On the ninth day of March, Li Zhi was sitting in the Qianqing Palace, facing the emperor Zhu Youjian who was sitting behind the desk.
It is a great honor for ordinary ministers to be given a seat in the Qianqing Palace and sit and discuss national policies with the emperor. Generally, ministers sit on such a chair with their buttocks half sitting on the chair. He leaned forward with a respectful expression on his face.
However, for a prince like Li Zhi, who is a majestic king, there is no need to assume such a humble posture.
The chair Li Zhi sat on was a rosewood chair with a backrest, which was very comfortable to sit on. Sitting in such a chair and discussing matters with the emperor, Li Zhi did not feel like he was listening to a sage, but more like discussing important matters together.
Zhu Youjian took out a memorial from the desk, read it, handed it to Li Zhi and said, "King Qi, take a look at this memorial."
Li Zhi opened the memorial.
The memorial was written by Zhang Guanghang, the secretary of Dongge University. The memorial was to ask the emperor to arrest Jia Sanwei, the minister of the Ministry of War, Dong Jiuqi, the minister of the Ministry of Rites, Zhao Guangqing, the minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and Wang Heze, the young minister of the Dali Temple. The three ministers were asked to carefully examine this memorial. Whether the seven people communicated with the traitor Shi Kefa and Wu Sangui.
Li Zhi saw the list of these seven people and knew that these were the seven civil servants who jumped out when Jiangbei Army besieged the city some time ago. At that time, the city of Beijing was about to be breached, and the civil servants were extremely arrogant. Among the arrogant civil servants, these seven People are the most outstanding.
At that time, Wang Heze even called on the ministers to kill Zhang Guanghang in the court. If Zhu Youjian hadn't sent Dongchang fanzi to protect him, Zhang Guanghang would have died long ago.
Now that the Jiangbei Army has failed, Zhang Guanghang will of course fight back against these seven people. Not only Zhang Guanghang will fight back, but the emperor will also fight back.
But before counterattacking, one must consult Li Zhi for his opinion.
Now there are actually three parties in the government and the opposition. The unarmed civil servants and gentry still control the south of the Yangtze River. The emperor who has only 20,000 new troops left is the emperor of the Ming Dynasty. With hundreds of thousands of strong troops, 60,000 tiger soldiers are marching to the outskirts of the capital. Li Zhi controlled one town and nine provinces.
The emperor's appointment of these nine civil servants was tantamount to punishing the betrayal of the civil servants and gentry, and it was tantamount to launching an attack on the collectively rebellious gentry. Without Li Zhi's support, the gentry would surely be counterattacked.
The gentry's Jiangbei army was destroyed, but the emperor's new army was also destroyed. If Li Zhi did not support the emperor, the gentry had enough time to pull out another Jiangbei army in the south of the Yangtze River.
At this time, the emperor urgently needed Li Zhi's support.
So the emperor invited Li Zhi to the Qianqing Palace and showed Li Zhi this memorial. Zhu Youjian needed Li Zhi's statement.
But seeing the emperor's actions and wondering about the emperor's thoughts, Li Zhi became a little unhappy.
After reading the memorial for a while, Li Zhi asked: "The Holy Father gave this memorial to me because he suspected that I had good relations with the civil servants?"
Hearing Li Zhi's words, Zhu Youjian felt very embarrassed.
Indeed, there have been too many rumors inside and outside the palace recently, which made Zhu Youjian a little suspicious of Li Zhi's position.
Recently, there are rumors in the palace that Li Zhi agreed to Chen Wenyue's banquet and wanted to hold a meeting with civil servants at the Chen family to repair relations with them.
Nowadays, Li Zhi can be said to be less than one person and more than ten thousand people, and his power has reached the sky. And now Li Zhi is sending out a signal to make friends with the civil servants who have always been hostile. What does this mean?
Even if the emperor believed that Li Zhi was a loyal minister, he could not help but suspect that Li Zhi made friends with civil servants in order to control the court.
