Chapter 688 787 Killer

After a day, the memorials sent back from Huguang about the evil deeds of the Liao Wang Mansion had become known to the whole court.

However, during the day yesterday, officials talked more about the atrocities committed by Liao Wang Zhu Xian in his fiefdom, and only a few officials discovered Hong Chaoxuan's final description.

The memorials of Shi Duchen, deputy envoy of Huguang Anchasi, were ignored by most people.

But at night, when the officials of the capital gathered together in Qinlou and Chuguan to drink and chat, it was mentioned, and many people instantly saw the opportunity.

Although most officials disagreed with this, some still recognized Shi Duchen's point of view, believing that even if the Liao Wang had no intention of rebellion, he had committed rebellion.

The big banner was not something that he, the Liao Wang, could fight, and it was still a big banner against the imperial envoy of the court who was ordered to investigate the case.

Therefore, early this morning, the Tongzhengsi became lively again, and many officials sent the impeachment memorials written overnight to the Tongzhengsi, hoping to grab a good position and appear in front of Emperor Longqing first.

The impeachment reasons, in addition to the long excerpts of the criminal facts of the Liao King in Hong Chaoxuan's memorial, emphasized that the Liao King had a rebellious heart and should be severely punished.

The news from the Tongzhengsi will soon be passed to the cabinet, but because of the procedure of memorial transmission, it has not been fed back yet.

In the Qianqing Palace, after Emperor Longqing sat on the throne, the first memorial that Meng Chong handed over was the memorial drafted by Zhang Juzheng on behalf of the cabinet, impeaching the Liao King's illegal behavior.

The memorial was sent to the Silijian yesterday, but it was already late. Emperor Longqing had his own activities at night, and of course he would not review the memorials until midnight like Zhu Yuanzhang and other diligent emperors.

If you have that free time, you might as well lie in the gentle land of the harem.

Moreover, the Liao King's affairs were actually not a big deal in the eyes of Beijing officials.

Everyone was controlled by the Jinyiwei, not the vassal kings who rebelled at the beginning, and they had to mobilize everyone to suppress the rebellion.

Therefore, the Imperial Household Department was very tactful and did not inform the emperor, but let him enjoy himself in the harem.

However, during the day, Emperor Longqing still had to deal with some memorials.

Of course, the Imperial Household Department picked out the more important things to report, and the rest were handed over to them for approval.

"Prince of Liao? Zhu Xian?"

To be honest, the old Zhu family has quite a lot of relatives. Now there are dozens of princes in various parts of the Ming Dynasty. When Emperor Longqing heard Meng Chong report the name of Prince of Liao Zhu Xian, he was stunned and wondered which dynasty this relative was from.

Although he issued an order two months ago and sent an imperial envoy to investigate the matter, he had already forgotten it by now.

If it weren't for the report of the imperial envoy, if no one mentioned it, this matter might have been directly annihilated.

"Your Majesty, the King of Liao was Zhen, the King of Liao during the Hongwu reign. He was first granted the title of Liaodong, and was later granted the title of Jingzhou at the beginning of the Yongle reign. The son of Jian, King Guinuan, succeeded him for six generations until Xian."

Meng Chong hurriedly reminded, "Last time, because the censor Gao Guangxian impeached him again, Your Majesty sent Hong Chaoxuan, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice, as an imperial envoy to investigate the case."

"I remember that someone impeached him last year, and someone was sent to apply for an imperial edict at that time, right?"

Emperor Longqing was reminded of some of his memories and spoke.

"Your Majesty has a good memory, and that's exactly what happened. It was Chen Sheng who submitted the impeachment at that time."

Meng Chong flattered Emperor Longqing.

"Have all the impeachment contents been verified?"

After receiving the memorial, Emperor Longqing did not open it to read it, but asked Meng Chong.

The eunuchs of the Silijian must have read the memorial and the cabinet's draft before. He asked this question because he wanted to get a general idea first.

