Chapter 831 920 Honorable Title

No one knew whether Gao Gong intended to undermine the imperial power, and no one dared to question him face to face at this time.

The censors launched a wave of impeachment against Feng Bao, and asked the emperor to severely punish Feng Bao.

Although Feng Bao was shrewd and accustomed to the power struggle in the court since Jiajing, he was a little helpless after being punished now.

You know, it was the first time for a young lady to get on a sedan chair when she became a target of the outer court.

Originally, Feng Bao had made up his mind to be a turtle and hide, and wait until two months later, when he took over Meng Chong's charge of the Silijian, and then discussed with Wei Guangde how to deal with Gao Gong, and then drag Zhang Juzheng, who had been suppressed by Gao Gong, into the fight together.

But look at the current storm. Before, it was the censors who impeached, and now the Beijing officials followed suit.

It can only be said that everyone may be dissatisfied with Emperor Qianlong's will, but they just didn't dare to speak out before. Now that someone has taken the lead, they naturally want to take this opportunity to "set things right".

They have already seen that the current Ming Dynasty is making a choice.

Either they go back to the early years of Zhengde, where they have to fight with the eunuchs, or they go back to the Zhengtong Dynasty, where the cabinet is in power and the civil officials become powerful again.

Feng Bao is really scared now. The posture of the civil officials seems to be a situation of life and death.

Faced with such a dangerous situation, he can't think of any good way to break the situation.

These two days, he has been hiding in his room, and he dared not go to the Silijian, because he knew that people like Meng Chong and Chen Hong must be waiting to see his joke.

He really thought that he could be above other eunuchs if he was appointed as the regent of Emperor Longqing.

Perhaps, this is politics.

When Chen Hong colluded with Gao Gong behind their backs, they could unite to isolate or even suppress Chen Hong, but now it's finally their turn.

Feng Bao was in his room, constantly walking around, thinking about how to deal with the situation, and thinking about the letters with Wei Guangde.

Wei Guangde knew that they were too far apart and couldn't help him at all, so he just told him to consult Zhang Juzheng when he encountered a difficult problem, because they and Zhang Juzheng had the same interests in dealing with Gao Gong.

What a pity.

Feng Bao thought of this and sighed in his heart again. Who would have thought that Zhang Juzheng was actually sent to Tianshou Mountain to inspect the mausoleum of the late emperor at this juncture.

Now Feng Bao has no one to discuss with.

Wei Guangde, who was far away in Huai'an, certainly didn't know about the changes in the situation in the capital, but Zhang Juzheng, who went to Tianshou Mountain to inspect, knew it clearly.

In fact, after he left the capital, almost every day, the servants of the Zhang Mansion brought the intelligence of the capital compiled by You Qi to Tianshou Mountain and handed it to Zhang Juzheng.

Sure enough, the uneasiness in his heart when he received the imperial edict came true. Gao Gong arranged for him to come here, and he really had bad intentions.

What can Zhang Juzheng do now that he understands it? He obviously has made plans to drive him out of the capital so as not to mess up his plan.

Yes, although Zhang Juzheng was suppressed by Gao Gong everywhere, he still has the ability to make trouble.

Gao Gong was obviously worried about this, so he sent him away.

Despite this, Zhang Juzheng could not ignore it and let Feng Bao be defeated by Gao Gong.

Otherwise, even if Wei Guangde came back, the two of them would not be able to defeat the alliance of Gao Gong and Gao Yi because they did not have Feng Bao's help.

Taking out the notes handed out by the capital in the past two days, Zhang Juzheng read them again and again, but there was no news of Feng Bao's response.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng also knew that this matter was difficult to handle now, and Gao Gong's offensive was too fierce.

Moreover, now in the court, Gao Gong raised the banner of opposing eunuchs' interference in politics, which was extremely inflammatory to civil officials.

Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong belonged to the same type of pragmatic bureaucrats, and they were also iron-fisted figures. Moreover, he was one step ahead and was proficient in the power tactics of the Legalists.

He knew that if he allowed Gao Gong to get rid of Feng Bao, it would not be good for him. On the contrary, if he assisted Feng Bao in getting rid of Gao Gong, he could be promoted to the chief minister of the cabinet.

Moreover, in the current situation, he could not make his attitude public, and could only provide help to Feng Bao in private.

In fact, he had already done so.

But from Feng Bao's actions, it seemed that he did not understand his intention, so how to remind Feng Bao to play the trick?

In fact, from the note handed over from the capital, Zhang Juzheng discovered the danger of Gao Gong's move, but he risked angering the queen mother in the palace.

Yes, if Zhang Juzheng was in Feng Bao's position at this time, he would not only not fight back forcefully, but would pretend to be pitiful, seek protection from his master, and remind Gao Gong that this move was a sword dance aimed at Pei Gong.

