Chapter 454: The Capital is Shocked
Let’s talk about it in two parts.

When the south of the Yangtze River was filled with gloom and sadness.

The capital, on the other hand, appears peaceful.

Spring ploughing in the north has long ended. As the weather gets hotter and the solar term gradually enters midsummer, people have begun to look forward to this year's harvest.

This is especially the case with sweet potatoes.

Thanks to the cultivation of Shuntian Prefecture and Changping Public Security Bureau in the past two years, sweet potatoes are now available throughout the prefectures and counties of Northern Zhili.

Of course, the planting location followed Changping’s suggestions, mostly using mountainous areas or dry land, plus some corners and edges.

It is worth mentioning that.

Although the post of prefect of Shuntian Prefecture is still vacant, the job of Shuntian Prefecture is being done quite well.

According to Shuntian Prefecture's estimate.

After the large-scale planting and harvest of sweet potatoes this year, the imperial court will be able to reduce the total amount of grain transported from the south to the north through the canal next year.

after all.

The Ming Dynasty had already existed for two hundred years, and although the grain transport had undergone changes, it was difficult to completely change the increasingly deteriorating situation.

The influence of the three major armies of Altan Khan's army that attacked openly outside the Great Wall last year and the lurking army that crossed the Great Wall and entered the Great Wall last year were also rapidly dissipating.

After returning to the border, Ma Fang, the general commander of Xuanfu who had been summoned by the emperor, did not continue to build the border wall or train his troops.

Instead, he carefully selected exactly one hundred elite soldiers from the one hundred thousand soldiers in Xuanfu, and sent them to the Western Garden in the name of being reviewed by the emperor.

An inspection is an inspection.

But these one hundred border troops entered the Western Garden and never came out again, which seemed to be a bit undisguised.

There was a quarrel in the court for a while.

But the Minister of War Yang Bo kept silent. What about the other Minister of War Hu Zongxian?

Hu Butang's only focus now is on suppressing the Japanese pirates in the five southeastern provinces.

The battle against the Japanese pirates in the south was becoming more and more successful.

In addition to Qi Jiguang, generals such as Yu Dayou also emerged.

There has been some discussion in the court that Hu Zongxian’s original military order to pacify the Japanese invaders in five years might be completed ahead of schedule.

No one in the Ministry of War discussed the fact that Ma Fang, the commander-in-chief of Xuanfu, had sent a hundred elite soldiers into the Western Garden. In addition, the attitude of Cabinet Minister Gao Gong was also ambiguous, so the matter ultimately ended in nothing.

Even if someone wanted to investigate further, there was no opportunity for them to discuss it openly in the court.

"Has Hai Rui been ordered to be transferred to the capital?"

In the Changping Public Security Office, Xu Wei frowned, put down the documents in his hand, and looked up at Lu Yi who came from the capital to deliver the news.

Lu Yi nodded, moved to a chair nearby, took a sip of tea, and said, "The decree issued yesterday has probably already been issued by Shuntian Prefecture. Originally, several officials from the Ministry of Personnel first reported Hai Rui's achievements, and then officials from various ministries wrote letters to support the proposal, praising Hai Rui for his virtuous governance. The key point is that the censors who usually think everyone is a corrupt official actually spoke well of Hai Rui this time, and the matter spread from the cabinet to the emperor."

Xu Wei now holds many official positions, but his main one is in Changping.

After listening to Lu Yi's introduction of the whole matter, he couldn't help but ask: "Did the emperor agree to this?"

Lu Yi shook his head and looked at Xiao Junpeng who walked in from outside holding a pile of documents, and Zhou Yunyi who followed behind him.

He explained: "The Emperor summoned the cabinet to discuss the matter. Elder Xu and Elder Li agreed strongly, thinking that since Hai Rui was capable, he might be able to play a greater role if he was placed in the central government. Elder Gao did not say anything, and Elder Yuan mentioned the Yingtian Governor's Office, but did not say much."

Xu Wei lowered his head and pondered for a moment: "So, it has been decided that Hai Rui will be transferred back to the capital?"

Lu Yi curled his lips: "The decree has already left the capital, how can it be faked?"

"Do you know where the Emperor and the Cabinet intend to place him?"

Xu Wei is now feeling a bit overwhelmed, and feels that the current situation is likely to change again.

Lu Yi turned his head and looked outside: "The Shuntian prefecture has been vacant for such a long time. It is almost certain that they are waiting for Hai Rui to come back and take over. By the way, he will be given the title of the Metropolitan Censorate. This can be considered a promotion."

Xiao Junpeng came in and carefully placed the document on the desk in front of Xu Wei. He glanced at Lu Yi who was explaining, then stepped aside.

Zhou Yunyi frowned and said, "This is not considered a promotion... It should be promoted to the Censorate and concurrently the prefect of Shuntian, only then can it be considered a promotion."

Lu Yi nodded and waved his hand: "It's the same thing anyway. Hai Rui is going to enter the capital."

