Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 273 Jiajing issued a strict decree to wipe out the Ministry of War!

Late spring of the fourth year of Jiajing.

On this day, the sky in the capital had just cleared up and the city was lush and green.

The Grand Canal Transport Commander-in-Chief Yang Hong, the Grand Canal Transport Commander Zhang Kui, and officers including Lu Cheng and Ma Yue, the commanders of the garrisons along the canal, were shackled and sent to the capital.

Standing in the cage, Yang Hong glanced at the newly built outer city tower and couldn't help but think of his visit to Beijing last year. When he thought of his current situation, he couldn't help but sigh.

He really didn't expect that the entire mutiny led by Lu Cheng and others would fail, and he would also be implicated.

Zhang Kui also sighed with the same feeling.

But both of them were born into wealthy families in Southern Zhili and were military officers in the garrisons along the canal. Their interests were consistent with theirs, so there was no question of them regretting their decision to resist the governor-general of the Grand Canal.

However, Lu Cheng and Ma Yue felt somewhat regretful. They regretted that they should not have listened to the instigation of others and started the idea of ​​mutiny.

After all, this is a crime that warrants the extermination of nine generations of a clan.

The officials and people of the capital watched these people being escorted to Beijing, and they began to point fingers at them and talk about them.

Some military households in the capital had long hated these garrison officers who had exploited them in the past, so they began to curse them, and some even directly took the rotten vegetable leaves and chicken and duck feces that the vendors didn't want and threw them at these officers.

clap clap!

Before long, Lu Cheng, Ma Yue and others all became clowns.

This has made many military households feel relieved.

Yao Lai, who came to the city gate with him, couldn't help but smile slightly when he saw this.

He knew that these people would be imprisoned and quietly executed by the East Factory and the Pacification Office. In this way, the things his father did in the Ministry of War, such as selling official positions and titles, would not be exposed.

at that time.

Yao Tan, the left vice minister of the Ministry of War, Zheng Yue, who was transferred from the Minister of Public Administration to the right vice minister of the Ministry of War, and Yang Dun, the director of the Military Selection Department, were all anxiously waiting for the court's order to send these prisoners to the imperial prison.

This was because many of the military generals like Lu Cheng were promoted by them in exchange for money or at the request of others. Once these people were interrogated, they, the civil servants in the Ministry of War, would be implicated.

After all, the current Minister of War Wang Xian has not been involved in the affairs of the ministry since he returned from Datong due to his old age and illness, and the Ministry of War has basically been sidelined by the two of them.

Therefore, the two are now very worried that these generals will reveal something about them during the interrogation.

Right Vice Minister Zheng Yue even specifically asked Yao Tan: "Are the East Factory and the Pacification Office really willing to silence these people for us?"

"Yes, it only costs 70,000 taels of gold! I have already paid 20,000 taels in advance for you, and you need to raise the remaining 50,000 taels."

Yao Tan started talking.

Zheng Yue nodded after hearing this: "As long as they are willing! Gold is not important, we can just distribute it to the generals and lieutenant generals below! They just need to ask for more military pay and city construction fees!"

Yao Tan smiled and said, "That's exactly the point!"

"What the two ministers said is very true. Let's wait for the decree."

Yang Dun also echoed at this time.

Although he pretended to be calm on the surface, he was still extremely nervous inside, and cursed in his heart: "I don't know which villain told me off, making me suffer the same fate!"

When Zhu Houcong heard that Yang Hong, Zhang Kui, Lu Cheng, Ma Yue and others were sent to the capital, he instructed Fei Hong and Wang Qiong in the Imperial Study:

"Draft an imperial decree. Yao Tan, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, and Yao Lai, the Imperial Academy Editor, bribed the East Factory and the Pacification Office in an attempt to interfere with the national law. Therefore, they are dismissed from their posts. The Imperial Guards are ordered to assist the Metropolitan Censorate in imprisoning Yao Tan and Yao Lai together with the rebels who were escorted to the capital. The Three Judicial Departments are ordered to interrogate these people together with the rebels who were sent to the capital. Letters are sent to the officials in their hometowns to seal off their homes!"

Fei Hong and Wang Qiong were both slightly stunned after hearing this.

Fei Hong couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, how come we don't know about this?"

Zhu Houcong handed the memorials and the certificates submitted by Qin Wen and Shi Bao to Fei Hong:
"Take a look for yourself. I just saw it too, so I will issue an edict next time!"

"This father and son are so cruel! They used the money right under my nose. Fortunately, the people around me are loyal, otherwise my life would be in the hands of this father and son!"

"I'll do it now!"

After hearing this, Fei Hong looked at Zhu Houcong with a more complicated expression, but he also responded more respectfully.

Wang Qiong also felt a little more fearful of Zhu Houcong.

After the cabinet drafted the edict, it sent it to the six departments.

Jin Chengxun, the military official, happened to be in the Six Departments Corridor. When he saw the decree, he was immediately dismayed and hurried to the Ministry of War.

The Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War Yao Tan and the Right Vice Minister Zheng Yue had been waiting for the Emperor's new decree on how to deal with Yang Hong, Zhang Kui, Lu Cheng, Ma Yue and others, and so they had been waiting in the lobby of the Ministry of War.

So when Jin Chengxun arrived, he met the two men directly in the lobby of the Ministry of War and said, "The cabinet has issued a new decree to send Mr. Yao to the prison of the Metropolitan Procuratorate because the East Factory and the Pacification Office exposed Mr. Yao's bribery."

Yao Tan was shocked when he heard this.

Zheng Yue also stood there in a daze.

Yang Dun and others were even more at a loss.

And that time.

