The memorials of Shi Dao and the Kong family were sent to the capital at almost the same time.
The historical records explain the whole story and impeached the Confucius family in Qufu for the following crimes: worshiping the old dynasty god and plotting evil; attacking and killing court officials without royal laws; burning the main hall of the Confucius Temple and deceiving the master and destroying the ancestors.
The memorial of the Confucius family is very interesting. It says that a group of bandits came from Qufu and were chased and intercepted by the Confucius family. They finally fled into the Confucius Temple in a panic. In order to escape for their lives, these bandits actually set fire to the main hall of the Confucius Temple and escaped while the Confucius family was putting out the fire. Although Confucius was able to put out the fire.
He put out the fire in time, but most of the main hall of the Confucius Temple was still burned down, so he asked the court to allocate money to repair the Confucius Temple.
After reading these two memorials, the five cabinet ministers, including Wang Yuan, were stunned.
"Poof!"
Wang Hong's temper was the most violent. He was so angry that he slammed the table and shouted: "What do the Qufu Kong family want? Regardless of worshiping the gods of the old dynasty or attacking and killing the imperial officials, they even dared to burn the temple fields of their ancestors.
Not the son of man!"
Wang Hong is a very interesting person. The imperial party promoted by Zhu Houzhao was previously sandwiched between Wang Yuan and Yang Tinghe. It was difficult for him to develop his own party members and he always held office with his tail between his legs.
After Yang Tinghe became official, Wang Hong completely surrendered to Wang Yuan, advocated and supported reforms with all his strength, and fought for Wang Yuan many times in the court.
However, Wang Hong has a somewhat narrow mind and likes to mess with people who have offended him in the past. He often takes advantage of opportunities to cause trouble, which always amplifies the struggle. If he is the leader and assistant, it will inevitably lead to party strife.
"Alas, the Kong family is so confused!" Mao Ji sighed.
Mao Ji, who was once a die-hard Yang Party member, is now living a pretty good life. As the second assistant, as long as he does not hinder the reform, Wang Yuan will not cause trouble for him, and he will give him enough respect for his political work.
Wang Qiong shook his head and said: "This matter is difficult to handle. There is no way to investigate. Failure to investigate will bring shame to the court."
Anyone who can be a cabinet minister will naturally not be a fool.
As soon as the two memorials were put on the table, one could immediately guess the truth of the matter. But as Wang Qiong said, there was no way to investigate this matter. Kong Jiaming refused to admit his guilt and could even sue Shi Dao for slander.
Confucius. But it’s impossible not to investigate. The Confucius Temple was burned inexplicably, and the right governor of Shandong was injured. If we don’t investigate and deal with it seriously, where will the face of the court and the emperor be?
Everyone looked at Wang Yuan.
Wang Yuan smiled and said to Wang Xian: "Wei Gang, why don't you speak? You are from Dongping, Yanzhou. Your hometown is close to Qufu, so tell me how the Kong family used to be."
Among the five cabinet ministers, Wang Xian is just a decoration. In terms of ability and qualifications, he is not qualified to join the cabinet. But he has not made any mistakes. Wang Yuan cannot expel people randomly, so he can only get him into the cabinet to free up the seat of Minister of War.
To your own people.
Wang Xian smiled bitterly: "Qufu is a country within a country, what else can you say?"
Mao Ji wanted to protect the Kong family before. Even if the Kong family was enshrined in the previous dynasty, he felt that he could restrain and correct it. However, Mao Ji was angered this time. The Kong family in Qufu actually dared to set fire to the Confucius Temple!
Mao Ji said angrily: "We should send the three judicial departments to interrogate Qufu to get to the bottom of this case!"
Wang Qiong sighed: "It can't be found out. As long as the Kong family doesn't admit it, no matter what the result is, it will be said that you were beaten into submission. Once the Kong family is severely punished and the matter spreads, the court's rationale will become unreasonable."
Everyone was speechless and could not refute.
Take the contemporary Yanshenggong Kong Wenshao's father as an example. His father's name was Kong Hongxu. There are a lot of historical records about how he was favored by the emperor.
Suddenly the pen changed: "Too much is better than to lift... seize the title and become a commoner."
If you only read the official history, you will probably be confused. I just said that this person grew up with the emperor and became the son-in-law of the chief minister of the cabinet. How come he was suddenly deposed as a commoner, and he didn't even mention a specific crime?
clear.
We must combine the private writings of Ming Dynasty officials to understand what Kong Hongxu did to rape more than 40 women and strangle four innocent people to death with his own hands.
