prosperous age

Chapter 610 609 The Enemy of Life

"What? Uncle was called to the palace by Mr. Xu Ge?"

At this time, the servant who went to the school record office had already returned, and whispered to Li Fang and Wei Guangde the news they heard in the school record room.

Wei Guangde just frowned, feeling vaguely inappropriate, but he couldn't tell, Li Fang's reaction was much stronger.

Since Zhang Juzheng was not found, the people in the palace no longer sent people to look for him. Anyway, there are quite a few people in the palace now, enough to make suggestions.

Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhen had senior qualifications, mainly because they discussed with Li Fang what preparations the palace should make, so as to avoid being caught off guard when something happened, Wei Guangde sat quietly by the side, happy to hide away.

In a wing room in the backyard of the palace, King Yu sat there in a daze, maintaining this posture for a long time.

Today, he finally saw his father, whom he missed day and night, but it was the last time he saw him.

At this time, King Yu was still recalling what Emperor Jiajing said to him after he returned to the dragon couch with Emperor Jiajing on his back.

"You are not a competent emperor. Fortunately, you have a virtuous minister to assist you, and nothing serious will happen."

Thinking of what his father said to him, King Yu felt pain for no reason.

He knew that among several brothers, he was the stupidest one, even inferior to King Jing.

But in the end, Emperor Jiajing decided to pass on the throne to him in an orderly manner according to his seniority. During this period, he was tested and stimulated many times, hoping that he would grow up, but in the end the emperor was still disappointed.

Thinking of this, King Yu finally moved.

He took out the only thing that Emperor Jiajing had given him from his bosom, a note, and slowly unfolded it, on which were written the names of "Xu Jie, Gao Gong, and Zhang Juzheng" in sequence.

"If you use it sequentially, there will be no mistakes."

After all, Emperor Jiajing was worried about his only son, and he considered all aspects.

However, when King Yu saw the memorabilia that was brought out along with the note, he became very angry.

It was the security guard on Hai Rui, and he was left alone with Emperor Jiajing, and he would be annoyed for a long time if he didn't see it.

"No country, no family, no king, no father."

King Yu still remembered what Emperor Jiajing had said about Hai Rui when he threw "Public Security Book" to him.

Although the entire "Zhi An Shu" seems to be exhorting Emperor Jiajing to reform, what is written about him in it?
Believe in witchcraft, live extravagantly, ignore the government, and ignore the people.
It seems to be persuading, so why not pointing at his nose and scolding?
What the faint king should do, what he can do, basically he has done.

From ancient times to the present, no courtier has dared to use these words to criticize the emperor.

In just over 3000 words, each word stabbed like a knife in Emperor Jiajing's heart.

But even so, Emperor Jiajing still wanted him to pardon Hai Rui and win Qingliu's heart.

No matter whether Hai Rui is willing or not, no matter whether he is in love or not, now Qingliu is pushing him out as a signboard.

Such a person cannot be killed.

Is it really impossible to kill?
King Yu asked himself in his heart?

For no reason, King Yu thought of Wei Guangde.

Wei Guangde also said similar things, Hai Rui cannot die, at least not in prison.

"Hai Rui is a knife. You can control it. Whoever you hate and don't want to use, you can let Hai Rui deal with him.

I know what they think, the officialdom is dim, but there are also a group of loyal ministers, although they dare not risk their lives to speak out.

Seeing that Hai Rui's memorial expresses the thoughts they want to express but dare not express, for them, Hai Rui is a weapon to speak out for them. "

At this time, King Yu kept thinking about what Emperor Jiajing said to him, and analyzed everything inside and outside the court for him in detail, and even his trusted Gao Gong, Chen Yiqin and others made simple evaluations.

The evaluation of Wei Guangde is: it can be used, but it cannot be the first assistant. The relationship between him and Nanjing is too complicated, and the consequences of great use are unpredictable.

"The will? When did His Majesty make the will?"

At this time, in Qianqing Palace, Xu Jie took out Zhang Juzheng's "Jiajing Legacy" drafted by him and showed it to the other three cabinet ministers, but Gao Gong asked loudly without reading it.

Emperor Jiajing would not leave an edict for himself. If there is an edict, it will only be the "Edict of Passing the Throne".

According to the usual practice, the emperor's edict should be drafted by the cabinet ministers together, and Xu Jie should definitely not do it alone.

When they entered the palace just now, they happened to see Zhang Juzheng leaving, but they didn't think much about it at that time, but until now, Gao Gong had guessed that Xu Jie must have let Zhang Juzheng participate in the drafting of the will.

When will a Shaoqing of Taichang Temple be able to do what a cabinet minister can do?
Are they going to dismiss all the cabinet ministers in the next moment, and abdicate to Xu Jie's students?
Gao Gong's words made Li Fang and Guo Pu's faces look ugly, and they didn't reach out to take it.

