How to make a famous minister

Chapter 36 Yang Lian's Impeachment

Wang Wenyan, a person with a small official position, was originally just a jailer, but after being discovered by the prison guard, he had to flee to the capital, bought a prison student, and then started his road to prosperity.Unlike Lu Wanling and Zhu Jie, Wang Wenyan chose the Donglin Party and helped the Donglin Party defeat the Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang parties. Later, with the help of the Donglin Party, he was able to sit in the position of Zhongshusheren.

Wang Wenyan's position in the Donglin Party is not the highest, but it is the most critical.

Because of course it is impossible for a party to be aboveboard and everyone is equally clean, there are always people who have to deal with those dirty deals in private.But the Donglin Party are all literati and scholars who claim to be gentlemen and gentlemen, and they disdain to engage in those dirty methods, but political struggles don't just mean that they can't do it if they don't do it.Then the Donglin Party needed someone to help them deal with all the messy things. Wang Wenyan was smart and scheming, so he was naturally the best candidate.

Just such a person who has mastered all the dirty deals is controlled by the eunuch party, and the Donglin party is of course panicked.If Wang Wenyan hadn't survived Jin Yiwei's torture, even if he only recruited [-] to [-]% of the secrets, I'm afraid Wei Zhongxian could expand it to [-]%.

It's hard to say that Wang Wenyan is a tough person. On the contrary, he is a very cunning old fritter, and he doesn't look like he would dedicate himself to the Donglin Party.Ye Xianggao seemed to see how the Donglin Party was defeated by Wei Zhongxian. Ye Xianggao immediately pointed out that Wang Wenyan was the secretary of the cabinet and was appointed by him. Wang Wenyan made a mistake. Responsibility for lax management, ask to be removed from office, but don't involve too much.

Ye Xianggao's intentions were obvious, to show weakness to Wei Zhongxian, and tried to trade the position of chief assistant of the cabinet in exchange for the Donglin Party to get through this crisis safely.

However, Wei Zhongxian categorically refused, and said that all the cases involving Wang Wenyan must be investigated immediately and thoroughly.

The Donglin Party panicked and decided to implement plan b—if the soft ones didn't work, they would come to the hard ones.

So Yang Lian's impeachment of Wei Zhongxian's 24 deadly crimes appeared on the stage.

In fact, Yang Lian did not impeach Wei Zhongxian only for the Donglin Party.Ever since Wei Zhongxian got rid of Wang An's position, Yang Lian had been silently watching Liu Jin's second, and even more vicious than Liu Jin, the leader of the eunuchs of the East Factory all these years.

Yang Lian was just a small official at the time, and it was only because of his outspoken admonitions that he gained the trust of the late emperor that he was appointed Minister Gu Ming and placed him above all the cabinet ministers.Over the years, Yang Lian has always remembered the kindness of the first emperor, the case of moving the palace, and the enthronement of Emperor Tianqi, and he rushed to the forefront regardless of his own safety.

But after Wei Zhongxian took the stage, Yang Lian gradually became silent in the background, and he was not seen for a long time.It wasn't that Yang Lian was afraid of Wei Zhongxian, but he knew that Emperor Tianqi was not a wise emperor like the first emperor who listened to the advice of his courtiers. If he was still as reckless as the first emperor was then, he would only end up with a decapitated body.

But the current situation does not allow him to continue watching. This is the time for the Donglin Party and Wei Zhongxian to fight to the death.Yang Lian stood up and wrote down the 24 crimes of impeaching Wei Zhongxian.He is the Minister of Gu Ming appointed by the first emperor, even if Emperor Tianqi didn't read anyone's memorial, he couldn't help but read his.Yang Lian was confident that as long as Emperor Tianqi saw it, he would be furious, and it was impossible not to deal with Wei Zhongxian.

In the fourth year of Tianqi, on the morning of June [-]st, Fan Xuanchao's little sister was born, and Yang Lian, a famous official with a high reputation, also stepped on a dead end.He planned to read this memorial in public at the court meeting on this day, and no one could stop him. Emperor Tianqi had to listen, Wei Zhongxian had to listen, and all civil and military officials had to listen.

Today is the day of Wei Zhongxian's death.

When setting off, Yang Lian thought so swearingly.

