My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 57 Thinking about retreating
After reading the memorial, Li Fang handed it to Feng Bao beside him and said:
"Eunuch Feng, please take a look at this memorial as well."

Although Feng Bao had long wanted to replace Li Fang, he treated Li Fang with the utmost courtesy. He respectfully took the memorial and, after quickly reading it, said with a smile:

"The elders in the cabinet all agree, so what else can we in the Imperial Household Department say?"

Li Fang picked up the memorial and said:

"Since this concerns the academic affairs, I'd better send him there personally."

Feng Bao was a little surprised. Under normal circumstances, this kind of memorial did not need to be delivered personally by Li Fang, the head of the Imperial Household Department.

However, he had also read Su Ze's memorial and felt that the imperial favor in the provincial examination was just a trivial matter, so he watched Li Fang leave the Imperial Household Department.
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Li Fang stood beside the imperial desk. When Emperor Longqing finished reading Su Ze's memorial, he heard the emperor say:

"This Su Zilin, once a month isn't enough! It's only been half a month, and he's already caused such a big commotion!"

Although the emperor spoke with reproach, there was a smile between his eyebrows.

Li Fang knew that this was because Su Ze was "favored by the emperor". Although Emperor Longqing said that he disliked Su Ze for causing trouble, he actually attached great importance to his memorials.

Li Fang felt deeply moved that so many ministers had worked diligently for decades but their names were never remembered by the emperor.

Su Ze had only been in officialdom for half a year, but the emperor had already remembered his courtesy name.

The Jinshi scholars of the same period as him were still observing government affairs in the Nine Ministers' Office. The gap between these people was really too big.

Emperor Longqing put down the memorial and said:

"What does the Imperial Household Department think?"

Li Fang lowered her head and said:
"The punishment comes from the Lord, so the Imperial Household Department naturally agrees."

Emperor Longqing nodded and said:
"Since the Cabinet and the Imperial Household Department are in agreement, let's send it to the Ministry of Rites for processing."

"only."

Emperor Longqing was feeling a little tired, so Li Fang personally helped him clean up the imperial desk. However, he pretended to be slow and said after a while:

"Your Majesty, I have been feeling unwell these days and would like to recuperate for a while."

Emperor Longqing looked at the white hair on Li Fang's temples, and then he remembered that the eunuch who had served him all his life was also old.

"Then take good care of your health. The Imperial Household Department can't do without you."

Li Fang quickly knelt down and said:

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace! I am old, and I feel even more powerless this year."

Emperor Longqing softened his heart and said:
"You are so old, take good care of yourself, I can't live without you."

Speaking of this, Li Fang can be said to be deeply favored.

But Li Fang also knew that the royal family's kindness was always cold and indifferent. He used sick leave as an introduction and gradually led the topic back to the past.

As they talked, they naturally talked about the period of the previous emperor's reign at Prince Yu's Mansion.

Emperor Longqing also became interested in talking and brought up many old stories of Prince Yu's Mansion. Li Fang joined in the fun, which made the emperor feel much better.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Li Fang said:
"I, your servant, feel a sense of melancholy. I am truly old, and as we age, we tend to remember the past. Today, when I read Su Hanlin's memorial and read the line 'Grace and punishment come from the Lord,' I was reminded of the words of Lord Xu who wrote in his memorial, 'Return authority and blessings to the Lord; return government affairs to the various departments; and return the use and dismissal of punishments and rewards to public opinion.' It feels like yesterday."

After saying this, the smile on Emperor Longqing's face immediately disappeared. Li Fang knelt down and said:

"Your Majesty, I have spoken out of turn. Please punish me!"

Emperor Longqing's face changed, naturally because Li Fang mentioned Xu Ge Lao, who was the retired Xu Jie.

"Return power and blessings to the sovereign; return government affairs to the various departments; return the appointment and dismissal of punishments and rewards to public opinion." This was the political program proposed by Xu Jie to the late emperor after he defeated Yan Song and became the new chief minister of the cabinet.

This can also be seen as Xu Jie's own policy program, which is to advocate improving the functional powers of the nine departments, big and small, and returning the cabinet and the Imperial Household Department to their historical position of assisting the emperor's decision-making bodies, thereby strengthening the emperor's power.

The politics of the cabinet and the ministries were a political struggle that ran through the history of the Ming Dynasty. It was the struggle between the inner court such as the Cabinet and the Secretariat and the six ministries and nine government offices.

Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the Secretariat, and the Ming Dynasty no longer had the position of prime minister in terms of both ancestral system and legal principles. Therefore, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet was only the prime minister in name, with the power of a prime minister but not the actual prime minister.

