Chapter 627 626 Conspiracy

It's not that Wei Guangde was overly cautious, but he really couldn't see through Xu Jie's thoughts.

Although keeping Gao Gong was definitely the top priority, because he didn't like Gao Gong either, he started to make some preparations in the Ministry of Personnel, more to prevent Xu Jie from continuing to attack them after defeating Gao Gong.

At that time, Xu Jie only needed to give a few "incompetent" comments to Xu Jie's disciples, and Xu Jie should take the initiative to seek peace.

The most popular topic among officials in the court these days was Tu Zemin's request to open the sea.

From the disdainful slander after knowing the news, to the endless stream of people going to the Tongzhengshisi from morning to night the next day to submit memorials to oppose the memorial, many Beijing officials felt that it was difficult to get into the officialdom, and there was really a lack of trust.

Think about it, on that day, everyone was saying that with the Prime Minister in charge, they would never let Tu Zemin succeed, and they looked indifferent, but when they got home, they started writing furiously and rushed to write memorials overnight.

We are all in the officialdom, can we have a little basic trust?

After two days of intensive memorials, those who should have taken action have already taken action, but there has been no news from the palace.

Now, the clerks of the Tongzhengshisi can finally relax, because after two days of exhaustion, they are finally quiet.

Although there are still people coming here to submit memorials, it is not like the previous few days, when they lined up to submit, so that the copyists can't lift their arms when they leave the office.

"Sir, this is the memorial of the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, the Right Vice-Chief Censor Tan Luntan."

The right clerk of the Tongzhengsi is on duty here today. The postman delivers the letter to the Tongzhengsi and completes the task. After handling the handover, he leaves, and the clerk who receives the letter hands it to the clerk for processing.

"Oh, let me see."

The clerk took the box handed over by the clerk, checked the seal before opening it, took out the memorial placed inside, unfolded it and took a look, and frowned.

Just by looking at the beginning, he knew that this memorial sent from Guangdong was actually in support of Fujian Governor Tu Zemin.

He smacked his lips, feeling a little sad. He was afraid that the days of relaxation were coming to an end.

He handed the memorial in his hand to the clerk beside him, "Take it and transcribe it. I'll send it to the back when you're done."

He couldn't delay the governor's memorial, and had to hand it over to the left and right Tongzheng or Tongzhengshi as soon as possible.

As for the storm that might occur again in the next two days, it had nothing to do with him anyway, and he didn't have to transcribe these memorials. These clerks would do it.

The clerk beside him took the memorial and quickly began to transcribe it at his desk. Soon he knew it was going to be bad.

When he transcribed and registered it and sent it to the senator, the senator didn't stop for a moment and went to the back hall with the memorial.

"Alas, I can't get through the recent days."

"What's wrong?"

"Tan Lun, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, just submitted a memorial to support the opening of Fujian to the sea."

"What? Wouldn't that attract many more memorials of opposition?"

In the Tongzhengsi, a group of clerks sighed and lamented their bad luck for having to deal with this.

After two days of cooling down, the officialdom in the capital was ignited again after the content of Tan Lun's memorial spread.

Two frontier officials successively submitted memorials requesting the opening of the sea ban, which made many officials in the capital begin to notice something wrong.

Could it be that someone in Fujian was colluding.

If no one noticed Tu Zemin at that time, but when Tan Lun's memorial arrived in Beijing, it was soon noticed that Tan Lun was the governor of Fujian a few years ago.

Although he later took charge of Shaanxi, Sichuan and other places, and finally came to Guangdong and Guangxi, he still had a thousand connections with Fujian.

The two people belonged to two different places, and they submitted letters one after another within a few days. If you say that there was no contact beforehand and no one pushed behind it, even a fool would not believe it.

After all, this was an era when communication methods were extremely backward. It was not something that ordinary people could do to get the two provinces to support.

Everyone's eyes were unconsciously staring at the cabinet at this time.

At this time, Xu Jie was in the duty room, and he was also staring blankly at Tan Lun's memorial on the table.

How could Xu Jie not think of what others could think of?

If Tu Zemin's memorial was unintentional, then the arrival of Tan Lun's memorial actually showed that someone was pushing this matter behind the scenes.

To make Tu Zemin and Tan Lun take action, this person should have a high status in the court.

If it wasn't done by himself, Li Chunfang didn't have the courage.

Thinking of this, Xu Jie had to think of Gao Gong as the behind-the-scenes pusher. Could it be that Gao Gong was pushing this matter?

If it was really Gao Gong, then the emperor must have said it long ago. The slightly shy attitude of Emperor Longqing at this time was intentional.

Let the officials oppose and choose those who support him?

