The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

Cabinet, duty room.

Liu Jian placed a memorial of Tang Yin's resignation, which was sent to Beijing through formal channels from the Ministry of Public Security, directly in front of Li Dongyang.

Li Dongyang picked it up and looked at it, then nodded and said, "It's a routine resignation, which is quite common."

Obviously, Li Dongyang did not think that Tang Yin's resignation was sincere. He thought that Tang Yin was just pretending to be so. The war on the front line had not been won, so he pretended to resign after withdrawing his troops. When the emperor issued an edict to disapprove of his resignation, he could continue to "do evil."

This is also a common tactic used by civil officials in the court.

Liu Jian said: "Look at this again..."

Then Li Dongyang saw a memorial that made him drop his jaw.

It was a memorial jointly submitted by three censors from Shaanxi Province to impeach Tang Yin.

In the memorial, they lamented Tang Yin's misdeeds in the northwest, and also pointed out that after the end of the First War in the north, Tang Yin simply lay down, did not even train his troops, and was very negligent in military and political affairs, and could not even do daily patrols.

On the contrary, it was Duke Chengguo Zhu Fu who was working hard and completing some patrol tasks.

But then at the end it was shown that under the influence of Tang Yin's inaction, even Duke Cheng was infected and actually learned from Tang Yin to not care about military affairs...

It seems that those censors knew how to praise one and criticize the other. They fully belittled Tang Yin in this matter. They were quite polite to Zhu Fu, but attacked Tang Yin in various ways. As for Tang Yin's actions, they almost wanted to use all the bad words they could think of.

Li Dongyang sighed, "There have been many impeachments against the Three-Sided General, but none as harsh as today's...

The previous three-party governors had often encountered impeachment and other issues, but the wording in those impeachments was not as strong as it is today.

It was as if Tang Yin had dug up the ancestral graves of that group of people.

Liu Jian said helplessly: "He has been in the court for three years and has not achieved anything yet, but he is already in a high position. It is all because of the favor of Your Majesty and the misbehavior of some people. His ability must not be able to keep up with his current position. If he does not do well, it is normal for him to be impeached."

Li Dongyang almost wanted to ask, is that so?
Regardless of whether Tang Yin is capable or not, let's just say that this group of people impeached Tang Yin. Is it really because he is really incompetent? Or is it...

Are these people jealous of Tang Yin?

He entered the court as an official and worked hard for many years before he reached the level of Censor. This position seemed noble, but it was just a small official position.

How did Tang Yin manage to reach his current position after just over three years in the imperial court?
Is this fair?

As soon as we get the slightest chance, why don't we exaggerate and attack Tang Yin in a serious way?
Liu Jian said, "Binzhi, since even Tang Yin himself doesn't want to continue in the Northwest, we should help him. The affairs of the Northwest military cannot fall into the hands of such an unlearned person."

Li Dongyang said: "Actually... Alas!"

"If you have anything to say, just say it." Liu Jian noticed that Li Dongyang's attitude was not right.

Li Dongyang said helplessly, "From what I have heard from many people, Tang Yin is quite ambitious and he seeks stability in commanding the army. He led his troops deep behind enemy lines several times. Even though he and Zhang Zhou are from the same sect, it was Zhang Zhou who forced them to do so. The two of them have a grudge against each other and have had almost no contact in the past few years."

"What did you say?"

Liu Jian looked incredible.

I'm asking you to find a way to get rid of Zhang Zhou's junior fellow apprentice, and you're telling me that this person is not close to Zhang Zhou, and that he even has the ability?

Do you want to help Tang Yin?

Li Dongyang said: "I have verified this matter in detail, and it is correct."

Liu Jian said with a straight face: "Is it because you are his master that you indulge him?"

This means that in the imperial examination in the 12th year of Hongzhi's reign, there was more than one examiner, Cheng Minzheng. In fact, the examiner who really controlled everything was Li Dongyang. Among the two examiners at that time, only Cheng Minzheng was involved in the case of selling questions.

Li Dongyang shook his head and said, "That's not the case at all. I just think that this person is not hopeless yet."

Liu Jian said angrily, "Look at what he has done. Is there anything a decent person would do? He has been in charge of Northwest military affairs for three years. How capable can he be? After the war in the north, is he giving up? Who can you blame for not doing anything yourself?"

When he said this, Liu Jian's breathing became very uneven.

He was not angry because Tang Yin's behavior was extremely bad, but he was angry that at this time, Li Dongyang actually jumped out and sang against him.

Li Dongyang seemed very persistent and said: "If we want to disintegrate the power behind Zhang Bingkuan, shouldn't we find a breakthrough point? Previously it was Lu Quanqing, but recently Lu Quanqing seems to have calmed down. But Tang Yin's side..."

