Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 225: Scolding the Cabinet Ministers, Qingliu Begging for Mercy

"Your Majesty, Lord Fei has sent a secret letter requesting an audience."

That night.

Zhu Houcong was reading the memorial that had already been drafted for approval when the eunuch Huang Jin, who was on night duty before the emperor, came in and reported something.

"not see!"

Zhu Houcong refused without hesitation.

"Yes!"

Huang Jin also came out and answered Fei Hong who was standing in the cold wind:
"Master, please go back."

"Your Majesty is asleep?"

Fei Hong asked.

Huang Jin did not answer.

Fei Hong knelt down and said, "Please inform me again, sir, that I have something urgent to discuss with you."

Huang Jin saw Fei Hong kneeling down, and since he was old, he felt a little reluctant and said, "Then I'll ask again for you."

Fei Hong smiled with emotion: "Thank you, Grandpa."

Huang Jin didn't know what was going on either, and thought it was something important, so he came in again: "Your Majesty, Lord Fei said he wants to see you for something important."

"I said I won't see you, tell him to go away!"

Zhu Houcong replied with feigned anger, and then continued to flip through the memorials.

Huang Jin couldn't help but ask: "Your Majesty, do you really want to answer according to this?"

Zhu Houcong said, "Of course! Do I need to teach you the rules of the Imperial Household Department again on behalf of Wei Bin?"

"But, will this hurt him too much?"

Huang Jin couldn't help but ask.

Snapped!
Zhu Houcong slammed the memorial in his hand on the table and said loudly:

"What's the injury?"

"It is not a pity to kill such a hypocritical person who is greedy while eating from the bowl! Liu Huian is right! These scholars are all cunning people who only know how to make careful calculations for themselves. I wonder how many faces they have on their faces that can be changed at any time!"

Huang Jin had already knelt down obediently, raised her buttocks high, and raised her round face to say, "Your Majesty, please calm down! I shouldn't have said too much! If I upset the Holy Body, it will be a capital crime for me!"

Fei Hong also heard Zhu Houcong's scolding at this time.

This made him close his eyes and his body began to tremble even more violently.

He knew that the emperor was scolding him on purpose.

But Fei Hong didn't dare to say much and could only kneel on the ground obediently.

Because he knew that he no longer had the confidence to act like a senior official. The emperor asked Lin Da to bring him a message, obviously giving him a last chance. If he showed any more arrogance tonight, he would end up like Jiang Mian.

I don’t know how long it took.

Snowflakes were already falling from the dark sky, landing on the red eaves outside the palace, on Fei Hong's hat, and on his shoulders.

Yawn!

Fei Hong sneezed and his body became as stiff as a wooden sculpture.

Zhu Houcong also heard the sound and thought that he had almost taught him a lesson. If he really froze to death, it was not the way for him as an emperor to execute others, so he said, "Forget it, help him in, carry him in, and get some salt to rub his body."

Huang Jin bowed and said yes, then waved and led the people out.

Soon.

The half-conscious Fei Hong was carried in by a young eunuch and placed on a couch. Then another eunuch brought a basin of salt and began to wipe his entire body.

Fei Hong wanted to get down on the bed and kneel down to play.

Zhu Houcong stopped him at this time: "Let's talk about it later!"

Fei Hong shut up.

About half an incense stick of time later, Fei Hong recovered his body temperature and strength, and knelt in front of Zhu Houcong.

Zhu Houcong spoke first at this time:

"Seventy thousand taels of gold and more than seventy thousand kilograms of brass a year. You and them embezzled most of it without my knowledge. If this matter were to be exposed, how would you be a cabinet minister? Where would the reputation of your Fei family, a family of noble character for generations, be put? Have you ever thought about this?"

Fei Hong just took out the secret book from his sleeve with a serious expression and said:

"Your Majesty, I am sincere and will report this with all my heart!"

Zhu Houcong leaned back, holding the gilded wooden hammer in his hand, and occasionally knocked on the bronze chime: "Tell me about it."

"Before Your Majesty ascended the throne, many powerful ministers in the court hoped that Your Majesty would recognize Xiaomiao as the emperor's father, follow the system of Emperor Xiaozong, and rule the world with the literati!"

"The benefits of this to the scholars and officials of the world are self-evident. However, some scholars and officials, in order to seek personal promotion and cater to your majesty's desire for power, have discussed the ceremony separately. In order to avoid a rift between the monarch and his subjects, and because your majesty is indeed a wise ruler, many old officials are willing to compromise and no longer insist on the original ceremony."

"But this does not mean that the purpose of the literati and officials who want to rule the world with Your Majesty alone and not let the harem, eunuchs, relatives, nobles, military officials, and common people get involved will disappear. This is not up to them individually. Not only me, but also Wang Yangming and Zhang Fujing, who are the most supportive of Your Majesty's discussion on the grand ceremony, are the same!"

"Because the power of the world can control the benefits of the world."

"And if you can gain more benefits from the world, you can also gain more power from the world."

"Everyone wants to take some money from the Donglai fortune this time, from miners to petty officials to bureaucrats and scholars, and even the dignitaries in the court. The scholars naturally want to take the most, after all, this is conducive to the growth of scholar power."

"As a cabinet minister in charge of the Ministry of Finance, I have to take it even if I don't want to! Because if I don't take it, I can't do my job, and I will be betraying the scholars and the powerful and wealthy who support the scholars and your majesty to rule the world."

"Even if I took it, as long as Your Majesty didn't know, I couldn't take the initiative to tell Your Majesty, because doing so would mean betraying them, actively exposing the matter, actively forcing Your Majesty to break with more scholars and officials, and further undermining the peaceful political situation of co-governance between the monarch and his ministers."

