"The three handsome men were dignified and upright, and established the government with integrity. Now at the age of seventy-six, the court wants to execute him for his words?"
Huang Daozhou, the governor of Zhejiang and Fujian, went to Beijing to gather. When he heard that Zheng Sanjun had been sentenced to death, he knocked on the palace door anxiously and asked to see the prince.
The prince also respected Mr. Huang very much. He personally welcomed him into the palace and made him tea.
"Sir, drink tea first."
Huang Daozhou was not only the governor of Zhejiang and Fujian, but also the prince's East Palace Zhanshifu Shaozhanshi, and the prince's young master. Governor Huang Daozhou was away from home, but he did not forget his part-time job. He often corresponded with the prince, and the prince also had a deep affection for this famous person in the court.
I respect you very much, and the relationship between the two is still good.
In theory, although Huang Daozhou is only eleven years younger than Zheng Sanjun, he can be regarded as Zheng Sanjun's student. Zheng Sanjun was a Jinshi in the 26th year of Wanli. Huang Daozhou was a Jinshi in the second year of Tianqi. Zheng Sanjun did a scholarship in Fujian in the 42nd year of Wanli.
So, Huang Daozhou took part in the provincial examination at that time.
That year, when Huang Daozhou was ten years old, he originally intended to be ranked first in the text, but ended up illegally ranking fifth. Zheng Sanjun felt deeply regretful, and not only asked Huang Daozhou to ghostwrite the "Preface to the Teeth Record" for him, but he also took out a hundred and fifty
Twelve taels of silver to wish the mother of Huang Daozhou a birthday.
For a newcomer to the imperial examination, this is a great honor.
According to the imperial examination customs in the late Ming Dynasty, the candidate Huang Daozhou could be called Tixue Zheng Sanjun as his teacher.
Compared with Huang Daozhou's bumpy career, Zheng Sanjun's career was much smoother. He became a Jinshi at the age of twenty-four and started as a county magistrate. He successively served as a doctor in the Ministry of Rites of Nanjing, the magistrate of Guide, and the deputy envoy of Fujian Province. During the Tianqi period, he opposed the eunuch party.
He had exclusive power and was deprived of his post. He lived idle, but he was quickly re-appointed in the first year of Chongzhen, and was appointed as the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing and in charge of the Ministry of Personnel. He was then transferred to Beijing as the Minister of the Ministry of Punishments and then the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel.
Since Huang Daozhou was appreciated by Zheng Sanjun, the elder of Donglin, he became a Jinshi in the second year of Tianqi and was initially appointed as editor of the Hanlin Academy. However, due to several conflicts with Chongzhen, his official career was not smooth. In the third year of Chongzhen, he resolutely saved Qian Longxi.
Please resign. He was re-appointed in the tenth year of Chongzhen. He was promoted to Zuo Yude and then to Shaozhanshi. However, in the second year, he was demoted six levels by Chongzhen and demoted to Jiangxi for opposing Yang Sichang's love affair. Later, the governor of Jiangxi recommended him for use, which in turn caused Huang Daozhou.
He was sent to Guangxi by the emperor. In the 14th year, Chongzhen recalled him, but he did not want to be an official and returned to his hometown to write books and lecture.
Huang Daozhou's official career was actually very similar to Liu Zongzhou's, both of whom were also famous Confucian masters in the late Ming Dynasty.
The Zheng family of Nanyuan in Chizhou was also a famous noble family in the Ming Dynasty.
Zheng Sanjun and the Zheng family met such an end, how could Huang Daozhou do nothing to save them?
He was so anxious that he talked to the young crown prince about Zheng Sanjun's various political achievements after he became an official, how he opposed the eunuch party, how he recommended virtuous people, etc. Now he is almost eighty years old, and he is also the master of the East Palace.
He was in charge of his position, and now he was convicted for his words, and he had to be executed and implicated his family. How could this kind of thing happen in the Shaotian Dynasty?
