The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 192 This dog is really ferocious

Lu Guangzu returned to Beijing to take up his post as Minister of Works, and the Chief Minister of the Cabinet, Yu Youcai, held a banquet to welcome him.

This is actually quite normal.

Because the two were from the same hometown, and Lu Guangzu was a senior official, Yu Youcai seemed to have visited Lu Guangzu when he had just passed the imperial examination.

However, considering what has happened recently in Beijing, this is a bit abnormal.

Yu Youcai had just become the chief minister of the cabinet, and Lu Guangzu had just been transferred from the post of Minister of Works in Nanjing.

The former chief minister of the cabinet, Shen Shixing, resigned and Yu Youcai took over.

Now the Minister of Works Yang Wei has resigned and Lu Guangzu has taken over.

Is this normal?
If the two people were not from the same hometown, this would be considered normal.

It is precisely because the two are from the same hometown that this matter seems abnormal.

The people Yu Youcai invited were even more abnormal.

This guy actually invited the newly appointed Grand Secretary Zhao Zhigao and the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel Shen Yikuan, who were both from the same hometown as them.

In addition, there are Cabinet Grand Secretary Shen Li, Minister of Personnel Yang Zhao, and Minister of War Liang Menglong, these three are all big hits in front of the young emperor.

What does this guy want to do?
If people in official circles were not familiar with Yu Youcai's temperament, they would definitely think that this guy wanted to form cliques and factions for personal gain.

The problem is that this guy is notoriously timid. He would never dare to form a clique for personal gain.

So, what does this guy want to do?

To be honest, Shen Li, Yang Zhao and Liang Menglong had no idea what this guy was trying to do.

Lu Guangzu was a little puzzled.

He never expected that as soon as he arrived in the capital, the chief minister Yu Youcai sent someone to send him an invitation and planned to hold a banquet at Hongbin Tower in the evening to welcome him.

It was still a bit cold in the winter night. As soon as the sun went down, there were few pedestrians on the street. Few shops on the street had lights on. Most people were warming themselves by the fire or by heating their kangs.

Fortunately, Hongbinlou is near the six ministries, and it doesn’t take long to walk there.

At one o'clock in the evening, everyone had gathered in the huge wing room on the third floor of Hongbin Building.

This room is really big. The big round table inside is more than ten feet in radius, and it is filled with delicacies from land and sea.

However, there were not many people inside. In the large compartment that could seat more than ten or twenty people, there were only seven people sitting there.

Seeing that everyone was present, Yu Youcai immediately stood up and raised his glass, saying, "Everyone, today we are hosting a banquet to welcome Lord Lu. Firstly, we want to express our gratitude for Lord Lu's guidance, and secondly, we want to congratulate Lord Lu on his new position. Thank you all for coming to support us. I offer a toast to you all."

Everyone quickly stood up to congratulate him.

Lu Guangzu was so confused.

It seemed that he had just talked to this young fellow about how to be an official. So many years have passed, but he didn't expect that he still remembered it.

Does this mean that it was this fellow villager who helped him move back to the capital's Ministry of Works to serve as the Minister?
He quickly stood up and said, "Master Yu is so polite. My Lords, thank you so much."

Immediately afterwards, Yu Youcai began to invite everyone to eat.

It seemed that he was only grateful to Lu Guangzu, and took good care of his two fellow villagers, Zhao Zhigao and Shen Yikuan. There seemed to be nothing else.

Shen Li, Yang Zhao and Liang Menglong just thought that Lu Guangzu had really taught Yu Youcai, and didn't think any more about it.

Even Zhao Zhigao thought that Yu Youcai was grateful, so he specially held a banquet to welcome Lu Guangzu.

Only Shen Yikuan knew the truth.

He was the one who chose Lu Guangzu and specially ranked him first.

Yu Youcai just helped out.

However, Yu Youcai was in a high position and had great power at the moment, so he did not argue with Yu Youcai about who contributed more.

On the contrary, he expressed his gratitude repeatedly, as if he was really grateful to Yu Youcai for supporting him, his fellow villager.

In fact, he just wanted to use Yu Youcai, and even Lu Guangzu and Zhao Zhigao.

He just wanted others to think that he had a good relationship with these fellow townsmen.

After all, this was a cabinet chief, a cabinet minister, and a minister of works, while he was only a vice minister of the Ministry of Personnel.

To put it bluntly, his move is just a fox taking advantage of the tiger's power.

In other words, he wanted to use these fellow countrymen to gain power.

After all, he was only ranked 132nd in the third class, the lowest among all the scholars.

He could recommend his fellow examiner Zhao Zhigao to join the cabinet, because Zhao Zhigao was the third place in the first class. He could also recommend Lu Guangzu to take over as the Minister of Works, because the latter had been an official for nearly forty years and was already the second-rank Minister of Works in Nanjing.

No one else will say anything about these.

However, if he wanted to enter the cabinet or even take power, he had to rely on the support or help of these fellow countrymen.

Of course, the little emperor’s thoughts are also very important.

He took advantage of the moment when everyone was slightly tipsy and asked carefully: "Sir Yu, I'd like to ask, what does His Majesty think of Sir Lu taking over as the Minister of Works?" You want to keep biting, right?
Okay, Your Majesty just wants you to bite people.

Yu Youcai nodded repeatedly and said nonsense: "Your Majesty said that Lord Lu is loyal, upright and honest, known to all in the court and the country, and is suitable to take over the position of Minister of Works."

That's a good idea, right?

Okay, keep going!
The next morning, just after the hour of Mao, the memorial from Sun Rufa, the head of the Ministry of Justice, impeaching Shi Xing, the Minister of Rites, was delivered to the cabinet.

