Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 199 The pilot reform gave Jiajing a big shock!

"Who told you to be so smart?"

"Do you know how deep the water is here?"

"You want to play double duty with the etiquette faction, but they may not let you do it!"

Zhu Houcong turned around and looked at Guo Xun.

The tone was very harsh.

Guo Xun was silent for a while.

then.

Guo Xuncai said: "Your Majesty, this is because I want to be a Duke so badly!"

"Do you really want to improve?"

Zhu Houcong was stunned for a moment and then asked with a smile.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

"When the late emperor was in the Martial Temple, he had the idea of ​​supporting military merits, so Qiu Yue was able to be conferred the title of Hereditary Marquis. I had this idea in mind at that time."

"Your Majesty has obviously learned the lesson of the last emperor and wants to enrich the country and benefit the people before developing military power. Naturally, I am willing to cooperate with Your Majesty to do so. Whether it is to return the fire consumption to the public or to survey the land of the world, I will follow Your Majesty without regrets."

Guo Xun replied.

Zhu Houcong asked: "How do you know that I will promote military power in the future?"

"The 'Kunyu World Map' hanging before your majesty is a clear proof of this!"

"Besides, Your Majesty has long been interested in supporting military children."

Guo Xun replied.

After hearing this, Zhu Houcong walked up to Guo Xun and said, "Sometimes, being too smart as a noble is not necessarily a good thing!"

Guo Xun was slightly startled.

The emperor's words made him smell a hint of danger.

"Somebody come!"

After Zhu Houcong said this, he turned around and returned to the dragon throne.

Eunuch Qin Wen came in at this time: "Please give your orders, Your Majesty."

"Put Guo Xun in prison first and keep him under strict guard!"

Zhu Houcong pointed at Guo Xun and gave instructions.

Qin Wen bowed his head and nodded.

So Guo Xun was taken to the imperial prison.

After Guo Xun was imprisoned, the next question naturally became how to deal with Guo Xun.

However, two officials from the Three Judicial Departments, namely the Minister of Justice and the Left Censor-in-Chief, have just been implicated in the rebellion case. Therefore, how to deal with Guo Xun can only be decided after the new Minister of Justice and the Left Censor-in-Chief are determined.

Regardless, the necessary procedures must be followed.

Including the new Minister of Justice and Left Censor-in-Chief, Zhu Houcong still issued an edict for the court to nominate candidates.

Although the people selected by the court were often not the ones the emperor liked, they did represent the wishes of the entire bureaucratic group.

Whether an official can be recognized by the bureaucratic group is very important and depends on how many bureaucrats are willing to carry out his will.

As long as Zhu Houcong still relied on tens of thousands of civil servants to govern the world, he still could not do without court recommendation, and he also needed to use court recommendation to ensure that the elected officials could get the cooperation of other civil servants.

……

……

"Now that Guo Xun has been imprisoned, can we use this opportunity to spend a large sum of money to bribe the Jinyiwei of the Northern Pacification Division to have Guo Xun killed, and then put the blame on the Yili faction?"

"Not yet! It depends on whether the Council of Etiquette will give us this opportunity."

"The key now is to make the emperor give up the reform and be a king who maintains the status quo."

Let’s talk.

After Guo Xun was imprisoned, in the suburbs of Beijing, at a place called Wuhua Temple, the wandering monk Jue'an discussed the matter with the nun Miaoshan.

Jue'an vetoed Miao Shan's decision to bribe the Jinyiwei to have Guo Xun die suddenly in the imperial prison, and said that the most important thing at the moment was to get the emperor to give up the reform.

As Zhu Houcong himself told Mao Ji, when the emperor extended low-interest loans to royal relatives, the ones who suffered the most direct and direct losses were the monks and nuns in various temples.

Therefore, what these monks and nuns most do not want to see is the emperor continuing to lend money, and they hate the reform the most.

They also hated Guo Xun and other dignitaries in the capital who directly lent money at low interest rates on behalf of the emperor. Naturally, they wished Guo Xun would die, so that they could vent their anger.

After Jue'an said this, Miao Shan nodded in agreement: "But how can we make the emperor give up the reform?"

"Not only did the emperor fail to become addicted to beauty by offering beauties to the emperor, but he also used the opportunity of selecting concubines to strengthen surveillance in the harem."

"Right now, only Xiangrui still interests him."

"But we can't really expect him to give up the reform as soon as possible by offering auspicious signs, right?"

Miao Shan asked with a frown.

Jue'an said: "We can't really count on auspicious signs, but we can give him a bigger shock!"

"What shock?"

Miao Shan looked at Jue'an seriously.