Xu Jie broke the rules this time, and Li Chunfang, who is a good old man, was also very dissatisfied.

However, at this moment, Li Chunfang only thought that Xu Jie's purpose of doing this was to demonstrate his power as chief assistant, and didn't think too much about it.

"I am the chief assistant, and I was entrusted by the late emperor to draft the edict. What's wrong?"

Seeing the attitude of the three of them, Xu Jie was very dissatisfied.

Although he was dissatisfied on the surface, he enjoyed it very much in his heart, not because he took the lead, but because he knew from Gao Gong's words that his goal had been achieved.

In the side hall, the arguments of several cabinet ministers were of course behind the backs of others, and the servants who were still serving in the room had been driven away.

If the eunuchs and servants of this period were present, they would definitely find it very interesting, and only the old eunuchs who had stayed in the palace for a long time would know that such quarrels over the edicts were actually not uncommon in the history of the Ming Dynasty.

The will is the emperor's review of the governance achievements during his reign, reviewing his failures and ineffectiveness. At the same time, he will announce that he is terminally ill and about to die. Ask and appease the vassal kings and local powerful officials everywhere.

For the emperor, he was about to die, not to mention his achievements when he was in power, even if it was true that people and gods were indignant, and what he did was not a human thing, there was no need to scold himself.

Then this work is obviously, it cannot be written by the emperor himself, but by the actual organizers, that is, the ministers of the current dynasty, especially the cabinet ministers, who are the specific drafters of the will.

The drafting of the imperial edict is obviously the best time to summarize all the mistakes of the previous court, to clear up their own mistakes, and to attack political opponents. Therefore, the formulation of the imperial edict is naturally a key area for courtiers in the Ming Dynasty. Whoever masters the imperial edict will win. He has mastered the initiative in the court in the future.

Participating in the will actually means being able to join the cabinet.

Xu Jie asked Zhang Juzheng to participate in the drafting of the will, in fact, he wanted to carry Zhang Juzheng into the cabinet.

Zhang Juzheng was brought into the cabinet by Xu Jie, which inevitably aroused Gao Gong's dissatisfaction with Zhang Juzheng.

The relationship between Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng is very complicated. The two people have many common topics when they get together. Although there are deviations in political ideas, the general direction is the same.

This made Xu Jie very vigilant, worried that Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong would stand together, which would be too bad for him.

Zhang Ju is the successor he is optimistic about, and it is also the foundation for his Xu family to continue to prosper.

If Zhang Juzheng really turned to Gao Gong, based on his relationship with Gao Gong, Xu Jie could predict what the Xu family would be like after he became an official.

Killing two birds with one stone, Zhang Juzheng participated in the drafting of Jiajing's last edict, then Gao Gong will definitely treat him as an enemy for life, and will not have any thoughts of wooing him.

Because Gao Gong's character is so domineering.

He doesn't weigh the pros and cons, and judges right from wrong, good from bad, and good from evil based entirely on personal subjective consciousness.

A person like him is not a qualified politician, and he is destined to be vulnerable in front of real politicians.

Of course, such a thing would never happen during King Yu's reign.

"My lords, shouldn't it be time to promulgate the edict and announce this matter? We can't keep delaying it."

I don't know how long it has passed, Huang Jin, who has been staying in the bedroom, is a little impatient, and has not been able to wait for news from the cabinet ministers, so he can't keep hiding the news from His Majesty.

Finally, Huang Jin came to the side hall, opened the door and asked.

Now he is the only one in the palace who has this prestige, and he can barely have an equal dialogue with these cabinet ministers of the Ming Dynasty.

Urged by Huang Jin, Gao Gong, who was still arguing with Xu Jie about re-drafting the will, temporarily shut up, because Li Chunfang and Guo Pu had read the will just now and were not dissatisfied with its content.

In fact, it didn't matter to Li Chunfang what the posthumous edict was written in, but he didn't like Xu Jie's arbitrarily drafted one.

And Xu Jie actually grasped this point, so he dared to do it privately.

As for Gao Gong and Guo Pu, Xu Jie didn't pay much attention to them, they didn't agree with each other because they had different ways, so they were not the same people.

Xu Jie cherishes the hard-won position of chief assistant, and Gao Gong covets it, so let him wait.

Seeing that the atmosphere inside was not good, Huang Jin looked at Xu Jie, then at Gao Gong, and finally turned his attention to Li Chunfang, the second assistant.

"Master Li, what do you say?"

Li Chunfang was asked by Huang Jin at this time, and she didn't know how to express her position.

But after all, his character is still soft, and the content of the will is not a big problem, so he nodded, "I have no objection."