However, on the first day of June, Emperor Tianqi ordered his removal from court.Not only that, Emperor Tianqi did not go to court for three days in a row.Yang Lian couldn't hand in the memorial, so he thought of a plan and handed in the memorial directly. He knew that if he did so, the memorial would definitely fall into Wei Zhongxian's hands.Wei Zhongxian will definitely suppress this memorial.But Yang Lian is not afraid, Emperor Tianqi will always go to court, he is the censor of the left deputy capital, and has the qualifications to face Emperor Chen directly, and hand it over to Wei Zhongxian, this is his declaration of war.

Zhu Youjian has already counted on this day.

He had expressed his dissatisfaction with Wei Zhongxian implicitly with Chen Hanlin and other lecturers earlier.He planned that although the Donglin Party was quite powerful in the foreign court, the palace was the blind spot of their power.If they want to get rid of Wei Zhongxian, they must contact him. Only in this way can they have a chance to pull Wei Zhongxian off his horse in one fell swoop and get rid of the behemoth eunuch.

But he waited and waited, and when he heard that Yang Lian had handed in the memorial and no one had contacted him, he realized that the Donglin Party was still the same as before. Shengli had no intention of joining forces with him at all.

Zhu Youjian walked around the palace a few times, realizing that if Wei Zhongxian missed this opportunity, Wei Zhongxian might really be so powerful that he would become the throne, and he would also miss the best opportunity to stand up.Well, if the mountain doesn’t come, it’s me, and I’ll go to the mountain.

Without any delay, Zhu Youjian immediately changed into casual clothes and left the palace. With only a few hidden guards, he walked around the West Market a few times, got rid of the spies, and turned to Yang Lian's mansion.

He didn't go to the front door, he went to the back door.

Yang Lian is in the study room thinking about how to tell Emperor Tianqi in order to achieve the maximum effect of the memorial. In the past few days, what method will Wei Zhongxian use to prevent him from going to court—the worst case is to directly assassinate him .

It's not that Wei Zhongxian can't do it. In fact, Wei Zhongxian has a criminal record for doing this kind of thing.

Just when he was worried, he suddenly heard that a person who claimed to be an acquaintance came to see him with a letter of invitation. Yang Lian was very strange and wondered if it was an assassin sent by Wei Zhongxian?

But when he opened the greeting card, he saw the familiar handwriting and the word "letter" on the signature, which made him suddenly realize, "Hurry up, hurry up, please... No, let me go out to greet you." Yang Lian straightened his clothes and walked quickly Go to the back.The anxious look made the servant feel strange, what is the background of that man, so the master pays so much attention to it?

When Yang Lian walked towards the back door, he was very excited.If anyone is said to be the most trusted person of Emperor Tianqi, the answer is Hakka, Wei Zhongxian, King Xin and Queen Zhang.Empress Zhang is firmly opposed to Wei Zhongxian, but she is only a woman in the deep palace, and she can't even completely control the people in her own palace.

It is believed that His Royal Highness Wang is different. He is not only the most trusted person of Emperor Tianqi, but also has more contact with Donglin Party. Although he has never publicly opposed Wei Zhongxian, he is biased towards Donglin Party.

Yang Lian had never cooperated with King Xin before. He just heard from other members of the Donglin Party that His Royal Highness Xin Wang had expressed his dissatisfaction with Wei Zhongxian in his speech.

Under such circumstances, King Xin took the initiative to contact him, and Yang Lian knew what Wang Xin meant, and was very moved.

After all, Zhu Youjian not only won the trust and closeness of Emperor Tianqi, but also had a decent relationship with Hakka and Wei Zhongxian.He was approaching adulthood at this time, Emperor Tianqi didn't want his only remaining younger brother to stay away from him to entrust the land, he was choosing a place in Beijing to build a palace for him, and he asked Empress Zhang to choose a concubine for him.

Seeing that he was about to leave the bitter sea of ​​the imperial palace and go to live the unrestrained life of a wealthy and idle king, at this time, King Xin turned around and plunged into this big quagmire without hesitation.Apart from King Xin's jealousy and hatred towards Wei Zhongxian, Yang Lian couldn't think of any other reason.

