prosperous age

Chapter 1139 1230 Deputy Imperial Envoy
Wei Guangde came out of the Prime Minister's duty room and returned to his own duty room, where there were still many memorials that needed his review and approval.

Zhang Siwei stayed with Zhang Juzheng. He understood that Zhang Juzheng might have something else to say to him.

Although Zhang Siwei did not express any opposition and even echoed Zhang Juzheng just now after Zhang Juzheng revealed that the cabinet intended to survey the land throughout the country, who knows whether he was sincere or not.

Zhang Juzheng probably kept Zhang Siwei for this reason.

Wei Guangde didn't care how Zhang Juzheng tried to persuade Zhang Siwei. As soon as he returned to the duty room, Lu Bu quickly followed him in and whispered in his ear, "Master, something happened in the southwest."

"Ok?"

Upon hearing Lu Bu's words, Wei Guangde stopped in his tracks and stood there in a daze.

Yes, his current situation is actually very delicate, that is, the issue of using force against foreign countries.

Although the incident was instigated by the Toungoo Dynasty of Burma, the court's tough response also aroused some opposition within the court.

In the eyes of the old scholar, there are barbarians all around, so the Ming Dynasty should convince people with reason.

For this reason, when the Burmese Toungoo Dynasty launched an invasion, the imperial court should educate them with the teachings of sages rather than fighting violence with violence.

Because there are such discussions below, although there are not many people who support it, they are all old-school figures in the court and they still have some influence.

Of course, the most important thing is the result.

In fact, it doesn’t matter even if the war was launched by the Ming Dynasty court.

In the eyes of most people, as long as they can win, it’s fine.

Whether it makes sense or not is not important at all.

But what he heard just now was that Lubu said something happened in the southwest.

Wei Guangde instinctively thought that Li Chengliang had suffered a great defeat because of his rash advance with light troops.

"what's up?"

Fortunately, Wei Guangde did not ask directly to express what he was thinking.

"Governor Li came to the southwest to kill the prisoners. Luo Rufang, the censor of Yongchang Prefecture, reported the matter and it has been sent to the Ministry of War and the Censorate."

Lu Bu didn't know that his words just now scared Wei Guangde, he just told the situation honestly.

"Now the news has spread in the court, and many people have gone to the Ministry of War, saying that Li Chengliang should be severely punished for killing prisoners."

Lu Bu continued.

"When did the news come out?"

When Wei Guangde heard that they had not lost the battle, he felt relieved.

As long as you don't lose the fight, everything else is easy.

"When you went to see the Prime Minister, the Ministry of War sent you a copy of the memorial."

Lu Bu replied softly.

Wei Guangde took a step and quickly returned to his desk. Seeing a memorial placed in the middle, he immediately picked it up and quickly flipped through it.

He was actually still wondering how it was possible that he would be sued for killing prisoners.

On the battlefield, just chop the person to death, why bother killing prisoners?

After he finished reading the memorial, he realized that Li Chengliang was really killing prisoners this time. The surrendered Burmese soldiers actually wanted to rebel. After the rebellion was suppressed, Li Chengliang ordered a group of them to be killed.

It can be considered as killing the chicken to scare the monkeys. I think the remaining captives should be much more obedient.

However, at the end of the memorial, Luo Rufang was obviously still trying to exonerate Li Chengliang. First, these prisoners of war did not know what was good for them. The Ming court had not treated them unfairly, but they still wanted to make trouble. It was really their own fault.

Secondly, of course, it was said that Li Chengliang did not initially intend to kill people to establish his authority, because there was no need to do so. Instead, he wanted to keep them serving the Ming Dynasty.

The final conclusion is that Li Chengliang's order to kill prisoners was probably an order issued in a desperate situation. The court can reprimand him but there is no need to pursue the matter.

What's more, the war is urgent at this time, so it is even more inappropriate to punish the generals for this, so as not to shake the morale of the army.

In fact, Wei Guangde knew that the problem Lu Bu was talking about was that Li Chengliang killed the prisoners, so he didn't take it seriously at all.

In ancient times, only people who read gentlemen's books would think that killing prisoners was cruel and against the harmony of nature. However, for those who fought in the battlefields, perhaps they had seen too many dead bodies and did not think there was anything wrong at all.

Although killing prisoners is an extremely inhumane act from the perspective of later generations, it was commonplace after wars in ancient times.

Prisoners of war require food supplies, which will increase the burden on the army. Unless the victorious party is sure to recruit the prisoners of war, it generally will not invest resources in prisoners of war.

In order to solve the food problem, killing prisoners of war was one of the options.

Of course, there is also the treatment of prisoners of war.

Most wars before the Tang Dynasty involved conscripting peasants to fight. It would be a good thing if so many prisoners of war could be quickly dispersed to different places. However, if they could not be quickly resettled, it would easily lead to civil unrest and social unrest.

The Burmese prisoners of war that Li Chengliang dealt with this time were actually the latter type.

