Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 244 I need Yan Song, and I have no shortage of court writers!

Zhu Houcong looked solemn after hearing this. He believed that this rumor was definitely not groundless, but was aimed at his recent strategic purpose of spreading the threat of the Portuguese and building a large number of warships.

Some people don't want him to justify his reasons for building warships and strengthening the navy!
So they deliberately said that he did these things to satisfy his personal pleasure and to please the harem, and at the same time to force the queen to take their side.

to this end.

After returning to the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Houcong asked Huang Jin to call Zhang Tong, who was now in charge of the Zhenfu Division, and asked, "Has the Zhenfu Division heard any rumors about me and the Queen?"

Zhang Tong replied, "I just heard something and was about to report it to Eunuch Qin, the Supervisor of Ceremonies."

"Go check it out!"

"Find out who is spreading rumors!"

Zhu Houcong immediately waved his sleeves and gave an order.

"Yes!"

Zhu Houcong was now only worried that such rumors would continue to spread, and that the widespread and brainless upright people in the Hanlin Academy, the Imperial College, and the Censorate would actually believe them, and then they would desperately try to stop the emperor from building warships. In the end, if he did not stop building ships, he would really be Emperor Minghuang of Tang, and the queen would be slandered as an unvirtuous queen who did not know how to advise the emperor.

You know, Zhu Houcong's grandfather, Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty, was slandered in this way, and Wan Guier was also slandered to the point that she could compete with Keshi for the position of the most vicious woman in the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, he must find out who is behind the rumors in order to dispel such rumors and at the same time deter those who dare to do so.

In addition, Zhu Houcong did want to avoid killing those upright people in the Hanlin Academy, the Imperial College, and the Censorate who were only concerned with preserving a good reputation for their admonitions to the emperor and were willing to fight to the death.

Because killing these people sometimes has serious side effects.

Even treating them will have side effects.

If we can find out who is behind the rumors, we can naturally avoid dealing with many brainless people who are begging for death in order to gain fame.

Of course, Zhu Houcong not only had to expose those who spread rumors, but also had to increase his efforts to guide public opinion.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong then issued an imperial decree to summon Yan Song to Beijing to serve as the envoy to observe customs and rectify social practices in Northern Zhili in order to guide public opinion in the capital.

In his view, it is not enough to rely on newspapers to guide public opinion, and there must also be special officials to organize people to carry out propaganda work.

The Ming Dynasty had no shortage of literati willing to sing praises for the emperor, nor did it have a shortage of literati who only cared about money and not principles. The key was that the emperor had to be willing to spend money and arrange people to organize.

Let’s talk.

Zhang Tong did not dare to neglect what Zhu Houcong had instructed him to do.

For this purpose, Zhang Tong also made a special appointment to meet with Hanlin editor Yao Lai.

Zhang Tong had been secretly in contact with civil officials on orders.

Yao Lai was a Hanlin scholar whom he met through Ke Weixiong and Xu Chengming.

Zhang Tong made an appointment to meet with Yao Lai, naturally because of the rumors spread by Zhu Houcong.

"It is said that the Emperor built a large number of warships in order to send the navy out to sea to find more large pearls to please the Queen. Do you know, Mr. Bang?"

After chatting with Yao Lai for a while, Zhang Tong asked about something.

After hearing this, Yao Lai asked, "Why are you asking this suddenly?"

Zhang Tong raised his eyebrows when he heard him say that. He said, "I won't hide it from you. The Emperor asked us to investigate this matter! So, if you know about this, please tell the person who did it behind the scenes. The Emperor is very angry about this matter. Once it is found out, the consequences will be very serious!"

"Then I won't hide it from you. This matter was spread by Zeng Quan, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Works."

"I told you, of course, that I believe you can protect him."

Yao Lai replied.

Zhang Tong asked, "Why did he do this?"

Yao Lai smiled and said, "Why do you have to ask when you already know the answer?"

Zhang Tong said, "But I have to report to the Emperor! If I can't do this well, won't I lose the power to run the Pacification Office that I have worked so hard to obtain?"

"Just say it was done by Lin Youfu, the Dali Temple Secretary."

Yao Lai instructed.

After hearing this, Zhang Tong asked, "Why this person?"

"This person is a member of Zhang Fujing's faction, and he has also recently been criticizing shipbuilding. If we bring this person up, the emperor will suspect that this rumor is related to Zhang Fujing!"

Yao Lai said.

Zhang Tong couldn't help but ask solemnly, "Are you making up rumors about the Emperor and the Empress in order to get rid of Zhang Fujing?"

“And not just for this.”

"The key point is that the emperor wants to build more warships and strengthen the navy, which is not in line with the public opinion of the clean and peaceful political style. In addition, the Empress has given birth to a child. The Imperial Physician Zhou who passed through the Empress is an old man in the palace. Your Majesty has taken close care of him and rewarded him generously. If you don't use this to teach the Empress a lesson and let her know how to obey public opinion, how can she influence the eldest son in the future?"

Yao Lai then asked about Zhang Tong.

Snapped!
Zhang Tong slammed the table and stood up: "You are really too despicable! How can you slander the emperor, father and mother of the country like this?"

"This is not slander, but a fact that will exist. Don't you think that the emperor built ships not for the sake of seeking external benefits, not for the sake of taking pearls and treasures from all over the world?"

Yao Lai asked.

Zhang Tong suppressed his anger and asked, "Why do you want to get involved with Zhang Cong?"

"This man is the thief of Shilin!"

