Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 200 Guo Xun’s counterattack, Jiajing Emperor’s teacher is protected!

Snapped!
At this time, Guo Xun slammed the table and stood up, glaring at Zhu Zhige.

Everyone was even more surprised.

Zhu Zhige also turned around and stopped pouring wine on Yuan Zonggao's head.

"Seniors can be killed, but not humiliated!"

"How can you put your father in such a position when your prince humiliates the imperial teacher like this?!"

Guo Xun then asked angrily.

At this time.

Xiao Cong couldn't help but be stunned.

He looked at Guo Xun in surprise.

Zhu Zhige disagreed and said, "He is just your king and father! He and I are both from the royal family!"

"Even so, you can't humiliate the Imperial Master like this!"

At this time.

Xiao Cong also stood up and glared at Zhu Zhige angrily.

What made him quite angry now was that Guo Xun had actually gotten ahead of him and acted out his indignation on behalf of the emperor for the humiliation of his imperial teacher.

But now, he could only suppress his anger in his heart and express his anger towards Zhu Zhige's arrogant and domineering behavior.

Because as a minister, he really couldn't show in public that he was not in the same mind as the emperor.

Although Xiao Cong was very happy to see Yuan Zonggao being humiliated in this way, he even intended to get rid of Yuan Zonggao in the name of a thief.

After all, many bureaucrats and gentry in the world had long hated Yuan Zonggao. They all believed that it was Yuan Zonggao who made the emperor a truly innovative monarch. They also believed that it was Yuan Zonggao who helped the emperor place spies in the harem so that they could no longer monitor and control the emperor by placing their own people in the harem.

Therefore, these people have long wanted Yuan Zonggao to have a good end.

However, on the surface, Xiao Cong naturally had to show respect for Yuan Zonggao and treat him the same as the emperor.

Even in terms of political advocacy, he did not openly oppose the reform. This is also the reason why the cabinet did not replace him as governor during the pilot reform.

Because just looking at the surface, one would only think that Xiao Cong was a staunch proponent of ritual and reform.

This is also the general situation of the Ming Dynasty bureaucracy at present.

It seemed that most officials had become pro-ritual advocates and were in favor of the reform, but in fact, most of them were just pretending.

of course.

This is also a common problem that has always occurred during reform periods, and the reason why reforms cannot be accomplished overnight.

Because those in power always need to carry out reforms while uncovering those who pretend to support the reforms.

These disguised people either deliberately execute orders in a disorderly manner, deliberately over-execute orders, or create new incidents to cover up their own poor execution.

Back to the topic.

After Xiao Cong gave this admonition, he also threatened to impeach Zhu Zhige.

Other officials in Huguang did the same, and they all expressed their opinions and condemned Zhu Zhige's behavior.

Because the Ming Dynasty law did not allow the execution of royal family members, and Jue'an had corrupted his mind with opium, Zhu Zhige was not afraid of this. He just sneered and said, "You can impeach him!"

Subsequently.

Zhu Zhige looked at Yuan Zonggao and said, "Mr. Yuan, are you also dissatisfied?"

"Don't dare!"

Yuan Zonggao replied, then knelt down and kowtowed, saying, "Please forgive me, my lord. It is really difficult for me to agree to your request not to lend you money at a low interest rate."

Bang!
Zhu Zhige kicked Yuan Zonggao and rolled him over: "Old man! Don't blame me for not reminding you. If you really dare to lend money at a low interest rate and ruin the interests of the nobles of Huguang, you will die an ugly death!"

"Mr. Yuan, let's go!"

At this time, Guo Xun hurriedly helped the frail Yuan Zonggao up and walked out.

Xiao Cong also followed: "That's right, if you get a small beating, you can take it, but if you get a big beating, you can't get beaten to death by the royal family here!"

After Guo Xun, Xiao Cong and others left with Yuan Zonggao, Zhu Zhige came to Jue'an and said with a smile: "Master, I wonder how I performed?"

