The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Wei Guangde came out of the first assistant's duty room and returned to his own duty room. There were still many memorials and notes that he needed to read and draft.

Zhang Siwei stayed with Zhang Juzheng. He understood that Zhang Juzheng should have something more to say to him.

Although just now, after Zhang Juzheng revealed that the cabinet intended to clear the land of the world, Zhang Siwei did not express any objection and even agreed with Zhang Juzheng, but who knows whether it was sincere or false.

Zhang Juzheng kept Zhang Siwei probably for this reason.

Wei Guangde didn't care how Zhang Juzheng tried to convince Zhang Siwei. As soon as he returned to the check-in room, Lu Bu quickly followed him in and whispered in his ear: "Master, something happened in the southwest."

"Um?"

Hearing Lu Bu's words, Wei Guangde suddenly stopped and stood blankly on the spot.

Yes, his current situation is actually very delicate, that is, the use of force.

Although the matter was initiated by the Toungoo dynasty of Myanmar, the court's tough response also aroused some opposition in the court.

In the eyes of the old scholar, there were barbarians all around, so Ming Dynasty should convince people with reason.

For this reason, for the Taungoo dynasty of Myanmar to invade the border this time, the court should educate them in the way of saints, rather than fight violence with violence.

Because there is such a discussion below, although there are not many people who support it, they are all old-school figures in the Qing Dynasty, and they still have influence.

Of course, the most important thing is the results.

In fact, even if the war was started by the Ming Dynasty, it didn't matter.

In the eyes of most people, as long as they can win, it doesn't matter.

Whether it makes sense or not is not important at all.

But what he heard just now was that Lu Bu said something happened in the southwest.

Wei Guangde instinctively thought about whether Li Chengliang's troops rushed in and suffered a big defeat.

"What's going on?"

Fortunately, Wei Guangde did not directly ask and express what he thought.

"Governor Li came down from the southwest to kill prisoners. Luo Rufang, the censor of Yongchang Mansion, reported the matter and has sent it to the Ministry of War and the Metropolitan Procuratorate."

Lu Bu didn't know that Wei Guangde had been frightened by his words just now, so he just explained the situation honestly.

"Now the news has spread throughout the DPRK. Many people went to the Ministry of War and said that Li Chengliang should be severely punished for killing prisoners."

Lu Bu continued.

"When did the news come out?"

When Wei Guangde heard that he had not lost the battle, he felt relieved.

As long as we don't lose the fight, everything else is easy to say.

"When your Excellency went to the Chief Assistant, the Ministry of War sent me a copy of the memorial."

Lu Bu replied softly.

Wei Guangde stepped forward and quickly returned to his desk. He saw a memorial lying in the middle, and immediately picked it up and quickly read through it.

He was actually still wondering how he could be sued for killing prisoners.

On the battlefield, just cut people down, so why bother killing prisoners?

After he read the memorial, he realized that Li Chengliang really killed prisoners this time. The Burmese soldiers who had surrendered actually wanted to rebel. After being suppressed, Li Chengliang ordered a group of soldiers to be killed.

It's like killing a chicken to scare the monkeys. I think the remaining prisoners will be much more honest.

However, after the memorial, Luo Rufang was obviously still trying to excuse Li Chengliang. First, these prisoners of war did not know what was good for them. The Ming court did not treat them badly, but they still wanted to cause trouble. It was really their own fault.

Secondly, of course it was said that Li Chengliang did not intend to kill people to establish his authority at first, because he did not need them, but he wanted to keep them to serve the Ming Dynasty.

The final conclusion was that Li Chengliang's order to kill the prisoners should have been an order out of urgency. The court could reprimand him but there was no need to pursue him.

What's more, at this time, the war is urgent, so there is no need to punish the leading general for this, so as not to shake the morale of the army.

In fact, Wei Guangde knew that the problem in Lu Bu's mouth was after Li Chengliang killed the prisoners, so he didn't pay much attention to it at all.

In ancient times, killing prisoners, that is, only those who read the book of gentlemen would think that the generals were cruel and harmed the peace of the world. But for those who went into battle, they may have seen too many dead people and did not think there was any problem at all.

Although from the perspective of later generations, killing prisoners is an extremely inhumane thing, it was commonplace after ancient wars.

Prisoners of war need food supplies, which will increase the burden on the army. Unless the prisoners of war can be collected with certainty, the victorious party will generally not invest resources in prisoners of war.

In order to solve the food problem, killing prisoners of war was one of the options.

Of course, there is also the disposal of prisoners of war.

In the wars before the Tang Dynasty, farmers were mostly recruited to participate in the war. With so many prisoners of war gathered together, it would be good if they could be dispersed to different places quickly. However, if they could not be resettled quickly, it would be very easy to cause a civil commotion and cause social unrest. .

The Burmese prisoners of war handled by Li Chengliang this time were actually the latter type.

Li Chengliang had naturally planned to leave them behind, but he only wanted obedient people.

