Tang Dynasty Xie Lu Lang

Chapter 43: Li Linfu, the Chief Censor

Although Yao Chong and Zhang Shuo were both famous prime ministers during the Kaiyuan period, their relationship had always been unfriendly.

Zhang Shuo assisted Emperor Xuanzong in launching the Xiantian coup and eliminating his great enemy, Princess Taiping. As a result, he was promoted to the position of Zhongshu Ling. This should have been the most glorious moment of his life. However, he was defeated in the political struggle with Yao Chong and was expelled from the court. After several years of ups and downs, he was able to return to the court.

Yao Chong's political talent was undoubtedly better than Zhang Shuo's, but unfortunately he had a short life and died of illness several years ago.

After Zhang Shuo returned to the court and became prime minister, he naturally couldn't treat Yao Chong's children and grandchildren with a good face. Now that Zhang Shuo had fallen on hard times again, and even his grandson had written a letter to the copper box, taking the initiative to expose the family scandal, Yao Chong's descendants were naturally delighted to see this.

Yao Shiyi's real name was Yao Hong, the son of Yao Chong's eldest son, Yao Yi. Upon learning of Zhang Luo's intention in sending the letter to the bronze box, he was overjoyed. Then he glared and shouted, "Mr. Zhang Yan is a renowned minister of the imperial court. Even if you are a member of his family, you must not make false accusations against him! Without concrete evidence, I will punish you without mercy!"

Since Zhang Luo had the guts to come here, he wouldn't be intimidated by these small fry. Upon hearing Yao Hong's words, he glared at him and shouted angrily, "Yao Shiyi, are you trying to scare me with these outrageous words? I'm a man of integrity, and I'd sacrifice my own family for the greater good. Even if my closest relatives break the law, I won't even shield them. All my crimes are recorded in a book. How could a single word from Yao Shiyi scare me off?"

"Good, good, this is a wake-up call! Since this boy dares to sacrifice his own family for the sake of justice, how can I be so averse to power as to not present him to the emperor? Come, open the bronze box, and I will take the letter and present it to the imperial palace."

Yao Hong was certainly not threatening Zhang Luo. After hearing what he said, he felt even happier and immediately gave orders to the clerk of the Yishiyuan.

Upon hearing this, the official looked embarrassed and quickly waved his hands and whispered, "Doctor Wei hasn't returned yet. I'm afraid this is inappropriate."

According to the rules, only the knowledgeable official could open the bronze box and sort the letters; no one else could violate the rules. Yao Hong was only a temporary agent, responsible for recording these personnel matters, but he had no authority to handle the specific documents in the box.

"Officer Wei is a soft-hearted and timid person, so he is not likely to accomplish great things. If we let him do this, it will be difficult for him to achieve his goals!"

Yao Hong was young and full of vigor, having achieved success at a young age. He looked down on his weak and docile superior, Wei Jiansu, and was also afraid that Wei Jiansu would try to keep the matter quiet. So he immediately said, "You stay here and wait for the doctor to bring in the letter. I will send this boy to the Censorate first!"

He knew that the three chief officials of the Censorate were all trying their best to bring down Zhang Shuo. As long as he sent the person over first, there would be no need to worry about the matter becoming a big deal!
He was filled with joy and gloating, wanting to see the Zhang family make a fool of themselves, unaware that the more eager he acted, the more Zhang Luo expected to see it.

Zhang Luo knew that this trick would not last long. After all, his political opponents were all veterans who had been in the political arena for many years. Now he relied on seizing the shock caused to them by this unethical behavior and taking advantage of their eagerness to defeat Zhang Shuo in order to fool them and shorten the relevant process as much as possible.

Once the process is prolonged and these people calm down a little and think carefully, it will be much more difficult to deceive them.

Yao Hong could not wait for his superior Wei Jiansu to return, so he immediately ordered two Jinwu Guards to escort Zhang Luo out of the Jishiyuan and go straight to the Censorate office.

As an important department in the imperial city, the Censorate's office was much more imposing than the Imperial Court. It was located in the first row on the east side of the Imperial City's Tianjie. Its area alone was much larger than the Imperial Court. From the outside, its scale was even comparable to that of the smaller districts in the city.

The Censorate was divided into the Taiyuan, Dianyuan and Chayuan under its jurisdiction, and a prison was also built there before, so the building was quite large.

According to the old rules, the gate of the Censorate opened to the north, which was the main direction of Yin and not the direction of Yang. This was the case in the Chang'an Censorate. However, when the Dongdu Censorate was built, this rule was changed and the gate opened to the south as usual.

Therefore, Zhang Luo and his companions circled Tian Street for half a circle before entering the Censorate through the south gate. After entering the Censorate, Zhang Luo was led by the Jinwu Guard to the left wing for temporary accommodation, while Yao Hong entered the main hall to report on his affairs.

It was already dark, and Li Linfu, the Chief Censor on duty tonight, was reviewing recent personnel files in the hall.

The Imperial Censor Cui Yinfu is a strong-willed and cautious person, and all matters in Taichung have to be decided by him. Another Imperial Censor, Yuwen Rong, is favored by the emperor and can compete with him.