"We must make the emperor suspect that he is the mastermind behind preventing him from building warships!"

"Not only did the emperor suspect that the rumors were related to him, but the fact that Zhejiang was planning to burn bamboo and wood also made the emperor suspect that it was related to him."

Yao Lai replied.

"I see!"

"This person wants to impose additional business taxes. It's really annoying!"

Zhang Tong nodded.

Yao Lai smiled and said, "So you should make this happen."

"Two hundred thousand silver dollars!"

Zhang Tong directly reported a number.

Yao Lai stood up. Zhang Tong said, "You may hate him, but framing a minister in the court, especially one who made great contributions to the discussion of rituals, is risky. Besides, you have to make arrangements from the Imperial Household Department to the Pacification Department."

Yao Lai said in a deep voice: "But your appetite is too big!"

"Not much. Who is willing to take such a big risk?"

Zhang Tong asked with a smile.

Yao Lai nodded and said, "Okay, I'll pass the message to them for you!"

Zhang Tong then met Zhu Houcong.

Zhu Houcong asked, "Are there any clues?"

"Yes!"

After hearing this, Zhu Houcong dropped his hands on the chair and asked, "Tell me about it."

Zhang Tong then informed Zhu Houcong of what he knew, and said, "I request that you issue a written order to arrest Zeng Quan, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Works!"

"allow!"

then.

That night, Zhang Tong took the imperial edict and rushed to the home of Zeng Quan, the deputy director of the Ministry of Works.

What Zhang Tong didn't expect was that Zeng Quan's family went to bed very early. When he arrived at Zeng Quan's house, it had not been dark for long, but Zeng Quan's family had turned off the lights and gone to bed.

But Zhang Tong also felt that something was wrong. After asking someone to wake up Zeng's family, he personally led someone to take him to Zeng Quan's room.

"master!"

result.

Zhang Tong discovered that Zeng Quan had committed suicide by taking poison!

Zeng Quan's family even screamed in pain because of this.

"broken!"

"Fell into a trap!"

Zhang Tong couldn't help but say something.

Lu Bing, who came with Zhang Tong, hurriedly suggested, "Uncle Zhang, don't panic. My master said that we need to stay calm at times like this! They may have just suspected you, so they arranged this a long time ago."

Zhang Tong nodded and said, "Why don't you go back and ask your husband what he thinks about this matter?"

Lu Bingze looked around and did not answer.

Swish!
Lu Bing suddenly drew his sword and pointed it at Zeng Quan's family members who followed him in: "Call all your family members and go to the Pacification Office with us!"

Zhang Tong looked at Lu Bing: "Why is that?"

"Because we cannot rule out the possibility that Zeng Quan was poisoned by his family!"

Lu Bing replied.

Zhang Tong nodded: "That makes sense!"

Therefore, Zeng Quan's body and his family were taken to the Beizhenfusi.

……

……

"Fortunately you let us give it a try. This Zhang Tong really did bring the Jinyiwei to the Zeng family!"

Shortly that evening, Yao Lai met Xu Jie and told him the news he had just learned.

Xu Jie couldn't help but frown even more tightly: "Now it seems that we are not sure whether it was your majesty who deliberately let Zhang Tong contact us, or whether he is just greedy for money and merit! He wants to capture Zeng Quan and continue to blackmail the outer court!"

"Even if he wanted to blackmail, all he got was a dead person. How could he blackmail him?"

"If he is really a spy sent by the emperor, there will be nothing to be learned from him, unless he really catches me. I am not afraid even if he catches me. My father is now the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War. If the emperor wants to punish me, he must give my father face and insist on real evidence!"

Yao Lai's father, Yao Tan, was promoted from Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works to Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War at the beginning of the third year of Jiajing. He was now ordered to go to Datong to deal with the mutiny.

Therefore, if Zhu Houcong wanted to deal with Yao Lai, he really had to consider the feelings of Yao Tan, who was dealing with the Datong mutiny.

Xu Jie also said: "Your Majesty, of course, cannot let the Jinyiwei arrest you without any evidence! However, if you can continue to serve the gentlemen of the outer court, it will naturally be a good thing! After all, the power of heaven can be measured, and it is better to have some close ministers who can communicate with the outer court than to know nothing."

Yao Lai nodded: "You are not wrong."

Xu Jie then continued to ask Yao Lai because of some recent doubts in his mind: "Do you Zhejiang clans really not want Your Majesty to treat the Portuguese with force and even build warships for this purpose?"

Yao Lai said: "The Portuguese are not that scary. Don't really believe what they say!"

"Whether it is so terrible or not, your Majesty's strengthening of the navy is beneficial to the peace of the country, and if you don't follow his wishes, you may not be able to overthrow Zhang."

"It's useless even if you throw more dirty water on him."

"Although I have only been in the government for a short time, I have gotten to know His Majesty. The emperor doesn't care whether a person is a good person or not, he only cares about who can make his wish come true!"

Xu Jie said at this time.

Yao Lai laughed after hearing this: "I don't think that the dirty water is about to be thrown on him, so how could he not care?"

"Don't talk about it anymore."

"My opinion is that since Zeng Quan has been poisoned to death, his family should not be spared either."

Xu Jie replied.

Yao Lai couldn't help but ask: "How do you say that?"

Xu Jie said: "Prevent the Pacification Office from throwing dirty water on you!"

Yao Lai said: "It's broken!"

"What's broken?"

"The Jinyiwei took away Zeng Quan's family!"

(End of this chapter)