The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"What? My uncle was called to the palace by Mr. Xu Ge?"

At this time, the chamberlain who went to the school recording office had returned and reported in a low voice to Li Fang and Wei Guangde the news he heard in the school recording office.

Wei Guangde just frowned, vaguely feeling something was wrong, but he couldn't tell. Li Fang's reaction was much greater.

Since Zhang Juzheng has not been found, the people in the palace no longer send people to look for him. Anyway, there are many people in the palace now, enough to make suggestions.

Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhen were more senior, and they mainly discussed with Li Fang what preparations the palace should make to avoid being caught off guard when something happened. Wei Guangde sat quietly aside, happy to hide and relax.

In a side room in the backyard of the palace, Prince Yu sat there blankly, maintaining this posture for a long time.

Today, he finally saw his father, whom he thought about day and night, but it was the last time he saw him.

At this time, King Yu was still recalling what Emperor Jiajing said to him after he carried Emperor Jiajing back to the dragon bed.

"You are not a competent emperor. Fortunately, you have wise ministers to assist you, so nothing will happen to you."

Thinking of what his father said to him, King Yu felt pain in his heart for no reason.

He knew that among several brothers, he was the stupidest one and could not even compare to King Jing.

But in the end, Emperor Jiajing decided to pass the throne to him in an orderly manner. During this period, he was tested and stimulated many times in the hope that he would grow, but in the end the emperor was disappointed.

Thinking of this, King Yu finally moved.

He took out the only thing Emperor Jiajing gave him from his arms, a note, and slowly unfolded it, with the names of three people "Xu Jie, Gao Gong, and Zhang Juzheng" written on it in order.

"Use it one after another, and there will be no mistakes."

After all, Emperor Jiajing didn't trust his only son, so he took all aspects into consideration.

However, when King Yu saw the memorial that was taken out along with the note, he was not angry at all.

That was the lack of public security on Hai Rui. Lonely was taken by Emperor Jiajing with him. No one would be angry for a while after seeing it.

"No country, no family, no king and no father."

King Yu still remembered what Emperor Jiajing said about Hai Rui when he threw the Book of Public Security to him.

Although the entire "Public Security Shu" seems to be advising Emperor Jiajing to change his ways, what does it say about him?

Believe in witchcraft, live extravagantly, ignore government affairs, and disregard the people.

It seemed like he was admonishing, but wasn't he pointing at his nose and scolding him?

He has basically done everything that Hunjun should do and can do.

From ancient times to the present, no minister has dared to use these words to criticize the emperor.

Just over 3,000 words, each word stabbed into Emperor Jiajing's heart like a knife.

But even so, Emperor Jiajing still asked him to pardon Hai Rui and win over Qingliu's heart.

Regardless of whether Hai Rui wants it or not, whether he appreciates it or not, Qingliu is pushing him out as a sign.

Such a person really cannot be killed.

Is it really impossible to kill?

King Yu asked himself in his heart?

For no reason, King Yu thought of Wei Guangde.

Wei Guangde also said something similar: Hai Rui cannot die, at least not in prison.

"Hai Rui is a knife. You can control it. If you hate or don't want to use it, you can let Hai Rui deal with it.

I know what they think. Although the officialdom is dim, there is still a group of loyal ministers, although they dare not risk their lives to directly remonstrate.

Seeing that Hai Rui's memorial expresses the thoughts that they want to express but dare not express, to them, Hai Rui is a weapon to speak out for them. "

At this time, King Yu kept thinking about what Emperor Jiajing said to him in his mind. He analyzed everything inside and outside the court in detail, and even briefly evaluated Gao Gong, Chen Yiqin and others he trusted.

The evaluation of Wei Guangde is: he can be used, but he cannot be the chief assistant. His relationship with Nanjing is too complicated, and the consequences of his use are unpredictable.

"Edict? When did Your Majesty issue the edict?"

At this time, in the Palace of Qianqing, Xu Jie took out the "Jiajing Edict" drafted by Zhang Juzheng and showed it to the other three cabinet ministers, but Gao Gong already started questioning it loudly without reading it.

Emperor Jiajing would not leave a posthumous edict for himself. If there was an edict, it would only be the "Edict on Succession of the Throne".

According to convention, the emperor's edict should be drafted together with the cabinet ministers, and Xu Jie definitely should not do this alone.

When they entered the palace just now, they happened to see Zhang Juzheng leaving, but they didn't think much about it at the time. But by now, Gao Gong had guessed that Xu Jie must have involved Zhang Juzheng in drafting the edict.

When will a Taichang Temple Shaoqing be able to do things that only cabinet ministers can do?

Are they going to be dismissed from their posts at the next moment and all the cabinet ministers, abdicated in favor of Xu Jie's students?

When Gao Gong said it, Li Fang and Guo Pu both looked unhappy and neither reached out to take it.