Although Li Linfu was also the Chief Censor, he was quite junior and only held a position in the Imperial Censorate, with no power over personnel matters. It wasn't his turn to take charge today, but the Grand Master was out on business, and Yuwen Rong was awaiting orders at the palace. Li Linfu had already left the Imperial City, so he had no choice but to return to the office to take charge.

Officials from Taizhong came to the auditorium and heard that Yao Hong, the Left Censor-in-Chief, wanted to see him. Li Linfu frowned and said unhappily, "The Xiantai is not a quiet place. How can we allow officials to visit at night? Let them stay in the outer hall and leave immediately!"

The Censorate was responsible for monitoring impeachments, correcting corruption, and eliminating malpractices. Therefore, the rules within the agency were far more comprehensive and complicated than those of other agencies.

Although Li Linfu hadn't handled any major cases since entering the court, he had always been able to set an example by strictly abiding by the rules. This was also why, despite his lack of academic prowess, he received favorable reviews in various positions. However, today was an exception. When Li Linfu casually took over the report from Yao Hong, written down by the staff of the Outer Hall, his expression suddenly changed. He immediately stood up and shouted, "Is Yao Shiyi still here? Summon him into the hall immediately!"

Although Li Linfu strictly abides by the rules, he is by no means inflexible.

Especially recently, impeaching Zhang Shuo has been the top priority of their Censorate. Although there is no direct conflict between Li Linfu and Zhang Shuo, now that he is on board, he certainly hopes to share more political resources and gain greater room for advancement after toppling this big tree.

Now the situation has reached a stalemate, and the opponent even has the tendency to turn the tables. Li Linfu is quite anxious. Now that the situation has taken a new turn, he must of course seize it.

Yao Hong was soon ushered into the hall and recounted in detail the story of Zhang Shuo's grandson's letter in the bronze box. When Li Linfu heard that Zhang Shuo's grandson's letter was still in the bronze box, he immediately sent an official with his own order to the inner chamber to report the matter.

The letters collected by the Tongkui were generally first summarized in the Menxia Neisheng. After the Menxia reviewed them, the letters that needed to be submitted would be presented, while general matters would be sent directly from the Menxia Province.

After all, the emperor was afraid that he would not have enough time and energy to deal with normal military and national affairs, so he would only listen to the voices from the people and would not personally inquire about every detail.

What Li Linfu had to do now was to temporarily skip the process of submitting the case to the emperor for review, and directly take the matter from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. As the Chief Censor, he happened to be the Chief Censor as well as the Chief of the Imperial Household. If he submitted the case to the emperor after the Censorate made a final decision, it would undoubtedly bring greater harm to Zhang Shuo.

While arranging his subordinates to go to the inner chamber to wait for the collection of the book, Li Linfu did not waste any time. He first dismissed Yao Hong, and then ordered his grandson Zhang Shuo to be brought into the hall for interrogation.

"You will see Li Zhongcheng in the court later. Don't panic. Just tell him everything you accused me of!"

Before leaving the Censorate, Yao Hong came to Zhang Luo again and gave him some instructions in a deep voice. He had taken great pains to expose the Zhang family's internal strife and scandal.

"Li Zhongcheng?"

Zhang Luo felt relieved after hearing this. It seemed that Li Linfu, not Yuwen Rong, was on duty at the Censorate tonight. He mentally prepared a response plan for each of the two Chief Censors, with Li Linfu being the easier one.

Although Li Linfu can be said to be the prime minister with the strongest presence during the Kaiyuan and Tianbao periods in history, the fact that he served as prime minister for nineteen years far exceeds that of other prime ministers during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty.

But a long time has never meant high ability. If we have to use the length of time to explain something, it is that during this period, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, was really playing badly, and he was very much enjoying this garbage time created by the monarch and his ministers.

Of course, this is not the reason why Zhang Luo despises Li Linfu. The most important thing is that the current Li Linfu is no longer the powerful prime minister who had the final say in the late Kaiyuan period and Tianbao period.

At present, he is still a junior in the political arena and does not have much say in this political struggle. Although he cannot be said to be a minion, he is not much stronger either. It is still too early for him to really take the throne.

The more such a person is, the stronger his desire to improve himself will be. If he is just an unknown person at the bottom of the society, who lives and who dies above him will not have much to do with him.

However, those who truly touch the core circle will become extremely eager to gain or lose something, because they often only need to take one more step to gain a firm foothold in this circle and obtain a position of their own. This is the same principle as using a carrot to catch a donkey.

A similar logic can be applied to Concubine Wu Huifei. It was precisely because she was now the most favored concubine in the harem and was only one title away from the position of queen that she was lured so harshly by Zhang Luo.

But if Wu Huifei was just a laundry slave in the Yunting Palace, and Zhang Luo said he wanted to help her become the queen, she would probably think that this guy was crazy.

Of course, these thoughts are also part of psychological construction. The actual situation is that I am the fish on the chopping board. If he really reveals these thoughts in his heart without any scruples, wouldn’t that be asking for trouble!

So when the official from the Censorate came to summon him, Zhang Luo composed himself, made himself appear more humble, and followed the official step by step into the main hall of the Censorate.

Before he could even raise his head to take in the situation inside the hall, a commanding voice roared from above: "How dare this little Zhang boy falsely accuse our dear parents? He is truly a scoundrel of human ethics and a sinner against morality!"

(End of this chapter)