"All the charges have been verified, but Your Majesty, I dare not say anything. You should take a look yourself."

Meng Chong pretended to be very nervous and said, "This memorial was written by the assistant minister Zhang Juzheng after the cabinet ministers discussed it. It was approved by all the cabinet ministers and reported. There are memorials from the chief and deputy imperial envoys who investigated the case."

"Hmm?"

When Emperor Longqing heard what Meng Chong said, he frowned. He knew that something big must have happened in the Liaowang Mansion. Otherwise, the cabinet would not have drafted it, but wrote a separate memorial. It was so solemn, and the matter should be serious.

And Meng Chong, who was below, lowered his head, thinking that he had received the money from the Zhang family last night and had done the thing himself. How the emperor dealt with it had nothing to do with him.

Zhang Juzheng certainly knew that for these so-called crimes at the moment, it was actually not important whether they were serious or not. It mainly depended on how the emperor decided the punishment.

To put it bluntly, his memorial was just the basis for the emperor's punishment.

Therefore, in his plan, the process of submitting the report from the palace to the emperor was also very important, so that the emperor would know the seriousness of the matter, so that he would punish severely.

Zhang Juzheng knew that it was unrealistic to get rid of the Liao vassal, but there was still a chance to just reduce Zhu Xian's royal title.

Zhu Xian had no heir, so the heirs could only be his cousins, which was equivalent to changing a line of successors to the Liao vassal.

In this way, Zhu Xian would never be able to turn over.

As a commoner, his Zhang family had plenty of opportunities to retaliate and they could play slowly.

His arrangement was indeed very clever, and it really hit the pain point of Emperor Longqing.

Hearing Meng Chong say that he dared not speak, he became interested. Originally, he just wanted to give a punishment casually, but now he really wanted to take a closer look at what the Liao King had done in his fiefdom that was so infuriating that the eunuchs around him dared not speak.

When he first opened Zhang Juzheng's memorial, Emperor Longqing was stunned before he saw the first charge against the Liao King Zhu Xian, and then he was furious.

Yes, the first paragraph of this impeachment memorial, which was re-edited and transcribed by Zhang Juzheng, points out a fact that even the emperors of the Ming Dynasty could not accept, that is, King Zhu Xian of the Liao Dynasty asked Zhu Shuxi to be granted the title of crown prince, but the Ministry of Rites suppressed the request and refused to approve it.

The lack of approval was not due to Zhang Juzheng's obstruction, but because the Ministry of Rites found clues during the verification and believed that the canonization could not be granted.

Zhang Juzheng told the cabinet ministers that King Zhu Xian of Liao had no heir. He was not telling the truth, but speaking in official terms.

Zhu Xian had a son named Zhu Shuxi, nicknamed Chuan'er, but there was a problem with the child's biological mother because she was a married woman.

Lefu, in fact, are women from the Lehu family. They are untouchables whose profession is singing and dancing. They are mostly the family members of criminals, or they can also be called "official prostitutes".

Lefu belonged to the untouchable social class in the Ming Dynasty society. They were the lowest class of people who were worse than slaves. Many of the women in the Ming Dynasty were official prostitutes. This was also a continuation of the court prostitute system since the Tang and Song Dynasties.

The Ministry of Rites will not recognize the son of a lowly Ji and the King of Liao under any circumstances.

Not to mention asking for sealing, even if you want to be registered, you can't do it.

Zhu Yuanzhang has always attached great importance to Zongtong, and of course he would not allow such a thing to happen, so he had already emphasized this matter in the "Huang Ming Ancestor Instructions".

In the Ming Dynasty, the sons of happy women were called peanuts, and the court strictly prohibited the use of names or titles, which meant that these people were not regarded as clan members.

The so-called son of King Zhu Xian of the Liao Dynasty was born to a happy woman, so it is not certain whether he was his child or not.

