It was already the seventeenth year of Hongzhi that Jiang Tongzu was reprimanded and dismissed from office by the emperor.
At that time, Zhu Houzhao was still the prince of the prison country, and he himself had completely forgotten what he had reprimanded Jiang Tongzu for at that time.
But the atmosphere in the court between that time and now is very different.
At that time, there were many people in the Qing Dynasty, and Zhu Houzhao often took excessive measures to deal with corruption cases, Ma Zheng and other issues in Zhejiang. Therefore, all kinds of voices of advice could be said to be filling the court.
This is completely different from the many people now who are trying to figure out the Holy Will every day and rushing to be the next Gu Liqing or the next Song Heng.
What should Zhu Houzhao do?
We can only refute these censors one after another. If they encounter fierce ones, they will be dismissed from their posts.
Many of these people have no particularly big faults. To say that they are wrong is that they oppose too fiercely. However, in their own eyes, it is their duty to give advice to ministers.
In this way, the two parties naturally met.
In fact, the senior officials who were close to him were fine, especially those who were young and could not see the prince. They were too high-spirited and were demoted a lot.
Jiang Tongzu was one of them. They were abandoned by the imperial court just after they started serving as officials. After ten years of hard work, they became worthless overnight. What kind of psychological ups and downs is this?
This kind of people are much more relaxed, they pity and sympathize with each other, and naturally they stick together.
And because they are very young, it is actually difficult for them not to think about the court affairs.
In the Ming Dynasty, the reputation of literati was very important, to be precise, the reputation of Qingliu.
That's why there is such a saying as "loyalty seems to be fake, and you should be honest with your name".
To have such a clear reputation, it is natural to write more articles and poems to gain a reputation in the literary world. On weekdays, you also need to scold those in power.
For several years, the court seemed not to care much about them.
People like Jiang Tongzu had some scruples at first, but gradually relaxed, so these frustrated people often gathered in groups, either through literary societies or poetry societies.
Jiang Tongzu's small courtyard is also decorated with the style of a scholar. There are rockeries, green bamboos, and the stone window grilles on the corridors are all carved differently.
However, the peaceful day was completely ruined by Jin Yiwei.
Butler Shi was so frightened that his face turned pale and his legs were weak. Even when he was running on the flat ground, he fell down. He went to report to the head of the family in a very sad manner, crying: "Master! There are many people from Jin Yiwei outside!! "
Jiang Tongzu and his friend Lu Meng are studying ink and writing. They are both young people under the age of thirty. Jiang Tongzu is wearing a green shirt, and Lu Meng is wearing a white shirt, with a square scarf on his head and wide cuffs. They look like two literati.
When they heard about Jin Yiwei, the two of them looked quite solemn.
Before they even left the house, there was obviously chaos outside. The mighty shouts and the screams of the female family members were mixed together, and it was going to be very bad all of a sudden!
There was a 'pop' sound.
Mao Yuwen came very quickly. He kicked down the door and rushed in. The first thing he showed was his raised arm and the Jinyiwei waist badge in his hand.
The waistband seemed to shine golden in the sun. There were nine characters on it. On the right was Jin Yiwei, on the left was Commander. His name was written below: Mao Yuwen!
That cruel official who kills people like crazy!
Mao Yuwen's head tilted out from behind his waist badge, "The Emperor's own army, authorized by the imperial power. The former censor of the Imperial Procuratorate, Jiang Tongzu, assassinated the Emperor and conspired to rebel! Let me take it down!"
"yes!!"
Jiang Tongzu was so frightened that he exclaimed: "I am a scholar in the field, and I rarely go out! How could I assassinate the emperor and commit rebellion?! What an injustice! This is a huge injustice!!"
He was afraid, and Lu Meng next to him was even more afraid. Moreover, he was a guest, "Commander Mao! There must be a misunderstanding. Please be sure to find out the facts. The crime of rebellion involves the lives of dozens of members of the Jiang family." ! Isn’t such a hasty conviction a waste of human life?!”
"Disregarding human life?!"
Mao Yuwen smiled, glanced at the people around him, and said coldly, "Search for me!"
Jiang Tongzu, Lu Meng, and the housekeeper who had come to report earlier were all caught, tied up with their hands behind their backs, and thrown aside. Behind Mao Yuwen, a team of people on both sides ran to the door.
This is a study with a side room. In addition to what you see when you walk in through the steps, there is another room turning to the right.
There is a brown wooden table in the room, and wooden cabinets are placed on the walls on all sides to store various books and letters.
These Jinyiwei people were not that elegant. When they got inside, they dug everything out. There was a continuous sound of paper clattering, and books, pens and pen holders were scattered all over the floor.
Even the two characters hanging on the wall were pulled down, mainly to see if there were any hidden spaces behind the characters. They had searched a lot and had a lot of experience.
After rummaging through boxes and cabinets for a while, a man held a scimitar at his waist with one hand and a large piece of light gray paper and presented it to Mao Yuwen.
"Tishuai, look at this."
