Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 239: The Imperial Court Forced a Rebellion...

The old man of the Song family's face changed several times, and finally he bowed and left in silence, looking angrily.

Wang Dingjue looked at his back, and his son Wang Shu gritted his teeth and said, "You are so anxious, I am afraid that the Song family is deeply involved. You are proposing marriage again when the disaster is imminent, you really want to harm Ling'er!"

"Let them go." He looked at his son. "This year, the Privy Council bought 3,000 good horses from Changming and shipped them to Nanjing via Liaodong and Xuanda. Now we have to hope that they don't take risks. If they prove that they are plotting treason, the Wang family's reputation in Jiangnan will be even worse."

Of the additional 200,000 taels of gold and silver given to the emperor, 100,000 were actually left in Nanjing to strengthen military preparedness.

Wang Dingjue knew about this.

I heard that the Xiaoling Guard only received 30,000 taels of silver every year, and these horses were all for the Xiaoling Guard.

Nowadays, a good horse costs dozens or even hundreds of taels of silver. To transport three thousand good horses from the north here would cost most of the silver they had earned in two years.

But the young Duke of Wei might have been stimulated and wanted to seize this opportunity to lead a group of elite soldiers. It was said that he took out all his share of the profits from Changminghao in the past two years and used it on Xiaolingwei.

In Nanjing, we have more than a thousand cavalrymen, each with two or three horses, and some infantrymen...

Together with the navy and the standard bearers of the Left Commander-in-Chief of the Front Army...

The right commander of the front army now stationed in Nanjing is Li Hualong, who pacified Bozhou.

The question is: Faced with a possible catastrophe for the entire clan, is there anyone who would really dare to take the risk and simply rebel?
"It's unheard of! It's unheard of! If you want to accuse someone of something, you can always find a pretext for it."

The elder of the Song family lost his temper after returning to the clan: "Shen Jianwu is incompetent! Shen Rumo is cowardly! Wang Xijue is disloyal!"

The Song family was already a frightened bird. The head of the family was a middle-aged generation. He looked at the elders with a pale face and said, "The Wang family... is unwilling to help?"

"Since his Wang family is willing to sell out all the gentry in the world to invite the emperor's favor, why are they willing to help? For the marriage of a mere niece's granddaughter, Wang Xijue has the nerve to ask the emperor to be the matchmaker!"

The head of the Song family looked embarrassed, as it was supposed to be his son who married Wang Dingjue's eldest granddaughter.

If the elders had not forced him to cancel the engagement at that time, why would it have come to this? If he were a relative of the prime minister, why would it have come to this?
"Master Shen has been defeated. Uncle, you shouldn't have said anything out of turn this time. You must have gotten involved in Chu Fan's affairs..." He complained, "What should we do now? I don't know if His Majesty is really going to investigate this thoroughly. Even Mr. Luo will be taken back to the capital for questioning..."

"It's unheard of, it's unheard of..." The old man of the Song family was so angry that his beard trembled, "It's just a few comments from the countryside, and you say it's an attempt to rebel..."

"This is too much!" the younger generation said angrily, "Since the imperial court is forcing us to rebel..."

"Old Master! Old Master!" Someone else rushed in in panic. "It's not good! News from Nanjing: I heard that the Beijing camp is doing some kind of training, and Duke Wei also requested that the Xiaoling Guards do some training. Now, the Xiaoling Guards cavalry have left the outer city and are heading east!"

The young man turned pale and trembled all over. Even though the imperial court forced him to rebel, he did not dare to do so...

"How can it be so fast? It's so deliberate!"

At this moment in Nanjing, Xu Hongji had just handed over the memorial. He looked at Li Hualong and asked hesitantly, "Is there really such an order?"

"How can the military order of the Privy Council be issued without the order of His Majesty? There is no time to lose. Since His Majesty has decided that the Beijing camp will march, the military order must be sent to Nanjing urgently. At least before the Beijing camp's left army marches to Jiangnan, you must obey my command! Pingyi Bo has been ordered to escort the King of Chu and others to the capital. All matters of the front military governor's office will be temporarily handled by me, including the personal guards and Xiaoling guards in Nanjing! If the Duke is worried, go to the garrison office and ask Eunuch Cheng!"

