Chapter 678 777 Li Fang Is Imprisoned

In principle, there is no problem with hereditary nobles and relatives by marriage. The only problem is that the farmland of relatives by marriage is increased from 100 hectares to 150 hectares.

As long as it is lower than hereditary nobles, it is okay to appease them.

However, Emperor Longqing wanted to distinguish between relatives by marriage. The previous royal relatives were ignored, but his relatives had to be taken care of specially. 150 hectares of farmland were not enough. They had to be increased to 1,000 hectares and then decreased.

1,000 hectares, this number made Wei Guangde feel really difficult to deal with, it was really too much increase.

However, the emperor wanted the result, and asked Chen Ju to come, that is, to give him full authority to operate the matter.

If he did well, he would get extra points, and if he did not do well, he would definitely get deducted points.

Wei Guangde knew that no matter what, this matter had to be done well.

Wei Guangde was familiar with setting numbers on the spur of the moment, and many people in later generations did the same.

Since Emperor Longqing wanted to treat them differently, Wei Guangde could also find a reason.

Based on whether the royal family members are still alive, the land for those who are still alive is limited to 1,000 hectares, and then it will be downgraded generation by generation. The second generation will be reduced by half to 500 hectares, the third generation will be 300 hectares, and finally to 150 hectares.

Based on this, Wei Guangde quickly determined that the number of farms for Princess Ning'an and her husband Zhang He would be 1,000 hectares, and since Princess Jiashan was no longer alive, the farm of her husband Xu Congcheng would be reduced to 500 hectares.

In addition, there is the cousin of Emperor Longqing, who is the nephew of the Empress Dowager. Since the Empress Dowager's brother is no longer alive, he should have been given 1,000 hectares, but he can only be downgraded to 500 hectares.

He made a quick plan in his mind, without leaving a note, but just told Chen Ju about his plan and asked him to report it to the emperor alone after returning to the palace.

If the two sides do not make a detailed statement and only rely on memorials to pass back and forth, this matter may be delayed for half a year, after all, the cabinet can only guess the emperor's intentions.

After sending Chen Ju away, Wei Guangde returned to his desk and sat for a while. Then he took out a piece of paper and spread it out. He picked up a pen and wrote the message to be delivered on the paper. He called Lu Bu and asked him to send it to his family outside the palace and take it back to Zhang Ji as soon as possible.

In fact, it was nothing. He just asked Zhang Ji to send someone to send a message to the residences of Duke Dingguo and Duke Chengguo, asking them to send someone to Wei's residence for a banquet in the evening.

In fact, the nobles in the capital are not an unbreakable group of people. Although they have no pursuit of titles, who doesn't want to be closer to the emperor and be more favored.

In this way, whether the family arranges their sons and nephews to work in the court, or to get some salt permits, contract court projects, etc., it will be much easier.

Therefore, the nobles of each family, especially the top nobles, are bound to fight openly and secretly. It's just that when facing civil officials, they will huddle together for warmth. After all, they have lost enough.

Most of their power was taken away, and they only had the Five Military Governor's Office left.

You know, when the country was founded, many of their ancestors held important positions in the court.

And this time, in their opinion, it was the civil officials who were jealous of the farms in their hands and deliberately made things happen.

But since they had already started, they also knew that it would be difficult to do it without paying a price, and they agreed to pay some rent and taxes to the court.

But it couldn't be too much. For example, the Ministry of Revenue only planned to leave them 100 hectares of land at the beginning, and they felt that it was too little and too embarrassing.

200 hectares, they also felt that it was a suitable number, that is, it didn't seem too much, and it could be accepted by the civil officials, barely a win-win situation.

Of course, from their heart, it would be best if all the farms remained the same, but it was unrealistic.

For the farms, the nobles of various families rarely stood together and planned to jointly deal with the provocation of the civil officials group.

Wei Guangde invited several families, mainly to explain the previous plan to them, so that each family would have a clear mind and not complain after the decree came down.

Wei Guangde planned to take the imperial edict of Emperor Longqing back to the mansion after the court session, and then let them see it and understand that this was the emperor's intention.

According to the rules, documents such as memorials and approvals cannot be taken out of the cabinet, but this is just a system. There are actually many ways to deal with it. For example, Chen Yiqin once copied a document that could not be circulated and took it out to show them.

However, this time the situation is special, and Wei Guangde wants to take the original directly.

In fact, this is not a big deal. Although the cabinet secretary will collect the memorials in the duty room and count them according to the registration when they were sent to the cabinet, the one in Wei Guangde's hand was not sent through the formal procedure, but was sent directly by Chen Ju.

No registration means that the cabinet secretary has no idea that the memorial has been returned to the cabinet.

Take it away, and no one will look for the whereabouts of the memorial.

The banquet at Wei's mansion that night was very grand. After all, the guests were all well-known figures in the capital.

