There is another reason why this clean and clean official unscrupulously scolded Ma Wen for being promoted to a traitorous minister.

After Tang Bohu entered Beijing, Zhu Houzhao immediately appointed Tang Bohu as the director of his chamberlain, who was specifically responsible for building public opinion.

Zhu Houzhao asked Tang Bohu to gather storytellers and children in the market to spread rumors, that is, because of the traitorous ministers in the court, there will be such things as the earthquake in Qifu and the night crying of the emperor's tomb.

Even, Zhu Houzhao specially asked the eunuchs of the imperial horse prison to find someone to go to the imperial tomb every night to cry.

Zhu Houzhao was naturally sure to do this, because he clearly remembered that this year, that is, in September and October of the 18th year of Hongzhi, earthquakes would occur in Nanjing and other seven prefectures one after another, and the news should be transmitted to Beijing after November and December.

At this time, it happened that when Zhu Houzhao dealt with Liu Jian, Li Dongyang and others in the cabinet, by creating rumors that there were traitors in the court and using the Qifu earthquake and the night crying of the emperor's tomb as evidence, it was natural to make the low-level soldiers and civilians more convinced that there were indeed traitors in the court, and naturally laid the foundation for Zhu Houzhao to purge Liu Jian and others in the cabinet on a large scale at that time.

After all, people in this era believe that these supernatural phenomena will portend something, and when the time comes, as long as they have the empirical evidence of Liu Jian, Li Dongyang and other king-killing people, they can completely frame Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian and others as traitors and go to the eighteenth layer of hell forever and never turn over.

At the same time, Zhu Houzhao also asked Tang Bohu to set up the Huangming Newspaper Bureau, began to print and compile the "Huangming Daily", and began to publish articles by Tang Bohu and other low-level literati questioning the death of Emperor Hongzhi.

In addition, Zhu Houzhao also appointed a cadre of low-level literati as newspaper readers, and first appointed newspaper readers in each square of the Beijing Division, and Xichang assisted such newspaper readers to read newspapers for the people in each square.

Becoming a newspaper reader means having an official position and a fortune, and these impoverished low-level literati are naturally willing to do this errand for the emperor, and naturally they don't feel ashamed, but feel very honored, and they all praise themselves for educating the people for the emperor.

In this way, at present, many people in the entire capital know that there are traitors in the court, and they also know that the first emperor may have been killed by traitors, and they know that it will lead to the earthquake in Qifu and the emperor's tomb crying at night.

Naturally, Li Dongyang and other Qingliu officials of the party also heard these rumors, and also saw doubts about the death of the first emperor from the Huangming Daily, but they took advantage of this to directly beat a rake, saying that Ma Wensheng and others were traitors, and also directly said that Ma Wensheng and others colluded with Liu Jin and others to control the government, causing traitors in the DPRK and China to run rampant.

So, up to now, the rumors in the entire Gyeonggi have become two versions, but the right to speak is still in the hands of civil officials, so above the court, most of them are still saying that Ma Wensheng and others are traitors and eunuchs.

……

Li Dongyang had been taken into the edict at this time, but at this time he was not afraid, and he walked in the edict very indifferently, even with a smile on the corner of his mouth.

After all, now Li Dongyang thinks that Zhang Yu and others have been successfully eliminated, and even Wang Shu has been killed, Li Dongyang knows that it is impossible for Zhu Houzhao to come up with any evidence to prove that he has committed the great crime of plotting against the monarch, and naturally he can't deal with himself, the head of the cabinet.

Although Zhu Houzhao forcibly ordered him to be sent to prison, Li Dongyang did not panic at all, he believed that most of the civil officials in Beijing would help him stop the Ming Emperor Zhu Houzhao's behavior of punishing civil officials for no reason, not to mention that he was also the first assistant of the cabinet.

Zhu Houzhao's behavior is challenging the bottom line of the entire civilian clique, and Li Dongyang believes that Zhu Houzhao will not dare to be an enemy of his entire civilian clique, and in the end he can only compromise and release himself.

