Chapter 678 777 Li Fang goes to jail

Chapter 678 777 Li Fang goes to jail

In principle, there is no problem between Shixun and his wife. They just increased the farmland of their wife from 100 hectares to 150 hectares.

As long as he's lower than Sehun, it's okay to comfort him.

However, Emperor Longqing wanted to distinguish between relatives. The previous imperial relatives did not care, but his relatives had to be given special care. One hundred and fifty hectares of farmland was not enough, so it had to be increased to one thousand hectares, and then decreased.

One thousand hectares, this number makes Wei Guangde feel really difficult to handle, it has increased too much.

But the result the emperor wanted was to let Chen Ju come over, which was to leave everything to him to run.

If you do well, you will receive extra points; if you do poorly, you will definitely lose points.

Wei Guangde knew that no matter what, this matter had to be done.

Wei Guangde was familiar with patting his head to determine numbers, and many people in later generations also did the same.

Since Emperor Longqing wanted to treat him differently, Wei Guangde could also find a reason.

Based on whether the royal family members are still alive, the limit is one thousand hectares for those who are alive, and then it is downgraded successively. The second generation is reduced by half to 500 hectares, the third generation is 300 hectares, and finally it is reduced to 150 hectares.

Based on this, Wei Guangde quickly determined that the number of farmland owned by Princess Ning'an and the consort Zhang He was set at 1,000 hectares. With Princess Jiashan gone, the farmland owned by the consort Xu Congcheng would be reduced to 500 hectares.

In addition, there was Emperor Longqing's cousin, the Empress Dowager's nephew. The Empress Dowager's brother was no longer here, so he could only be downgraded to five hundred hectares when he was supposed to receive one thousand hectares.

He made a quick plan in his mind and didn't leave a note. He just told Chen Ju his plan and asked him to report it to the emperor alone after returning to the palace.

If the two sides did not tell the truth and just relied on memorials to be passed back and forth, this matter might have been delayed for half a year. After all, the cabinet could only guess the emperor's mind.

After sending Chen Ju away, Wei Guangde returned to his desk and sat for a while. Then he took out a piece of paper and laid it out. He wrote the message to be delivered on the paper with a pen, called Lu Bu and asked him to send it to the palace. If you don't want to go to your family, take it back as soon as possible and give it to Zhang Ji to handle.

In fact, it was nothing. He just asked Zhang Ji to send people to deliver news to Duke Ding, Duke Cheng and others, and ask them to send people to the Wei Palace for a banquet in the evening.

In fact, the Shixuns in the capital are not an unbreakable group. Although they have no pursuit of titles, who doesn't want to be closer to the emperor and be more favored.

In this case, it will be much easier for the family whether it is arranging for the nephew to work in the court, or doing some salt diversion, contracting court projects, etc.

Therefore, it is inevitable for various noble families, especially the top nobles, to fight openly and secretly. However, they only stick together to keep warm when facing civil servants. After all, they have lost enough.

Most of their rights were taken away, and they only had one yamen left, the Governor's Office of the Fifth Army.

You know, when the country was founded, many of their family's ancestors held important positions in the court.

But this time, in their opinion, the civil officials were jealous of the Zhuangtian in their hands and deliberately caused it.

However, people have already taken action. They also know that it is difficult to do without paying some price, and they also agreed to pay some taxes to the court.

But too much is not enough. For example, the Ministry of Revenue only planned to leave them a hundred hectares of farmland at first, but they felt that it was too little and too humiliating.

They also felt that two hundred hectares was an appropriate number. Even if it did not seem too much, it could still be accepted by the civil servants. It was barely a win-win situation.

Of course, from their own perspective, it would be best for all the land to remain as it is, but this is unrealistic.

For the sake of Zhuang Tian, ​​nobles from various families rarely stand together and plan to jointly deal with this provocation by the civil servant group.

Wei Guangde invited several family members, mainly to explain to them the previous plan, so that each family would know better and not complain after the decree was issued.

With Emperor Longqing's personal approval in his hand, Wei Guangde planned to take it back to the mansion after his dissolution of office, so that they could see it and understand that this was the emperor's intention.

Originally, according to the rules, documents such as memorials and approvals could not be taken out of the cabinet. However, this was just a system. There were actually many ways to deal with it. For example, Chen Yiqin once took out a copy of the documents that could not be transmitted externally and gave them to them. look.

However, this time the situation was special and Wei Guangde wanted to take the original directly.

In fact, this is not a big deal. Although the secretary in the cabinet will collect the memorials in the duty room and count them according to the registration when they are sent to the cabinet, the one in Wei Guangde's hand did not come through formal procedures, but It was sent directly from Chen Ju.

The lack of registration means that the secretary of the cabinet did not know that this memorial had been returned to the cabinet.

Take it away, take it away, no one will look for it and trace the whereabouts of the memorial.

The banquet at the Wei Mansion that night was very grand, after all, the guests were all the famous figures in the capital.

