Daming talker

Chapter 779: The Year of the Tiger Again

At the end of the 29th year of the Wanli reign, when the Wanli Dynasty was about to enter its fourth decade, the court fell into an extremely strange atmosphere.

In order to pay the military pay for the nine frontiers and the cost of suppressing the rebellion, Prime Minister Shen forcibly embezzled one million silver coins from the old treasury.

By the end of the year, there were only more than 10,000 taels of silver left in the Taicang Treasury, and the emperor's inner treasury owed another 1 or 2 million taels of silver.

Fortunately, Emperor Wanli stopped attending court for more than ten years, otherwise there would have been no money to hold important ceremonies such as the Winter Solstice, New Year’s Day, and suburban sacrifices this year!
At this moment, everyone realized that there was a big problem with the court's ruling mechanism, but they couldn't figure out how to solve the problem perfectly.

Although from a superficial analysis, it seems that the cause of the problem is very simple, it is just a party dispute. The Lin Party, as an opposition party, is disrupting the ruling Qingliu Party.

Similar situations have been common in the past seventy or eighty years and are nothing new under the sun.

But the consequences this time are somewhat serious. The party struggle initiated by Lin Tailai can completely destroy the court's finances and bring the court's government operations to a standstill. This situation itself can show that there must be something wrong with the system!
You have to know that since the imperial court entered the era of factional struggles seventy or eighty years ago, trendsetters of the time such as Xia Yan, Yan Song, Xu Jie, Gao Gong, and Zhang Juzheng have appeared one after another, and everyone has seen or heard of them.

But the problem is that no matter how the party struggles in the past were fought, some people lost their heads, some had their homes confiscated and their families exterminated, but the operation of the government was not fundamentally affected.

However, this year's party struggles have paralyzed the imperial court, pushed the national treasury to the brink of bankruptcy, and caused the central government to lose control over the local areas.

Some people who are well-read in history books were very sensitive and noticed something was wrong. Isn't this the sign of a country's demise?
The 30th year of the Wanli reign was the year of Renyin. When New Year's Day was approaching, someone in the capital suddenly spread a big-character poster, saying that the reason why Lin Tailai, the Marquis of Daifang who was so successful that he frightened the emperor, had been living in the Summer Palace in the western suburbs was because he was afraid of being "caught in a jar."

If Lord Lin lived in the city, in the event of an unexpected incident, as long as the city gates were closed and the streets were blocked, Lord Lin would not be able to escape.

It is only relatively safe in an empty suburban manor, where one can have a chance to escape if there is any disturbance.

It is said that when Lin Tailai was an unknown figure, he often lived outside Suzhou and rarely spent the night in the city. Today, his behavior pattern of living in the western suburbs is exactly the same as it was back then.

The content of this exposé was reported to the palace by the factory guards, and the emperor was furious. He denounced it as "a demonic book that alienates the emperor and his ministers" and ordered a thorough investigation of the original author!
But like most political revelations, apart from causing a huge commotion, the actual perpetrators could not be found.

As a result, this notice became a hot topic when visiting relatives and friends during the Spring Festival. Court officials wrote short essays to accuse each other's relatives based on their own political positions.

During the Spring Festival of the Renyin Year, Li Rusong, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong Town and the son of the Earl of Ningyuan, returned to the capital to take up his post and visit his father.

On the second day of the first lunar month, Li Rusong came to the Summer Palace in the western suburbs to pay New Year's greetings to Lin Tailai.

Lin Tailai roasted himself by the fire and said, "It is gratifying to see that you listened to my advice and changed your bad habit of underestimating the enemy and rushing forward. I am still alive today."

Li Rusong just wanted to roll his eyes. Is it appropriate to say something like "I'm glad to see you're still alive" on New Year's Day?

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Li Rusong asked, "I really don't understand why you are making such a big fuss. What is your purpose? If it is to deal with the Qingliu Party, is it worth it?"

Lin Tailai secretly guessed, who was Li Rusong questioning on behalf of?

Then Lin Tailai seemed very puzzled and asked back: "What do you mean by making a big fuss? Who made a big fuss?"

Li Rusong said angrily: "Let's not beat around the bush. You and I have been friends for many years. You don't have to be so vague when talking in private!

The court was in such a predicament last year, do you dare to say that it had nothing to do with you?"

After a brief thought, Lin Tailai said carefully: "There are many problems in our Ming Dynasty today, such as the excessive enthusiasm of court officials for party struggles, the rift between the north and the south, the fragile financial situation, the inland garrisons, and the poor disaster relief capabilities.

The difficulties the court has faced over the past six months are actually the result of some problems being violently catalyzed and then suddenly erupting.

Even if we hadn’t faced difficulties last year, if things continued to deteriorate like this for decades, the situation would be ten times or a hundred times worse.”

Li Rusong insisted, "So what? Who should be held responsible for what happened last year?"

