The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Zhao Bingran, the Secretary of the Ministry of War, went out to perform his duties and knelt down. Wei Guangde behind him had a look of surprise on his face.

He didn't see Li Chunfang's movements and thought that the Ministry of War really had something to report.

Looking up, he saw Emperor Longqing on the throne with a surprised look on his face, and his heart sank.

"Play."

The surprise was only for a moment. Emperor Longqing quickly came to his senses, opened his lips slightly, and said one word.

"Your Majesty, the Xuan Mansion reported last year that the prisoners from Wanquan Right Guards had entered the army. The late Emperor urgently ordered Xuanda and Ji Liao to prepare for the battle and defense. Later, the Ministry of War reported the victory. However, the war merits and crimes were ordered to be inspected and inspected by the censor. I have heard that the Ministry of War has received a substantial document and plans to reward those who have made outstanding contributions in this battle, including Ma Fangdu, the commander-in-chief of the Xuan Mansion, Pu Yuhan, Jiao Ze, Wang Chen, Zhang Yanhou, etc. Guard Wei Dong, Zhang Chen, Hao Jin, and Li Ying, and guerrilla Hei Yunlong and others will be punished."

Zhao Bingran was quite old, but now he was kneeling in the palace to perform something, which made Wei Guangde feel worried that one day when he became a big official, he would be asked to perform something for Emperor Longqing.

Kneeling in front of so many people, Wei Guangde felt a little embarrassed.

Fortunately, the emperor and the court officials became increasingly unpopular with court meetings, and most government affairs were handled through memorials.

Yes, despite the Jiajing Dynasty, officials all accused the emperor of not attending court early, but that was just talk. If Emperor Jiajing had been more diligent, the ministers would have cried again.

It has to be said that the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty actually began to act according to double standards.

Zhao Bingran's memorial was naturally answered by Emperor Longqing's "accurate memorial". The border soldiers fought bloody battles and won the victory. Naturally, what they wanted was a wife and a high official with a generous salary. This was indispensable no matter what.

As for the battle of Wanquan Right Guard described by Zhao Shangshu, Wei Guangde received a letter from Ma Fang last year and knew a little bit about it.

More than 30,000 captives, led by Xin Ai, wanted to attack Malian Fort. Ma Fang personally led reinforcements into the fort to defend against the enemy.

The Malianbao city wall was in disrepair for a long time, and part of it unexpectedly collapsed at this time. A general wanted to send troops to urgently repair it, but Ma Fang refused, and instead devised an empty city plan to defraud Xin Ai.

Ma Fang dared to do this because he knew that Xin Ai was more cautious in doing things. He led his troops to help but could not hide the Tatar reconnaissance cavalry. Instead of spending manpower to repair the city wall and dragging the war into a tug-of-war between defending and attacking the city, it was better to show off to the enemy. weak.

Based on the impact of the first battle in Gyeonggi Province, Ma Fang was confident that Xin Ai would not take the opportunity to attack the city because he was worried that it was a trap.

As expected, Xin Ai fell into the trap. Hesitatingly, he only sent a small number of troops to harass the Malianbao Ming army. When dusk began, he chose to return to the camp with a large army and sent scouts to the surrounding areas to detect the actual situation of the Ming army.

That night, Ma Fang led his troops out of the city to attack the Tatar barracks at night. They defeated them and pursued them for more than a hundred miles.

This battle seemed like a child's play, but in later generations, because of the sentence in "History of the Ming Dynasty" "Xin Ai rode into the West with one hundred thousand horses to welcome Malianbao", it was mistakenly thought that Ma Fang defeated one hundred thousand horsemen in this battle.

One hundred thousand is just an imaginary number and cannot be trusted at all.

If there were really 100,000 cavalry, it would take up almost all of Altan's troops. It would be unjustifiable for him not to conquer it himself.

Moreover, the results of this battle were not great, with only a thousand captives and cavalry killed. Therefore, later generations boasted a lot about the "Battle of Malianbao", but the results were mostly unclear.

