Chapter 733: Tight Front and Tight Back
The autumn wind in the capital is becoming more bleak.
It became more and more solemn.
Emperor Jiajing has been in a bad mood recently and has been angry with several of his ministers in succession. Even the diligent Minister of Revenue, Lu Song, was scolded.
The reason was simple. For this army's attack, the food and grass mainly came from the south.
The Ming Dynasty had a dual capital system, and there was also a small court in Nanjing, but it lacked an emperor.
There wasn’t much going on in the Nanjing court on weekdays. Everyone was a frustrated official, and they kept complaining behind closed doors... Naturally, they had no enthusiasm to do anything.
"Altan's army is heading south, the north is in a state of panic, but in the south... Yingtian Prefecture is still peaceful and prosperous!"
Emperor Jiajing took the news from the Royal Guards and looked up at several important officials. "The poetry gatherings are still going on, and the wine shops and brothels are still full of singing and dancing. Those officials are still just sitting there doing nothing."
Emperor Jiajing put down the paper and said, "A while ago, thousands of shi of grain disappeared in Nanjing. Everyone blamed each other and there is no explanation until now. After all, I am not such a mean emperor. Lü Song came to the palace to apologize and said that the thousands of shi of grain that were replenished later were mostly moldy. What do you think?"
Those present included Yan Shifan, Zhu Xizhong, Cui Yuan, and Xu Jie.
Yan Shifan coughed dryly, "Your Majesty, I think this is a dereliction of duty. We should send an imperial censor to the south to supervise Yingtian Prefecture and deal with this matter."
Nanjing was a small court with six complete ministries. If they sent an imperial censor, he would either be corrupted and become corrupt, or be led by the nose.
This statement sounds a bit wishy-washy.
But Cui Yuan said, "I second the motion!"
Zhu Xizhong hesitated for a moment, "I second the motion!"
With the war approaching, the Ming Dynasty must not allow any trouble to happen. Even if there is something serious, as long as it is not imminent, we should just endure it and delay it...
Everyone knows Daoye's temper. He is vindictive and has the same nature as Jiang Qingzhi. When the war is over, they will settle accounts one by one.
Therefore, Yan Shifan's advice can be regarded as mature and wise. No wonder Emperor Jiajing allowed him to secretly hold power without any disguise.
But Xu Jie did not express his opinion.
Emperor Jiajing narrowed his eyes and looked at Xu Jie, "What do you think of this, Mr. Xu?"
The way Emperor Jiajing addressed his ministers was constantly changing. When he was in a good mood, he would address them by their official ranks, such as "Yuanfu" or "Qing". He even once called Yan Shifan "Donglou".
But when I'm in a bad mood, I'll call him by his name.
Even scolding him as an old dog... Yan Song had enjoyed such treatment.
As soon as Yan Song heard Emperor Jiajing call him an old dog, he would immediately give up all resistance, as if he was exposing his belly... This is the dog's gesture of submission.
Yan Shifan smiled at Xu Jie. Ever since Yan Song followed the army north, Xu Jie had become more and more silent. He would write Qingci in his duty room when he had nothing to do. His Qingci was very good, and occasionally a few lines were leaked, attracting praise from the outside world.
Yan Shifan's comment on this was: "No matter how good my father and I wrote Qingci for Your Majesty, the scholars and officials would unanimously say that this was flattering the emperor and shameless. But when it came to Xu Jie, the same people also unanimously praised it.
Zhu Xizhong was also observing Xu Jie. As a veteran nobleman and a trusted minister of the emperor, he knew that he could not become a prime minister. But now his brother's Mohist school was gradually expanding into the court, and Wang Yiqi was very popular recently. People outside were speculating that Jiang Qingzhi intended to push Wang Yiqi into the cabinet.
The cabinet now has two prime ministers, Yan Song and Xu Jie. If Yan Shifan is added, there will be three.
The current situation is that Yan Song and his son are fighting against Xu Jie, and Xu Jie has no power to fight back at all.
According to Zhu Xizhong's judgment, Emperor Jiajing had two purposes in allowing Xu Jie to join the cabinet. One was to check and balance Yan Song and his son, and the other was to sweeten the mouths of the literati.
Look, you have been complaining about being suppressed by me, so now I will let your envoy Xu Jie enter the cabinet.
That’s right, in Zhu Xizhong’s eyes, Xu Jie was the representative of the scholar-officials.
In the past, the relationship between Emperor Jiajing and the literati was somewhat complicated. They were mortal enemies, but they had to join forces.
But when Emperor Jiajing left the Western Garden, this relationship gradually broke down.
The Mohist school emerged as a dark horse, and there was a hint that it would become the third power in the court.
Emperor Jiajing thus gained an extra arm, and his attitude towards the literati also changed... gradually becoming indifferent.
Therefore, Xu Jie's position became increasingly embarrassing.
What the scholar-officials could count on was that all the scholars and officials in the world were Confucian disciples.
If the emperor does not cooperate with the literati, he will be destroying his own Great Wall.
How great was the ambition and strategy of Emperor Taizu Gao back then? After the founding of the country, the literati and officials did not buy into his ideas, so he could only hold his nose and endure it, and bow his head and compromise.
Emperor Jiajing was a man of great ability, but his prestige was far inferior to that of Emperor Taizu, and the resources he had were even less.
Therefore, the literati firmly believed that Emperor Jiajing had to bow his head.
The rise of Mohism gradually broke this pattern, which was one of the reasons why the literati wanted to kill Mohism and destroy it as soon as possible.
What kind of dispute over the Dao? What nonsense... Zhu Xizhong thought coldly, the so-called Dao is what my brother called interests. The Mohists eroded the interests of the Confucians, and thus attracted encirclement and suppression.