Yang Lian walked quickly to the back door, and saw Xin Wang Zhu Youjian waiting in blue casual clothes, calmly playing with the pendant on his paper fan, without any nervousness, Yang Lian couldn't help but praise in his heart for being brave.

Zhu Youjian heard the movement, and when he looked up, he saw the always serious and imposing Master Yang Lian Yang looked excited, he went out, raised his hands, and said respectfully: "I have seen His Royal Highness Xin Wang."

Zhu Youjian said with a smile: "Master Yang, my king came to visit suddenly today, I'm sorry to bother you, I hope you don't mind."

"Why would you mind? It's too late for me to thank His Highness Xin Wang." Yang Lian said sincerely, "This is not a place to talk. Your Highness Xin Wang, please."

Zhu Youjian stepped into Yang's mansion.On the way from the back door to the study room, he was also quite curious about the flowers, plants and water pavilions in Yang Lian's mansion, but Yang Lian's mansion is not big, so he just walked to the study room.

Yang Lian asked Zhu Youjian to take a seat, and when the servant served tea, Yang Lian waved his hand to let him go down, and at a glance, he saw that the hidden guards were firmly guarding the door, presumably there were hidden guards around this small study.Seeing this, Yang Lian also had a solid idea of ​​King Xin's intentions.

Sure enough, Zhu Youjian said bluntly: "I heard that Mr. Yang has written a paper to impeach Wei Zhongxian, but now it is in Wei Zhongxian's hands."

Yang Lian sighed, and said: "Yes, Your Majesty has not gone to court these few days. I couldn't face Your Majesty, so I had to hand it over. Let Wei Zhongxian know my determination to fight him to the death."

Zhu Youjian said solemnly: "Master Yang's loyalty is commendable. Although I was still young, I had heard a little about the danger when my father died. It was all thanks to Master Yang and a group of scholars that the emperor's brother could successfully ascend the throne. Otherwise, today It's still Li Xuanshi who controls the government. Then I, Ming, will be in danger."

"Da Ming is also in crisis now." Yang Lian said painfully, "Over the years, I failed the entrustment of the late emperor, failed to assist His Majesty in his efforts to govern, but negligently allowed villains to take advantage of the opportunity, and was arrogant and careless. Eunuchs have been rampant to this day, bringing disaster to the country and the people."

After a pause, Yang Lian cheered up again: "Although this is the case, Wei Zhongxian's days of doing evil are over. Wei Zhongxian won't let His Majesty go to court for a day, but it is impossible to never let His Majesty go to court, as long as His Majesty goes to court, look at me The book, will be able to—"

"But what if Wei Zhongxian doesn't let the emperor see it?" Zhu Youjian said softly, not affected by Yang Lian's fierce words, and he couldn't see any excitement.

"Then I will present it to Your Majesty at the court meeting."

"What if Wang Wenyan doesn't make it to that time?"

In his previous life, Wang Wenyan didn't last that long, but he didn't frame Yang Lian either. When the torture reached the point where he could no longer bear it, Xu Xianchun, the commander of Jin Yiwei, asked him to recruit Yang Lian for corruption, but Wang Wenyan shouted an earth-shattering sentence: There is no corrupt Yang Lian."

However, it was useless.

It doesn't matter that Wang Wenyan died without a move, they can fabricate confessions.As soon as Yang Lian's memorial arrived in the hands of Emperor Tianqi, Wei Zhongxian ordered the eunuch who read the memorial to pretend to be reading the memorial, while tampering with the existing memorial, and changed the 24 crimes to pieces.

Yang Lian was denounced by Emperor Tianqi as "nonsense" and "contradictory", followed by Wang Wenyan's "confession", which directly put Yang Lian in prison, and finally tortured to death.After Yang Lian's death, no one dared to face the power of Wei Zhongxian.

Zhu Youjian's first wish in his previous life was to leave the palace, stay away from this quagmire, and become a wealthy and idle king.This incident was the last major event that shook the capital before he left the palace, and Zhu Youjian remembered it very clearly, because he was still glad that he never provoked Wei Zhongxian.

But it's different now.

Zhu Youjian raised his eyes and looked directly at Yang Lian. On the face, he was a young calf who was not afraid of tigers, but in his eyes was the maturity and stability of being an emperor for many years.

"I have an idea, I wonder if Master Yang is willing to listen?"