Zhang Juzheng brought Chuan'er, the son of the Liao Dynasty's concubine, to the throne in order to disrupt Zongtong. Zhang Juzheng mentioned it to the forefront to stimulate Emperor Longqing because since the Jiajing Dynasty, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty had attached great importance to Zongtong.

How Emperor Jiajing inherited the great treasure was based on the order of presidents.

If the clan was in chaos, the consequences would be disastrous.

As for the erecting of banners that Wei Guangde, Chen Yiqin and others valued, in fact, in the eyes of Emperor Longqing, it was not such a serious crime.

However, Zhang Juzheng paid attention to this point, but never mentioned it. He planned to use it as a trump card to attack King Zhu Xian of Liao Dynasty. The official document was just a so-called crime to divert everyone's attention.

After all, his position in the cabinet is awkward.

He just didn't expect that the impeachment memorial that he thought he would spend a long time with Chen Yiqin and Wei Guangde passed so easily in front of these two people. However, he still had to use this trump card, so he told Chen Yiqin to go back and polish it, copy it, and submit it again. Just to bring in private goods.

Sure enough, Emperor Longqing was no longer interested in reading the thirteen charges, but directly asked Meng Chong: "What's going on with Chuan'er, the son of a happy woman? What's going on with asking for a name?"

"Your Majesty, this is the time when the King of Liao reported to the Clan's Mansion that his son Chuan'er should be registered. However, during the verification, the Ministry of Rites and the Clan's Mansion found that Chuan'er's identity was unknown and his mother was of low status, so they kept suppressing the request. ”

Meng Chong said hurriedly.

If it hadn't happened yesterday, he wouldn't have known about it at all.

However, after reading the memorial in advance, I naturally found out the details.

When the emperor asked today, he naturally responded fluently.

"Hmph, why didn't the Ministry of Rites report it?"

Emperor Longqing was still angry and continued to ask.

"If the Ministry of Rites does not approve it, it will naturally not be reported. Moreover, this is not a glorious thing."

Meng Chong replied hurriedly.

After hearing this reason, Emperor Longqing relieved some of his anger.

Yes, I was so angry when I knew the news. The people in the Ministry of Etiquette were considerate of me and knew that I didn't like it, so they didn't approve or report it, so I didn't have to be angry.

Thinking of this, Emperor Longqing nodded and continued to look down, and soon he felt creepy.

According to the crimes Zhang Juzheng listed next for King Zhu Xian of Liao, if it only made him furious in the first place, it would be really difficult to speak out later.

The first crime was that after the late emperor's edict of mourning came, he did not mourn for five days, and even indulged in drinking and hunting.

The second crime is to commit adultery with concubines such as aunts and uncles, forcing women to rape them, or burning them alive in coffins, or picking off their arm flesh with a knife.

The third crime is beating the guest of honor to death, imprisoning the county king, blackmailing the clan members, killing the official school, taking someone's wife, taking someone's property, digging someone's grave, burning someone's corpse, countless.

Crime 4: Using cannon, burning, cutting and other non-criminal punishments to gouge out a person's eyes, burn their faces, and burn their ears.

The fifth crime is to cause chaos in the palace by allowing the servants to erection and desecration.

Crime Six: Founding a Li Palace and privately making talisman seals.

The seventh sin is favoring a private person, using official titles such as Hou, Bo, Jinwu, etc., and giving python clothes and jade belts.

The eighth crime is to insult the officials of the prefecture and county, and to despise the officials ordered by the emperor.

The ninth crime was to ask for a gold seal to engrave a demonic book, to conspire with the King of Hui, and to seize and refuse to surrender under the imperial edict.

At the end, just like Hong Chaoxuan, he told the story of how King Zhu Xian of the Liao Dynasty actually erected a large banner with the four characters "Litigation of Injustice" in the palace of the Liao King to confront him after he knew that the imperial court sent an imperial envoy to verify his wrongdoing.

