The Prosperous Era of Longwan

With the blessing of God, the news of warning Emperor Jiajing about banditry in Fujian gradually spread among the people.

For this reason, Emperor Jiajing summoned Yang Bo, Minister of War, alone to inquire about Fujian's strategy for suppressing bandits.

Because the task of wiping out the Fujian rebels had been assigned to Hu Zongxian, the governor-general of the Anti-Japanese War, Yang Bo did not put forward a specific plan in front of Emperor Jiajing, but waited for a report from Zhejiang Hu Zongxian.

Emperor Jiajing actually didn't care much about Zhang Lian. If the alchemists hadn't kept claiming that the celestial phenomenon might be related to the Fujian rebellion, Emperor Jiajing would have left it to the courtiers to deal with.

Now that I hear Yang Bo's answer, I think about it. It didn't take long for Hu Zongxian to suppress the thieves just after he issued the order. If he immediately withdraws the order now, it seems to be a bit of a fool's errand in handling government affairs.

As King Jing left the capital, the duties of the Ministry of Rites were temporarily relaxed.

However, when Wu Shan sent a memorial to the cabinet again, all the ministers in the court were in an uproar.

Wu Shan's memorial was naturally about the solar eclipse, and he still insisted on maintaining the ancestral system and rescuing the solar eclipse. His Majesty should also implement it in accordance with the ancestral system.

The last time Wu Shan memorialized, the Emperor Jiajing was very dissatisfied. Although after Li Donghua impeached Wu Shan, Wu Shan didn't even have time to avoid suspicion and go home. Just a warning.

Don’t Wu Shan know how powerful he is?

of course not.

This time prompted Wu Shan to mention the solar eclipse again in the book. He also felt that he really couldn't stand it anymore, and even felt that the whole court was full of sycophants and sycophants.

In the past few days, all his attention was diverted to the ceremony of King Jing's appointment as a feudal lord, and he did not pay attention to the news from the inner court.

Emperor Jiajing wrote a thank you note on the grounds that he was favored by God and enshrined it in the Great Guangming Hall in Xiyuan.

Yan Shifan thought that before, Emperor Jiajing had informed the cabinet and ordered all officials to congratulate him, and immediately organized officials from the Yan Department to send congratulatory forms, which were all accepted by Emperor Jiajing calmly.

After understanding Emperor Jiajing's intentions, other ministers in the Manchu Dynasty could not care about other things, so they also came forward to congratulate the emperor on his blessing.

Congratulations on the originally questionable "eating without eating", this hypocritical ceremony that Chengzu sternly denounced and Yingzong declined, was held in a grand manner by Sejong. Wu Shan, who was the Minister of Rites, could bear it.

During the reign of Emperor Chengzu and Emperor Yingzong, there were officials who proposed to celebrate "eating without eating" due to the occurrence of a poorly covered solar or lunar eclipse or an eclipse that could not be observed due to weather conditions. However, they were all rejected by the emperor at that time. On the contrary, they all acted according to the rescue etiquette, wore plain clothes, did not go to the main hall, but practiced in the side hall.

When he was appointed as the Minister of Rites, Wu Shan couldn't bear to celebrate the solar eclipse because of the so-called "eating but not eating" even though there was a solar eclipse.

This solar eclipse was not predicted in time by the Qin Tian Jian, so the Ministry of Rites failed to complete the rescue ceremony arrangements. Only the officials of the Ministry of Rites, led by Wu Shan, hurriedly saluted and bowed to the sun, which made him, the Minister of Rites, feel shameless.

According to the requirements of the Ming Huidian, the Ming Dynasty's rescue rituals for solar and lunar eclipses were very detailed.

