Emperor Ming Fengyunlu

Volume 5: Lying on the salary and tasting the guts

Chapter 3 Social turmoil and turmoil

Section 10 Red Pill Suspicion (II)

After Han Huoguang left, Fang Congzhe sat alone in the Tiren Pavilion for a long time, and many thoughts kept popping up in his mind, making his mind very chaotic and unable to calm down for a long time.

After barely calming down, Fang Congzhe began to think seriously about the matter. Regarding the matter of leading Li Kezhuo into the elixir, Fang Congzhe had already expected that there would be countless impeachment scripts flying in tomorrow morning, and it was not clear that those imperial historians would also give themselves the hat of "killing the king". After all, according to the temperament of those imperial historians, they will definitely not let go of such a great opportunity to bring themselves down.

Thinking of this, Fang Congzhe suddenly felt a chill, those imperial historians are all guys who eat people and don't spit out bones, characters who can make three-foot waves without wind, it seems that tomorrow will not be easy to pass.

Fang Congzhe frowned and kept thinking about countermeasures, and after thinking for a while, suddenly a thought crossed Fang Congzhe's mind: According to the old practice of the Ming Dynasty, once the emperor dies and returns to heaven, the edict he made needs to be drafted by the head of the cabinet! Fang thought about it philosophically, and felt that he could only take advantage of the opportunity to draft the edict on his behalf, and stated in the edict that it was Emperor Taichang's own intention to take the red pill elixir, and put the responsibility on Emperor Daxing, so that he could calmly deal with the impeachment and accusations that were about to come, and maybe he could use this move to fight his way out of the encirclement and get through this difficulty safely.

So, Fang Congzhe drafted an edict overnight according to the meaning of Emperor Taichang's words before his death, and put the responsibility for taking the red pill elixir on Emperor Taichang himself. After doing all this, Fang Congzhe breathed a sigh of relief, read the edict he drafted again, and after confirming that it was correct, he returned to the mansion to rest.

The next day, as Fang Congzhe expected, after the news of Emperor Taichang's death was announced, it immediately caused an uproar in the entire imperial court, and the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty clamored to find out the exact cause of Emperor Taichang's death. Among them, there have been many copies that openly pointed out that Cui Wensheng, the chamberlaxant who gave laxatives to Emperor Taichang, initially served under Zheng Guifei, and was later recommended by Zheng Guifei to Emperor Taichang. Cui Wensheng dared to use laxatives to destroy the emperor, and there must be someone behind him; And Li Kezhuo abused the medicine of unknown origin and offered it to Emperor Taichang, which eventually led to the sudden death of Emperor Taichang, whose behavior was so bad and serious that his crimes were the most since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

Seeing this, Fang Congzhe was very anxious, for fear of implicating himself, so he couldn't wait to obtain the consent of the cabinet ministers, and immediately promulgated the edict drafted by him. In the edict, Li Kezhuo was praised in the tone of Emperor Daxing, and he was given silver coins, without mentioning Fang Congzhe and Han Huoguang at all. The courtiers all knew that this edict was from the hands of Fang Congzhe, the first assistant, and it invisibly linked Fang Congzhe and the Red Pill case closely.

In this way, time passed in the hustle and bustle of the Manchu Dynasty's civil and military affairs, and in the blink of an eye, in the middle of October, the call for the investigation of the "Red Pill Case" reached its climax, and Sun Shenxing, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and Zou Yuanbiao, the imperial history of the Zuodu, made two remarkable twists and turns one after another. Among them, Sun Shenxing pointed out: "Fang Congzhe led Li Kezhuo into the palace twice to offer medicine, but he did not have the heart to kill the king, but he was guilty of killing the king. If you want to resign the name of killing, it is inevitable to kill the truth. This set the tone for the investigation of the culprit of the "Red Pill Case".

In the midst of the controversy between Fang Congzhe and the ministers, the enthronement ceremony of the crown prince Zhu Youxiao was held as scheduled, and the new emperor's year name was "Apocalypse". It was still the first year of Taichang, and the following year it was changed to the first year of the Apocalypse.

Soon after the Emperor of the Apocalypse ascended the throne, Fang Congzhe couldn't sit still, facing an almost one-sided situation, Fang Congzhe was worried, and after thinking about it, he wrote a long notebook, in which Fang Congzhe defended himself in detail on the one hand, and put forward a request for retirement very sincerely.

Less than ten days after Fang Congzhe's recital was handed over, the approval decree of the Emperor of the Apocalypse came down. At the beginning of November, this veteran minister, who had been in power for eight years, left the capital with several family members in a very desolate manner, and when Fang Congzhe left the capital, none of the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty came to see him off.

Although Fang Congzhe was forced to return to his hometown due to the "Red Pill Case", in the face of the sudden death of Emperor Taichang, the ministers in the court were still excited. A large number of imperial historians such as Zheng Zongzhou and Cao Zhen, Shaoqing of Nanjing Taichang Temple, all pointed out that the "Red Pill Case" and the "Attack Case" many years ago were due to the same "treacherous conspiracy", that is, someone would put Emperor Taichang to death; Wang Zhicai, the director of the Criminal Department, even pointed out that the death of Emperor Taichang was related to the conspiracy of the Zheng family and the favorite concubine Li to seize power.

