It starts from the Flower Chao Festival, which is February 12th.
The entire Wei Dynasty Hall has been busy with funerals.
First, Emperor Tiantai stayed for forty-nine days.
Before I knew it, it was the end of April.
Then half a month to go to the funeral and half a month to return.
In a hurry, it's already the end of May.
Emperor Jingshun died on the way, and he stopped for more than thirty days when he came back, making up forty-nine days.
Look, it's already the end of June.
But just after Emperor Jingshun was buried, the Empress Dowager died again.
After forty-nine days of rest, he went back and forth to Xiaoci County for a month.
This is because Prince Zhongshun conspired to rebel and did not need a big burial.
Otherwise, this entire year would have been busy with the funerals of this family of four.
Even so, it will be the end of September when all four members of the royal family are buried neatly.
Now half a year's time and energy have been wasted on the funeral.
The civil and military officials of the entire dynasty were exhausted both physically and mentally, and many elders from big families followed the royal family away.
Even those who didn't leave began to ask for leave.
On the third day after the death of the Empress Dowager, all the officials went to court in plain clothes.
As soon as the ceremony was over, a Kedao speaker came forward and said:
"Your Majesty and the Queen Mother, there have been successive national mournings this year. The whole country of the Wei Dynasty has been mourning for half a year. Now the Queen Mother has ascended to Paradise again. I am afraid that the people are extremely tired and will affect the autumn harvest. I wonder if we can follow the etiquette and be simple and speedy to support the people's livelihood."
"I second the proposal!"
As soon as someone proposed the idea of supporting the people, they immediately received unanimous support from both civil and military officials.
Yuanchun wanted to go along with the situation, but when it came to the word "filial piety", she didn't dare to agree easily.
"This move may hinder filial piety and harm your Majesty's reputation, right?"
This "huh?" was used very well, and Baiguan immediately understood Yuanchun's difficulty.
All of a sudden, the Jinshi, who had already thoroughly understood the book of rites, began to make in-depth studies on the feasibility of this matter.
Some say it can be done quickly, some say it can be done simply.
Others say that if people die one after another, it can be treated as a funeral.
The implication is that there is no need to stop the funeral, just send it to the funeral directly.
Seeing the active participation of all officials, Yuanchun still did not agree.
"What do you think, gentlemen?"
There is no need to ask Feng Yibo about such a trivial matter.
All the pavilion elders looked at each other, and finally Li Shouzhong, the second assistant from the Ministry of Rites, came out and bowed:
"I feel that since the people are tired and the country is exhausted, it can be appropriately reduced according to etiquette."
After reaching enough steps, Yuanchun nodded with satisfaction.
She pondered for a moment and then said:
"Since you have said so, I will follow the good advice and follow the instructions of all of you. All of them will be of the third rank or above and will be buried according to the imperial edict. Twenty-one days after the funeral, the former Empress Dowager and the Xianwen Emperor will be buried together."
Reducing it is better than not reducing it. Besides, this excludes most people.
Those with a rank of third rank or above are a rank above the rank of minister, and those with a martial arts rank above the rank of a third-rank general are above.
After all calculations, there were less than fifty families left to pay homage.
As for these people, you have to fulfill this obligation when you are in this position.
What's more, Ji Ling has also dropped from forty-nine days to twenty-one days, which is already a great blessing.
"The Queen Mother is unparalleled in benevolence and virtue, and the common people are blessed!"
"The Queen Mother loves the common people and brings happiness to the common people!"
"..."
For a time, all civil and military officials in the court breathed a sigh of relief.
Seeing this situation, Yuanchun sighed slightly in his heart.
Then, he raised his hand and asked the attendant to continue.
"Several prefectures in Shandong have jointly signed a petition to impeach someone in the DPRK who took advantage of the severe disasters in the two prefectures in Shandong to invade rivers and fertile farmland without any plan, leaving refugees with no place to resettle. They took the opportunity to recruit bandits and eventually caused a disaster! Among them... …”
The attendant official directly announced the number of participants and the number of acres of land occupied one by one.
Many of the officials who were very happy about the streamlined funeral ceremony just now began to change their expressions!
"I deserve death for my crime!"
"I am guilty!"
"I am not strict in running the family!"
"..."
Every time a name was uttered, someone would bow down to Lord Dan and plead guilty.
Even the specific acres of land were investigated clearly, and they couldn't argue with it at all.
After a while, Lord Dan was already kneeling in front of him.
When I first came out, I was extremely frightened.
But as the number of people increased, these people gradually became more relieved.
Without him, the law does not blame everyone!
If several families were involved, their homes would be ransacked and exiled as a warning to others.
But now there are more than twenty people here, and judging from this posture, there are more than that.
The most important thing is that many of the people who apologized were worthy relatives and relatives.
Even Jia She, the Queen Mother's eldest uncle, was kneeling there at this time.
