I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 632: Minister Wang, the alarm bells are ringing!
In the outer hall of the Ziguang Pavilion in the Western Garden of the capital, a group of civil and military officials were sitting in groups of three or four, talking in low voices.

Today we held an enlarged meeting of the Advisory Bureau and many people came.

Four counselors, six ministers, ministers of various temples, five military commanders and their associate commanders, more than thirty people, sat in the front hall.

The civil servants headed by Zhang Juzheng wore official uniforms with round collars and red robes with large and small floral patterns, belts with white jade, rhinoceros horn, or gold and silver bouquets around their waists, and black gauze hats with spread wings on their heads.

Qi Jiguang wore a new-style general's uniform, which was field gray in color, with red epaulettes embroidered with dark yellow flowers and leaves. The epaulettes were a golden silk bullfighting pattern on a red hard cloth plate, and were adorned with a golden copper five-pointed star.

It has a small cross lapel, larger at the top and smaller at the bottom, all red, and the red extends all the way to the upper left edge of the shirt.

It has double brass buttons, no pockets on the top, two semi-hidden pockets on the bottom, and a slightly tucked-in waist, which makes it look close to the body. There is a red border on the sleeves, and a little above the cuffs are embroidered with gold stars, with the number of stars corresponding to the military rank.

The trousers were dark grey with red stripes, and the trouser legs were tucked into sheepskin boots.

Qi Jiguang wore a gray military cap with a red border. The cap badge was a round golden five-pointed star on a red background. There were three large copper five-pointed stars sewn on the shoulder straps, and three large five-pointed stars embroidered on both cuffs.

The other generals had either three stars, two large and one small, or two large five-pointed stars on their epaulettes, and the cuffs were embroidered in the same way.

According to military rank regulations, the Grand General of Cavalry and the Grand General are awarded with four large five-pointed stars and four five-pointed stars, three large and one small; the Grand General of the State Defense and the Grand General are awarded with three large five-pointed stars and three five-pointed stars, two large and one small.

The rank of Lieutenant General and Lieutenant General of the Assisting State are two large five-pointed stars and one large and one small five-pointed star; the rank of Deputy General and Deputy General of the Serving State are one large five-pointed star and one small five-pointed star.

There are three stars on the shoulders of Liu Tao, the commander-in-chief of the Right Army, two large and one small, but his clothes are sky blue, and the base of the epaulettes is a yellow silk flying fish pattern. The rest is similar to the army uniform.

The military uniform they wore was called official uniform, the minimum standard for meeting the emperor.

There are also casual clothes, which are what you usually wear to work.

The color of the clothes is the same, the double-breasted shirt is changed to a single-breasted shirt, there are two pockets on it, and there are no embroidered stars on the cuffs, which is much simpler.

The military general's uniform makes him look mighty and neat, while the civil official's robe makes him look solemn and elegant.

Hu Zongxian was not wearing a military uniform, but a red official robe of a civilian. He sat with Zhang Juzheng and Zhao Zhenji, talking to each other.

The Minister of War Tan Lun, on the other hand, was wearing a general's uniform with no stars on his epaulettes and cuffs, just patterns, while he spoke these words to Qi Jiguang, Pan Sheng and others.

Cai Maochun, along with a few younger ministers, surrounded the Minister of Revenue, Wang Guoguang, and joked with him.

"Minister Wang, you are still strong despite your age."

Wang Guoguang smiled coldly while stroking his beard with an embarrassed look on his face: "Haha, when you reach my age, you will know how rare it is for me to still be so vigorous and energetic!
I see you, at fifty years old, you just sit and watch Chunjiao sighing inwardly. "

Everyone couldn't help but laugh.

The impeachment memorial accusing Wang Guoguang of being disrespectful to his elders was kept by Zhu Yijun.

Wang Guoguang thought that nothing was wrong, so he held a banquet at home to entertain his friends, ostensibly to enjoy the moon on July 15th, but in fact to celebrate his taking a concubine. However, as soon as the guests sat down, Feng Bao appeared and invited all the guests to go to the West Garden to enjoy the moon.

Zhu Yijun used this method to warn Wang Guoguang.

