Chapter 229 The Censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate
After Hang Huai asked, no censor was willing to take charge of filing a case against Xue Fengming and Dai Guan.
Needless to say, Xue Fengming was the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and no one was willing to convict his friend from the same court.
Dai Guan has long been praised as a loyal and upright minister by the civil service group because of his advice on the Seven Matters. When the Ministry of Household Affairs issued a letter to the Metropolitan Procuratorate, asking the Metropolitan Procuratorate to impeach Dai Guan, the Metropolitan Procuratorate chose to protect Dai Guan. Now naturally, there is no imperial censor. Willing to find Dai Guan guilty.
Seeing this, Hang Huai, the censor of Zuodu, could only tell Yan Hong, the censor of the deputy capital: "Yan Fuxian, please choose two censors to take over this case. Now that Dongchang has come up with the charges, we all The Procuratorate cannot ignore it, otherwise it will be unconstitutional, it will be a waste of time, and it will be dereliction of duty. In that case, the people in Dongchang will have even more reason to punish us! "
"Now His Majesty's methods are becoming more and more unpredictable. No one thought that he would let Dongchang inspect and force us to file a case. This is not using eunuchs to control civil servants. This is forcing us civil servants to restrain each other. Ah! We, the imperial censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, have completely become a knife in His Majesty’s hands. If we don’t supervise the officials to deal with corrupt officials, Your Majesty will let Dongchang force us to supervise the officials!”
Although Hang Huai realized that the imperial power would become more and more powerful, he was helpless even though he was the censor of Zuodu.
"Hmph!"
At this time, Yan Hong looked angrily at Hanghuai, the censor of Zuodu, and cupped his hands and said:
"Hang Gong, you can't sit back and watch Dongchang behave so wildly in front of our Metropolitan Procuratorate. Dongchang has set up an inspection department in our Metropolitan Procuratorate to detain civil servants, and also allows our Metropolitan Procuratorate to punish these civil servants. How can our Metropolitan Procuratorate do this? If I don’t become a lackey of his Dongchang, I will lose my face to the Procuratorate!”
Hang Huai, the censor of Zuodu, admitted in his heart that what Yan Hong said was correct. From now on, the Imperial Procuratorate could only act in accordance with the court rules and could not use its supervisory power to control the king. However, as the censor of Zuodu, he wanted to keep his official position. , naturally cannot admit it openly, but only shouts at Yan Hong loudly:
"Shut up!"
Hang Huai slapped the table and continued to scold: "The Metropolitan Procuratorate is under the order of the emperor to supervise all officials. According to the outline of the constitution, it has the power to file cases for impeachment. How can it be that he is a lackey of the East Factory!"
When Hang Huai said this, Yan Hong and other censors all shut up, but they still looked at Hang Huai angrily and looked at the pile of evidence.
Seeing this, Hang Huai couldn't bear to let the situation in the entire Metropolitan Procuratorate be so stiff. At the same time, he also deliberately reminded these officials, so he said in a gentle tone: "Besides, this is your Majesty's will. How can you violate it? Everyone It’s better to do things sincerely. How dare you resign and force His Majesty to do so?”
"What Mr. Hang said is true. We dare not say anything about your father's fault. In this case, we can only resign!"
Yan Hong knew that Hang Huai was reminding his officials to force the emperor to resign in groups, so he took the words, took off the black gauze from his head, turned around and asked:
"Everyone, who is willing to resign with Yan? Is it possible that you are all willing to be the lackeys of the eunuchs?!"
"He is willing to resign!"
At this time, Yushi He Shaozheng stood up.
"Chen is willing to resign!"
Censor Chen Xiang also stood up.
"Li is willing to resign!"
"Zhang is willing to resign!"
"Xu is willing to resign!"
... Many censors expressed their intention to resign to express their resentment that they could not tolerate the establishment of an inspection department in Dongchang to inspect hundreds of officials.
Hang Huai, the censor of Zuodu, saw that all the censors under him were so excited and threatened to resign. He was very happy in his heart. The determination of the censor may be able to make His Majesty make concessions and prevent Dongchang from interfering with the supervisory power of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.
But he knew that if he wanted to keep his official position as Zuodu Yushi, he could not show that he only cared about the power of his own Metropolitan Procuratorate and the civil service group. He had to show that he had to think about the overall situation and the court. As the Metropolitan Procuratorate The head of the imperial court is the censor, and he cannot participate in the resignation.
