Gao Pragmatic and Shen Yiguan's eyes met, and they both saw a deep suspicion in each other's eyes. At this moment, Gao Pragmatic couldn't help but have some self-doubt, and thought to himself: Is it really not Shen Yiyi's doing? Could it be that Shen Guanyi still suspected that I did this? But... why?
It is possible that Shen Guanyin could assassinate the emperor. This was something Gao Pragmatic had anticipated before, and he believed that this inference was generally correct. Even if the judgment is indeed biased, it can only be due to the timing, not whether the plan needs to exist.
Of course, Gao Pragmatic had to admit that if Shen Yiguan really deliberately arranged a conspiracy against the emperor at a time like today, then the plan itself was indeed a bit insane and not at the level that Shen Yiguan should be.
why? Because if the emperor really dies for some reason today, although this will definitely be a huge political blow to his high pragmatism, to be honest... it will not be fatal.
The reason is simple: the emperor's legitimate son is still doing well!
Think about it, if the emperor dies today, then even if the emperor's legitimate son has not been appointed as the prince, his identity is clearly the undisputed "first heir". Even if it is only one full moon today, according to the rules and traditions of the Ming Dynasty , he will definitely become the new king in his infancy.
Orphans and widowers in the Tian family were indeed very dangerous in other dynasties, but not in the Ming Dynasty. So what about orphans and widowers? As long as there is no trouble in the cabinet, orphans and widowers will not affect the normal operation of the court at all.
So, will there be trouble in the cabinet? To put it bluntly, as long as Gao Pragmatic doesn't want trouble in the cabinet, this trouble will never happen!
Why? At this critical moment, only his high pragmatism can ensure that the Imperial Guards will not dare to disobey!
Throughout the history of Chinese dynasties, whether it is a coup or other abnormal transfer of power at the top, what is the most critical thing for success? It is necessary to control the center of the imperial court as quickly as possible.
How can we control the center of the imperial court as quickly as possible? Of course, the first step is to control the military power of the capital!
Once a completely unexpected event such as the sudden death of the emperor occurs, and the ministers of the court have disputes over who of the princes should succeed to the throne, in theory, of course, the decision should be made by the queen mothers of the two palaces.
However, the Queen Mother of the Ming Dynasty was not the Queen Mother of the Han Dynasty. The Queen Mother of the Han Dynasty had legal and traditional support to make such a decision, but the Queen Mother of the Ming Dynasty actually had no such legal support and traditional support at all.
Therefore, in fact, the queen mothers of the two palaces did not have the power to proactively issue decrees indicating who should succeed. Instead, they had to wait for the cabinet to draw up votes and suggestions, and then the queen mothers could choose to support or veto them. Of course, from a historical perspective, it seems that the queen mothers of the Ming Dynasty Never vetoed cabinet recommendations, especially collective recommendations.
So it's very clear when you say this. In fact, if this happens, the decision-making power of who will succeed the new king ultimately lies with the cabinet. This is also easy to understand. For example, the reason why Emperor Sejong Jiajing had the opportunity to inherit the throne as a vassal king was because he was selected by the cabinet.
Although Jiajing was indeed the most qualified in terms of blood lineage at the time, what should we say about this... If the cabinet did not recommend him, but recommended another vassal king to the Queen Mother, wouldn't it be possible?
The answer is yes, it can be done. Because the cabinet's recommendation does not only represent the personal views of a few ministers in the cabinet, it actually represents the attitude of the entire civil servant group. When this attitude is endorsed by the Queen Mother, it means that "the imperial power and the ministerial power have reached an agreement." No one can object.
Unless the military power objects.
Will the military power of Ming Dynasty object? This might have been possible before the Tumubao Incident, but after the Tumubao Incident, everyone knew it was impossible.
However, today is different from the past. If the Imperial Guard really wants to object, then it can really do so. Because the Imperial Guard is now the strongest near the capital. It is fully capable of comprehensively and thoroughly controlling the situation in the capital, physically ensuring that no one dares to oppose it, let alone that no one can oppose it.
Some people may ask: There are only 60,000 people in the Imperial Guard, so there are enough "King Qin" troops around the capital!
You see, there are 180,000 soldiers in Liaodong, 180,000 soldiers in Jizhou, 60,000 soldiers in Changping, 130,000 soldiers in Xuanfu, 120,000 soldiers in Datong, 70,000 soldiers in Shanxi, and 40,000 soldiers in Baoding. , Tianjin has 30,000 soldiers, and the west, north, and east sides of the capital alone have an army of nearly 900,000. No matter how well-trained and well-equipped the imperial guards are, they will definitely not be able to withstand such a siege!