It is your freedom to take a concubine, but it is not a glorious thing for you to take a concubine at the age of sixty. Just do it quietly. There is no need to make such a big fuss as to make the whole world know that you are still strong and want to take a concubine at the age of sixty.

The matter was handled in this way and did not appear in any political newspapers. Other newspapers also tacitly did not publish a single word about it.

Lu Tong, who was far away in Eastern Japan, returned to Tsushima and saw the latest political report, but he was sure that he would not find any information he wanted, so he could only continue on his journey back with trepidation.

Seeing Wang Guoguang joking with the young ministers, Liu Tao and Wang Chonggu looked at each other.

Liu Tao is the same age as Wang Guoguang. Both were born in the seventh year of Zhengde and are 59 years old this year.

Wang Chonggu was born in the tenth year of Zhengde, three years younger.

The three of them are of the same age, so Liu Tao and Wang Chonggu could guess Wang Guoguang's little thoughts.

Being nearly sixty years old was considered old in ancient times, and the emperor was a young emperor. When he was the crown prince, he promoted a large number of young people. Would he be biased towards the young and give priority to them?
Like Wang Chonggu and Liu Tao, Wang Guoguang wasted twenty years in the Jiajing period when he was young. It was not until he was nearly fifty that he got the opportunity to step onto the political stage of the Ming Dynasty.

But when the opera was being performed at its best, he was nearly sixty years old, and the hero was fading. Would the emperor despise his age, feel that he was old and frail, and want him to retire?

I have endured untold hardships to get to this point and become a pillar of the Ming Dynasty. I am preparing to fight again in this turbulent era. How can I be willing to retire?
Wang Guoguang's high-profile decision to take a concubine was actually a statement of his attitude: I am not old yet, and I can still fight for the Ming Dynasty for another 20 years.

If you cling to something, disaster will never be far away.

Well said!

If it were you, would you be willing to do it?

Especially those officials who have had a bumpy career and worked hard to get to the top are even more unwilling to give up.

The emperor should have understood Wang Guoguang's intention. With his left hand, he kept the impeachment memorial in his palace, and with his right hand, he called away all the guests attending the banquet. This both reassured him and warned him.

Do your job well in the future and stop letting your mind run wild!
Liu Tao turned to ask Wang Chonggu, "I heard that Wang Zijian and Ling Rucheng jointly reported that there are gentry in Hunan led by Li Shan who secretly organized students to boycott the provincial examination. Is it true?"

Such a big case must first fall to the prosecution and judicial departments of the Ministry of Justice, and then be submitted to the Supreme Court for trial after approval.

Wang Chonggu nodded: "The urgent report has been transferred to the Ministry of Justice, and the Central Procuratorate and Judicial Office is busy again. The group of people from Jiangnan haven't come back yet, so I have to transfer people to Hunan."

Liu Tao was stunned. "Are you setting up another special task force? The boycott of the exam sounds like it will have a big impact, but according to legal theory, it is not a serious crime. Why are you sending people from the Central Procuratorate and Judiciary Office down there again?"

Wang Chonggu turned his head and whispered, "In addition to canceling the exam, they also raised bandits, stole and sold weapons, secretly recruited assassins, and plotted rebellion."

Liu Tao was shocked. "How come another case of treason was discovered?"

What does it mean?
Mr. Daichuan, your use of the word "again" is a bit rash.

"Wang Zijian and Ling Rucheng said in their memorial that the 17 noble families headed by Li Shan secretly recruited assassins in the mountain strongholds in southern Hunan, stole and sold weapons and armor from other places, equipped them for training, cut off roads and killed merchants, and had evil intentions and intended to rebel."

Liu Tao understood something, "Which of those southern Hunan noble families doesn't have a mine? If they have a mine, they must have a group of thugs to prevent others from robbing them of their treasure chest.

Does having a mine mean that they are planning a rebellion?"

Wang Chonggu chuckled and said, "Mr. Daichuan, what would those local bastards not dare to do for money?
In order to do business at sea, the Zhejiang and Fujian families colluded with pirates and bribed Japanese pirates to cause trouble in the southeast. There were also those Shanxi merchants who colluded with the border troops and smuggled illegal goods.