Dingguo Duke Xu Wenbi came in person, Chengguo Duke Zhu Xizhong and British Duke Zhang Rong both sent their eldest sons, Zhu Shitai and Zhang Yuangong to come.

Wei Guangde and Zhu Shitai knew each other earlier. They met Wei Guangde when Lu Bing died and he was in Lu Mansion.

Because Chengguo's family and Lu Bing's family were related by marriage, Lu Bing's eldest daughter married his eldest son Zhu Shitai, so Zhu Shitai often took care of him in the Lu family during that time.

As for the other princes, Wei Guangde also entertained them attentively.

In fact, it wasn't that Zhu Xizhong and Zhang Rong didn't want to come because they didn't want to give face, but that they knew Xu Wenbi was going to be there, and it would be bad for the news to spread if all three of their princes were together.

Even though Zhu Xixiao is in charge of Jin Yiwei, there are not only Jin Yiwei but also Dongchang in the capital.

In order to avoid causing misunderstandings with the royal family, the two had no choice but to shirk their relationship.

Things were progressing very smoothly. Once Wei Guangde explained the situation, everyone knew that it was the emperor's wish, so naturally they did not dare to raise any conditions.

They are all nobles, and their titles are passed down from generation to generation, and nothing will change.

As for the relatives, although the first three generations seemed to have gotten more than them, they were constantly demoted and eventually ended up not being as good as them. The previous resentment was naturally alleviated a lot.

Wei Guangde explained the situation clearly and was not afraid of their dissatisfaction.

The current situation is that you have to agree whether you agree or not. Who dares to oppose the emperor's will?

However, shortly after taking up duty on the second day, Wei Guangde had not had time to contact the Metropolitan Procuratorate. He originally planned to talk to Wang Ting and Tuntian Yushi about the matter, but Chen Ju's small note was sent over first.

Wei Guangde frowned when he saw the note. This matter is not easy to handle.

The incident was a major event in the palace late yesterday. Li Fang, who had been punished and neglected, had another conflict with Teng Xiang due to the renovation of the palace hall and preparations for next year's Aoshan Lantern Festival. She went to Emperor Longqing to complain, saying that Teng Xiang Xiang took advantage of the opportunity of renovating the palace to indulge in corruption.

Palace renovations are done almost every year in the inner court, and preparations for the Aoshan Lantern Festival start early, and they don't just hire skilled craftsmen to design and produce them near the end of the year.

Not to mention repairing the palace, the cost of the Aoshan Lantern Festival alone is now as high as three hundred thousand taels of silver, and how much of it is used for palace lanterns is unknown to the outer court.

What Wei Guangde could find out was that in the early Ming Dynasty, the Aoshan Lantern Festival required 100,000 taels of silver, which increased year by year. By the early Jiajing period, the silver consumption at one time had exceeded 200,000 taels.

Wei Guangde shook his head, Li Fang was like this and still didn't learn his lesson, he was too upright.

Being upright is a good thing, but in a place like the inner court, it may not be a blessing.

Saving the emperor money was definitely right for the emperor, but it blocked other people's way of making money.

Which eunuch in the palace doesn't try to make money from palace expenses?

Li Fang's report on Teng Xiang not only failed to win over Meng Chong, Chen Hong and others, but also deepened the bad blood between them.

You can sue Tengxiang today, and you can accuse them tomorrow.

After all, among these few people who have finally become famous around Emperor Longqing, who are not trying their best to embezzle and accept bribes?

As long as you can get money, you can do anything.

Tengxiang was reprimanded by Emperor Longqing for this incident, and later contacted Meng Chong and Chen Hong to arrange for Li Fang to be arranged by Emperor Longqing.

Wei Guangde can think of whatever he said.

It is disrespectful to use the reason that Li Fang was reprimanded and ostracized by Emperor Longqing last year to say that Li Fang said many bad things about the emperor in private.

If it was just Meng Chong or Chen Hong who said it, Emperor Longqing might still have doubts, but with the cooperation of several people and mutual confirmation, Emperor Longqing's doubts were dispelled.

Knowing that Li Fang was dissatisfied with his punishment and complained and cursed himself privately, Emperor Longqing became very angry. He immediately ordered Chen Hong to lead people to arrest Li Fang, punishing him with eighty sticks, and finally imprisoned him in prison. prison.

The note sent by Chen Ju briefly explained the matter to Wei Guangde. Now that Li Fang has been imprisoned, an order will be given to the Ministry of Punishment to try Li Fang's crime later today.

Chen Ju also knew that Wei Guangde and Li Fang were close at the beginning and that they had a good relationship, so he quietly handed him a note to let him know the details to avoid making mistakes.

As for Li Fang being wronged, why didn't Chen Ju come out to say something fair and testify? Chen Ju's current status, to be honest, is really not enough in the palace.

His current identity, that is, the title of imperial eunuch is not bad, but he is very intimidating outside the palace.

