Knowing Zhou Yanru's true intention, many civil servants agreed.
"Yes, Your Majesty, please consider the many refugees outside the city. It would be better for the resettlement envoy to concentrate on resettling the refugees!"
"Didn't His Majesty appoint him as the refugee resettlement envoy in the capital? In addition to the capital city, there are many refugees, and they are all His Majesty's subjects!"
"..."
Emperor Chongzhen was sitting on the throne, listening to their recital with an expressionless face.
He discovered that these civil servants were very afraid of his husband taking up the position of commander of the Imperial Guard, and kept emphasizing the difficulties of resettling refugees in the capital. However, since it is so difficult to resettle refugees, they did not even mention how much money they would donate to help.
If it were in the past, Emperor Chongzhen might have been led by the nose by the words reported by these civil servants.
But at this time, Emperor Chongzhen felt like he was sitting on the clouds, watching a group of clowns performing below.
The reason is that the appearance of Mr. allowed him to understand clearly the purpose of saying these words to these civil servants. Naturally, he could no longer be led by their noses!
After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen became a little impatient because he didn't hear anything new. He immediately said in a cold voice: "Sir, your ability is beyond compare. In your opinion, the difficulty of resettling refugees is beyond the reach of the sky. But so?"
After saying this, he snorted heavily, then glanced at the ministers below, raised his voice and said: "It is very simple for Mr. to resettle the refugees, and it will not delay him from taking over the Jinyiwei. I believe that the Jinyiwei will be handed over to him." Sir, taking charge will definitely revive the functions of Jinyiwei and make me feel at ease!"
"..." Zhou Yanru and others were dumbfounded when they heard these words of Emperor Chongzhen.
Revitalizing the function of Jinyiwei is to investigate hundreds of officials, isn't it? To put it so bluntly, it means that factory guards will definitely run rampant in the future?
How can this work? It definitely won’t work!
So Zhou Yanru once again reported: "Your Majesty, tens of thousands of refugees are waiting for food outside the city. If you are not careful, your life will be a matter of heaven and earth. I think that we must not treat this just because of a few casual remarks by envoy Zhang. Important things are just a piece of cake. Your Majesty, those are all human lives!"
At the end of his words, he seemed to be choked up, as if he was really sad for the plight of those refugees.
However, his real intention was actually the previous purpose, which was to tell Emperor Chongzhen that Zhang Mingwei should just take care of the refugees and never take over the Jin Yiwei again!
Of course Emperor Chongzhen understood what he meant, and so did he. Seeing Zhou Yanru's hypocritical behavior, he was furious. He could no longer suppress the anger in his heart, slammed the table, and shouted: "Let me ask you, where are you?" Sir, have any of you ever cared about the refugees outside the city? Aren't human lives at stake? Come on, tell me, how do you care?"
At this point, he got a little excited. He immediately stood up, pointed at Zhou Yanru and others and shouted: "Have you done anything for the refugees? Sir, the notice was posted, have you ever donated any money or food?" Don't tell me that you have no money or food. Which of your houses can't spare a piece of old clothes to keep out the cold? Can't squeeze out a bowl of rice or a steamed bun? If you really want to do this, will the refugees outside the city still die every day before? Human lives Guan Tian, do you have the nerve to come and talk to me about human life?"
The emperor was furious and furious. The ministers could not face such anger directly. They all had no choice but to kneel down and be scolded regardless of their will.
After hearing what Emperor Chongzhen had said, Zhou Yanru, the chief minister who bore the brunt, complained in his heart. He never expected that how could Emperor Chongzhen's eloquence become so sharp?
He couldn't bear such an accusation, so he immediately argued: "Your Majesty, the refugees outside the city can only be saved by an old clothes to keep out the cold, a bowl of rice, and a steamed bun! If that is possible, what about the humble ministers?" How can I care about a piece of clothing or a steamed bun? Alas, it’s really useless!”
When the other ministers heard this and were about to agree, they heard a "pop" sound, and Emperor Chongzhen slapped the table again and shouted: "How dare you quibble! Sir, he was penniless, so I rewarded him with twenty thousand taels." In the end, he donated all the silver! And the 50,000 shi of grain were all the inventory in the grain store under his name. Did he say that the donation was in vain anyway? I have seen all the civil and military officials in the dynasty, and there is no one who is truly like Mr. Caring about the people, not asking about the results, just doing your best?"
"..." His roar was the only thing left in the hall, and all the ministers were silent.
Some people feel ashamed compared to Zhang Mingwei, so they become silent. However, more often than not, I just couldn't find a reason to refute it for a while.
Zhou Yanru's sweat dropped on the spot. However, if he didn't say anything, the position of chief assistant would definitely be unstable and he would be embarrassed to sit on it. Therefore, after he swallowed his saliva, he said a little out of breath: "Your Majesty is aware that some people have good reputations..."
Just as he was talking about this, he suddenly saw something flying towards him, and he was startled. He didn't even care to say anything anymore and hurriedly avoided it.
It took a while, but Zhou Yanru didn't dodge in the end, and hit him on the head, and then fell to the ground.
Zhou Yanru felt a little pain and quickly covered his forehead with his hand. When he looked down, he saw it was an imperial pen.
"I was really blind before letting you be my chief minister!" Emperor Chongzhen pointed at Zhou Yanru and shouted sternly, "With someone like you here, how could the atmosphere of the Ming Dynasty's officialdom get better! If you have the ability, hello. Show me your name? If you really want a good name, the refugees outside the city will be able to live a lot, and the Ming Dynasty will not be in such a situation!"
After finishing speaking, he pointed at Zhou Yanru in disgust and shouted: "Come on, put this thing in jail!"
Upon hearing this, the imperial guard in Jinyi who was waiting in the hall immediately stepped forward and took Zhou Yanru away.
If it had been the past, there might have been officials admonishing the emperor. After all, Zhou Yanru was the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty. Not only would he scold him in person, but he would also be thrown into jail for saying something, which would be too much.
However, during the fifteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, no official spoke for Zhou Yanru. Either he coveted the position of chief minister, he was afraid of the angry emperor, or he was ashamed of Zhou Yanru.
In fact, there was another very important reason why Emperor Chongzhen sent Zhou Yanru to imperial prison. It was that Zhou Yanru was the chief minister promoted by Fushe. Letting him sit in this position would be an insult to Emperor Chongzhen himself.
At this time, although Fushe's leader Zhang Pu had died, Fushe was still there. Emperor Chongzhen imprisoned Zhou Yanru in imperial prison, which gave Zhang Mingwei a chance to investigate him. As for the position of first assistant, after listening to Zhang Mingwei's recommendation, he had already sent people to select candidates for the first assistant.
After losing his temper, Emperor Chongzhen rolled up his sleeves and left.
What happened just now was also a big event for the court. Immediately, word spread quickly. Zhang Mingwei didn't know anything about this yet. He was busy arranging the personnel of Jinyiwei when he saw the captain of Jinyiwei escorting Zhou Yanru.