Yes, the military strength is indeed distributed like this, but there are two questions: First, if you say Qin Wang, Qin Wang, who ordered you to Qin Wang? How dare you disobey the rule that border troops are not allowed to enter Beijing? Think about how Qi Jiguang asked for instructions early and reported his position late when he came to Beijing?
What a joke, who ordered the troops to come out and see! Believe it or not, this matter does not even require the emperor or the queen mother's decree. As long as an official document from the cabinet comes out, your generals will behead you first?
Secondly, these nine-border towns are indeed powerful in military strength, but... do you want to first find out who the general soldiers of these military towns are, "the lackeys of so-and-so"?
Or maybe you think the generals don’t have the guts to launch troops casually, then you might as well do some more research and look at the current governors of Jiliao, Xuanda, Liaodong, Datong, Shanxi, Xuanfu, Shuntian, etc. Who currently holds the posts of Governor of Baoding, Governor of Tianjin, etc. Think about which faction they basically come from?
The Pragmatic School has been running the Nine-Border Military Affairs for thirty years, and Gao Pragmatic has personally led them to fight several battles that ended in complete victory. It can be said that if something happens to the capital, unless Gao Pangshi explicitly orders them to go to the capital to serve the king, no one can mobilize them to do such a forbidden thing - who becomes the emperor is none of their business?
Don’t they understand the Ming Dynasty system? They are just knives, not the people holding the knives. If possible, we should try not to get involved in this unfortunate job. For them, all they have to do is wait for the dust to settle in the capital and the new king to take over the throne, and then go out to congratulate him. Why should you stick your head in your waistband and get involved in something that won't benefit you? Could it be that the benevolent prime minister is pragmatic and plans to become the emperor himself...
These truths are actually obvious. Gao Pragmatic knows it, and Shen Yiguan certainly knows it too. So killing the emperor now is definitely not a good thing for Shen Yiguan, it can even be said to be a big bad thing.
Imagine that the emperor suddenly died, and Gao Jingshi had enough prestige to order the imperial guards to stabilize the situation in the capital. Then once he helped the emperor's legitimate son ascend the throne, the infant emperor would obviously not be able to manage the government in person, and could only rely on the queen mother to supervise the country. regent.
There is another point to note here: everyone knows that Empress Dowager Li has always been wary of Gao Pragmatism. However, once the emperor's legitimate son succeeds to the throne, Empress Dowager Li will no longer be the empress dowager, but the empress dowager. The current empress will become the empress dowager. .
In the past, the Empress Dowager Zhang could decide Zhu Qizhen's succession to the throne. Some people may think that the Empress Dowager was more able to decide the political affairs when the young emperor was unable to manage the affairs than the Empress Dowager.
In fact, there is a huge misunderstanding here: Xuanzong's Queen Hu was not made the empress dowager at that time, because as early as the third year of Xuande, she was asked by Xuanzong to resign from the position of empress due to childlessness and illness, and then retired to Chang'an Palace. , given the title Master Jingci.
At that time, Empress Sun, who was newly appointed as the queen, became the empress dowager after Yingzong succeeded to the throne (she was also Yingzong's biological mother), and she also had great influence. As for the fact that she has never fought for power with Empress Dowager Zhang, it is essentially because the Ming Dynasty ruled the world with filial piety, and Empress Dowager Zhang was good to her daughters-in-law, so it is more likely that she did not want to do so, and It’s not that you can’t.
But what if something similar happened today? That would probably be quite different.
The current Queen Mother has been deeply supported by Gao Jingshi for many years. If the emperor's legitimate son ascends the throne and is actually supported by Gao Jingshi, it is conceivable that the Queen Mother who became the Queen Mother at that time will definitely say: "Please listen to Mr. Gao on all political matters." ruling."
It can be seen that if the Xinxue School plots to assassinate the emperor now, it will be pure political suicide!
Because of this, Gao Pragmatic's previous judgment was that the Xin School would first assassinate the emperor's legitimate son, then force him to assassinate Ding You, and finally assassinate the emperor. Even if something unexpected happens, only the order of the first two things can be reversed, that is, first force the pragmatic Ding You, then assassinate the emperor's legitimate son, and finally assassinate the emperor.
In short, the emperor must not be assassinated first, otherwise the emperor's legitimate son will inevitably succeed to the throne, and all major achievements will be in vain.
Now Gao Pragmatic wanted to understand why Shen Yiguan looked at him with a sullen face and suspicious eyes, but he himself was confused: If Shen Yiguan didn't do this, was the current situation really just an accident? But... isn't this too much of a coincidence?