Xu Jie had to consider this at this time. Would it be like the "Great Ceremony Debate" that year? Emperor Jiajing quietly hid behind the scenes and observed the opinions of the officials in the court. In the end, those who opposed him died a miserable death, while those who supported him were given high positions and generous salaries.

Does Emperor Longqing have the courage of his labor?

Does Gao Gong dare to confront the entire court?

Countless questions kept circling in Xu Jie's mind, and he was a little unsure.

At his age, he naturally knew that although the civil service group controlled the country, the ultimate power was still in the hands of the emperor.

No matter how much the ministers opposed what the emperor was determined to do, it would be difficult to succeed.

For the emperor, it was just a matter of replacing a few disobedient positions with obedient people.

No matter when and where, there will always be such people who are scheming for their own gain. Otherwise, why did Yang Tinghe fail so miserably and was directly allowed to retire?

According to Yang Tinghe's influence at that time, it should be that all officials stopped the court to fight against the emperor.

However, the officials said it well at the beginning, but when the time came, they still retreated for their own positions.

The subsequent Zuo Shunmen Incident was just the last counterattack of the Yang family in the power struggle.

The bloodstains in front of Zuo Shunmen just clearly showed that the emperor's will could not be reversed.

Although at that time, Emperor Jiajing, who succeeded the throne as an outsider, had only been in power for three years, his position was not stable.

Xu Jie closed his eyes slightly. Now he could not withstand such a storm. He was not alone, and there was a huge family behind him.

Think about the final outcome of the Yang family. After retiring, Yang Tinghe was identified as the culprit when Emperor Shizong re-determined the crimes of the ministers who discussed the rituals. He was demoted to a commoner and finally died in grief.

His son, Yang Shen, who was known as a genius, died in a foreign land, and Xu Jie was a little scared.

He was a personal witness of those things, but as a new Hanlin editor, he was not valued by the Yang family and was lucky not to be called to Zuo Shunmen, otherwise the consequences would be unpredictable.

Xu Jie did not want to be the second Yang Tinghe. At first, he wanted to use Gao Gong's influence on Emperor Longqing to launch a fatal impeachment against him, but if Emperor Longqing was the same as the previous emperor, he would only bring disaster upon himself.

Xu Jie had the intention to retreat. This was the first time he had such an idea after Yan Song's fall.

However, with his relationship with Gao Gong, was there any chance to reconcile?

Xu Jie had already mastered Gao Gong's character. He was a person who would never give up, and retreating might not be good.

He continued, but in the end he still could not pass the emperor's test.

"Teacher."

While he was hesitating, Zhang Juzheng walked into the duty room, bowed deeply in front of him, and shouted.

"Here it is. Take a look at this."

Xu Jie quickly regained his composure and handed Tan Lun's memorial to Zhang Juzheng.

Zhang Juzheng took it and read it quickly, frowning, and then looked at Xu Jie.

"Close the door and keep people outside away."

Xu Jie said lightly.

Zhang Juzheng dismissed the people outside according to Xu Jie's instructions, closed the door and returned to Xu Jie. He knew that his teacher had something to discuss with him.

"Do you think that the person who contacted Tan Lun and Tu Zemin was Gao Suqing?"

Xu Jie asked bluntly.

Zhang Juzheng did not answer, but racked his brains to think about it, recalling Gao Gong's every move at the cabinet meeting that day, and then shook his head gently.

"Do you think he was not behind the scenes to promote this matter?"

Seeing Zhang Juzheng's reaction, Xu Jie suddenly became energetic.

What he was most worried about was that this matter was a false impression created by Gao Gong with great effort, with the purpose of ruining his relationship with Emperor Longqing.

"Do you think His Majesty knew about this beforehand?"

He did not continue to ask who was the mastermind behind the scenes. Finding out this person would not be of much benefit to him. The current situation is obviously a mess, because it is difficult for people to completely control the direction of things that violate the ancestral system.

Yang Tinghe could not do it back then, and no one can do it today.

When asked whether Emperor Longqing knew about the opening of the sea, Zhang Juzheng hesitated.

After so many days, he actually came to his senses.

When he first saw Tu Zemin's memorial to open the sea, he felt a sense of déjà vu. Later, he recalled a memorial written by Tan Lun, which listed the pros and cons of Fujian, which actually had this idea.

The ocean is the way out for Fujian people to make a living.

However, he seemed to remember that someone else had discussed this with him, that is Wei Guangde, but it was too long ago, and he could not remember clearly what he said at the time. He just had a vague impression that it seemed that opening the sea could weaken the Japanese pirates or something.

Before today, Zhang Juzheng had no idea that someone was behind this matter. He just thought that it was Tu Zemin's suggestion based on the situation in Fujian. But today, after seeing Tan Lun's memorial, it was obvious that someone had contacted him beforehand.

Although it was a little unbelievable, Zhang Juzheng couldn't help but think of Wei Guangde's face.