Lin Tailai said earnestly: "I think this is the result of institutional problems. There is no need to focus on finding out who is responsible. Each of us may be responsible.

Even if the culprit, Prime Minister Shen, takes responsibility for this and steps down because of his improper governance, will the problem I just mentioned disappear?"

Li Rusong: "."

So what you, Lin Tailai, emphasized was that the person primarily responsible for the court's predicament last year was Prime Minister Shen Li?

"What? Do you think I'm just saying empty words?" Lin Tailai said seriously, "If you still can't understand the true insights in it, then forget it."

Then Lin Tailai continued, "Don't blame Prime Minister Shen too much. Instead, you should take last year's difficulties as a sample, observe carefully, and then reflect on them.

If the court can learn from the experience and lessons, and be alert to danger in times of peace, it will be a blessing for the Ming Dynasty and the world, and it may be a blessing in disguise. "

Li Rusong felt that he was asking a lonely question, and it was really difficult to comment on Lin Tailai's answer.

As it was almost noon, Lin Tailai began to serve wine and entertain the guests.

After getting half drunk, Li Rusong expressed his concerns under the influence of alcohol: "My Lord, you are playing with fire, which is really too dangerous.

And you are dragging others into playing with fire. If something goes wrong, I don’t know how many people will be implicated.”

The questions just now were asked on behalf of others, but now these are what Li Rusong himself wants to say, after all, he, Li Rusong, is also involved.

However, despite his worries, Li Rusong had to admit that there was too much mystery surrounding Lin Tailai and that he had created too many miracles, which easily led others to blindly worship and follow him.

When common sense and the teachings of saints cannot explain something, all that is left is superstition.

Therefore, many people sincerely believe that Lin Tailai is a deity who has descended to earth, or that he possesses mysterious powers. It is said that Lin Tailai's ancestral temple has appeared in some places in Jiangnan and overseas.

Facing Li Rusong's concerns, Lin Tailai laughed and said, "I'm not rebelling, what do you have to be afraid of?"

Li Rusong didn't think much of it when he first heard it, but after thinking about it carefully, he found it very interesting.

This seems to accurately point out a very subtle psychology - as long as Lin Tailai does not openly raise the flag of rebellion, within this range, everyone seems willing to follow Lin Tailai to make trouble, or believe that Lin Tailai can succeed.

After seeing Li Rusong off, Zhou Yingqiu, the first lackey of the Lin Sect and the secretary general of the Renewal Society, who was accompanying the guests, immediately said, "Li Rusong must have been sent by the emperor to question him."

Lin Tailai nodded and said, "I can see that he is indeed a suitable candidate."

Since there were no outsiders here, Zhou Yingqiu did not hide his feelings and asked with the same worry, "Your Excellency is putting extreme pressure on the court, challenging the imperial power while not rebelling. The consequences are very difficult to grasp.

Throughout history, those powerful officials who did not rebel were the least likely to have a good ending. If we encounter a storm, we can still retreat and become rich, but how will you deal with it?" Lin Tailai, wearing a large mink cloak, sat down by the lake, asked the servants to break the ice, and started fishing again.

At the same time, Lin Tailai said to Zhou Yingqiu: "Regarding the future development of events, I naturally have several backup plans in mind.

Option 1: Wait until February to see what God will do. If God wills, all the difficulties will be solved naturally. "

Zhou Yingqiu couldn't help but ask, "What is God's will?"

Lin Tailai replied: "What if the emperor suddenly falls seriously ill and dies?"

Zhou Yingqiu: "."

Boss, are you serious? Are you kidding?

Such outrageous situations of mechanical deification would only appear in novels, right?
Although Lin Tailai has made many predictions in the past that sounded outrageous and were very accurate, this time the level of outrageousness has been refreshed again.

"This year is the year of Renyin. One of the sixty years in a cycle, this can be considered an extremely unlucky year for the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty." Lin Tailai said dimly, like an old charlatan.

Renyin Year? Zhou Yingqiu suddenly thought of something based on this keyword.

In the previous year of Renyin, which was exactly sixty years ago, Emperor Jiajing was nearly strangled to death by a palace maid in the palace.
"He is the Son of Heaven. If we talk about God's will, he should be more inclined to it." Zhou Yingqiu analyzed objectively and rigorously, "So Your Majesty, please discuss Plan 2."

Lin Tailai remembered that in February of the 30th year of the Wanli reign in history, Emperor Wanli fell seriously ill and was even in a critical condition at one point.

When even Emperor Wanli himself thought he was about to die, he urgently summoned the cabinet ministers to entrust his funeral affairs to them, and then drafted an edict with the words "A dying man's words are good", which included clauses such as dismissing local tax and mining supervisors and pardoning convicted censors.

As a result, after one night, Emperor Wanli recovered and was not dead.

Afterwards, Emperor Wanli was very cunning and quickly retrieved the edict, which made many ministers who were looking forward to a new political situation so angry that they vomited blood.

