Chapter 223: Be Frank

The court meeting ended.

In the end, Li Dongyang vomited blood and fainted.

The court gave an explanation to the victim, Zhongshan Hou, that Li Zhaofan was thrown into the imperial prison for interrogation, and the Chaling Li family was about to be investigated by the censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

This time, Li Dongyang, the chief minister of the cabinet, was infamous and infamous.

His collusion with the eunuch Liu Jin was directly made public by Tang Hao. Not only was he despised and excluded by the civil officials and literati, but he was also directly deprived of most of his power.

Not to mention that the Hanlin Academy, which he originally held in his hands, was gone, because his collusion with the eunuch was not tolerated by the literati, so Li Dongyang, the chief minister of the cabinet, would also be alienated from the civil officials and gentry, and would inevitably be criticized and impeached in the future.

Perhaps only his Huguang folks would consider the power and status of this party leader, hoping to rise to the top with his support and make further progress in his official career.

As for other civil officials and gentry, whether the cabinet chief can still command them depends on his mood.

After all, the current cabinet is not the cabinet of Zhang Juzheng's era, and the six ministries can still compete with the cabinet!

After the court meeting ended, all officials withdrew one after another, and as they left the court, the shocking changes that happened today would inevitably spread throughout the capital in an instant, and then radiate to the entire Ming Dynasty!

At that time, Li Dongyang will be truly infamous and notorious!

Tang Hao wanted to go home directly, after all, the Tang family had just made a fuss, and there were still many hidden dangers to be solved. However, as soon as he walked out of the hall, he was called by Zhang Yong, and he could only bite the bullet and follow Zhang Yong to the emperor's bedroom.

At this moment, there was only Zhu Houzhao in the bedroom, and all the eunuchs and palace maids were driven out.

Even after Tang Hao entered, the door was closed by the soldiers.

When Zhu Houzhao saw the visitor, he coldly put down the "Imperial Mirror Illustrations" in his hand and stared at Tang Hao without saying a word.

Seeing the emperor in such a state, Tang Hao couldn't help but smile bitterly.

After thinking about it, he sighed, knelt on the ground and saluted in a serious manner, completely without the usual carelessness.

Zhu Houzhao still didn't speak, and the two of them were deadlocked, and the atmosphere became extremely solemn.

I don't know how long it took, but the young emperor couldn't stand this weird atmosphere and spoke.

"Li Dongyang's cold heart is really impressive!"

"You and I have forced him to this point, but he still refuses to take the initiative to resign. This is troublesome!"

Zhu Houzhao spoke and mentioned business.

Following this topic, Tang Hao also gave a serious answer.

"Li Dongyang is different from Liu Jian. He is a pure politician!"

"Politician...?" Zhu Houzhao nodded thoughtfully.

"That's right, Li Dongyang is a politician!"

Tang Hao said in a deep voice: "Politicians only care about the power in their hands, and anything else is something they can give up."

"For example, his stepson Li Zhaofan, if he was asked to make a choice in private, Li Dongyang would definitely give up this stepson without hesitation and push him out to take the blame!"

"But because I openly proposed it in the court, under the watchful eyes of the public, it was difficult for him, Li Dongyang, to speak up, so he vomited blood and fainted, and escaped!"

Hearing this, even Zhu Houzhao couldn't help shaking his head.

"What a despicable villain who is greedy for power!"

Speaking of which, Li Dongyang's body has long been in bad shape. He had resigned many times during the Hongzhi period, but Emperor Hongzhi did not agree. I don't know what kind of mentality this Li scholar had at the time.

It happened that during the Zhengde period, he began to stir up trouble. He was forced to this point and was unwilling to resign.

For such a person, Tang Hao had no mercy at all.

Not to mention how much national interest and land the Huguang Party, which Li Dongyang had promoted, had encroached upon, just considering the time that Tang Hao had been away from Beijing for more than a year, Li Dongyang colluded with Liu Jin to turn the originally good court situation upside down, and he deserved death!

"It doesn't really matter whether he resigns or not."

"After today's incident, Li Dongyang's crime of colluding with eunuchs will be confirmed. Even if he cannot be directly overthrown, he will be rejected by civil officials and gentry because of his eunuch party identity. This cabinet's chief minister is just a clay sculpture chief minister, and he will no longer have any power!"