Xu Jie broke the rules this time, and Li Chunfang, a good old man, was also very dissatisfied.

However, at this time, Li Chunfang only thought that Xu Jie's purpose was to demonstrate his power as chief assistant, and did not think too much about it.

"As the first assistant, I was entrusted by the late emperor to draft a posthumous edict. What's wrong with that?"

Xu Jie was very dissatisfied when he saw the attitude of the three people.

Although he was dissatisfied on the surface, he was enjoying it very much in his heart, not because he had the upper hand, but because he knew from Gao Gong's words that his goal had been achieved.

In the side hall, several cabinet ministers were arguing behind the backs of others, and the chamberlains who were still waiting in the room had been driven away.

If the eunuchs and chamberlains of this period were present, they would definitely find it very interesting. Only the old eunuchs who had stayed in the palace for a long time would know that such quarrels over imperial edicts were not uncommon in the history of the Ming Dynasty.

A posthumous edict was a way for the emperor to review his governance achievements during his reign and review his mistakes. At the same time, he would announce that he was terminally ill and was about to die. He would also announce his successor, encourage future emperors to continue their efforts, tell ministers to assist the new emperor with all their heart, and provide instructions for funeral ceremonies. Request and appease the vassal kings and local officials in various places.

For the emperor, he is about to die, let alone what achievements he has made while in power. Even if people and gods are really angry, and what he did is not human affairs, there is no need to scold himself.

So it is obvious that this work could not be written by the emperor himself, but by the actual person who handled it, that is, the ministers of the dynasty, especially the cabinet ministers, who were the specific drafters of the will.

Drawing up a posthumous edict is obviously the best time to summarize all the mistakes of the previous dynasty, clean up one's own mistakes, and attack political opponents. Therefore, the formulation of the posthumous edict is naturally a key area that the courtiers of the Ming Dynasty must compete for. Whoever masters the posthumous edict will win. He will take the initiative in the court in the future.

Participating in the imperial edict actually means that you can join the cabinet.

Xu Jie asked Zhang Juzheng to participate in drafting the edict, which was actually to promote Zhang Juzheng into the cabinet.

Zhang Juzheng's advancement into the cabinet was bound to arouse Gao Gong's dissatisfaction with Zhang Juzheng.

The relationship between Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng is very complicated. The two people have many common topics when they get together. Although their political ideas have deviations, they have the same general direction.

This made Xu Jie very wary, worried that Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong would stand together, which would be too detrimental to him.

Zhang Juzheng was his favorite successor and the foundation for the continued prosperity of his Xu family.

If Zhang Juzheng really turns to Gao Gong, based on his relationship with Gao Gong, Xu Jie can predict what kind of situation the Xu family will be in after he becomes an official.

Killing two birds with one stone, if Zhang Juzheng participated in drafting the Jiajing edict, then Gao Gong would definitely treat him as his life-long enemy and would no longer try to win over him.

Because Gao Gong's character is so overbearing.

He will not weigh the pros and cons, and will solely rely on his personal subjective consciousness to judge what is right or wrong, good or evil.

A person like him is not a qualified politician, which is destined to make him vulnerable in front of real politicians.

Of course, such a thing would never happen during King Yu's reign.

"My lords, it's time to issue an edict and announce this matter. We can't keep delaying it."

I don't know how much time passed, but Huang Jin, who had been staying in the dormitory, was a little impatient. He couldn't wait for news from the cabinet ministers. He couldn't keep hiding the news from His Majesty.

Finally, Huang Jin came to the side hall, opened the door and asked.

Now he is the only one in the palace who has this prestige, and can barely talk to these Ming Dynasty cabinet ministers on an equal footing.

Urged by Huang Jin, Gao Gong, who had previously been arguing with Xu Jie about re-drafting the edict, remained silent for the time being, because Li Chunfang and Guo Pu had read the edict just now and were not too dissatisfied with the content.

In fact, it didn't matter to Li Chunfang how the edict was written, but he was not interested in Xu Jie drafting it without authorization.

Xu Jie actually grasped this point, so he dared to take action privately.

As for Gao Gong and Guo Pu, Xu Jie didn't take them seriously. They didn't agree with each other and they were not the same people.

Xu Jie cherishes his hard-won position as chief assistant, and Gao Gong covets it, so let him wait.

Seeing that the atmosphere inside was not good, Huang Jin looked at Xu Jie, then at Gao Gong, and finally his eyes fell on the second assistant Li Chunfang.

"Master Li, what do you say?"

Li Chunfang was asked by Huang Jin at this time, and she didn't know how to express her position.

But after all, he still had a soft personality, and there wasn’t much problem with the content of the edict, so he nodded, “I don’t have any objections.”

