Chapter 709 808 Some People Leave, some People Come

In May, the suburbs of Beijing were sunny, green and full of life.

At this time, in a pavilion a few miles away from Beijing, a small square table was placed in the middle, with a few dishes on the table and four figures sitting around the table.

They were Chen Yiqin, the deputy assistant of the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty, Yin Shizhan and Wei Guangde, and the person sitting with them was a man with gray hair and a white face without a beard. The people in the capital could recognize at a glance that this was a eunuch in the palace.

"After parting today, I don't know if there will be a chance to meet again. I am here to thank the three of you for your help. Please drink this cup."

The eunuch was naturally Li Fang, who was once considered to replace Huang Jin and deserved to be the first person in the inner court.

But who would have thought that in just three years, he could only go to Nanjing to avoid disaster with a guilty body.

Although Wei Guangde and others had done some work in the prison of the Ministry of Justice, Li Fang still suffered a lot in it. The accommodation conditions were secondary, and the food was also very good, but the biggest blow he suffered came from the palace.

Li Fang thought that he had worked hard for the emperor all his life, but he didn't expect that this was what he got, and he was already discouraged.

Today, I took the prisoner car out of the prison of the Ministry of Justice. I didn't expect to see Chen Yiqin and Wei Guangde, who had worked with me in Yu Ju, and I was sad for a while.

After Chen Yiqin and others comforted him outside the pavilion, he entered the pavilion and sat down, but he couldn't get interested in the wine and food on the table.

"Alas, Eunuch Li, I remember that I had persuaded you many times at the beginning, don't act like you did in the palace, and be harsh to your subordinates. There are many people in the palace, and they are not as simple as the people in Yu Ju."

The four drank the wine in the cup, and Wei Guangde picked up the wine pot to fill the wine glass in front of Li Fang again, and finally couldn't help but say.

In fact, Wei Guangde had some small complaints about Li Fang.

You know, he placed his bet on Li Fang, and had ignored Feng Bao for a while. It was only in the past year that he resumed contact with Feng Bao, and from time to time they went out for drinks to get closer.

But as a person from Yujuli, Feng Bao's status in the palace has also improved after Li Fang's fall, and the people around him are naturally different from the past. It can be said that Wei Guangde's plan was miscalculated.

At least, according to the news Wei Guangde has heard so far, Zhang Juzheng and Feng Bao's relationship seems to have been maintained very well in the past two years, and has already run ahead of him.

"Shandai, don't you know what kind of person Eunuch Li is?

An upright person should not be blamed, and everything he did was for His Majesty, but it's a pity that His Majesty was deceived by the traitor.

Forget it, let's not talk about it, eat the food."

Chen Yiqin was open-minded. For a while, he wanted to beg for return, not only for physical reasons, but also because of a little disappointment in Emperor Longqing.

But he stayed in the end, because Emperor Longqing didn't want him to leave.

"It's good for Eunuch Li to go to Nanjing. Eunuch Liang is in charge there, so you won't be sad.

We have some small gifts this time, and we want Eunuch Li to send them over."

Yin Shizhan said with a smile.

"It should be. If it weren't for your help, I might still be in the prison of the Ministry of Justice."

Li Fang smiled bitterly.

"Eunuch Liang is still very clear."

Wei Guangde looked at Li Fang's current embarrassment and smiled bitterly.

"Yes, he seemed to have told me about leaving at the beginning, but unfortunately I didn't listen at that time."

Li Fang knew what Wei Guangde meant, and looked at Wei Guangde with some apology.

After drinking a few pots of wine, several people were already drunk, and it was late, so they couldn't waste time any more.

Li Fang stood up and said goodbye to them. Seeing that everyone in the pavilion stood up, and outside, whether it was the sedan chair or the prisoner car, they all stood up, knowing that they were leaving.

Li Fang was sentenced to imprisonment in Nanjing. Originally, there should have been only two officials escorting him there. The long journey was enough for Li Fang to drink a pot.

However, Wei Guangde made efforts below, and Mao Kai also took advantage of the situation and pretended to be confused, and sent a prisoner car to escort him there, so Li Fang had the public bus treatment when he went to Nanjing this time.

Although the conditions were much worse, he was able to see Nanjing alive after all.

After leaving the pavilion, they sent Li Fang to the prisoner car and bowed to each other and said goodbye.

Chen Yiqin, Yin Shizhan and Wei Guangde stood on the side of the road and watched the prisoner car go south.

This time they all asked for leave and were all in casual clothes, so people coming and going on the official road just thought they were seeing off friends, but no one recognized that there were three big figures from the Ming Dynasty's court and cabinet here.

On the official road, a caravan consisting of several large carts passed by Li Fang's prisoner car without attracting the attention of others.

On the leading carriage, the curtain moved slightly, and a pair of eyes happened to see the prisoner carriage through the gap, and also saw the person sitting in the prisoner carriage.