How do you ask the Queen Mother to deal with it when she promised to protect the Jia family?
In their view, the worst possible outcome of this matter would be to return the land and fine them several months of salary.
If there were any more, the Queen Mother would probably not be able to do it.
Regardless of the fact that the Queen Mother does not allow the Jia family to serve in official positions, who doesn't know that this is a means to protect the Jia family?
It's okay now, we don't deal with the Jia family, something happened to the Jia family themselves.
Either you handle it gently and it will be better for everyone.
Or die together!
As long as you can do it, everyone will admit it.
But if a bowl of water is uneven, it definitely doesn’t make sense!
In fact, Yuanchun was also very embarrassed about this matter.
As the Rong Mansion was involved, she wanted to protect him.
But the matter was too big and involved the horse bandits who assassinated Emperor Jingshun.
Even she doesn't dare to be good at it.
While she hated Jia She and Jia Lian, father and son, she wrote to Feng Yibo to inquire.
Unfortunately, the reply I got was only four words.
Deal with it fairly.
This was the first time Yuanchun didn't want to follow Feng Yibo's advice.
So she didn't give up and discussed it with the elders.
As a result, the opinions reached were mostly the same.
Both Chen Qinzhi and Li Shouzhong believed that this matter involved the death of the late emperor and must not be ignored.
Yuanchun had no choice but to bite the bullet and discuss it at the court meeting.
In fact, what she didn't know was that she was definitely asking the wrong person about this matter.
Because this matter was originally discussed between Feng Yibo and Chen Qinzhi.
Feng Yibo was not joking when he said he wanted reforms.
The first step in reform is always to rectify the administration of officials.
Wang Anshi just failed to rectify the administration of officials, and ultimately fell into the trap of employing people.
Then why rectify the officialdom, is it just for the sake of public morals?
There must be this reason, but more importantly, we should try to use our own people.
As I said last time, what is the most important thing about reform?
Feng Yibo thinks it can be divided into four words: consistent interests.
Where do the benefits come from?
It can't be born out of thin air, right?
Naturally, we have to knock down a group of people first, and then support a group of our own people.
Only when you have benefits can you focus your energy in one place.
Only after benefits have been obtained can redistribution be carried out.
For today's Wei Dynasty, ordinary people have been squeezed to the limit.
And the resources occupied by these distinguished relatives have become the best targets.
However, Feng Yibo is certainly not stupid enough to use the name of reform to rectify the administration and deprive others of their benefits.
The only consequence of doing that is to cause a huge backlash.
The result at that time will be that everyone is an enemy.
So what he thought of was to be aboveboard and defeat a group of people through righteousness.
Just let these people give up their positions and spit out their benefits.
In the name of reform or not, it is actually not that important.
Feng Yibo never wanted to let go of the Shandong matter.
As the saying goes, those who make it difficult for the country to make money should die!
And it was this incident that became the breakthrough point for him to rectify his officialdom.
There is no need to shout slogans first. By the time others know that he is reforming, the changes have already been completed.
Sneaked into the night wind, moisten things silently.
Like the spring rain, the Wei Dynasty completed the reform without even realizing it.
This is Feng Yibo’s conception of reform.
After a secret conversation between him and Chen Qinzhi, the old man and the young man reached a consensus.
The first thing Chen Qinzhi did when he became the chief minister of the cabinet was to deal with Shandong affairs.
Because of Prince Zhongshun's involvement in Shandong, the entire officialdom was almost uprooted.
At that time, it was temporarily taken over by the Peripheral Guard.
While suppressing bandits, while enforcing military control.
Chen Qinzhi took this opportunity to appoint many of his cronies to serve in Shandong.
After these people arrived in Shandong, the first thing they took over was to use the land of Qingzhang to resettle the people, and intensively investigated the occupation of rivers and people's fields.
At this point, the first step of reform has quietly begun.
At this time, all the officials involved thought it was no big deal.
It just so happened that today's court meeting happened to catch up with the death of the Empress Dowager.
Everyone who has a job, whether they have actual or fictitious positions, is in office.
At this time, nearly fifty people had already knelt down.
The most numerous among them were the princes and princes of the founding lineage, the generals and their consorts, and other families.
Secondly, there are the generals, captains, generals, commanders of the guards, etc. of the upstart line.
The least of them are people from the new party.
Looking at the people kneeling down, especially Jia She and Jia Lian.
Yuanchun was speechless for a moment, not knowing what to say.
After a long while, she said:
"But the high-ranking officials in the Wei Dynasty are so generous and well-paid, can't they support you all?"
"But there is not enough fertile land in the countryside to accommodate you?"
"But the late emperor's reward is too small, can't I forgive you?"
The three questions in a row made these people look ashamed.
Especially Jia She regretted not listening to Feng Yibo at this time.
After Feng Yibo beat Jia Lian, Jia Lian told Jia She about it.
