Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 59 Da Sima's Strike

"I want Tian Le's experience in more detail!"

On the way back to Ciqing Palace, Zhu Changluo couldn't wait to give orders.

As soon as he returned to Ciqing Palace, he instructed Liu Shimin: "Find out all the minutes of Tian Le's memorials and the minutes of the memorials impeaching Tian Le! Look through the old files and copy down all the minutes if you can find them!"

He swiftly lifted the piece of cloth on the screen that was covered with minutes items.

Tian Yi was personally moving the list of memorial numbers beside the bookshelf outside the study. Liu Shimin and another young eunuch were listening to the numbers he called out on the bookshelf, searching for memorials one by one, and pulling out the spare minutes items from them.

Zhu Changluo was in his study room recalling the information he already knew about Tianle.

He was ranked third in the imperial examination in the second year of the Longqing reign, and his main achievement was his contribution to the border construction in Gansu.

During the Korean War, peace talks failed and the Minister of War Shi Xing was imprisoned and sentenced to death.

Later, Li Zhen, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, who was temporarily in charge of the Ministry of War, failed to be reinstated, and there was a special period when the government was completely tilted towards the Korean War.

Xing Jie, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, was promoted to the position of Minister of War, and concurrently the Right Deputy Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, Governor-General of the military affairs of Ji, Liao and Baoding, and concurrently in charge of food and pay, and in charge of the defense against the Japanese pirates.

After completing the deployment for another war against Korea, Tian Le was promoted to Minister of War in June of the 26th year of Wanli, and Xing Jie was changed to the Governor-General of Ji and Liao with the title of Minister of War.

He was still in Gansu at the time and served as the Governor of Gansu. He commanded the Battle of Greater and Lesser Song Mountains together with Li Wen, the Governor-General of the Three Borders, Dayun, the General of Gansu Town, and Liu Minkuan, the Military Preparedness Envoy of Xining.

By September, he had recovered the Greater and Lesser Song Mountains and expanded the territory by hundreds of miles. He returned to the capital to take up the post of Minister of War. In the past two years, he has been in charge of the construction of the new Great Wall and military fort defense system to stabilize the new border of Song Mountain, and has also taken care of the Korean Campaign and the Bozhou Campaign.

This is what Zhu Changluo knew, but now he wanted to know more.

Tian Le's actions today were certainly extremely bold.

He was a Jinshi, but today he actually considers himself a military general.

He said that the vernacular edict was very good and everyone in the world could understand it; he also said that it was not about cutting back on the Beijing troops, but about reorganizing the Beijing troops with victorious soldiers as their backbone.

The meaning behind this is so profound.

In today's confrontation with Shen Yiquan and others, Zhu Changluo used the method of satisfying their wishes to exchange for his own opinions on all matters concerning the grand ceremony.

He used Wang Zhizhen to investigate the Shanhaiguan uprising, and his performance in front of Matteo Ricci could not be hidden from the foreign officials who wanted to get to know him.

It doesn't matter whether Shen Yikuan and Yu Jiden are willing to comply with Zhu Changluo's hint or not. As long as they get what they want before ascending the throne, the situation will be different after they ascend the throne.

But Tianle was an unexpected bonus.

military power!

It would be very different if there was an important official who had served in the border town for many years and who was at the level of the Minister of War willing to support him.

Besides, Tian Le's performance today was too much. It seemed too flattering, but in fact it was a bit of a confession, expressing his difference from others.

Could it be that he was touched by the fact that he had previously saved Liu Jing's group of people?

"Haven't they all been found yet?" Zhu Changluo urged.

"Your Highness, please be patient..."

Tian Yi was also aware of Zhu Changluo's urgency, but while he was looking for him, Chen Ju and Cheng Jing also went to the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard to investigate respectively.

"...Okay." Zhu Changluo calmed down. "I'll go and greet him first and ask for your approval to appoint Yu Jideng to the cabinet and to pardon Cao Xuecheng."

Just a formality.

