After Wang Zhi finished reading the will according to this Xuanke, everyone was still in a daze, unable to react.
Chen Luan reacted faster than anyone else, he immediately turned around and ran to the county office.
But he seems to have forgotten that if he can escape successfully, then Jin Yiwei will have no face in the future.
Sure enough, before he ran a few steps, Chen Luan was thrown to the ground, and then he was dragged up and tied up with five flowers, completely becoming the flesh on his feet.
Wang Zhi's eyes swept over Ma Xingfu and the others, and said lazily: "In that case, Master Tang, quickly cook all these miscellaneous fish and shrimps, I am here at His Majesty's order, the time is precious, but I can't pass it. Start dawdling!"
This was clearly said to Tang Fan, but it actually made Ma Xingfu half-dead.
What kind of fish and shrimp, this is obviously scolding him too!
But what can Ma Xingfu do? Although Eunuch Wang is young, his qualifications are much older than him. Although the West Factory has vanished into thin air, he has turned around, and now he is still a popular man in front of the emperor. The guard is too much to supervise.
Tang Fan said, "Where is Xue Qianhu?"
Xue Qianhu: "The humble position is here!"
The answer was exceptionally loud.
Tang Fan: "Chen Luan, Yang Ji and others were all arrested and brought to justice. Also, Ma Xingfu, the eunuch guarding Suzhou, colluded with Chen Luan to embezzle the disaster food, Zeng Pei and Wu Zong helped the emperor to abuse him, not only failed to fulfill their duty to protect the imperial envoy, but secretly Give Chen Luan a tip, and help him fight against the imperial court, and take it down together!"
Xue Qianhu: "Yes!"
Ma Xingfu's face changed, and he said in a stern tone: "Who dares to arrest me! Master Tang, don't use chicken feathers as an arrow, if you arrest Chen Luan, arrest Chen Luan, do anything to me! I am also enshrined, I am worried that you will be wronged. Good official, this is the only time you have to come forward! Don't shoot down a boat with a single pole, but you end up splashing yourself with water!"
Tang Fan smiled and said, "Eunuch Ma, before you rushed to stand up for Chen Luan, why are you in such a hurry to clear up the relationship now? Right or wrong, let's go back to the first trial, we'll find out for ourselves, I will definitely not wrong a good person, if you Good people's words."
After that, he smiled and shouted, "Take it!"
The people who followed Ma Xingfu looked at each other, not knowing whether they should protect him or not. The few loyal ones had already drawn out their sabres and seemed to want to fight Jin Yiwei, but when they saw Wang Zhi wave his hand, the people behind him were all together. Dao, the number of people is relatively high, and Ma Xingfu's men and horses are surrounded by the middle, and they immediately become weak and pitiful.
Wang Zhi laughed: "Aren't you still thinking about your family, Shangchang, who supported you? Let me tell you the truth, Shang Ming has now been impeached out of Beijing and went to the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum to guard the mausoleum. Suzhou is not far from Nanjing, maybe you guys We can see each other more often in the future!"
This news can be described as earth-shattering. When Ma Xingfu heard it, he was stunned: "You, you are talking nonsense!"
Wang Zhi sneered: "I'm here to play some lip service with you! Are you talking nonsense? You see him back and ask yourself, Xue Qianhu, do you want to take it or not?"
It took him only a moment to come here, but Xue Qianhu had already seen the arrogant side of this eunuch Wang, and he did not dare to delay when he heard the words, and instructed his subordinates to take him down.
Ma Xingfu didn't know if he was shocked by Wang Zhi's words, and even though there were two more Jinyiwei behind him, he didn't respond very much.
Seeing that he was so docile and cooperative, the people under his command had to lay down their weapons and wait for the fall.
Since even Ma Xingfu has given up resistance, it is natural that the others will not be able to resist stubbornly any longer. They are all like eggplants beaten by frost and let Jinyiwei hold them down.
Yang Ji's face was pale, and he couldn't help but squeeze out a smile at Tang Fan: "Master Tang, Master Tang, I have something to say, I was coerced in all of this, I didn't participate in any of Chen Luan's affairs, not only that, I I can also provide you with more evidence, so that the guy can't turn over completely, you see... can you let me go?"
Chen Luan sneered at the side when he heard the words: "You didn't participate in a single thing? This is really a big joke. You also know about the disaster victims outside the city. Those silver taels I gave you, when the time comes, let someone search them, and keep them for sure!"
Yang Ji said angrily: "It's all you! If you hadn't insisted on pulling me into the water, how could I have been reduced to where I am today! I told you at the beginning, don't be too extreme in everything, and now the retribution will come!"
