In the imperial study, Emperor Yonghua was uneasy and felt like he was sitting on pins and needles.
"What big thing happened again? Is it a sea disaster in Dai County or a border conflict in Chunan? The three of you can just watch and deal with it. You don't have to disturb me early in the morning!" Emperor Yonghua has asked Ni Juzheng to get the medicine on his behalf, although it is not inconvenient. He missed the right time to prepare the medicine, but he was still angry in his heart. He sat in front of the desk and reprimanded the ministers who were waiting attentively, "Your Majesty, come and tell me!"
Xia Muren stood half a step forward and said with a salute: "Yes, Father. Last night, the residence of an official in the imperial court was attacked by unidentified men in black." As soon as he said this, he was interrupted impatiently by Emperor Yonghua, "Someone is committing an attack. The capital has a gold order to search and arrest people! Why do you want to repay me? Do you want me to catch the murderer for you? "
"I don't dare!" Xia Muren was quite resentful in his heart, but he still respectfully accepted the instruction. Seeing that Emperor Yonghua seemed to have no further words, he continued, "Father, there were twenty-four families of high-ranking officials who were attacked last night. "Seventeen officials of third rank or above were killed or injured." Xia Muren wanted to report the number of family members and guards lost, but was interrupted by Emperor Yonghua again.
"What!" Emperor Yonghua suddenly jumped up from the dragon chair, his face changed drastically, he pointed at Xia Muren and said, "Say it again!" Although Emperor Yonghua was lazy in politics, he was not considered dazed, let alone Stupid, after hearing these numbers, I already knew the danger of the situation in my heart, and finally understood why this group of court officials gathered together to block their bedroom early in the morning.
Xia Muren replied: "Father, why don't you let Mr. Hu report the specific information?" Xia Muren thought that although he was the eldest son of the emperor and also had the power to supervise the government, he really shouldn't report this matter by himself. Naitui gave Hu Xiu'an the capital's gold envoy.
As a first-class capital holder of the Golden Order, Hu Xiu'an naturally has the responsibility to defend the capital. During the three hours between Haishi last night and Choushi today, the capital and prefectures received reports from the families of ministers one after another. They said that the mansion was attacked and the ministers were injured or dead. This incident had never happened before, and he was so frightened that he hurriedly sent for three princes. The four of them discussed it, and hurriedly summoned the court officials to go straight to the palace to report.
Hu Xiu'an was the queen's nephew, and he was quite capable of doing things. Therefore, when he was less than 40 years old, he took the first-grade gold-bearing order, but he did not expect to encounter this extremely difficult problem. At this time, he stood up halfway and reported: "Your Majesty, there were twenty-four families of relatives and nobles who were attacked last night. Seventeen officials were killed or injured, and more than seventy family members and guards were injured." Hu Xiu'an took a deep breath and drummed again. He had the courage to report: "The seventeen dead and wounded officials are all third-rank officials, including five first-rank officials, seven second-rank officials, and five third-rank officials." When he reported this, his feet were shaking uncontrollably and his face was trembling slightly. Sweat poured out like spring water and he thought in his heart, "I don't dare to think about this black gauze hat anymore, but if I can keep this head, it will be regarded as the emperor's favor with my aunt."
After hearing that seventeen officials of third grade or above were killed in the attack last night, Emperor Yonghua knew the stakes of this matter. But when Hu Xiu'an reported that five first-grade and seven second-grade ministers had been killed, he felt that his vision went dark and he was completely confused.
There are a total of twenty-one first-rank ministers in Dahua. Except for four resident generals and an Anxian Salt Transportation Secretary, the remaining sixteen are all in the capital. We were attacked last night and lost five of them at once!
Each of the first-rank ministers is the head official of their respective yamen and is the backbone of the imperial court. The death of five first-rank ministers means that these five yamen will be leaderless. In addition, seven second-grade and five third-grade people were attacked and died, which has already damaged the country and is feared to cause chaos among the political leaders.
There is a folk saying: "A dragon begets a dragon, a phoenix begets a phoenix, and a mouse's son can make holes." Xia Muren, Xia Muchao, and Xia Muyang were all among the best, and they were all outstanding in talent, knowledge, and scheming. Emperor Yonghua could make them surrender honestly, so naturally he was by no means a simple-minded person. Before the case, all the ministers saw that he was angry first and then decided. They all secretly breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but think, "The emperor finally didn't mess up the situation."
Emperor Yonghua slowly walked up to the courtiers and asked Hu Xiu'an in a deep voice: "Who are the five first-class ministers who died?"
Hu Xiu'an saw that Emperor Yonghua did not operate on him out of anger, and his panic subsided slightly. He replied with a slight trembling: "Your Majesty, these five adults are: Zuo Siping, the head of the Ministry of War, Zhang Ranyue, the head of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Xue Zhen, the chief minister, and Wen Liu Jinbei, scholar of Hua University, and Bo Dingyi, minister of interior affairs."
