Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 493 Things Backfired
The atmosphere in the Qianqing Palace was solemn.

"This memorial is simply... unbelievable, even jaw-dropping!"

Zhu Youtang was both angry and amused after he finished speaking. After a brief pause, he waved his hand and ordered, "You can circulate it among yourselves! Alas!"

At this point, Zhu Youtang felt a little ashamed. He stood up and paced back and forth with his hands behind his back.

Although he did not read the above content carefully, as an ignorant boy who was inexperienced in the world, he was full of yearning for pure love and felt that the things between husband and wife were sacred. When he suddenly saw this kind of thing, he felt as if he was hit hard by something heavy, as if the beauty in his heart was tainted by some dirty thing, and he felt very repulsed.

Moreover, someone had violated the dignity of ethics in front of him, and the perpetrator was the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, representing the face of the court. In this way, it seemed that the entire Ming court had ceased to exist, which was completely contrary to the education Zhu Youtang had received in the first half of his life...

Regardless of whether Zhu Youtang will like this kind of content when he grows up, at least for now, he is firmly resisting it and does not even allow for negotiation.

Huai En took Wan An's memorial from Qin Ji. The more he read it, the weirder his expression became. Out of curiosity, Qin Chang also leaned over to read it with Huai En. After reading for a while, he almost vomited blood.

Huai En was the first to retract his gaze and shook his head, saying, "Your Majesty, Wan An is very unreliable. As the head of the cabinet, he should have thought about how to share your Majesty's worries, do things for the people of the world, and take it as his responsibility to safeguard the country. Instead, he has been burying his head in studying such obscene and shameless things. He should be reprimanded by imperial decree."

Qin Chang's eyes widened in shock.

He was thinking, isn't your reaction a bit too big, Huai En?

During the previous dynasty, didn’t Wan’an also present similar things to the late emperor?
Why didn't you fight with all your might at that time?

But now it has become Wan'an's crime of treason?
Oops, that's not right!
Could it be that……

You mentioned to me before that His Majesty wanted to drive Wan'an out of the court, so when you found that your opponent had exposed a flaw, you immediately took it as a great opportunity to help the young emperor realize his wish, and stood on the opposite side of Wan'an without hesitation, criticizing him verbally and in writing?
Zhu Youtang hadn't thought of anything else at this time. His still childish face was full of anger. He shouted loudly: "Look at what he presented? This is not what a minister should present at all! It's not even as good as an alchemist! It's really outrageous!"

"Yes, that's outrageous!"

Huai En echoed the emperor's words, and then followed the emperor's train of thought and said, "Your Majesty, please send someone to find Wan An immediately and reprimand him in person."

"Just a scolding...wait..."

Zhu Youtang suddenly thought of something at this moment.

Huai En immediately looked at the emperor expectantly.

Zhu Youtang seemed to have reacted by now, and his anger turned into joy. He looked at Huai En, Qin Chang and others and asked, "Tell me, is Wan An's action a serious mistake, or a manifestation of inhumanity? Is it... a reason to expel him from the court?"

Huai En was secretly delighted, but pretended to be confused on the surface, and asked tentatively: "Your Majesty, I wonder what you mean...?"

"I want to ask, if a minister is so careless in his work and only pays attention to things that are unbearable to look at, is it necessary for me to keep him in the court?"

Zhu Youtang's eyes became brighter as he spoke, but he was still a little worried. Finally, he frowned and asked, "If Wan'an leaves the court, will it discourage the scholars of the world?"

Huai En decisively denied it and shook his head, saying, "How is this possible? If the world knew that Wan An submitted such a memorial, they would definitely spit on him... How could such a vulgar and dirty person represent civil officials and Confucian scholars?"

"Oh, that's good, that's good."

Zhu Youtang nodded, seeming to agree deeply with Huai En's words.

This time, Huai En couldn't be bothered.

Huai En thought to himself, our Majesty's reaction when he first saw this memorial was exactly what I expected.

But why did His Majesty figure it out so quickly and use this incident to force Wan'an to step down?
and also……

In just a short while, His Majesty's mind calmed down and he even seemed composed, as if he had already expected Wan'an to make a mistake.

Is this an insight into the opportunity?
Zhu Youtang said in embarrassment: "How should I explain this matter...?"

Huai En said, "Your Majesty, there have been quite a few memorials impeaching Wan'an and Liu Ji recently, and they all mentioned their bad behavior of controlling the government and suppressing dissidents in the past few years. Even the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guards have many crimes against Wan'an that have not been shown in the memorials of the censors. If Your Majesty has time, you can take a look at them."

"Ah? Is Wan'an really so evil? Then how did he become the Prime Minister?"

Zhu Youtang had not previously cared about who impeached whom in the court.

Zhu Youtang hated reading this kind of memorials the most because they had nothing to do with people's livelihood. Whenever one was submitted to him, he would just flip through it casually. When he found out that the content was an accusation against each other, he would throw it away and put it aside.

Anyway, he doesn't need to pay attention to every impeachment.

But now, Zhu Youtang became interested.

Because at that moment he really wanted to drive Wan'an away, and Wan'an had indeed made a shocking mistake. In this way, when the emperor drove away a minister appointed by the previous emperor from the court, others would not say that the new emperor was ungrateful, but could only blame Wan'an for doing something wrong.