Zhou Yunyi looked at Xu Wei who had a sullen face, while Xiao Junpeng beside him seemed to be hesitant to speak.

Lu Yi understood it in his heart, but looked indifferent.

Xu Wei looked at several people, and finally stopped at Xiao Junpeng: "Tell me what you think."

"To lure the tiger away from the mountain, to attack from the east, is not for good."

Xiao Junpeng quickly said twelve words, then nodded and lowered his eyebrows.

Xu Wei looked at Zhou Yunyi again.

Zhou Yunyi nodded: "This is the only way."

Seeing the two of them say this, Xu Wei nodded, and his expression improved slightly.

He smiled and said, "Since we all understand what's going on, there's no need to dwell on it. Such an open conspiracy is not something we can change now."

Xiao Junpeng glanced at Zhou Yunyi beside him.

He is now an official and has long since left the ranks of clerks. He can be said to have achieved success overnight.

It is precisely for this reason that he now follows the Yan family wholeheartedly.

Seeing that Shaoqing Zhou Yunyi didn't say anything.

Xiao Junpeng then said, "Although we know that this is a conspiracy by them, their purpose is to transfer Hai Rui away. In this way, the guests in the south will lose the support of Hai Rui, the governor of Yingtian, and naturally they will be stretched to the limit when doing things. Moreover, the guests will not be back in a short time during this trip to the south. It will take one or two years. No matter who takes over the post of governor of Yingtian at this time, it will not be good. Moreover, those people who called Hai Rui back to the capital must have been prepared to recommend a new person for the governor of Yingtian."

The smile Xu Wei had just revealed faded a little.

He looked into the distance and said quietly, "You have been in the south for nearly half a year. If you have made progress in the south, you don't have to worry about Hai Rui being recalled to the capital. After all, we still have Zhang Juzheng in the south, and the Governor-General of the Maritime Affairs Office can be considered a help."

"But if we haven't made any progress yet, then it will be difficult for the guests to deal with..."

Zhou Yunyi suddenly spoke.

Then he turned around and looked at the sunny sky outside, feeling that he really needed to go back to the Imperial Observatory to calculate Yan Shaoting's fortune and future.

Xu Wei stood up and looked at Xiao Junpeng: "I have to go to the capital to see what the elder says. You should keep an eye on Changping these days. Midsummer is here, and we need to be on guard against mountain floods."

Xiao Junpeng immediately bowed and accepted the order.

Xu Wei and Lu Yi left the yamen and rode their horses towards the capital.

same moment.

An express courier also arrived at the Tongzhengshisi Yamen.

The Tongzhengshisi Yamen was in charge of internal and external memorials and sealed appeals from subjects. In short, most of the memorials submitted by local officials in the court had to be submitted to the Tongzhengshisi first, and then go to the right place.

And today.

The memorial that had just been delivered was placed on the desk of Hu Rulin, the Minister of the Ministry of Public Administration. He could not help but frown and was a little undecided. The reason why Hu Rulin had such a reaction was that the memorial in front of him should not have appeared on his desk.

Normally, memorials from officials inside and outside the court had to go to the Tongzhengshisi Yamen, but this was just a routine practice.

There are always some officials who are in high positions and have great power, and can submit memorials directly to the cabinet or even before the emperor.

Yan Shaoting, the general manager of the six provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, the commander-in-chief of Nanjing military affairs and the local inspector, has a memorial.

Such a memorial obviously shouldn't be delivered to me!

Hu Ruolin looked at the origin of the memorial and couldn't help but speculate.

Although he didn't know why the eldest son of Lord Yan's family would send the memorial to him, Hu Ruolin knew that the other party wanted him to see the memorial first.

After all, it is impossible for express delivery to be delivered to the wrong place.

then.

Hu Ruolin opened the memorial and looked over.

This look.

Hu Ruolin instantly broke out in a cold sweat.

dong dong dong.

Da da da.

Dense footsteps sounded outside Wenyuan Pavilion, coming from far away and rushing towards Wenyuan Pavilion.

The Zhongshu Sheren who worked in Wenyuan Pavilion hurriedly dodged and made way for the group of red-robed bosses who suddenly rushed into the palace.

"It's only been a hundred years, and it was even our secondary capital, but now it has become a den of thieves! This matter must not be dealt with lightly, otherwise it would be tolerating evil! With so many people, such a large scale, and such seriousness, the court should be furious and kill the treacherous and corrupt officials!"

Wenyuan Pavilion duty room.

Yan Shifan, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, who was in charge of the Ministry of Justice, had a furious look on his face, his eyes wide open and he waved his arms to denounce Chen Ci.

Xu Jie, who sat in the second chair in the cabinet, felt shaken and had a headache.

He never thought of it.

He had just agreed with the officials from the south in the court to transfer Hai Rui from the post of governor of Yingtian back to the capital, so as to weaken Yan Shaoting's support in Jiangnan.