The emperor's near-death comeback also happened in the year of Renyin, which contrasts with the Renyin palace change sixty years ago, so Lin Tailai had an impression of it.

As for whether such a thing would happen again in this time and space, Lin Tailai couldn't say for sure, so he could only make preparations for both scenarios.

Although the butterfly effect has a huge impact on time and space, its effect on a person's physical health should be relatively limited, right?

After the Chinese New Year in the first month of the lunar calendar, it was time to start shipping grain from Jiangnan this year according to convention, but the court continued to fight!
The Lin Party finally began to fight back using traditional conventional means. Several censors submitted memorials to impeach Li Sancai, the governor of Fengyang, governor-general of Hecao, and admiral of Lianghuai military affairs, for being incompetent and failing to suppress bandits. They also demanded that the person who had violated the regulations and reused Li Sancai be held accountable.

The Qingliu forces will naturally do their utmost to protect Li Sancai. Although the chaos in the Huanghuai region has not been quelled for half a year, although the traffic on the north-south canal has been cut off, and although the grain from Jiangnan cannot be shipped this year, Li Sancai is still a capable and talented person!

In early February, when the Lin Party and the Qingliu forces were engaged in a fierce dispute over Li Sancai, Emperor Wanli quietly fell ill in the palace.

It didn't seem strange at first. After all, it was normal to get sick during the change of seasons. Emperor Wanli's health was not very good, and his diet and lifestyle were not very healthy, so it was normal to get sick.

Because Emperor Wanli hid in the deep palace and refused to come out, the ministers were unaware of the emperor's illness at that time.

However, the disease was extremely severe. Emperor Wanli was bedridden for more than ten days. His condition worsened day by day and he was on the verge of death.

Without the imperial approval, a large number of memorials were kept in the palace and not issued, and at this time they could no longer be concealed from the outside world.

On February 16, Emperor Wanli, who was lying in the Qixiang Palace, slowly woke up from his coma and seemed to be in a critically ill state.

Chen Ju, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department, knelt in front of the sickbed and asked with tears in his eyes, "Does the emperor have any other instructions?"

Emperor Wanli understood Chen Ju's meaning and ordered in a hoarse voice, "Call the cabinet gentlemen, the crown prince and all the princes immediately."

Chen Ju thought for a moment and reminded: "Bring Fang Hou?"

Before his death, the emperor summoned the cabinet ministers to entrust his funeral affairs, but if Lin Tailai was not involved, could the affairs be handled smoothly?

Emperor Wanli waved his hand with all his strength and said with difficulty: "I am afraid he dare not enter the palace. You go in person and come here with the cabinet gentlemen."

Chen Ju hurried out and asked another eunuch, Wang Yi, from the Imperial Household Department, to go to the cabinet to convey the order.

Then Chen Ju left the palace from Xihua Gate, quickly mounted his horse and galloped to the outside of Xizhi Gate. At this time, Eunuch Chen couldn't help but complain in his heart that Lin Tailai's long-term living in the suburbs was really a waste of time!

After rushing into the Summer Palace, Eunuch Chen saw Lin Tailai still fishing leisurely, so he anxiously grabbed the fishing rod and threw it into the water.

Then he said loudly: "The emperor is not getting better, I urgently summon you to the palace to see him!"

Lin Tailai was stunned for a moment, then asked, "Is this the story of He Jinzhi?"

What the hell! Eunuch Chen denied it without hesitation, "No! I can be your guarantor and stay in the garden as a hostage!"

After a brief thought, Lin Tailai said, "The important matter of entrusting the orphan to someone else will be handled by the other officials in the cabinet. It doesn't have to be me."

Eunuch Chen, who was loyal to the emperor and patriotic, was extremely anxious and angry and wanted to hit someone.

If you, Lin Tailai, had not been present in person and reached a "compromise" with the Prime Minister, would the Ming Dynasty still be stable after his death?

The current Emperor Wanli has shown Lin Tailai the grace of recognizing and appointing him to an important position. This is Lin Tailai's greatest moral burden.

If Lin Tailai could not be forced to "swear" allegiance to the new emperor before his death, who could morally suppress Lin Tailai after his death?

For the sake of the country, Eunuch Chen could only dutifully advise: "The emperor has urgently summoned you, do you intend to disobey the order?"

Lin Tailai stood up helplessly and said, "Let me change into court clothes."

Eunuch Chen hurriedly stopped him and said, "This is an emergency. There's no need to waste time changing into court clothes. Leave now!"

Lin Tai looked at the wide and comfortable gown on his body and said uncertainly, "It would be disrespectful to the emperor to do this."

Eunuch Chen raced against time to push Lin Tailai towards the main door. "We have to make decisions in an emergency! It was me who stopped you from changing into court clothes and allowed you to meet His Majesty like this. I take full responsibility for this!"

(The next chapter may be the ending, probably posted tomorrow, please support me with your last monthly vote)

(End of this chapter)