Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 70: Imperial Palace Court Meeting (Part )
In reality, Xiong Tingbi's memorial to the court contained much more than this, but aside from the battle report, "Xiong the Barbarian" only included his "debate with the scholars." To make the court meeting appear more solemn and dignified, Xu Guangqi deleted all of this irrelevant content.

Xiong Tingbi was a Jinshi (Jinshi) graduate, making him a civil servant. However, he was even more stubborn than many military officers. If someone scolded him, he would personally respond, which led to his poor popularity.

"Yang Yuan, Feng Sanyuan, and Gu Xu." After Xu Guangqi returned to the position of the Minister of the Ministry of Rites, Zhu Changluo called out the names of three people.

"I'm here." The three men responded and stepped out with their heads bowed.

"Raising taxes under a false name and extorting the common people. Who wrote this?" Zhu Changluo looked up, but not at the three people. Instead, he looked at Liu Yirong who was standing at the head of the civil servants' queue. Faintly, there was a smile on Zhu Changluo's lips.

Liu Yirong was so frightened by the emperor's stare that he broke out in a cold sweat. He didn't dare to look back, so he lowered his head and looked at his toes.

"I wrote it." Feng Sanyuan replied tremblingly.

"Claiming to build a city to defend against the enemy is actually misleading the country and deceiving the emperor. Who wrote it?" Zhu Changluo glanced at Han Yu again.

"I wrote it." Gu Xu replied in an almost inaudible voice.

"Since you're so concerned about Liaodong's military affairs, then you should serve as soldiers on the front lines." Zhu Changluo retracted his gaze and said, "Remove Yang Yuan, Feng Sanyuan, Gu Xu, and the other three from all their positions, demote them to civilians, and exile them to Liaodong."

The three men were completely unprepared. When they heard that they would be stripped of their citizenship and exiled to Liaodong, they immediately fell to their knees in fear.

"Drag him out." Zhu Changluo ordered softly.

"Someone come here!" Wang An's voice was powerful and loud like thunder.

Liu Yirong and Han Yu did not hear Zhu Changluo say "drag him out", but were so frightened by Wang An's shout of "Someone come here!" that their knees went weak.

Despite Xu Guangqi's strenuous efforts to dissuade them at the Donglin Party meeting, Liu Yirong and Han Yu tacitly approved the attack on Xiong Tingbi. Before the court meeting, the two had discussed how this matter would end. The current situation was one of their predictions, but when the event actually unfolded, the emperor's cold gaze and the mocking smile on his lips shattered their preparedness.

"Prime Minister Fang, who do you think is behind this groundless attack?" Zhu Changluo asked softly.

For a moment, all eyes in the hall were focused on Fang Congzhe.

Fang Congzhe did not reply immediately, but walked slowly and silently to the emperor's presence. Each step he took was so slow and light, yet it seemed as if he was carrying a heavy weight.

Shen and other members of the "Three-Party Alliance" cast eager glances at Fang Congzhe, hoping that he would say out those annoying names, while Han Yu, Liu Yirong and a group of Donglin people were panicked, fearing that they would be named by Fang Congzhe.

Fang Congzhe stood still, looking up at the emperor seated on the dragon throne. He replied with certainty, "Your Majesty, no one ordered this. Yang Yuan was simply abusing public resources to vent his personal anger. Feng Sanyuan and Gu Xu are simply petty individuals who are jealous of talented individuals and are taking advantage of their misfortunes."

When Fang Congzhe finished speaking, the whole room was in an uproar.

Fang Congzhe didn't see this as an opportunity to expand his attack, because this was the imperial court, not the Southern Study. Attacking colleagues in public was not something a civil servant leader could do.

Moreover, if the emperor really wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to strike a blow against the Donglin Party, he would not have personally gone to the cabinet that day to return the memorial.

"That's reasonable. This matter ends here." Zhu Changluo nodded. His eyes swept over the cabinet ministers, finally stopping at Liu Yirong. "Everyone, go down and think carefully about why you are here, and what right do you have to be here?" No one answered, and the hall fell silent again. Only the sound of the snowy wind outside the door could be heard, accompanied by a few pleas for mercy that faded away.

Zhu Changluo found himself liking this silence. But the wind would blow, the snow would fall. Finally, Zhu Changluo broke the silence himself and ordered, "Wang An, announce the decree."

Upon hearing this, Wang An, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department, stepped forward, unfolded the imperial edict, and read out: "The Emperor, by the Mandate of Heaven, decrees this."

"Taizu established a rule that there should be three court sessions a day, and all 185 matters should be reported to the emperor in person. However, times changed, and by the time of Zhengtong, the court affairs had changed."

"Since I ascended the throne, I have always remembered the diligence of all officials, who work day and night, and could not bear to burden them with trivial matters and decisions in the palace. Therefore, I changed the daily morning court session to a ten-day morning court session, and limited the matters to be reported to all officials to be fully aware of."

This imperial edict adopts a typical three-part structure. It first lists the precedents of changing the court, then explains the fundamental reason and necessity for another change of dynasty, mainly for the sake of sympathy for the ministers, and finally puts forward a specific plan for the change of dynasty.

But in reality, the precedents, the underlying reasons, and even the specific plans for court reform were unimportant. For the civil officials, what mattered was the change of dynasty itself.

There were precedents, and lessons from the past. When Emperor Wanli issued an imperial decree to suspend court, he was eloquent and full of beautiful words. But what happened next? For thirty years, the emperor and his ministers did not meet.

Although not attending court does not mean not governing the country, Emperor Jiajing did not attend court for twenty years, but still firmly controlled the government.

But the correlation between not attending court and bad and lazy governance is too great.

Jiajing did not attend court, but invested a lot of money in Xuanxiu elixir, leaving every family penniless and with no money to use.

Wanli did not attend court, but indulged in sensual pleasures. The eunuchs who collected taxes from mines amassed wealth all over the country, which eventually led to civil unrest and Japanese pirates targeting China.

The cabinet finally gave in. Although the civil servants had been mentally prepared, when the imperial edict was read out, there was still a commotion in the hall.

On the contrary, the military officers and nobles looked indifferent. Their idea was simple: the military officers had nothing to report, and most of the time it was the civil officials who spoke at the morning court. Instead of running to the palace to be a background board, it would be better to sleep a little longer at home.

"Silence!" Xu Guangqi shouted. One of the duties of the Minister of Rites was to maintain order during court meetings.

When the hall quieted down, the censor Zuo Guangdou was ready to "dare to be the first in the world" once again. Just as he raised his foot and was about to take a step, the emperor sitting on the dragon throne stood up before him.

Zhu Changluo climbed the steps and stepped down from the throne, then slowly walked to the door of Huangji Hall under the watchful eyes of all the officials. Just as Zhu Changluo stretched out his hand to open the door himself, Wei Zhongxian and Wei Chao, two eunuchs from the Imperial Household Department, hurried over with their bodies bent, and pushed the door open from the left and right.

Inside the hall, numerous braziers, blazing charcoal, created a dramatic temperature difference between the inside and outside. A gust of wind pushed cotton-like snowballs into the hall, pushing the back of the wide dragon robe up and causing it to flutter.

At this time, Wang An also came over, holding a black dragon-patterned cloak with thick velvet in his hand.

After putting on the cloak, Zhu Changluo ordered all officials: "My lords, follow me to Chengtian Gate!"

(End of this chapter)