During the Tianqi period, when Wei Eun was in power, nothing like this would have happened.
Prince Hongjia sat there calmly. In fact, when he decided to execute Fan Xun and Ding Qixiang, he knew that a storm was coming.
And he chose to face it head on.
His decision was reported to the emperor. The emperor not only agreed, but also went the extra mile. Not only did he kill Ding's uncle and nephew, but he also implicated Zheng Sanjun, Hou Xun, Hou Fangyu, etc., a total of thirteen officials of third rank or above were to be executed.
This matter is more extensive than the prince expected.
The emperor is far away in the northwest, but since he has a decree, the prince should obey it. However, the emperor did not issue an explicit decree, but replied in a letter to the prince. The official decision was to let the prince, the left-behind supervisor, regent the crown prince and the left-behind prince.
The imperial court officially came forward.
Zhu Hongjia issued an order to supervise the country and deal with all the officials and students involved in the scandal.
In the end, thirteen senior officials including Zheng Sanjun, Hou Xun, Ding Qirui, and Ding Kuichu were executed for this crime. More than 300 other high-ranking officials were deprived of their posts and questioned. Thousands of officials and students were expelled from their honors, their family members were expelled, and they were exiled to the frontiers. Tens of thousands of people were implicated.
With an order from the Supervisor, the government and the public were shaken.
Countless letters of petition were submitted, and even students from many schools such as the Imperial College also wrote petitions.
It just so happened that this year was the year of the Provincial Examination, and next February was the General Examination. Countless candidates gathered in the capital. This incident was caused by the Henan Examination Strike incident, which affected the hearts of countless scholars and participated in it one after another.
Zheng Sanjun not only has a distinguished family background, but also the Zheng family in Nanyuan is a famous family that has been passed down from generation to generation, especially the elder of Donglin. His status among the gentry such as Donglin and Fushe is far superior to that of the four young masters such as Hou Fangyu.
Even in the hearts of scholars all over the world, this man is definitely a man of great prestige.
No one could have imagined that because the emperor wanted to move nobles to fill the capital, it would eventually lead to a boycott of exams in Henan. Zheng Sanjun, Hou Xun and others who supported Henan scholars would end up like this.
It can be said that every step is unexpected.
But when the order to supervise the country came out, some people who originally wanted to watch the excitement were shocked and stunned.
Many people even couldn't believe it and thought it was a rumor.
But when official newspapers such as Di Bao and Beijing News began to officially publish the detailed story of this incident, and even characterized Zheng Sanjun and others as forming a clique for personal gain and deceiving the emperor for committing a high-level crime, some people panicked.
The most frightening part of this crime is forming cliques to deceive the emperor for personal gain, which reminds people of cliques fighting against each other.
What they are more afraid of is being implicated and getting burned.
Huang Daozhou requested an interview with the prince and directly interceded for Zheng Sanjun. He was not afraid of being implicated, but felt that this matter was wrong.
When the court treats Zheng Sanjun like this, doesn't it mean that he is guilty of speaking out?
Huang Daozhou said that Zheng Sanjun had the reputation of being the best in the world, but Zhu Hongjia just asked, "The imperial examination is the national talent show, how important it is. Ding Qixiang, Fan Xun and others refused to emigrate according to the order, so they threatened to stop the examination."
Local officials refused to comply. Not only did they strike out on their own, they also blocked other candidates from entering the exam, and even rushed into the examination room and tore up the test papers of the candidates.
Mr. Gu Wen, I am afraid that this matter would not be tolerated by any king or court in any dynasty, right?
Historically, cheating in examination halls has been punished by execution, at worst, and at worst, by never being hired or even exiled. The behavior of these people is countless times worse than cheating.
Since Zheng Sanjun is a veteran of several dynasties, doesn't he understand this? He still wants to speak out for these people, and even takes the opportunity to criticize the saints for making decisions. I'm afraid it can't be explained simply by relying on the old and selling the old, right?