Upon seeing this, Yu Youcai hurriedly divided the memorial into two parts, quickly wrote more than ten drafts, and then hurried to the imperial study with the memorial.

At this moment, Wanli has not yet arrived at the imperial study.

He waited in the imperial study for a long time before Wanli hurried over and asked curiously, "Bingzhong, what's wrong? What happened?"

Yu Youcai quickly handed over the memorial and said respectfully, "Your Majesty, someone has impeached the Minister of Rites, Shi Xing."

This dog was really ferocious. After biting the Minister of Works, it started to bite the Minister of Rites.

Wanli took the memorial, sat down and read it carefully, and was stunned again.

Sun Rufa, the head of the Ministry of Punishments, impeached Shi Xing, the Minister of Rites, for submitting a memorial to the late emperor during the Longqing reign to advise him to cultivate his sagely merits, lecture on sagely learning, attend court diligently, promptly approve his proposals, listen widely to suggestions, and investigate slander. The late emperor was furious after reading it and charged him with slandering the emperor, sentenced him to sixty strokes of the cane, and demoted him to a commoner.

Such a deceiver had lost all his fame and honor. However, during the Wanli Dynasty, he shamelessly flattered Zhang Siwei and Shen Shixing, restored his fame and honor, and rose all the way to the Minister of Rites.

It turns out that Shi Xing was demoted to a commoner by his father.

He really didn't know this.

He was only a few years old at that time and didn't understand anything at all. There were too many officials in the court and he couldn't remember them all.

What is even more puzzling is that Sun Rufa, the head of the Ministry of Justice, wrote a letter to impeach Shi Xing.

He couldn't help but ask curiously, "Sun Rufa, the head of the Ministry of Justice? He's a newly minted Jinshi, right? Isn't he your disciple?"

At this moment, all of Yu Youcai's disciples have been promoted as exceptions, so it is impossible for him to be the head of the Ministry of Justice.

He also looked at the list carefully, and there was no Sun Rufa on it at all.

Yu Youcai shook his head repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, he is not my disciple. I was not qualified to accept him as a disciple at that time."

After all, you were the second-in-command of the cabinet at that time.

Are you not qualified to receive this?
Wanli was quite surprised and asked, "Who is this Sun Rufa?"

Yu Youcai explained in detail: "Sun Rufa was born into a prominent family in Yuyao. His family can be traced back to Sun Yue, a famous general of the Later Tang Dynasty during the Five Dynasties period. The place where his family lived, Sunjiajing, was named after Sun Yue.

His great-grandfather was Sun Sui, the Right Deputy Censor-in-Chief and Governor of Jiangxi Province, who submitted a memorial to the emperor during the Zhengde period to expose the rebellion of Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao. Sun Sui was eventually killed by Ning Wang. During the Jiajing period, he was awarded the title of Minister of Rites and the posthumous title of Zhonglie.

In addition, his grandfather Sun Sheng was the second place in the imperial examination in the 14th year of the Jiajing reign, and served as the Minister of Rites in Nanjing.

His father, Sun Yu, is currently the Nanjing Minister of Personnel. His second uncle, Sun Ying, served as the Right Vice Minister of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites. He unfortunately passed away in the fourth year of the Longqing reign and was posthumously awarded the title of Minister of Rites. His third uncle, Sun Yu, is currently the Minister of the Imperial Household Department. His fourth uncle, Sun Yan, is currently the Director of the Ministry of Personnel's Selection Department.

This family's background is really scary.

Wanli read the memorial and suddenly realized, "No wonder a head of the Ministry of Justice impeached the Minister of Rites for no reason. Is Shen Yiguan trying to have Sun Yu replace Shi Xing as Minister of Rites in order to win over the Yuyao Sun family?"

Yu Youcai nodded slowly and said, "It should be. This Shen Yi Guan is really good at handling things. Your Majesty, look at this stone star."

This dog is so ferocious, we have to support him in biting like crazy.

Besides, Shi Xing was a member of Zhang Siwei's faction who defected to Shen Shixing.

In order to become the Minister of Rites, this guy probably made great efforts to help Shen Shixing win over Zhang Siwei's old party. Moreover, this guy was the link between Zhang Siwei's old party and Shen Shixing's party. He should have been fired long ago.

Wanli pondered and said, "Leave this Shi Xing to me. I will talk to him."

After Yu Youcai returned, he immediately ordered someone to call Shi Xing over.

Shi Xing's heart was also beating like a drum at this moment.

Shen Shixing resigned, Yang Wei also resigned, so it won’t be his turn now, right?
After the emperor and his minister exchanged greetings, Wanli handed him Sun Rufa's impeachment memorial with a look of suspicion on his face.

When Shi Xing took the memorial and read it, he couldn't help but feel terrified.

It was nothing for Sun Rufa to impeach him for other things, even currying favor with Shen Shixing.

However, it is not possible to curry favor with Zhang Siwei.

The three major wealthy families in Puzhou not only collaborated with the enemy and betrayed the country, but were also suspected of treason!
If you get involved with Zhang Siwei, your entire family might be executed.

The little emperor's expression clearly showed some doubt.

If he doesn't get out of here quickly, the people behind Sun Rufa will probably investigate his relationship with Zhang Siwei.

Does he dare to let someone check this?
The power behind Sun Rufa is terrifying, so it should be no problem to investigate him thoroughly.

He thought for a moment with a look of horror on his face, then gritted his teeth and said, "Your Majesty, I am a humble servant with limited talent and knowledge. I cannot bear this important responsibility. I resign."

Wanli pretended to be confused for a while, then nodded slightly and waved his hand.

What he meant was, I didn't want to mess with you, it was the people behind Sun Rufa who were messing with you!
(End of this chapter)