prosperous age

The capital of the Ming Dynasty, the Forbidden City, the Grand Secretariat.

Wei Guangde was still startled when he saw Chen Kai's note.

It was already quite remarkable that he was able to find out the information and know that Yang Keli and others were plotting to overturn the old case of the Prince of Liao, with their target being Zhang Juzheng.

In the case of the Prince of Liao, Wei Guangde learned that they were targeting the wealth of the Prince of Liao's palace, claiming that Zhang Juzheng had embezzled the property of the imperial family.

These matters are actually easy to investigate. By examining the files of the Liao Prince's Mansion sealed by the inner court, it is possible to clarify exactly how much property was seized from the Liao Prince's Mansion and how it was handled.

As long as there are no discrepancies, buying low and selling high is not a big deal; you can always find an excuse to get away with it.

Unexpectedly, Yang Keli also focused his attention on Hong Chaoxuan and Shi Duchen, connecting the three dead men together.

The key person is gone, and we can't even find a statement.

Is it possible that Zhang Juzheng had Hong Chaoxuan killed at the last minute?
Believe it or not, Wei Guangde thought Zhang Juzheng was capable of doing it.

In fact, although he did not intentionally kill anyone to cover up certain things, Zhang Juzheng did indeed do it.

Liu Tai, He Xinyin, and this Hong Chaoxuan all had some connection with Zhang Juzheng.

However, Wei Guangde sometimes thought he was ruthless enough, but in reality, Zhang was even more ruthless than him.

In order to silence them completely, it is possible that someone will be killed directly.

Wei Guangde now felt that this matter was a bit tricky, because once the matter was exposed, it would probably cause an uproar in the court.

This kind of thing doesn't need evidence. As long as everyone thinks it is true, or that it's possible, then whether it's true or not is no longer important.

"I never expected there would be so many follow-ups to this matter."

Shih Tu-chen died in office, and Hung Chao-hsuan died a violent death.

Wei Guangde said in a low voice, then remembered something and immediately called out to the outside: "Reed cloth."

"master."

Upon hearing Wei Guangde's shout, Lu Bu quickly stepped in and bowed to receive the order.

"Go to the Ministry of Justice yourself and borrow the case files of Hong Chaoxuan from Fujian. I want to see them."

Wei Guangde immediately gave the order.

"Yes, I'll go right away."

Lu Bu agreed and was about to leave.

However, he was soon stopped by Wei Guangde.

"Be careful when you go, don't let anyone see you."

Wei Guangde stopped him and added.

After Lu Bu left, Wei Guangde fell into deep thought, waiting for Yang Keli's memorial to arrive so he could draft his response.

If this matter cannot be suppressed, Hong Chaoxuan's case will definitely be reopened, causing another major upheaval.

Now, Wei Guangde's attention has shifted from the so-called property of the Liaowang Mansion to the case of Hong Chaoxuan. If it is confirmed that Zhang Juzheng instigated someone to assassinate Hong Chaoxuan, then Zhang Juzheng's lifelong reputation will be ruined.

After that, although there were three or four memorials in front of him, he had no interest in reading them at all.

He eagerly awaited Lu Bu to retrieve the Ministry of Justice's case files, as he needed to understand the details of Hong Chaoxuan's case in order to know what to do.

Finally, Lu Bu hurriedly returned to the cabinet office carrying a basket and presented the thick stack of documents to Wei Guangde with both hands.

"Go and rest for a while, you've worked hard."

Wei Guangde said something casually and immediately began to look through the case files.

After carefully reviewing the case files, Wei Guangde gained a general understanding of the process of Hong Chaoxuan's case.

As a former high-ranking official of the third rank in the imperial court, Hong Chaoxuan was naturally not a proper man.

Locally, the Hong family members used his connections to bully the weak and oppress others. He allowed his sons and nephews to seize other people's property and defraud villagers of their assets.

It should be noted that the local gentry were not actually a unified entity, and infighting often broke out among them.

Only when both sides are evenly matched will they cease hostilities.

