Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 65: Ma Wensheng is angry and sick

This day was the day when Liu Jian and Xie Qian retired and returned to their hometown.

Since both of them were heading south, they left Beijing together.

But Liu Jian and Xie Qian were a little disappointed because the weather when they left Beijing was really inappropriate. To them, after all, two ministers had left the court, and there would no longer be any righteousness in the court. Even if it was not a rainy day, it should at least be gloomy. But who would have thought that the sun was shining brightly with not a single cloud in the sky!
"Even the heaven is so unkind!" Xie Qian couldn't help but complain and waved his sleeves.

"It's just the same as the guy in the Meridian Gate. Let's go. People will get forgotten when you leave!" Liu Jian responded and ordered his servant to drive away.

When they arrived at the Ten-Li Pavilion, Liu Jian and Xie Qian returned to their hometown, but they were not forgotten.

Li Dongyang, Ma Wensheng and other civil servants in Beijing were there to see him off.

Needless to say, Li Dongyang was once an ally. Although he did not fulfill his promise to resign together, he believed that Liu Jian and Xie Qian would understand him.

Ma Wensheng felt that although they were once political enemies, the winner was now clear, and they had been colleagues in the same court for many years. It was reasonable for him to come and see them off. Only in this way could he appease the hearts of Liu Jian, Xie Qian and other officials in the court, and it would also be for the sake of the stability of the Zhengde Dynasty.

When Xie Qian saw that Li Dongyang did not fulfill his promise to resign together, and that Ma Wen was promoted to the cabinet and promoted to the first rank, he was not very happy. He did not hide it and just said, "I will not associate with the eunuch party!" After saying that, he hurriedly ordered the servant to drive away.

Liu Jian got out of the car and came to Li Dongyang. He ignored Ma Wensheng who took the initiative to greet him and only asked Li Dongyang: "Binzhi, why did you suddenly not leave this court full of filth and eunuchs with us? Are you a person who clings to power?"

Li Dongyang couldn't say that his original purpose of proposing to resign was to ask you, Liu Jian, to resign so that he could become the chief minister of the cabinet, so he just bowed and said:
"Mr. Liu misunderstood Binzhi's painstaking efforts! It's not that Li is obsessed with the position of prime minister, but in order to prevent the complete collapse of the Ming Dynasty and the people of the world from being poisoned by the treacherous eunuchs in the court, he had to endure humiliation and bear heavy burdens in order to maintain a little. Only in this way can Mr. Liu and Mr. Xie return to their hometown to retire safely!"

"Well! I hope you do what you say, so let's say goodbye!"

Liu Jian just glanced at Ma Wensheng and said coldly, "It's a pity that although some people shamelessly invite the emperor to marry eunuchs, they can't enter the cabinet and become the prime minister in the end!"

Immediately, Liu Jian also turned away.

Ma Wensheng was about to comfort Liu Jian and Xie Qian when he was irritated, but he couldn't lose his temper at this time, so he had to endure it. He then looked at Li Dongyang and said, "Mr. Li, from now on, you are the Prime Minister of our Ming Dynasty. I hope you will consider the world, put aside your old grudges, and serve the country wholeheartedly!"

"Lord Ma is truly loyal to his country, but I wonder if he is angry or not. As long as I am in the court, you bastards will never be able to become the Prime Minister! So what if the emperor favors you? Ask the world, how many people will obey him?"

Li Dongyang smiled coldly and walked away.

Ma Wensheng was already angry when he found out that Li Dongyang did not resign and he could not become the prime minister. Now, for the sake of the unity of the entire civil service group, he forced himself to suppress his unhappiness and show some noble character. However, he did not expect that his good intentions would not be understood. Instead, he was provoked by Liu Jian and Li Dongyang one after another, and he became emotional and his blood vessels dilated. Soon, he felt a sharp pain in his heart. He covered his chest and could not speak for a long time, and then fell directly to the ground.