Even though Ma Fang's biography records this incident, it is mostly because of the "empty city strategy" and has some elements of romance. I don't know if Ma Fang was inspired to do this after reading "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

Moreover, this battle was not smooth sailing. In addition to the side forts that were lost after being attacked by the Japanese cavalry at the beginning, many Ming troops also suffered failures during night attacks and pursuits, losing troops and generals.

Fortunately, this battle finally brought Ma Fang's lost title of Governor-General of the Left back to him.

In the forty-fourth year of Jiajing's reign, the Tatars invaded the Xuan Mansion. Ma Fang was unprepared and rode into the invaders. Afterwards, he was held accountable and was demoted to the rank of Governor and Tongzhi by Emperor Jiajing and was fined three months' salary.

Zhao Bingran finished what he had said and naturally got up and returned to the train.

"My lords, if you still have something to do, please report it quickly."

Emperor Longqing on the dragon throne spoke again.

Li Chunfang, the second assistant, coughed twice more, then went out and knelt down and said: "A few days ago, Tu Zemin, the governor of Fujian and the censor of Qiandu, petitioned for the opening of the market, and the private traders were replaced by public traders. The officials in the DPRK and the Central Government had different opinions on this. Today, Tan Lun, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi and the right deputy governor of Guangdong, petitioned to open a shipping market, saying that the people in Fujian have a small area and it is not easy for the people to live, and most of them make a living by handicrafts and trade."

These were all mentioned repeatedly in the cabinet yesterday. The purpose of opening up the sea in Fujian is for the livelihood of the people. Although Li Chunfang's answer was ambiguous, he also had the intention to open up the sea in his heart. However, as a secondary assistant, he You cannot take the lead in modifying the ancestral system.

To put it bluntly, Xu Jie's concerns were the same.

"It is difficult to reach an agreement in the cabinet meeting, so we can only respectfully request His Majesty's Holy Judgment."

Finally, Li Chunfang finally said.

"Your Majesty, the ancestral system cannot be violated."

After Li Chunfang finished speaking, Gao Yi, the Minister of Rites, had already left work and knelt down, shouting loudly.

"My lord, I second the proposal."

Later, Huang Guangsheng, the Minister of Punishment, also knelt down after leaving work, and he knelt beside Gaoyi.

Wei Guangde sighed inwardly. Gao Yi was from Zhejiang and Huang Guangsheng was from Fujian. Most of the officials who opposed the opening of the sea were from Jiangnan. It could even be said that they were officials from Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong.

Those who support the opening of the sea are mainly officials from Henan and Beizhili.

If we were to make it clearer, it would be that northern officials supported opening the sea, while southern officials supported banning the sea.

The Ministers of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Punishments took the lead in opposing the opening of the sea. The quiet Huangji Palace instantly became boiling. A large number of officials in the palace suddenly appeared, all of whom supported Gao Yi's remarks.

Wei Guangde took a peek and saw that even Zhu Heng was among the opponents. He was now the Minister of the Ministry of Industry. Although he was not in charge of the Ministry of Industry and focused on river engineering, he was also a second-rank official in the imperial court and an official from Jiangxi in the court. A person of the highest rank.

Of course, how could Zhu Heng be the only Jiangxi official in the DPRK? In fact, the current Minister of Industry, Lei Li, is also from Jiangxi. However, he is less involved in affairs due to health reasons and is planning to beg for leave, so he generally does not participate in these battles in the court. It means taking a back seat.

Wei Guangde was worried about retaliation, so he never revealed his feelings. His fellow villagers also couldn't figure out his position, so most of them chose which side to support based on their own interests.

Now it seems that Zhu Heng also has a close relationship with Jiangnan businessmen.

Although Emperor Longqing, who was sitting on the dragon throne, knew that the opposition from the courtiers was fierce, which could be seen from the memorials, but in reality, sitting in the main hall and seeing a group of ministers kneeling on the ground to oppose the opening of the sea, the emperor still felt a little shaken in his heart. .