In name, he was a eunuch and was not worthy of being a minister of state, but in fact he wanted to deny the arrangement of the late emperor before his death and deprive the queen mother of her power as president. This was an attempt to usurp power and even to rebel.

Imagine how your majesty would govern the country at his age.

If the palace did not have the power to restrict the cabinet, the future would be unpredictable.

However, now the fight between Gao Gong and Feng Bao seemed that Gao Gong would win and Feng Bao would lose. If he handed Feng Bao a note to give advice, he would be liquidated once the matter failed.

Just the hat of colluding with the eunuch party was enough to ruin his reputation.

Information could not be passed on in the form of notes or letters, but only by word of mouth.

In an instant, Zhang Juzheng broke out in a cold sweat.

Because before leaving the capital, he gave Feng Bao a note written by himself.

Before considering victory, consider defeat first. Although Zhang Juzheng had a way to deal with Gao Gong at this time, he still considered his own safety first.

With the note in Feng Bao's hand, it seemed that he had actually been put on the fire, and it was difficult to stay out of it.

Zhang Juzheng secretly made a decision in his heart. When Gao Gong built up his momentum, the bigger the better, and the more ministers participated, the more afraid Empress Dowager Chen and Concubine Li in the palace would be able to feel.

Only when they felt afraid would they make up their minds to get rid of Gao Gong.

Otherwise, as long as one of them was soft-hearted, this matter would not be accomplished.

After all, the trust of the late emperor in Gao Gong and his efforts over the years made it possible for them to let Gao Gong go in the end, thinking that he was confused for a while, not really wanting to interfere with the monarchy.

Yes, regardless of whether Gao Gong had this intention, what Zhang Juzheng had to do was to make the two nobles in the palace think that he had this idea.

Only they believed it. It didn't matter whether the young emperor understood it or not. He could defeat Gao Gong directly with the imperial edict.

In a dynasty where imperial power was supreme, the imperial edict was the most important after all.

This was why Gao Gong was afraid of Feng Bao.

Although the imperial edict was restricted by the cabinet and the six departments and could not be issued at will, the imperial edict was not.

If Feng Bao instigated the young emperor to issue an imperial edict to Gao Gong to retire, you would say that Gao Gong accepted the edict or resisted it. No matter what he did, it was actually wrong.

At this time, Feng Bao, who was still in the palace, finally couldn't hold back. He really couldn't think of any way to deal with the mad dog-like attacks of the civil servants. He had to ask someone for advice and find a way to deal with Gao Gong's attack.

No, let's ask Zhang Juzheng. Wei Guangde was really out of reach.

"Come here."

Feng Bao shouted to the outside.

"Godfather, tell me what you want."

The door was pushed open, and a eunuch walked in quickly and bowed.

Although his godfather is being attacked by the outside court, for the eunuchs, their masters are always people in the palace, so these eunuchs in the inner court don't care much, and naturally no one dares to step on the weak.

"Go and call Xu Jue for me, go quickly."

Feng Bao wanted to ask Zhang Juzheng for advice, so he naturally couldn't send someone around him. He could only use eunuchs around him, and they were not allowed to leave the capital.

If he was caught by officials without an imperial edict, it would be a serious crime, so there was indeed a rule in the Ming and Qing dynasties that eunuchs were not allowed to leave the capital without an imperial edict.

As for Xu Jue, he was naturally not a palace person. He was the commander of the Jinyiwei. After Feng Bao took over the East Factory from Chen Hong, Xu Jue came over and was considered his man.

At this time, Xu Jue was the most suitable person to go out of the city to find Zhang Juzheng.

Not long after, Xu Jue came here panting.

Don't say that the palace does not allow foreign officials to enter casually, that's talking about others. It's not difficult for a big eunuch like Feng Bao to arrange people to enter the palace.

Moreover, the people who entered the palace were not outsiders, but Jinyi Guards.

In fact, the Jinyi Guards were also the ones guarding the palace, so there was no reason to stop his superior from entering the palace.

"Eunuch, why did you call me here so urgently? What's your errand?"

Xu Jue hurriedly saluted Feng Bao as soon as he entered the room, and then asked.

The current situation is well known to all officials in Beijing, not to mention that he is a Jinyi Guards.

However, just like the people in the inner court thought, no matter how noisy the outer court was, as long as the palace did not give a word, no one could do anything to Feng Bao.

The emperor would definitely not wield the butcher knife against his great companion. As for the empress dowager, Xu Jue was not sure, but he thought it should not be the case.

After all, according to the news overheard by the Jinyi Guards, the civil officials' target this time was not only Feng Bao, but there were also people secretly discussing whether they were going to chop the empress dowager Chen.