Li Chengliang had naturally planned to keep them, but he only wanted obedient people.

"Kill them, so what's the point? They didn't stay in Burma, but followed the rebels into our Ming territory. Can't we just kill them?"

Wei Guangde muttered softly, not taking those people who talked about benevolence and morality seriously at all.

As for the bad luck of killing prisoners, that was Li Chengliang's fate and had nothing to do with the Ming court.

The cabinet of the Ming Dynasty court was very interesting. From the perspective of later generations, it seemed that the vast majority, or even almost all, of the cabinet ministers were turbid rather than clear.

Looking through the history of Ming Dynasty and checking the list of all cabinet ministers, it seems that only Zhao Zhenji can be considered a clean official, but his time in the cabinet was also very short, only three years.

The original meaning of "Qingliu" refers to an unpolluted and clear river. When it refers to people, it often refers to those officials who are upright, honest, and have the country and the people in their hearts. They are gentlemen.

However, in the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty, there has never been any soil for these gentlemen to exist.

In fact, in the eyes of the emperor, most of the clean officials might only be able to talk big, comment on current affairs, submit memorials to the emperor, impeach ministers, denounce eunuchs, oppose the encroachment of foreign powers, and advocate the rectification of discipline at home, but they could not do anything.

The corresponding turbid currents are mostly practical people who know how to get things done and can handle the various problems facing the court.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty court was run by officials from the muddy stream, while officials from the clean stream were responsible for supervising the empty talk.

Those who scold Li Chengliang for being unkind and ungrateful and shout that he should be dealt with are the upright people who don't care about the matter.

We have no rights, so what's the point of shouting louder?

However, Wei Guangde thought that he could use this incident to meet with Chen Zan and spread the word to the outside world that he was pleading for Li Chengliang, but in fact it was another matter.

This time, the Censorate seemed to be moving away from neutrality and towards the Prime Minister. Wei Guangde felt it necessary to ask Chen Zan for an explanation.

If he cannot stabilize the Censorate, he must be given an explanation.

Wei Guangde immediately wrote a note and sent it to the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Justice, and gave it to his people, asking them to do their best to appease those clean officials.

Turbidity will never get involved in such matters.

Everyone knows that it was Wei Guangde who arranged Li Chengliang's return to the capital and his trip to the southwest, and even his official position was arranged by Wei Guangde.

The turbid current, relatively speaking, is more concerned with profit, and generally will not get involved in things that have no profit, unless they involve the country's capital.

After writing the note, he handed it to Lu Bu and said, "Send it to Lord Jiang and Lord Shu and let them handle this matter."

Lord Jiang is naturally Jiang Zhi.

Although the civil and military officials had different paths, Li Chengliang was fighting under the Ministry of War after all. If he was reported and brought down, the Ministry of War would lose face.

As for Lord Shu, he was referring to Shu Hua of the Ministry of Justice, who was in charge of the people in the Ministry of Justice. In fact, among Wei Guangde's fellow countrymen, Wei Shiliang was the best choice, but unfortunately he was not willing to leave Jiangnan, and was now serving as the Minister of the Nanjing Dali Temple.

In fact, Wei Guangde had always wanted to bring him back to take over the Ministry of Justice. After all, it was one of the six ministries. Although it was the most remote government office, it still had a place among the Nine Ministers.

Well, grabbing power actually means seeing who has more people among the senior officials.

Why was Yan Song so arrogant at the beginning? It was because most of the Nine Ministers were from Jiangxi. This was the reason for Yan Song's arrogance at the time.

As a fellow villager, you always have to save face for him and speak for him sometimes.

"Yes."

Lu Bu took the note and was about to go out, but was stopped by Wei Guangde.

"Go outside the palace gate and tell the people in the mansion that I'm leaving."

"Yes, sir."

Lu Bu quickly agreed.

Wei Guangde was too lazy to read those memorials. It didn't really matter if he dealt with them a day earlier or later. After all, most of the memorials were meaningless. Even if they were put aside for half a year, the people who wrote the memorials would probably have forgotten about them.

After Lu Bu left, Wei Guangde rested for a while before getting up and leaving the cabinet.

Generally speaking, after the people in the palace sent him there, they would find a teahouse nearby to rest, and would only appear outside the palace gate to wait when the court was about to end.

Or maybe someone in the palace sent a message saying that Wei Guangde was leaving to do some work.

After leaving Wenyuan Pavilion and going out the left side door, Wei Guangde walked along the long palace road all the way to Chengtian Gate, and glanced back inadvertently.

The palace road is really long. I didn’t realize it when I first walked in to take part in the palace examination.

But after walking for so many years, Wei Guangde suddenly felt a little tired.

I don't know when it will be my turn to be eligible to go in.

But soon, Wei Guangde shook his head and thought, if he really wanted to ride in a sedan chair into the palace, how old would he have to be?
Yan Song was seventy years old before he was favored by Emperor Jiajing and enjoyed this treatment.

