The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"However, I know that a few years ago, a chamberlain died suddenly after taking an elixir. It has not happened again in these years. How can you still have this medicine? You are not sure how to prepare such a medicine. Lu Bing happens to be there. ah."

King Jing figured out what Yan Shifan meant right from the beginning.

To say yes, that is definitely the best way, but it is difficult to control.

King Jing felt that with Yan Shifan's intelligence, he should have thought of it with just a little reminder. The method was good, but difficult to operate. However, he did not expect to see Yan Shifan just twisting his fat neck. His head shook from side to side.

Is that a shake of the head?

King Jing was slightly surprised, but then he was sure that Yan Shifan didn't seem to think that this matter was difficult to implement. It seemed that he already had a careful plan.

So, King Jing just stared at Yan Shifan and said, "Brother Donglou, if you have any high opinions, you can tell me."

"Does Your Highness know what those elixirs look like when they are refined? What do they look like when they are taken?"

Yan Shifan said.

King Jing frowned slightly when he heard this, and then shook his head.

He is not interested in practicing Taoist magic, at least not now, so naturally he will not ask how the elixir is refined.

"Those so-called elixirs are just countless medicinal materials mixed together. Most of them are not elixirs when they are released, but just medicines, and they are also ointments."

When Yan Shifan saw King Jing shaking his head, he turned to himself and said, "I heard that people in the alchemy room have to bathe and change clothes before opening the furnace. After opening the furnace, they collect the ointment, shape it into an elixir, and put it in jade." Send it to His Majesty in a bottle, and then test the medicine."

"You mean to manipulate this process and choose to operate it when Lu Bing is in the palace?"

King Jing immediately thought of something and answered.

Yan Shifan nodded, "Lu Bing has a special status after all. He must find the right time to take action. Otherwise, if he fails once, there will be no second chance."

By this time, King Jing already understood the reason why Yan Shifan came to him to tell him about this matter. It was obvious that he was able to get information from everyone in the palace, but it was difficult for him to accomplish anything big.

King Jing's influence in the palace is greater, at least it is much easier to arrange these people than Yan Shifan.

The entire plan was aimed at Lu Bing, not Emperor Jiajing, which was an important reason why he was able to encourage King Jing to take action.

Regicide, with the courage of King Jing, is obviously not qualified to do such a thing.

If you just arrange people, it doesn't seem to be very difficult to kill an important minister in the court, let alone an enemy.

King Jing knew that Yan Shifan was a very thorough person and could never explain things in just a few words. He must have a more complete plan.

"Please tell me in detail, Gu Yuan will hear the details."

Although King Jing did not agree directly, he asked about the detailed plan. This made Yan Shifan know that he had convinced him, so he explained his plan to King Jing in detail.

It is actually irresponsible to say that the elixirs were poisoned during the preparation process after they were released, and all the elixirs must be poisonous, so that it can be said that the elixirs were distributed incorrectly.

If the poison was only used to test the elixir, if Emperor Jiajing became suspicious and sent someone to test the medicine again, it might be possible to expose the truth.

However, whether it was the timing of the poisoning or the news of Lu Bing's entry into the palace, this involved people in the palace. Yan Shifan had no way to intervene and could only come up with an idea and let King Jing find someone to arrange it.

"It's a little troublesome to do this, but it's better to be safe."

After Yan Shifan finished talking about his plan, he continued: "At first, I thought it would be simpler, that is, to make poison pills and put them in a jade bottle, and then subvert Lu Bing's plan when he was testing the medicine. However, when I thought about the follow-up pursuit of the pill, I gave up. Got this idea.”

After Yan Shifan finished speaking, King Jing just nodded slightly.

If you follow the latter method mentioned by Yan Shifan, you only need to find the right person, that is, the chamberlain responsible for getting the elixir, but it is not safe.

Emperor Jiajing would probably have his chamberlain test the medicine to confirm that the medicine was indeed powerful before giving up the investigation.

Using the former method, although it requires a lot of manpower and the trouble is more likely to be exposed, it is indeed safer. The most important thing is that the elixir is indeed too powerful. Whoever takes it will die, so naturally no one will suspect anything. It was all just an accident.

"This is a serious matter, let me think about it for a few days."

Although King Jing agreed with Yan Shifan's words in his heart, he still did not agree on the spot. After all, Lu Bing was a high-ranking member of the imperial court. He needed to carefully consider the plan before he could decide whether to do this.

Moreover, even if it is really done, it cannot be done in a short time. Reliable manpower needs to be mobilized secretly, which is also very time-consuming.

In short, this matter is not simple and cannot be agreed hastily.

Guo Xiyan was executed, and the minor earthquake in the official circles of the capital caused by his memorial quickly subsided.