Although it was just a discussion, the commander of the Jinyiwei, Zhu Xixiao, attached great importance to it and secretly assembled the elite guards. All of them did not take holidays and were ready to receive the order to suppress the rebellion.

Of course, this was just Zhu Xixiao's private preparation, and he did not report it to the palace.

It can be said that Gao Gong's actions have actually set off a huge wave in the capital.

After coming out of the palace, Xu Jue did not have time to go home, so he took his personal guards and changed into the Jinyiwei's fast horses and left the capital, rushing towards Tianshou Mountain.

These actions may fall into the eyes of those who are interested, but Gao Gong did not see them.

He was doing an upright conspiracy, using the power of the civil service group to expel Feng Bao. He did not believe that people in the palace would dare to go against the civil servants of the world.

Yes, no matter what his original purpose was, at this moment, he kidnapped the interests of all the civil servants in the world.

The period of the Three Yang Cabinet was the beginning of their rise as civil servants. Gao Gong did not believe that everyone would not follow him.

At this time, in the Ciqing Palace of the Imperial City, the Queen Mother Chen's bedroom.

In fact, at this time, the young emperor Zhu Yijun had not yet issued an edict to confer the title of Queen Mother to Queen Chen and Concubine Li, so their current identities were still Queen and Concubine.

However, whether it was the inner court or the outer court, Queen Chen was actually called the Queen Mother in private, while Concubine Li was embarrassed and didn't know how to address her.

It was Queen Chen and Concubine Li who were here today.

Although they became widows after their husbands died, they were not old, less than 40 years old, which was the best time for women.

In the room, the two did not lament the death of the emperor, but discussed the situation in the outer court.

"Sister, Meng Chong sent many memorials to impeach Feng Bao again, what do you think should be done?"

Empress Chen actually had her own opinions, but she was too upright, even more pedantic than many scholars, so she risked angering Emperor Longqing by giving advice and was banished to the cold palace for many years.

In fact, she didn't need anyone to remind her. Looking at these memorials, Empress Chen also felt that Gao Gong's operation was a bit big and confusing, because the ultimate goal seemed to be directed at her.

That day in the Qianqing Palace, she and the three people in the cabinet, as well as Feng Bao, all heard the emperor's last words with their own ears. He didn't expect Gao Gong to use the so-called ancestral system to oppose the emperor's will.

"Feng Bao must be saved, sister, don't pay attention to it.

People are in the palace, what can the outside court do."

Concubine Li, the biological mother of Emperor Wanli, spoke to comfort her.

In fact, she was no more nervous than Empress Chen. You know, it was her son who sat in that position.

If Gao Gong really had a rebellious heart as some people said, wouldn't he put his son in danger.

Although he had known Gao Gong for so many years, Gao Gong didn't look like such a person.

Empress Chen and Concubine Li had already discussed the last words of Emperor Longqing. After all, in this situation, they had no one to help them with their plans.

The last words of Emperor Longqing, giving Feng Bao the power of regent, were obviously intended to limit the power of the outer court, or Gao Gong.

In any case, Zhu Yijun was too young and needed time to grow up.

"But."

Empress Chen was still a little worried. She was not worried about other things, but about the loss of control of the outer court, because a slave caused problems in the operation of the entire Ming court.

If that happened, their sins would be great.

"Let's see first. If Gao Gong really has a rebellious heart, order Zhu Xixiao to arrest him. No matter how the civil officials resist, they must be treated toughly.

As long as we hold on until Zhang Ge Lao and Wei Ge Lao return to Beijing, Gao Gong will not be able to stir up any waves."

Concubine Li said.

Now they dare not touch Gao Gong. First, there is no reason, and second, there is no one in the cabinet. If Gao Gong is arrested, it is afraid that the government will be delayed.

"Then wait a little longer."

Hearing Li Guifei's words, Empress Chen nodded slightly.

After all, she was a woman, and she was not very willing to take action against the ministers trusted by the late emperor at this time.

Perhaps, the lack of reason for action was the main reason.

After all, Gao Gong was the chief minister of the cabinet, and even Xia Yan was not arrested while in office, but was taken down by Emperor Jiajing after he left office.

If he took action against the chief minister of the current dynasty, he would be ridiculed by the world and laugh at the vision of the late emperor.

This incident itself has caused a lot of uproar. If it is published, it may really be criticized to death by the literati.

After talking about the business, Empress Chen and Li Guifei were suddenly speechless.

In fact, although the two have a good relationship, they may not be able to work together when it comes to major interests. Now the hurdle between the two is the issue of honorific titles.

Empress Chen is the legal mother of the little emperor, and Li Guifei is the biological mother. It is said that the legal mother must be the empress dowager, but the biological mother may not be. It depends on the emperor's mind.