Emperor Taichang died within a month of succession, and the partisan disputes in the court became more and more intense, which made the discussion about this case very loud, and it somewhat carried the meaning that the Donglin Party took the opportunity to disagree. These discussions revolved around the cause of Emperor Taichang's death, and Fang Congzhe, Han Huoguang, Li Kezhuo, Cui Wensheng and others became the target of public criticism.

Zhang Wenda, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, Wang Yingjiao, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Sun Shenxing, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Zou Yuanbiao, the imperial history of Zuodu, and many imperial historians have impeached Li Kezhuo and Cui Wensheng for the crime of using drugs and taking drugs incorrectly. Among them, the imperial history Wang Anshun believed: "The veins of the first emperor are majestic and floating, these three scorched fires, the lips are purple and red, the face is full of fire, and the porridge is irritable." This belly is full of fire knots, and it is advisable to clear and not to help Ming. Red lead is the woman's water, the yang in the yin, and the essence of pure fire, and in order to cast into the rash of the void fire and heat, the geometry will not die quickly!"

Because Emperor Taichang died suddenly after taking the red pill elixir, and the first assistant Fang Congzhe on the day of Emperor Taichang's death, he proposed a will to reward Li Kezhuo who offered the red pill elixir, which aroused the suspicion of some people. Yushi Guo Ruchu impeached Fang Congzhe and should not reward Li Kezhuo for medicine. Fang Congzhe, who was on his way back to his hometown, was even more frightened when he heard this, and it didn't take long for him to become depressed and fall ill.

After Fang Congzhe left Beijing, he still couldn't get rid of his involvement, and asked for a strict investigation of the Red Pill case to be sent to Emperor Tianqi's imperial study. One day, Emperor Tianqi received a memo from Fang Congzhe from his hometown, in which he wrote: "The old minister is old and ignorant, and he failed to prevent the mediocre officials from taking medicine, and the crime cannot be punished. In order to express his apologies, he is willing to beg to cut off his official ranks, and to go to the frontier as an old man, so as to appease the grievances of the courtiers. Sure enough, Fang Congzhe's move won the sympathy of many ministers, and many ministers began to excuse him when they saw that Fang Congzhe was really pitiful, and the Emperor of the Apocalypse was also moved by Fang Congzhe's sincerity, but because the truth was not clear, it was difficult to make a decision for a while.

At this time, since the "Red Pill Case", Han Yi, the cabinet minister who had been silent, finally stood up and spoke, and he told in detail all the facts he had witnessed at that time. In particular, the scene when Fang Congzhe was in a dilemma in the face of Emperor Taichang's constant urging was depicted very specifically. In the end, Han Yi proposed that the "Red Pill" case has been entangled for a long time, but Cui Wensheng and Li Kezhuo, who really put the emperor to death, have not been dealt with until now.

Han Yi was a well-known old minister in the Wanli period, he was a fair official for more than ten years, and he was very admired by the ministers. Therefore, after his report was reported, the turmoil quickly calmed down.

Soon, Emperor Tianqi issued an order to ask Cui Wensheng and Li Kezhuo about their crimes, and in the following year, that is, the second year of the Apocalypse, Cui Wensheng was sent to Nanjing and Li Kezhuo was sent to the frontier. The "Red Pill" case was finally hastily concluded due to the struggle between various factions and mutual compromise, which is a later story.

The chaotic situation in the DPRK and China has just calmed down somewhat, and it is said that Liu Yunwei's headquarters, which are stationed outside the Xuanwu Gate, have been stationed in Beijing for more than several months. During this period, Liu Yunwei experienced major events such as the sudden death of Emperor Taichang, the accession of Emperor Tianqi to the throne, various disputes over the "Red Pill Case", and the return of the first assistant party of the cabinet from Zhe to his hometown, each of which can be said to be earth-shattering events. Liu Yunwei, who has never touched the core of power, only feels that the situation in the capital is changing three times a day, which makes people dazzled and frightened. During this period, the ministers of the court seemed to have forgotten Liu Yunwei's department, and except for Huang Jiashan, the secretary of the military department, who hurriedly came to inspect the Longxiang Iron Cavalry Camp once, no one showed up again.

In the first year of Taichang, in December, the Longxiang Iron Cavalry Camp outside the Xuanwu Gate.

On this day, Li Linbin came with the news that Liu Yixiu, the new cabinet chief assistant, was going to Liu Yunwei's camp to observe the iron cavalry soldiers, and would go to the Hanwei Army camp in Tongzhou with Liu Yunwei's troops to inspect the soldiers of the army and town, as well as the formation and training of the Hanwei Army.

Liu Yunwei was secretly taken aback after hearing the news, and was a little unsure of the intentions of the new cabinet chief, it is said that when he first took office, what this premier assistant should do was to stabilize the government, not to inspect his own Tongzhou Town. However, Liu Yunwei still reorganized the soldiers and horses, waiting for the arrival of the first assistant Liu Yixiao and his party.

That night, while Liu Yunwei was checking the army's Chinese books, Li Linbin came to the camp alone.

Liu Yunwei hurriedly rushed to the gate to greet him, and welcomed Li Linbin into the tent with a smile, and before he had time to say some polite words, he heard Li Linbin say: "Little general, Liu Yixiao, the first assistant of the cabinet, will come early tomorrow morning, you have to be ready." ”