The noble families in southern Hunan seized mines by trickery and also kept bandits as their own, in order to secretly protect their own property and prevent the government from sending people to the mines to collect taxes.

Mine? According to the newly established Commercial Law, any mine in Ming Dynasty must apply for a license from our Ministry of Revenue. None of the fifteen mines in southern Hunan has a license.

So Ling Rucheng said, what kind of mine is this? They are all bandits who have become bandits, mining to make money, and raising troops to rebel! "

Liu Tao shook his head and said, "Ling Rucheng is an able official, but he is too murderous. He is even more murderous than those of us who crawled out of the sea of ​​blood and mountains of corpses.

Once this accusation is put on, all the 17 noble families headed by Li Shan will be executed."

Wang Chonggu spread his hands and said, “So I have to allocate more personnel to form a special task force.

Moreover, these cases are overlapping cases and involve a wide range of people.

The mine treason case, the examination cancellation case, the illegal printing of banned books case, and the investigation of the cheating in the provincial examinations in Huguang involved not only 69 Hunan noble families, 21 Hubei noble families, and more than 1,000 famous scholars, but also more than 200 officials. It even affected the Jiangxi officialdom. "

Liu Tao was stunned: "How did it affect the Jiangxi officialdom?"

"Li Shan wanted to buy weapons and armor for the bandits he raised, but he didn't dare to buy them in Hunan. So he contacted his old friends and officials through his second son who was a county official in Hubei and his third son who was studying at Bailu Academy in Jiangxi, and stole and sold weapons and armor in the armories of Hubei and Jiangxi."

Liu Tao couldn't help but shake his head: "People who commit evil deeds must be punished! Well, the Li family will be wiped out, and Hubei and Jiangxi will be dragged into the water as well."

Wang Chonggu put his head close to Liu Tao's ear, looking around, his expression was just like those old men who spread gossip on the streets.

"Dai Chuan Gong, please report the details of the case solved by the Police Department and the Hunan Bureau of the Pacification Department. It tells about a dirty thing in the inner courtyard."

"What dirty thing?" Liu Tao asked with his eyes blinking.

"Li Shan's fourth son, Li Lang, was a dandy boy who loved to hang out in brothels in Changsha, Wuchang, and Qinhuai River. He was infected with a lewd disease somewhere, but he didn't know it at first. He continued to be a playboy and even set his sights on his father Li Shan's concubine, Sixth Aunt.

The Sixth Aunt was the top courtesan in Qinhuai River whom Li Shan married when he was the Minister of Industry in Nanjing. She is only in her early thirties, in her prime.

She disliked Li Shan's old age and frailty and fell in love with Li Lang's youth and strength, and then the two of them had an affair, and Li Lang's illness was passed on to the Sixth Aunt.

The Sixth Aunt sensed something was wrong but dared not say anything, so she could only pretend to be sick and seek medical treatment everywhere. As a result, the all-pervasive Zhenfu Division smelled something and caught her. They then designed to capture Li Lang, using this as a breakthrough and forcing him to confess everything, thus solving the case.

What's even funnier is that although Li Shan was useless, he didn't give up and sometimes had to toss a few more times. As a result, he also contracted a liver disease. When he realized something was wrong, he immediately designed to sink the Sixth Aunt, the personal maid, and other people who might know about it into the river. "

Liu Tao smiled and said, "This Li Shan is a ruthless person. What a pity, he didn't know the situation in Jiangnan, and he even organized a boycott of the provincial examination.

Doesn't he know that he is sitting on a pile of thunder bombs? He even lights himself up to send himself off. How weird."

Liu Tao rolled his eyes and said, "Xuefu, you can show this dirty thing to Wang Shu'an."

"For him?"

"Yes, the alarm bell is ringing, take it as a warning!"

Wang Chonggu laughed and pointed at Liu Tao, "Liu Daichuan, you are so bad, you are really so bad. Well, when we go back, I will ask them to sort it out and compile it with other cases into a "Warning Records for Corrupt Officials" as a teaching material for combating corruption and promoting integrity.

Send a few more copies to the Ministry of Revenue, haha."

"Giggle."