In Tongan County, the Hong family clashed with the local powerful Liu family.

Liu Cunde, the head of the Liu family, retired as the Deputy Provincial Surveillance Commissioner of Guangdong. The two families were originally of equal power, but they became enemies due to gambling debts.

The Liu family appealed their case to He Kuan, the governor of Fujian. He Kuan and Hong Chaoxuan were old acquaintances, and the Liu family lost the case as a result.

The conflict between the Hong and Liu families escalated thereafter, and the successive Fujian governors were all old acquaintances of Hong Chaoxuan, resulting in the Liu family losing lawsuits repeatedly.

This outcome deepened the Liu family's resentment towards the Hong family.

As a result, the Hong family became even more arrogant and domineering in Tongan County.

It should be noted that even after leaving the imperial court, Hong Chaoxuan still maintained very strong connections.

There's something really interesting about this: the relationship between Hong Chaoxuan and Xu Jie is also quite mysterious.

In fact, if one pays a little attention to Hong Chaoxuan's career, one will find that Xu Jie helped him at many crucial moments, enabling him to be promoted to the important position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice.

Therefore, he had a very extensive network of connections in official circles.

However, it is indeed very strange that such a person, who may have had a very close relationship with Xu Jie, took a position opposite to Zhang Juzheng when dealing with the Liao King case.

After all, Zhang Juzheng must have been confident in entrusting Hong Chaoxuan with this task.

However, the actual result was that Hong Chaoxuan was unwilling to handle the case according to his wishes.

Speaking of the case of Hong Chaoxuan, it was actually that the Hong family had defrauded the local people of their land. When this behavior was repeatedly exposed, it angered Jin Zhi, the magistrate of Tong'an County. At this time, the Liu family chose to cooperate with Jin Zhi.

The Liu family provided evidence of the Hong family's bullying and monopolistic practices over the years, and Jinzhi filed a lawsuit with the prefectural city.

At this time, Fujian provincial officials suddenly changed their previous practice of protecting the case and began to handle it impartially.

Furthermore, the governor at the time was worried that the Hong family's power in Tongan County was too great and might incite a popular uprising, so he chose to lure and arrest Hong Chaoxuan and secretly detain him in Quanzhou Prefecture.

After the Hong family indeed rallied the people, Hong Chaoxuan was immediately transferred to the Fuzhou Provincial Surveillance Commissioner's Prison.

At this point, Hong Chaoxuan may have already guessed what was going on, so he chose suicide in prison as a dignified way to die.

Of course, the case file was full of records of the Hong family’s illegal and disorderly conduct in Tongan County over the past ten years, with both witness testimonies and physical evidence. Hong Chaoxuan’s suicide was defined as a suicide out of fear of punishment.

However, judging from the time span of the cases committed by the Hong family, Wei Guangde could sense that the cases were actually the result of external interference.

Anyone with eyes can at least think of Zhang Juzheng, the Grand Secretary at the time.

Although Wei Guangde couldn't figure out exactly what caused the unpleasantness between Zhang Juzheng and Hong Chaoxuan, he had some guesses.

Perhaps it was related to the fact that Mao Kai, the Minister of Justice at the time, was about to retire.

Mao Kai was succeeded by Liu Ziqiang, and Hong Chaoxuan may have approached Zhang Juzheng earlier, hoping that he could be promoted to Minister.

Perhaps Zhang Juzheng failed to promote him, so Hong Chaoxuan chose to retaliate against Zhang Juzheng in the Liaowang case, thus offending him.

Of course, as mentioned before, since the parties involved are no longer around, everything can only be speculation.

However, the defection of Hong Chaoxuan, an official from Xu Jie's faction, to Zhang Juzheng must have been due to a fierce conflict between the two.

In the end, Hong Chaoxuan chose to commit suicide in prison, clearly realizing that he was being manipulated by someone behind the scenes.

"Reed cloth".

Wei Guangde shouted outside again.

After Lu Bu entered, Wei Guangde instructed, "Go to the study and find the documents from the capital inspection in the third year of the Longqing reign."