"In the early stage, decorations were placed at the ceremonial door and main hall of the Ministry of Etiquette. Incense tables were set up on the balcony facing the sun. Golden drums were set up on both sides of the ceremonial door. Musicians were placed under the balcony. Officials were placed above and below the balcony to worship the sun. At the end of the period, , the Qintian Supervisor announced the first eclipse of the sun, all the officials were in court uniform, the ceremony was sung in unison, the salute was sung and bowed. The music was composed, bowed four times, raised, flat. The music stopped, kneeling. The deacon held the drum in front of the class leader, the class leader Beat the drum three times, and all the drums will sound in unison. Waiting for Qin Tian's eunuch to retaliate, praise, sing and bow. Make music, bow four times, and level your body. The music stops and the ceremony is completed.

The lunar eclipse ceremony is the same as before, but hundreds of officials in green robes and horns come to the Central Military Governor's Mansion for rescue. "

Although most civil servants understood the meaning of Wu Shan's memorial, they were all worried about Wu Shan's behavior. No one knew whether Emperor Jiajing would become furious because of this, especially the Li Ke who had been warned before. Li Donghua.

Thinking of his previous warning, Li Donghua didn't know whether he should impeach Wu Shan again.

It was originally something that could make the emperor happy, but Wu Shan insisted on causing unpleasantness, which would dissatisfy anyone.

But after Li Donghua thought about it, he was a little undecided, so he simply got up and planned to go to the cabinet to ask.

Staying in the duty room felt like sitting on pins and needles, so he might as well go out and find out which way the wind was blowing.

Exiting Youshunmen and crossing Fengtianmen Square is Zuoshunmen, where the cabinet is located.

When he walked outside Zuoshun's door, he happened to see a fat man wearing a scarlet robe and a peacock patch on his chest walking out.

Of course Li Donghua recognized who the person was, and he hurriedly saluted respectfully: "I've seen Mr. Yan before."

"Hey, it's you."

The person who came was naturally Yan Shifan. Looking at the person in front of him with his hands raised in salute, he immediately recognized him as Li Donghua, the official from the Etiquette Department.

He looked Li Donghua up and down and said with a smile: "Are you looking for my father or Mr. Xu Ge? Mr. Xu Ge is not here today. If you have anything to do, please tell me."

Nowadays, Yan Shifan, although he has not joined the cabinet, is still carrying out errands as a cabinet minister in all matters related to the cabinet. However, the signature can only be in the name of Yan Song, which is also approved by Emperor Jiajing.

In this way, Yan Song's political life was prolonged.

Yan Song, who was almost eighty years old, was already low on energy. When handling government affairs alone, he often had some ill-thoughts. It was all planned by Yan Shifan. This was also known to everyone in the court today, so Li Donghua listened to Yan Shifan's inquiry. Not surprising either.

After hesitating for a moment, Li Donghua still said to Yan Shifan: "Master Yan, I want to ask the elder for advice on how to deal with Wu Shangshu's memorial in the etiquette department."

"Oh, that's it."

Yan Shifan understood after hearing this, but when he thought that it was Wu Shan's fault, he couldn't help but feel resentful in his heart.

Wu Shan, whose courtesy name is Jing and whose name is Yunquan, is from Gao'an, Jiangxi, while Yan Song is from Yiren, Yuanzhou Prefecture, Jiangxi. They are both fellow Jiangxi fellows. In Yan Shifan's view, it is the right thing to take care of each other.

Wu Shan didn't want to have too much contact with the Yan family, and Yan Shifan could understand it. Literati all had this problem, cherishing their feathers. Wu Shan didn't want to be said to be fawning over his father, a cabinet minister, but he could understand it.

However, being able to understand does not mean that you can accept it. Yan Shifan himself dismissed these red tapes.

What made Wu Shan really offend Yan Shifan was that a few years ago, Wu Shan succeeded Wang Yongbin as the Minister of Rites. However, although Wu Shan was from the same hometown as him, he did not agree with Yan Song and often disagreed with Yan Song.

At this time, Yan Shifan accidentally learned that Wu Shan had a daughter in middle age, who was as beautiful as a flower. He did not feel that there was an age gap between himself and Wu Shan's daughter, so he wanted to get married to her.