But now the war is imminent, and my brother is leading the army outside. Once we win this war... the prestige of my brother and the Mohist School will rise.
This was a disaster for the literati.
You say that Mohism is so bad and that Jiang Qingzhi, the leader of Mohism, is so incompetent. But when the foreign army attacks, they have to rely on this leader to resist the enemy.
You talk about how great Confucianism is and how many talented people there are, but why can't they produce a famous general?
Who is bragging about not being taxed? The closer the war gets, the more cautious people become. It's not surprising that some people are trying to do something about it.
Thousands of stones of grain were inexplicably lost.
Once the army runs out of food, even the Huben Zuowei will collapse, let alone the border troops.
So after Lu Song became furious, he urged Nanjing to quickly prepare for the transportation of additional grain.
But what was unexpected was that after the batch of grain arrived in the capital, the Ministry of Revenue found major problems when it inspected it.
Most of the food was moldy.
In times of peace, the officials of the Ministry of Revenue would only conduct a cursory inspection and be satisfied if there were no major problems. However, this time, Lu Song specifically instructed that a thorough inspection be carried out, and if any mistakes were made due to omissions, severe punishment would be imposed.
Therefore, the officials of the Ministry of Revenue conducted a careful inspection and found that the outer part of this batch of grain was impeccable, but when they dug deeper... Damn!
It's all moldy.
This was a big deal, and several officials from the Ministry of Revenue immediately detained the Nanjing officials who were escorting the grain.
Upon hearing the news, Lu Song was furious and went to check the grain himself. It is said that the Confucian general was so angry that he even drew the long sword of the accompanying soldiers and prepared to chop people.
Fortunately, Lao Lu was caught by someone, otherwise, even if he was the Minister of Revenue, he would not only be punished with death for killing someone, but would also be exiled.
Lu Song immediately went to the palace to plead guilty. Upon hearing the news, the Taoist summoned his close ministers to discuss the matter.
The disappearance of thousands of tons of grain can be explained by the officials' manipulation, which is so bold that it makes people look sideways.
However, most of the thousands of tons of grain that were transported later turned out to be moldy, which could not be explained by manipulation or piao.
Xu Jie said, "I second the motion."
"This is deliberate!" The Jiajing Emperor's voice was cold and indifferent, as if he were a god. "Some people hope that this war will end with the defeat of the Ming Dynasty."
"Your Majesty, Wang Yiqi from the Ministry of War requests to see you," Huang Jin reported.
Wang Yiqi was furious when he came in, "Your Majesty, someone in Yingtian Prefecture is acting as Altan Khan's accomplice!"
Emperor Jiajing said calmly: "I know."
Yan Shifan sighed secretly. He originally wanted to smooth things over and put the matter aside for the time being. After all, his father was in the army. If the news spread to the north, the morale of the army would be shaken.
However, Emperor Jiajing agreed with Wang Yiqi's attitude.
Define the matter.
——This is a major case of collusion with foreign races!
Zhu Xizhong glanced at Yan Shifan. Yan Song was not there, so Yan Shifan was a little cautious at first, but as time went by, he became more and more natural, as if he was the Prime Minister of the Ming Dynasty.
Yan Shifan coughed dryly, "Your Majesty, what I am worried about is... instability in the south. After all, that is the source of money and food for the Ming Dynasty!"
The war is imminent, so don't cause trouble!
"Qingzhi sent me a letter." Emperor Jiajing changed the subject, "There is a sentence in the letter, saying that the front is tight and the back is tight. I didn't agree with this, but today I was slapped in the face!"
The anger of Emperor Jiajing gradually erupted, "Do you think I will only settle the score later? Do you think I have to be cautious? I will destroy those people's lucky hopes."
Is this going to cause a big war?
"Has Lu Bing arrived?" asked Emperor Jiajing.
"Your Majesty, Commander Lu... is here." Huang Jin saw Lu Bing outside the palace.
Lu Bing came in and saluted. Emperor Jiajing asked coldly, "Do you have any relationship with those people in Nanjing?"
Lu Bing didn't know why the master summoned him, and he shuddered when he heard it, "We are not friends at all."
Zhu Xizhong sneered in his heart, thinking that at the end of each year, there were countless gifts sent to the Lu Mansion. How many of them came from the south?
But he was happy to see Emperor Jiajing furious about this.
"Thousands of tons of grain sent from Yingtian Prefecture to the north were missing, and much of the grain that was subsequently shipped was moldy. I want to ask you, can the Jinyiwei investigate this matter? If not... is Rui Jingxian here?"
"Your Majesty." Rui Jingxian was waiting anxiously outside the palace.
"Minister, if I cannot find out the truth, it will be my fault!" Lu Bing thought of his old connections in Nanjing. He wanted to cover up for them and find a few officials to take the blame, but it seemed that this was not going to work, so he gritted his teeth and signed the military order.
"Okay, let's do it right away. Remember, do it with great fanfare!" Emperor Jiajing said coldly, "I want to let the world know that at this critical moment for the survival of our country, there are still a group of people who are shameless and ambitious!"
"Yes!" Lu Bing then took his leave.
When leaving the palace, Rui Jingxian smiled sinisterly, "Commander Lu, are you willing to take action against those people? If not, let us send the East Factory."
Lu Bing said coldly: "It is better for the East Factory to continue to guard the palace."
This remark mocked the Eastern Depot as a watchdog, but Rui Jingxian was not angry but happy, "We are His Majesty's watchdog, so what? Aren't you Jinyiwei also a watchdog?"
Lu Bing turned away.
"Ho ho ho!"
Amid the sharp laughter, Rui Jingxian saw Zhang Tong coming hurriedly.
"Your Majesty, there is a memorial from Long Wilbur."
(End of this chapter)