After speaking, Wei Guangde continued to look through the files. Half an hour later, the files were delivered, and Wei Guangde carefully searched for the names and reasons of the demoted officials.

According to the Ming Dynasty system, officials of the fourth rank and above had to go to the capital to report, and the emperor would decide whether they would stay or leave.

"The cabinet ministers shall vote on whether to retain or dismiss the ministers, or the lower ministries shall review whether the charges are justified, and then the cabinet shall make a decision."

Of course, Emperor Longqing was in power at that time, and Li Chunfang was the Grand Secretary after Xu Jie, so it was impossible for Zhang Juzheng to dismiss a high-ranking official of the third rank.

Hong Chaoxuan's dismissal at that time was more likely the decision of the Longqing Emperor.

It's important to know that the only person who could influence the emperor's decision at the time was Gao Gong, who had not yet returned to court.

The inspection tour in Beijing was completed at the beginning of the year.

According to the case file in Wei Guangde's possession, on February 11th, 197 people, including Yin Leshun, the Vice Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, failed the inspection in Beijing and were punished with demotion, dismissal, or transfer.

At the time, Hong Chaoxuan was only on the list of those to be demoted. Zheng Dajing, a supervising secretary, and Zhang Zhan, an imperial censor, petitioned for the removal of Hong Chaoxuan, the left vice minister of the Ministry of Justice, on the grounds of investigation and criticism.

Hong Chaoxuan made the aforementioned excuses, but on March 7th, the censor impeached Hong Chaoxuan again.

At this time, the Longqing Emperor ordered Hong Chaoxuan to retire with a salary, citing his usual lack of discretion in speech and conduct.

It can be confirmed that Hong Chaoxuan's dismissal was the decision of the Longqing Emperor, but there were indeed people pushing for it, who repeatedly stepped forward to impeach him at crucial moments.

In reality, at that time, Li Chunfang was in charge in the capital, and his main target was some of the older generation from Xu Jie's time.

Although Hong Chaoxuan was old at the time, he was not within the scope of the dismissal. The fact that he was still alive and kicking in his hometown for more than ten years after being dismissed shows that he was in good health.

However, the repeated impeachments may have indeed led the Longqing Emperor to conclude that this person was of questionable character.

Of course, in fact, Hong Chaoxuan did not remain restless after returning to his hometown, causing trouble and making a fuss.

"Lubu, send these files back."

Finally, after Wei Guangde had basically figured out the whole story, he called Lu Bu over and asked him to send everything back.

At this moment, the secretary in front of him quickly walked to the outside of the duty room with a memorial in his hand.

"Is something wrong?"

Seeing his expression, Wei Guangde knew that it must be Yang Keli's memorial that had arrived, but he still pretended not to know and asked a question.

"Grand Secretary Wei, it's just a memorial from Censor Yang Keli of the Censorate, impeaching former Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng for fabricating a wrongful case."

The Imperial Secretary dared not continue speaking at this point, which showed how frightened he was by the memorial, and that's why he rushed it here.

"give it to me."

Wei Guangde reached out his hand, and the Imperial Secretary hurriedly handed the memorial to Wei Guangde before decisively taking his leave.

Wei Guangde flipped through the memorial, but sighed after only reading the beginning.

If someone is unaware, then they should not do it in the first place. Although Wei Guangde did not examine the files of the Liao King's case, he could still tell that most of them were suspects. Otherwise, Hong Chaoxuan would not have dared to withstand the pressure from everyone and insist that he did not believe that the Liao King had any intention of treason.

Hong Chaoxuan's downfall was mostly due to that person's instigation, and he was rather sloppy in his actions.

That makes sense, though, since Zhang Juzheng had only been in the cabinet for a few years at that time, it's normal that his work wasn't perfect.

To be honest, if it were Wei Guangde, he would also find it troublesome to take down a high-ranking official of the third rank.

Using the capital inspection was undoubtedly the best way to repeatedly have the censors impeach him and expose his misdeeds to the emperor.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde couldn't help but pat his forehead.