No one complained for him. After all, it was the result of the deliberations of the six departments. Even the Metropolitan Procuratorate, which liked to find fault with eggs, did not write a memorial to discuss the matter afterwards, such as not being punished for his words.

The official document sent to Nanjing has been sent, but the Nanjing Zhenwu Camp mutiny is still discussed in the court, and the person in the whirlpool is not a senior official in Nanjing, but someone in Beijing.

The Imperial Prosecutor's Office's memorial to impeach Ma Kun, the Minister of Household Affairs, was left unpublished by Emperor Jiajing, which naturally aroused dissatisfaction among the imperial censors of the Imperial Prosecutor's Office.

In their view, Ma Kun was the culprit of this incident. Huang Maoguan was only faithfully executing his orders, but in fact he died unjustly, so they, who are dedicated to serving the public good, vowed to seek justice for Huang Maoguan.

Since one memorial was retained by Emperor Jiajing, the second and third letters will be published until Emperor Jiajing makes a statement.

The General Affairs Office was flooded with impeachment memorials from the Imperial Censor for two days in a row. At this time, the happiest people were Yan Song and Yan Shifan.

They have already made preparations for the replacement of the six divisions. In their plan, they will conduct a major rotation of the six division officials.

Ouyang Bijin, who replaced Zhao Wenhua as Minister of the Ministry of Industry, was one of the protagonists of this adjustment. Because of his contribution to the reconstruction of the palace that was destroyed by the fire, Ouyang Bijin was promoted to the title of Yushi of the Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, but his actual position was still the Minister of Industry. This naturally gave Yan Song the idea of ​​​​transferring him to a more important yamen.

Although Ouyang Bijin often showed resistance to his decisions, most of his orders were still carried out faithfully. After all, we are still relatives.

This time, Yan Song planned to let Ouyang Bi enter the Ministry of Household Affairs, and Wu Peng, the former Shangshu of the Ministry of Personnel, as an obedient puppet, moved to the Ministry of Household Affairs to replace Ma Kun.

In this way, relying on the foundation laid by Yan Shifan in the Ministry of Works, both the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Household Affairs were in their hands, and they could continue to work hard on national funds to make a fortune.

Ouyang Bi entered the main staff department, and with his habitual strength, Emperor Jiajing would be reassured.

Ouyang Bijin is able to stand firmly in the Yan family's inner circle, not because Ouyang Bijin is so loyal to the Yan family, but because of the relationship between Yan Song's wife Ouyang, otherwise such a seemingly incompatible guy would have been kicked out long ago. .

This is why Ouyang Bijin often turns a blind eye and pretends not to see anything unless it involves fundamental principles.

However, once he reached the bottom, he would have no scruples to argue with Yan Song and Yan Shifan, and even went so far as to write a petition to the Emperor Jiajing to express his feelings.

This situation naturally made Emperor Jiajing favor him. In addition, due to his outstanding abilities, Ouyang Bijin's position in the court was rock-solid and unshakable under Yan Song's intentional or unintentional promotion.

At this time, the front of the residence of Ma Kun, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, was already "dark and deserted in the morning and evening, and there were only a few horses and horses in front of the door." The scene that had been bustling with traffic and countless visitors had long since disappeared.

After the Nanjing incident, Ma Kun had an ominous premonition.

Everything Huang Maoguan did in Nanjing was all done after consulting him. Even though he had been transferred to Beijing as Shangshu, the power of the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue was still firmly in his hands, and his minions were naturally Huang Maoguan and other old subordinates. It's up to them to do it.

The mad dogs in the Metropolitan Procuratorate targeted him and frantically filed a memorial to impeach him. Although Ma Kun felt that he was wronged, what he did was also forced. If Beijing hadn't transferred a large number of reserves from the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs, why would he have done this? Last resort.

In fact, strictly speaking, deducting military pay was also saving money for the court, but he forgot about the soldiers below and the people in their families who were waiting for food.

The imperial court was in difficulty, and military families were even more in difficulty.

At this point, it's useless for him to say all this, as he has to bear the responsibility if something happens.

From the moment he learned that the Metropolitan Procuratorate was impeaching him, Ma Kun chose to stay at home, declined all visitors, wrote a memorial, and stayed at home.

This is also how officials in the Ming Dynasty should behave after being impeached. There is no need to do anything and wait for the results of the investigation. It is not considered malfeasance. The power of the Ministry of Revenue is naturally represented by Zuo Shilang.

Yan Song did not draft Ma Kun's first memorial, but sent it directly to the palace. After the Censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate launched the second impeachment memorial, Yan Song was waiting for Ma Kun's second memorial. He will vote in this memorial to express his belief that Ma Kun should bear the main responsibility for this incident.

