Chongzhen looked at the civil and military officials in the court and found that there were many unfamiliar faces. In the past, the civil officials had lost a lot of honor. He knew that those people might have been killed by the crown prince.

Chongzhen couldn't express how he felt when he thought of so many noble families being wiped out. He would never dare to kill them or even exterminate their clan if they didn't do anything rebellious.

Although the prince's methods were more cruel, great changes had taken place in the Ming Dynasty after he took over the country, which made Chongzhen very pleased. He glanced at the cabinet and the faces of those familiar ministers and smiled:

"Dear dear friends, since the prince established the country, slaves have not dared to invade the border. The rogue bandits have been gradually pacified by him. The disaster area of ​​Chibi has been starved to death for thousands of miles. After the prince's vigorous relief, the Ming Dynasty has shown signs of recovery. I am very relieved.

However, in the past few days, locust plagues have occurred again in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, and the crops grown by people in the Gyeonggi area have also been wiped out by locusts. What countermeasures do you have?..."

Before Chongzhen finished speaking, Xie Sheng, the Minister of Rites, came out of the class to play:

"Your Majesty, the Crown Prince is indeed proficient in the art of war, but he abolished the Beijing camp and recruited two hundred thousand troops without authorization. This has been going on for a long time, and I fear that it will be difficult for Your Majesty to control it. I would like to ask Your Majesty to come to court as soon as possible..."

Hu Shi'an, the Minister of War, immediately went out to support:

"Your Majesty, the Crown Prince is young and does not understand government affairs. Since he took charge of the country, he has killed officials and massacred the gentry and merchants, seized the merchants' shops and property, and seized the land of the gentry. Such unscrupulousness may lead to chaos in the world. Please cancel the Crown Prince's supervision of the country and go to court in person!"

Wang Yongji, Minister of Household Affairs:

"Your Majesty, since the crown prince took charge of the country, he has killed officials, slaughtered gentry, destroyed merchants, and even nobles who had retired from the country. More than a dozen people were killed. Among them, eight noble families were wiped out. Such a tyrannical rule to the extent of the ancestral system does not care about the anger of heaven and the people. …”

Several ministers took the lead, and immediately more than a dozen imperial censors came forward to second their opinions:

"Your Majesty, what you have said makes sense. The sudden outbreak of celestial insect disasters in various parts of the Ming Dynasty is a punishment for the crown prince's tyranny. I agree with you..."

These civil servants and censors were well hidden. When Zhu Cixiang was supervising the country in the capital, they were already afraid of being killed and did not dare to show any resistance. When they saw Emperor Chongzhen approaching the court, they immediately revealed their true colors and launched an attack on the crown prince.

But Chongzhen is no longer the Emperor Chongzhen before. He has now clearly seen the ugly faces of these civil servants.

I just didn't expect that I would be criticized verbally and verbally by the civil servants as soon as I came to court. I was caught off guard for a moment, and my face turned livid with anger. I only regretted that the crown prince had killed too few people.

Seeing that the emperor did not express his position, Shi Bangzhao, the censor of the right capital of the Inspectorate, came out to play:

"Your Majesty, please calm down. The Crown Prince is young and some of his actions are indeed inappropriate. As a minister, I should not condemn His Highness like this. I suggest that the Emperor just take back His Highness's power to supervise the country. It is not appropriate to deal with His Highness..."

Although Shi Bangzhao seemed to speak for the crown prince, his main purpose was to oppose the crown prince's continued supervision of the country.

Zhu Cixiang's killing of eight major imperial merchants cut off the wealth of many officials, and the land annexation also affected the interests of all the gentry, noble landlords, and even the royal family members. Most officials in the court did not want him to continue to supervise the country.

Several veterans of the cabinet are also civil servants, but they see things more clearly than other officials, but in their hearts they don't very much support the crown prince's land distribution, which is clearly against the gentry of the world.

They would just do whatever the crown prince asked them to do. They would not openly oppose the crown prince, let alone support the impeachment of the crown prince by officials in the DPRK. It would be difficult for them to take the initiative to stand up and support the crown prince.

The new generation of civil servants trained by Zhu Cihong are currently in low positions, and they are not qualified to participate in court meetings. Sun Chuanting, Lu Xiangsheng, Zhu Dadian and others are not in the capital.

At this time, only Yang Tinglin, the Yin of Shuntian Prefecture, and Zhang Shize, the newly crowned British Duke, were Zhu Cihong's loyal supporters in the court. However, these two people were confused by the sudden outburst of civil servants.

The court hall had been peaceful for several months. They did not expect that such a crazy situation would emerge. They were almost unanimously opposed to the crown prince. When they looked up at the emperor, they found that Chongzhen's face was getting more and more ugly.

After reacting, Zhang Shize was furious. He immediately went out of work and bowed to Chongzhen:

"Your Majesty, I have this memorial."

