Chapter 276: Everyone has their own guesses

As night fell, several big restaurants on Fudong Street were already very lively and there were many customers. Originally, after Li Jinglong's defeat, prices in the capital soared and food was in short supply. However, as Li Wei was entering Beijing and the end of Sichuan's rebellion, Lan Yu, and the Yan army withdrew to the north of the Yellow River, the situation began to calm down day by day, and rice prices began to fall. People were determined, and the major restaurants that were once deserted became lively again.

Fengxi Restaurant located on Fudong Street is one of them. Its business is particularly popular. The owner of this restaurant is from Fengyang. He has a certain official background and has a wide connection. Therefore, there are many officials coming here to have dinner. Gradually, this restaurant has become a place for officials to communicate.

Today is no exception. Before dark, several groups of officials invited me to come here for dinner. In a elegant room on the third floor, there were several officials sitting on the elegant room beside the window. They were not young, in their thirties, most of them served as doctors and chief officials, and were young backbone officials of various departments. Everyone drank and ate food, and the topics were always inseparable from official affairs.

"Do you know that this major change in the court seems to be related to Li Weizheng?" Speaking was Cui Guangqing, a doctor of the Ministry of Justice, who was a professional. Among the series of major policies he issued, what he most supports is the "no words or sins".

As soon as he finished speaking, Qiu Haizheng, a doctor from the Ministry of War next to him, said: "Brother Cui is really not good at saying this. Who else can be said to the Ming Dynasty strongly requesting the release of sea bans? Besides, who else can I encourage the public to publish newspapers? Isn't this a copy of his in Goryeo?"

Qiu Haizheng took a sip of wine and said, "Actually! The sea ban has nothing to do with us. The main thing is that it is not related to the public newspapers by words or crimes. These two things seem to be irrelevant, but they are actually one thing. I guess Li Weizheng's meaning is to encourage everyone to say anything publicly in the newspaper, so there is no crime by words."

Qiu Haizheng's words were a bit profound, and everyone nodded repeatedly. Wang Fan, the head of Dali Temple Temple, also said: "I agree with Brother Qiu's idea. Li Weizheng's intention is probably not only to officials, but also to literati in the opposition. Encouraging newspapers is to give them a channel for speech. Not to be convicted by words is to encourage them to criticize the government or put forward their own political views. In the future, scholars in the Ming Dynasty will be lively."

"Oddly! In the future, you can also make some money from writing a few articles to the newspaper office."

Everyone laughed at each other. Wang Fan's eyes turned, and seeing Ye Rutang on the side were silent, he smiled and said, "Brother Ye, you are the one who should be silent the most. Li Wei is marrying your two sisters. You have much more news than us. How many words do you say."

Ye Rutang has now become a doctor in the Ministry of Personnel, and has real power in his hands. In addition, his father Ye Tianming once had power for a while, so he was the head of these people. Ye Rutang took a sip of wine and sighed: "You know, Li Weizheng and I have not had any contact for many years, so there is no news, but the place I pay attention to is not much the same as you."

Everyone was surprised and asked, "Where is Brother Ye paying attention to?"

Ye Rutang shook his head and said, "You are all talking about not being guilty for words and encouraging the public to publish newspapers. In my opinion, these are all means for him to weaken the imperial power. When Taizu was alive, he didn't even think about such things. What's the result? The imperial power has been greatly strengthened, and Taizu has the power of life and death. Now it's good. Anyone can criticize the government, and the emperor can't do anything to him. Alas! The emperor is still too young and doesn't understand Li Weizheng's ambitions!"

Qiu Hai's face sank and said unhappily: "I don't agree with Brother Ye's words. Did everyone suffer less when Taizu was alive? He created major cases at every turn, and many court officials were destroyed and their families were destroyed. If they were not satisfied with their words, they would drag them out to death. In his eyes, the ministers were not even as good as grass. This is the consequence of the gathering of imperial power among one person. Perhaps Li Wei was a little ambitious, but his ambition was to weaken imperial power. What's wrong with this? I think it's good for everyone."

Ye Rutang glanced at him and sneered: "You should be careful when you speak like this!"

Qiu Haizheng laughed and said, "What am I afraid of if I don't get guilty for words?"

