But this time, Chongzhen really used the heart of a villain to judge the heart of a gentleman.
Zhang Shenyan complained that Chongzhen did not hold a prisoner dedication ceremony. It was really not to satisfy the formalism of the civil servant group, but entirely for Chongzhen's sake.
Zhang Shenyan was nearly seventy years old, so how could he not see that Chongzhen was slandering him?
However, this gentleman is a true gentleman, and he is also an enlightened gentleman. He does not make a fuss about Chongzhen's pigtails like those rotten scholars who only seek fame and reputation.
At that moment, Zhang Shenyan sighed: "Your Majesty, I am not sincerely finding fault with you to embarrass you. In fact, I agree with many of your measures, Your Majesty. For example, you implemented various examinations in the Imperial College Examination, not just
Confined to Cheng Wen, the veteran strongly agrees that the Eight-legged Cheng Wen should have been removed from the imperial examination long ago."
"As you said, Confucian etiquette should keep pace with the times, and the veteran also deeply agrees."
"We are now in the Warring States period when etiquette has collapsed and music has collapsed. Our Confucian etiquette has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, so formal things such as respecting the virtuous, virtuous, and relatives should have been abolished, especially for the venerable."
"Because we have the same name as the emperor, we have to change the names of the ancients. How can there be such truth in the world?"
"Another example, Your Majesty, ordered the King of Jingjiang, Duke of Guizhou, Duke of Wei and other royal family members to donate all their farmland to help the country overcome the difficulties. The veteran even raised his hands in agreement."
"There is also the matter of reforming one's native land and returning home, and the veterans also agree with it very much."
Zhang Shenyan said this, which made Chongzhen dumbfounded. He couldn't tell that Zhang Shenyan, a highly respected person, was so proficient in flattering others that I was embarrassed to say it.
But Chongzhen was also very smart and quickly realized that something was wrong.
"What?" Chongzhen's face fell and he said coldly, "Listening to what Mr. Zhang Ge said, is there another censor in the capital who is insulting me? And the insults are quite unpleasant?"
"There is no wiser person than Your Majesty." Zhang Shen said, "Your Majesty, public opinion in Beijing is already fierce."
"Public opinion is fierce?" Chongzhen said with a snort, "So the people who insult me are not just one or two censors, but a lot of censors, huh?"
Zhang Shenyan said: "Your Majesty, as of yesterday, most of the imperial officials in Beijing have submitted memorials, and many affairs officials have also submitted memorials, and they are all scolding you."
"Really?" Chongzhen said with a smile, "Where is the memorial? Bring it to me and let me have a look."
"Your Majesty, you don't need to read the memorial, so as not to make your dragon body angry." At this time, Lu Zhenfei said, "As long as you know about this matter, then we will conduct a new prisoner sacrifice ceremony and win peace.
The Sha Dingzhou Rebellion created a great public opinion, which should be able to suppress the criticism of minor ministers and reunite the hearts and minds of the people."
"That won't work." Chongzhen laughed and said, "I just want to see it."
After saying this, Chongzhen said again: "Should you give it to me, or should I have someone get it?"
"Your Majesty, I have kept here the most outrageous book." Qian Qianyi suddenly took out a book from his sleeve.
Gao Qiqian, who was standing nearby, immediately took the memorial from Qian Qianyi's hand and walked quickly to Chongzhen to present it to him.
Chongzhen opened the memorial and saw a line of beautiful regular script written on the title page: Li Huie, editor-in-chief of the Hanlin Academy, would like to memorialise.
"Li Huie? Why does this name look familiar to me?" Chongzhen thought thoughtfully, "I think I've seen it somewhere?"
Qian Qianyi looked embarrassed when he heard this. Lu Zhenfei, Zhang Shenyan and Meng Zhaoxiang also rolled their eyes after hearing this, thinking, Your Majesty, can you be more favorable to one and less to the other?
Lu Zhenfei said: "Your Majesty, Li Huie is the number one scholar in the Yi family!"
"Ah? Oh, I remembered it." Chongzhen said suddenly, "Last year Enke was the number one scholar."
Lu Zhenfei and the other four people were even more speechless. Your Majesty, you are so careless about Enke, the Second Chief, that you can't even remember the top pick.
Scroll down further, and the first sentence is a quote from Hai Rui: In order to speak frankly about the first thing in the world, to uphold the rule of the king, to clarify the duties of ministers, and to seek peace and security for all generations, do you want to imitate Hai Rui?
The king is the lord of all things in the world.
You must not be careless, you must not fail to observe, you must not fail to cultivate your virtue.
Seeing this sentence, Chongzhen's face immediately fell. Are you scolding me for not cultivating virtue?
What follows is a lengthy exposition on virtue, quoting from scriptures, and Chongzhen simply ignored it. These are all nonsense and have no real content.
Thousands of words later, I finally have substantive content.
Your Majesty has committed many misconducts since becoming emperor, and his crimes include eight.
The first crime is to abandon the ancestral mausoleum without authorization, which is unfilial...
The second crime is abandoning land without reason, causing the land north of the Yellow River to sink...
The third crime is misinterpreting Confucian etiquette, leading to moral decay...
The fourth crime is being unkind and unkind, depriving an honorable minister of his family property without reason...
The fifth crime is excessive rewards and excessive rewards, and unscrupulous criminals get their land without considerable merit...
The sixth crime is greed for money and good goods, setting up market exchanges, and banks maliciously amassing people's wealth...
The seventh crime is immorality, taking prostitutes and barbarian women as concubines, and not knowing what shame is...
The eighth sin is that he is obsessed with the bottom line of miscellaneous knowledge, loves strange skills and tricks, and regards the imperial examination road as nothing, and is doing the opposite, intending to subvert the Confucian way of selecting scholars for thousands of years?