The two became infighting in the blink of an eye, Tang Fan didn't bother to watch their dog bite a dog, and waved his hand: "Take it all back!"
When Chen Luan was escorted past Xiao Wu, he stared at her coldly, and the resentment there seemed to be overflowing.
With Tang Fan around, Xiao Wu would be afraid of him, but instead smiled charmingly at the other party.
Chen Luan was instantly enraged, and couldn't help but scolded, "Bitch!"
Xiao Yan smiled: "Then you have slept with a bitch, what are you? A bitch?"
Everyone next to him burst out laughing.
Chen Luan was so angry that his face turned blue.
Since she doesn't need to disguise in front of Tang Fan anymore, she has become more sturdy every day.
When Chen Luan walked away, Tang Fan couldn't help but asked curiously, "You said earlier that he had an affair with his father and brother's wives and concubines, is it true or false?"
Xiao Wu didn't even think about it: "Of course it's fake, otherwise why would he jump with anger?"
Seeing Tang Fan's expressionless face, she added: "But Chen Luan has also done those unethical things that take other people's wives and daughters as concubines. If your lord wants to check, you can check them all."
Tang Fan nodded: "I see."
Chen Luan, Yang Ji, and the others bowed down, and the matter was not over yet.
After clearing the biggest obstacle, Tang Fan ordered people to burn mugwort leaves outside the city, built a porridge, sent doctors to diagnose and treat the victims, and dug out a lot of grain from the grain merchants who had colluded with Chen Luan, and used them to provide food for the victims outside the city.
Despite this, the victims outside the city have actually been exhausted by Chen Luan, and the remaining number is small. After they were properly resettled and their health gradually improved, they left Wujiang one after another and returned to their hometown to re-cultivate the fields. , Tang Fan is also preparing to petition Wujiang to exempt Wujiang from taxes and grains this year and next. Although these help cannot completely lift the victims out of poverty and live a happy life, this is already the most that Tang Fan can do within his authority.
After Chen Luan was taken down, the position of magistrate of Wujiang County should have been filled by the local county magistrate, but the reason why Chen Luan could become the local emperor of Wujiang was due to the help of the people below him. Nearly 70 to 80 percent of the officials were slapped down.
Now Wujiang County is vacant, but this is not a problem. Daming has a large population. Every year, there are countless candidates who are qualified to be officials but do not have official positions. They are staring at this place, let alone Wujiang. He is still a fat poor man, without a few "Chen Luan", many people want to fill their positions.
In this incident, Hu Wenzao's performance was quite satisfactory, not very good, but he was not as daring as Chen Luan, and he was extremely sinful.
To put it bluntly, he doesn't have the guts to do bad things.
In view of Hu Wenzao's timely abandonment of the dark and the light, Tang Fan also mentioned this in the Shangshu and asked for a favor for him. In the end, Hu Wenzao did not lose his head, nor was he exiled. He was only removed from the official position and ordered to serve, and he could retain his official position. It is also a great fortune among misfortunes.
Of course, an official fan like Hu Wenzao would definitely not think this was a "great luck". It is estimated that after knowing that he can't be an official, he will cry.
But of course Tang Fan didn't have time to pay attention to Hu Wenzao's mood. After he took down Chen Luan and others, he went to settle the disaster victims outside the city non-stop. He didn't even bother to talk to Wang Zhi for a long time until the other party was ready to return to Beijing. It was only after he was busy that he took advantage of the opportunity to eat and sat down with the other party.
"It's all thanks to you this time. I've been dizzy for the past few days, but I didn't have time to thank you in the future. I'll do it first as a tribute!" Tang Fan poured a glass of wine for the two of them, then stood up and held himself The cup in his hand, raised his hands slightly, raised his head and drank it.
"You should thank me for arriving in time, but in the end, it's up to you to plan the matter well, and it has nothing to do with me." Wang Zhi was not polite, and drank the wine in front of him, then pointed to the wine glass, indicating Tang Fan poured more.
This is a typical example of taking an inch, but fortunately, Tang Fan has long been accustomed to his temperament, smiled, picked up the jug carelessly, and filled the two of them.
In fact, this time, Tang Fan made a surprise move.
As we all know, Chen Luan's uncle is a member of the Wan Dang, so many people think that Tang Fan and Chen Luan are fighting against the Wan Dang.
This is also the reason why everyone was not optimistic about Tang Fan at first, thinking that he would definitely not be able to fight against Chen Luan.
But Tang Fan didn't think so.
No matter how powerful Chen Luan was in Wujiang County, it was limited to Wujiang County. He couldn't participate in the political game at the upper level, and people didn't look down on him.