"…It's just this bank."

Li Hualong just stared into his eyes and said earnestly, "Young Master Xu, since you are unwilling to fall behind Duke Ying and are willing to join the army to make achievements, then military orders should come first. Since His Majesty has set up the Privy Council, the Beijing camp with more than 10,000 troops can be dispatched at any time, so how can they be short of this bank? Now that the autumn grain is being collected, Changminghao will naturally prepare the 100,000 taels of silver that should be left in Nanjing."

"...I appreciate your advice." Xu Hongji bowed awkwardly, "I just wanted to ask first so that I can explain it clearly to the generals in the guards."

Li Hualong watched him leave, and after a long time he lowered his head to look at a new document in front of him.

The Privy Council should not do things that really involve bloodshed.

It depends on whether Niu Yingyuan can arrest all the people identified by Liang Yunlong quickly and efficiently after seeing this document.

The Xiaoling Guard rarely left the area between Nanjing's outer city and inner city, but now, a thousand cavalrymen were heading eastward on the land of Jiangnan in late November.

Shen Shixing in the Wenlou was looking at the Qianqing Palace in the distance with dazed eyes. He had already read many palace examination papers.

It can be seen from these test papers that many ideas in Confucian theories of governing the country began to tend to speak for the emperor - with so many students thrown into prison and stripped of their official titles, there must be some power.

Then there are the officials and gentry who put profit first, are greedy and forget about morality, and even dare to cause trouble for the Ming Dynasty...

The emperor therefore said that someone was plotting a rebellion, but in fact he was convicting the Confucians.

How much blood will be shed by the knife raised this time? How to prune Confucianism?
"Minister of Literature?"

Shen Shixing came back to his senses, turned around and just forced a smile: "After you decide, just present it to the emperor for review."

It has nothing to do with him.

In the new era, there is no longer any room for "corrupt scholars" like him in the imperial court.

In the Yangxin Palace, Zhu Changluo looked at the old and the young in front of him with a smile.

"Is Yuan Yu really relieved now?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Xijue bowed deeply and said, "How could I be worried? I just want to give some explanation to my brother and nephew."

"It's your fault as well as mine. Since I know Yuan Yu is worried about this matter, I will help him. Now Yuan Yu has also tested his knowledge, and he is indeed a rare talent, right?" Wang Xijue felt a little strange when he saw Song Yingxing, a student at the Imperial Academy who was feeling uneasy in front of him.

His surname is Song again.

but……

"Chang Geng is naturally very talented, and has a photographic memory."

He didn't say it because he was just an elementary school student after all, and he didn't see any obvious outstanding qualities.

But his family background was indeed clean, his great-grandfather Song Jing served as Minister of Works, Minister of War, and Left Censor-in-Chief. If there was no successor, he should have been a famous family in Fengxin, Jiangxi.

"It is true that I have not achieved anything yet." Zhu Changluo knew what Wang Xijue was thinking, but he looked at Song Yingxing and said, "But my uncle likes you very much and wants to take you as his last disciple. Song Yingxing, you don't have to study the classics step by step. Since you like the various subjects under natural philosophy, learn them well and enter the Hundred Schools Garden in the future."

"Students obey orders..."

Song Yingxing didn't know why the emperor was so fond of him. He not only let the Baijiayuan instructor and the Prince of Zheng personally teach him, but also arranged for him to marry the niece of Wang Xijue.

Could it be because of the story that the emperor told him when he was summoned for the first time, that he had searched everywhere for "Dream Pool Essays" last year but couldn't find it?

Of course, Wang Xijue didn’t know why, but the emperor’s enthusiasm was definitely a grace.

Especially when Shen Shixing was about to leave the court again.

"You should go back to Imperial College first."

Zhu Changluo wanted to use this matchmaking skill naturally because he wanted Song Yingxing to be able to start earlier, be more focused, and have more resources.