However, Zhang Juzheng would not treat it as lightly as Hong Chaoxuan did. Instead, he focused on writing that this behavior caused fierce turmoil in Huguang officialdom. Local officials therefore believed that the King of Liao had the intention of treason, and directly sent troops to surround the palace of the Liao King, waiting for the arrival of the imperial envoy to investigate.

The desire to rebel.

The first few charges were all about the King of Liao's disrespect for the late emperor, and the subsequent charges showed the King of Liao's cruelty to the people and members of his own clan in the fiefdom. The latter charges hinted that the King of Liao seemed to have disobedient intentions. Finally, a large banner was erected, making Huguang officials think that he was plotting rebellion.

"Are there any other memorials that are important?"

Emperor Longqing had no interest in reading other memorials at this time. Now he was thinking about King Zhu Xian of Liao, and he was thinking about how to punish him.

It is not a punishment, but a crime.

"Your Majesty, the rest is not important."

Meng Chong said with a lowered eyebrow.

"Well, take it back to the Silijian for processing."

Emperor Longqing ordered, looking at the memorial in front of him, he continued to turn it over and read it down. He remembered that Meng Chong said before that the first one was Zhang Juzheng's memorial, and the second one was the memorial sent to Huguang this time.

The chief and deputy envoys submitted memorials separately, which shows that they have differences on certain things.

As the person in charge, what kind of disagreement can there be? This is also what he, the emperor, is very curious about.

Soon, he finished reading the memorial of the chief envoy Hong Chaoxuan. Although he still looked angry, he nodded slightly.

Hong Chaoxuan's memorial is similar to Zhang Juzheng's, except that it is not as comprehensive as Zhang Juzheng's.

But it is normal. Apart from the people in the cabinet, Hong Chaoxuan, a vice minister of the Ministry of Justice, must not know about the Ministry of Rites.

Next, he flipped through Shi Duchen's memorial and frowned.

"No wonder Zhang Juzheng said Huguang was shaken, it turns out the root is here."

After reading the memorials of Zhang Juzheng and Hong Chaoxuan, Emperor Longqing also made a comparison. Except for the matter of the son of the music woman, Hong Chaoxuan did not mention the shock of the officialdom in Huguang. After all, the King of Liao was now under control and no accident occurred.

At that time, Emperor Longqing was still wondering where the words in Zhang Juzheng's memorial came from.

Now after reading Shi Duchen's memorial, he understood what was going on.

The teachings of Gao Gong, Chen Yiqin and others were certainly not in vain, and the Emperor Longqing they taught was also qualified.

Although it seems that liking beauty and treasures is not a good character that a good emperor should have, these are human nature, and it is not easy to teach. It cannot be said that Gao Gong and other imperial teachers did not teach well.

On the contrary, Emperor Longqing was very smart.

However, because of past experiences, the impression of the emperor's dullness has been deeply rooted in people's hearts, so he simply hides his shortcomings.

Anyway, the cabinet and the Silijian are assisted in government affairs, and he can be lazy if it is not an important matter.

In Shi Duchen's memorial, he naturally exaggerated the fact that the Liao king had raised the banner. For example, he was the one who ordered the mobilization of the government troops to surround the Liao king's mansion, but here it was said that the officials of Jiangling Prefecture were panicked, and the decision to surround was made after the officials of the three departments had an urgent discussion.

And although it was a siege, it was actually just surveillance. Without the emperor's will, they did not dare to embarrass the Liao king. The purchases of the palace were still the same and were not affected. However, the people were very panicked because of this.

The young people did not know, but the old ones still had an impression that the prince of the neighboring province had rebelled a few decades ago, which was a major event that shocked Jiangnan.

"Your Majesty, the commander of the Jinyiwei, Zhu Xixiao, wants to see you."

A young eunuch came in to report.

"What is he doing here? Let him in."

Although Emperor Longqing was puzzled, he still said. (End of this chapter)