But Jia She felt that he had only earned a few hard-earned money, and he did not have much land left to his name.
Besides, the royal family owed Rongfu, so even if the incident happened, it wouldn't be a big deal.
Unexpectedly, today's memorial was clearly written.
How much of it was taken by them, how much of it was resold, and how much interest they earned from it.
It's simply clearer than Jia She's own accounts.
However, Jia She was still just ashamed at this time, thinking that he had lost the face of Rong Mansion.
He still didn't realize what he was about to face.
Seeing that they didn't speak, Yuanchun said bitterly:
"You are supported by high-ranking officials and generous salaries, and the emperor's grace favors you, but you do this, disregard the life and death of the people of Shandong, and implicate the affairs of the late emperor Bintian. What crime should you do?"
Seeing the Queen Mother's thunderous wrath, everyone looked at each other and began to admit their mistake.
"I deserve death for my crimes. Please forgive me, Queen Mother!"
"I am not strict in running the house, and I will be punished severely when I return!"
"..."
These people looked at each with shameful expressions and kowtowed to admit their mistakes.
However, embarrassment would be more appropriate.
They all felt that they had lost face, but few of them were really afraid.
Seeing how confident they were, Yuanchun said angrily:
"I really wish you were all dead! I just don't know how you will explain to the late Emperor after you die?"
"I am ashamed of myself!"
"Queen Mother, calm down! I deserve to die for my crime. Don't let me get angry because of you!"
"Yes! Queen Mother, calm down!"
Normally, Yuanchun should consult the cabinet at this time.
After all, it is only appropriate to ask how to deal with such a big matter.
However, after being annoyed for a while, she sighed quietly.
"well!"
Then, without asking the cabinet or Feng Yibo, he just said to himself:
"I believe that all of you were unintentionally involved in this, and that you all acted against the leader and made deliberate efforts to bring about this situation. Now that the leader has been killed, you should learn from the pain and return the fertile land first..."
When everyone in His Majesty Dan heard this, they all showed such expressions.
This is the obvious "loud thunder but small raindrops".
Get angry at them first, then handle them gently.
Thinking of this, everyone looked at Jia She and his son in unison.
Jia Lian was still ashamed, but Jia She was a little proud.
Look, I know it's okay, right?
Anyway, our fields have changed hands long ago, so it’s not my turn to retreat!
But at this moment, Yuanchun's words were interrupted.
"To report to the Queen Mother, although the evidence for this matter is conclusive, it also involves the late emperor's affairs. As a rule, those who were directly involved should be killed, and the male members of the family will be exiled for three thousand miles."
As soon as Feng Yibo opened his mouth, everyone felt relieved.
You can tell from the beginning that this is about suppressing the desire to advance.
Obviously he is paving the way for them to plead for mercy!
"Of course! Your Excellencies, there are many descendants of famous families, and the families of meritorious officials are not only meritorious to the Wei Dynasty, but also loyal to the late emperor. I also ask the Queen Mother to take into account their ancestors and the contributions of each family to the Wei Dynasty over the years. I will punish you for small things and big things. Quit!”
】
Sure enough, everyone felt more relieved now.
The Empress Dowager is in front of her, and the little pavilion boss is behind her.
Even if Emperor Jingshun comes back to life, he can't do anything to them.
However, at this moment, Feng Yibo changed the subject and continued:
"I think it would be better to confiscate your home and remove yourself from office, instead of beheading your head and going into exile, right?"
Um?
Have you ever begged for mercy like this?
Everyone kneeling in front of Lord Dan was stunned and looked at Feng Yibo in surprise.
If you don't want to plead, shut up!
This is not asking for mercy. Is this just for extravagance?
But as soon as Feng Yibo finished speaking, many people stood up.
"I second the proposal!"
"I second the proposal!"
"I second the proposal!"
"..."
Nearly half of the civil and military officials who were not involved in Shandong affairs came forward and seconded the proposal.
Among them are Feng Yibo's peers, Liu Zheng, Yang Mingxin, Zhou Jun, Wang Zhishan, etc.
More, middle-level officials in the new party also spoke out.
The most important thing is that at this time Chen Qinzhi also took a step forward and said in a deep voice:
"My lord, second the motion!"
Li Shouzhong looked at this scene in surprise, especially looking back and forth between his apprentice and Chen Qinzhi.
Only then did he realize that this apprentice had already gained such power without knowing it.
What puzzled him even more was, when did this apprentice join forces with Chen Qinzhi?
Yuan Chun first looked at the ministers with a surprised look on his face, then turned sideways and looked at Feng Yibo after he reacted.
Feng Yibo was looking at her with a smile.
But those star eyes were like an abyss, and she couldn't see the bottom of it no matter what.
She really didn't understand, was this her Feng Lang?
Why didn't he help him this time, and why did he go against himself?
Why does he want to deal with his own family?