Chongzhen was sweating profusely after seeing this eloquent scolding.
"Haha, okay, okay." Chongzhen closed the memorial and sneered, "Here comes Zuo Guangxian again."
Lu Zhenfei said: "Your Majesty, there are differences between Li Huei and Zuo Guangxian. Zuo Guangxian is a rotten scholar who only seeks fame and reputation, but Li Huei's personal ethics can be regarded as a model official."
"So, he was right in his scolding." Chongzhen said with a smile, "Am I wrong?"
"Your Majesty, this is not what I meant." Lu Zhenfei said with a dark face, "It is definitely wrong for Li Huei to insult Your Majesty like this, and his words are indeed a bit excessive."
"What Mr. Lu Ge means, am I wrong?" Chongzhen said with a smile, "Although Li Huei's words are a bit extreme, his general meaning is not wrong. Is this what Mr. Ge meant?"
Lu Zhenfei fell silent, obviously because Chongzhen was right.
In fact, the cabinet has been quarreling almost every day in the past few months.
Or to be more precise, the first assistant Lu Zhenfei and the second assistant Zhang Shenyan quarreled every day.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The third assistant Meng Zhaoxiang and the fourth assistant Qian Qianyi stayed out of the matter and rarely participated in the debate.
Lu Zhenfei remained silent, but Zhang Shenyan said enthusiastically: "Anyone who achieves great things should not stick to trivial matters. Your Majesty does not need to care about the nonsense of these small ministers."
Hearing this, Lu Zhenfei couldn't help it.
"Miaoshan, Li Huei's words are not necessarily all nonsense, right?" Lu Zhenfei frowned and said, "Ignore other things, he is right about reforming Confucian etiquette and learning the latest and rarest techniques.
As well as depriving the family members of all the farmland in their name, Your Majesty would be a little too rough and too concerned."
Chongzhen frowned when he heard this.
The human heart is really like water, how deep is it?
Therefore, controlling the human heart is the most difficult thing.
It has only been less than a year, and the honeymoon period between Lu Zhenfei, the new chief minister of the cabinet, is over? What is this? After defeating the Donglin Party, has the Imperial Party started fighting among themselves?
What the hell, if you don't fight with the party, you won't feel comfortable?
"I find it difficult to agree with Shou Kui's statement." Zhang Shenyan retorted, "Can't Confucian etiquette be changed? Confucius once said, don't be afraid to change if you have made mistakes. Zuo Zhuan also said that if you make mistakes, you can change them, and there is no greater good..."
Lu Zhenfei argued: "The question is, have Confucian etiquette really passed? Has it really reached the point where it must be changed?"
"What can't be done?" Zhang Shen said, "Let's not talk about respecting the virtuous and virtuous, it would be wrong to eliminate human desires based on the natural principles. The reason why people desire is the natural principles, how to get rid of them? If human desires are eliminated, can we still be considered human beings?
?Things!”
"This is really fallacy." Lu Zhenfei said angrily, "You are sophistry and you are misinterpreting."
"Okay, stop arguing." Chongzhen could only interrupt the quarrel between the two of them, and asked with a dark face, "So, what are Li Huie's demands? Do they just want to scold me, or do they just want to scold me?
Do you want to force me to change my ways?"
"Father!" Zhu Cijiong suddenly roared at this time. I bet he had already finished reading the memorial.
Zhu Cijiong took out his sword with his backhand and said with a dark face: "I'm going to find Li Huie and chop him with one knife!"
"Shut up! Why are you chopping?" Chongzhen scolded, "If you let people speak, the sky will not fall."
After a pause, Chongzhen asked Lu Zhenfei again: "Mr. Lu Ge, what are the specific demands of Li Huie and the others?"
Seeing that Lu Zhenfei was hesitant to speak, Zhang Shenyan immediately became impatient and said on his behalf: "Your Majesty, Li Huie and the others demand that the etiquette of honoring the virtuous and virtuous be restored, and that the emperor's eldest grandson change his name, and that the edict abolishing foot binding be withdrawn. In addition,
He also demands that all the residences, family property and land of the clan princes and honorable ministers be returned. Oh, by the way, Vice General Li and Shi Nanxuan Fu’s envoy Ran Sanniang also want to be expelled from Zhongwei immediately."
"This is simply unreasonable!" Chongzhen was furious when he heard this.
"You civil servants can have prostitutes and concubines, and live happily, but you still have to take care of me if I only have two concubines? I am a marionette in your hands. I will do whatever you ask me to do, and I will do whatever you don't let me do.
You can't do it at all? Am I the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, or are you the emperor of the Ming Dynasty? Om?"
"Your Majesty, calm down!" Lu Zhenfei quickly turned over and knelt on the ground, "Expulsion of Vice General Li and Envoy Ran Xuan from Zhongwei. This matter is indeed caused by the unreasonable troubles of those humble officials. I have already reprimanded him on behalf of Your Majesty."
"It's not just this." Chongzhen snorted, "I will not allow any other demands! If they are not convinced, just continue to insult me in the memorial and see if they can beat me to death."
Lu Zhenfei advised: "Your Majesty, people's words are scary, so we still need to be cautious."
"People's words are to be feared?" Chongzhen snorted coldly, "Elder Ge is right, people's words are to be feared."
Speaking of this meal, Chongzhen continued: "I will let them know what it means to be truly fearful. Jiong'er, let's go and follow our father to the East Palace to see our eldest grandson of the Ming Emperor, Zhu He.
充!”
After saying this, Chongzhen turned around and left, leaving the four pavilion elders messy in the cold wind.