Perhaps I was prejudiced because of Hong Chaoxuan's death.

But upon closer examination, Zhang Juzheng's influence was too strong, and the whole thing seemed too deliberate.

The proper approach should be to relentlessly attack the Hong family, starting from the bottom up, and investigate the case thoroughly.

Although it will take longer, it will make Hung Chao-hsuan's downfall seem less deliberate.

Wei Guangde held the memorial for a long time. After it had been repeatedly polished by Yang Keli, Li Zhi and others, he really couldn't find any faults to refute it.

It can be said that, without considering the Wanli Emperor's opinion, such a memorial was an impeccable accusation.

Thinking back on the case file he had just reviewed, Wei Guangde was now considering the extent of the impact this case would have on him.

The only saving grace was that Hong Chaoxuan's case was not handled by Wei Shiliang in the Ministry of Justice, so it had little to do with him.

It is estimated that this was also some arrangement made by Zhang Juzheng.

Otherwise, he would never have been unaware that a third-rank official in a rural area had died.

It should be noted that Hong Chaoxuan was not stripped of his official position; he was only suspended from duty pending further investigation after the case was exposed.

Having the rank of a third-grade official was the main reason why Hong Chaoxuan could be restless even in his hometown.

Wei Guangde couldn't help but wonder if this was a trap Zhang Juzheng had laid long ago, just waiting for the right opportunity to eliminate him completely.

After all, dealing with a high-ranking official of the third rank is very troublesome and has a great impact.

Wei Guangde waited until Lu Bu returned before calling him in and instructing him, "Go and invite Grand Secretary Shen over. Tell him I have something important to discuss with him."

Wei Guangde did not call Xu Guo and the others over, but wanted to communicate with him first and reach a consensus before notifying the others to come over.

If the chief minister and the deputy chief minister remain in agreement, then the other three will not cause any major trouble.

However, if he rashly called everyone over, and Xu Guo took the opportunity to cause trouble, it would definitely not be a good thing for him, who wanted to handle the matter peacefully.

Before long, Shen Shixing arrived.

"Rumo, take a look at this first."

Shen Shixing had not been informed by Wei Guangde beforehand and was unaware of this memorial.

This is also due to the difference in their relationship of closeness and distance; now, Wei Guangde is increasingly less willing to trust Shen Shixing.

Even though it was he who took the initiative to recommend him for the cabinet.

This is the officialdom; self-interest comes first.

When Shen Shixing saw the memorial, his brows furrowed quickly, clearly sensing the difficulty of the matter.

It was only because Zhang Juzheng was no longer alive that this memorial alone could have sparked a factional struggle, causing chaos throughout the court.

Even so, if this matter is not handled properly, it could cause a major upheaval.

After all, the imperial court was waging war against Japan, and if a disturbance occurred at the headquarters at this time, it would inevitably affect many of the imperial court's plans.

"This matter must be handled with caution. If it is not handled properly, I am worried that the turmoil in the court will affect Japan."

After reading it, Shen Shixing immediately spoke to Wei Guangde.

"Yes, this is a big deal, it will definitely cause a huge uproar, and it may have already caused a stir outside."

Wei Guangde said calmly, "However, this matter cannot be ignored. According to convention, the Censorate will definitely send someone to investigate."

"An investigation is definitely necessary, but the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War cannot act rashly. The Grand Secretary may need to inform them of this beforehand."

Shen Shixing said, "To deal with such matters, we must act swiftly and decisively. We should draft a proposal to have the relevant authorities send someone to verify the facts, so as to avoid everyone in the court submitting memorials about this matter afterward."

Ideally, the person should be chosen today.

Shen Shixing was very decisive this time. The best way to avoid infighting in the court was to set the tone before others reacted and followed suit.

"Lubu, immediately send messengers to all departments to invite the Nine Ministers to the Grand Secretariat for a meeting."

Wei Guangde nodded and immediately called out to the outside. (End of Chapter)