Chapter 366 Impeach Sun Chengzong

As usual, the monarch of the Ming Empire, Emperor Tianqi Zhu Youxiao, came to the side hall to catch floods after breakfast, and continued the work that he had not completed yesterday. Before going to bed yesterday, he had already carved the 750th Arhat on the exquisite wooden screen. On the nearly meter-wide and seven-foot-high screen, he was about to carve eight hundred Arhats. This was a long-lasting project, so during the period after the New Year, the emperor did not pay attention to any political affairs. Except for appointing his own gentleman Sun Chengzong as the Minister of War, he issued an imperial edict, and he handed over all other matters to Wei Zhongxian and others. Even Yuan Chonghuan's arrival, the emperor only showed his face and ignored it.

There were still fifty arhats to carve, which made Tianqi arrive at the side hall early in the morning and soon entered the working state. Just as the skillful knives used his skillful knives to slowly reveal the appearance of another long-browed arhat, Wei Zhongxian, dressed in a big red robe, walked in. Although Eunuch Wei still gave a big gift for the rules, the emperor ignored him. Now his whole heart was on these wood carved arhats, so naturally he would not be distracted by the person he met every day.

In the past, at this time, Wei Zhongxian would symbolically take out a few memorials and read them casually, indicating that he had already obtained the emperor's will and would leave. Often, Tianqi would not pay attention to what he was reading. But today the situation is different. Wei Zhongxian saw that Tianqi was busy with his work, but did not speak, but waited quietly aside.

This abnormal behavior soon attracted the attention of Tianqi. After he carved the 752nd Arhat, he temporarily put the carving knife with gold as the handle aside, took the sweat towel handed by the little yellow gate beside him, and asked, "Little Wei Zi, do you have anything to tell me? Could it be that something happened to the north? " Except for the fact that there is really a big mess in the country or the war on the frontier, Wei Zhongxian would not be so cautious.

Wei Zhongxian hurriedly replied respectfully: "When you say that, Liaodong has been very stable recently. Because of this, the old slave has given up his orders to recruit Yuan Chonghuan, who is now in charge of the overall situation, back to Beijing. The emperor should still remember seeing him?"

"Yes, that's the case." Tianqi nodded and said with confusion after he had memory: "Then what else do you have to do? If nothing big happens, don't disturb me!"

"This... what I want to report today is related to Yuan Chonghuan. Because it is of great importance, I dare not be alone, so I came to the palace to disturb His Majesty."

Tianqi frowned and said impatiently: "Little Wei Zi, why have you become such a mother-in-law? If you have something to say about Simao, just say it clearly. When did I blame you?"

Wei Zhongxian waited for this sentence, so when Tianqi finished speaking, he immediately said: "That's right. The Tongzheng Department received more than ten memorials impeaching the Minister of War Sun Chengzong in one day, saying that he met Yuan Chonghuan, who had heavy troops in private, and had a secret talk for two hours. Because the matter involved high-ranking officials of the ministry and border generals of the court, the old slave did not dare to make decisions without authorization, so he came to disturb the emperor so early!"

"Well? Did someone say anything when Mr. Sun meets his old subordinates? It's really irrelevant!" After hearing this, Tianqi just said indifferently: "These censors are too nervous, so just keep these bullet stamps!"

"I obey the order." Wei Zhongxian agreed. He had long guessed the result. With Emperor Tianqi's trust in Sun Chengzong, the bullets of these censors could not shake Sun Chengzong's status at all, so he did not express his opinion. This was just the first move that Wei Zhongxian had laid to deal with Sun Chengzong, just to let the emperor know about this.

The next day, things got bigger. The censors and censors in the court who seemed to be blind or deaf all came to life on this day. They wrote memorials one by one to impeach Sun Chengzong's army and respect for his self-respecting during his time in Liaodong. They did not recruit soldiers according to the court's wishes, and used the court's money and grain to recruit tens of thousands of private soldiers. Later, someone impeached Sun Chengzong in order to maintain his authority, he did not want to serve the country and kill the enemy. He sat and watched the development of the Jin people, in order to raise the enemy's self-respecting. These two things were immediately linked to this time as a senior official of the ministry and the border general, saying that he did not take the court seriously at all and was suspected of rebelling. For a time, not only in the court, but also in the entire Beijing city, the fact that Sun Chengzong had a disobedient heart. Everyone said that he had a nose and eyes, as if all this was what he saw with his own eyes.

Wei Zhongxian, who took the matter up, was at this time. Not only did he not criticize Sun Chengzong with everyone, but he followed the emperor's previous order and suppressed all the bullets about Sun Chengzong. However, doing so did not stop everyone's actions. Instead, some people who were still hesitating and waiting to join in and appealed to Sun Chengzong together. It seemed that as long as Sun Chengzong was not convicted, the Ming Dynasty would be in danger.