Duke Dingguo Xu Wenbi came in person, and Duke Chengguo Zhu Xizhong and Duke Yingguo Zhang Rong both sent their sons, namely Zhu Shitai and Zhang Yuangong.

Wei Guangde and Zhu Shitai knew each other earlier. It was after Lu Bing's death that Wei Guangde met him in Lu's mansion.

Because the Duke Chengguo family and Lu Bing's family were related by marriage, Lu Bing's eldest daughter married Zhu Shitai, the eldest son, so Zhu Shitai often stayed in Lu's mansion to take care of him during that period.

As for the other marquises, Wei Guangde also invited them to the table.

In fact, it was not that Zhu Xizhong and Zhang Rong did not want to come because they did not want to give face, but they knew that Xu Wenbi was going to be there. If the three dukes came together, it would be bad for the news to spread.

Although Zhu Xixiao was in charge of the Jinyiwei, there were not only Jinyiwei in the capital, but also Dongchang.

In order to avoid misunderstandings from the royal family, the two could only refuse to come.

Things went smoothly. When Wei Guangde explained the situation, the families knew that it was the emperor's will, so they naturally did not dare to raise any conditions.

They were all hereditary nobles, and their titles were passed down from generation to generation, so nothing would change.

As for the nobles, although the first three generations seemed to have received more than them, they were constantly downgraded and finally not as good as them, so their previous resentment was naturally relieved.

Wei Guangde explained the situation clearly, and he was not afraid of their dissatisfaction.

The current situation is that you have to agree or not. Who dares to oppose the emperor's will?

However, shortly after taking office the next day, Wei Guangde had not had time to contact the Censorate. He had originally planned to talk to Wang Ting and the Tuntian Yushi about this matter, but Chen Ju's small note came first.

Wei Guangde frowned when he saw the note. This matter was not easy to handle.

The incident was a major event that happened in the palace late yesterday. Li Fang, who had been punished and neglected, had another conflict with Teng Xiang because of the renovation of the palace and the preparation of the Aoshan Lantern Festival next year. He ran to Emperor Longqing to complain that Teng Xiang took advantage of the opportunity of the palace renovation to embezzle a lot of money.

Palace renovation is done almost every year in the inner court, and the Aoshan Lantern Festival is prepared early, not just at the end of the year to find skilled craftsmen to design and make.

Not to mention the renovation of the palace, the cost of the Aoshan Lantern Festival alone is now as high as 300,000 taels of silver, and how much of it is used for palace lanterns is unknown to the outer court.

What Wei Guangde could find out was that the Aoshan Lantern Festival in the early Ming Dynasty required 100,000 taels of silver, and then it increased year by year. By the early Jiajing period, the silver consumption had exceeded 200,000 taels.

Wei Guangde shook his head. Li Fang did not learn his lesson even after such a situation. He was too upright.

Being upright is a good thing, but it may not be a blessing in a place like the inner court.

Saving money for the emperor is definitely right for the emperor, but it blocks his way to make money.

Which eunuch in the palace doesn't take advantage of the palace expenses to make money?

Li Fang's report on Teng Xiang not only failed to win over Meng Chong, Chen Hong and others and bring them in as supporters, but deepened the grudge between them.

You can report Teng Xiang today, and you can say they are wrong tomorrow.

After all, these people have finally become the big reds around Emperor Longqing, which one of them is not trying to embezzle and accept bribes?

As long as they can get money, they can do anything.

Teng Xiang was reprimanded by Emperor Longqing for this matter, and later contacted Meng Chong and Chen Hong to frame Li Fang in front of Emperor Longqing.

Wei Guangde can think of everything he said.

Using the reason that Li Fang was reprimanded and excluded by Emperor Longqing last year, saying that Li Fang said a lot of bad things about the emperor in private is disrespectful.

If it was just Meng Chong or Chen Hong who said it, Emperor Longqing might still be suspicious, but with the cooperation and mutual confirmation of several people, Emperor Longqing's doubts were dispelled.

Knowing that Li Fang was dissatisfied with his punishment and complained and cursed him privately, Emperor Longqing was furious and immediately ordered Chen Hong to lead people to arrest Li Fang, punish him with 80 strokes of the cane, and finally put him in prison.

The note sent by Chen Ju told Wei Guangde about the matter in general. Now Li Fang has been imprisoned, and the Ministry of Justice will issue an order to try Li Fang's crime later today.

Chen Ju also knew that Wei Guangde and Li Fang were close at the beginning and knew that the two had a good relationship, so he quietly handed over the note to let him know the details to avoid making a fool.

As for Li Fang being wronged, why didn't Chen Ju come out to say a fair word or testify? To be honest, Chen Ju's current status is really not enough in the palace.

His current identity, that is, the title of the eunuch in front of the emperor, is okay, and it is very intimidating outside the palace.