"Even though they are sitting in the prisoner carriage, they still exude an official aura. They are really worthy of being under the feet of the emperor. Those who are in prison are all high-ranking officials. Uh"

At this moment, when the two carriages passed each other, Li Fang turned his head and looked at the carriage inadvertently. The four eyes met for a moment and then they passed each other.

"Is this a eunuch?"

At the moment they looked at each other, the travelers in the carriage noticed that the prisoner in the carriage had no beard under his chin.

In the Ming Dynasty, although big beards were not popular, no one would shave their beards cleanly. Adults would have beards more or less, and at most they would groom themselves to make themselves look more suitable for their status.

There was only one type of people without beards under their chins in this era, and that was eunuchs, who could not grow beards due to physical reasons.

Shaking his head, he lowered the curtain.

The person in the carriage was naturally Shao Fang, the hero who was going to the capital to act as a broker and lobby the court officials to prepare for Gao Gong's reinstatement.

He had been sitting in the carriage for so long that he was already a little annoyed, and asked the driver in front of him: "How far is it from the capital?"

"Replying to Master Shao, it's at most five miles away, and we'll be there soon."

He turned his head to the back of the carriage and answered.

"Why is it still five miles away? We've been walking for so long, and they said it wasn't far before, only a few miles away."

Shao Fang was a little irritable at the moment. Seeing the prisoner carriage just after arriving in the capital always made him feel bad, and his tone was very unfriendly.

"It's almost there, it's almost there, pass the pavilion in front, and we'll see the capital city in a little while, huh."

At this moment, the coachman, perhaps because his attention was turned to the conversation behind, almost lost control of the carriage, causing the carriage to shake.

"What's going on?"

Shao Fang was shaking in the carriage and couldn't sit still, so he asked hurriedly.

"Whoa, whoa"

But the coachman didn't answer, but concentrated on controlling the carriage, as if he was making some rules.

After waiting for a while, when the carriage was running smoothly, the coachman said, "Master Shao, just now a few sedan chairs came out from the side of the road and almost collided with our carriage."

"Sedan, what sedan chair, so unruly."

Shao Fang was in a bad mood after hearing the whole story, and he said it casually.

"Master Shao, those sedan chairs are not ordinary, they are definitely sedan chairs of high officials in the court, but they are all eight-lift sedan chairs."

The coachman was hired by Shao Fang at Tongzhou Wharf. Naturally, he couldn't take a carriage to Beijing. He usually took a boat along the Grand Canal to Tongzhou Wharf, and hired a sedan chair to enter Beijing after getting off the boat.

The main means of transportation in the Ming Dynasty were cars, boats, and sedan chairs. Of course, there were also those that relied on animal power, that is, riding horses or donkeys.

Among these means of transportation, sedan chairs are undoubtedly the most advanced one.

Compared with other means of transportation such as carriages, sedan chairs are slow, but they are smooth and comfortable to ride, and are convenient for traveling on narrow and winding paths and mountain roads.

In addition, sedan chairs need to be carried by sedan bearers, which can show the dignity of the passengers.

Being served by others can show the nobleness of the sedan chair rider.

Before the Tang Dynasty, most people who rode sedan chairs were royal women and elderly and weak officials.

Since the Song Dynasty, sedan chairs have become widely popular, and various hierarchical systems for sedan chairs have emerged.

Among them, the specifications of official sedan chairs and the number of people carrying sedan chairs are strictly restricted.

The name "sedan" originated in the Song Dynasty. Before that, it was generally called "shoulder sedan chair".

By the Ming Dynasty, the types of sedan chairs were basically fixed.

For example, a sedan chair carried by two people is generally called a sedan chair, a sedan chair carried by four people is a small sedan chair, and a sedan chair carried by eight people is called a large sedan chair. Above that, there is a sedan chair carried by sixteen people, and the status is even more extraordinary, because this person can only be the emperor, even the prince is not allowed.

As for whether the sedan chair carried by 32 people in the legend really existed, it is also worth studying.

The earliest record of Zhang Juzheng riding in a sedan chair carried by 32 people can be found in the "Biography of the Prime Minister since Jiajing" by Wang Shizhen, a contemporary historian.

"The sedan chair that Juzheng sat in was created by Qian Pu, the governor of Zhending, for worship.

There was a double-story building in front and a bedroom in the back for rest.

There were two wings on the side, each with a boy standing, and the left and right attendants waved brooms and burned incense. It was carried by 32 soldiers."

In the Ming Dynasty, which was strict in etiquette, if Zhang Juzheng rode in a sedan chair carried by 32 people, it would be impossible that there was no record of censors impeaching him. Censors can be described as "mad dogs" in history.