The first assistant and the second assistant reached an agreement. For Guo Pu and Gao Gong, even if they had any opinions, they could only hold it in.

Xu Jie had the last laugh in this battle.

"Okay, then let's arrange the funeral arrangements."

Huang Jin said to several ministers in the room.

Gao Gong didn't want to continue arguing at this moment. In the end, he had no chance of winning.

There is nothing we can do about Xu Jie, why can't we target Zhang Juzheng?

"Dong Dong. Dong."

In the distant imperial city, bells rang out, spreading throughout the capital.

In the originally bustling streets, countless people paused their movements and looked towards the Forbidden City.

Why are the bells ringing at this time?

For ordinary people, most people are a little overwhelmed.

The bells and drums in the palace are not struck casually.

Only the elderly people seemed to have a premonition of something and silently counted the number of times the bell rang.

The continuous ringing of bells echoed over the capital, and the entire capital seemed to be temporarily pressed on the pause button. Even the censors and captains in uniforms who used to be extremely arrogant when walking on the streets had either reined in their horses or stood still. .

They knew better, or in other words, the officials in the capital had already had a premonition of something from the moment the bell rang.

"Dong Dong. Dong."

The bell was still ringing, and the censor patrolling the city had already got off his horse in a panic, facing the direction of the imperial city, still counting silently in his heart: "Forty-three, forty-four, forty-five."

When I read forty-five, the bell disappeared.

The censor bowed down in the direction of the imperial city, and as if in a chain reaction, the soldiers of the Military and Horse Department behind him and the people on the street all understood what had happened.

emperor.

died.

At this time, in all the yamen of the six bureaus and five temples in the capital, officials quickly walked out of the duty rooms, led their clerks and others in the courtyard to prostrate themselves in the direction of the imperial city.

At the same time, temples in various places inside and outside the capital rang bells almost at the same time.

The bells in the palace have stopped ringing, but the bells in the capital continue to ring.

On the day of mourning in the capital, all temples and temples will ring bells and 30,000 pestles, and slaughter will be banned for forty-nine days. At the same time, all entertainment activities, marriages, and drinking and having fun are strictly prohibited inside and outside the capital.

In Prince Yu's Mansion, the moment the bell rang, Wei Guangde had already stood up, counting the bells silently in his mind. Also doing the same thing as him were Chen Yiqin and others.

After confirming that the palace bell was ringing forty-five, Wei Guangde closed his eyes slightly, and then felt his sleeve being pulled down.

Opening his eyes, he followed Chen Yiqin and others out of the house in the courtyard, knelt down in the direction of the palace, and stood up after a moment.

"Let's go see King Yu."

Chen Yiqin said to Yin Shizhen and Wei Guangde at this time.

The two nodded and looked at Li Fang.

Only Li Fang knows where King Yu will be after he returns.

"Three adults follow me."

Li Fang replied.

So he led the way to King Yu's courtyard.

Entering the courtyard, several people saw King Yu still kneeling in the courtyard, facing the direction of the imperial city.

"Your Highness, my condolences."

Wei Guangde, Chen Yiqin and others saluted King Yu together and began to persuade him.

"Your Highness, I would like to express my condolences. Someone from the cabinet should be coming to the palace now, and Your Highness is going out to meet him."

At this moment, King Yu was a little stupid, and the death of Emperor Jiajing was a big blow to him.

"Everyone in the world has a parent."

Although Emperor Jiajing had not been kind to him in the past, King Yu understood that it was because he was unable rather than unwilling.

There was still some resentment in the past, but after meeting today, it has disappeared.

In the Qianqing Palace, Gao Yi, the Minister of Rites, had already arrived, discussed the funeral arrangements with the four pavilion elders and Huang Jin, and temporarily stayed in the palace to preside over the ceremony, while Xu Jie, Li Chunfang and others left the imperial city and rushed to Prince Yu's Mansion.

Their trip was planned to invite King Yu to attend the funeral.

"Zhang Juzheng participated in the drafting of the imperial edict?"

When Gao Gong arrived at Prince Yu's palace, the news that Zhang Juzheng had been called to the palace by Xu Jie naturally spread through his mouth.

Wei Guangde was silent. He felt something was wrong at that time. It turned out that Xu Jie was responsible for this.

"How could Mr. Xu Ge do this? He is inconsistent with the system."

Chen Yiqin frowned and said.

"Yes, it's something everyone knows, but Zhang Juzheng just did it."

Gao Gong said angrily.

When Wei Guangde saw Gao Gong's attitude, he realized Xu Jie's purpose in hindsight.

Is Xu Jie's move clever?

Didn't Zhang Juzheng see through it?

I'm afraid not necessarily.

He couldn't stand the temptation and was willing to get into the trap set by Xu Jie.

Wei Guangde could only understand it this way, but it was still beneficial to him since Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong could no longer reconcile.