Yan Shifan was naturally not careless about the marriage between the chief minister's family and the current minister, so he approached Lu Ben, the second assistant at that time, and asked Lu Ben, a great scholar, to act as a matchmaker.

Lu Ben invited Wu Shan to drink wine and play chess in the name of Yan Shifan. Lu Ben covered the chessboard with his hand and said to Wu Shan, "What does Yan Changgong's wine mean to you?"

Wu Shan said: "I don't know."

So Lu Ben told Wu Shan about the marriage, but Wu Shan declined politely. Yan Shifan was very unhappy when he found out.

In retaliation, Yan Shifan also used his father Yan Song's identity to disrupt Wu Shan's entry into the cabinet, causing Wu Shan to stay in the position of Minister of Rites for nearly five years.

Although becoming the Minister of Rites does not necessarily mean that you will join the cabinet, when Emperor Jiajing appointed Wu Shan to replace Wang Yongbin, he did intend for Wu Shan to join the cabinet, and he even had several exchanges with Yan Song because of this.

At this moment, I heard Li Donghua mention Wu Shan's memorial. A few days ago, he was upset because King Jing left Beijing to join the feudal vassal, so he missed the opportunity.

Not only did he use the solar eclipse to keep King Jing, he also used the opportunity to bring down Wu Shan. He was not going to let this opportunity pass by.

It seems that Emperor Jiajing became more and more stubborn as he got older, and it became more and more difficult for him to accept the opinions put forward by his ministers, and he seemed more willful and self-willed.

Wu Shan angered the emperor many times in just over ten days. If you think about it, you will know the emperor's mentality at this time.

Although Yan Shifan knew that because of the solar eclipse, it was impossible for Emperor Jiajing to kill Wu Shan.

If the emperor really wanted to do this, and record it in the "Records of the Emperor", he would be ridiculed by future generations. Emperor Jiajing had to worry about this.

Although Wu Shan could not be killed, Yan Shifan thought it was possible to dismiss him from office.

Moreover, according to Yan Shifan's knowledge, before Wu Shan submitted his first memorial, Gao Gong was said to have approached Wu Shan several times, but failed to stop him from submitting the memorial.

But this time, not only did Gao Gong fail to dissuade him, but even Xu Jie seemed not to want to get involved in the matter, and transferred the memorial directly to Yan Song's supervisor.

The emperor was not happy, and the first and second assistants in the cabinet did not want to protect him. Yan Shifan felt that the opportunity to overthrow Wu Shan had come.

When the time comes, the position of Shangshu will be vacant, and officials from the Yan family can still compete for it.

The Ministry of Rites seems to have little luck, but Yan Shifan has long coveted it. In fact, it is the imperial examination system under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Rites, and there are too many benefits to take advantage of. If things are done well, not only will they gain money, but they can also win over a large number of local gentry families.

After thinking for a moment, Yan Shifan said to Li Donghua: "What do you do in the Etiquette Department? Did Mr. Li forget your Majesty's instructions last time?"

Having said this, Yan Shifan smiled softly and said: "If I remember correctly, last time it was because of the failure to comply with the memorial in etiquette, which made His Majesty unhappy.

No matter what you say, you should always show that your etiquette is not just hanging around in the court. Don’t say whether your opinions are right or wrong. You must have a correct attitude, so that your majesty will not regard you as useless people.

If you say the right thing, you will win His Majesty's favor. If you say the wrong thing, it will just be rejected. One day, the cabinet will not receive a few rejected memos. "

Yan Shifan seemed to be relaxed and said that he believed that what he just said should make Li Donghua understand that he had expressed his attitude in the memorial, and Emperor Jiajing would not punish him for offending him. If he did not express his attitude in the memorial, he might be punished. implicated.

Of course, Li Donghua also figured out that this memorial must be submitted, otherwise he is afraid that he will endanger Chiyu like the previous time.

