I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 235: Baoen Temple Case Stirs Up Again
After Xu Jie heard his trusted follower's account of the major case at Bao'en Temple, he was stunned.

He waved his hand, signaling his followers to leave first, and thought about it carefully alone.

The cunning Xu Jie immediately sensed something strange.

Some people just won't give up.

Do you think we don't want to mess around?
Do you think we don’t want to seize power from the Forbidden City and the Western Garden?

Since Emperor Taizu, the Ming Dynasty has been a mess, with the emperor and his ministers fighting each other for power.

It was just that Emperor Taizu was full of martial virtue and killed many people, and then used hundreds of thousands of lives to lay the foundation for the political system of the Ming Dynasty.

The late Emperor Shi Miao was a man of great intelligence. After fighting with his ministers for some time, he finally realized something and decided to find a way to make the ministers fight each other.

While the ministers were fighting for power, fame and fortune, he sat firmly in the Western Garden and slowly gathered power.

The new emperor is on the throne. Do you think we haven't tried it?

Tried it!

The one in the Forbidden City is easy to deal with, he has no ears and is easy to fool. The key is the one in the Western Garden is not easy to serve.

He is more shrewd than his grandfather, more thoughtful than his grandfather, and more ruthless than his grandfather.

The disciple is better than the master!

First, in order to check and balance me, he recalled Gao Gong to Beijing.

However, he was not allowed to join the cabinet and was transferred to the Ministry of Revenue.

Look, just from this one move we can tell that he is well versed in political strategies.

Gao Gong was a smart, capable and courageous person. He was also restless in the Ministry of Revenue and tried to test the government by investigating Taoist temples and abolishing harsh policies.

Xiyuan was also not ambiguous, and fought back and forth, and with one move, he did not kill but only destroyed Gao Gong's favorite student Han Ji, showing his edge for the first time. Gao Gong wanted to struggle again, but the Ministry of Revenue's pit that had been designed early on almost trapped him beyond redemption.

He assembled the 24 Heavenly Guardians to inspect the Lianghuai Salt Administration, but in the end he ended up in disgrace. If Xiyuan and I had not joined forces to support him, he would have resigned and returned home in disgrace.

Now Gao Gong has become honest and focused on government affairs, no longer messing around.

Even a domineering and arrogant person like him has to admit his mistake and bow his head. Why are you still not convinced?
If you haven't tasted Xiyuan's iron fist, you'd feel unwilling, right?
Xu Jie was sighing in the duty room when a clerk came to the door and reported, "Old sir, Minister Huang from the Ministry of Justice wants to see you."

"Please come in." Xu Jie responded immediately.

Huang Guangsheng, the Minister of Justice, sat down and said straight to the point: "Yuan Fu, you know about the Baoen Temple incident, right?"

"I understand." Xu Jie stroked his beard and said calmly.

"I haven't heard that Concubine Xian is a Buddhist, why do you suddenly want to take the Third Prince to Baoen Temple to burn incense and worship Buddha?"

Xu Jie laughed, "Kuifeng, you don't believe it either!"

Huang Guangsheng leaned forward and said in a low voice: "The Prime Minister and I both know the methods of the Xiyuan man. If the Third Prince really had that idea, he would not be alive today.

It’s so clumsy, so clumsy that it makes people laugh and cry.”

Xu Jie nodded: "It's such a simple truth, everyone knows it, but some people are still trying to be smart."

"Yuan Fu, they, ah, it's hard to say what they are thinking, there is always some intention of harming others and not benefiting themselves."

Xu Jie stood up, put his hands behind his back, and walked slowly in the duty room. "Kuifeng, I understand those people a little bit. After twenty years of hard study, they finally made it to the imperial examination.

But the career path is difficult, you have to endure, fight, and win. Didn’t you and I go through the same thing when we were young? There were so many people in the same department as you and I, but you and I are lucky to have come to this point today. "

Huang Guangsheng nodded in agreement: "Mr. Shaohu is right. Looking at it this way, I can understand the feelings of these younger generations. Looking back at our methods back then, it seems that they were not much better than them."

Xu Jie turned around and said with a smile: "It's not that they haven't made any progress, but that the one in Xiyuan has raised the level of political struggle!"

Huang Guangsheng was stunned. Is there such a thing?
Xu Jie was a man waiting to retire anyway, so he had a very good attitude. He put his hands behind his back and chatted with Huang Guangsheng with great interest.

"Kuifeng, what was the appearance that impressed us when the Crown Prince entered the Western Garden to accompany the late Emperor as the Crown Prince?"