In fact, even when Zhang Juzheng was in power and he completely controlled the Censorate, the censors still impeached him from time to time, even though they knew that such memorials would be useless when sent to Emperor Wanli, and the emperor would not deal with Zhang Juzheng for this.

However, there is no record of any censor impeaching Zhang Juzheng for riding a sedan chair carried by 32 people in history. There was no record of any censor impeaching him until Zhang Juzheng fell from power. This is extremely unreasonable.

You should know that after Zhang Juzheng fell from power, officials from the court tried their best to fabricate charges against him. If Zhang Juzheng really rode a sedan chair carried by 32 people to return home, those officials would definitely not miss this opportunity, and Zhang Juzheng's crime would inevitably increase the one of riding a sedan chair beyond the limit.

At that time, as long as one of Zhang Juzheng's crimes could be found and confirmed, most of the impeachers would be favored by the emperor and then get the opportunity to be promoted.

It can be seen from this that Zhang Juzheng riding a sedan chair carried by 32 people is a fictitious thing, and the emperor only carried it with 16 people.

As for why Wang Shizhen wanted to discredit Zhang Juzheng, it was naturally because they had a grudge.

Wang Shizhen was dismissed by Zhang Juzheng, so his description of Zhang Juzheng is worth studying.

To be specific, Wang Shizhen and Zhang Juzheng were born in the same year, both of them were Jinshi in the 26th year of Jiajing.

Of course, in the ancient times with strict etiquette and laws, the common people could also use the "eight-person sedan chair", but it was only used for important occasions such as weddings.

The eight-person sedan chair, decorated gorgeously, was used to create a festive atmosphere, and the government would not think it was beyond the rules.

The sedan chair mentioned by the coachman was naturally the sedan chair that Chen Yiqin, Yin Shizhan and Wei Guangde rode in.

If the coachman accidentally had a traffic accident, they might have had a chance to meet each other in advance.

But even if they meet, Wei Guangde will not know that Shao Daxia is a person, because in his consciousness, Gao Gong is finished. No one between him, Chen Yiqin, Yin Shizhen, and even Li Chunfang hopes that he will come back.

As for Zhang Juzheng, Wei Guangde never considered that Zhang Juzheng would support Gao Gong's return to the court. You must know that Zhang Juzheng's teacher Xu Jie was the mastermind of expelling Gao Gong.

The three of them returned to the city, and Ma Fang's convoy also entered Beijing. After settling in their residence, they quickly started taking action.

Bringing gifts, according to the list given by Gao Gong, Xian Fang successively visited Gao Gong's disciples and officials in Nanzhili, and began to test their attitudes.

However, there was another letter on his body, which was written by Gao Gong himself, and the recipient was none other than Chen Hong, the eunuch in charge of the royal palace.

After Gao Gong thought about it all night in the study, he finally bet on Chen Hong.

As for the reason, it is actually very simple. According to the records in the "History of the Ming Dynasty", "The eunuchs Teng Xiang, Meng Chong, and Chen Hongfang were favored, and they competed with each other to please the emperor by displaying strange and obscene skills. They made Aoshan lanterns and led the emperor to drink for a long night. "

It can be seen that at this time, Chen Hong was among the three most favored people in the inner court.

It was just a new arrival, and Xie Fang did not plan to meet Chen Hong first. Instead, he wanted to establish a broad mass base and gain the support of more officials before looking for an opportunity to meet Chen Hong and send Gao Gong's letter.

Zhang Juzheng, who was still busy in the cabinet, was actually very troubled. He wanted to integrate into Yu Zhuan's old people, but he couldn't find the way. In the end, he was isolated by Chen Yiqin, Yin Shizhen and others.

And he considered bringing back Gao Gong as a support to break the control of Yu Zhuan's old man on the cabinet, but looking at the inner and outer courts, he could not find anyone to help.

Even officials who have a good relationship with him now, or political allies such as Yang Bo, Feng Bao and others, found after his testing that they did not want Gao Gong to be recalled.

It was really because Gao Gong had such a great influence on Emperor Longqing that it frightened everyone.

However, such worries were alleviated after a few days. Yes, he had received secret reports from some officials and knew that a man named Sato had appeared in the capital, jumping up and down, constantly visiting and inviting officials in the DPRK to banquets, and inviting him to eat and drink. .

And his purpose seemed to be to ask them about their attitude towards the impeached cabinet minister Gao Gong.

Although most of the disciples still supported Gao Gong's return to the court, some people chose to join other forces in the court after he left, and Zhang Juzheng and his family were naturally one of them.

However, after sending people to investigate, Zhang Juzheng also had deep doubts.

Why do people from Danyang, Nanzhili, get mixed up with Gao Gong?

Unable to figure it out, Zhang Juzheng could only continue to send people to observe secretly to confirm his purpose.

However, judging from the information obtained at the moment, Zhang Juzheng has realized that it seems that the Xinzheng man can't sit still and wants to come back.