The position of the eunuch in the Imperial Household Department can also scare the minor officials in the court, after all, he is from the Imperial Household Department.

But in the inner court, everyone knows their identities, so who can be scared?

Chen Ju dared not say a word about Li Fang's experience, and could only pass the news to Wei Guangde.

In any case, he was able to survive in the inner court until now because he received favors from Huang Jin and Li Fang.

Some favors should be repaid to the best of one's ability.

This is Chen Ju's rule of doing things.

Wei Guangde lowered his head and thought for a long time, and finally came to a conclusion that Li Fang could not survive in the inner court.

Basically, everyone in the inner court was offended by his integrity. If he continued to stay, he would inevitably die, or perhaps die inexplicably.

Even if he died, I'm afraid that with the nature of Teng Xiang and others, they would put all the blame on Li Fang and whitewash them.

Eunuch, if he doesn't survive in the inner court, where else can he go?

At this moment, Wei Guangde couldn't help but think of Liang Dian, who took the initiative to apply to be the eunuch guarding Nanjing. This is a smart man who sees things clearly.

However, when Liang Dian took the initiative to ask for Nanjing to guard, who would have thought that in just over a year, the court would change so much, and Li Fang, who was once flattered by countless officials, was already in prison.

Picking up the note, today's memorials can only be put aside for now. I have to discuss with Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhan how to get Li Fang out of prison.

Wei Guangde guessed that Emperor Longqing beat Li Fang to vent his anger and put him in prison. It should be caused by anger at the moment, and perhaps he didn't intend to kill him.

After all, Li Fang has been with Emperor Longqing all those years, serving him wholeheartedly. It is said that even if there is no merit, there is hard work.

Chen Yiqin, Yin Shizhan and others also admire Li Fang's integrity and should not stand by and watch him die.

If they really choose to die without saving their lives, Wei Guangde feels like he can no longer be with them.

First, he went to check on Yin Shizhen's room, and took Yin Shizhen, who was still reviewing memorials, to Chen Yiqin. On the way, he whispered to him about the affairs of the inner court. Yin Shizhen was also very shocked.

When they arrived at Chen Yiqin's duty room, Wei Guangde gave them the note written by Chen Ju and sat there drinking tea by himself.

He had some vague ideas in his mind, but the key was how to get people, he didn't have a clue yet.

"Go to the palace to plead with Eunuch Li?"

After Chen Yiqin read the note, he frowned and asked Wei Guangde.

Wei Guangde didn't say anything, but looked at Yin Shizhen to see if he could do anything.

Yin Shizhen was lowering his head at the moment, completely unaware that Chen Yiqin and Wei Guangde were looking at him.

After hearing no one speak for a long time, he raised his head and saw the look in their eyes.

"They're all watching what I do, and there's nothing I can do for the time being."

Yin Shizhen whispered, "But His Majesty's decree has not yet been issued. I'm afraid it would be inappropriate to rush into the palace to plead for mercy now."

Then he said softly: "I still don't know what your Majesty is thinking at this time."

"His Majesty will probably be very angry if Li Fang speaks ill of her behind his back."

Chen Yiqin answered, "After all, Li Fang is the old man who has been serving His Majesty."

"Li Fang should not be that kind of person."

Yin Shizhen corrected, "I don't believe he would do such a thing."

"It's useless for us to say this here. Your Majesty must believe it."

Chen Yiqin smiled bitterly and said, why didn't he know what Li Fang was like.

Li Fang is an upright person, but he is not stupid either. He may have resentments in his heart, but he will never express them out loud. He is always cautious.

"Before His Majesty's decree, or beg for mercy later?"

Wei Guangde said, "We have to think clearly about this. After we fish the person out this time, we can't let Li Fang stay in the capital anymore."

"Where to go?"

Yin Shizhen said strangely.

"Let him go to Nanjing, even if he is charged, he will be sent to Nanjing.

Liang Tian is there, so he shouldn't suffer. "

Wei Guangde said.

"Liang Tian? It's really like that."

As soon as Wei Guangde reminded him, Chen Yiqin immediately came up with a solution.

"That's what I think. Let's put it all together."

Immediately, Chen Yiqin said: "Your Majesty has such good face. If Li Fang is really interrogated by the Ministry of Justice, as an old man next to Your Majesty, how will your Majesty's face be saved?

It would be better to just ask the inner court to send Li Fang to Nanjing, so that His Majesty can be out of sight and out of mind, and he can calm down.

We also have an explanation for Li Fang, at least she doesn’t have to suffer in prison. "

"You can give it a try."

Wei Guangde said: "Of course it would be best if you could plead for mercy and get the person out of prison, but if that doesn't work, you have to find a way from the Ministry of Punishment."

Yin Shizhen also nodded, "Then shall we go together or separately and plead with His Majesty alone?"