Moreover, the various departments held a joint trial, but they obtained a lot of evidence. Zheng Sanjun exchanged letters with Ding Kui, Chu, Ding Qirui's uncle and nephew, Hou Xun, Hou Fangyu and his son, etc., attacking the government and resenting the saints, but it was all real. There was also such a serious examination strike in Henan.
Incident, some of the chief secretaries who were accused were his students, some were his relatives..."
"When Zheng Sanjun was the Minister of the Ministry of Punishments, Hou Xun, the Minister of the Ministry of Husbandry, was imprisoned for the bean-tuning incident. Because Zheng Sanjun was a Donglin comrade, he was accused of misdemeanor three times. There were also officials from the Money Bureau of the Ministry of Industry who supervised thefts, and because he was a member of the Donglin Party.
Lin and Zheng Sanjun also intend to commit a misdemeanor."
The prince took out these past events of Zheng Sanjun and told Huang Daozhou clearly that Zheng Sanjun was not unjust this time. He could only say that the court did not give the Donglin elder face, and did not give him the last dignity after he was over seventy years old.
But this cannot be blamed on the court, let alone the emperor and him, because Zheng Sanjun was caught in the crossfire this time. There has been a bad wind in the government and the public in the past two years, and this evil wind is getting stronger and stronger.
Essentially, when Zhu Yihai started his army, the Ming Dynasty building was about to collapse. The once-high-ranking gentry and landlords could not protect themselves, so some surrendered, some surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and some had no choice but to surrender to Zhu Yihai. Faced with Zhu Yihai's various new policies, under the emperor's control,
Under pressure from all parties including the army, Tatars, and bandits, they could only compromise temporarily.
From Lijin to Qingtian, from the evacuation of guard posts to the cleanup of military camps, from the abolition of military and craftsmen households to the unified payment of grain by the gentry, the compromises made at every step were not truly voluntary, but were forced by the situation.
Now that the world has recovered, they think they are doing well again and want to get rid of the "wartime" routine, restore the old system, and restore their original interests.
But how could the emperor agree?
Not only did the emperor refuse, he even began to deal with those who had been in the wrong team before, and moved the gentry families with officials below the fifth rank to settle in the capital. He had even used Hong Chengchou and the others to remove all the officials who had been accepted during the war over and over again.
, step by step, weed out a large number of them who are capable but mediocre.
The emperor's policies such as land restriction and slave restriction also further dealt a blow to the gentry and landlords who had been on the wrong side.
Now we are taking the civil service examination again, and local government officials will also have to take the examination in the future. In fact, the imperial court has built a junior college one after another in recent years, such as a political and legal school, a taxation school, a normal college, etc., and has also built small schools in local areas.
Wait, recruit those high school graduates or talented people to enter the school, and directly assign them to government officials after graduation, or recruit them through the unified civil service examination.
Although this is only for officials, for many local gentry, landlords and powerful people, they can have a strong influence in the local area and even protect the interests of their own powerful families by relying on their support in local yamen.
The position of officials is controlled or even maintained as a monopoly.
When the imperial court also implemented an avoidance system for officials, conducted civil service examinations and recruitment, and conducted targeted training and assignments in colleges, it was undoubtedly a reshuffling of the gentry in these places.
No one is willing to give up his own interests easily.
The gentry and landlords always want to restore the old situation, but the emperor leads the court to continue to deepen reforms, and this kind of game will never stop.
Through certain events, conflicts will break out.
But the emperor would not compromise or give in. When the conflict broke out, the emperor chose to be tough to the end and even killed the chicken to scare the monkeys.
Zheng Sanjun's qualifications, prestige, and even his reputation and his age were indeed untouchable. It would be nice for such a person to have a false title such as Crown Prince and Tutor, and be a mascot of the imperial court. But now the emperor directly wants to do it.
Kill him.
It can be seen how far this kind of game has reached now.
Ordinary cats and dogs can no longer suppress the evil wind, so a heavyweight must be there to sacrifice the flag.