As long as Empress Dowager Li knew that he did not let the ministers succeed today and play some tricks in the imperial edict, it would be enough.

By having an old minister join the cabinet, even if he will temporarily be in the same boat with Shen Yi, the subsequent cabinet of four people will give Zhu Changluo more room to maneuver.

It looks like two against two, or two against one against one, but at that time whichever side the emperor favors will have more weight, and one person can take on all of them.

Threatening to quit? Just go back.

And that Cao Xuecheng, Zhu Changluo also knew what was going on.

In the first phase of the Korean War, the situation was uncertain as to whether to suppress or appease.

I won’t even talk about the peace talks, it was a complete mess.

The key point is that Cao Xuecheng strongly opposed the peace talks at that time, and especially criticized Zhu Yijun for having no opinion on whether to suppress or appease, and being influenced by others.

After the failure of the tribute and peace talks, Zhu Yijun took his anger out on Cao Xuecheng Chunchun, who was arrested by the Embroidered Uniform Guards and thrown into prison. When no evidence was found about his guilt or the mastermind, he was transferred to the Ministry of Justice.

The reason also includes that Cao Xuecheng had criticized Zhu Yijun several times before, especially in the 17th year of Wanli, when he used the comet to write a "Memorial on Star Changes", listing Zhu Yijun's four major faults: the court affairs had been suspended for a long time, he rarely visited the suburban temples, he rarely visited the bedroom, and he was rarely summoned to the court.

He was miserable after being imprisoned. He was tortured with three kinds of weapons, five kinds of poisons, pliers and sticks, and his body was covered with wounds, but it was of no use.

Because he was the censor at the time, he was just loyal to his job and gave advice, but he had the real damage of verbal attacks that a censor must have.

In order to commend their contributions in the Korean War, many people were pardoned, but Cao Xuecheng was still imprisoned.

Since the year before last, Cao Xuecheng's second son Cao Zhengru came from his hometown and wrote three blood letters to beg Zhu Yijun to exchange his life for Cao Xuecheng's. "I beg you to kill me and release my father so that my father can return to serve my grandmother and fulfill the love between mother and son. I can repay my parents' kindness and fulfill the righteousness between father and son."

This act of filial piety was known to all, and praised by everyone. Cao Xuecheng himself was just giving honest advice, and starting with Zhao Zhigao at the time, many people from the cabinet, Hanlin Academy, Taiwan Province, various ministries, temple officials, and noble officials petitioned to pardon him, but Zhu Yijun refused. It is said that during this process, four autumn trials were unsuccessful, and "every year during the court hearing, the criminal officials all looked at each other in tears."

When the execution was about to take place, many people went to cry.

And they will all encounter extreme weather, as if God is crying out for justice.

The executioner had to petition for pardon again and again before the death penalty was commuted.

Now, Cao Xuecheng has been in prison for six years.

After hearing the whole story in Wenhua Hall, Zhu Changluo blushed for Zhu Yijun.

There is no evidence of guilt, but they have kept him in prison until now just because they hold a grudge against him.

Zhu Changluo also understood why Tian Le said that it would be enough to pardon him alone: ​​he had been wronged, was a filial son, was well-known enough, and many people in the court had tried to rescue him but failed. He was the one the emperor was unwilling to pardon.

If even this person can be pardoned, can't the others wait a little longer?
The fact that things have dragged on to this point is actually a matter of face for the emperor.

If the successor emperor was able to save Cao Xuecheng, all the officials in the court who had submitted petitions to save Cao Xuecheng would be able to share in the reputation. It would also be something the successor emperor could give hope to other people who were "not pardoned" and "never employed."

When he spoke to Empress Dowager Li, the logic was very simple: he had lost the support of the people and his merits!
It cannot be said that his stroke had no "immoral" reasons at all.

It doesn’t matter whether Empress Dowager Li knew about this before or not. Now she is also admitting her guilt. I’m afraid she will have to recite the scriptures several more times.

