The struggle for the throne among nine princes—I really don't want to be the crown prince.

Chapter 342 If this continues, the world will no longer be worthy of Your Majesty.
At the Office of Transmission, all sorts of memorials came in, piling up like a small mountain, keeping the entire office extremely busy.

As an important department for communication between the court and the government, the Office of Transmission was responsible for handling memorials from ministers at all levels of the court every day—first compiling and summarizing them, then sending them to the Grand Secretariat, and finally conveying the court's replies.

Although the position of Commissioner of the Court of State Affairs was only a third-rank official post, no one could hold it unless they were a confidant of Emperor Qianxi.

Right now, Yang Yun, the Commissioner of the Court of Judicial Review, is in a state of utter distress.

Originally, the contents of this memorial were irrelevant to him, but recently, there have been too many impeachment memorials, which has made life difficult for their Office of Transmission as well.

Since they were responsible for filing these memorials, that was their job.

The suicide of Shen Zhumo prompted many lower-ranking officials to submit petitions questioning the fairness of the recent imperial examination.

Of course, many people also spoke out in support of Shen Zhumo.

They demanded that the court restore justice to those involved in the black ink scandal and that those responsible receive the severe punishment they deserved.

Although no one directly named the Crown Prince, the meaning behind their words was crystal clear.

Faced with this situation, Yang Yun had only one requirement for his subordinates: all of you, behave yourselves and don't cause trouble.

He only hoped that His Majesty could quickly quell the matter.

According to Yang Yun, some young officials were planning to take advantage of the grand court assembly to jointly petition Emperor Qianxi, requesting him to thoroughly investigate the matter.

Who knows what kind of trouble will ensue then?

Just as Yang Yun was in a state of utter confusion, a subordinate rushed in.

Before Yang Yun could speak, the man cried out in a panic, "Lord Yang, something terrible has happened!"

Upon hearing this, Yang Yun's face darkened.

"What happened?"

"My lord, someone has impeached me...impeached me..."

Seeing his subordinate stammering, Yang Yun was furious. He couldn't stand his subordinates' hesitant manner and scolded them impatiently, "Who are you impeaching? It can't be me, can it?"

This was just a joke—in Yang Yun's view, he was just a Commissioner of the Court of State Affairs, and he couldn't make any decisions, so who would impeach him?
The subordinate hesitated for a moment, but still managed to reply, "Sir, someone... has impeached His Majesty. What... what should we do?"

In the imperial court, it was common for officials to be impeached, and there were even instances where the Grand Secretary was impeached.

But impeaching the emperor? Yang Yun had never heard of such a thing in all his years of service.

How could His Majesty be impeached? This can't be true! Yang Yun's first reaction was that he must have misheard. How could he be hallucinating?

"Don't talk nonsense here! How can you say such things? If you keep spouting nonsense, I'll fire you!"

The subordinate had anticipated Yang Yun's reaction and quickly handed the memorial to Yang Yun, saying, "Please take a look, sir."

Yang Yun took the memorial and saw the words "The First Memorial Under Heaven" written on it.

Yang Yun was no stranger to this first memorial in the land. He knew it was the legendary memorial from Hai Rui to the Jiajing Emperor, which impeached the emperor.

From the day he became the Commissioner of the Court of Judicial Review, he never imagined he would encounter such a memorial.

After all, the current emperor is exceptionally wise and capable, both in civil administration and military affairs. Even in other aspects, there is little to criticize.

With an emperor like that, who would follow Hai Rui's example and recklessly seek death?

But now, upon seeing the words "the greatest memorial in the world," his hands began to tremble.

He forced himself to remain calm and quickly scanned the contents of the memorial. The beginning was ordinary: "Your subject, Zhen Yan, Assistant Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices..."

But the more Yang Yun read, the more terrified he became.

The inscription read: "...Since His Majesty ascended the throne, he has pacified the Three Feudatories in the south and conquered the grasslands in the north..."

These things were all normal, full of praise for His Majesty, but the more he read them, the more uneasy he felt. After all, the longer the prelude, the harsher the accusations that followed.

Sure enough, later on, Zhen Yan's tone shifted, and he said with deep regret, "...His Majesty governs for the people and is supported by the world, but as a father, His Majesty is too indulgent..."

"...The prince ran a bank, competing with the people for profits, hoarding and profiting lucratively, reaping millions..."

"...interfering with the capital's performance evaluation, those who obey live, those who oppose perish...to the point that the Ministry of Personnel dares not conduct normal assessments, and the officials of the realm dare not openly object..."

"...Illegally minted coins...encourage extravagance..."

Looking at the contents, Yang Yun was shocked, even though it also mentioned other princes, such as the tenth prince's tyranny and the first prince's disregard for the law.

However, the main target here is still the crown prince.

Finally, this person went even further, saying that if things continued this way, the world would no longer be worthy of His Majesty.

These words made Yang Yun's hands tremble slightly.

Back then, Hai Rui told the Jiajing Emperor, "The world has long been unworthy of Your Majesty." However, he still gave the emperor some face, saying that if Your Majesty did not discipline your son, the world would think that you were not wise.

