It was easy to give out benefits, but it was difficult to get them back.
As the Emperor, Zhu Yijun knew this better than anyone else.
He knew how much power, status, and benefits the Governor of the capital had. Zhang Weixian held the benefits, power, and status. If he made a mistake, it was understandable to arrest him. But if he didn't make a mistake, what should he do?
Could it be that in order to reward a meritorious official, he had to harm another honest official who didn't make a mistake?
These were the descendants of nobles who had made great contributions to the establishment of the Daming Dynasty. They represented the foundation of the Daming Dynasty and the foundation of the country. If they were harmed for no reason, how could the royal family keep their face?
This kind of thing not only happened in the circle of nobles, but also in the circle of civil officials. Song Yingchang had made great contributions in Korea and the court had planned to promote him to the position of Minister of War. But Shi Xing, the Minister of War, didn't make a mistake and had made a great contribution. How should they deal with him?
Later, they had to forcefully find fault and arrest the Minister of Justice to give Song Yingchang an explanation. But Shi Xing had been the Minister of War until now. So it was unreasonable to abdicate an official who didn't make a mistake in order to reward a meritorious official. It would lose the support of the people.
Zhu Yijun, who didn't have much support in the first place, couldn't take this risk.
Faced with Zhu Yijun's doubts and worries, Shen Yicheng of course thought of it.
Apart from other things, it was his duty to share the king's worries. In order to stabilize his position as the Grand Secretary, it was even more important for him to share the king's worries. Not to mention, it was his duty to share the king's worries now!
Question: Is it difficult to take down a noble in the 26th year of the Wanli Dynasty using normal means?
Answer: Is it difficult to pinch an ant to death?
In summary, it's not difficult.
Is it difficult to take down Zhang Weixian?
It was difficult to take down his life because Zhang Yu and Zhang Fu had contributed too much to Zhu Di and the Daming Dynasty. Unless they rebelled, the Emperor of the Daming Dynasty couldn't take his life, but it wasn't difficult to remove him from his position.
It was too easy to convict a descendant of a noble who raised a pig and take down his position.
Of course, this matter had to be passed down by the Emperor to the Imperial Cabinet. Once the Imperial Cabinet complied, it would be a piece of cake. Otherwise, when dealing with matters of nobility, the civil officials could not directly intervene.
As for the crime, it was too easy. Corruption was enough. According to the rules of the Daming Dynasty, a person who embezzled a few dozen taels of silver would be beheaded. However, in the current situation, if someone said that he had embezzled a few dozen taels of silver, he would be arrested. Perhaps even Zhu Yijun himself would laugh out loud.
Such a high-ranking official had only embezzled a few dozen taels of silver?
Are you kidding me?
Not to mention Zhu Yijun, even Shen Yicheng himself felt that he would be mocking himself if he said such words. Therefore, it was better to make it a little bigger. He could say that Xiao Ruxun had embezzled ten or twenty thousand taels of silver, convict him of corruption, remove his position, deduct his salary, and let him go home to reflect. Then, he could take the opportunity to promote Xiao Ruxun.
Shen Yicheng made this suggestion.
He took out another memorial.
"Your Majesty, please look."
Zhu Yijun personally came down to receive the memorial.
"Zhang Weixian embezzled 32,000 taels of silver?"
Zhu Yijun looked at it for a while and then looked at Shen Yicheng, "Is this true?"
"Your Majesty, it is true."
Shen Yi said softly, "It's not a day or two that the nobles are in charge of the barracks, eating without pay, and embezzling military funds. Some people can still be considered restrained, while others are somewhat unscrupulous. Considering that they are nobles, the court can't make a big fuss, so they turn a blind eye to it.
But now, since Your Majesty needs it, it's reasonable to take it out for Your Majesty. If the Jing Camp can be reorganized, it will be beneficial to both the country and the people. "
"According to what you said, the situation of the Jing Camp is already very serious?"
Zhu Yijun changed his tone and went straight to the core of the problem.
Shen Yicheng remained calm and said, "As long as Your Majesty is willing to reorganize, with Duke Qin's help, the Jing Camp will definitely be able to bounce back!"
Zhu Yijun heaved a sigh of relief and nodded.
"I know what you said. I'll think about it carefully, but don't spread this matter. I don't want this matter to be known by the civil officials of the imperial court. Otherwise, they will definitely pester us. The matter of the Imperial Censorate hasn't been solved yet, so we can't make any more trouble now."
Shen Yicheng nodded and said, "Your Majesty, what Shen Li and Yu Jideng did this time is really too much. The Imperial Censorate is an instigated idiot. They will stop after a severe reprimand. But if Shen Li and Yu Jideng are not punished, they must not be punished. They instigated the Imperial Censor to take the Grand Secretary hostage to attack the Imperial Palace, which is a crime of complicity in rebellion.
As soon as the two were mentioned, Zhu Yijun's anger was ignited again.
Then he looked at Zhao Zhigao.
"What do you think of this matter, old Grand Secretary?"
Zhao Zhigao was absent-minded and didn't hear Zhu Yijun's question for a while.
"Old Grand Secretary?"
Zhu Yijun asked again.
Only then did Zhao Zhigao notice that Zhu Yijun was calling him. He came back to his senses and looked at Zhu Yijun, but he didn't clearly hear what Zhu Yijun was saying. Confused, he could only echo, "Everything will be decided by Your Majesty."
Zhu Yijun thought for a while and nodded.
"Okay, I'll make a decision after I see those rebellious officials. As for the matter of the capital camp … Minister Shen, if I take the lead in this matter, it doesn't seem appropriate?"
Zhu Yijun looked at Shen Yicheng.
Shen Yicheng knew that Zhu Yijun didn't want him to personally take charge of this matter, especially when it came to sentencing. Zhu Yijun needed a scapegoat to divert Xun Gui's hatred so that Xun Gui wouldn't hold a grudge against him.
Shen Yicheng wouldn't be unprepared for such a typical method of an emperor.
"Your Majesty, please take a look at the name of the writer of this memorial."
Zhu Yijun was stunned for a while, then he picked up the memorial and looked at it again.
"Shen … Li?"
Zhu Yijun blinked his eyes.
He didn't notice that both Shen Yicheng and Shen Li had the surname Shen, so he took it for granted that this memorial was written by Shen Yicheng. But now he saw that this memorial was written by Shen Li.
"A memorial written by Shen Li?"
"Yes, Shen Li knew about this matter and wanted to submit it to His Majesty. Perhaps she was too busy and forgot about it, so she left this memorial in the Cabinet. A few days ago, the Cabinet on duty found this memorial on the ground when he was cleaning up the documents in the Cabinet. He brought it to me, and I wanted to bring it to His Majesty."
"I see …"
Zhu Yijun looked at this memorial, and the corners of his mouth slowly curled up, revealing a horrifying expression.
Shen Yicheng lowered his head, and the corners of his mouth slowly curled up, which made his expression even more horrifying.
And all of this fell into Zhao Zhigao's eyes.
As an uninvolved outsider, Zhao Zhigao saw everything.
He didn't know how the future would move, but he was very clear that no matter how much he thought it was wrong to do this, and no matter how much he thought it would cause trouble, he couldn't change anything that would happen in the future.
Not even a little bit.
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