Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 686 Public Opinion
The news that Li Zisheng had led his troops to a great victory in the northwest spread quickly throughout the officialdom of the capital city that day like a bolt from the blue.

No one could have imagined that Li Zisheng, who usually looked cunning and treacherous but had no military experience, could have such a skill. Many people could not believe their ears and sent people to find people to verify the authenticity of the news.

But the final results all show... this seems to be true.

Unless Li Zisheng lied in his reports, claiming small achievements as great ones, exaggerating the small contributions he had made, or killing innocent people to claim credit and deceive the people of the world.

These can only be identified after receiving follow-up news.

Wenyuan Pavilion.

Cabinet value.

Liu Jigan sat there, still holding the copy of the victory report sent from the border, and he was still dazed.

"Master Liu?"

Xu Pu was afraid that Liu Ji could not accept the shock of the victory news from the border, so he gave him a kind reminder.

If you continue to sit there and ponder, I'm afraid you'll become so depressed that you'll pass away.

Liu Ji asked with a bitter face: "Shi Yong, tell me, is this a result that an ordinary person can expect? If I take the lead in impeaching Li Zisheng and Zhang Laizhan who stands behind him at the court meeting today, does it mean that I will be ridiculed by the people of the world now?"

Xu Pu thought to himself that he would not be laughed at by the whole world.

You are not the only one who has made a mistake. Anyway, I don’t see how Li Zisheng got military merit.

It's really weird!
Liu Ji continued to ask: "What do you think, is it possible that the Li family member falsely reported a victory in exchange for military merit? Anyway, the emperor is far away, so he can deceive people for a while and let Zhang Laizhan speak for him in the court. Then this fictitious victory can exist openly and even be recorded in history books?"

Xu Pu frowned and asked, "Is this possible?"

"How is it impossible?"

Liu Ji said, "From what I know about Li Zisheng, he has always been unscrupulous in doing things. He was even more unruly during the reign of the previous emperor. He was the most willful person in the court."

Xu Pu shook his head helplessly, meaning, I don’t think Li Zisheng has the courage to cheat on such a big thing.

Unless he is tired of living!

Liu Ji continued to analyze: "Think about it, this is the first decent battle since your majesty ascended the throne. Let's win first to make your majesty happy. The court can also complete the celebration process and turn the matter into a fait accompli. In this way, even if we send people to investigate and find the problem, we can't just expose it casually... After all, everyone has to consider your majesty's face."

Xu Pu said with a bitter face: "Lord Liu, are you overthinking? Even if Li Zisheng has such intentions, I think Eunuch Tan will not let him do whatever he wants... Besides, this battle has heads and prisoners as evidence, it is difficult to fake it!"

"Qin Chang offended Zhang Luan and was exiled by His Majesty. If he wants to regain the emperor's favor, he must make military achievements. In other words, Qin Chang's future is now firmly tied to Li Zisheng. It is not unimaginable that they would commit fraud together."

Liu Ji then pointed to the victory memorial and analyzed, "Didn't you see that it said that a lot of herdsmen from the border areas were captured during this expedition? Perhaps they used these foreign people to gain military merit.

"Don't think I don't know that Wang Shichang did this. Wei Ninghai broke into the Tartar camp and killed and captured mostly the elderly, the weak, women and children. Then the late emperor gave him such a great credit, making the world think he was the best general of the time. Little did they know that he was simply a fraud."

"Is this happening?"

Xu Pu was very surprised.

I thought to myself, I was just a lecturer in the Eastern Palace at the time and didn’t have much say in the court, so I really didn’t know the ins and outs behind it.

Liu Ji said: "Later, I explained the situation to the late emperor. Otherwise, how could Wang Shichang be exiled to Anlu to grow crops under the rocks of Jiewu Mountain?"

"..."

Xu Pu was speechless.

It turns out that when Wang Yue was in trouble, it was you, Liu Ji, who was behind the scenes fanning the flames?
Liu Ji's eyes were grim as he said, "Li Zisheng's desire for military merit is even greater than Wang Shichang's in the past, so he has every reason to kill innocent people and take credit for it... Therefore, this matter must be investigated thoroughly and thoroughly, and he must not be allowed any chance to take advantage of it."

Xu Pu asked tentatively: "Then you..."

Liu Ji seemed very conceited: "I rarely make mistakes in judging people. Humph, the previous impeachment is not over yet, I want to see what Zhang Luan and Li Zisheng can do!

"If it's true that any random person went to the northwest and was able to expand territory, kill enemies and gain merit after receiving some guidance from Zhang Luan, then wouldn't Zhang Luan have become an immortal?
"I won't believe this even if you kill me!"

……

……

Xu Pu felt very conflicted when he left Wenyuan Pavilion.

Because logically speaking, there are only two people in the cabinet, and he should agree with Liu Ji in his stance.

Although the two were of similar age, Liu Ji had much more experience as a prime minister than Xu Pu, so he should not doubt the accuracy of Liu Ji's observations. But rationally speaking, Liu Ji was too unreliable, and the title of "Liu Mianhua" was not for nothing.

To stand on the same side as Liu Ji is like rushing forward even though you know this road is a dead end, and not turning back until you hit a wall. That is too stupid.

Deep down, he was still inclined to draw a clear line between himself and Liu Ji.