Everyone couldn't help laughing together, "Not bad! Not bad! It's so wonderful to be punished without being guilty of words."

After dinner, Ye Rutang took a carriage home. Although Ye Rutang had already been in the Ministry of Personnel, and had a wife and two concubines at home, he still lived with his father and did not go out to live there. Ye's house was very big and he specially divided the west courtyard for their family to live in.

The carriage stopped in front of the mansion. As soon as he got off the carriage, the housekeeper ran down the steps and said, "Young Master, please go to his study."

"I see!"

The Ye Mansion was happy these two days. One was Ye Tianming re-elected and served as the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue. Since the Minister of Revenue was temporarily short of the Minister of Revenue, Ye Tianming was actually the highest official of the Ministry of Revenue. The other was the reconciliation of the father-in-law and son-in-law. A few days ago, Zi Tong, sisters of Su Tong took their children back to their parents' home and hugged their mother and grandmother and cried bitterly. Although Li Weizheng did not come to the door, his permission to return to their parents' home means that the ice between their father-in-law and son-in-law had loosened, so everyone in the Hefu was happy, especially Li Weizheng was already the most powerful minister in the court, and this powerful minister could not be eliminated by the emperor if he wanted to dismiss. This made the Ye family particularly proud. In front of outsiders, their waists were straightened a little, which washed away Ye Tianming's dark aura when he was dismissed from office.

Although the Ye family rose again, the owner Ye Tianming was very low-key. He only went to the palace to express his gratitude the next day. He then went to the Ministry of Revenue to meet his old subordinates, and then went back and forth between the court and the family, and did not participate in any other social engagements, which was completely different from when he was in power in the past.

At this time, Ye Tianming was reading a book in the study. He originally didn't want to talk to his son, but after hearing the butler said that his son had been socializing and having dinner every day these days, he felt it was necessary to talk to his son.

At this time, the familiar footsteps of his son came from outside the door, and then Ye Rutang said outside the door: "Father, are you looking for me?"

"Rutang, come in!"

The door gently pushed open, Ye Rutang walked in, knelt down to his father and bowed, "Sure, my father, how are you healthy."

Ye Tianming nodded and said, "Sit down!"

Ye Tianming was still very satisfied with his son, who was knowledgeable and polite, and was considerate of his parents. Other people's sons had to move out to start their own business if they were hard, but his son had already become a doctor in the Ministry of Personnel and was willing to take care of his parents and live with them. This touched him very much.

"Rutang, I heard that you are eating out these days, that's right!"

Ye Rutang hurriedly bowed and said, "Father, the child is eating with the officials, and he does not mingle with the villains."

Ye Tianming smiled, "Didn't you say you can't go out for dinner? It's because these celestial dynasty situations have changed a lot, and my father is relatively low-key. I don't understand many of the situations outside, so I would like to ask, how did the officials outside evaluate the changes in the government over the past two days?"

When Ye Rutang heard that his father was not scolding him for going out to drink every day, he let down his heart slightly, and sighed: "I just can't figure it out. Li Weizheng's ambition is so obvious, why can't the emperor see it?"

"Do you think the emperor really don't understand?" Ye Tianming shook his head and said, "Even if he couldn't see through it at that time, he could still recall it afterwards, but he was helpless! Take the 200,000 army as an example. Li Weizheng handed it to the emperor, but who is in command of the army? Under Ping An, the commanders below are all Li Weizheng. What's the use of him getting the 200,000? If they are transferred to them east, they will obediently walk east, and they will also walk west, but I'm sorry to ask them to fight the Liaodong army. So, Li Weizheng arranged everything and proposed to him to support the new policy, why not be punished for words? This is to use the emperor's spear to attack the emperor's own shield! Can he not agree?"

Ye Rutang was speechless and said for a while: "In fact, the child also understood this point. The emperor said that he was sick and was probably avoiding Li Weizheng's limelight. But what he was most dissatisfied with was that some officials were not only consuming the king's salary, but also helping Li Weizheng speak, saying that it was wonderful to weaken the imperial power, and that he had no king or father in his eyes."

Ye Tianming didn't say anything. After a while, he whispered: "Actually, for the father, he also supports weakening the imperial power."

"Father, you..." Ye Rutang was stunned.

Ye Tianming waved his hand, "Don't worry, listen to Father slowly tell you that Father's starting point is different from theirs."

