Chapter 624 623 Reactions From All Parties

"Haha, Chen Hong's chicken is still good, Meng Chong, you are still a little naive after all."

After watching the cockfight, Emperor Longqing said to the eunuchs around him.

An elderly eunuch smiled like a blooming chrysanthemum, "Thank you for your praise, Your Majesty. This old slave's fighting chicken has been carefully selected since childhood, and it has been raised and trained by experts. Hehe"

"Not bad, not bad, this chicken is well fed. Look at this wound, find someone to take good care of it. I will bet on it to win next time we fight."

Emperor Longqing was very happy because he bet on Chen Hong's chicken to win from the beginning. When did his eyesight become so good?

Emperor Longqing and Chen Hong were talking happily there, and a slightly younger eunuch on the other side had a gloomy face. The young eunuch caught the defeated chicken and was frightened by his glare and retreated repeatedly.

"Take it back and kill it."

This eunuch was naturally Meng Chong. Today, he presented his carefully selected fighting cocks in order to show off in front of the emperor. He did not expect that he would lose the game so gorgeously when he met the fighting cocks that were also carefully selected.

He was in a very bad mood now. He hated the petty official who presented the fighting cocks, and also hated Chen Hong.

But he also knew that with his current power and status, he could not go against Chen Hong. He could not afford to offend him.

When he turned his head to look at the emperor and Chen Hong, he was already smiling and flattering.

A figure appeared at the palace gate in the distance. He was still wearing eunuch clothes. Most of the eunuchs who could walk around the emperor were eunuchs with ranks, while the eunuchs could only do odd jobs.

Usually, they hid far away and could only appear when summoned. They also did hard labor, which was thankless.

"Your Majesty."

The man was Chen Ju. He bowed and saluted before Emperor Longqing, and said softly.

"Chen Ju, is there something going on ahead?"

Chen Ju was left in the Qianqing Palace, not because he didn't like him, but mainly because he was similar to Li Fang, who didn't like him to have fun and rest, so he didn't bother to ask him to follow him when he went out to play.

However, Emperor Longqing still trusted Chen Ju very much. After all, he had informed the palace of the news through Wei Guangde a long time ago.

No matter what the purpose was, he helped Yu Ju a lot. He was a nostalgic person, so he kept Chen Ju by his side after ascending the throne.

In any case, he still needed these loyal ministers to be at ease.

Chen Ju reached out and took out a letter from his arms, held it with both hands and handed it over, lowering his voice and saying: 'This is sent in by Lord Wei, and he asked me to pass it to Your Majesty. '

"Oh."

Emperor Longqing raised his eyebrows, reached out and took the envelope from Chen Ju's hand, looked at it, and found that the seal was intact, so he walked aside.

Chen Hong and others behind him wanted to follow but were stopped by Emperor Longqing with a wave of his sleeves.

Walking into the pavilion not far away, Emperor Longqing tore open the envelope and took out the note inside to read it carefully, and then his face changed slightly.

It was called a note, but it was actually a full piece of letter paper. There was a lot of content in it, but the most important one was that Fujian Governor and Chief Censor Tu Zemin submitted a petition to lift the ban on sea trade, followed by the possible draft and response of the cabinet.

Most of the previous content did not have much impact on Emperor Longqing, but when he saw the last two paragraphs, his eyes flashed, and then he fell into deep thought, muttering in his mouth: "If the court officials are very opposed, one place can be allowed to be opened for trial, and the inner court will send people to supervise it. The tax silver collected will go directly into the inner treasury to carry out the maritime trade."

Originally, Wei Guangde was very cautious about opening the sea, because he knew that there would be great resistance in the court, so he had planned to open one or two places for trial very early.

All of this was known to Emperor Longqing, after all, he had seen Wei Guangde's revised proposals many times.

However, the content of today's letter has changed again. It was originally thought that it was the income of the court. If there was too much resistance in the court, the inner court would do it directly, leaving the court alone.

Emperor Longqing knew that this was a helpless move made by Wei Guangde after repeated considerations when he found that the resistance in the court was too great to implement this policy.

However, it was a helpless move for Wei Guangde, but for Emperor Longqing, he was eager to do so at this time.

Wei Guangde had told him in detail about the benefits of maritime trade before, which was very profitable, so those people wanted to do it even if they had to risk their lives.

Before, he felt that he could not skip the court to promote this matter, but now Wei Guangde reminded him that it seemed that he could do it alone.

He did not know how expensive firewood and rice were until he became the emperor.

The inner court had a lot of income every year, but the expenditure was also not small. Look at how many palace maids and eunuchs they had to support, and there were countless palaces that needed to be repaired.