Jue'an nodded: "Very good!"

"What about the lonely Wuxiang?"

Zhu Zhige asked.

Jue'an took out a packet of black ointment from his sleeve and gave it to Zhu Zhige.

After Zhu Zhige took it, he hurriedly told his servants, "Quickly light it up. I need it now!"

Let’s talk.

Opium has been used in China for a long time.

In the Song Dynasty, Liu Han recorded in Kaibao Materia Medica: "Poppy seeds are also called rice sac and imperial rice. They are mainly used to treat inflammatory diseases and indigestion. They can be cooked with bamboo juice into porridge, which is very delicious."

Su Shi also wrote in his poem: "The Taoist advises drinking chicken and soda water, and the boy can boil oriole millet soup."

At the same time, some people have long been aware of the side effects of this substance.

Zhu Zhenheng, a famous doctor in the Yuan Dynasty, said: "Although opium poppy can cure diseases quickly, it can kill people like a sword, so we should be cautious about it."

Therefore, people in the Ming Dynasty also began to use opium as medicine. According to legend, Emperor Zhengde of the Ming Dynasty was instigated to use this medicine in the inner court, and even the later Emperor Wanli also used it.

The "wuxiang" mentioned by Zhu Zhige is this thing.

Jue'an was quite pleased when he saw Zhu Zhige inhaling the black incense with a satisfied look on his face, but at the same time he also felt a little regretful.

As a famous monk, he had many followers in the inner court. Naturally, he had already known from the eunuchs who came to the temple to worship Buddha that the current emperor had banned the use of opium.

This meant that he could not use the "black incense" made from this substance on the emperor, but could only use it on princes, nobles, ministers and other high-ranking officials.

Now that he came to Huguang, he used this medicine on the Liao King Zhu Zhige.

Zhu Zhige had been weak and sickly since childhood, and suffered from physical pain all year round. His temper became irritable as a result. In his early years, he only felt better by taking the medicine given by Jue'an.

Now, Jue'an came to Huguang again. After giving him Wuxiang, he became even more addicted to this medicine. He felt that this medicine made him feel comfortable and could give him a great sense of satisfaction.

But because of this, he was soon controlled by Jue'an, and he would do whatever Jue'an said.

First, he really wanted to use Jue'an's black incense again, and second, he believed that Jue'an was an accomplished monk who would not lie to him, and that he was most likely the reincarnation of Yao Guangxiao, the monk who helped Zhu Di seize the throne.

So, he quickly chose to follow Jue'an's arrangements.

After all, Jue'an could bring him miraculous medicine that he had never seen before, and also accurately gave him information about many high-ranking officials. This made it difficult for him not to believe that Jue'an was a high-ranking monk worthy of his trust and obedience.

What's more, Jue'an was already very famous in the world and had many disciples. Even eminent monks and officials in many places in Huguang were proud to know Jue'an.

Zhu Zhige felt that the reason why Jue'an came to find him must be because he had a kind of charm and luck that was different from other vassal states.

Jue'an did say so, using all kinds of mysterious reasons to say that Zhu Zhige's fate was extraordinary.

Even now, when Zhu Zhige used the black incense, he said:
"I believe that soon, Your Highness will get the news that Yuan Zonggao was killed. Then, Governor Xiao Cong will issue an order to mobilize Marquis Wuding to withdraw the troops in this area to suppress the bandits in the direction of Xiangyang. At that time, Your Highness can send the soldiers of the royal palace to pretend to be thieves, go to the Songling Mountain Mausoleum in Anlu Prefecture, kill the gravekeepers there, and dig out the coffin of Emperor Xingxian. In this way, we can deprive his fourth room of the imperial luck. Then, I will perform a ritual in Your Highness's family temple, which will surely enable Your Highness to become an emperor in the future!"

"If Master Jue'an's words come true, I will definitely do as you say!"

"My Liao clan has long had enough of his fourth branch's bullying!"