"Please help my father resolve the confusion in my child."

"Do you know why you are so low-key these days for your father?"

"The boy doesn't know."

Ye Tianming sighed and said, "The reason why the emperor re-activated me is to let me replace Huang Zicheng and confront Li Weizheng. I broke with Li Weizheng twice back then. In addition, I still have some power in the court. He hoped that I could take over Huang Zicheng's banner against Li Weizheng. Li Weizheng also saw this, so he proposed to let Huang Zicheng be the governor of Henan. In this way, the emperor could not trust me too much, which would make Huang Zicheng feel disappointed. What a pity! After experiencing a fluctuation, I had seen through it. If Li Weizheng returned to Liaodong and no longer threatened the court, the emperor would be the first to dismiss me, because he suspected that I supported the King of Yan. With this, he would never reuse me. However, after the imperial power was weakened, the most profitable one was of course Li Weizheng, followed by me."

Speaking of this, Ye Tianming looked at his son to see if he understood his meaning. Ye Rutang pondered for a moment and said, "What my father meant is that if the imperial power was weakened, the emperor could not remove important officials at will. The father would form a force in the court, and no one could easily remove his father. Is that true?"

"Yes, you've made great progress."

Ye Tianming stroked his beard with great relief and nodded. His son began to mature and could inherit his career in the future.

"If I read it correctly, this is also the direction of Li Weizheng's layout. He wants to divide the Ming Dynasty into several groups of forces and let these groups completely undermine the imperial power. Don't underestimate his power. My son-in-law is no less powerful than Emperor Taizu in the past!"

The one who Ye Rutang was most dissatisfied with was his brother-in-law. Seeing his father praised Li Weizheng so highly, although he didn't say anything, his disapproval was revealed.

Ye Tianming saw it and sighed slightly, "Rutang, you are good at everything, but it's too easy to get emotional. I know that you have always been dissatisfied with Li Weizheng, but if you don't change this emotional weakness, once you are exploited by others, my Ye family will die without a place to die."

Ye Rutang was shocked and hurriedly said, "I know my mistake!"

Ye Tianming shook his head and said, "You know your mistake, but you are still dissatisfied in your heart. Think about it, is it a lucky chance that he can get to where he is today? The King of Yan was his witness back then, but today the two of them are incompatible. Back then, Zhang Yi and him were friends for ages, but what about it? He didn't blink his eyes, and finally he was ruined. Don't behold he was my son-in-law and married my two daughters, but once I became his obstacle, he would kill me, Rutang, the power struggle is so cruel and ruthless. A sentimental person like the emperor is really not suitable to participate in the power struggle. I hope you can learn more from Li Weizheng for your father."

"But he is cruel and ruthless, the child can't learn."

"A father does not want you to learn from his ruthlessness, but to learn from his political vision and long-term layout. You will definitely say that he is just a martial artist. What political vision does he have? What long-term layout? That's right!"

Ye Rutang remained silent, but in fact he agreed to his father's guess. He grew up with Li Weizheng, and his prejudice against Li Weizheng has been deeply rooted. He always believed that Li Weizheng was just a little clever. Even a scholar was the best. What political vision can he have and what long-term layout can he have?

Seeing that his son was stubborn, Ye Tianming couldn't help but sigh in his heart, and he could only tell him some things he didn't want to say.

"Rutang, he already holds nearly one million troops, far more than the court. If he wants to destroy the Ming Dynasty and become independent, it is easy, but why didn't he do this? Have you ever thought about it? He didn't understand it before, and he thought he didn't dare, but now he understands it. It's not that he dares, but that he has his own political ideals. He wants to completely undermine the imperial power. Do you understand? Weakening the imperial power is just his first step."

Ye Rutang fell into deep thought. His father's repeated persuasion finally made him look at Li Weizheng rationally. After pondering for a moment, he asked again: "What will his second move be?"

Ye Tianming saw the calmness in his son's eyes, and couldn't help but feel relieved, so he smiled and said, "His second move has actually gone."

"Have you left?" Ye Rutang's eyes were puzzled.

"Yes, he's gone."

Ye Tianming narrowed his eyes and sneered slightly, "You will understand soon. In fact, I just saw it when my father saw it."
Chapter completed!