Huai En said, "I have sorted out those memorials and have stored them. I will bring them to Your Majesty right now. In addition, the factory guards have a backup of Wan'an's crimes. You can ask Eunuch Tan to present them. Your Majesty, please don't be angry! Don't ruin your elegance because of an old and disrespectful person."

……

……

After Wan'an presented his research results, he returned to the cabinet duty room, still with a contented look on his face.

This is the intention of waiting to be rewarded!
Liu Ji came in from outside and was very curious to see him. After all, Wan An was not usually seen before noon. In the cabinet, being idle was considered a good character, as long as you were willing to report. Suddenly someone as diligent as Xu Pu came, and everyone was a little uncomfortable. Wan An always persuaded Xu Pu to come later.

Why did Wan'an come to the office by himself today?
"Mr. Wan, have you had your meal yet?"

Liu Ji asked curiously. Wan An smiled and waved his hand: "The so-called way to keep healthy is to relax and work hard. You don't have to eat every meal. Occasionally starving yourself can stimulate the recovery of your body's functions and achieve the goal of longevity... Hey, you look so ignorant and don't know how to keep healthy. Haha."

"Mr. Wan is in a good mood today."

Liu Ji asked in an inquiring tone, "Didn't you say yesterday that you were going to the Zhang residence to meet Zhang Laizhan? I wonder what the result of the meeting was?"

“A lot has been gained.”

Wan'an felt relieved when he thought about Zhang Luan's attitude towards him yesterday.

It turns out that the father-in-law Zhang Luan is not a blockhead. I just used some things about health preservation to scare him, which shows that this man still has weaknesses.

That’s hard to say?
I happen to be very knowledgeable about health preservation and matters concerning the bedroom, so won’t I have common topics to talk about with Zhang Luan in the future?

Given Zhang Luan's good relationship with the emperor, if we join forces, we can still keep a firm grip on the affairs of the Hongzhi dynasty and control every aspect of the court. It's a wonderful thought.

Liu Ji was just about to ask what "gained a lot" meant when someone suddenly came in and reported: "Two elders, Eunuch Huai from the Imperial Household Department is here."

"Huh? Why is he here?"

As soon as Liu Ji heard the name Huai En, he felt a headache.

Obviously, Huai En was usually too strong. That was the pressure brought by his long-term tenure as the Minister of Internal Affairs, and it was also related to Huai En's outstanding abilities.

It is difficult for ordinary people not to feel timid in front of Huai En, feeling the powerful pressure from inside and outside.

Wan An smiled and said expectantly, "Are you here to announce the reward so soon? Come and meet them!"

As he said this, he was about to take Liu Ji to welcome the guests.

"Eunuch Huai said that only Lord Wan can go to see him."

"Oh, yes, yes, yes, look at me...you wait first." Wan'an didn't want Liu Ji to share his credit, so he went out excitedly to welcome the distinguished guest.

After Wan'an left, Xu Pu came out from the inner hall.

Liu Ji then realized that Xu Pu had arrived earlier, and immediately frowned and asked, "Why are you here?"

Xu Pu was also embarrassed.

Every day he was the first one to arrive at Wenyuan Pavilion to work. Before, Wan'an was sitting outside and he was embarrassed to come out, fearing that they would both be embarrassed.

Now that he saw Wan'an going out to greet guests, he showed up in a hurry, obviously he also wanted to know what had happened.

"Where is Mr. Wan?"

"Why do you care about him? He is the Prime Minister. All matters in the cabinet must be based on his opinion. Now that Eunuch Huai has been ordered to ask for his opinion, we should ignore him."

Liu Ji felt a little angry.

After all, he also knew that only one of him and Wan'an could survive this year. Now Wan'an looked calm and confident, and seemed to be favored by the emperor, which made Liu Ji feel a great sense of crisis.

Xu Pu did not take the initiative to avoid it, but moved to the window to observe the scene of Wan'an and Huai'en meeting outside.

"Huh? Why are you kneeling down?"

Xu Pu's eyes suddenly widened in shock. He subconsciously reached out to wipe his eyes. Finally, after confirming that he was not mistaken, he turned around and wanted to go out to find out what was going on.

"Don't act rashly!"

Liu Ji pulled him back and went to the window to look out. After seeing clearly, he shook his head and said, "How bizarre! How bizarre!"

Because the distance was too far, I couldn't hear what they were saying over there.

Not long after, Wan'an was seen getting up from the ground, with tears streaming down his face, as if he wanted to return to the cabinet duty room.

Huai En said something else. Wan An lowered his head and walked out of the palace in shame.

"This is……?"

Xu Pu became more and more confused and looked at Liu Ji sideways, meaning, "Can you give me an explanation?"
Liu Ji said, "Maybe Eunuch Huai has something to ask Elder Wan to do? Hey, I don't understand it either!"

Then Wan'an left the palace.

Xu Pu asked nervously, "Should we go out and ask?"

"What are you asking? Do you think Eunuch Huai came here by himself? He came here on the emperor's order. Don't bother with his business!" After saying this, Liu Ji quickly pulled Xu Pu back to the table and pretended to be doing his job seriously.

I thought Huai En would come in and talk to them and tell them what happened, but unexpectedly, after meeting Wan An, Huai En turned around and left.

Of the two people who met, one seemed to have gone straight home, while the other went back to report to the emperor.

Only Liu Ji and Xu Pu witnessed it all with their own eyes. Their minds were full of doubts, but they had no way to verify the answers, and they were extremely anxious.

(End of this chapter)