Chapter 260 259 Candidates

Wei Guangde, the instigator of the impeachment storm, has been in the limelight in front of his colleagues these days.

Wei Guangde was naturally a little proud of himself for impeaching two people easily, but Chen Ju never sent any further news.

The news was whether he could go to Junzhou to investigate the misdeeds of Prince Hui.

Wei Guangde did not expect to continue to rise.

In this era, he was already a cadre who was promoted like a rocket, so he was just pursuing a position of the seventh-rank imperial censor of the same rank. The goal should not be too ambitious and it is still possible to achieve.

Geng An quietly set off to Junzhou two days ago. He had to go back to prepare more evidence of Prince Hui's illegality. After all, many families were forced by Prince Hui to leave their homes and hide away.

Junzhou is now half an empty city, all because of Prince Hui.

Those who studied and had daughters at home had already run away.

Prince Hui likes to play tricks on scholars too much. Scholars are also very concerned about their reputation. They can only hide because they are afraid of losing face if they are entangled by Prince Hui. Because even if they report to the government, it is useless. The prefect will go around Prince Hui's mansion.

In addition, it is necessary to arrange evidence to prove Prince Hui's usurpation. Some of it is possible, and some he needs to go back to check and find evidence.

However, when leaving the Wei family, Geng An knelt in front of Wei Guangde and thanked him profusely. He also said that as long as Wei Guangde went to Junzhou, Geng An would contact relatives, friends and local prominent families to jointly send Wei Guangde the Wanmin Umbrella.

Think about it, if the people of Junzhou really get rid of the great harm of Prince Hui, it seems that sending the Wanmin Umbrella is not impossible. Although Wei Guangde did not govern Junzhou, he naturally did not protect the people of Junzhou from wind and rain.

In recent years, it is common for officials to gather to see off when they leave office, whether they retire or get promoted, but it seems that I have never heard of sending the Wanmin Umbrella or plaque.

Wei Guangde couldn't help but feel a little itchy when he thought of this, what a face-saving thing.

The so-called Wanmin Umbrella is actually a large umbrella with many small silk strips on it, with the name and hometown of the person who gave it written on it.

In ancient times, when local officials left their posts, local gentry and merchants had to express their intention to retain them. The more common way was to send "Wanmin Umbrella", which meant that this parent official was like an umbrella to cover the people of one side. The more umbrellas sent, the more face this official had.

If there were still people in the local area sending umbrellas or even stopping the sedan chair when this official was dismissed or demoted, it meant that this official was definitely an honest official or a good official, and the local people were also affectionate and righteous.

Of course, such a ritual would definitely deteriorate in the later stage.

In fact, in the beginning in China, for the honest officials who left, in order to commemorate him, the people often asked local masters to write inscriptions and carve monuments.

However, in the Tang Dynasty, local officials, in order to show their vanity and to show their merits to their superiors, often forced local gentry and people to erect merit tablets for themselves to show their political achievements of loving the people like their own children and benefiting the people.

When things developed to this point, they completely changed their taste, forcing the Tang Dynasty regime at that time to issue an edict to the world, prohibiting officials from engraving their names on tablets.

Since they could not engrave tablets, the people came into being to express their reluctance to the officials, so the umbrellas of the people and the plaques of merit came into being. If they could not engrave tablets, I would give them umbrellas and plaques.

Of course, for local officials who were really worthy of commemoration, local gentry would often ask the court to ask for special permission to engrave tablets for them, but the procedure was very troublesome.

At this time, the umbrellas of the people and the plaques of merit had not been played out by the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty, so they were still very attractive to Wei Guangde.

But back to reality, Wei Guangde has learned in the past two days that many people in the court have begun to use connections to grab the position of the imperial envoy for investigating the case.

Wei Guangde's hope of grabbing the position at the beginning was dashed. Chen Ju did say that the Emperor Jiajing had no intention of cutting the Gordian knot, so neither Huang Jin nor Gao Zhong dared to mention this matter in front of the emperor.

Now, Wei Guangde's first chance is definitely gone.

In the past, such tasks would mostly fall on people from the Ministry of Rites and the Censorate. After all, it was their job, and Wei Guangde from the Hanlin Academy had little hope of being selected.

Based on this, Wei Guangde was too lazy to go through the connections.

Maybe there might be a glimmer of hope if he gave money to Yan Shifan, or got a deputy envoy or something, but Wei Guangde didn't dare.

It's not that he didn't dare to give money, but if you gave money and got the job of a deputy envoy, and came back from Junzhou, the envoy didn't get the Wanmin Umbrella, but you, a deputy envoy, got it, wouldn't it be a slap in the face?

Wei Guangde didn't want to do the job that offended people, so naturally at this time, after being a little rational, he didn't want to fight.