And the real big problem is, looking at Shen's consistent performance, we know that if the emperor is really "collapsed" at this time, wouldn't his pragmatism be the biggest beneficiary of this matter?
What does it mean to be a beneficiary? In a conspiracy, benefiting from it means having a motive!
That is to say, the emperor suddenly coughed up blood and fainted. If it can be found out later that it was just an accident, then it would be fine. But if the investigation is delayed and the investigation is unclear, then his high pragmatism has inexplicably become the biggest suspect!
I'm so hot!
Gao Pragmatic really wanted to scold his mother for a moment. I had planned it well, but Shen Yiguan's little thoughts were already part of my plan. Not all the people in Dongping Water Village were killed on the spot. If a few people were captured alive, they were secretly brought back to Longwen Yayuan for interrogation. Although physical evidence is highly unlikely to be obtained, as long as there are survivors, there will be evidence in the future. The opportunity comes in handy.
In addition, measures are being taken both inside and outside the palace. Although I always feel that there is still a certain force that has not surfaced, I have made some guesses and have also arranged personnel to observe closely... In short, the overall situation of the capital is under my control. Under control!
But just at this moment, the emperor unexpectedly had such a big accident, which suddenly made me the most suspicious. What the hell is going on!
Why should I harm the emperor? Who doesn't know that my biggest supporter is the emperor? Who doesn’t know that the emperor’s most trusted minister is me, Gao pragmatism?
Why did I harm him? If he is good, I can be good too. If he is the undisputed leader of ZTE in the future, then I will also be a famous minister of ZTE. I am so full that I want to harm him?
But now the accident happened! If the emperor is okay in the end and the cause of the coughing up blood and fainting can be found out after waking up, then everything will be easy. Otherwise, it would really be like yellow mud falling off your crotch, not just shit but shit.
Gao Pragmatic was depressed for a moment, holding his forehead and sighing. His whole person looked worried, and his eyes were full of worries.
At this time, Wang Jiaping seemed to have figured out something, and was casting a scrutinizing look at Gao Pragmatic. But when he saw Gao Pragmatic looking so decadent and melancholy, he felt that it was not a fake, and he couldn't help but frown deeply. When others saw this, they wondered what Wang Yuanfu was thinking at this moment.
Under such a strange situation, all the ministers, led by Liu Ping, arrived outside Xinuan Pavilion of Qianqing Palace. At this moment, Xinuang Pavilion undoubtedly looked like it was facing a formidable enemy. There were three steps, one post, five steps and one sentry. The fully armed Jing army were all nervous... I don’t know why they were nervous.
Although the auxiliary ministers have a special status, they are still ministers of the outer court in the final analysis. They can only stop temporarily when they come outside Xinuan Pavilion. Liu Ping was a minister, so he said a few words to the gentlemen and then went into the cabinet to visit the situation so that he could report earlier.
However, not long after Liu Ping entered, it was not him who came out, but Chen Ju.
Chen Ju's face looked very bad at the moment. He couldn't tell whether he was worried or serious. In short, just looking at him made people nervous. All the ministers couldn't help but feel anxious when they saw him, for fear that he would say something that would make people look up to the sky. If you pour it.
Fortunately, the worst-case scenario did not happen, but it was still shocking enough. Chen Ju came to stand in front of the ministers, and said with a livid face: "Gentlemen, thanks to the great fortune of the second ancestor, the emperor has woken up..."
All the ministers let out a sigh of relief at the same time, but unexpectedly Chen Ju continued: "However, the emperor heard that the ministers did not agree to summon him after they came to see him. The doctors suggested that he wait for the emperor to rest and recover before summoning you all. See you, sir."
Although somewhat surprised and even a little worried, the cabinet ministers still expressed their support one after another. Wang Jiaping glanced at Gao Pragmatic and Shen Yiguan, and finally couldn't help but asked: "Chen Zhangyin, why did your Majesty cough up blood and faint? Do the doctors have any opinions?"
"I'm afraid the situation is a bit complicated." Chen Ju frowned deeply and said with a slight hesitation: "The emperor may have had wind evil enter his body due to the sudden cold and heat today, but the imperial doctors believe that this is not the main cause of the coughing of blood and fainting. At best, it can only be said to be an inducement. "
"Then what is the main reason?" Wang Jiaping asked solemnly: "But the jar of royal wine was tampered with?"
"But it's not the case." Chen Ju smiled bitterly and said: "The imperial doctors checked the remaining part of the wine and found nothing abnormal. However... the emperor's vomit seemed to contain drug residues that conflicted with the wine. "
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