Mao Yuwen opened his hands with both hands, shook them off, and read from right to left, top to bottom: "...Today, today, we have recklessly abolished our ancestors' policy of banning seas, causing the country to open wide, and then overseas thieves can come and go as they please. If this continues, people's hearts will The more foreign races there are in the country, the more the country changes. The emperor insists on doing this and refuses to listen to the advice of his court officials. He even resorts to intimidation, removal of nobles, and killing of all Zhejiang gentry and wealthy businessmen. It is really against the virtue of a ruler, regardless of his ancestors. If you control and act arbitrarily, you will also lose the filial piety of your descendants, which will eventually arouse the anger of heaven and mankind, and cause the destruction of all living beings!"
After reading it, he said: "This is an article written by you, isn't it? You, an opposition literati, are so concerned about government affairs, and you say every word that the emperor has caused misery to all living beings. Is this evidence?!"
Jiang Tongzu was dissatisfied and argued: "The emperor went against the grain. As the successor, he changed the ancestral system without permission! In the past three generations, has anyone heard of such a wise emperor? Although Jiang is far away from the world, he is also a member of the Ming Dynasty. It's just that Caring about the court and the people of the world, does this count as treason?"
"Of course! The emperor was assassinated on the outskirts of the capital. It must be someone like you who harbors resentment and has the audacity to do such a heinous and unethical thing!"
"Assassination? When did this happen? The two of us were blind to what was going on outside the window and had no idea what the assassination was. Jiang was unjustly accused!!" Jiang Tongzu stretched his neck, "Besides, although Jiang is not an official, he is also I have read the books of saints and know the two words of loyalty and filial piety. The assassination of the emperor was definitely not done by Jiang!! You are trying to incriminate me, why bother!"
"Tishuai."
Another person beside Mao Yuwen took out a neat booklet that was folded three times.
You wouldn't know it if you didn't look at it, but you would be shocked when you see it. There are two big characters written vertically on the upper corner of this thing: Youdao.
"It should be the name, these two words are written on every copy."
In addition to the name, it is like "Ming Pao", which is typed into paragraphs. As for the letter in his hand, it records the food and grass consumed by the court in the early years of Zhengde, as well as some strange things in various places. knowledge.
This is enough.
"I know that you people have a name, Shanjian Yeyuan. There are dozens of people, big and small. You are not big officials, but you are not small in temper. Jiang Tongzu, I have everything in my hand. This is the ironclad proof that you are dissatisfied with the imperial court and His Majesty!"
"That's just some articles based on what I've seen. It's similar to Ming Pao. How can this be considered evidence of treason?"
"Of course! You have resentment towards His Majesty and are unable to serve as officials, so you write some random articles in the countryside to deceive people and have evil intentions! In the end, you commit an assassination! Looking at these articles of yours, you thought that I, the Ming Dynasty, would be killed soon. It’s like a mountain falling apart.”
Jiang Tongzu was really panicked. If this crime was proven, there would be no chance at all. "Jiang did not commit the assassination! This matter was definitely not done by Jiang! The emperor is the orthodox Ming Dynasty. In any case, we will not plan such a thing." What’s wrong!”
Mao Yuwen was too lazy to say more. Seeing that he was also a stubborn person, it was no wonder that the emperor was so angry that he dismissed him from office.
If such a person doesn't resign from office, won't he be annoyed to death if he stays in the court?
"Take them all away! As well as the things here, I have packed them up and sealed them piece by piece. These alone are enough to chop your head off!"
Literary men always like to complain. If they are not allowed to be officials and if they are not allowed to feel sour, isn't this costing lives? Even during the Literary Prison period of the Qing Dynasty, there were still some frustrated people who would leave behind some "fragments".
Especially those things written by me that are similar to diaries are not shown to others anyway, so my words are often bold. When Emperors Qianlong and Yongzheng searched the homes of ministers, they would pay attention to see if there were any diaries.
As long as you read a sentence, don't say it clearly, it is insinuation, and even if you can force it, you will be beheaded.
As a result, no serious people kept diaries anymore.
The literati of this period had not seen that kind of white terror, so as long as they read it hard, they would definitely leave a few words.
From now on, as long as one person has a problem, everyone in this so-called mountain wilderness group must have a problem. You all stick together and don't talk nonsense on weekdays?
Whoever you tell this to will believe it!
However, Jiang Tongzu and his family were arrested, and the guest next to him, Lu Meng, seemed a little embarrassed.
"Tishuai, do you want to arrest this person?"
Mao Yuwen waved his hand, "Arrest! Not only will he be arrested, but all the literati who interact with Jiang and Lu will be arrested! The evidence is what this envoy just read!"
"So many people are like a nest of filthy rats, daring to criticize the emperor! If we don't arrest all these people, what will I, the commander of the Imperial Guard, do?"
As for the clues to arrest the person, they are also very simple.
Look through all those letters. If there is any correspondence, there is a problem.
When Jiang Tongzu saw this posture, he understood more or less in his heart. He cried miserably, "The late emperor has passed away, and there is no longer a benevolent king in the Ming Dynasty."
His sobs made Lu Meng on the side wipe his tears, "Late Emperor, I miss you so much... wu wu wu."
Mao Yuwen arrested many so-called cruel officials of literati, but he was a cruel official. These experiences really allowed him to see the unsightly side of these literati, such as corruption, bribery, greed for money and sex, how many of them were full of benevolence, justice and morality, but full of It can be said that hypocrites account for the vast majority of male thieves and female prostitutes.
So he was even more disgusted with this kind of 'drama' behavior, so he drew out his machete and said, "Cry? If you cry again, I'll chop you down now!"
(End of chapter)
