Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 238 Huge harvest!
Behind the study curtain, Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai, who were tied up tightly, witnessed this scene with their own eyes. Listening to the conversation between the two, they became so angry that their faces turned pale.

They never expected that the confession that they had worked so hard to produce in order to sow discord between Zhu Yunhuan and the court ministers would, in the end, become a perfect tool for him to win people's hearts.

After such a "performance", Yu Xin will definitely be loyal to Zhu Yunhuan in the future.

The hard work of both of them became someone else's "wedding dress".

How could this not make Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai angry?
Moreover, if this is allowed for Yu Xin, what about other officials?

Can we do the same?
After this incident, the officials who were originally dissatisfied with Zhu Yunhuan would probably be extremely grateful.

From then on, he changed his mind and pledged allegiance to Zhu Yunhuan!
No wonder Zhu Yunhuan said that the two of them helped him a lot.

This cunning guy, how could he be so...

But no matter how Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai struggled, they were pinned down and unable to move, and their mouths were stuffed tightly so that they could not make a sound.

They could only watch Zhu Yunhuan’s “performance”.

……

"Your Highness, before coming to the East Palace today, I received an anonymous letter."

After a conversation, Yu Xin took out the letter he had received before.

Zhu Yunhuan took it and glanced at it.

Sure enough, everything was as he expected.

Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai revealed the news to relevant officials.

If he really believed Qi Tai's lies and kept the confessions in his hands without making them public, then all the ministers in the court would become terrified, alienated from him, and even secretly try every possible means to kill him.

This would be extremely dangerous for those in power.

What is politics?

Politics is about making your own people more numerous and your enemies fewer.

Middle-level officials can also use the pressure from above to suppress opposition from below.

Therefore, even if a middle-level official is alienated from the people below him, as long as his superiors still trust him, his position will still be very stable.

But the supreme ruler is different.

The supreme ruler has no pressure from superiors to draw on.

The power of the supreme ruler comes from his own prestige and appeal, and from the loyalty of his subordinates.

This is a completely different logic from that of mid-level officials.

Even without any support from subordinates, the position of a mid-level official can still be as stable as a rock.

But an emperor without the support of his ministers is at best a puppet and cannot have any real power.

The emperor, who looks the most majestic and supreme, actually has far more fragile power than that in the hands of middle-level officials.

However, the supreme rulers are less constrained by their superiors and exercise power more freely. They can use power more casually, making their power appear to be greater on the surface.

But all this comes at a price.

A supreme ruler without the support of his subordinates is nothing!

This is the reason why powerful officials can undermine the emperor.

Everything has its advantages and disadvantages.

Zhu Yunhuan had been wondering how Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai would tell the news to the officials they framed?

This is not an easy task.

Now I finally understand.

The email system used by the other party was the one he built himself.

In the past, officials communicated with each other either by sending letters or by talking in person.

Either way, it's easy to be monitored.

However, using the mail system to send anonymous letters... as long as there is no return address on the envelope, or a false address is written, it is difficult to find out who sent the letter.

Moreover, the developed mail system can quickly send hundreds or thousands of letters to anyone.

With this system, it is easier for officials to communicate secretly.

In the past, the imperial court had a regulation that meritorious military generals and civil officials could not meet privately at will, and the same applied to court officials and vassal kings.

This is to prevent them from secretly colluding and doing anything illegal.

With this regulation, even if they communicated secretly by letter, it would not be easy to send someone to deliver the letters.

But now, relying on the court's email system, all of this has become very convenient.

The emergence of new things always leads to new problems, so we must be vigilant about this.

Zhu Yunhuan thought secretly in his heart.

Yu Xin cupped his hands and said, "It seems these people have a conspiracy. They want to sow discord between me and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince." Yu Xin said in a deep voice, "How can they know so much about Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai's confessions? This matter must be thoroughly investigated."

"The three judicial officials are responsible for hearing this case and cannot escape blame."

Zhu Yunhuan nodded slightly and said with a smile: "I will send someone to investigate secretly, but before we get a definite result, don't alert the enemy for the time being."

"You were frightened today. I was planning to keep you here to have dinner together."

"But since your family has received this letter, I'm afraid your family has been frightened out of their wits by your coming to the East Palace. You should go back early and let your family rest assured. I won't keep you any longer."

Yu Xin bowed again: "Thank you, Your Highness!"

……

After Yu Xin left, Zhu Yunhuan summoned the second and third officials...

The methods are basically the same.

When the summoned officials saw the confessions of Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai, they were scared to death and thought they were completely finished.

When Zhu Yunhuan burned the confession and comforted them with kind words, they were all grateful and swore to the heavens that they would be loyal to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, serve the court and live up to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's trust in Japan.

There were also some people that Zhu Yunhuan went to personally visit and showed them the confessions of Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai. The officials were also frightened to death on the spot, and he comforted them well, so that the officials were moved to tears. …

That's how it was. It took more than half a month for Zhu Yunhuan to meet all the court ministers listed in the confessions written by Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai.

From then on, his image in the eyes of many court ministers changed drastically.

Many ministers' attitude towards Zhu Yunhuan changed from their original disgust or indifference to deep gratitude and loyalty.