"If you kill them, you will kill them. What else is there to pursue? They did not stay in Myanmar, but followed the rebels into our land of the Ming Dynasty. How can they still be killed?"

Wei Guangde murmured softly, not paying attention to those people who were full of benevolence, justice and morality.

As for the ominous killing of prisoners, that was also Li Chengliang's fate and had nothing to do with the Ming Dynasty court.

The cabinet of the Ming Dynasty is very interesting. From the perspective of later generations, it seems that most, or even almost all, of the cabinet ministers are turbid currents, not clear currents.

Looking through the history of the Ming Dynasty and looking at the list of all cabinet ministers, it seems that only one Zhao Zhenji can be regarded as a clear figure, but his time in the cabinet was also very short, only three years.

The original meaning of "Qingliu" refers to a clear and unpolluted river. When referring to people, it often refers to officials who are upright, honest, and have the country and the people in their hearts. They are gentlemen.

However, in the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty, there was no room for these gentlemen.

In fact, in the eyes of the emperor, most officials of the Qing Dynasty may only talk rhetoric, comment on current affairs, comment on affairs in court, impeach ministers, criticize eunuchs, oppose the encroachment of foreign powers externally, and advocate rectification of discipline internally, but they do nothing in real work. Won't.

The corresponding Zhuoliu are mostly doers, good at doing things, and able to deal with various problems faced by the court.

In fact, in the Ming Dynasty, it was Zhuoliu officials who were in charge of affairs, while Qingliu administrators were responsible for supervising the chat room.

The person who scolded Li Chengliang for being unkind and unjust and shouted that he would be dealt with was Qingliu who didn't care about anything.

They don't have any rights, so there's no point in shouting louder.

However, Wei Guangde thought that he could take advantage of this matter and went to meet Chen Zan. The publicity was naturally to intercede for Li Chengliang, but in fact it was another matter.

This time the Metropolitan Procuratorate seemed to be deviating from neutrality and siding with the chief minister. Wei Guangde felt that it was necessary to ask Chen Zan for an explanation.

If he cannot stabilize the Metropolitan Procuratorate, he will have to give an explanation.

Wei Guangde immediately wrote a note and sent it to the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Justice, and handed it over to his people, asking them to try their best to deal with those Qingliu officials.

Turbidity will never get involved in this kind of thing.

Who doesn't know that Li Chengliang's return to the capital and his trip to the southwest were arranged by Wei Guangde, and even his official position was arranged by Wei Guangde.

Zhuoliu, relatively speaking, focuses more on interests, and generally does not get involved in things that are not beneficial, unless it involves the country's foundation.

After writing the note, he handed it to Lu Bu and said, "Send it to Mr. Jiang and Mr. Shu and let them handle the matter."

Lord Jiang, naturally Jiang Zhi.

Although civil and military affairs were different, after all, Li Chengliang fought under the Ministry of War. If he was defeated by someone else, the Ministry of War would not look good.

As for Mr. Shu, he refers to Shu Hua of the Punishment Department, who is in charge of the people in the Punishment Department.

In fact, among fellow Wei Guangde fellows, Wei Shiliang is the best choice. Unfortunately, he is not very willing to leave Jiangnan and is now working as a minister at Dali Temple in Nanjing.

In fact, Wei Guangde had always wanted to bring him back to seize the punishment department, which was one of the six departments. Although it was the lowest yamen, it also had a place among the nine ministers.

Well, to seize power is actually to have more power than anyone else among senior officials.

The reason why Yan Song was so arrogant in the first place was not because most of the nine ministers were from Jiangxi. This was the reason why Yan Song was so arrogant at that time.

As a fellow countryman, sometimes you have to save face for him and speak for him.

"yes."

Lu Bu took the note and was about to go out, but was stopped by Wei Guangde.

"Go to the palace gate and talk to the master, I want to go out."

"Yes, sir."

Lu Bu agreed hastily.

Wei Guangde didn't bother to read those memorials. It didn't matter if he dealt with them one day earlier or later. After all, most of them were nutritionally insignificant memorials. Even if they were put aside for half a year, the person who wrote the memorials might have forgotten about them.

After Lu Bu left, Wei Guangde rested for a while, then got up and left the cabinet.

Generally speaking, after the people in the palace dropped him off, they would find a teahouse nearby to rest, and then wait outside the palace gate when it was time to leave.

Or maybe someone in the palace sent word that Wei Guangde was leaving to attend to business.

After leaving Wenyuan Pavilion and walking out of the left side door, Wei Guangde walked through the long palace road until he reached Chengtian Gate and looked back inadvertently.

This palace road is really long, I don’t think I thought it when I walked in to take the palace exam.

But after walking for so many years, Wei Guangde suddenly felt a little tired after walking out.

I don’t know when it will be my turn to be qualified to be pushed in.

But soon, Wei Guangde shook his head. If he were to be driven into the palace by himself, how old would he be?

Yan Song was seventy years old before he was given preferential treatment by Emperor Jiajing and enjoyed this treatment.

Standing under the palace gate, a large sedan in the distance was already approaching quickly.