After finishing the two things, Zhu Changluo was still thinking about Tian Le.

Including Cao Xuecheng's proposal, it shows his ability.

If Cao Xuecheng is pardoned, the Minister of Justice Xiao Daheng will have a lot less pressure.

There was no need for much amnesty. The successor emperor ascended the throne and Cao Xuecheng was released from prison. That was all thanks to Shen Yikuan and Yu Jiden who drafted the edict.

This is the typical effect.

If they don't release all the people at once and pardon others later, Shen Yikuan and Yu Jideng can still receive a wave of gratitude.

Loyalty and filial piety are as great as heaven. Only Tian Le proposed the method of pardoning Cao Xuecheng on this occasion, which also shows that he agrees with this principle.

Shen Yikuan and Yu Jideng accepted his favor, so it was not easy for them to criticize his intention as a "loyal and filial" minister who wanted to reorganize the Beijing camp.

Reorganizing the Beijing Army instead of cutting off its redundant forces can also win the favor of meritorious officials.

The more Zhu Changluo thought about it, the more angry he became, and he was very grateful to Tian Le for standing up in time.

How important is the enthronement edict? In fact, every time the civil officials drafted the edict, they used the practice of "bad policies" and "good policies" to make many systems more and more conservative and more and more favorable to the civil officials.

This is the easiest way to achieve results when the new monarch's foundation is unstable, and he can also use the words in the enthronement edict to argue at any time in the future.

Zhu Changluo’s foundation is still weak now, but the weight of the Minister of War standing up to support him is extremely different.

Tian Le really did command his troops in the border town and won a great victory!

When they returned to Ciqing Palace, Chen Ju and Cheng Jing had also arrived, and the screen was already covered with minutes items.

"I have asked the Secretariat to retrieve many of the performance evaluations of the Grand Marshal during his early years as an official."

"I found the report from the military supervisors on the three victories in Huangzhong and the battles of Xiaosongshan and Dasongshan."

Cheng Jingze said straightforwardly: "Your Highness, I am very familiar with Tianle."

Several people looked at Cheng Jing together.

"...Why didn't you say it earlier?" Zhu Changluo was speechless.

"It would be better if the Imperial Guards could also send us some secret files and records. Words are not enough to prove anything." Cheng Jing smiled, "It was only after I got here that I realized how worried His Highness was."

Chen Ju frowned, "That's unruly! Don't you know that there are priorities? I told you to spend more time reading, but you're singing praises all day long!"

Liu Shimin was stunned: Master was teaching the head of the Imperial Stables a lesson!
Cheng Jing said nonchalantly, "Yes, yes, yes. In the past, Eunuch Cheng was a scholar in the Imperial Academy. But I really can't read. Even though our names are exactly the same, he is good at literature while I am good at martial arts. There is nothing I can do about it."

Zhu Changluo was a little confused: "Since when did a eunuch from the Hanlin Academy also have the name Cheng Jing?"

"To answer your question, His Highness, he is talking about Cheng Jing, a Jinshi of the Jiachen year of the Yongle reign. During the Xuande reign, he was implicated in a case because he was serving as a shrine attendant in the Prince of Jin's palace. He was originally exiled because he had nothing to do with the matter. Cheng Sigong did not want to burden his descendants, so he begged for death. The Emperor Xuande took pity on him and allowed him to serve in the palace. Later, he was trusted and respected during the Jingtai reign."

"Your name is Sigong?" Zhu Changluo was even more puzzled and looked at Cheng Jing.

"Your Highness, it was Old Chen who asked me to emulate Cheng Gongzhi."

Zhu Changluo looked at the three eunuchs from the Imperial Household Department in front of him with some emotion.

It has to be said that even though my father was so negligent in his duties, he had three eunuchs around him who had harmonious relationships with him and had strong personalities.

Huang Jin, the eunuch in Daojun's palace at that time, was also a master and had a very good reputation.

Is it possible that there will always be loyal eunuchs around the corrupt emperor?

(End of this chapter)