However, this gesture of giving face makes one's heart pound with unease.

"Who is this Zhen Yan?" After a moment's thought, Yang Yun asked his subordinate. The subordinate had done his homework before coming, knowing that Yang Yun would definitely ask who Zhen Yan was, so he said in a deep voice, "Sir, this Zhen Yan is an assistant minister in the Court of Imperial Stud. He is usually very well-behaved. I heard that he is a scholar who passed the imperial examination, and he has a bit of an eccentric personality and is not very sociable."

Upon hearing this, Yang Yun's mind was once again filled with the image of Hai Rui.

Wasn't Hai Rui like that back then? A man with an eccentric personality in the eyes of his colleagues.

Moreover, Hai Rui's highest level of education was that of a Juren (a successful candidate in the imperial examinations at the provincial level), and this man is also a Juren! Is he trying to emulate Hai Rui in this way because he wants to achieve a similar future?
Even if he doesn't hold the highest rank, he's still much better than this lowly position of a mere assistant minister whose future is uncertain.

"Sir, what should we do now?" The subordinate asked anxiously when he saw Yang Yun just standing there in a daze and not saying anything.

Yang Yun was already annoyed, and this questioning only made him angrier. As a subordinate, one must learn to solve problems for one's superiors.

When faced with a difficult situation, shouldn't you have several plans prepared beforehand for me to decide? Instead of just throwing your hands up and handing me the troublesome problem as is!

Thinking of this, he became even more annoyed and immediately said coldly, "You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?"

He composed himself, then asked with unease, "Tell me, how many people know about this memorial?"

The subordinate timidly replied, "Sir, according to the rules, all memorials that come to our Office of Transmission are copied out. When I discovered this memorial, quite a few people had already seen it."

"Moreover, quite a few people were discussing this memorial in private."

Upon hearing this, Yang Yun felt his head buzzing. What good thing was this memorial? How dare you discuss it? You're really courting death.

Although he was agitated, he knew that things had come to this point and were no longer within his control. So he glanced at his subordinate and said, "It's too late to hide it now."

"I will go and seek an audience with the Grand Secretaries of the Southern Study, and then go with them to see His Majesty."

At this point, he sternly instructed his subordinate, "Go immediately and find everyone who has had contact with this memorial today, and tell them that no one is allowed to leave without permission..."

"Furthermore, no one is allowed to discuss today's events in private. If I find out anyone is talking nonsense, I will punish them severely."

Seeing Yang Yun's stern expression, the subordinates agreed verbally, but in their hearts they knew that such things could not be kept quiet.

However, this was not something that a nobody like him could decide; he just needed to follow Yang Yun's instructions.

Yang Yun took the memorial and, without delay, went to the Southern Study immediately.

Although the emperor was not in the Forbidden City, the Grand Secretaries still took turns guarding the Southern Study.

Today, the person on duty at the Southern Study was none other than Tong Guowei, the Grand Secretary and Chief Minister. Tong Guowei was very polite to Yang Yun, the Commissioner of the Court of Judicial Review.

After all, this man was one of the emperor's confidants.

"Lord Yang, what brings you here today?" Tong Guowei asked Yang Yun with a smile as he had tea served to him.

Yang Yunxin thought to himself, "I really don't have the mind to be polite with you right now," but he also knew that it was precisely at times like these that he needed the support of a Grand Secretary like Tong Guowei.

So he smiled and said, "Lord Tong, I have something to report to you today."

As he spoke, he looked around at Tong Guowei, appearing as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

Often, some things don't need to be said explicitly; others already know what they mean. With Yang Yun's expression now, Tong Guowei naturally understood what it meant.

As thoughts raced through his mind, he still waved to the few subordinates who were serving him.

After these people left, Yang Yun quickly handed the memorial in his hand to Tong Guowei.

When Tong Guowei saw these memorials, his face immediately turned ugly. He never expected that Yang Yun would give him such a hot potato.

His mind raced, trying to figure out who had done this.

Ma Qi, the eighth prince, or the third prince...?

As a series of thoughts flashed through his mind, he turned to Yang Yun with a grim expression and said, "Lord Yang, who else knows about this matter besides you?"

Yang Yun was well-prepared for this question.

Faced with Ma Qi's question, he said in a deep voice, "Please rest assured, Lord Ma, after I discovered this memorial, I instructed the subordinates who saw it not to spread it."

"They are all in the Office of Transmission now, and without my orders, they will not be allowed to leave."

Hearing this, Tong Guowei felt a little regretful, but he thought it was normal. After all, Yang Yun was no ordinary person. If he didn't even have this much vigilance, he shouldn't be the Commissioner of the Court of State Affairs.

"Lord Yang did the right thing!"

Tong Guowei patted Yang Yun on the shoulder and said, "Let's go, let's set off now for Xiaotangshan!"

"This is something that neither you nor I can handle. Let's go see His Majesty and see what he thinks!"

Yang Yun was waiting for these words! He hadn't expected Tong Guowei to solve this problem; he came to Tong Guowei only to drag someone down with him.

With this Grand Secretary by my side, even if the sky falls, there will be someone to hold it up together!

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(End of this chapter)