Anyway, he was the first person to attack the Prince of Hui, and everyone saw this achievement, although it was a bit like a dog trying to catch a rat.

At this time, the political trend in the capital had spread everywhere, and the news spread to Henan, and the officialdom in Henan was also shaken.

In recent years, Henan officials have regarded the governor of Junzhou as a dangerous place, and no one is willing to take office easily.

There is no other reason, because that is the territory of the Prince of Hui.

Although the court restricted the right of the royal family to interfere in the local area, the Prince of Hui did not interfere in the local area, but he violated the law and discipline in the local area, and the local officials had nowhere to complain.

To deal with the prince of the royal family, you need the emperor's edict.

Since the previous generation of Hui Wang Zhu Hojuan had a conflict with the prefect Chen Ji due to the "Qin Beheading" case, and wrote to the court to impeach Chen Ji, at that time the imperial censor Luo Ang and the censor Wang Sanpin both stated the facts and wrote to defend Chen Ji. Emperor Shizong He was furious and arrested them all. Among them, Luo Ang was killed with a stick, and Wang Sanpin and Chen Ji were demoted to the border guards.

Later, the current Hui King Zhu Zai was also impeached many times, but the results were all in vain. From then on, the Henan officialdom had to choose to go around King Hui, unable to defeat others.

Now the trend in the capital has changed. King Hui has obviously fallen out of favor with Emperor Jiajing, so he will naturally have to settle old and new grudges together.

Soon, officials including Pan En, the governor of Henan, also began to write letters to impeach King Hui for his illegal activities. They wanted to uproot King Hui at once. The opportunity now was not to be missed.

Henan's impeachment memorial was sent to the capital and handed over to the cabinet. At this time, several cabinet ministers were debating who should go to Henan to investigate the case.

Watching the Minister of Rites and the Censor of the Imperial Court debating on candidates, Yan Song and Xu Jie were flipping through the newly delivered memorials.

"Pan En? This person seems to have been the governor of Junzhou?"

Yan Song suddenly put down the memorial in his hand and said to Xu Jie next to him.

"Governor of Henan Paine?"

When Xu Jie heard that Yan Song seemed to be asking himself something, he put down the memorial in his hand, took Pan En's memorial from Yan Song, took a look at it, and said with a smile: "He used to be the magistrate of Qizhou, and he was transferred to Junzhou because of his diligence. , I have this experience.”

"You are already the governor of Henan, and you still care so much about Junzhou, haha"

Yan Song smiled pointedly.

"I guess I was angry with King Hui in Junzhou, so I took advantage of the opportunity this time."

Xu Jie approached Yan Song and whispered.

Yan Song just smiled when he heard this and didn't answer.

"The Metropolitan Procuratorate proposed that You Qian, the censor of the capital, should go to Yi Ping, and the Ministry of Rites suggested that Yan Na, the right minister, should go. It would be better to just report the names of the two people and see what the emperor chooses. There is no point in arguing like this all the time. Both of them are qualified. ”

Xu Jie looked back at the officials arguing below, then turned back and whispered to Yan Song.

"Ordinarily, it's only right to hand this kind of matter over to the Metropolitan Procuratorate. You should give me a memorial. It won't work if you keep putting it off."

Yan Song nodded in response.

"Yes, you put the proposals proposed by the Metropolitan Procuratorate first, and the Ministry of Rites last?"

Xu Jie nodded knowingly and agreed.

In his opinion, to investigate and deal with the current prince, one must at least be an official of fourth rank or above to be worthy of the status of imperial envoy.

The other party is a high-ranking prince, and he may not be able to suppress him if his official position is low.

But when Xu Jie finished speaking, he saw a hint of ridicule in Yan Song's yellow eyes.

Upon discovering this, Xu Jie felt a sudden change in his heart.

He understood that his ability to do things as an official did not need to be very bad, but he just lacked understanding of Emperor Jiajing.

Perhaps Yan Song had seen Emperor Jiajing's true wishes, so that's why he had that look in his eyes at that moment.

But at this time, Xu Jie could only bury his thoughts in his heart, nodded and sat back down.

The debate in the East Cabinet was still going on, but the two ministers in the cabinet did not pay attention to their arguments. The two of them dealt with the memorial sent in a leisurely manner.

After resigning from the cabinet, Xu Jie was still thinking about the momentary change in Yan Song's eyes.

Xu Jie had realized that he seemed to have made some mistake, so he wrote the question book. Although he didn't hand it in immediately, there must be something wrong.

After carefully thinking about the people in the question book, whether it was Yan Ne or Dang Yiping, they seemed to be very suitable candidates.

If there is any problem, it is that Dang Yiping is also from Henan and has the same nationality, but this is not an unavailable official.

Back at the Xu Mansion, there was no need to go to Xiyuan to check in tonight, and it was rare for Xu Jie to have time to rest.