Li Dongyang had already sat in his sedan chair at this time. When he heard someone outside calling for the cabinet assistant, he opened the sedan chair curtain and found that Ma Wensheng had fallen to the ground. He couldn't help but laugh to himself, thinking: "As Yang Tinghe expected, this Ma Wensheng is just Zhou Lang of Red Cliff, who can't stand provocation!" At this time, it happened that Ma Yongcheng and Wang Yangming led the Jinyi personal soldiers of Jueshengwei out of the city and ran into Li Dongyang. Li Dongyang changed his cold and arrogant attitude in front of Ma Yongcheng in the past, and hurriedly ordered people to stop the sedan chair. He got out of the sedan chair, stood aside, and asked with a folded hand: "Where are you going, Governor?"

Ma Yongcheng was different from Ma Wensheng. He did not hide his disgust for Li Dongyang and others. He snorted and rode away without answering.

Li Dongyang was not angry either. He just ordered his butler beside him: "Li Hong, go and find out why the East Factory Supervisor Ma Yongcheng suddenly brought so many Jinyiwei out of the city?"

Li Hong hurriedly agreed and went into the city first.

Li Dongyang entered the sedan chair with a puzzled look on his face, and couldn't help thinking, "Although I have become the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, I still can't avoid being sidelined by His Majesty, Liu Jin, and Ma Wensheng. I don't even know why the East Factory Governor Ma Yongcheng left the capital. If Eunuch Wang Yue was still in the Imperial Household Department, this wouldn't be the result."

……

Zhu Houzhao also guessed that Ma Wensheng and other civil servants might go to see Liu Jian and Xie Qian off, but he did not interfere. He did not object to Ma Wensheng and other civil servants maintaining the balance within the civil service group, as long as Ma Wensheng did not think about colluding with Liu Jin and other eunuchs.

Zhu Houzhao even wondered whether Liu Jian and others would forgive Ma Wensheng, but he guessed that they would not be as broad-minded as the books said. After all, they were once political enemies, so how could they shake hands and make peace so easily?

Zhu Houzhao didn't have the time to care about which of these civil servants were upright and which were humble. What he was most concerned about now was how to ensure that no mistakes would be made in the process of investigating the evidence of the murder of Emperor Hongzhi.

In order to ensure that there would be no mistakes, Zhu Houzhao asked the Imperial Household Department to draft an edict, ordering the Ministry of War to send an urgent letter to Shaanxi Governor Yang Yiqing, ordering him to obey the orders of Ma Yongcheng, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Depot, when necessary. This would ensure that Ma Yongcheng could directly mobilize the border troops if he encountered any emergencies while escorting the important criminals to Beijing.

"This should be foolproof! Now let's see if Gu Dayong can pry out concrete evidence about the murder of Emperor Hongzhi from Wang Yue and others. And Tang Bohu is not afraid of dying of exhaustion if he doesn't come to Beijing! Well, Luo Xiang, go find a few storytellers to listen to the Leopard Room, the more the better. Also, find a few writers who can write jokes and keep them in the Leopard Room!"

As Zhu Houzhao was talking, he suddenly remembered someone and couldn't help but slap his forehead: "I almost forgot about him!"

Zhu Houzhao then hurriedly ordered: "Luo Xiang, send another person to the Huai'an Prefecture Shanyang County named Wu Chengen, whose father's name is Wu Rui."

"I'll do it right away," Luo Xiang retreated, and at this moment, Gao Feng came running over again: "Your Majesty! Something terrible has happened. Ma Gefu suddenly felt extremely distressed, and he seems to be useless and is almost dying!"

"what!"

Zhu Houzhao stood up suddenly, as if a loud bang sounded in his ears!
Thank you to my book friend Tongrenxiansen for the 100 Qidian coins. I just came back from the hospital after getting an IV drip. I gritted my teeth and wrote a chapter. Now my legs are weak and my whole body is exhausted. I am really sorry for the late update. Now it’s good that I have a cold this time. At least I don’t have to worry about catching a cold when the book is put on the shelves. I’m going to rest now, book friends, please don’t criticize me too much. I have to go to the hospital tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, woo!

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(End of this chapter)