The position of the eunuch serving as the Supervisor of Ceremonies can also intimidate the junior officials in the court. After all, he is the Supervisor of Ceremonies.

But in the inner court, everyone knows their identities, who can they scare?

Regarding what happened to Li Fang, Chen Ju did not dare to say a word and could only pass the news to Wei Guangde.

In any case, the reason why he was able to survive in the inner court until now was because of the favor he received from Huang Jin and Li Fang.

Some kindness must be repaid within one's ability.

This is Chen Ju's rules for doing things.

Wei Guangde lowered his head and thought for a long time, and finally came to the conclusion that Li Fang could no longer stay in the inner court.

Most of the people in the inner court were offended by his integrity. If they continued to stay, they would inevitably die, perhaps in some mysterious way.

Even if they die, I'm afraid that with the urine of Tengxiang and others, they will put all the blame they made on Li Fang and whitewash them.

Eunuch, if you don't hang out in the inner court, where else can you go?

At this moment, Wei Guangde couldn't help but think of Liang Tian, ​​who took the initiative to apply to be a guard eunuch in Nanjing. He was a smart man and saw things thoroughly.

However, when Liang Tian took the initiative to ask Ying to guard Nanjing, who would have thought that in just over a year, the court would change so much, and Li Fang, who had been fawned over by countless officials, was already in jail.

Picking up the note, today's memorial and official document can only be put aside for now. We need to discuss with Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhen on how to get Li Fang out of prison.

Wei Guangde guessed that Emperor Longqing beat Li Fang to vent his anger and sent him to prison. It was probably caused by a moment of anger, and perhaps he had no intention of killing him.

After all, Li Fang had been by Emperor Longqing's side during those years and served him wholeheartedly. There was no credit but hard work.

Chen Yiqin, Yin Shizhen and others also admired Li Fang's integrity and would not ignore him.

If they really choose to die without saving their lives, Wei Guangde feels like he can no longer be with them.

First, he went to check on Yin Shizhen's room, and took Yin Shizhen, who was still reviewing memorials, to Chen Yiqin. On the way, he whispered to him about the affairs of the inner court. Yin Shizhen was also very shocked.

When they arrived at Chen Yiqin's duty room, Wei Guangde gave them the note written by Chen Ju and sat there drinking tea by himself.

He had some vague ideas in his mind, but the key was how to get people, he didn't have a clue yet.

"Go to the palace to plead with Eunuch Li?"

After Chen Yiqin read the note, he frowned and asked Wei Guangde.

Wei Guangde didn't say anything, but looked at Yin Shizhen to see if he could do anything.

Yin Shizhen was lowering his head at the moment, completely unaware that Chen Yiqin and Wei Guangde were looking at him.

After hearing no one speak for a long time, he raised his head and saw the look in their eyes.

"They're all watching what I do, and there's nothing I can do for the time being."

Yin Shizhen whispered, "But His Majesty's decree has not yet been issued. I'm afraid it would be inappropriate to rush into the palace to plead for mercy now."

Then he said softly: "I still don't know what your Majesty is thinking at this time."

"His Majesty will probably be very angry if Li Fang speaks ill of her behind his back."

Chen Yiqin answered, "After all, Li Fang is the old man who has been serving His Majesty."

"Li Fang should not be that kind of person."

Yin Shizhen corrected, "I don't believe he would do such a thing."

"It's useless for us to say this here. Your Majesty must believe it."

Chen Yiqin smiled bitterly and said, why didn't he know what Li Fang was like.

Li Fang is an upright person, but he is not stupid either. He may have resentments in his heart, but he will never express them out loud. He is always cautious.

"Is it better to act before His Majesty's decree or to plead for mercy later?"

Wei Guangde said, "We have to think clearly about this. After we fish the person out this time, we can't let Li Fang stay in the capital anymore."

"where to?"

Yin Shizhen said strangely.

"Let him go to Nanjing, even if he is charged, he will be sent to Nanjing.

Liang Tian is there, so he shouldn't suffer. "

Wei Guangde said.

"Liang Tian? It's really like that."

As soon as Wei Guangde reminded him, Chen Yiqin immediately came up with a solution.

"That's what I think. Let's put it all together."

Immediately, Chen Yiqin said: "Your Majesty has such good face. If Li Fang is really interrogated by the Ministry of Justice, as an old man next to Your Majesty, how will your Majesty's face be saved?

It would be better to just ask the inner court to send Li Fang to Nanjing, so that His Majesty can be out of sight and out of mind, and he can calm down.

We also have an explanation for Li Fang, at least she doesn’t have to suffer in prison. "

"You can give it a try."

Wei Guangde said: "Of course it would be best if you could plead for mercy and get the person out of prison, but if that doesn't work, you have to find a way from the Ministry of Punishment."

Yin Shizhen also nodded, "Then shall we go together or separately and plead with His Majesty alone?"