Huang Guangsheng thought for a moment and replied, "Overthrow Yan's party, protect Hu Zongxian, and set up a coordination office." "That's right. Yan Song and his son had accumulated deep resentment in the court and the country over the years. All the officials in the court put aside their prejudices and made overthrowing Yan their top priority."

"Yes. The Shilin wants to overthrow Yan, the Qingliu wants to overthrow Yan, the Jin Party wants to overthrow Yan, we want to overthrow Yan, the Prince Yu's Mansion also wants to overthrow Yan, the whole court except the Yan Party wants to overthrow Yan. But the late emperor has been supporting him and won't let him overthrow."

"So the prince came out. He said he could help everyone overthrow Yan, but the condition was that he would protect Hu Zongxian and set up a coordination office."

Huang Guangsheng stroked his beard and replied, "It is the national policy to protect Hu Zongxian and continue to suppress the Japanese in the southeast. It is also the policy to set up a coordination office to help the late emperor get money so that he can make up his mind to abandon the father and son of the Yan family. Thinking about it at that time, it was acceptable."

Xu Jie spread his hands, "Yes, I thought so at the beginning. But I didn't expect that Hu Zongxian helped the prince seize the military power; a coordination office helped the prince get financial resources.

With money and soldiers, his prince is more stable than His Royal Highness Prince Yu. Only then did I understand why the late emperor praised the prince so highly, even ignoring the taboo that two dragons should not meet, and insisted on bringing him with him. "

Huang Guangsheng also understood, "The late emperor was only slightly superior to the court officials in the dispute, and he had not yet overwhelmed them. But Your Highness the Crown Prince..."

Huang Guangsheng didn't want to say more. If he said too much, it would only bring tears, the tears of all the officials in the court.

After finally getting rid of the old ones, something even more ruthless came.

How can we live like this?

Xu Jie laughed loudly, but Huang Guangsheng could hear that there was a hint of bitterness in his laughter.

As he laughed, Xu Jie let out a long sigh and sat down on the chair.

"Shao Hu Gong, this serious case will probably be sent to the Ministry of Justice. How should I handle it then? Please give me some advice, Shao Hu Gong."

Xu Jie shook his head: "This major case will not be brought to the Ministry of Justice. At most, it will be tried and decided by the Jinyiwei. This case involves the harem and the inner court. Why do we need to involve the outer court?"

“I’m just afraid those people won’t be reconciled.”

"So what if you are unwilling? Who should you impeach? The Imperial Guards, the Imperial Stables, or the Eastern Depot?"

These government offices belong to the inner court, and the outer court has no control over them, so they can only submit memorials to impeach them.

No matter how many impeachments you make, it will be useless. The prince can just move these people to another place.

Besides, the prince is not someone who can be easily moved by an impeachment memorial.

When Hu Zongxian was suppressing the Japanese pirates in the southeast, impeachment memorials poured into the Silijian like snowflakes, and all of them were kept there. The Western Garden is very large, and even if you used all the paper in the world to write impeachment memorials, it would still be enough to hold them.

From time to time, they would publish reports in the court bulletins about how Hu Zongxian led his troops to suppress Japanese pirates in a certain place and captured a certain number of heads, directly waging a public opinion war with you.

Even the late emperor was impressed by the prince's "political fortitude".

Huang Guangsheng thought about it and realized that it was true.

As long as the prince insists on this point, detains the murderer in the hands of the Jinyiwei, lets the Jinyiwei and the Eastern Depot investigate, and then announces the results to the public after the investigation, you will have no way to deal with him.

But will those people just stop there?

Huang Guangsheng felt that something else was about to happen.

Suddenly, a minor official came running up and reported at the door: "Old sir, there is news from the Wucheng Bingmasi that a man has come to the Wucheng Bingmasi Yamen to surrender to the patrolling censor."

Xu Jie and Huang Guangsheng were stunned. "What case are you reporting for?"

"The person who surrendered claimed to be Zhang Daxiong, the elder brother of Zhang Erxiong, the murderer in Bao'en Temple. He held a letter written by Zhang Erxiong himself, saying that Zhang Erxiong was lured to Bao'en Temple to commit the crime!"

He was lured into Baoen Temple to commit a crime!
Xu Jie asked quickly, "Did anyone say that someone tricked him into committing the crime?"

"In reply to Yuan Fu, Zhang Daxiong said he would not speak until he met with the imperial censor, and then he was taken in. No news has been received from the outside world yet."

Huang Guangsheng then asked, "Who is the imperial inspector on duty today?"

"Yang Sizhi."

Xu Jie and Huang Guangsheng looked at each other and understood what was going on.

These guys are starting to surface.

(End of this chapter)