Whether the emperor knew, Zhang Juzheng didn't dare to guess casually, because there was no big court meeting on the first and fifteenth day of the month during this period, and Emperor Longqing had already held a small court.

No one had any opinions about this. It was really that after decades of influence from Jiajing, the officials had no intention of attending the court.

Although they wouldn't say so, they were honest in their hearts. No one liked to rush to the palace early in the morning every day to go through the motions.

As long as the big court meetings twice a month could be held as scheduled, it would be enough for the officials to see the emperor's face.

As a cabinet minister, he hadn't seen the emperor these days, so how could he know this.

Seeing Zhang Juzheng silent, Xu Jie just sighed.

"Teacher, if there is nothing important to ask for an audience with His Majesty in the next two days, then wait for two days and try it out at the 15th National Court Meeting."

Zhang Juzheng said.

Pointing at him, Xu Jie said: "Uncle, do you think this matter is a trap set by Gao Gong?"

"Why do you say so?"

Zhang Juzheng asked in surprise.

"For example, Gao Gong communicated with His Majesty in advance to confirm this matter, and then contacted foreign officials to report it, asking us to oppose it because it violated the ancestral system. Then His Majesty issued an order to open the sea. What should we do? Continue to oppose it and offend the emperor. How many people can bear this result?"

Xu Jie said worriedly.

Sometimes the civil service group can be shameless, but sometimes it has to be shameless when it comes to character.

It is difficult for someone to oppose something yesterday and then change their attitude suddenly the next day.

"Teacher, there were quite a few ministers who opposed the opening of the sea in the past two days."

Zhang Juzheng didn't think about it, but reminded him.

"You must have heard about Zuo Shunmen's incident back then. Most of the Six Ministries and Nine Ministers were directly wiped out. More than 80 people above the fourth rank were punished, and nearly 200 people below the fifth rank were punished.

I read the memorials a few days ago, which are about 300 copies, and most of them were written by officials of lower rank, which are not as good as that incident. "

Hearing Xu Jie mention the Zuo Shunmen incident, Zhang Juzheng fell silent. After thinking for a moment, he asked, "Teacher, are you planning to take a step back?"

"Can I still retreat?"

Xu Jie looked at Zhang Juzheng, his eyes uncertain.

"If he really did it intentionally this time, with his high-minded character, the teacher would be afraid even if he becomes an official."

Zhang Juzheng didn't feel comfortable continuing, but he had to give a reminder.

Xu Jie's eyes flashed, and then he asked: "In that case, what do you think I should do?"

"The teacher is worried that this is a high-arch layout. From the student's point of view, no matter what the truth is, we just need to stick to one thing."

"What's the matter?"

Hearing Zhang Juzheng say he only wanted to do one thing, Xu Jie suddenly became interested.

What can be done to solve the problem of high arch?

If it does exist, you might as well give it a try.

"Let the Coroner continue to impeach him."

Zhang Juzheng was already tied to Xu Jie's boat. No matter whether the boat sank or not, there was no room for relaxation between him and Gao Gong.

In fact, during this period, he also tried to repair the relationship with Gao Gong, but they all ended in failure.

Gao Gong completely hated him.

Therefore, Zhang Juzheng's situation at this time is actually not much different from Xu Jie's.

As long as Gao Gong seizes the opportunity, he may be ruthlessly suppressed.

Inverted arch was his only option.

"You mean to use impeachment to prevent Gao Gong from leaving the government and from coming to the cabinet to do errands?"

Xu Jie, who was familiar with the rules of officialdom, heard the elegant meaning of Xiange and immediately understood what Zhang Juzheng meant.

He immediately shook his head and said, "It's so meaningless. Your Majesty will only let him serve with peace of mind and will not believe the words of impeachment."

"It won't be meaningless."

Having said this, Zhang Juzheng pointed to Tan Lun's memorial on the desk and said: "Your Majesty will definitely consult the cabinet when this memorial is posted. Gao Gong should be writing his own defense at home at this time. As long as the teacher insists on objecting, he will be temporarily suppressed. ”

Xu Jie shook his head. Opposing Tu Zemin's memorial was not his purpose, but how to drive away Gao Gong was.

In fact, what he said to Zhang Juzheng that night was sincere. He also wanted to know whether relaxing the maritime ban would be beneficial to solving the Japanese pirates.

The imperial court has been insisting on maritime bans for many years, but the results are obviously unsuccessful.

Seeing Xu Jie shaking his head, Zhang Juzheng smiled disapprovingly and said, "Teacher, I will use retreat as advance."

"How to make progress by retreating? And why?"

Xu Jie asked.

"Half a month ago, I had a meal together as a guide. The teacher used to worry about state affairs to induce illness and beg to return home."