Wu Shan's memorial will definitely make Emperor Jiajing furious. Naturally, his own memorial cannot agree with Wu Shan. He can only say that his is wrong. As for whether Emperor Jiajing will severely punish Wu Shan this time, it has little to do with him.

He thought that if he had filed a petition to impeach Wu Shan earlier last time, he would not have been fined.

For those yamen with abundant oil and water, officials naturally do not rely on salary to live, but it is different for officials like him.

Thinking of being implicated and losing two months of salary, Li Donghua made up his mind that the last impeachment memorial was not strong enough and had to be more ruthless, otherwise it would be difficult to relieve his resentment.

Prince Yu's Mansion, Nuan Pavilion in the back garden.

There were many people in the house today, not only Prince Yu was here, but Gao Gong, who had not been in the house for a long time, also found some reason to come in.

As for the palace officials Yin Shizhen, Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng, they were naturally also in the room, but the atmosphere in the room was a bit cold at this time.

Gao Gong lowered his head in thought at this time, while Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng accompanied him at the end of the table and communicated quietly. Only King Yu and Yin Shizhen were looking around. King Yu obviously didn't have his heart here, while Yin Shizhen didn't know how to break the cold atmosphere.

However, after sitting there for a while, King Yu showed some impatience and said, "Mr. Gao, I think if you think you can argue, then just argue. You don't need to take what Guangde and the others say seriously."

When they heard King Yu speak, Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng, who were muttering in a low voice, stopped talking and looked at King Yu. When they heard King Yu's words clearly, they just looked at each other with a wry smile.

Today Gao Gong entered Prince Yu's Mansion, naturally not because he missed Prince Yu, so he came back to have a look, but because he wanted to get Prince Yu's support so that he could compete for the position of Minister of Etiquette.

Gao Gong still didn't understand that Wu Shan was obviously not stupid, but he wanted to go against the emperor's will and make the emperor unhappy for a trivial matter.

In Gao Gong's opinion, Wu Shan's official position will definitely not be preserved this time.

Before entering the palace, Gao Gong had an exchange with Xu Jie, the second assistant, and the two agreed on the issue of Wu Shan's stay. However, regarding Gao Gong's desire to replace him, Xu Jie gave a similar view to Wei Guangde.

Gao Gong has only been in the court for a short period of time, and the emperor may not choose him to succeed Wu Shan. Moreover, if Gao Gong succeeds Wu Shan, he must express his stance on Wu Shan's resignation, whether he supports or opposes it.

Although Emperor Jiajing's attitude was clear, as Wu Shan said, "Who am I to bully? I am bullying the heavens!"

If Gao Gong expresses his support for the emperor, he will definitely leave the impression of flattery in Shilin. If he supports Wu Shan, it will not be for nothing to make the emperor hate him.

Xu Jie clearly did not agree with Gao Gong's idea, so after separation from Xu Jie, Gao Gong went directly into Prince Yu's Mansion, hoping to act with the power of Prince Yu's Mansion.

Unexpectedly, after King Yu summoned his subordinates to come here for discussion, Wei Guangde said something similar to Xu Jie's, thinking that his first goal was to win the opportunity to join the cabinet, and what he should do now was to enrich his resume.

The meaning of the words is very clear, it is better to think about how to compete for the official position in the Ministry of Personnel first.

Gao Gong has been in the Ministry of Rites for half a year. If he can move into the Ministry of Personnel, the road to the cabinet will be completely opened.

Wu Peng is still the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. Gao Gong had a good relationship with the Yan Mansion before, and naturally his relationship with Wu Peng is not bad either. It is better to move around more. Now that the position of Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Personnel is vacant, it is better to give it a try.

"Guangde is right."

Only then did Gao Gong raise his head, looked at King Yu and said, "Maybe I'm still a little impatient."

When he said this, Gao Gong still hesitated for a moment, and then said firmly: "I will visit Wu Shangshu tonight."

Seeing King Yu's surprised look, Gao Gong smiled and said, "It's Wu Peng and Wu Shangshu."