Standing at the palace gate, a large sedan chair was approaching this side quickly in the distance.

As they got closer, the sedan bearers put down the sedan, and the bearers at the back raised the pole. The sedan leaned forward, and Wei Guangde stepped over the pole in front and got into the sedan.

"To the Censorate."

Before Wei Guangde entered the sedan chair, he gave instructions to the attendants standing beside him.

"Lord Wei, please come in."

In the Censorate, Chen Zan welcomed Wei Guangde in and politely asked someone to serve tea.

Wei Guangde was no stranger to the Censorate, as he had once been an official there.

"Master Chen, Master Chen of the Censorate is in good hands."

When Wei Guangde walked into the Censorate this time, he keenly noticed that the atmosphere was a little different. Many people in the Censorate also noticed that he did not take the initiative to salute, but seemed to want to avoid it.

However, most officials seemed to realize that they could not avoid it, so they stepped forward and saluted respectfully.

Wei Guangde did not think that this change meant that these censors were afraid of him, the Deputy Prime Minister. After all, this was a famous gathering place for mad dogs in the court.

If Wei Guangde made a mistake in his mission, there would be many people here who would rush up to attack him.

For fame.

"Mr. Wei Ge, this."

Chen Zan was speechless for a moment after hearing Wei Guangde's words.

Chen Zan naturally knew that Wei Guangde had come with such a large army, and he was definitely not here for the matter of Li Chengliang in the southwest.

In fact, even the Censorate, although they had already known about Luo Rufang's memorial and some censors wanted to submit an impeachment memorial, the vast majority of censors had no intention of following suit.

If Li Chengliang had killed innocent people to claim credit, I'm afraid the entire Censorate would have exploded.

But the people to be killed were Burmese captives, or they were killed as a warning to others after their riot. As for the fierce fighting in western Yunnan at this time, it should naturally be suppressed with thundering means to provide the Ming army on the front line with a stable rear.

Therefore, killing prisoners did not actually cause much of a stir in the Censorate.

If there was anything wrong on the part of the Censorate, it would naturally be Yu Yingchang's business.

"I heard earlier that the Censorate sent Yu Yingchang to Liaodong to investigate the case and collect evidence of Liu Tai's corruption?"

Wei Guangde looked at Chen Zan happily and asked.

"Lord Wei, this matter was mainly pushed by the Shandong Province. I only discovered the trick afterward. Is there any solution?
You can't let me deal with all the censors in Shandong for this matter."

Chen Zan smiled bitterly helplessly.

"Isn't this the result of a meeting of the Censorate?"

Wei Guangde said suspiciously.

The Six Ministries and the Censorate all have a main hall, which is where the officials in charge of the ministry handle official business. Different from the duty room, it has greater symbolic significance.

Important meetings in the yamen are usually held in the main hall.

According to Wei Guangde's understanding, the Censorate should hold a meeting in the main hall and select a censor to go to Liaodong to investigate the case.

But according to Chen Zan, this incident was probably pushed by Shandong Province among the Thirteen Provinces.

Among the Shandong Provincial Censors, there would naturally be no officials from Shandong, all of them were from other provinces.

Wei Guangde understood it after thinking about it. There was no province in Liaodong, and the government affairs had been managed by Shandong across the sea in the early Ming Dynasty. Therefore, it was natural that Shandong was responsible for investigating and handling Liaodong affairs in the Censorate.

They took the initiative to send an imperial censor to inspect Liaodong, which shows that this matter seemed to have been planned in advance.

"Master Chen, don't you think there is anything wrong?"

Wei Guangde frowned and said, "If you don't know, you would think that the Censorate is also involved."

"Lord Wei, the Censorate oversees all officials, so they will not frame a minister.

No matter who it is, the Censorate will deal with the matter, not the person. Please rest assured, Lord Wei."

Chen Zan spoke freely, but then he felt a little embarrassed and lowered his voice, saying, "Today's matter was indeed due to my negligence. If Lord Wei is dissatisfied, you can come to me."

"Negligence? I don't think so."

Wei Guangde chuckled and said, "It can only be said that someone has already reached into the Censorate."

Chen Zan did not respond. In fact, he had already received news from Ge Shouli. Being able to sit here was not only due to his own ability, but also related to the various forces in the court.

As long as you take sides, you will basically have no chance of becoming the Left Censor-in-Chief.

"I won't ask who it is, nor will I pursue anything. After all, this is the business of the Censorate."

Wei Guangde continued, "Since they have taken action in the Censorate, can I ask Lord Chen to show some mercy and transfer one of my good friends here?"

"No."

After hearing Wei Guangde's words, Chen Zan immediately said that he did not want the court struggle to continue to the Censorate.

"He's just a deputy imperial envoy. What's wrong with helping to keep an eye on things so that what happened today won't happen again?"

Wei Guangde smiled.