amaotonovel Chapter 851 Openly treating the emperor like a fool
Chapter 851 Openly treating the emperor like a fool
Zhu Biao said with a mocking expression, "Brother-in-law, just tell me how much people hate you."
"First they said you were trying to gain fame and prestige."
"Now another one has come whose achievements are so great that they threaten the emperor's position."
"Tsk, tsk."
"These people are really useless. They only know the same two tricks over and over again, without any new tricks."
Yang Shaofeng blinked, looking completely bewildered.
So, is this another case of someone trying to kill me, or even spreading rumors that I am too powerful and threaten the emperor?
And what's with you, Black Sesame Dumpling, complaining that they're not good enough?
Do they think they haven't found a reason enough to kill me?
Yang Shaofeng was internally ranting, while Li Shanchang was completely dumbfounded.
Excuse me, is it acceptable to casually utter the phrase "merit so great it overshadows the master"?
In particular, the Duke of Ying, who was suspected of having too much influence over the emperor, was also a relative of the emperor's family.
Zhu Biao continued to complain: "Sometimes I just can't understand whether these people truly understand the meaning of 'their merits overshadow the ruler'?"
"If you say that you led eight hundred elite soldiers to conquer the whole world, then that would indeed be a great achievement that would overshadow the emperor. Anyone who came would have a headache about the subsequent reward."
"The problem is that he was granted the title of Duke of Yingguo by relying on a water pump. What kind of merit is that that overshadows the emperor?"
"I feel like they're treating the emperor like a fool."
Yang Shaofeng thought to himself, "This is nothing."
Once Old Deng and you, Little Deng, are both dead, they will brazenly treat the emperor like a fool.
It even made the emperor's substance easily soluble in water.
For example, the famous Emperor Renzong, Zhu Gaochi, was a chubby man who sent people to investigate the tax revenue of the eight prefectures of Zhenjiang. Soon after, he suffered from a whole host of strange diseases, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity.
Take, for example, the famous Zhengde Emperor. First, he was portrayed as fighting against a prince with tens of thousands of men but only killing two. Then, a whole bunch of romantic escapades about "Zhengde's trip to the south of the Yangtze River" were fabricated. Finally, he was sent to his death by drowning.
They won't even let me change the imperial physician.
Even the famous immortal emperor Jiajing was not spared.
I won't go into the sordid stories like palace maids strangling people or sons colluding with Japanese pirates.
Let's just talk about how Jiajing died.
The incident began after Xu Jie killed Lao Yan. The Taoist priest discovered that the money confiscated from Lao Yan's house did not match the accounts and was not at all like the "mountains of gold and silver" that Lao Xu claimed. It was also completely different from the "Tianshui Bingshan Lu" that Lao Xu presented as evidence of Lao Yan's embezzlement. So the Taoist priest went to Lao Xu and demanded that he "give me an explanation."
As a result, Lao Xu didn't give the Taoist a proper explanation; instead, the Taoist went to see the Three Pure Ones first.
By the way, in order to get rid of Lao Yan, Lao Xu first moved his household registration from Songjiang to Jiangxi to establish a hometown connection with Lao Yan, and then married his granddaughter to Lao Yan's grandson.
After killing Lao Yan, Lao Xu had his son Xu Fan personally serve him a cup of poisoned wine, which then poisoned his own granddaughter.
I should also mention that the reason Lao Yan was killed was because the Taoist's West Garden Palace was burned down, leaving the Taoist with nowhere to live. He asked Lao Yan and Lao Xu to find a solution.
Old Yan, who was described in historical records as "flattering and sycophantic," simply shrugged and said, "The three main halls have just been completed, and we don't have enough materials," and told the Taoist priest to stay in the South Palace for now.
However, Lao Xu, who was praised as an "honest official" in historical records, said, "Although the three main halls have just been completed, there are enough materials left over, and the West Garden can be repaired in less than three months."
The result was obvious: Lao Xu repaired Xiyuan as promised.
At the same time, memorials impeaching Lao Yan suddenly sprang up like mushrooms after rain.
Then Lao Yan died.
Speaking of Lao Xu, we must also mention Hai Rui.
Hai Rui's reputation in later generations is a mixed bag, with half of the negative stemming from the rumor that he forced his daughter to remain chaste, leading to her starvation to death (this rumor comes from "Jianzhi Bian"). It seems that this proves Hai Rui was a cruel official who showed no compassion.
Half of the praise comes from the fact that "Jiajing means that every household is clean and has no money" (from Hai Rui's "Memorial on Governance").
Hai Rui had just angrily denounced Jiajing when he went to cause trouble for Lao Xu, forcing Lao Xu to give up all 180,000 mu of his family's land.
Well, the Xu family owns 180,000 mu of land, or some say 240,000 mu. In any case, at the very least, it's equivalent to nine large landowners like Liu Wencai, each owning 20,000 mu of land.
But the thought of Lao Xu's 180,000 mu of land suddenly made Yang Shaofeng feel a little uncomfortable.
How many acres of land does my family own?
According to the rules set by Lao Deng, the brothers Zhu Lao Er, Zhu Lao San, Zhu Lao Si, and Zhu Lao Wu each had 100 qing of land, and my official land was the same, also 100 qing, equivalent to 10,000 mu. However, the Xu family had 180,000 mu of land, equivalent to 180 qing, which was 18 times that of me.
Then the problem is coming.
Zhu Lao Er and his brothers were born into good families, while I, the official, earned my 100 hectares of land through my own merits and by marrying two princesses.
Old Xu served as an official for forty-five years, and his salary was only about thirty thousand taels of silver. How did he manage to accumulate eighteen times the amount of land that was his official salary?
Yang Shaofeng was displeased and couldn't help but think of ways to sow discord among the gentry of Jiangnan.
After all, Lao Xu is their junior.
Let's just consider them as suffering in Lao Xu's place ahead of time.
Having made up his mind, Yang Shaofeng sighed helplessly and bowed to Zhu Biao, saying, "Your Highness, at most they are just making some small moves and spreading a few rumors in private."
"But once they gain real power and the emperor loses control of the military, their actions will likely go beyond simply spreading rumors."
"Well, let me put it this way. If I were in their shoes, I would have to control at least a few academies—not county schools, not prefectural schools, but private schools."
"While teaching them knowledge in private schools, they also taught them more about how to be officials, how to form cliques, how to collude with each other, and how to eliminate dissidents."
"Once we have enough manpower, we can turn around and find a way to take control of the Ministry of War, then take over the rations and pay of the garrisons, and then extend our reach to the frontier to engage in large-scale smuggling."
"By this point, from the border generals to the barbarians beyond the Great Wall, everyone is connected to me. Who can possibly investigate this thoroughly?"
"As soon as someone comes to investigate, the barbarians beyond the Great Wall will rise up in rebellion."
“When the barbarians cause trouble, the imperial court has to allocate funds and supplies to suppress them.”
"If all else fails, we can actually kill a few barbarians to claim credit."
"As for whether these barbarians are truly barbarian soldiers or herdsmen, it doesn't really matter."
Seeing Zhu Biao's increasingly dark and sour face, Yang Shaofeng added another dose of drastic measure: "If possible, you could also collude with those damned eunuchs in the palace~"