Five first-level ministers were killed in one night, something that had never happened in the more than 320 years since the founding of the Great China Dynasty. Even when Emperor Xuande led troops to usurp the throne 82 years ago, he only killed two first-rank ministers who disobeyed him, which already caused an uproar among the people at that time. The current situation is far more dangerous than it was back then. As the lord, Emperor Yonghua cannot calmly weigh things at this moment.
Emperor Yonghua sighed deeply, slowly returned to the dragon chair, leaned back on the chair, closed his eyes and meditated, and asked: "Who are the remaining twelve second- and third-grade ministers? There were also those who were attacked last night. Which mansions? What are the casualties? Give me a detailed report."
Hu Xiu'an followed her instructions and reported in detail the number of casualties and casualties in the mansion that was attacked last night.
There was a sneak attack last night, and the damage to the Dahua Bureau was extremely heavy.
In the same dynasty and old times, the yin and yang were separated overnight, leaving a lot of unfinished government affairs. In the study, more than forty ministers stood in stunned silence, not daring to make a sound.
Emperor Yonghua listened quietly to Hu Xiu'an's report, then closed his eyes and thought for a long time, and then said: "Draw up the decree! Posthumously confer Zuo Siping, Zhang Ranyue, Xue Zhen, Liu Jinbei, and Bo Dingyi as the 'Five Fanghou', and posthumously honor five people. 'Wenzheng', the legitimate son inherited the earldom, and the remaining son was granted the title of 'Guangyou Dafu', with a salary according to the fifth rank. Seven people including Chen and Wu were granted the earldom, and seven people were posthumously named 'Wenzhong', and the legitimate son inherited the baronetcy. , Yu Zi was granted the title of "Guangzuo Dafu", and was given a salary based on the sixth-grade Zhan Shilang. Five people including Gu and Wang were granted the title of baronet, and five were given the posthumous title of "Wen Gong". Salary. The remaining officials who were attacked will be compensated as appropriate according to the casualties in their residences. This matter will be negotiated between Shangshutai and King Yi."
Xia Muren and Monk Shuling Liu Xianyuan took the order and replied: "Yes!"
"Draft the decree! From now on, King Yi Xia Muren will temporarily take over the post of Minister of the Interior, King Xia Mu of Zhi will temporarily take the post of head of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and King Zhi Xia Muyang will temporarily take the post of head of the Ministry of War. The political affairs of Wenhua Academy will be temporarily handled by Zhan Tian, a scholar of Wuying University. Acting, the government affairs of the Sikong Mansion are temporarily handled by Prince Yun Xia Muyan. The rest of the responsibilities for the vacant position are temporarily handled by the assistant officials. In this critical situation, you dear ministers must do your duty!"
"My son, I accept the order!" the five people replied after receiving the order.
"Draft the decree! Move five thousand troops each from Dongcheng and Nancheng into the inner city. They will be temporarily under the jurisdiction of Hu Xiu'an, the capital's gold magistrate, and will coordinate with the capital and prefectures to perform defense duties." Emperor Yonghua stood up and said coldly, "Hu Xiu'an, this time If the enemy attacks suddenly and you are unprepared, I will not punish you for the time being. But from today on, if another official of the imperial court is killed, I will definitely kill you without mercy!"
Hu Xiu'an was both happy and afraid. What he was happy about was that the emperor did not hold him accountable for his dereliction of duty. What he was afraid of was that once the enemy attacked again and officials were killed, he was determined not to survive. He immediately accepted the order tremblingly and said: "I accept the order." !”
Emperor Yonghua stood up from the dragon chair again, looked out of the study and said coldly: "Humph, you want to disrupt my government by killing my ministers, so that I, Dahua, can be in chaos, but you just want to take advantage of the chaos. Duanmulan, You are so wishful thinking! If you kill or injure one person, I will comfort one person; if you win over one person, I will kill one person. Humph, don’t you have ministers in your country? Doesn’t your Duanmu family have no heirs? Do you really think that I am a great nation? So no one can kill them?"
All the ministers were surprised when they heard this. They didn't know why the emperor, who had always been bad at political affairs, suddenly became so wise and decisive. Everyone thought, if the emperor had given up the idea of immortality and Taoism long ago and concentrated on politics, why would Dahua be so weak?
As for this, he only heard him say again: "In the name of the imperial court, a reward list was issued with a reward of two million taels of silver. An assassination order was issued to Jianghu. The assassination list and the amount of silver reward were initially prepared and submitted by the Sikong Mansion and the Senate Mansion. Send an assassination order to the Jianghu sect. Summoning order: On the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, the Jianghu sect stewards gathered at Sikong Mansion in the capital city. I will personally issue a killing order to them. The specific list of summons will be agreed upon by King Yi and the Chasi Mansion. All gangs who are on the list and dare not come when summoned , Conspired to commit treason, kill without mercy!" A murderous aura burst out from his eyes, and he said coldly: "Duanmu Lan, if I want to kill, I will kill you until you feel distressed and scared!"