The implication.

I understand your desire to defeat Zhang Bingkuan, but we also have to find the right method.

Many methods have been tried before and none of them worked. Why don’t we try starting with Tang Yin today?

Liu Jian said: "No matter what strategy you have, at least this person cannot stay in the northwest. If we hand over military affairs to someone like him, how can there not be chaos?"

"Yes." Li Dongyang nodded and said, "We can let him resign, but it would be better to summon him back to the court and give him a chance... to be used by us."

"You think he..."

"Then, Elder Liu, do you think it is more important to be a junior fellow disciple of a Taoist priest, or is it better for us to recruit him so that he can find his place? This person is a Jinshi after all, and many of his achievements are achieved by himself. He did not receive much help from Zhang Bingkuan. We are just fellow disciples in name only."

Li Dongyang seemed to have made up his mind to make trouble for Tang Yin.

Liu Jian said: "Then dismiss him from his post first, and we'll talk about it later."

……

……

The news that Tang Yin resigned and was impeached by the Northwestern Censorate was soon spread by some interested parties and became known to everyone in the court and the country.

Some people even used the imperial gazette to spread the news...

Ever since Zhang Zhou started a newspaper in the capital, the simple official bulletins originally issued by the government began to be operated among the people. Perhaps some people wanted to seize the right to speak from the official bulletins. After some major events happened in the court, those simple official bulletins with only one or two sentences began to become popular in the capital.

This time, the matter of Tang Yin happened to be of concern to both the new and old factions, and it was also a battlefield where public opinion fronts were directly engaged in a battle.

Also because the traditional factions rarely have the opportunity to become famous, to show that upstarts like Tang Yin are not good enough, so this news was also widely spread.

Originally, there was nothing wrong with the people discussing state affairs, after all, it did not involve the impact on the court's employment. However, the spread of the news also made some people feel that... their chance had come.

The first person to react was Lu Wan.

Lu Wan was originally the person with the best chance of becoming the commander-in-chief of the three borders after Wang Qiong, but he never expected that Tang Yin, a Cheng Yaojin, would suddenly appear and make Lu Wan's plan fail.

It is rare to hear that Tang Yin was depressed after his defeat and even resigned and returned home because of this incident.

Lu Wan instantly felt that his spring had arrived.

After all, he had Zhang Zhou, Wang Qiong, and Wang Shouren above him. Although he had gained prestige in the Shangtingchu, the strange thing was that the Shangtingchu's errands were rotating, unlike the cabinet ministers who were permanent. This led to his status plummeting after he resigned as the Shangtingchu minister. Even Tang Yin climbed over his head, which resulted in four mountains above him, and each one was higher than the other.

Tang Yin is in bad luck now, and for him, the opportunity is right in front of him.

The way he handled this matter was very simple, which was to find someone who could influence this matter... He didn't look for Zhang Zhou, because he felt that this was impossible, and Zhang Zhou usually didn't care about anything.

The best thing is to find someone who has a close relationship with you, who can help you and who also needs your help.

That person was Liu Jin, with whom he had an exchange of interests.

Liu Jin was worried about the prince's affairs. He had recently put aside his work at the Yanwu Hall and followed Lu Wan to lead the Beijing garrison to the south to suppress bandits. However, suppressing bandits was a hassle in itself...

After hearing that the government troops were heading south, the bandits had begun hiding from place to place. After marching for half a month, there was no good result. But on this day, when the troops were stationed outside the county town, Lu Wan came to his tent in person to look for him, which made him feel that he seemed to have found an opportunity.

"Eunuch Liu, to be honest with you, I have done a lot of research on the use of troops in the northwest."

Lu Wan was also frank at the table, "After all, I have been preparing for a long time, and I wanted to show my ambition. I still don't understand why Your Majesty wants to use Tang Bohu."

The wine and food were sent by the local magistrate, who said that they were to reward the three armies, but everyone knew that these troops did not need to be rewarded at the moment.

Liu Jin smiled and said, "Don't say that you don't understand, Lord Lu. I don't understand either. No matter how you compare, Lord Lu is better than Tang Yin. Why would you let him go? Besides, he is not as good as you in terms of official position."

Lu Wan nodded and said, "The rank of the official is secondary, but making a difference in the northwest has always been my wish since I became an official. Now I hear that he has been slacking off in military and civilian affairs after the setback in the expedition, and I am also heartbroken."

Liu Jin asked, "Master Lu, how can I help you?"

Liu Jin is also an open-minded person.

You want me to help you, right? How can I help you? Also, you should tell me what benefits you can give me, right?