Jue'an said to Miao Shan in a deep voice: "Dig up his father's grave!"

"Dig up his father's grave?"

Miao Shan was greatly surprised, and then hurriedly looked around: "This is a heinous crime that could lead to the extermination of nine generations of the clan!"

"Do monks and nuns like you and me still have nine clans?"

Jue'an asked with a smile.

Miao Shan said: "But there is also Ling Chi!"

"Prepare a poison pill. If you are really caught, then take the pill and commit suicide before you are caught."

Jue'an said.

Miao Shan nodded, then also frowned, gritting her teeth and said: "If this can be accomplished, it will indeed be a big shock to the emperor. After all, everyone knows that he cares a lot about filial piety!"

"That's right! Otherwise he wouldn't be so resistant to recognizing Xiao Miao as his royal father."

"We can no longer count on those court officials who protect etiquette. They are the kind of people who value their lives for great things and forget about morality when they see small profits! If we want to continue to live a comfortable and carefree life, we can only shock the emperor ourselves."

"Let him know that just because he has made the officials obedient, he can't do whatever he wants!"

Jue'an followed suit and placed his hands on Miaoshan's plump breasts.

"Don't worry!"

Miao Shan dismissed Jue An's question, said something coquettishly, then stood up, brushed her sleeves and said:

"To be honest, I'm really fed up with the current interest rate cuts! It's worse than death! There are many temples in the suburbs of Beijing, and it's a problem to pay the servants monthly wages with just the incense money. I had no choice but to sell many servants to the government in Gyeonggi Province! Didn't you see that when I came to your temple, I didn't bring as many servants as before?"

Although Miao Shan was a nun, she was indeed a big landlord in the capital, with a large number of servants and maids, and lived a luxurious life. Therefore, she said that the emperor's low interest loan affected her ability to keep servants and maids.

After all, she had to maintain a luxurious life with a group of servants, and the expenses were not small.

The great monk Jue'an was also a big landlord in the capital, so naturally, he could empathize with Miaoshan's feelings.

then.

After Jue'an was beaten back by Miao Shan, he said, "I've had enough, but the capital is under the emperor's feet after all, and we can't do many things. We can only go to Huguang and do what I just said!"

"us?"

Miaoshan asked.

Jue'an nodded.

"Can we do this?"

Miao Shan looked back and asked.

Jue'an said: "Everything depends on human effort! I am an old acquaintance of the Liao prince, and I know that he is a man of no moral integrity, and he also has a grudge against the fourth branch of the royal family! As long as we stir up trouble well, we will not worry about not being able to use the power of the Liao king to accomplish this!"

Jue'an laughed lewdly as he spoke, and pulled Miao Shan into his arms, saying, "When we go to Huguang Liaofu, you will pursue the princess, and I will pursue the king of Liao!"

Miao Shan also smiled slightly, and then took off her paddy field clothes on her own initiative: "Come on!"

……

……

Royal study room.

"I have read the petition for Huguang to pilot the reform of the civil service system. I think the most important thing is to follow the request of the Ministry of War and set up more inspection offices to strengthen local peace."

"The inspector general is planned to be a ninth-rank official, selected from the registered imperial guards and border warriors who are older, and cannot donate money to the government!"

"Also, what was the result of the imperial selection for the Huguang general?"

Zhu Houcong was discussing with the cabinet ministers the pilot reform of the civil service system in Huguang. He expressed his own views and asked about the recent appointment of the Huguang general.

At this time.

Wang Yangming, the Minister of War, said: "The court recommends that the local area is in turmoil and it is urgent to guard it, but it is difficult to find people, so we recommend that Guo Xun, the Marquis of Wuding, be appointed as the general to guard Huguang and give him a chance to make meritorious contributions while serving his sentence."

Zhang Fujing, the Minister of the Dali Temple, said at this time: "Your Majesty, although the court recommended Guo Xun as the main candidate, he has just been convicted of embezzling military pay and eating empty pay. If he is not sentenced to death, he should be exiled to the border! How can he be used? Therefore, I request that Dai Yi be recommended as a companion."

"Your Majesty, Guo Xun is a nobleman after all, and he has experience in defending Guangdong and Guangxi, so I think we can give him a chance to make amends for his crime."

The Minister of Works Zhao Huang expressed a different opinion at this time.

"That's fine!"

"Then give him this opportunity and let him take office immediately."

Zhu Houcong thought about it and made this decision.

Wang Yangming bowed and said yes.

The Minister of Works Zhao Huang could not help but be secretly delighted by this.

He knew that the emperor still had feelings for Guo Xun, Marquis of Wuding.