Before, Teng Xiang and Meng Chong said they wanted to buy him some jewelry, clothes and some small things, but the inner court couldn't even come up with 20,000 taels of silver. They wanted to go to the Ministry of Revenue to get it, but they were rejected. This made the self-esteem of Emperor Longqing feel very embarrassed.

If this port could really be taken, just by issuing notes and stamping, there would be at least tens of thousands of taels of silver a year.

Don't think that tens of thousands of taels of silver are not a lot. In fact, even in Fujian, apart from those physical taxes that are difficult to transport and cash, the tax silver that a province can pay to the capital in a year is only tens of thousands of taels.

Opening a port is equivalent to adding tax silver to a province, which is naturally a big number for the court with stretched finances.

Moreover, during this period, global silver had not yet flowed into the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty was short of gold, silver, and even copper.

In fact, Emperor Jiajing did not really leave an empty inner treasury for Emperor Longqing. There was still a lot of silver.

But for the emperor who had just ascended the throne, more than two hundred thousand taels of silver was really not enough.

Not to mention the funeral of Emperor Jiajing, the reward for the army after he ascended the throne almost emptied the internal treasury, and the money had to be paid out.

Of course Emperor Longqing knew that the military households would not actually get much if the money went out, but he also knew that the money itself was not for the military households, but for the generals in various places.

Just think of it as buying the loyalty of the army, although the actual effect may be very low.

After folding the letter and putting it in his arms, Emperor Longqing stood up and left the pavilion, "Go back to Qianqing Palace."

When the news came out from the cabinet, all the officials gathering in the major flower streets, willow lanes, restaurants and teahouses in the capital talked about the matter that night.

Originally, everyone was indifferent to this matter at first, but I heard that the cabinet was divided into two factions because of Tu Zemin's memorial. They seemed to be evenly matched. If it were not for the opposition of the first and second assistants, it is hard to say what the cabinet resolution would have been like. At this time, Just have to worry about it.

For most officials, do they need to be taught how to choose?

A master who never forgets the past has never forgotten the aftermath. How many times has someone proposed to open the sea, and what is the final result?

As before, there is an overwhelming majority of voices supporting the maintenance of ancestral institutions, while only a few support change.

Most of those who support the change do not really think that this policy is right, but because they know that those who support Kaihai are Gao Gong, Chen Yiqin and other old people from Yuzhuan, and they are people who have the ability to change today's attitudes.

It is not an exaggeration to say that they are actually political speculation.

"Teacher, are we going to start using those methods?"

In a dark room in Xu Jie's mansion, Zhang Juzheng and Xu Jie sat opposite each other.

"There is no rush. Let the officials discuss it first. The actual action on this matter will have to wait until His Majesty's Holy Judgment."

Xu Jie planned his actions before taking action, so naturally he would not rush into battle.

Emperor Longqing had only two choices. One was to support him, which was to stick to the ancestral system, so the opportunity to reverse the arch would not be ripe.

At least he knew from his experience that even if he activated it, it would be difficult to kill the enemy with one hit.

Differences in political views are actually commonplace in the court.

But if Emperor Longqing chooses to support Gao Gong, that will be the opportunity to expel Gao Gong from the court.

The support of the first and second assistants was rejected by the emperor. This in itself was a slight to the officials, not to mention that it was related to the ancestral system.

By that time, the rumors that Gao Gong could influence the emperor's decisions will be confirmed. Impeaching Gao Gong on this basis is the ultimate move.

"Teacher, let me give you some news first so that they can be prepared."

Zhang Juzheng continued to ask.

Knocking on the table gently, Xu Jie thought for a long time before saying: "If your majesty complies with the wishes of the cabinet, don't act rashly. But if he supports Gao Suqing, then focus on impeaching him on the grounds of 'intimidating the gentry and specializing in state affairs'." It must be driven out."

"What about establishing a sea ban?"

In just that moment, Zhang Juzheng actually recognized the teacher's words in his heart. However, he still had to have an attitude towards the focus of this controversy, the sea ban.

"What do you think of Tu Zemin's memorial?"

Xu Jie did not answer Zhang Juzheng's words, but asked instead.

"As the teacher said, it seems feasible."

Zhang Juzheng replied.

"The new dynasty has a new atmosphere. This is a good saying. Gao Gong and Chen Yiqin are still somewhat capable, but they are a little too green."

Xu Jie commented, "If His Majesty insists on lifting the maritime ban, I will definitely fight fiercely and lead all the ministers to oppose it."

"This way, Your Majesty will lose face."

Zhang Juzheng knew that Emperor Longqing took his face very seriously, perhaps because he had been offended by Yan Shifan a lot in the past, so he paid more attention to this.

"I will prepare steps for Your Majesty. You can try this in one place."

Xu Jie glanced at Zhang Juzheng and continued: "If you think about it carefully, the reason why the Japanese pirates rose up in the past was probably due to Zhu Dian's strict laws.