Tang Hao chuckled and said: "I hope he can hold on longer and continue to be this clay sculpture chief minister, so that Yang Tinghe will have more time to grow."

"If it's another two or three years, when Li Dongyang can't hold on anymore and Xie Qian is old, Yang Tinghe can take over as the cabinet's chief minister!"

Zhu Houzhao smiled inexplicably when he heard this, and asked meaningfully: "Do you think so highly of Master Yang?"

In fact, the emperor couldn't quite understand why Tang Hao was so optimistic about Yang Tinghe.

You have to know that he sent the Jinyiwei to investigate secretly. There was no contact between Tang Hao and Yang Tinghe. Even this "Imperial Mirror Illustrated" was suddenly sent to Yang Tinghe's house by Tang Hao. The two had never even met!

In this case, why did Tang Hao think so highly of Yang Tinghe?

"Because Yang Tinghe is your majesty's teacher, it is better for him to be in charge of the cabinet than other civil officials."

Tang Hao gave an ambiguous answer. He couldn't tell Zhu Houzhao that he was a later person and knew Yang Tinghe's talent and ability, right?

In history, Yang Tinghe had a good reputation and was compared to famous officials such as Zhou Bo of the Western Han Dynasty and Han Qi of the Northern Song Dynasty.

The two officials exchanged a few words briefly, but found that they had nothing to say again, and fell into a long silence for a while.

Another long time passed, and Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but speak first.

"How was the situation this time at sea?"

"It was probably pretty good, and the main purpose was achieved."

Tang Hao did not hide anything and told everything in detail.

As he told the story, Zhu Houzhao's eyes also showed a look of desire.

Going to sea, sailing on the sea, and seeing the vast blue ocean, he, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, also yearned for it.

Unfortunately, because he was the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Houzhao probably never had the opportunity to go to sea in his life!

"First, I led the soldiers to clear the Japanese pirates along the coast of the Ming Dynasty, and slaughtered the Japanese pirates' nest entrenched on Tsushima Island in one fell swoop. In the next ten or twenty years, no Japanese pirates should dare to go out to sea to plunder our Ming Dynasty!"

"Well, well done!" Zhu Houzhao gave an affirmative answer.

"Second, Zuo Yidao has recorded all the information of my voyage this time. This route is basically in our hands. Next, we only need to invest money to build warships. Soon we can re-exert the combat power of the navy and then go out to sea."

This was one of Tang Hao's main purposes for going to sea, to control this route to the east to Ryukyu, Jeju Island and Japan, to rebuild the Ming navy, and then to control the ocean trade with the navy.

Zhu Houzhao smiled after hearing this. He now knew the profits of ocean trade. Being able to control a way of wealth is something worth celebrating for any emperor, not to mention that this is a continuous way of wealth!

"Thank you for your hard work!" Zhu Houzhao said in a gentle voice.

"The third is the matter of Jeju Racecourse. I think the Korean envoys should have arrived in Ming Dynasty, right? According to our previous plan, Jeju Racecourse now belongs to Ming Dynasty, but Korea still refuses to give up and sent envoys to Ming Dynasty to try to fight back."

"They have arrived a long time ago!" Zhu Houzhao also laughed, "But I sent people to lock them up in Huitong Hall. I rejected their requests to see the emperor many times. Anyway, we are not the ones who are anxious now, so it doesn't matter if they are left alone for now."

"I thought I would wait until you come back to finalize this matter, but I didn't expect... I will summon Cheng Xiyan in a few days to implement this matter directly!"

Zhu Houzhao hesitated to speak, and did not mention the rift between the two. Instead, he casually announced the solution to the Korean delegation.

Tang Hao nodded when he heard this.

Ming Dynasty is indeed not in a hurry, or there is no need to be in a hurry.

Since Jeju Racecourse is already in our hands, does Korea really dare to send troops to attack?

On the contrary, the Joseon Dynasty gave the Ming Dynasty a handle because of an internal coup.

If they want to consolidate the ruling foundation of the Joseon Dynasty, they must let Li Yi be canonized by the Ming Dynasty, so that Li Yi has legitimacy, otherwise he is a traitor.

If this goes on for a long time, or if the Ming Dynasty sends an envoy to stir up trouble, the ruling foundation of the Joseon Dynasty will be shaken, and those Joseon scholars are not much inferior to those of the Ming Dynasty.