You can say it the same way.

Lu Wan asked, "Eunuch Liu, do you feel that there are many people who can be of great use among the people who went south?"

"You mean..." Liu Jin frowned.

Lu Wan said: "If His Majesty calls for a conscription, I would like to recommend myself as soon as possible and explain to His Majesty the pros and cons of the current layout of Northwest military affairs. I hope... to gain His Majesty's respect."

Liu Jin frowned slightly.

He was also thinking, if you really think that self-recommendation is useful, then why did you come to me? Do you want me to say a few good words for you in your self-recommendation?

Lu Wan said: "I also hope that Eunuch Liu can have some communication with Duke Cai."

Liu Jin seemed to understand instantly.

It turned out that Lu Wan was just using me as a bridge.

"Alas!" Liu Jin sighed, "Lord Lu, you are also making things difficult for me. Duke Cai is a low-key person and rarely meets with people in the court. It is useless for anyone to ask for favors. I am just a eunuch and cannot recommend anyone for you. Why don't you write a letter in person and talk to Duke Cai about this matter?"

Lu Wan lowered his head and looked at the contents of the cup, and said, "I also want to do this, but I think it is too utilitarian."

Liu Jin thought to himself, if you are not utilitarian, why do you come to me?

"The three-border military affairs are of great importance. Duke Cai has been reluctant to take the initiative to recommend someone, but if Tang Yin is dismissed from this position halfway, Your Majesty may have to listen to Duke Cai to choose someone." Lu Wan said, "But if Your Majesty knew that I had secretly written to Duke Cai, I'm afraid..."

Liu Jin smiled and said, "I see. It seems that you are very cautious, Lord Lu."

But I was thinking in my heart, you don't want to have open correspondence with Zhang Zhou, but let me communicate. It seems that it is a big deal for His Majesty to suspect you, but I deserve it for suspecting me?
Lu Wan said: "I have specially prepared a thank you gift, I hope Eunuch Liu will accept it."

"what?"

Liu Jin didn't expect that when he and Lu Wan went on an expedition, Lu Wan would actually give him a gift halfway?

It seems to be a reasonable thing to do, but is it too strange to do this?

Will you prepare a gift for me before you go to war? We are colleagues now. You are obviously higher than me in military rank. Why do you seem to be inferior to me?

Then Lu Wanzhen presented a gift.

"The exchange bill of Binhai City Bank is two thousand taels of silver." Lu Wan said, "After the matter is completed, there will definitely be a generous reward."

Liu Jin said hurriedly: "This gift is too expensive, our family can't afford it."

Lu Wan stood up, bowed respectfully and said, "I hope that Eunuch Liu can give me more support."

"You are wrong, you are wrong. It should be you, Lord Lu, who should support our family."

The two of them had originally sat down to drink together, but now they began to compliment each other.

"Let's continue drinking." Liu Jin saw that Lu Wan was very sincere, and he was extremely proud of himself. "Let's take a long-term view of those things. In fact, from my family's point of view, Lord Lu, you are also the best candidate for the three-side general. If the court doesn't choose you, who will it choose?"

……

……

Imperial Palace, Qianqing Palace.

into the night.

Zhu Youtang reviewed memorials.

This was the second time that Zhu Youtang had stayed up late to review memorials since the beginning of winter, and this time it was because of some unexpected events in the northwest.

"…Your Majesty, this is Tang Yin's resignation memorial." Chen Kuan handed a copy to Zhu Youtang, "There is also a memorial from the Censor-in-Chief impeaching him."

Zhu Youtang took it and looked at it, then shook his head and said, "Bingkuan told me before that Tang Yin was born in the year of the donkey and needs to be properly disciplined, so I recruited him to be my disciple. It seems that he has the ability to judge people."

Chen Kuan said: "Now in the capital, this matter is also very noisy. Some censors have also made comments on this matter."

Zhu Youtang said: "Let them make a fuss. I don't want to change this person unless Bingkuan says it is necessary."

"But……"

Chen Kuan obviously didn't want Tang Yin to stay in the Northwest.

The main reason was that there were already many people in the military and political system who had close ties with the Imperial Household Department, and the current eunuch Wei Bin, who was in charge of the Imperial Household Department, had a large number of adopted sons among them. However, the current helmsmen of the Northwest military and political affairs, Tang Yin and Wang Shouren, were not under their control.

This is tantamount to handing over power to others.

Zhu Youtang said coldly: "The purpose of choosing Tang Yin is not only because he has experience in leading troops, but also because of his sharpness. Others dare not fight, but he dares to fight. Others do not want to resign, but he dares to give up his post and resign... There are too few people with such true temperament in the court." (End of this chapter)