Therefore, Li Dongyang even said indifferently to the Jinyi Wei of Beizhen Fusi:

"The old man is different from Wang Yue and other rebels, the old man is not a rebel or a murderer, but he was only sent to the edict when His Majesty was angered for a while, and when His Majesty is angry, he will naturally let the old man out, so you don't have to put me in a felony cell, give me three plates of side dishes and a pot of wine, the side dishes want the dishes of Gu Linlou, and the wine needs the wine of Huang Erwa's family! The old man hasn't had dinner yet. ”

Tonight, the person on duty in Beizhen Fusi was a Jinyi Wei Baihu named Peng Chong, he didn't know what happened in the court, and he thought that things were really as Li Dongyang said, the dignified cabinet chief assistant was sent to the edict prison just His Majesty was angry for a while, and seeing that Li Dongyang also took out a silver ingot, he didn't say much, so he asked people to prepare wine and food for Li Dongyang, and still respected Li Dongyang as the first assistant:

"Lord Shousuke, please wait a moment, for the time being, I will be wronged in this edict first."

Li Dongyang nodded and smiled slightly: "You are an acquaintance, and your future should be more than this." ”

Li Dongyang said that he entered a relatively clean cell, only sat on the dry grass pile, and pretended to be calm and meditate like an old monk.

However, at this moment, Gu Dayong hurriedly walked over.

"Where's Li Dongyang!"

"Back to the Governor, Lord Shoufu is in the Yellow No. 5 Prison."

Li Dongyang also opened his eyes when he heard Gu Dayong's voice, and couldn't help but smile slightly, he guessed that Gu Dayong must have been ordered to let him out, he could guess that the civil officials outside must be interceding for themselves, and it was impossible for Zhu Houzhao to forcibly send one of his first assistants to Jinyi to guard the prison for no reason despite the opposition of the entire civilian official group.

Syllable!

But who knows, Gu Dayong walked over and directly slapped Peng Chong: "Bastard!" Who asked you to put this traitor in this kind of cell where only accomplices involved in the case are held, and send Li Dongyang to a felony prison! This is Your Majesty's will, go quickly! ”

Peng Chong, a hundred households in brocade clothes, had no choice but to obey the order, and hurriedly ordered someone to open the cell door and forcibly drag Li Dongyang out.

Li Dongyang was shocked when he saw this, and couldn't help but shout and ask, "What are you doing here!" The old man is the head of the cabinet, what crime did he commit, and he was treated like this by you, let go of the old man, the old man wants to see Your Majesty, and the old man wants to see Your Majesty! Gu Dayong, you are taking revenge on yourself and taking revenge on the old man! ”

"Revenge! I, Gu Dayong, am not qualified to take revenge on you, and it is His Majesty's will to interrogate you strictly! It's not like you haven't heard it yourself in the presence of Your Majesty."

As he spoke, Gu Dayong took Li Dongyang and the others into the land of repeat offenders.

Li Dongyang was also hung up like Wang Yue.

Moreover, Li Dongyang also saw Wang Yue, who had already been tortured to the point of not being human, and suddenly felt a little scared for a while, and hurriedly struggled: "Let the old man out, let the old man out!" You can't treat the old man like this, the old man is not guilty, the old man is not guilty! ”

"Li Dongyang, Li Shoufu, it's not up to you to decide whether you're guilty or not!"

As Gu Dayong spoke, he asked the Jinyi guards in the edict prison to start punishing Li Dongyang, and directly asked Li Dongyang to tell about killing Emperor Hongzhi.

And Li Dongyang also guessed at this time that Gu Dayong must have been ordered by Zhu Houzhao to forcibly pry open his mouth, and get the empirical evidence from himself that he and Liu Jian and others conspired to kill the king.

In order to ensure that his family would not be connected to the nine clans, for the sake of his own life, Li Dongyang naturally would not admit it, and laughed directly and shouted directly: "Hahaha! Zhu Houzhao, Ma Wensheng, you want to force the old man to confess, no way! Even if the old man is killed by you, he will not admit it, you wait, in less than three days, the officials outside who ask for the old man's life will kneel all over your Forbidden City! ”