The first assistant and the second assistant reached an agreement. For Guo Pu and Gao Gong, no matter how much they disagreed, they could only hold back their opinions.

Xu Jie, after all, had the last laugh in this battle.

"Okay, let's take care of the funeral."

Huang Jin said to several cabinet ministers in the room.

Gao Gong didn't want to continue arguing now, and there was no chance of winning in the end.

There is no way to take Xu Jie, so why not target Zhang Juzheng?

"Boom thump. thump."

In the distant imperial city, a bell rang and spread throughout the capital.

On the bustling street, countless people all paused their movements and looked towards the direction of the Forbidden City.

At this time, why is there a bell ringing?
For ordinary people in the city, most people are a little bit at a loss.

The bells and drums in the palace are not knocked casually.

Only the elderly people seemed to have a premonition, silently counting the number of times the bell was rung.

The continuous sound of bells reverberated over the capital city, and the whole capital city seemed to be temporarily pressed the pause button. Even the extremely arrogant Xuncheng Yushi and Jinyi Xiaowei who walked on the street in the past had already reined in their horses or stood still at this moment. .

They knew better, or in other words, with the people in the officialdom in the capital, they had a premonition of something from the moment the bell rang.

"Boom thump. thump."

The bell was still ringing, and the patrolling censor had gotten off his horse in a panic at this time, facing the direction of the imperial city, still counting silently in his heart: "43, 44, 45."

When saying 45, the bell disappeared.

Yu Shi faced the direction of the imperial city and bowed down loudly, as if in a chain reaction, the soldiers behind him and the people on the street also understood what happened.

Emperor.

died.

At this time, in all the yamen of the six departments and five temples in the capital, the officials hurried out of the duty room one after another, and led their clerks in the courtyard to bow down in the direction of the imperial city.

At the same time, temples in and around the capital rang their bells almost at the same time.

The bells in the palace had already stopped, but the capital continued to be under the bells.

Beginning with the mourning day in the capital, each temple rings 49 pestles, and slaughter is prohibited for [-] days. At the same time, all entertainment activities, marriages, and drinking are strictly prohibited inside and outside the capital.
In Prince Yu's Mansion, Wei Guangde had already stood up the moment the bell rang, counting the bells silently in his heart, and Chen Yiqin and others were also moving like him.

After confirming that the bell in the palace rang forty-five, Wei Guangde closed his eyes slightly, and immediately felt his sleeves being pulled off.

Opening his eyes, he followed Chen Yiqin and others out of the house in the courtyard, knelt down towards the palace, and got up after a while.

"Go see Yu Wang."

Chen Yiqin said to Yin Shizhen and Wei Guangde at this time.

The two nodded and looked at Li Fang.

Only Li Fang knew where King Yu was after he came back.

"Follow me, three adults."

Li Fang replied.

So he led the way and went to Yuwang's courtyard.

Entering the courtyard, several people saw King Yu still kneeling in the courtyard, facing the direction of the imperial city.

"My condolences, Your Highness."

Wei Guangde, Chen Yiqin and others bowed to King Yu together and began to persuade him.

"Your Highness, please be sorry, someone from the cabinet should be coming to the palace now, and His Highness will go out to meet you."

At this moment, King Yu was a little stupid, and the death of Emperor Jiajing hit him hard.

"There are no wrong parents in the world."

Although Emperor Jiajing had never been kind to him in the past, King Yu understood that it was impossible rather than unwilling.

There were still some resentments in the past, but after meeting today, it has disappeared.

In the Qianqing Palace, Gao Yi, the Minister of Rites, had already arrived, discussed the funeral system with the four elders and Huang Jin, and then stayed in the palace to preside over it temporarily, while Xu Jie, Li Chunfang and others left the imperial city and rushed to Yu Wang's mansion.

Their trip is according to the rules, and they invite King Yu to attend the funeral.

"Zhang Juzheng participated in the drafting of the will?"

When Gao Gong arrived at Prince Yu's mansion, the news that Zhang Juzheng was called to the palace by Xu Jie before was naturally spread by his mouth.

Wei Guangde was silent, he felt something was wrong at the time, it turned out that Xu Jie was responsible for this.

"How could Mr. Xu Ge do this? It doesn't fit the system."

Chen Yiqin frowned and said.

"Yes, everyone knows about it, but Zhang Juzheng just did it."

Gao Gong said angrily.

Seeing Gao Gong's attitude, Wei Guangde realized Xu Jie's purpose later.

Is Xu Jie's move clever?
Didn't Zhang Juzheng see through?

Probably not.

He also couldn't stand such a temptation, and he was willing to fall into the trap set by Xu Jie.

Wei Guangde can only understand this way, but that's good too, Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong can no longer reconcile, which is still beneficial to him.

(End of this chapter)