The momentum created by this group of people was actually quite terrifying, taking up almost half of the court.

Wei Guangde actually felt a little more at ease now, secretly glad that he did not show his support for Kaihai. If these people knew that he was responsible for this matter, they would not know how they would hate him.

Officials' positions are mostly based on their own interests. The so-called "ancestral system" is just a reason for their own opposition.

Seeing that Emperor Longqing seemed to be intimidated by the momentum created by the officials, Gao Gong also stood up at this time and sternly reprimanded: "What are you doing? Do you want to force His Majesty to be the king who doesn't care about the life and death of the people?"

After saying this, Gao Gong also knelt down and said loudly: "Your Majesty, I would like to boldly ask Your Majesty to issue an order to open the sea in Fujian, Jiangnan, and more importantly, the livelihood of thousands of people in the world." .”

"Your Majesty, please consider the common people of the world as the most important thing and issue an order to open the sea."

As a supporter in the cabinet, Guo Pu took the lead to kneel down and shouted, followed by Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhen

Wei Guangde glanced sideways at the officials who were still standing behind him, and gave some of them a thumbs up. Then he left the train after Yin Shizhen knelt down, walked to Yin Shizhen's side, knelt down, and shouted: "Your Majesty, please consider the common people of the world as the most important thing and issue an order to open the sea."

Following him were Wang Ning, the Shaoqing of Taichang Temple, Yin Leshun, the Shaoqing of Guanglu Temple, Liu Fenyong, the Shaoqing of Shangbao Temple, and Wu Zidong, the Shaoqing of the Guanglu Temple.

Anyone with a little bit of intelligence can tell that the people kneeling behind Gao Gong are all old people from Yuzhuan, except Guo Pu.

It's too obvious. Although there are not as many people who support the opening of the sea as those who oppose it, the imprint on them is too strong. They are all the old people from Prince Yu's Mansion. Although their every move may have Gao Gong's influence, it has fully reflected Long Qing's The will of the emperor.

Without the emperor's previous nod, it would have been impossible for the people in Prince Yu's palace to line up in such an orderly manner.

In the main hall, he suddenly saw more than a dozen people he was familiar with holding unanimous opinions. Emperor Longqing, who had been frightened by the momentum of the opposing officials and seemed a little panicked, instantly calmed down.

Before, Wei Guangde didn't even say hello to his fellow villagers in the court, but only sent a note to Yu Zhuan's old friend, informing him of today's attitude.

This is enough.

These people had received hints from Li Fang earlier and would listen more to Wei Guangde in the future. This was also the help Emperor Longqing planned to support Wei Guangde in ascending to power.

Gao Gong was supported by Guo Pu in the court, and he was already strong enough.

I don’t know if it was a reminder from Emperor Jiajing, but Emperor Longqing seems to have the intention to develop the power of the court into a multi-polar one, because he even hinted to Wei Guangde that next year’s Ministry of Rites examination will be the chief examiner, the second assistant Li Chunfang, and he will be the deputy examiner.

Of course, these were Wei Guangde's wild thoughts, because with Emperor Longqing's ability, only by dividing the civil service into several forces to check and balance each other, as in the previous dynasty, could the stability of the imperial power be ensured.

After the old man Yu Zhuan expressed his attitude, the main hall instantly became quiet. The officials who were still standing on both sides were at war with each other at this time, thinking about which side they should choose to support.

In the eyes of some people, the reason why this drama was staged at the court meeting today was because Emperor Longqing was trying to judge who supported him.

Yes, open the sea to test their loyalty to the emperor.

Perhaps in the end, Emperor Longqing would not choose to open the sea, but his statement at this time is very important, because Yu Zhuan has actually made his attitude clear.

Wei Guangde was kneeling down at this moment, but he glanced back and then looked at the long stretch beside him. He felt that he seemed a little alone here.