When they got closer, the bearers put down the sedan, and the bearers behind raised the poles, and the sedan tilted forward. Wei Guangde stepped over the poles in front and got into the sedan.

"Go to the Metropolitan Procuratorate."

Wei Guangde entered the sedan chair and gave instructions to the attendants standing next to him.

"Mr. Wei Ge, please come inside."

In the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Chen Zan welcomed Wei Guangde in and politely ordered people to watch tea.

Wei Guangde is no stranger to the Metropolitan Procuratorate. He was once an official here.

"Master Chen, Master Chen of the Procuratorate is in charge of this."

When Wei Guangde walked into the Metropolitan Procuratorate this time, he was keenly aware of a difference in the atmosphere. Many people in the Metropolitan Procuratorate also saw that he did not take the initiative to salute, but seemed to want to avoid it.

But most of the officials seemed to realize that they couldn't avoid it, so they stepped forward and saluted respectfully.

Wei Guangde did not think that this change was because these censors were afraid of him, the Second Assistant. After all, this was a famous center for mad dogs in the court.

If something goes wrong with Wei Guangde's business, there will be many people here rushing to bite him.

For the sake of fame.

"Mr. Wei Ge, this."

Wei Guangde's words made Chen Zan speechless for a moment.

Chen Zan naturally knew that Wei Guangde was not doing anything about Li Chengliang in the southwest when he mobilized his troops.

In fact, even though the Metropolitan Procuratorate already knew about Luo Rufang's petition, and some censors wanted to petition for impeachment, most of the censors had no intention of following her.

If Li Chengliang had taken credit for killing Liang, the entire Metropolitan Procuratorate would have exploded.

Those who can be killed are the Burmese prisoners, or they should be killed after the riot to serve as a warning to others. As for the fierce fighting in western Yunnan at this time, it is natural to use thunderous means to suppress it and give the Ming army on the front a stable rear.

Therefore, the killing of prisoners did not actually cause much turmoil in the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

And if the Metropolitan Procuratorate does something dishonestly, it is naturally Yu Yingchang's fault.

"I heard earlier that the Metropolitan Procuratorate sent Yu Yingchang and Yu Shi to Liaodong to investigate the case and collect evidence of corruption by the prisoner Liu Tai?"

Wei Guangde looked at Chen Zan happily and asked.

"Mr. Wei Ge, this matter was mainly promoted by Shandong Road. I also discovered something fishy in it belatedly. Is there anything I can do?

For this matter, I can't be allowed to deal with all the censors of Shandong Road. "

Chen Zan said with a helpless smile.

"Isn't this the result of a discussion by the Metropolitan Procuratorate?"

Wei Guangde said suspiciously.

Both the Six Ministries and the Metropolitan Procuratorate have main halls, which are the places where the officials in charge handle official duties. They are different from the duty chambers and have a greater symbolic meaning.

Important meetings in the yamen are usually held in the main hall.

According to Wei Guangde's understanding, the Metropolitan Procuratorate should meet in the main hall to select a censor to go to Liaodong to investigate the case.

But according to Chen Zan's words, this incident should have been strongly promoted by Shandong Dao among the Thirteen Dao.

Naturally, the censor of Shandong Province will not have officials from Shandong, they are all from other provinces.

Wei Guangde understood after thinking about it that Liaodong did not have a province, and government affairs were managed by Shandong across the sea in the early Ming Dynasty. Therefore, Shandong Road was naturally responsible for investigating and handling matters in Liaodong in the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

They were the first to launch the imperial censor's inspection tour of Liaodong, which shows that this matter seemed to have been premeditated.

"Master Chen, don't you think there's anything wrong?"

Wei Guangde frowned and said, "For those who don't know, I thought the Metropolitan Procuratorate was also involved."

"Mr. Wei Ge, the Metropolitan Procuratorate supervises all officials and will not frame ministers.

No matter who it is, the procuratorate will deal with the matter and not the person. Please rest assured, Mr. Wei Ge. "

Chen Zan talked eloquently, but then he felt a little embarrassed and lowered his voice and said: "What happened today was indeed due to my negligence. If Mr. Wei Ge is dissatisfied, you can come to me."

"Neglect? I don't think so."

Wei Guangde chuckled and said, "It can only be said that someone's hand has reached into the Metropolitan Procuratorate."

Chen Zan did not answer. In fact, he had already received news from Ge Shouli. Being able to sit here was not only due to his own ability, but also related to all the forces in the court.

As long as you take sides, you will basically have no chance of becoming the censor of Zuodu.

"I don't ask who it is, and I don't pursue anything. After all, this is a matter for the Metropolitan Procuratorate."

Wei Guangde continued: "Since they are taking action in the Metropolitan Procuratorate, can I also ask Master Chen to transfer a good friend of mine here?"

"no."

After hearing Wei Guangde's words, Chen Zan immediately said that he did not want the battle in the court to continue to the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

"I'm just a deputy capital envoy. I'll help take care of it so that nothing like today happens again. Why not?"

Wei Guangde smiled.