Seeing that things had come to this point, Wei Zhongxian came to the partial palace again to see Tianqi and reported to him the fact that the crowd outside was surging and unanimously impeached Sun Chengzong, and took the bullet seals from the big boxes, as well as the so-called "evidence" collected by the Jinyiwei and the East Factory to Tianqi.

Looking at these things, Emperor Aoki was stunned. He pointed to the boxes and said in a voice that seemed sharp because of his excitement: "What... what do these people want to do? Can't they force the palace?"

"Your Majesty, please save the dragon body!" Seeing that the body of Emperor Tianqi was not strong, it was already trembling slightly, and his face also showed an unnatural flushing. Several small yellow gatemen were a little panicked, and they hurriedly wiped their sweat again, and moved chairs to ask the emperor to sit down and talk.

After a while of tossing, Tianqi calmed down. He looked at Wei Zhongxian and said, "Didn't I ask you to suppress this matter that day? Why are you so ineffective? Not only has the matter not been suppressed, but it is getting bigger and bigger?"

"It's my incompetent, please give up your crime!" Wei Zhongxian knelt down and said with a panic look on his face: "But now this matter has been spread to the public. Those censors and censors wrote memorials to impeach Sun Shangshu because they were worried about the safety of our Ming Dynasty. It's not easy for me to force them to sue them."

"What's going on? I don't believe that Mr. Sun will do anything that is not conducive to me or the country."

Seeing that the emperor still believed in Sun Chengzong so much at this time, Wei Zhongxian felt jealous again. But at this time everything was arranged. Wei Zhongxian believed that even if the emperor was reluctant, he would not fail to follow the wishes of the ministers in the court. He said: "The matter should start with Lord Sun when he was in Liaodong. Someone had seen Lord Sun exceed the original number of the court when he was recruiting troops..." Wei Zhongxian repeated the rhetoric that Yang Changzhou had already designed in front of Tianqi. Anyway, he connected several things that were very unfavorable to Sun Chengzong, and then led them to the place where he was about to usurp the throne.

It’s a pity that Wei Zhongxian’s level of saying this was limited, and it was not his own opinion, so it did not make Tianqi feel much sympathy. However, Tianqi still heard the meaning: “You mean that the court officials all think that Mr. Sun has an unjust intention and want to use the people from Liaodong to become independent, so they kept writing letters to impeach Mr. Sun?”

"The emperor is wise!" Wei Zhongxian wiped his sweat and said that you finally caught the key points.

But the emperor's next words made Eunuch Wei, who had just been a little happy, hit another blow: "I don't believe it. Mr. Sun has always been loyal to me and will never do anything that is harmful to our Ming Dynasty. This is just some rumors and cannot be done accurately!"

Wei Zhongxian hated him. He didn't expect that this old man Sun had such a high position in the emperor's heart, which made him even more convinced that he would get rid of it. So he hurriedly said: "Actually, I think this matter seems to be a lot of rumors, but the emperor would rather trust some things than trust them without them. Even if Lord Sun doesn't have such a mind, who can guarantee that the generals under his command do not have this mind? If they get the opportunity because of a moment of carelessness, the emperor will regret it!"

Although his trust in Sun Chengzong did not decrease at all, after Wei Zhongxian said these few words, Tianqi's heart of resentment at the court officials became much colder. He said in embarrassment: "Then what should you do if you think I should do? If you really believe them, Mr. Sun will be a serious crime. I really can't treat Mr. Sun like this. But if I don't follow them..." At this point, the emperor couldn't speak. He was just a young man who only knew how to do carpentry work, and he knew too little about political means.

When Wei Zhongxian saw that the opportunity had come, he hurriedly said, "I have a way to satisfy all officials and protect Lord Sun. That is to ask Lord Sun to write a letter to resign. As long as Lord Sun completely surrenders and returns to his hometown, the remarks about his ill-intentioned plots will naturally be out of ground. In addition, the emperor does not have to bear the pressure from those adults!"

"This... isn't you too sorry for Mr. Sun? He has done his whole life to the country, but he has to..."

"Your Majesty, you are also protecting Lord Sun. If he is loyal to the emperor, he will definitely understand. At that time, he will not only not blame the emperor, but also thank the emperor!"

"Since that's the case, let's do what you said. You can condemn others to inform Mr. Sun... No, I'd better go to see him in a disguise, hoping that he can understand my difficulties..." Tianqi said bitterly.
Chapter completed!