Although the soldiers are not expensive, it seems that the number of people who support the opening of the sea is less than half of the opponents, which is indeed a bit shabby, even though there are three cabinet ministers at the front.

Wei Guangde tilted his head. Standing next to him was fellow countryman Lei Li, Minister of the Ministry of Industry. Regardless of whether he could see or understand, Wei Guangde winked at him.

When he looked sideways, Lei Li really didn't pay much attention, but Wei Guangde blinked and he still saw it.

Lei Li didn't have much contact with Wei Guangde. When he was in the Ministry of Industry, he was mostly a foreigner. He didn't return to Beijing until Ouyang Bijin left the Ministry of Industry.

At this time, Wei Guangde had already entered Prince Yu's Mansion and was thriving.

Lei Li still wanted to save face, so it was naturally impossible for him to take the initiative to contact Wei Guangde at this time.

After that, Wei Guangde was arranged by Emperor Jiajing to enter the school records hall to copy books. The contact between the two was just a courtesy walk during the New Year and festivals, and a celebratory banquet held for Jiangxi Gongsheng students after the examination two years ago.

In the past year, the two of them had been busy with the late emperor's affairs, and they had hardly seen each other a few times.

Now Wei Guangde blinked at him. Although Lei Li was not sure whether it was because of his own eyesight, he could guess a thing or two based on the current situation.

Perhaps, this was Yu Zhuan's test of the current imperial court, and Wei Guangde's wink naturally meant to let him take over his side.

Seeing Zhu Heng kneeling in the middle, Lei Li originally didn't want to get involved in this matter, but thinking that he planned to recommend Zhu Heng's palm after he became an official, it seemed that it would be more beneficial to him to win the favor of Emperor Longqing at this time. Lei Li Li also had concerns in his heart.

Immediately, in the quiet main hall, the civil and military officials standing on both sides saw Lei Li, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, also come out, stood on the side of officials Yu Zhuan, and seconded the proposal to open the sea.

Lei Li's choice seemed to be a signal. Zhang Yi, Wang Xilie, Yu Chaoqing and other officials from Jiangxi in the DPRK also came out to kneel behind Lei Li and shouted in support of opening the sea.

Wei Guangde smiled bitterly in his heart. The party struggle in the Ming Dynasty seemed to have appeared a long time ago. However, it was just the township party at first. They supported one or two when there were differences in the court, and then gradually evolved into interests centered on someone or a certain purpose. group.

By this time, Zhao Zhenji and other Sichuan officials could no longer sit still. The opening and banning of seas had little to do with them, but the cabinet minister Chen Yiqin was from their hometown, especially the Wang Ting, from the Minister of Rites of Nanjing to the Yushi of Zuodu. Among them, Chen Yiqin made a great contribution.

On weekdays, he seemed to act fairly, but at the critical moment, he knew which side he should take.

Soon Wang Ting, the censor of Zuodu, and Zhao Zhenji, the left minister of the Ministry of civil affairs, also came out to support the opening of the sea. They were just the beginning, and officials from Henan also came out one after another.

Just like when the Manchu officials disliked Yan Song, the Jiangxi officials still smiled when they saw him. Now the Manchu officials don't like Gao Gong, but the Henan officials still hope that he can withstand Xu Jie's offensive and continue to stand tall. Hall.

If the fellow villagers were in power, they would benefit more or less.

It is not obvious at ordinary times, but only when there is a vacancy in an official position, the weight of the status of a cabinet minister will become apparent.

As a result, a large number of people who supported the opening of the sea quickly knelt down. They did not argue at the court meeting like on TV, because everything that needed to be said was handed over through memorials.

The discussions in the cabinet yesterday were well known to all the officials present, so there was no need to argue.

Both factions have reasons and are easy to accept. It depends on which side has more supporters and has greater influence on the emperor.

At this time, there were not many people still standing on both sides. Zhang Juzheng turned slightly sideways and frowned slightly as he looked at the current situation.

To be honest, it was a bit beyond his imagination.