After taking the black incense, Zhu Zhige felt as if he was floating in the air. Compared to the recklessness he had shown before taking the incense, he now seemed full of confidence.

It is worth mentioning that there have always been internal conflicts among the royal family of the Ming Dynasty.

The root of the problem can be traced back to when Zhu Di became emperor and reduced the power of the princes and moved a large number of powerful kings of the frontier inland. Especially the King of Ning and the King of Liao, who were powerful kings of the frontier in the past. After being moved inland and having their power greatly reduced, they actually had always been dissatisfied with the fourth branch.

In addition, the treatment of the royal family and vassal states was constantly declining, and in many cases, they were not even paid their salaries or rice. This led to the dissatisfaction left over from history not fading but rather intensifying.

In addition, the princes would also come into conflict with the imperial court in their daily struggle for interests.

For example, according to the "Veritable Records of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty", in July of the first year of the Jiajing reign, Prince Yi Zhu Youbin petitioned the Qingjiang Town Tax Bureau for tax notes.

The historical Jiajing naturally did not agree.

Because Qingjiangpu is an important town on the canal and has a considerable amount of tax revenue, if it were given to Prince Yi, the court would lose a huge amount of income.

Of course, we don’t know whether Prince Yi intended to use the tax revenue to make up for the loss in his heart because he felt that he was Jiajing’s uncle and was dissatisfied that he didn’t get the throne, or whether he was simply greedy and thought that Jiajing was young and easy to bully.

Anyway, King Yi did just this.

In this life, Prince Yi naturally asked for it, but Zhu Houcong still did not allow it.

In addition to Prince Yi, in history, in April of the second year of Jiajing, Prince of Liao Zhu Zhige also went to the court during the mourning period, hoping to inherit the throne without waiting for the end of the mourning period.

This is how Zhu Zhige is in this life.

Zhu Houcong naturally did not agree. After all, adhering to filial piety was an important basis for him not to recognize Xiaozong as his imperial father, so how could he agree?

But this still made Zhu Houcong quite puzzled.

What he couldn't understand was whether Zhu Zhige really had no intelligence, or was really not afraid of him as the emperor, and actually had the nerve to challenge him on the issue of filial piety. Just like Prince Yi, he was not just stupid or simply bad, but might have been bewitched by the conservative party.

Precisely because Zhu Houcong suspected it was the latter, he had not yet taken action against these princes. He only decided to restore the central government's financial and military strength first, and then strengthen grassroots management capabilities before discussing the issue of the royal family.

Everything should be done step by step.

But many times, your opponents will not wait for you to take action. Instead, they will jump out first, disgust you, provoke you, or even collude with you to sabotage your plans.

This time, Zhu Zhige was bewitched by Jue'an to humiliate Yuan Zonggao, prevent Yuan Zonggao from lending at low interest rates, and even wanted to dig up Emperor Xingxian's tomb.

Guo Xun and Xiao Cong accompanied Yuan Zonggao out of Jiangling City. When they arrived at the pre-arranged ambush point, Xiao Cong said with a changed face, "Marquis Wuding, what are you waiting for? Let your people kill him, and then I will give you an order to go to Xiangyang to suppress the bandits!"

"You still don't want me to die peacefully in the countryside."

Yuan Zonggao was not surprised by this, but said something with a smile.

Xiao Cong also sneered and said to Yuan Zonggao: "Mr. Yuan, you should understand that the gentlemen who uphold etiquette in the world have long despised you! And no one really wants a thief like you who rebels against the world to have a good end!"

Yuan Zonggao nodded: "I know! Then let's do it."

He had already guessed this day would come.

Therefore, Yuan Zonggao acted very calm.

Xiao Cong looked at Guo Xun and said, "Let your men dismember him! This way, it will appear to be the work of thieves!"

"Zhongcheng, I can't obey your order!"

Guo Xun replied.

"What did you say?"

Xiao Cong was shocked.

"I said, I can't obey your verbal order! Unless you give me the ticket of the Fuyuan!"

(End of this chapter)