It's a pity that he didn't consider the livelihood of the coastal people at the beginning. He only thought that blocking the sea and blocking traffic would eliminate the Japanese pirates, but he didn't know that people living without support would also take desperate risks. "

"I see."

Zhang Juzheng understood that it was best to do this naturally and save Emperor Longqing's face, but he just didn't know what he would choose.

At this moment, Guo Pu was sitting opposite Gao Gong in Gao Gong's mansion.

"Qing Su, the more I think about this, the more difficult it becomes."

Guo Pu looked bad about this and said to Gao Gong in a low voice: "Tell me, could this be done by the other side to make us the public enemies of the government and the public?"

"I have thought about it after this incident, but no matter what, even if the opening of the sea cannot cure the Japanese pirates, it will definitely make the lives of the people of Fujian much easier. The number of people who want to join the Japanese pirates will inevitably decrease, and it will still be beneficial to the government in eliminating the Japanese pirates. of."

Gao Gong was not stupid. Even if he didn't notice it at the time, he would notice something unusual about Xu Jie today if he recalled it for a moment after coming down.

Expressing his position too early is not what the Chief Assistant should do. It is no wonder that Guo Pu guessed that Tu Zemin's memorial was related to Xu Jie.

"I was also influenced by Governor Tu's memorial at the time. When I think about it carefully, there are a lot of strange things about this matter."

Guo Pu sighed and said.

"As long as we act with a public heart, we don't have to worry about being criticized by them."

Gao Gong is really not afraid of Xu Jie inciting his men to impeach him crazily. It's really a shame. It's not like he can't find someone to impeach. Everyone should impeach each other and don't go back to the cabinet to do errands. In the end, it depends on whether the emperor will protect him, Gao Gong or you Xu. level.

Before, most of the courtiers only saw Ke Dao's crazy impeachment of Gao Gong, which seemed to make him miserable. In fact, Gao Gong did not fight back until now, but there was a dispute between the cabinet and Xu Jie over different political views. .

As for the rumors circulating outside that he deliberately opposed Mr. Xu Ge, Gao Gong also dismissed it.

In fact, most of the disputes were not really about competing with Xu Jie for the right to speak in the cabinet, but rather the fundamental differences in their governance philosophies that led to differences in how they handled things.

With the emperor behind him, he was naturally not afraid of quarreling with Xu Jie in the cabinet.

He just didn't expect that Xu Jie would use his political disagreement as evidence of his struggle for power and spread news among the government and the public.

"I don't know when His Majesty will send back the memorial. Before that, I think we still need to contact some like-minded people and everyone can submit a memorial together to support this matter."

He has made his stance known, and even if he wants to change his stance now, it will not work. Guo Pu just wants to attract more people to stand with them to build momentum.

"I think it's okay. I'll contact Yu Zhuan's people soon. Forget about your low-level official position. Just contact some friends to help out."

Gao Gong said while twirling his beard.

What he meant was that their disciples, most of whom were in the sixth or seventh grade at this time, were not suitable to get involved in this matter.

"We also have some fellow villagers from Kedao. Can we contact them too?"

Guo Pu frowned and thought about it.

"Ke Dao."

Gao Gong was a bit noncommittal. He also had a headache with Ke Dao Yan Guan now. Unlike Xu Jie, he could bow down to these people. He always felt that these people were seventh-rank petty officials, but he thought that they might not be ministers even if they were in the lowest position. It's really ridiculous.

Xu Jie was so smooth that he could put down his posture and mingle with officials at all levels. It was nothing for an official like him to be the chief assistant in the prosperous times, but now the Ming Dynasty has become riddled with holes after the two emperors Zhengde and Jiajing, and is in urgent need of rectification.

Xu Jie is not suitable for such a position.

What the imperial court needs now is someone who can reorganize the imperial court to serve as the chief minister.

Looking at the entire court, only he could barely do it, and no one else could.

Even Li Chunfang, who was even more miserable than Xu Jie, Gao Gong was actually unhappy from the bottom of his heart.

After working together for more than a year, he discovered that Li Chunfang was not as capable of making decisions as Xu Jie.

"In the palace, should Qing Su go and talk about it?"

At this time, Guo Pu reminded him in a low voice.

Gao Gong did not answer his previous question, so Guo Pu decided to use his own opinion.

He and Gao Gong have more of a cooperative relationship. It is far-fetched to say that they are one party committee.

In the study room of the Wei Mansion, Wei Guangde sat alone behind his desk. There was a note on the desk, which was sent by Chen Yiqin.

If he didn't expect it at the beginning, now that he was reminded by Chen Yiqin, Wei Guangde finally realized that this incident would really turn into a Waterloo for Gao Gong.