When Yao Lai was about to return to the Hanlin Academy, he first saw the Jinyiwei and soldiers from the Censorate who had received the imperial edict to arrest him.

When these people surrounded Yao Lai, Yao Lai was stunned for a moment and asked in surprise: "What are you doing?"

Ren Luo, the censor of the Censorate, read out the imperial edict.

Simultaneously.

The Jinyiwei had already taken Yao Lai under control, and then he was taken to the Censorate Prison.

"How could this be?"

When he was taken to the Censorate Prison, he couldn't help but mutter something.

……

……

"How could this result happen?" Yao Tan finally said this in despair after Jin Chengxun just said this.

"How dare the East Factory Pacification Division toy with our Ministry of War!"

"They break the rules like this. How can people in the future dare to collect money casually?!"

then.

Yao Tan even spoke about this with some annoyance.

Zheng Yue also came back to his senses at this time, and looked at Yao Tan and others with a gloomy face and said: "This incident can only prove that His Majesty's control over the inner court is now stronger than we imagined! The East Factory and the Pacification Office have been controlled by him like an arm!"

"Why did my father choose such a powerful monarch!"

Yang Dun nodded, and was so angry that he gritted his teeth and even blamed his father Yang Tinghe.

Zheng Yue looked at Yang Dun and said, "You can't blame your father for this. According to the order of succession, he should be the heir!"

"It's just that we didn't expect that the current emperor would really be a wise and holy ruler!"

"Your Majesty didn't expect it, and neither did we. We have now fallen into such a situation. We should blame those people who wanted to control Your Majesty for being so bold! We were also implicated, and we should also blame those villains like Zhang Fujing and Wang Jinxi!"

"They have completely corrupted the morals of scholars. They cater to whatever kind of emperor Your Majesty wants them to be and act as the ministers Your Majesty wants them to be!"

"Obviously, they were all villains who flattered the king, but one by one they transformed themselves into fighters for the country and the people!"

"For example, Yan Fenyi, who now complains about the military households every day, looks like a loyal minister who denounces the great flaws of the military system. If you don't know, you would think that the military households are his real fathers!"

"Why are you still saying this?"

After Zheng Yue's painful complaint, Yao Tan just smiled bitterly and said one sentence.

Then, Yao Tan looked at Jin Chengxun and said, "The Jinyiwei came here as expected. We don't know if the Ministry of War will be wiped out because of those generals. But you are not from the Ministry of War. Take Liu Qi, the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, to see Fei Qianshan and tell him everything about us!"

"Now, he is the only one who can ask the emperor to show us mercy!"

"If he knew that there were important noble families behind us, as a cabinet minister who came from the Hanlin Academy, he would have thought of covering up for some of these noble families!"

"I'm going right now!"

Jin Chengxun said this and bowed and left the Ministry of War.

As soon as Jin Chengxun left, people from the Jinyiwei and the Censorate arrived at the Ministry of War.

"The emperor has issued an order that no one from the Ministry of War is allowed to leave."

"Yao Tan, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War!"

Censor Ren Luo walked in with the imperial edict, said something, and then looked at Yao Tan.

"Chen is here!"

Yao Tan knelt down.

Ren Luoze unfolded the imperial edict.

"Imperial edict: Junior Sima Yao Tan, you are held in high esteem by me and I place you as a pillar of my country... However, you have forgotten your gratitude to your ancestors and have bribed the inner court heavily. Fortunately, my close ministers are virtuous and are not as ruthless as you. I have reported this to the emperor and I am horrified to hear it! I order the Censorate and the Jinyiwei Northern Pacification Division to send important officials to remove you from office and put you in prison. You will be tried by the court together with the traitors who came to Beijing. I hope you will reflect on your mistakes..."

Yao Tan burst into tears after hearing the imperial edict, and replied with a sob: "I feel so ashamed of the grace of heaven that I cannot redeem myself even if I die a hundred times!"

After saying this, Yao Tan began to sob and took off the black veil on his head with trembling hands.

The Jinyiwei picked up Yao Tan and dragged him out of the Ministry of War.

Zheng Yue and Yang Dun felt sympathetic when they saw this, and they only hoped that the Cabinet Chief Minister Fei Hong would fight for them because they were both upright in the past.

"Your Majesty has also issued an order that no one else in the military department should leave! Anyone who violates this order will be severely punished!"

Ren Luo gave another instruction.

"Don't dare!"

……

……

Fei's house.

Jin Chengxun, as a military official, knelt outside the gate of the Fei family and pleaded with the Fei family's doorman: "Please inform everyone that if the prime minister does not see me today, I will have to kneel here forever!"

"Who wants to kneel down for a long time?"

Fei Hong had just returned from the palace and walked out of the sedan chair.

Seeing this, Jin Chengxun hurriedly stood up and ran towards Fei Hong: "Prime Minister, I am Jin Chengxun, the censor of the Ministry of War, and I am here to see you on behalf of Lord Yao!"

"You are Yang Xindu's son-in-law, why are you begging for mercy for Yao Cixi?"

Fei Hong asked.

Jin Chengxun bowed his head and replied, "This matter involves my father-in-law's beloved son, so I have no choice but to work hard for him!"

"Come with me into the house!"

After hearing this, Fei Hong replied and then went into the house first.

Kim Seung-hoon followed.

After Fei Hong sat down in his study, he asked Jin Chengxun who followed him: "Is this related to Yang Xindu?"

"No! But there are indeed some noble families, such as Master Xie's family."

Kim Seung-hoon replied.

"So the murder of Doctor Zhou has something to do with you?"

Snapped!
Fei Hong suddenly slammed the table, stood up and asked Jin Chengxun: "What on earth do you want to do!"

(End of this chapter)