After talking about these things, the two fell silent again.

"Yang Yiqing is different from Liu Daxia!"

"He has the ability but also a temper. I don't know whether it is good or bad for him to be the Minister of War. I am afraid there will be some troubles in the Beijing camp."

"It doesn't matter." Tang Hao shook his head. "Yang Yiqing is not Li Dongyang. He is a talented and capable official who is valued. From the fact that he dared to lead the army to raid the Mongolian camp, it can be seen that he is a person who values ​​the righteousness of the country more than power and status!"

Tang Hao doesn't care whether Yang Yiqing is a member of the Huguang Township Party. What he really cares about is the position of this person.

For example, Liu Daxia's position is to completely stand on the side of the Huguang Township Party and the civil officials and gentry. He uses his power to suppress military generals and nobles. He wishes to turn the entire Ministry of War into the private land of the Huguang Township Party. This kind of person only shouts about the righteousness of the country.

For example, Xu Jin, who was also a ruthless man who led troops to fight and personally led the army to recapture Hami, was not a sour Confucian who could only shout slogans, nor was he a hypocritical hypocrite like Liu Daxia. Even if Xu Jin was keen on official career, it was human nature. As long as he was willing to work hard, Tang Hao would not mind pushing him to the top.

Thinking of Xu Jin, Tang Hao could not help but ask curiously: "How did Xu Jin's mother die? Isn't it too coincidental?"

"I guess it was the work of Li Dongyang, the beast!" Zhu Houzhao sighed, "Even if ordinary thieves fail to steal, they will subconsciously flee in panic after being discovered by the owner. How could they kill people? Not to mention the family of an important official in the court!"

"Heh! I have asked the Jinyiwei to continue the investigation. None of the officials involved in this matter can escape!"

Tang Hao was silent for a while after hearing this, and his murderous intention towards Li Dongyang deepened in his heart.

The Ming Dynasty was plagued by internal strife, but they basically maintained a certain tacit understanding, which was the unspoken rule of the court.

It was indeed common for the two sides to fight because of political disagreements, but there was no need to bring harm to their wives, children, and family members.

After all, no one can guarantee that he will have the last laugh. If his family is implicated in a court battle, then who would dare to be an official of the Ming Dynasty?

Li Dongyang broke all the rules this time. Not only did he collude with eunuchs, but he also killed Xu Jin's mother. No wonder he didn't care much about Li Zhaofan.

After talking about this topic, the palace suddenly fell into silence again.

Zhu Houzhao also discovered that this damn savage had no intention of admitting his mistake to him!

After all, he was too young, so he slapped the table and shouted: "Tang Hao, don't you have anything else to say?"

say what?

Tang Hao was stunned when he heard this, his face full of confusion.

When Zhu Houzhao saw this, he became even more furious. He pointed at his nose and cursed: "Why do you have to kill Feng'er, you bastard?"

"Did you know that I haven't been able to sleep well every night these past few days? Every time I close my eyes, I see the tragic scene of Feng'er's death. I really want to kill you!"

This is what Zhu Houzhao is saying!

Because Feng'er's death was too miserable at that time.

Tang Hao's last violent throw caused the person to bleed from all his orifices and die with his eyes open!

However, this happened under Zhu Houzhao's nose. He witnessed his lover being violently killed by Tang Hao. He was so frightened that he had nightmares every night and could not sleep at all. Every time, he gritted his teeth with hatred and thought. He must directly kill Tang Hao to avenge Feng Er!

When Tang Hao heard this question, his expression became extremely solemn.

"Your Majesty, the reason why I want to kill Feng'er is because I am not sure. Your Majesty is just on a whim, because you are curious about novels, so you hang out with Feng'er, or your Majesty himself has this hobby... "

"You bastard!" Zhu Houzhao grabbed the tea cup and threw it at it, but Tang Hao would not tolerate him and just turned his head to avoid it.

"If His Majesty is just looking for novelties, then by killing Feng'er, I will bury a thorn in His Majesty's heart. If someone else contributes in the future, His Majesty will be stung and will not do such a cowardly thing again."

"But if Your Majesty really has this hobby and prefers men to women, then..."

"You're the only one who has this kind of hobby!"

Zhu Houzhao finally couldn't bear it anymore and yelled at Tang Hao.