His uncle is Wan Dang, which does not mean that he is also Wan Dang. To put it bluntly, Chen Luan's official position is too low to be qualified to join this game.
So to bring down Chen Luan, we must first bring down his uncle.
The minister of household in Nanjing is a very popular position, everyone is rushing for it, and many people have long disliked Chen Zhi, so Tang Fan took advantage of this, through the relationship between Zhang Ying and Wynn, to mobilize friends of the same year To impeach Chen Zhi, let him mess up his position first. Chen Zhi is too busy to take care of himself, and of course he has no time to worry about his nephew's life and death.
Whoever is an official has no weaknesses and handles, it only depends on whether your political opponents want to use it or not. Even for someone like Tang Fan, if someone can dig out the fact that he once wrote the Fengyue Storybook, it is estimated that he can do the same to him. Make a fuss, let alone other people.
The wall fell and everyone pushed. Just when Tang Fan's friends in the same year impeached Chen Zhi, many people seized the opportunity to attack Chen Zhi for corruption and bribery. At this time, Liu Ji also wanted to push his own people. A fire was added next to the location of Nanjing's Ministry of Housing.
With such unanimous opinions, Chen Zhi has to fall even if he doesn't fall, and Wan Dang can't keep him.
Chen Zhi left the field, and it was much easier to clean up Chen Luan.
But Chen Luan also has a trump card. He has a strong relationship with the Suzhou Chamber of Commerce, and through the Suzhou Chamber of Commerce, he has given a lot of filial piety to Dongchang Jin every year. , not only to protect him and monitor him, but also to escort Chen Luan at a critical moment.
Shang Ming's father-in-law was reluctant to pull up such a big money tree as Chen Luan by Tang Fan, so of course he had to keep him.
After Tang Fan figured out Chen Luan and the intricate relationships behind him, he did not choose to fight with Wan Dang, but focused his firepower on Dongchang, linking Chen Luan with Dongchang for wrongdoing.
In the troupe that Lu Lingxi handed over, he did not mention Chen Luan's other backers, but only mentioned one Dongchang, stating that the silver taels he handed over to the emperor were not as good as the tenth of the money that Dongchang and Chen Luan had embezzled. Second, it was said that His Majesty was cultivating immortals and refining the Tao in the capital. Because of the lack of money in the internal treasury, he was still trembling and frugal, while Shang Ming, Ma Xingfu, and Chen Luan, these villains, took advantage of the sky to be high and the emperor was far away, openly amassing a huge amount of wealth, and looked down on His Majesty. If you don't have anything, you hide this money privately, and you want to be extravagant, but you turn your head and cry to Your Majesty that you have no money. Even if your Majesty can bear this tone, we, the ministers, can't bear it!
The emperor can be lazy in the political affairs, but don't think that his low IQ is easy to be deceived. Thinking that when the emperor first ascended the throne, he also acted vigorously to clear the government and redress unjust cases. Although he has fallen over the years, the lion is still a lion. At best, he closed his eyes and turned a deaf ear to the outside world. If these sounds disturbed his sleep, he would still stretch out his claws to give the other party a shot.
Tang Fan's remarks undoubtedly touched his heart, but also hit the weak underbelly of being an emperor.
The emperor can tolerate others not doing things, and everyone messes around together, but he can't tolerate people thinking that he is easy to bully and easy to deceive.
The most important thing is that Tang Fan only targeted Dongchang, killed Shang Ming in one bite, and did not implicate other personnel.
This not only made the rebound from Wan Dang's side very small, but also made the emperor have no scruples in dealing with Shang Ming. If Tang Fan dragged Wan Dang into the water now, the emperor, considering Wan Guifei's sake, would be blown by the pillow wind, Things will definitely come to an end in the end.
Many factors add up, which is why Wang Zhi appears here.
Of course, Tang Fan alone can't do this.
After all, he is only a censor, and he is still far away in Suzhou, so it must be the combined strength of many people to make things happen.
For example, Shang Ming's downfall must be behind the efforts of Wynn, Wang Zhi, and those officials who hate Dongchang. It also involves power struggles in the cabinet. Tang Fan just saw this, and was very impressed. Just make good use of it.
After Shang Ming was expelled from the capital, Chen Zhun immediately filled the position of Dongchang factory official.
Chen Zhun was an eunuch who was close to Wynn. At this time, Wan Dang realized that the power of Dongchang was no longer under their control.
But it's too late. The situation is changing rapidly, and the opportunity is fleeting. If you can't seize it one moment, you can only watch it being taken away by others the next moment.
For the victims, the arrival of Tang Fan gave them hope of survival again.