But it didn't happen.

The decree to summon Hai Rui back to Beijing was just issued yesterday.

Yan Shaoting submitted such a memorial today.

The Tongzhengshisi Yamen had already prepared a number of copies of memorials, one of which was placed on the desk in front of Xu Jie.

In this duty room.

Every cabinet minister has a copy.

As for the officials from various ministries and offices who rushed to the cabinet, they also held a copy in their hands.

Xu Jie glanced with some anger at the Minister of Public Security Hu Ruolin who was hiding in the crowd.

If this memorial had been submitted to the Ministry of Public Security, Hu Ruolin would have sent it directly to the Cabinet instead of sending copies to the Ministry of Justice, the Censorate, and the Supreme Court as the memorial involved related matters. In this way, things would not have become so difficult.

Hu Ruolin naturally noticed Xu Ci Fu's somewhat angry look, but he didn't care much.

He and the Xu family had no relationship to begin with. The reason why Lord Yan's grandson sent the memorial to him was just to make a big deal out of the matter and let everyone in the court know about it.

"check!"

"We must investigate thoroughly! The country is in the midst of reform, and the officials in the court are now working day and night for the country. These people in the south, not to mention the extravagant life on the Qinhuai River, are actually so corrupt and illegal. Aren't they holding the country back?"

"Nanjing is the secondary capital, in charge of the southern provinces, the carrier of canal shipping, and the financial and taxation center of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. There must not be any mistakes!"

Just after Yan Shifan spoke first, Ouyang Bijin, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, was also filled with anger and denounced him in a deep voice.

Two of the three judges have spoken.

No matter what, the remaining Dali Temple officials also followed suit and demanded a thorough investigation and prosecution of the case that Yan Shaoting had sent back to Beijing.

The Minister of Rites Yan Ne also frowned.

This incident happened suddenly today and it is really difficult to deal with now.

But before he could figure out how to downplay the seriousness of the matter.

Yang Bo coughed lightly and stood up.

"The South has always been an important place for our dynasty's finances and taxes. For so many years, our dynasty has always taken wealth from the South to support the officers and soldiers of the Nine Borders."

"That's why the South cannot be in chaos. Once the South is in chaos, if we allow these people to continue to be so corrupt and lawless, it will inevitably affect the canal shipping and military transport, and then all nine borders will be affected."

"The imperial court should enforce strict laws and rectify these corrupt officials in Nanjing, who are the parasites of the country!"

As soon as Yang Bo opened his mouth, Yan Ne felt that breathing became a little difficult.

This man was the Minister of War, and he directly mentioned the relationship between the South and the Nine Frontiers.

This is equivalent to saying that if the South is not dealt with, the Nine Frontiers will be destroyed immediately and the bandits outside the Great Wall will be able to rush into Beijing immediately.

Li Chunfang, who was sitting at the end of the cabinet duty room, looked around, then knocked on the table, turned his head to look at the Prime Minister in the innermost room, and said with a smile: "No matter how much you say, it makes sense. The south is indeed important and it concerns all places. But because of this, I am afraid that this matter cannot be handled too roughly. If it is not handled properly, it may cause another accident. Now the memorial only says that the people in the various ministries and yamen in Nanjing have been put under surveillance, but it is not clear what kind of surveillance it is. If the yamen is gone, how can the south be governed? Is it possible that there will be chaos soon?"

After calming down the atmosphere in the duty room.

Li Chunfang then said, "This is such a big incident, it must have involved many people. The lawbreakers must be investigated, but there are always priorities, and I don't think everyone is corrupt. The South cannot be left without governance all of a sudden. The court can perhaps send an imperial envoy to the South to sort out this case, and those who should be prosecuted should be prosecuted, those who should be dismissed should be dismissed, and those who should be beheaded should be beheaded. Those who are implicated can be given lighter sentences and continue to stay in office to maintain governance in the South."

Yan Shifan looked over immediately, with a flash of displeasure and sarcasm in his eyes.

How could he not understand Li Chunfang's little thoughts?

They are all old foxes in the officialdom. In fact, Yan Shifan had used more shady tricks in the past than Li Chunfang had eaten.

Yan Shifan immediately spoke up: "Lord Li, this matter has just happened and has not been investigated yet. How can we prioritize it now? Or...if our Ming Dynasty dismisses these people from office now, will the South be in chaos? Will everyone rebel?"

Li Chunfang immediately looked over with wide eyes.

But Yan Shifan didn't even look at them, and sneered, "If the south is in chaos because of these people being dismissed, I'm afraid these changes are all related to the officials who have committed crimes. They are ambitious people who have long harbored evil intentions!"

In addition to his sarcasm, Yan Shifan did not forget to patch up the situation in the south as a backup plan.

Li Chunfang was speechless for a moment: "You..."

Bang bang bang.

In the duty room.

Xu Jie knocked on the table with a gloomy face.

…………

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(End of this chapter)