At the end of the scolding, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but have red eyes.

"Feng'er is a miserable person!"

"Why did you have to kill him?"

"Your Majesty!" Tang Hao's tone became stern, "They are all miserable people!"

"Most of them were born in poverty, so they were sold to brothels by their parents. They received cruel training and were trained to look like neither men nor women. They were specially used for the abuse and pleasure of the powerful. Once they passed the age of beauty, they would be abandoned. I can’t even do any heavy work, so I can only starve to death on the streets!”

"Since Your Majesty knows that Feng'er is a poor person, why does Your Majesty still encourage such unhealthy tendencies? Once those eunuchs and eunuchs know that Your Majesty likes them, they will try their best to search for stunning women everywhere, even if they don't have them, they will let people Go and buy boys and train them immediately...Does Your Majesty want to create Feng'er with your own hands?"

Zhu Houzhao was startled when he heard this, and there were tears faintly streaming from the corners of his eyes.

"I...I never meant this!"

"But Feng'er...what's wrong with him!"

Tang Hao also sighed when he heard this.

"If I don't kill him, Your Majesty will fall into his old ways sooner or later!"

"Even if His Majesty is a womanizer, I will not say anything, but this violates ethics and morals, and will also affect His Majesty's ability to flourish!"

"Has Your Majesty forgotten the precedent set by Master Jingtai? In the end, he insisted on causing the monarch and his ministers to be separated, leaving the family alone and sadly dying of illness?"

The precedent of Emperor Jingtai is clearly there!

Zhu Houzhao was all too familiar with the fact that because Emperor Jingtai had no sons, he eventually died tragically in the palace. Whether he died of illness or was poisoned, not even Zhu Houzhao knew the truth.

But it is undeniable that in the Ming Dynasty at that time, except for a few people, all the courtiers wanted Emperor Jingtai to die!

Therefore, if he, Zhu Houzhao, loves Feng'er wholeheartedly, he may end up with the same miserable end as Emperor Jingtai!

At least they still had a son, but he died of illness.

He, Zhu Houzhao, doesn't have a son now. If he vents all his energy on Feng'er again, he will never think about having a man in this life!

Zhu Houzhao wiped away his tears and stared at Tang Hao sharply.

"You killed my beloved in front of me. How can I accept it?"

"Then if you are dissatisfied with me or harbor resentment in the future, will you still raise an army to cause chaos, break into the Qianqing Palace and chop off my head directly?"

Tang Hao smiled bitterly when he heard these words.

Is it finally here?

Liu Jin and Li Dongyang's plan finally worked!

Because of this incident, Zhu Houzhao really became jealous, suspicious, and even resentful of Tang Hao.

Tang Hao sighed, and then gave a firm answer.

"Your Majesty no longer believes in me, so you don't have to use me!"

"However, if Your Majesty wants to enrich the country and strengthen the army, please follow our previous plan!"

"Opening the sea and lifting the ban must be the national policy of the Ming Dynasty, and the profits from maritime trade can be used to drive the development of the Ming Dynasty. The routes of Ryukyu, North Korea, and Japan must be controlled by a confidant..."

"In addition, there are the soldiers of the Beijing Army. Guo Xun is mediocre in ability but loyal, but he must not be a general to lead the troops to fight. If there is a war, Your Majesty can select a general from the nine borders to lead the troops, or summon Xu Jin, who is in mourning, to lead the troops to fight with urgent military information. It is not necessary to stick to those nobles. According to my observation, none of these nobles in Beijing can be used!"

"In addition, Liu Jin's biggest ambition is to follow Wang Zhen's example. Your Majesty, please learn from these two experiences and lessons, and never give him a chance to regain power. Even if you want to suppress civil officials and gentry, Your Majesty has many ways to do it. There is no need to release this mad dog to damage Your Majesty's reputation!"

After saying all this, Tang Hao kowtowed to Zhu Houzhao for the first time.

"I would like to retire from the army, leave Beijing and go to sea, and never return to the Ming Dynasty in my life, so as to relieve Your Majesty's worries!"

Zhu Houzhao was struck by lightning, and his heart was extremely panicked for some reason.

The wild man left Beijing and went to sea, and never returned to the Ming Dynasty!

I had forced him to leave with my own hands, so why did I feel a dull pain in my heart?

Isn't this the result I wanted?