But for more people, it's not just Chen Luan or Yang Ji that is unlucky, but Wan Dang lost Shang Ming and Dongchang, and their power was weakened by a considerable part. There is no way to use the Dongchang as a minion tool, a public tool for private use, and public hatred and private revenge.
So this time, not only did Tang Fan resolve the matter in Suzhou, but the faction of the pro-Prince Prince also achieved a major victory in this matter, which can be said to be a good match for both.
"After this incident, the crown prince will definitely appreciate you even more. Although he didn't say anything, if in the future... you will definitely be reused." Wang Zhi hinted that the words he paused in the middle were well known to everyone. .
Tang Fan shook his head: "I didn't intend to bring down the East Factory, but I just wanted to settle the Suzhou issue. Now that there is such a result, it can only be said that it is just the right time, and Shang Ming has been doing mischief for a long time. God can't stand it, that's what happened."
Wang Zhi rolled his eyes: "Okay, don't be pretentious, being too modest is hypocritical. The prince is now thirteen years old, and he should have been in the cabinet to observe politics. The matter of entering the cabinet and watching politics has also been repeatedly blocked by the people in the party, which has been put on hold for a long time some time ago, and now that the East Factory has collapsed, it is estimated that their arrogance can also be restrained."
Tang Fan is too far away from the capital, and he is not a member of the inner circle of power. He is not well-informed about a lot of information. If he hadn't heard Wang Zhi say it now, he wouldn't know that Wan Dang still prevented the prince from entering the cabinet to observe politics.
He shook his head: "If you want me to say, it's really a foolish trick for all parties to do everything possible to get along with the prince. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, anyone who is not the eldest son wants to succeed the throne, even if the prince loves him, it will be over in the end. Look at Yongle. How powerful is the emperor, he favors the king of Han far more than the prince, but isn't it also the prince who won the throne in the end? Today, in terms of determination, he is far from the emperor of Yongle. How can he do things that the emperor of Yongle has not been able to accomplish? "
These words, that is, facing Wang Zhi, Tang Fan will be honest.
Wang Zhi was indeed slightly moved. Before that, he had never heard such a point of view. After thinking about it carefully, it was indeed quite reasonable.
"But what's the use of your words? If you don't fight, how can Wan Dang be reconciled? Since ancient times, the throne has been tempting, Wan Dang has not had the courage to rebel, but has thought of the addiction to support the emperor. This is not surprising. It's a good thing that you are far away from the capital now, so as not to be disturbed, and you were made a raft like last time in the East Palace. When the situation in the capital becomes clearer, I will help you to return to Beijing."
After he finished speaking, he took a chopstick of sweet-scented sweet-scented osmanthus lotus root and put it into his mouth, and finally frowned: "What is this sticky thing?"
Tang Fan was speechless: "You can tell it's sweet at a glance, why do you still go for it if you don't like it?"
Wang Zhi snorted slightly: "For a while, I was talking and didn't pay attention, sticky people like to eat sticky things!"
"..." Tang Fan twitched the corners of his mouth, and was shot while lying down.
Fortunately, he was used to being ridiculed by Eunuch Wang for a long time. When he did not change his color, he reached out to another piece of sweet-scented osmanthus lotus root, took a bite, and narrowed his eyes with a smile: "It's delicious, the glutinous rice is soft and glutinous, and the sweet-scented osmanthus tastes good too. Very intense."
"Having said that, I'm very strange. Why did Your Majesty promote me for no reason? It's not because I gave the box of gold and silver?" Tang Fan asked a question he couldn't understand.
Wang Zhi: "You think so beautifully. If giving money can make you a third-rank officer, then I guess the treasury doesn't have to worry about it now!"
Tang Fan smiled and said, "I also ask Eunuch Wang to explain my doubts."
Wang Zhi laughed twice, and the laughter was full of schadenfreude: "Of course it's because there is another mess for you to clean up, so I need to give some sweet dates!"
Tang Fan: "..."
He began to eat food silently, and said, "Can I pretend that I haven't heard this sentence?"
Wang Zhi: "No."
After eating for a while, Tang Fan found that even the steamed pork with lotus leaf powder could not make him happy, so he could only put down his chopsticks and asked resignedly, "What happened this time?"
Wang Zhi said: "You don't need to be scared like this. In fact, this matter is not complicated."
Tang Fan was speechless: "Your face is full of bad intentions, and you told me that it's not complicated. Even if I believe it, you don't believe it yourself!"
Wang Zhi didn't care: "I don't pretend to comfort you, why do you want to accept the errand with all your heart? Besides, this time you are the right servant of the Criminal Department, it will definitely be much more convenient than just being a censor before, this is still me in front of Your Majesty. Reminder, only to help you win."