As a result, Guo Xun was released from prison and ordered to serve as the commander-in-chief of Huguang Army and garrison Guangdong and Guangxi.

When Guo Xun arrived in Huguang, Xiao Cong, the governor of Huguang, and other civil and military officials of Huguang hosted a banquet for him. After three rounds of drinks, they smiled and said to Guo Xun, "I think you must have known why the court recommended you to return to serve as the general of Huguang?"

Guo Xun nodded: "Of course, the officials in the court have contributed a lot."

"That's right!"

Xiao Cong smiled slightly, replied, and then said to Guo Xun:

"You probably don't know that Zhang Fujing and his ilk want to put you to death."

Guo Xun frowned after hearing this: "Is this true?"

Xiao Cong then informed Guo Xun that Zhang Fujing (Zhang Cong) had said in front of the emperor that Guo Xun should be exiled even if he was not killed.

Snapped!
After hearing this, Guo Xun slammed the table and stood up: "You villain! I wasted my time protecting him!"

"You don't have to be angry about this villain. He insisted on severely punishing you, but he was just trying to please the emperor. It's just that he catered to the wrong emperor's will."

Xiao Cong then started to persuade him and poured Guo Xun a glass of wine.

Guo Xun drank the glass of wine in one gulp.

Xiao Cong continued, "The court wants to pilot the new official system in Huguang, and wants to use the fire consumption silver as the funding for the pilot implementation of the new official system. This is not the first time you have guarded a place, so you must know how much benefit this will damage a senior official like you."

"What does the Zhongcheng mean?"

After hearing this, Guo Xun asked directly about Xiao Cong.

Xiao Cong whispered: "The turmoil in the local area has forced the court to postpone its intention to pilot the program in Huguang, and it has to spend its energy on suppressing bandits and investigating the murderer first!"

"Why the unrest?"

Guo Xun asked again.

Xiao Cong said, "Not long ago, a monk from the capital persuaded the prince of Liao to invite Yuan Zonggao to a banquet. We will also attend the banquet, and then ambush soldiers around Jingzhou to kill Yuan Zonggao. We will then falsely accuse him of being a thief! We will say that the thieves who were plotting treason had long been eyeing the 200,000 silver dollars that the emperor had loaned to the Yuan family, so they committed such a heinous act."

"The emperor has always respected Yuan Zonggao. When Yuan Zonggao returned home this time, he ordered local officials to have doctors ready to serve him at all times."

"If he is harmed by thieves, Your Majesty will order Huguang to do its utmost to suppress the bandits and capture the thieves!"

Guo Xun pretended to be in deep thought as he spoke, then he slammed the table and stood up again.

Snapped!
"this is a good idea!"

Then, Guo Xun looked at Xiao Cong and asked, "When will the banquet start?"

"Five days later!"

After hearing this, Guo Xun nodded and said nothing more.

Let’s talk.

Yuan Zonggao was old and had many illnesses, and he was also exhausted from the long journey by boat and carriage, so he walked very slowly, stopping and resting many times until now in early summer when he finally arrived in Jiangling, Jingzhou.

After Yuan Zonggao arrived in Jiangling, the Liao Palace hosted a banquet for him.

Yuan Zonggao couldn't refuse the invitation from the palace, so he came to the Liao Palace.

It is worth mentioning that in the Ming Dynasty, local princes were allowed to host banquets for local dignitaries. Historically, on the eve of Ning Wang's rebellion, he hosted banquets for many dignitaries in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, and then took advantage of the banquet to force these dignitaries to rebel with him.

When Yuan Zonggao arrived at the Liao Palace for a banquet, he saw that besides him, there were also important officials at the banquet, such as Guo Xun, Marquis of Wuding, and Xiao Cong, the governor, who had arrived in Huguang earlier than him.

Yuan Zonggao also greeted them. At this time, Zhu Zhige, the prince of Liao, took the initiative to say to Yuan Zonggao: "Today I am inviting you to a banquet and inviting the officials from Huguang to accompany me. One is to welcome you and the other is to ask you not to lower the interest rate."

"I'm sorry I can't obey you!"

"Yuan borrowed 200,000 silver dollars to return to his hometown just to help the villagers."

Yuan Zonggao replied with an apology and a smile.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Zhige, the crown prince of the Liao Dynasty, frowned and his lips twitched. He then picked up a wine pot, walked to Yuan Zonggao, and suddenly poured wine on Yuan Zonggao's head: "So, you don't want to drink my toast, so you have to drink the penalty wine!"

Yuan Zonggao felt as if he was in the rain for a moment. He didn't even dare to open his eyes and only felt his chest was cold.

(End of this chapter)