Therefore, Hang Huai, the imperial censor of Zuodu, advised with sincerity: "Don't be impulsive! Your Majesty is wise and will never allow eunuchs to have exclusive power. Now that the inspectorate is established in the East Factory, it is probably because of treachery! You are also disciples of the saint, how can you abandon the king and ignore the people of the world? "
"We are not resigning because we are abandoning the emperor, nor are we abandoning the people, but because we cannot bear to collude with the treacherous ministers and traitors! Now Mr. Xue is being tortured by Dongchang to extract a confession, presumably because of his repeated impeachment of the treacherous minister Zhang Cong! But His Majesty was castrated by the treacherous minister and traitors Deceived, we can only resign to ask Your Majesty to distinguish between loyal and traitorous people!”
Yan Hong, the left deputy censor of the capital, knew that Hang Huai's consolation to him was not because he did not want people like him to resign, but because of his position as the censor of the capital, he could not take the initiative to force the palace, so he insisted on resigning.
"Yes, resign!"
"Since I can't remonstrate with you, I can only resign and go into seclusion!"
"If I don't resign, will I still be a castrate and a traitor?!"
For a time, these censors started talking one by one.
Seeing that his goal had been achieved, Hang Huai's censors all expressed their intention to resign, so he advised again: "Everyone, be quiet! Listen to this General Xian, even if you want to resign, you must follow the rules. We We are Feng Xianguan. We can’t let the court say that we don’t understand the rules. If you want to resign, please write a letter of resignation! When the time comes, I will send you to the palace and your Majesty will make the decision!”
As a result, many of these officials, such as the deputy capital censor, the censor of the capital, and the supervisory censor, began to write letters of resignation and handed them over to Hanghuai, the censor of Zuodu.
Hang Huai took these resignations and entered the palace.
As the censor of Zuodu, in charge of the supervisory power of the Ming Empire, Hanghuai was directly under the control of His Majesty the Emperor Zhu Houzhao. Therefore, he could see Zhu Houzhao directly without meeting the cabinet ministers first.
Zhu Houzhao also met with Hang Huai. Even he already knew Hang Huai's purpose, but he did not reveal it. He only asked: "Mr. Hang, why are you bringing so many memorials? The Dongchang reported that there are You all check Have you filed a complaint against Xue Fengming, the censor of the imperial court, for slandering the court officials? Do you have a memorial for the former head of the Ministry of Revenue, Dai Guan, who left his post without permission? "
"Replying to your majesty, I am incompetent. Xue Fengming, the supervisory censor, and Dai Guan, the former head of the Household Department, have high prestige among the officials. Therefore, no one in the capital procuratorate is willing to file a case for Shang Shu. Moreover, they have asked to resign one after another. Almost the entire capital procuratorate All the magistrates in the court dare not make independent opinions, so I came here to ask for your Majesty’s advice!”
Hang Huai gave a long bow and admitted his incompetence first to prevent Emperor Zhu Houzhao from blaming him for most of the censors' resignations (equivalent to strikes), and then said that he could not make the decision and needed His Majesty to make the decision, which meant that he needed to Your Majesty, you have to make a compromise.
"Are these memorials for the censors' resignation?" Zhu Houzhao asked.
"Both!" Hang Huai replied.
"Xue Fengming and Dai Guan are really prestigious. The censors in the world would actually give up their supervisory duties for them and threaten to resign!" Zhu Houzhao said with a smile.
I don’t know if I wrote it clearly. In short, according to the system, the duty of the censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate is to supervise corrupt officials, but many times the censors use this power to control the monarchy. Here Zhu Houzhao just used Dongchang to go there. Forcing the Metropolitan Procuratorate Do what they should really do, but the censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate are obviously not willing to be used by the emperor against their own civil servants. They do not want to be the emperor's sword, they want to be the shackles for the civil servant group to control the emperor, so they would rather Choose to resign. And Hang Huai, the censor of Zuodu, is naturally a two-faced man. This matter is not over yet. If Zhu Houzhao wants to suppress the power of civil servants to discuss politics, he will definitely be opposed by the entire civil servant group. Of course Zhu Houzhao had his own way to break the situation.
(End of chapter)