Anyway, it's his family's reasoning. In terms of being unreasonable, Tang Fan has never won against Eunuch Wang.
He had a headache and said, "Okay, okay, then you say it."
Everyone who takes the imperial examinations knows that if you want to go all the way from the white body to the jinshi, you have to go through countless exams, large and small, among which six are the most important, namely the county exam, the prefectural exam, the academy exam, the township exam, the general exam, and the palace exam. .
To put it simply, those who can pass the academy examination can obtain the reputation of being a scholar.
Those who can be well-known in the township examination list will become Juren.
Those who can make the list in the general examination will become the tributes. These people will be ranked in the final palace examination, but they will not fall off the list.
The academy exam is held twice every three years, and those who pass it become scholars, and they can not worship when they see the magistrate, which is the starting point for all those who want to go into the official career.
But it happened at the beginning of this year in the Ji'an House in Jiangxi Province.
Like the procedures in other places, there is nothing special about the academic examination in Ji'an. The chief examiner was Shen Kunxiu, who was then a scholar in Jiangxi. It's easy to drive.
But on the day when the academy's test list was released, a shocking scandal broke out, and I don't know where the rumors came from, saying that the top 20 candidates on this list were mostly obtained by cheating.
Not only that, but rumors also spread that the words "Dacheng Ye" appeared on all the test papers of the candidates, as a sign of the pre-appointment with the examiners, and the examiners who took bribes took a look. As soon as these three words appear on the paper, you will know that it is mysterious, and you will get a high score on these papers.
Things got bigger and bigger, and there was a lot of uproar. Among them, those who fell out of the list should be the most violent. They first beat the drums and asked for their orders, and then they invited Confucius' tablet from the Confucius Temple. Officials give a statement.
However, after learning the news, Xuezheng Shen Kunxiu did not respond slowly. He immediately went to check the papers of the candidates and found that the rumors were not far off. Among the top 20 people on the list, at least 16 As expected, the three words "Dacheng Ye" appeared in the personal papers.
This is definitely not a coincidence, Shen Kunxiu was shocked and angry, and decided to investigate thoroughly.
He knew that no matter where the rumors originated, the most important thing at the moment was to find out whether those candidates were really as rumoured to have achieved fame through cheating.
So he first called the reviewers to interrogate them one by one. Those reviewers naturally denied it, and Shen Kunxiu sent people to detain the top 20 scholars individually and review them one by one.
In fact, if you want to know if these people are cheating, the way is very simple, just give a few more exam questions and let them play on the spot.
Shen Kunxiu used this method. In fact, among the sixteen people, there were indeed several people who showed their timidity after the first test. The content of the flower clusters is completely different from the two.
So far, what reason does Shen Kunxiu still don't understand? In order to kill one and a hundred others, to be an example to others, and to appease the anger of other scholars, Shen Kunxiu immediately went to the imperial court, requesting that all the sixteen people's names be removed from their lives and never hire them. hospital test.
However, at this time, one of the sixteen deposed scholars committed suicide by hanging himself. Before he died, he wrote eight bloody characters on the wall of the room where he was imprisoned.
This time, things are more serious.
Although Shen Kunxiu dismissed these 16 people from the imperial court, they were still scholars before the imperial court issued a decree, and one scholar was forced to death by Xuezheng students, and immediately shocked the entire Shilin.
If it is said that the other party is guilty of being a thief, then it is not enough to hide his head and show his tail after being expelled from his fame. How can he use suicide to show his innocence? Who can say that there is no other inside story
Immediately, many rumors spread, saying that Shen Xuezheng had a personal grudge with the other party, and that the other party committed suicide because of the humiliation and anger. There were also that Shen Xuezheng judged the wrong case, and the suicidal scholar did not cheat at all, and was wronged.
Shortly after the incident, the Jiangxi governor and the procurator made separate presentations, demanding that the case be strictly investigated, the loyal and traitors should be identified, and the truth should be heard.
Just as Tang Fan's errand in Suzhou came to an end, the emperor asked him to go directly to Jiangxi to deal with the matter without having to return to Beijing.
Because Shen Kunxiu is a provincial school of politics, his official position is of the third grade, and his status is noble and detached. Tang Fan's fourth-grade censorship position is a bit unattractive in front of him, so the emperor gave him a penal swipe to give him the right of punishment. The title of Shilang is to make it easier for him to investigate cases.
After knowing the ins and outs, Tang Fan had mixed feelings and mixed feelings.
At this moment, he just wanted to say one thing: there is no free lunch in the world, and the ancients honestly did not deceive me.
[Volume 10: Imperial Examination Cases]