Not long after he returned to the inner courtyard and sat down, the housekeeper came over with a letter in his hand.

"What's the matter?"

Xu Jie asked casually.

"Sir, I've received a letter from home. This year, all the tenant farmers said they suffered from Japanese pirates and were added to the corvee service by the government. They couldn't bear it anymore and asked the government to reduce their rent."

While talking, the housekeeper handed the letter in his hand to Xu Jie.

Xu Jie said nothing, took the envelope, opened it, took out the letter paper and read the contents of the letter, and then sneered: "This is all the decree of the imperial court, what can I do.

I went down and wrote a letter telling my family that those who could not afford the rent should stop planting next year.

The few in the family have no respect at all. Do you want me, a dignified cabinet scholar, to explain to those tenants? It's not like I want to join their corvee, so I can complain to Hu Zongxian if I can. "

"Yes, yes, the master said so."

Naturally, the housekeeper would not have any disagreement with Xu Jie on this matter. Although he felt that the tenants were indeed suffering enough, the rent could not be reduced. If the rent was reduced, Xu Mansion would not have anything to eat or drink.

"You have to bother me with even the smallest of things. If it happens again in the future, you can just reply."

Xu Jie added casually.

Seeing the housekeeper go out with the letter, Xu Jie withdrew his gaze and looked at the bookshelf.

For scholars, reading has become a habit.

When I was on duty at the cabinet, I read memorials from various places all day long. When I got home, my hands and eyes were still a little itchy, and I always wanted to read something.

But just as his eyes were scanning back and forth on the bookshelf, something suddenly clicked in his heart. Xu Jie seemed to understand the meaning of Yan Song's eyes.

In the eyes of these ministers, dealing with a prince of the royal family seemed to be a big deal, but what about the eyes of Emperor Jiajing?

The tenants in Songjiang hometown requested to reduce the land rent, and the housekeeper felt very embarrassed. It must be the same at home, so there were letters sent.

But at my level, I saw more things. I thought that it was the sin committed by Hu Zongxian. Why should my Xu family bear it, so I flatly refused.

So for the emperor, is dealing with a Hui Wang a big deal?

Is it really necessary to send officials of the fourth rank or even higher level to deal with it as they thought?

The prince is noble, but the prince these days is a phoenix with feathers shed. Except for being able to act arrogantly in the palace, what else can he do outside the palace?

The local government has to respect and give in to them, because they are afraid of being impeached by the prince if they lose their reason, but if they make unreasonable troubles or even make excessive demands, the local government often will not give them face, and at most they will ask for a holy judgment.

The reason why Prince Hui dared to cause trouble in Junzhou was mainly because the evil deeds of Prince Hui's mansion had not been punished before, so that everyone was afraid of Prince Hui's favor and knew that they would be retaliated against if they could not bring him down.

The situation is different now. The emperor's attitude towards Hui Fan before and yesterday's direct warning to the Taoist priest not to speak to Prince Hui actually conveyed his intention very clearly.

Is it a bit too high to let the Chief Censor or the Right Vice Minister investigate Prince Hui's illegality?

If Emperor Jiajing wanted to crack down on the royal family, he would not be willing to see the court attach too much importance to this matter.

Sending a small official to take Prince Hui down would also have a stronger deterrent effect on other princes of the royal family.

Thinking of the fact that some years ago, royal families from all over the country had collectively met with Emperor Jiajing to cry poor and talk about the problem of arrears of rice allocated by the court.

In fact, for those royal families, they are all their relatives. They only need to get some soup and water from the cracks of their fingernails to make their people live well, so why should they rely on the rice allocated by the court.

At that time, Emperor Jiajing was embarrassed by their crying poor, so he forced the cabinet and the Ministry of Revenue to squeeze out a lot of money and grain to make up for the arrears.

Thinking of this, Xu Jie's heart suddenly trembled. He dealt with Prince Hui and warned the royal family.

When the court officials thought that the court would send a senior official to Junzhou to investigate the illegal activities of Prince Hui, but rejected the candidate decided by the court and selected a low-rank official to go. This was actually a warning to the ministers in the court that they were not doing their job well and had no vision.

If it weren't for the strange look in Yan Song's eyes, Xu Jie would not have reacted to the possible mentality of Emperor Jiajing.

Thinking of Yan Song asking him to submit a memorial to recommend the candidates selected by the six ministries and nine ministers, isn't this a pitfall for himself?

When the memorial he wrote was submitted, the emperor was impressed that he didn't understand things and was confused.

Xu Jie was still a little unsure whether the emperor really had this in mind, but after careful consideration, he found that he still had no solution, so he could only bite the bullet and submit a memorial according to Yan Song's wishes.

He just hoped that he was overthinking it.