"Lord Xu?"

As Xu Pu walked to the gate of Hanlin Academy, before he even went in, he saw Liu Jian coming out to greet him.

Xu Pu stepped forward and asked, "Xixian, why are you here? Is there something you want to talk to me about?"

Liu Jian said, "You sent a message earlier, asking everyone to sign the memorial impeaching Zhang Luan, the president of the academy. We had almost collected all the signatures, but just now the victory report from the northwest came. My colleagues in the Hanyuan were shocked and discussed that this matter should be discussed carefully again."

Xu Pu sighed, "I returned to the Hanyuan this time to stop this matter."

"What's the point of participating or not?"

Liu Jian asked, "It is said that Li Zisheng and Tan Chang led troops to resist the Tatars outside the Great Wall and won a great victory. Is this the result of the battle just achieved according to the intelligence provided by Zhang Luan?

"Zhang Luan is far away in the capital, how did he know the marching movements of the Tatars thousands of miles away? Could it be..."

When Xu Pu heard this, he quickly stopped them: "Don't make any more guesses."

Because Xu Pu had already felt that these Hanlin scholars who stood at the top of Confucian scholarship speculated from a rational perspective that Zhang Luan might be secretly connected with the Tatars, or involved in internal factional struggles among the Tatars. The Tatars wanted to use the hands of the Ming border soldiers to teach those disobedient tribal armed forces a lesson.

From a certain perspective, this is the most appropriate explanation for this "miracle" at the moment.

After all, the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty are the most knowledgeable about the ways of the world, and they always do things in a "reasonable and logical" way. It's ok for you, Zhang Luan, to play tricks in front of the emperor and save face and act pretentiously, but you also want us to believe that you really know the secrets of heaven?

Sorry, this is really beyond normal human capabilities, don't blame us for not believing it.

Xu Pu said: "It is said that after Li Zisheng led his troops out of the pass, he ambushed in the camp of the border people, and when the Tatar cavalry arrived, he suddenly rushed out, defeated the enemy at night, and immediately returned to the pass. Now the Tatar troops may come back, and the bandit chief may mobilize more tribal armed forces to attack Pianguan."

Liu Jian nodded and said, "There was no trouble at the border originally, but if there is a disturbance like this, the matter will never be resolved."

Xu Pu said, "I will go to Fu Tu to discuss this matter later. He knows a lot about border affairs and may be able to explain my doubts."

"Why doesn't Lord Xu go to the Ministry of War to ask for advice?"

According to Liu Jian, if you have any questions about this battle, you should go to the Minister of War Yu Zijun.

As for Ma Wensheng, although he served as the Minister of War for a year, he is now only the Left Censor-in-Chief, and logically speaking, he should not be involved in military affairs.

Xu Pu sighed and said, "It's not easy to find someone who can answer my questions and hit the nail on the head. Most people in the court don't have a deep understanding of border affairs, and even if they do, they may not answer me."

Liu Jian nodded, and he seemed to have understood some things.

After all, Xu Pu had just entered the cabinet not long ago. Although his status was above the six ministries and nine ministers, in terms of reputation in the court, he was far inferior to the Minister of War Yu Zijun and needed to slowly accumulate qualifications.

So when Xu Pu had some military problems and went to talk to Yu Zijun, Yu Zijun, for the sake of face, would just say a few perfunctory words and would not really analyze the interests involved with him. As a result, the cabinet would not get the response strategy it wanted and would not be able to have a clear position in the subsequent drafting.

After all, Xu Pu could not rely on Liu Ji.

Therefore, the best solution at the moment was to find Ma Wensheng, the Left Censor-in-Chief, who had previously served as the Minister of War but was dismissed from his post and was only reinstated after the new emperor ascended the throne.

In this way, the dialogue will be more convenient and quick, and it also reflects the equality of the two parties' identities.

Liu Jian said, "Earlier, His Majesty had sent someone to the Hanyuan to spread the word that as long as there was good news from the northwest, Zhang Luan could be promoted to the cabinet. Now it has really come true. Could it be that someone set up a trap in advance? We must be careful!"

Xu Pu was stunned.

He was wondering why Liu Xixian's ideas were exactly the same as Liu Ji's?

Is it really that Li Zisheng is so unreliable in leading troops to victory?

To the point that everyone suspected that this was a conspiracy and deception designed by Li Zisheng and Zhang Luan long ago, and even made Qin Chang and the Northwest soldiers lie for it? Then everyone was on the same boat, tacitly accepting the existence of military merits, and even if His Majesty knew the truth of the matter, would he come forward to protect it?

Xu Pu shook his head and sighed, saying with emotion: "If this is true, the northwest will definitely be in turmoil again... Let's wait and see, and don't rush to make a decision. Come in with me and finish the job... It's inconvenient to stay here for too long, I will leave later."

Perhaps Xu Pu felt that everyone in the Hanlin Academy was wary of Zhang Luan, especially the readers, lecturers and even the bachelors, who were afraid that Zhang Luan would be promoted above his level and take over the positions that originally belonged to them.

Therefore, once there was news that was favorable for Zhang Luan to join the cabinet, everyone would start to think of ways to slander him, fearing that Zhang Luan would really gain military merit and directly skip over them to join the cabinet.

(End of this chapter)