For committing such a serious crime, the history books only use three words to summarize it: "more than enough". Moreover, after being demoted to a commoner, the new emperor restored the title of Duke Yansheng, but without the title of Duke Yansheng, and all the treatment was restored to the original.
God probably couldn't stand it, but the second year after Kong Hongxu resumed his official robes of Yanshenggong, the Confucius Temple was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.
Descendants of Confucius and Saints cannot use common sense to judge crimes. Even if they are guilty, they must cover up, otherwise they will lose the face of scholars all over the world.
As the chief minister of the dynasty, Wang Yuan must handle this matter properly, otherwise he will be questioned by both the government and the public.
It doesn’t matter if you check it, and it doesn’t matter if you don’t check it!
What to do?
Wang Yuan smiled and said: "Why do you need to worry? In my opinion, the descendants of Confucius must be both talented and virtuous, and they will never deceive their teachers and destroy their ancestors with evil intentions. Shi Dao, the governor of Shandong Province, is purely framed and falsely accused.
He will be punished with a fine of three months' salary!"
Everyone was surprised, this was not like Wang Yuan's style.
This time, instead of investigating and punishing the Confucius family, Shi Dao, the accuser, was punished. How could he be the chief minister if the news spread? First, it chilled the hearts of many students, second, chilled the hearts of upright ministers, and third, it destroyed the dignity of the court.
"but!"
Wang Yuan smiled and continued: "Confucius is a sage, and it is impossible for all the descendants of the saint to be sages. The Three Laws Division is still working on the case of King Lu and King De, and has not taken care of the case of the children of Kong for the time being. He asked Qing Jin of Dali Temple
Lei, personally investigate many cases of the Kong family's children. In order to clear the Kong family's children as soon as possible, the cases must be investigated quickly, and your Majesty can ask the Jinyi Guards to help investigate."
Everyone was stunned, and Wang Qiong suddenly clapped his hands and praised: "This is a wonderful plan!"
Mao Ji also handed over his hand and said: "The Prime Minister is so good at his methods that I am ashamed to bow down to him."
Since the Kong family is acting rogue, it would be wrong for the court to investigate it, and it would also be wrong not to investigate it.
Wang Yuan then acted like a rogue, not investigating, but still wanting to investigate, and investigating without investigating.
What does it mean?
Bypassing this major case, let Jin Lei, the minister of Dali Temple, personally take the Jin Yiwei to Qufu to review the old cases of the Kong family's children. These cases were originally said to be investigated, but the Three Law Departments are too busy, so Dali is now
It was reasonable for the temple minister to take over.
If we use war as an analogy, the Kong family suddenly sent out a group of strange soldiers, blocking the place where Wang Yuan's main force must pass. If they can't get around it, they can't be eaten. Wang Yuan ignored this group of strange soldiers at all and sent another one by himself.
A surprise force went around to the hinterland of the Kong family to carry out raids and destroy the production and logistics of the Kong family.
This kind of military tactics is the core military thought of Mao Zedong: You fight yours, and I fight mine, but I have to take the initiative.
The Kong family has the capital to act tyrannically, and Wang Yuan also has the capital to act tyrannically. Can the Kong family in Qufu continue to squander the imperial court?
Although Jin Lei went to Qufu only to check on the Kong clan, he was going to take the Jin Yiwei with him. The Kong clan was used to being domineering and had committed countless crimes. They followed the clues and uncovered them all. Finally, they followed up with Kong Wenshao.
, Kong Wenli calculates the general ledger!
At the end of the investigation, Jinyiwei's methods will surely prove that Confucius Wenli burned down the Confucius Temple, and that it was the Confucius family members who came forward as witnesses.
Doing this may seem like a redundant step. It would be better to directly investigate the case of burning the Confucius Temple, but we must go around in circles to investigate. We must take into account the face of Confucius, the court, the emperor, Wang Yuan, and the scholars all over the world. Otherwise, we will inevitably be criticized by public opinion, and we will not pay attention to Wang Yuan.
Yuan's reputation was completely ruined.
Investigate minor cases instead of major cases, accidentally uncovering countless major cases, throw the case files out for court discussion, and let the civil and military officials of the court see the face of the Kong family.
Who can say anything?
When the time comes, Wang Yuan casually puts in a good word for the Confucius family, and the Confucian scholars all over the world will have to praise Wang Yuan for his kindness, even though he is still helping them protect the descendants of Confucius.
If Jin Lei can handle this matter well, he can be promoted to the left minister of the Ministry of Punishment when he returns to Beijing.