The two of them huddled together, giggling even more happily, like two weasels that had stolen a chicken. Their eyes would glance at Wang Guoguang from time to time, making him feel creepy and uncomfortable.

What evil are these two old guys up to? Their eyes look so vulgar!
Could it be that they are jealous of me, an old man who is still so vigorous at the age of sixty, while they can only sit and watch the spring flowers turn into mud.

Feng Bao walked in and bowed, saying, "All the gentlemen are here."

Everyone stood up, and Hu Zongxian bowed and said, "Eunuch Feng, is the emperor coming out?"

"The Emperor just had a conversation with Mr. Xu and the Huo brothers. He is now coming out after the conversation. Everyone, prepare to receive him."

In less than half a minute, Zhu Yijun came out wearing a field-gray general's uniform and a new military cap. His uniform was the same as Tan Lun's, without any rank insignia.

Xu Wei was wearing a second-rank scarlet robe official uniform, while Huo Jing and Huo Bian were wearing field-gray army uniforms. One held the rank of lieutenant general, and the other held the rank of deputy general of Fengguo.

"I have met the emperor!"

Hu Zongxian and other civil servants wearing scarlet official robes raised their hands and bowed, while generals such as Qi Jiguang performed the military salute.

Zhu Yijun had already issued an edict that, except for the grand court meetings at the Huangji Hall on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month, all other court meetings, meetings of the Advisory Council, and enlarged meetings of the Advisory Council, all civil and military officials would be exempted from the kneeling ceremony.

After the civil and military officials finished their ceremony, Zhu Yijun pointed to Xu Wei, Huo Jing and Huo Bian behind him and said, "Mr. Xu Wenchang, we are all old acquaintances, so I won't introduce you.

I will give you two new people, Juyanbo Huo Jing and Yunchuanzi Huo Bian. "

The Huo brothers immediately saluted.

Everyone nodded with a smile.

Zhu Yijun led the Huo brothers to Hu Zongxian and said, "This is your boss, General Hu."

The Huo brothers saluted again: "Hello, Mr. Hu!"

Hu Zongxian smiled and bowed, "Hello, General Huo."

"This is Prime Minister Zhang Xiang."

"Hello, Prime Minister Zhang!"

"Hello, brothers!"

"This is the Imperial Censor, Lord Zhao."

Zhu Yijun very patiently took the two brothers Huo Jing and Huo Bian to each person in the hall and introduced their official positions and titles to them.

Everyone watched silently from the side and knew what the emperor was thinking. Through this method, they helped Huo Jing and Huo Bian, the two Tumed "traitors" and "loyal ministers" of the Ming Dynasty, to integrate into the group of important officials of the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, I am also expressing my attitude to all the ministers in the palace. I value these two people very much and you cannot look down on them.

Looking at the excitement on the Huo brothers' faces, they also understood the emperor's painstaking efforts.

After the introduction, Zhu Yijun waved his hand and motioned everyone to sit down.

The seating arrangement for this kind of meeting was that Zhu Yijun sat at the top position, and the ministers sat opposite him.

No minister dared to sit next to him.

Sit side by side, sit in the front, do you dare to block the emperor?

Sitting in the back, are you more powerful than the emperor?
Opposite him, Hu Zongxian's four advisors sat in the first row.

The second row was the five military commanders and the six ministers, the third row was the deputy commanders and the ministers of various ministries, and behind them were Xu Wei, Huo Jing, Huo Bian, as well as officials from the General Staff, the Imperial Household Department, the Ministry of the Imperial Household and other departments who were "temporarily expanded".

Zhu Yijun looked around and saw that everyone was present. He raised his right hand and said, "Qi Yan, let's look at the map! Today we still follow the old rules and talk with the map!"

The ministers who were familiar with his meeting style couldn't help but laugh.

The ministers, who were attending such a meeting for the first time, looked at each other.

The imperial meeting was actually held like this. The atmosphere seemed very relaxed and lively.

A huge map two people tall hung on the wall behind Zhu Yijun.

Zhu Yijun leaned sideways, pointed at the map and said, "Okay, let's start the topic of this meeting, the Western Expedition!"

(End of this chapter)