The prince could understand some of these things himself, while others were told to him by his father-in-law Zhang Huangyan, the governor of Guangdong. When he said this, the great scholar Du Yinxi was also there.
The prince originally wanted to kill Ding Kuichu to shock him, but the emperor directly brought Zheng Sanjun, Hou Xun and Hou Fangyu out to kill them. His intention was obvious.
The former Emperor Zhu Yihai of Shaotian was extremely kind and generous. As governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Ding Kuichu embezzled 800,000 taels of silver for more than a year. The emperor did not kill him, but preserved his reputation and face and allowed him to retire with dignity. In the early days, he was in the new year.
When Chen Meng and other cabinet elders started fighting within the party, he did not punish them severely.
Not to mention that those military leaders and warriors can also hold high positions and titles.
But that was not the emperor's original intention, and the emperor was just one moment after another. When he started the army, Ding Kuichu, as the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, was able to read the imperial edict and led the two Guangxi to support him. It was a great achievement. So even if the corruption later became serious, the emperor wanted to appease
Guangdong and Guangxi only took him back to Beijing in a semi-kidnapping manner.
But things are different now.
At different times, the goals and directions of the struggle have changed.
In the past, the priority was to unite the internal forces to deal with foreign invaders, but now that the external threats are no longer great, cleaning up the internal affairs has become the top priority.
It is precisely because the prince understood this that no matter how Huang Daozhou interceded for Zheng Sanjun today, he did not change his mind at all.
"The first sentence of the Shaotian Code newly revised by the imperial court is that everyone is equal before the law, and princes who break the law are equally guilty as common people.
The imperial court's sentence for Zheng Sanjun was reduced after eight discussions. In consideration of his old age, a special order was issued today to allow Zheng Sanjun to commit suicide in order to save his dignity.
Sir, we have a teacher-student relationship with Zheng Sanjun, so you can go and announce the decree to send Zheng Sanjun from prison back to his house for his final journey."
Huang Daozhou lost his temper and knelt on the ground, refusing to obey the order.
But the prince did not compromise.
"Please resign!"
Huang Daozhou resigned in person.
"Sir, you are the governor of Zhejiang and Fujian, and a high official in the border areas. This is not only your talent, but also obtained from the merits of the dragon. It is also your majesty's special trust. Now because of this matter, I have to resign directly and go to the right saint.
Are you talking about the common people of Zhejiang and Fujian?"
Huang Daozhou said painfully, "His Royal Highness, please take back the order to supervise the country. Zheng Sanjun, a national scholar, should not end up like this."
"He is a loyal minister and a pure scholar of the Ming Dynasty."
Zhu Hongjia said bluntly, "Zheng Sanjun's old lake has been wiped out. At an age when he should have enjoyed the hard-won Ming Dynasty and ZTE, he was involved in this kind of thing. If he were to forgive him with just a word, it would be an injustice to other people."
The zodiac week refused to get up.
"If sir is really determined to resign because of this, then he can go back and write a formal resignation letter, and I will forward it to the saint. As for whether the saint agrees or not, he will have to wait for the imperial decree.
However, although I am young, I still want to persuade my husband. Today, the world has just recovered. It was brought down by the saints and my husband and countless loyal ministers and generals who fought bloody battles. All this is hard-won. The Ming Dynasty has not yet completed the resurgence.
, Sir, do you want to stop halfway and turn around and become a deserter?"
Zodiac Zhou wanted to speak but stopped.
"The saint is on a tour to the west. He is not in the capital. He is thousands of miles away. He doesn't know enough about the situation in Guzi. Please suspend the execution. Maybe your majesty can change his mind after learning more about the truth." He thought for a while.
The prince was a little excited, "Sir, you are wrong. When the saint started his army, the world was riddled with holes. In order to restore the world and rejuvenate the Ming Dynasty, we can only continue to compromise, but it is impossible to compromise forever."