But in fact, a cabinet chief like Yan Song could do something even more powerful than the powerful ministers of the Tang and Song dynasties, and treat the six ministries and nine government offices as slaves.

The power of the ministries headed by the Six Ministries and the power of the cabinet headed by the Cabinet, the two sides struggled for power, causing countless political turmoil.

Because Yan Song was autocratic, Xu Jie proposed a political program that was to weaken the power of the cabinet, return specific affairs to the six ministries, and then strengthen the imperial power, allowing the imperial power to decide the affairs of the six ministries.

Regardless of whether Xu Jie thought so or not, he did so after he came to power.

This naturally led to a fierce conflict with Gao Gong, who advocated strengthening the power of the cabinet. The two were not only fighting for power, but also for policy.

In this atmosphere, Li Fang mentioned Xu Jie, which softened Emperor Longqing's originally hardened heart.

Emperor Longqing thought of what Xu Jie had planned for him when he was at Prince Yu's Mansion.

Prince Jing and Yan Song forced him into a desperate situation, and it was Xu Jie who organized the clean forces in the court to support him.

After the death of the previous emperor, Xu Jie assisted in the administration and stabilized the chaotic political situation.

Thinking of this, Emperor Longqing's heart finally melted, and he sighed and said:

"Lord Xu has made some contributions."

Li Fang was secretly delighted. The emperor's words meant that he was not going to continue to settle accounts with Xu Jie.

The emperor then became troubled again: "But Hai Rui has submitted a memorial, and the court is discussing this. I have just punished Xu Jie's two sons. How should this end?"

Li Fang said at this time:

"Your Majesty, in the memorial of respect sent by Lord Xu last month, he mentioned that he was building a garden in Songjiang Prefecture, intending to spend his remaining years in his hometown."

Retired officials could write memorials to the emperor, usually talking about trivial matters in the countryside, in order to maintain personal relationships with the emperor.

After Xu Jie retired, he also wrote memorials to the emperor as usual.

When this memorial was submitted, the incident of Hai Rui's land seizure had not yet happened. Xu Jie talked about his life after returning home.

Li Fang continued:

"Your Majesty, please give Elder Xu's garden a name."

Emperor Longqing immediately understood and gave a name to Xu Jie's newly built garden. This showed the emperor's attitude. Although Xu Jie's son was punished, Xu Jie was still a good person and a loyal minister.

As long as the emperor made his attitude clear and suppressed the rumors, the settlement of Xu Jie would end here.

"What is your name?"

Li Fang said:

"Your Majesty, how about returning Zhengyuan?"

Emperor Longqing clapped his hands and said:
"it is good!"

Returning the Garden to the Emperor shows Xu Jie’s contributions during the reign of Emperor Longqing, and also implies that Xu Jie “returned power”, indicating that the emperor would not use him again, which made Gao Gong in the cabinet feel at ease.

In this way, Gao Gong would not continue to attack Xu Jie fiercely, and the emperor would have a way out.

In this way, Su Ze did not know that a sentence in his memorial was used by Li Fang to defuse the storm of reckoning against Xu Jie.

Holding the imperial calligraphy, Li Fang came out of the imperial study.

He sighed. If Xu Jie retired, he could still save him, but what would he do when he retired?
Li Fang once again thought about retreating, but he had to retreat safely. If he ended up like Xu Jie after retreating, no one in the palace would protect him.

Li Fang looked around and finally landed on a young eunuch.

"Zhang Hong, how long have you been following this family?"

"In reply to godfather, since entering the palace at the age of seven, little Hongzi has been registered under godfather's name. It has been fifteen years now."

"The East Palace has just been established, and there are many people who need help there. Let's go to the East Palace tomorrow."

When the other eunuchs heard the news, they all looked at Zhang Hong with jealous eyes, but when they heard this news, they said with panic:

"Godfather, is it that Xiao Hongzi hasn't served you well? Please don't chase me away!"

Li Fang laughed and scolded, "You're such a straight shooter! How many people would beg for this job? Just go for it!"

Li Fang whispered again:

"When you go to the Eastern Palace in the future, if you encounter Su Ze giving lectures to the Crown Prince, you should keep a close eye on him and get along well with this Hanlin Su. Your future wealth and even your godfather's safety may all depend on him."
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Su Ze naturally didn't know what was happening in the palace, so he had no need to [carry the Ming Dynasty Court with him] since the emperor and the cabinet would definitely approve the memorial.

He also didn't know that Li Fang saved Xu Jie's fate with just one sentence in his memorial.

Early the next morning, he was in the printing house of the newspaper, happily looking at the newly printed "Yuefu Xinbao".

I wrote a little more and posted it all together. Thank you all for your support!

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(End of this chapter)