originally, even though the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty had various problems, none of them rebelled, and the emperor never worried about this. Why? Because of the system.
According to the system established by Taizu, civilian officials themselves did not have the power to lead troops at all. Even after Yu Qian, the real power of the Ministry of War was greatly enhanced, and then gradually made civilian officials superior to military generals, and began to gain military power step by step, but one thing must be clear : In the Ming Dynasty, the civilians in charge of the army were "temporary measures" from beginning to end, and their legitimacy relied heavily on the emperor's imperial edict.
Basically, it can be understood this way: institutionally speaking, the military generals of the Ming Dynasty have always been directly subordinate to the Five Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief, and the Five Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief is theoretically only responsible to the emperor, so the emperor himself is the highest military commander of the Ming Dynasty.
However, after the Civil War Incident, the Ming court was extremely cautious about the emperor's personal conquests. Except for Emperor Zhengde who did not care about his posthumous name, the other emperors could not really directly control the generals of the country, and the nobles had long been unable to fight, so they had to Let the civil servants represent the emperor to manage the war on a larger scale.
Not only the administration, but also the governor was essentially set up for this reason. Therefore, although the power of Gao Pingshi, the Mongolian and Yuan general, was huge, and the military force under his command probably accounted for more than half of the entire Ming Dynasty and two-thirds of the nine provinces, as long as the emperor issued an imperial edict, this military power would be withdrawn. Unless...all the generals on the front line follow Gao Pangshi and rebel.
Zhu Yijun had already concluded from various signs that Gao Pragmatic had no intention of rebelling, nor did he think that the frontline generals were crazy. The families and children of these people were all in the pass, and most of them were even in the capital. What were they trying to rebel for? Although Dongchang and Jinyiwei were not as good as in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, they were not unable to find any clues about such a large-scale conspiracy.
In fact, Gao Pragmatic's purpose in doing this was not to show the emperor, but to show it to the courtiers. To be more precise, it is to stop some people's bad mouths.
It was precisely because Zhu Yijun understood Gao Pragmatic's meaning that he felt embarrassed when Shen Shixing said this. However, he thought about it and felt that there was no solution to the problem, but it was best not to say it himself.
"Well...Mr. Shen's words make sense." Zhu Yijun nodded, frowned, looked around at the cabinet ministers, and asked, "Gentlemen, do you have any good advice for me?"
Wu Dui and Liang Menglong looked at each other and tacitly chose to wait and see first. Both of them felt that there was something wrong with the atmosphere today, especially as Shen Shixing's performance was completely different from yesterday's performance in the cabinet. This could not rule out that he and Wang Xijue had some new plans, so it was best not to act rashly for the time being and wait and see what the other party did. Let’s talk about the move later.
However, before Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue "made a move", Wang Jiaping suddenly said: "This matter is easy to hear."
He suddenly jumped out. Although Zhu Yijun was a little surprised, he still said politely: "Please give me Mr. Wang's advice."
Wang Jiaping was born as the second-ranked Jinshi in the second year of Longqing. He was selected as a scholar of the Hanlin Academy, taught as an editor, and participated in the compilation of national history. After Zhu Yijun ascended the throne, Wang Jiaping was promoted to editor and editor, and became a full-time lecturer. He was responsible for giving lectures on scriptures and governance to Zhu Yijun. Therefore, it was completely reasonable for Zhu Yijun to call him "sir". If he wanted to speak, Zhu Yijun could not be polite to ask for advice.
Wang Jiaping is a serious centrist of the old Neo-Confucianism. In essence, he does not want to participate in the party struggle between practical learning and spiritual learning, so he has always behaved more matter-of-factly. Of course, since Gao Pragmatism himself is a practical person, Wang Jiaping usually sides with Gao Pragmatism more often, which is also a fact.
Therefore, when Wang Jiaping wants to speak, Wu Dui and Liang Menglong are very calm, and they are basically not worried about him going against the grain. Xu Guo on the side seemed to be in a bad mood, his eyelids were drooped and he even seemed to be half asleep. But strangely, Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue were quite calm, with no trace of worry in their expressions.
However, Wang Jiaping didn't pay attention to these details at all. Instead, he bowed his hands to Zhu Yijun and said: "Your Majesty, Gao Situ led the imperial guards when he went out to fight. It happened to be during the battle against Yuan Dynasty. The Imperial Guards have also made great achievements, and I thought that Situ, who was ordered to do so, should not rush back to the capital first, but better deploy the troops outside the customs to set up defenses, liberate the Imperial Guards early, and then return to the capital with him to receive the reward."
Zhu Yijun mused: "Mr. Wang's words are reasonable, but the court has not yet come up with specific opinions on how to deal with the people outside the pass after this battle. The reason why I have not made clear arrangements is because I am worried that his handling will be inconsistent with the court's final decision. The conclusion is different, so it can only be postponed.
In fact, he is eager to return to Beijing, and maybe he also hopes to directly participate in the discussion of this matter - after all, he has been thinking about the Mongolian land for more than 20 years, and he will always have some opinions. "
Wang Jiaping replied: "There's no need to worry. Da Situ has already arrived in Yanqing Prefecture. Judging from what he said in his brief introduction, at least he will not return to Beijing overnight. In this case, as long as the imperial court can discuss the results as soon as possible and show them to the general public, Situ, it’s too late. And if the great Situ has some different views, since the distance between Yanqing Prefecture is limited, he can quickly negotiate with the court, and it won’t take long.”
This is the truth, but as a result, the focus of the matter to be discussed now has changed, from how to deal with Gao Pragmatic's abstention and return to Beijing, to how to deal with the land outside the customs.
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