Therefore, Zhu Youjian is not sure whether he and Zhang Guanghang can get Li Zhi's support in tracking down these seven people. If Li Zhi is really planning to use his military power to become a powerful minister and prepare to make good friends with civilian officials, then Li Zhi will not Support yourself.
Under such circumstances, if Zhu Youjian went to war against the civil servants, he would be besieged by officials and gentry from all over the country.
Therefore, Zhu Youjian urgently needs Li Zhi's statement.
Li Zhi put together Zhang Guanghang's memorial and said slowly: "I think this operation is very inappropriate."
Hearing Li Zhi's words, Zhu Youjian's eyes widened and he couldn't react for a long time.
His face turned pale, and his eyes already showed a helpless and depressed mood.
Wang Chengen, who was standing aside, heard Li Zhi's words and his face turned red with excitement. He pointed at Li Zhi and shouted loudly: "Li Zhi, if you really want to control the court, you must be Cao Aha and He Liuhun."
What?"
Zhu Youjian's face changed when he heard Wang Chengen's scolding, and he shouted angrily: "Shut up! Wang Chengen, I am discussing with King Qi, when will it be your turn to interrupt?"
Wang Chengen glared angrily, but not at the emperor, but at Li Zhi, as if his thin body was full of strength. He took a step forward and said to Li Zhi: "Li Zhi, you heard me clearly
, if you want to be Cao Amo, I, Wang Chengen, will be the first to rush forward and stab you to death!"
When Zhu Youjian heard this, he glanced at Li Zhi in a panic, slammed his hand on the desk, and shouted in a loud voice: "What a shame!"
Wang Chengen then put away his ferocious face and knelt on the ground with a plop, unable to get up.
Zhu Youjian looked at Wang Chengen on the ground, his eyes rolled, and he didn't speak for a long time.
Zhu Youjian was worried about Wang Chengen's safety.
Wang Chengen said such cruel words. If Li Zhi really wanted to be a powerful minister and control the court, he would never let Wang Chengen go. Wang Chengen was a confidant brought out by Zhu Youjian from Prince Xin's palace. How could Zhu Youjian look at him and say
Saying such suicidal words?
However, Wang Chengen's words have already been spoken, and the water has been poured out.
Zhu Youjian looked at Wang Chengen on the ground, closed his eyes, and sighed helplessly.
Opening his eyes, Zhu Youjian looked at Li Zhi and asked, "How does King Qi think he should deal with these ministers waving their fists in the court?"
Zhu Youjian heard that Li Zhi said "it is very inappropriate to do this" and thought that Li Zhi was undoubtedly going to marry a civil servant. At this time, he no longer expected Li Zhi to kill these seven people, so he no longer said that the seven people threatened him as the emperor.
But it was just an understatement that the seven people wanted to fight Zhang Guanghang.
No matter how bad Li Zhi is, he is still better than Shi Kefa of the Jiangbei Army, right? I have gotten along very well with Li Zhi over the years. Li Zhi must at least save some face for himself, the emperor. At least he must demote these seven rebellious people.
Bar?
Li Zhi looked at Wang Chengen who was lying on the ground and said, "Your Majesty has misunderstood me."
"My intention is not not to deal with these seven people, but to deal with them, and not just these seven people!"
"What I mean is that we should not kill only these seven people. In my opinion, all the 1,161 civil and military generals in the Manchu Dynasty and the capital who have illegal connections with the Jiangbei Army can be killed."
Hearing Li Zhi's words, Wang Chengen on the ground suddenly raised his head and stared at Li Zhi with wide eyes.
Zhu Youjian seemed to have heard a thunderclap, and was stunned. He couldn't react for a moment, and he dropped the writing stone in his hand on the table with a clang.
His body froze there, staring at Li Zhi blankly, unable to react for a long time.
"One thousand...one thousand?...to kill one thousand one hundred and sixty-one officials?"