After that, no matter what happened, many ministers chose to support him unconditionally.

Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai's actions made Zhu Yunhuan gain the loyalty of almost all the officials in the court.

It can be said that the harvest is huge!

This is probably something Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai never dreamed of.

After all, these two people wrote these confessions to frame others without telling anyone.

Even those who had previously been against Zhu Yunhuan, and even those who had secretly facilitated the private meetings between Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai, now hated the two of them to the core.

Who could have thought that after I took the risk to help the two of them and let them meet secretly to discuss countermeasures, they would actually secretly write confessions to frame me?
Such a heartless person, who would turn kindness into hatred, would be hard to get rid of the hatred in my heart unless I cut him into pieces!

As for the Crown Prince Zhu Yunhuan, he was naturally extremely grateful.

There is no doubt that with the confessions written by Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai in hand, it would be easy for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to use them to kill his entire family.

No one in the world dared to say that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was wrong in killing, everyone would just applaud.

Even after his family was killed, he would still be forever nailed to the pillar of shame as a traitor.

But His Royal Highness the Crown Prince actually chose to trust me and burned the confessions of Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai in front of me. What a great kindness!
If I go against His Royal Highness the Crown Prince again, I would be a real villain!
Of course they didn't know that Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai had included all the civil and military officials in the court.

After all, who would tell outsiders about such things?

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince trusted me and burned the confessions written by Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai. Should I continue to tell the world about this?

If this were known by political enemies or other people who dislike him, they would certainly hold on to it and demand that the court conduct another thorough investigation.

Wouldn’t that make you unhappy?
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was able to save himself because the matter had not yet been exposed, and it was handled quietly in private as if nothing had happened.

Once exposed, the people will denounce him and the ministers will be outraged. I'm afraid His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will be in great trouble and may even be unable to save him and will have to kill him!

Based on this, the ministers all felt the Crown Prince's deep favor and trust in them.

Almost everyone submitted the anonymous letters they received to Zhu Yunhuan and requested His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to investigate the matter thoroughly.

I was lucky enough to escape the disaster because His Royal Highness the Crown Prince trusted me.

But who is the person who framed me behind the scenes? I will not be able to sleep or eat well unless I find out!
……

Time passes day by day.

The people of Jinling City all found it extremely strange and discussed it privately.

"What's going on? Didn't they say they were going to send new troops into the city to impose martial law and arrest Huang Zicheng's accomplices? How come after all this time, no officials have been arrested?"

"Yeah, this is really strange!"

"Don't worry, His Royal Highness will make his own arrangements."

"Right now, officials are still prohibiting them from leaving the city. They can't escape anyway, so it doesn't matter if it's a day earlier or later."

"That's different. The sooner the traitors are caught, the happier I'll feel."

"In my opinion, since His Royal Highness Crown Prince has been delaying action, he must be preparing a big move."

"Yes, if you don't move, it's fine. But if you move, it will be as powerful as thunder and lightning, with the force of the sky collapsing and the earth splitting apart."

"Hahaha, then I'm just waiting for the show to begin."

……

Amid the people's expectations, the imperial court finally took action.

Yang Jing, the Minister of Punishments, Yuan Tai, the Left Censor-in-Chief, and Zhou Zhiqing, the Minister of the Supreme Court, were arrested and imprisoned on the same day for secretly colluding with Huang Zicheng.

It had never happened before that three judges were arrested all at once.

What's more, it was the three judicial departments that presided over the trial of Huang Zicheng's case.

The judges who investigated the case actually colluded with traitors?
This immediately shocked all the people in the city.

In addition, many prison guards from the Ministry of Justice’s Tianlao and many officials from the Censorate were also arrested at the same time.

Logically speaking, those who can serve as the three judicial officials are all people who are highly respected in the court and deeply supported by all officials.

Especially the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate and the Minister of the Dali Temple.

Conventionally, these two positions were held by the civil officials with the best moral character and the highest prestige.

If they are captured, all the officials will work together and try every possible means to rescue them.

But this time, the ministers' reactions surprised many people.

Not only did no one write to plead for them, but everyone cheered and said they should be killed.

Although the confessions of Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai were burned by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

But they remembered this grudge.

What kind of vengeance is this?

This was a situation in which he almost got cut into pieces, his entire family was killed without any descendants, and the women in his family were sent to the Music Bureau to be humiliated and become prostitutes for generations. Thousands of years later, his family would still be cursed by the world for the blood feud!
How can I not avenge such a great hatred?
Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai deserve to die, but the fact that they could write such a confession must be related to the three judges who were in charge of the trial!
In particular, he had received an anonymous letter, which contained detailed information about the confession, which was enough to prove that someone was secretly planning this matter.

All the officials in the court are shrewd people and they know all this very well.

Even if the three judicial officials were not aware of the specific contents of the slanderous confessions secretly written by Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai, they certainly provided convenience for the conspiracy of the two.

It’s absolutely not unfair to kill them!

Everyone involved should be killed!

Now that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has arrested the three judges, this is the opportunity for revenge.

If we don't petition for severe punishment of the three judicial officials now, when will we?
……

(End of this chapter)