The advantage of being young is that one has a strong ability to learn new things. Zhu Changluo was not willing to wait for six years to slowly graduate from middle school before he could be admitted to Baijiayuan.

If he becomes the son-in-law of Wang Xijue's great-nephew, he can find a reason to show favor to the Wang family and directly let him enter Baijiayuan.

Special things are done.

After Song Yingxing left, Zhu Changluo said to Wang Xijue, "There are two more things I want to discuss with Yuan Yu first."

"I respectfully listen."

"First of all, all the sons of Zhang Jiangling have arrived in Beijing. Zhang Sixiu was the second place in the Dingchou exam, and Zhang Maoxiu was the first place in the Gengchen exam. Even though they were ridiculed a lot back then, they are just like your son Wang Heng, both talented people. Those who should be given official positions are now given official positions, but when I talked to my father a few days ago, he felt deeply ashamed for failing his meritorious officials. I think the Zhang family should be given special favors."

Wang Xijue looked at the emperor silently.

To say that the Zhang family should be shown special favors means that the Wang family, who are now wholeheartedly helping the emperor implement his new policies, will have no worries in the future.

"I wonder how Your Majesty intends to bestow special favors on the Zhang family."

"I know that Zhang Jiangling's fourth son, Yunxiu, has a daughter who is eighteen years old and has not yet married. I want to take her as my concubine and respect Zhang Jiangling as my relative. Then I will ask my father to issue an edict to clear Zhang Jiangling's name and restore his title and posthumous title."

Wang Xijue was silent for a while, and then he said, "If Your Majesty is willing, there is no need to use the name of a royal relative. If you want to vindicate Taiyue and propose a new policy, it would be more upright to issue a decree."

"…After all, my father is still alive."

Master, master, both master and father. Zhu Yijun's son married Zhang Juzheng's granddaughter as his concubine, so the order of seniority was not messed up.

The main reason was the political need to clarify the direction of the new policy, and also to consider not letting the son directly slap his father in the face while Zhu Yijun was still alive - after all, Zhu Yijun had turned his back on Zhang Juzheng.

Therefore, taking a concubine is just a stepping stone. The imperial concubine's family is also a royal family, and they should be given corresponding grace when they are canonized. The relationship between the emperor and Zhang Juzheng's son is second only to the empress's family. It's not good to let Zhang Juzheng still be in a state where his titles and posthumous titles are taken away, right?

"…Your Majesty, why don't you discuss this with the Ministry of Rites? This matter…"

"Then it involves the question of who will succeed the Grand Secretary of the Ministry of Rites." Zhu Changluo spoke clearly, "The new Grand Secretary of the Ministry of Rites should be a courageous person. Only in this way can the Jinxianyuan and the Shizhengyuan complement each other in the future. If I marry Zhang Yunxiu's daughter as my concubine, should I use her brother? After the reform of the royal family, the ban on imperial examinations was relaxed, so should the descendants of the nobles and relatives continue to be treated with favor in this way?"

Wang Xijue understood that this involved breaking quite a few rules.

It’s just like it was better for his younger brother to avoid Wang Xijue back then. Although he had talent, it was better for him to resign and return home to avoid being criticized in the court.

"Your Majesty, many of these old systems are for the stability of the country..." He reminded him out of duty.

The families of the royal family were not allowed to hold important positions in the court, and capable descendants of meritorious officials could only hold military posts. In the past, the royal vassals were confined to their fiefdoms and could not leave or engage in certain industries.

Isn't this to guard against rebellion?

Zhu Changluo shook his head: "If you can talk about the words righteousness and profit well, there will be no major disasters. Confucianism has a new look. There will be more government offices and responsibilities in the court and the local areas in the future. I will consider these issues. I will discuss these two matters with the four of you first. These should be taken into consideration when recommending the candidates for the Grand Secretary of the Ministry of Rites."

"I understand. I will think about it carefully first."

After leaving the Palace of Tranquil Longevity and walking on the road, Wang Xijue looked a little dazed.

Taiyue... If there had been a Majesty like this back then, what kind of achievements could the monarch and his ministers have accomplished together?

(End of this chapter)