"But in this case, I will inevitably be guilty of deceiving the emperor, and cannot be a truly loyal and upright minister." Fei Hong bowed his head and said, "I am ashamed of your majesty, and I am willing to accept death! Even if my family is confiscated and my clan is exterminated, I will not complain!"

Zhu Houcong, who was sitting on a chair, half leaned over, and pounded the gilded wooden hammer on the chair cushion, saying:

"You consider the overall situation, I understand you!"

"But do you intend to protect them as well?"

"So you didn't even tell me about this in private, or in a secret report?"

"Tell me the real reason!"

"Why not report it?"

After Zhu Houcong asked this question, his expression became more serious.

Fei Hong was silent for a while, then stood up and said, "I am not shielding them. I just feel that Your Majesty is a holy ruler sent from heaven. Even if I don't say it, Your Majesty will know it. It depends on Your Majesty's will whether to expose it or not. But if I say it, it will be like forcing Your Majesty to make a decision!"

"Your strength is that you serve the emperor sincerely, but you cherish your reputation and wealth, and you hesitate to look ahead and behind. You let a group of corrupt officials embezzle the state treasury, and even pretend to be ignorant when you know the truth, and follow them to deceive me. You only care about whitewashing the current peace, and you have to say that they are all upright gentlemen. This is where you are not as good as Wang Yangming and Zhang Fujing!"

"This is not the way to live in harmony with the world!"

"If this continues, will you have to follow them and exclude people like Wang Yangming, Zhang Fujing, Gui E, and Yan Song in the future?"

After Zhu Houcong asked, Fei Hong did not say anything, but just looked down at the floor tiles with an embarrassed look on his face.

"How can I trust you to be my Prime Minister in the future if you are like this?"

Zhu Houcong then said this again.

Fei Hong raised his head suddenly.

Eyes burning.

then.

Fei Hong's eyes turned red again, and he kowtowed immediately: "So I deserve to die! I have failed the expectations of His Majesty!"

Snapped!
Zhu Houcong smashed the wooden hammer in his hand on the table and said with gritted teeth: "How can I kill you?"

then.

Zhu Houcong stood up and leaned over to look at Fei Hong on the ground:
"You are the first senior minister I summoned to the capital, and you are also the teacher of the late emperor! You actually lied to me! You also want to embezzle the national funds that I use to revive the Ming Dynasty. If this matter is made public, I will even confiscate your property and exterminate your clan. How can you put the face of the court, the face of two generations of the late emperor, and my own face? You have no shame, but I have to have some! The late emperor has to have some!"

Zhu Houcong walked towards Fei Hong, speaking excitedly, and then he spread his hands and looked at Fei Hong: "So, in order to prevent the people of the world from despising the ruling class and even the emperor, I can't do anything to you."

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I'm guilty!"

Fei Hong replied crying.

Zhu Houcong then said: "But this does not mean that I have to cooperate with you to continue to protect corrupt officials and continue to trample on the majesty of the court! Now that I know, you should know what to do."

"I understand!"

Fei Hong replied.

"As long as you know."

then.

Zhu Houcong asked Fei Hong again: "Do you think Yang Tinghe was also corrupt in this?"

"Your Majesty, whether the Grand Tutor is greedy or not, you know better than me!"

Fei Hong replied.

Zhu Houcong said unhappily: "I don't know him better than you do!"

then.

Zhu Houcong then said: "Go see him first and tell him about your meeting with me."

"Yes!"

……

Yang Tinghe had already started to get restless after Linda came to see him.

After Fei Honglai relayed the story of the meeting with the emperor to Yang Tinghe, Yang Tinghe sighed and said, "Well, I can only apologize to them!"

"We are not in a better situation. Although we can still stand on dry shore, we have lost face in front of His Majesty. We dare not accept the grace, let alone persuade the king to use wise ministers."

Fei Hong replied helplessly.

Yang Tinghe nodded and said thoughtfully, "This time it turned out like this, of course it's because your majesty is really smart, but also because he's too lucky. No one thought that Donglai had such a large gold mine that would allow your majesty to maintain the current new policy. However, your majesty can't always be so lucky. As long as your majesty doesn't find new ways to make money, you still need to maintain a peaceful and harmonious policy! In that case, with your majesty's wisdom, even if you don't consider yourself a wise minister, your majesty will still recognize you as a wise minister."

"I hope your Majesty will not find new ways to make money."

Fei Hong nodded and replied, then he sighed and said, "Otherwise, I really don't know how many more heads will fall! And if this continues, you and I will eventually be like ants, and can be easily killed or taken away by His Majesty."

"Will not!"

"The reason why agriculture is the foundation of all industry in the world is because there is a shortage of silver and copper in the world!"

"After all, the ancients have been looking for it for thousands of years, but where can they find so much silver and copper, not to mention the even rarer gold? For thousands of years, wise rulers and wise ministers have only emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce in order to maintain peace."

"Otherwise, the Song Dynasty would not have imposed more copper fines in order to open up the market and benefit the country!"

Yang Tinghe said with a smile: "Your Majesty is a wise ruler. You will know that the world is short of silver and copper, and that agriculture should be the basis."

"Right!"

Fei Hong also agreed with Yang Tinghe's statement and said, "Your Majesty is a wise ruler. He understands that the national policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce cannot be changed. That is why he has shown extra favor to you and me! We must not let him down."

Yang Tinghe smiled and said, "Your Majesty wants to use the profits from the Donglai gold mine to maintain the new policy, then let him take it! After the Donglai gold mine is fully mined, the policy of the Xiao Temple will be reopened!"

(End of this chapter)