Jiang Dejing's departure interrupted Chongzhen, who was loudly reprimanding Lu Chengyuan and others, Zhu Youzhen glanced at Jiang Dejing sideways, and then sat down and said, "What does Jiang Shangshu want to say to me?" ”

Jiang Dejing only hesitated for a moment, then ignored the eyes of his colleagues on the side, saluted the emperor and said: "Although Chengyuan and Shisheng have acted inappropriately, the ministers can vouch for them, and their loyalty to Your Majesty is not false.

Although they invited their colleagues to gather many times, most of the venues were arranged in famous restaurants and gardens, not in private rooms. This is enough to prove that they have no intention of hiding it from the outside world when they meet to discuss matters, so naturally there is no talk of forming a party for personal gain.

And most of Shisheng and others are from the Jiangnan Wang family, and their families have a lot of savings. Even if they are extravagant, it does not mean that they are corrupt and pervert the law on weekdays.

They spend hundreds of dollars on a meal, and it is not deliberate, but they are used to spending lavishly on weekdays, and they lack a concept of people's consumption.

Therefore, the minister thought that although Chengyuan and Shisheng were at fault for misconduct, they had not reached the point of blinding the saint and attempting to manipulate the government, and asked His Majesty to investigate. ”

Yang Weiyuan suddenly came out of the list of dissatisfied accusations to Jiang Dejing: "Jiang Shangshu's words are quite incomprehensible, let's not talk about the rest, that is, Chengyuan just slandered His Majesty's words of governing the country with factory defense, which has already proved that this person has ill intentions and has tried to figure out his intentions with malice, shouldn't such a person be punished with great disrespect?" ”

Li Kuilong, Li Fan, and Li Lusheng of the Imperial History of the Right Capital also followed Yang Weiyuan and attacked Jiang Dejing's words, but because of Chongzhen's favor for Jiang Dejing, they did not intend to include Jiang Dejing in the party of Lu Chengyuan and others.

Seeing Jiang Dejing stand up and resist the emperor's anger, Liu Zongzhou, Qian Qianyi and others stood up to distinguish a few words for these young officials.

Only then did Zhu Youzhen interrupt the officials who were gradually making noise again, got up from the throne and said: "Enough, this is a sacred hall for discussing national affairs, not a teahouse and restaurant for people to discuss parents."

If you have to hold a court meeting here just so that you can find a place for me to show me how to fight for power and profit, then I don't think such a court meeting will be held.

It wasted my time and energy with the ministers, and it didn't stain my eyes. Wang Chengen, tell me, how much does my food cost for a day? ”

Wang Chengen hurriedly replied: "Back to Your Majesty, Your Majesty's daily food cost is six yuan and five cents. ”

Before Chongzhen ascended the throne, the emperor's food cost was 18 taels of silver per day, but this money included the food expenses of the eunuchs and palace maids serving in the entire Qianqing Palace, which was not too excessive according to the average number of people.

But after Chongzhen ascended the throne, he was not willing to use such a method of calculating the cost of food, but asked that the food expenses of everyone in the palace be listed according to the rank.

On the one hand, it can reduce the greasy in the calculation of food expenses, and on the other hand, it can also reduce the influence of the people on the extravagance of the royal family in external publicity.

For example, at this moment, Zhu Youzhen used his food expenses to talk about things, which not only did not arouse the disgust of the officials below, but made some officials sweat even more.

Zhu Youzhen looked at the officials below, and said to Wang Chengen sarcastically: "Take out three yuan from my daily food expenses and donate it to the martyr's school as the lunch cost of the students." I will pray for them, lest the people of the world curse me for not knowing the warmth and coldness of the world.

That's the end of today's court meeting, the people who have just provoked the controversy, each of them writes a review and submits it to the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate will review it and hand it over to Wang Chengen.

The remaining affairs of today's court meeting, after I go back to the Qianqing Palace for instructions, will be forwarded to the cabinet for issuance. Also, Mr. Huang. ”

Huang Li, who was standing in the first row at the foot of the steps, reacted after a while, walked out of the prelude and saluted Chongzhen and said, "The minister is here, please give instructions from Your Majesty." ”

The officials in the palace have been completely overwhelmed by Chongzhen's momentum at this time, especially after the emperor deliberately humiliated those officials again with his own food expenses, even some officials who are still dissatisfied are not willing to be involved with the emperor in food expenses at this moment.

After all, no matter how much they claim that what they are doing is for the sake of the people, but after today's events are spread, how will the people understand what they have done.

The common people will only remember how many months the officials ate their food expenses in one meal, and the emperor donated his own food expenses to subsidize the students' lunches. This strong contrast will only make them defend themselves more and discredit themselves.