And now Ma Kun naturally knows that he is in a worrying situation. He is being targeted by the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Unless the emperor supports him, it will be difficult for him to get through.

In the study, I was pacing back and forth, thinking about how to deal with it.

Although he felt bad, he would not be willing to sit back and wait for death after tasting the sweetness of power. However, although Beijing was a big city, he could not find anyone who could help him.

Whether he sought refuge with Yan Song, contacted Xu Jie, or went to Prince Yu's Mansion or Prince Jing's Mansion to seek asylum, he felt very unreliable, and he also knew that although he seemed to be free to move, there were already many people outside the mansion. There are powerful spies, perhaps one of them is Jin Yiwei, and every move he makes will fall in their eyes, and he will eventually be reported to Xiyuan.

"Why"

Ma Kun naturally did not regret making that decision. At that time, he was the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing. Otherwise, the salaries of Nanjing officials would not have been paid.

It was better to offend the military than to offend his colleagues in the officialdom, but he did not expect that the soldiers he regarded as ants would be bold enough to launch a mutiny, making the situation completely uncontrollable.

Although the mutiny did not have much impact on the city of Nanjing, the responsibility was indeed great, as it was the remaining capital.

Looking at the memorial laid out on the desk, Ma Kun was hesitant about how to phrase this memorial better so that he could score points with Emperor Jiajing and help himself get through this smoothly.

As for the dead Huang Maoguan, although he was his confidant, he messed up the matter. If he hadn't treated his soldiers harshly and paid their military pay on time, this would have happened there.

Ma Kun had already inquired about the cause of the Nanjing incident, and naturally knew that the trouble was not caused by the penny he withheld, but by the unstable military morale after the plague and Huang Maoguan's failure to pay military pay in time.

Even if he, Huang Maoguan, wants to start a crackdown, he can't start it just after the plague ends. You have to wait for a few days before taking action, and it should not lead to the current situation.

Sighing now can't solve the problem, so I can only write another memorial to express my feelings. There is no way, the matter is too big, and the censor refuses to let go.

Stepping back to the desk, Ma Kun picked up the pen and started writing. But he didn't know that someone in the cabinet was waiting for his memorial.

The next day, Ma Kun's family sent the memorial to the General Affairs Department, and then forwarded it to the cabinet, and then to the Secretary of Ceremonies. In the evening, Gao Zhong took the memorial to Yongshou Palace in Xiyuan.

Tonight, Emperor Jiajing has to deal with some memorials as usual after the evening revision. Naturally, the memorials that were specially reminded by the cabinet will also be dealt with first.

After each memorial was read by the little chamberlain, Emperor Jiajing could often make a statement quickly.

It is agreed, rejected or stayed, and it is rare for the memorial and vote to be revised.

Because if the memorial was inappropriate, the cabinet would deny or supplement it in the draft, or provide a better solution, so he, the leader of the Ming Dynasty, did not need to think too much.

This is the main role of the cabinet, and all their power lies in this.

Although it cannot determine the success or failure of a thing, it can influence the decision-maker's judgment and exert a subconscious influence.

When the chamberlain finished reading Ma Kun's memorial and Yan Song's proposal and handed it to Gao Zhong, he was waiting for Emperor Jiajing on the throne to make a decision, so that he could approve the red hair and return it to the cabinet.

There were some exceptions this time. Emperor Jiajing on the throne did not speak for a long time, as if he was thinking about something.

After a long time, Emperor Jiajing finally spoke: "Look for the apology memorial from Nanjing two days ago, the impeachment memorial from Nanjing Kedao, and I remember Huang Maoguan's last memorial."

Emperor Jiajing chose to stay in the capital during the first impeachment of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. After all, in his opinion, Ma Kun had been away from Nanjing for some time, so how could he be blamed for Zhenwuying's account.

But now, Yan Song also said in the draft that Ma Kun should bear the main responsibility, which requires Emperor Jiajing to think carefully.

In fact, because the Zhenwu Camp incident calmed down in a timely manner and did not cause major turmoil, it did not attract much attention from Emperor Jiajing.

Compared with the pay mutiny in the border town, the rain in Nanjing is just drizzle, as long as it does not affect this year's summer grain and autumn taxes.

However, Ma Kun was impeached one after another. Not only did the Beijing Metropolitan Procuratorate launch impeachments with all their strength, but Nanjing Kedao also filed an impeachment petition. The chief minister also believed that he was guilty, so we had to take a closer look.

"The radical change began with Ma Kun's proposal to reduce the amount of silver, and ended with Huang Maoguan's inspection of his wife's food supply. However, Cai Kelian, the minister, was ill and unable to serve, and Fang You, a foreign minister, was promoted to the chief minister, An Qian, and was released."