Therefore, even after being humiliated by Chongzhen, Lu Chengyuan and the others still held back their shame and had no intention of continuing to confront Chongzhen today. What's more, the leaders such as Li Biao and Qian Longxi, who they originally regarded as their backhand, were disappointed when Chongzhen reprimanded them, so that they did not dare to stand up.

These young officials had just been struck by the emperor once, and they saw the timid images of several Donglin leaders who were originally their spiritual idols, and suddenly they collapsed because of the faith erected by the gentlemen of Donglin.

Zhu Youzhen glanced at the hall below, looked at these silent officials, and then said to Huang Liji: "Mr. Huang will discuss with the gentlemen of the cabinet and sort out the charter of the court meeting.

I hope that in the future, the court will only discuss national affairs, and not become a vanity fair for a group of power-hungry people every time. ”

Huang Liji only paused for a moment, and then understood what the emperor meant by this, obviously Chongzhen wanted to use this excuse to let him push out of the State Council.

Zhu Youzhen glanced at the many young officials kneeling below, then turned around and walked towards the apse.

With the departure of the emperor, today's court meeting was also forced to be interrupted. Although the emperor did not chase after the emperor after sending a fire, he just asked everyone to write a review and put an end to today's matter.

But the young officials who knelt on the ground still had heavy hearts in their hearts, and they did not feel relieved that the emperor did not punish them on the spot.

In fact, many people prefer the emperor to punish them on the spot, after all, there are so many people present, even if Chongzhen wants to be punished, it will not be too much.

It is not necessary to write this review, as long as the emperor is willing, he can choose a suitable time to dispose of them separately. This is a review, but a guillotine hanging over their heads.

What bothered them even more was the newspaper that published articles about their dinner and consumption. Although their names should not be on the article, I think that after today, those officials who often participate in dinners should be cautious to close their doors to avoid being associated with the article.

And the idea of supporting Li Biao, Qian Longxi and other Donglin leaders to come forward to replace the court is obviously unlikely to be realized.

The demeanor of these Donglin leaders today is not as good as that of the former Donglin leaders who were despised by them before. Sure enough, Donglin gentlemen like Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, Wei Dazhong, Yuan Huazhong, Zhou Chaorui, and Gu Dazhang no longer exist in this era.

They had dreamed that they would be able to shake up the pattern of the DPRK and China today and elect the sages they thought could lead the country.

But this plan has not been smooth from the beginning. From the beginning when public opinion was controlled by others, the court had not even launched a real controversy before it was defeated.

And the reason for the rout is still impossible for them to argue, and there is an official who will explain to the people in a confused way why they eat the food expenses of ordinary people for several months in one meal.

If there really were such officials, I am afraid that they would have been scolded by those people a long time ago. After all, the Du Gong Department of the Tang Dynasty had already written: Zhumen wine and meat stink, and there are frozen bones on the road. Such verses.

Since ancient times, poems of pity for the small people are not uncommon, and even the officials of the Ming Dynasty recognize the feelings and values of pity for the small people in these verses.

For the common people, they don't know what the sage path is, this is something that the old man who reads should study. What can make the people feel that an official is good or bad is undoubtedly something more straightforward.

For example, this sentence written in Du Gongbu's poem, the officials of the meat forest in Jiuchi every day are obviously not good people, and those Qing officials who can't even afford to eat meat are real righteous men and gentlemen. The image of officials is basically inversely proportional to the affluent life of officials.

If the people did not know how much they would have spent on a meal, they would naturally have followed them with suspicion and blamed their present misfortune on the rulers.

But in the current situation, how can the people still believe their words? With the departure of the emperor, the officials in the imperial palace also began to leave the palace one after another and returned to their official offices.

Cao Sicheng, the imperial historian of the left capital, and Li Kuilong, the imperial historian of the right capital, were sent to the apse by a little eunuch before leaving the imperial palace.

After Chongzhen summoned the two, he said bluntly to the two: "I came to you to tell you two things.

The first thing is that I think that most of the current imperial history of the Imperial Court of the Imperial Court does not match their abilities and positions, and they want to make some political achievements for themselves every day, but they don't know much about the practice, so they can only revolve around the political struggle between the DPRK and China.

I thought it was because the officials were not competent enough to do their jobs. Therefore, I hope that you will make adjustments to the qualifications of the Imperial History of the Imperial Inspectorate.

After serving for two years, every imperial historian must go to the local government for two years, except for the left and right imperial historians...

The second thing is that it can be seen from today's court meeting that there are quite a few officials in our Ming Dynasty who are not suitable for their posts.

That's why I hope to carry out a Beijing inspection this year to weed out the two-faced people, incompetent people, and other unfit people from the officials..."