Chongzhen looked at Zhang Shize and said coldly:

"Play!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Zhang Shize thanked him and immediately turned around and pointed at the civil servants and yelled:

"A bunch of blood-sucking worms who are greedy for life and afraid of death, but you can attack the wise and powerful crown prince? The army of Jiannu is besieging the capital. Where are you? Why don't you use your foul mouth to attack Jiannu?

Rogue bandits broke into Fengyang to dig up the emperor's tomb, where were you? There was a drought in Henan and Shaanxi, and people died of hunger thousands of miles away from Chibi. Did you ever give a penny for disaster relief?

You don't have it, you can't do anything. It was the seven-year-old crown prince who led the East Palace Guards to defeat the Jiannu and killed tens of thousands of Jiannu and Mongolian Tatars in one fell swoop. This was the Ming Dynasty's greatest victory over the Jiannu and Mongol Tatars in decades.

The capital has been peaceful for more than a year.

The eight imperial merchants colluded with the Mongolian Tatars to smuggle the Ming Dynasty's contraband, sold intelligence on the Ming Dynasty's customs, and helped the slaves to sell the precious items looted from the customs.

The crown prince only eliminated the profiteers when the evidence was conclusive, and all the gold and silver were used for disaster relief. Do you know how much food and money it would take to have tens of millions of people affected by the disaster in Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi provinces? If they had to eat for half a year and not one person starve to death?

Let me tell you rotten scholars, with nearly five million taels of silver, and with the Crown Prince's vigorous relief efforts, are there any new refugees from the three places who have joined the bandits? Are there still refugees from the three provinces who are flocking to the capital? None!

What have you done for the Ming Dynasty and the people? No, you have done nothing. You will only move the money back to your own home. I would like to ask you how shameless you are to attack the crown prince..."

The more Zhang Shize talked, the more excited he became. He walked up to Xie Sheng, who took the lead in attacking the crown prince, and suddenly raised his hand and slapped Xie Sheng hard on the face, knocking Xie Sheng upside down.

Seeing Zhang Shize take action, Li Ruolian, commander of the Jinyiwei, immediately led dozens of Jinyiwei into the Huangji Palace. They stood behind Zhang Shize with their hands on the hilts of their swords.

Yang Tinglin also stepped forward. He pointed at a group of civil servants and said calmly:

"How can a bunch of robbers and thieves become officials? The crown prince gave all the hundreds of thousands of acres of the royal estate to military households and refugees. Now the emperor, the crown prince, and the empress don't have a single acre of land in their names. Can you do it?"

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "The crown prince's land annexation plan only confiscates the land you occupied. The land with legal certificates in your name has not been touched. Why are you jumping over the wall in such a hurry? It is simply unreasonable..."

In response to Yang Tinglin's righteous rebuke, the civil servants just glared at them, unable to find any reason or excuse to refute him, and were speechless for a while.

Xie Sheng was slapped by Zhang Shize until he was dizzy. Blood was flowing down his mouth and nose. When he touched it with his hand, he found that his hand was covered with blood. The old guy's eyesight went black and he fainted.

"It's unreasonable, it's insulting to politeness, it's insulting to politeness..."

When the other civil servants saw that Zhang Shize dared to hit someone, they wanted to swarm up and tear Zhang Shize apart. Li Ruolian looked at the group of civil servants coldly and waved to his Jin Yiwei:

"Those who disrupt the court should form formations on the spot!"

"Here"

Dozens of Jin Yiwei immediately drew out their embroidered spring knives and looked at the civil servants with ferocious looks, intending to kill anyone who dared to take action.

The civil servants all had a psychological shadow on the Jin Yiwei, and they stopped their actions abruptly, otherwise even if Zhang Shize was a military commander, he might get scratched in the face when facing a large group of old men.

Seeing that the civil servants were afraid of the Jin Yiwei, Chongzhen suddenly felt relieved:

"It turns out that these gossips are also afraid of death. They are afraid of death and even fight with the Crown Prince. When the Crown Prince comes back, you will look good..."

The civil servants did not dare to take action against Jin Yiwei, but he dared to speak against Li Ruolian.

While Chongzhen was secretly laughing at these civil servants, they once again wrote a petition demanding that Li Ruolian be killed:

"Your Majesty, the Jin Yiwei is the crown prince's eagle dog. All the officials and gentry were killed because of Li Ruolian and the Jin Yiwei. Please send an order to kill Li Ruolian..."

Seeing that the civil servants were attacking Li Ruolian again, Chongzhen suddenly felt that these civil servants were like a bunch of mad dogs. They were catching and biting whoever they caught. Chongzhen, who had clearly seen the face of the civil servant group, couldn't help it anymore. He suddenly laughed:

"Haha, dear friends, why did you want to kill Li Ruolian? I didn't see him kill anyone. The only way to kill him was to kill the British Duke Zhang Shize. I clearly saw that it was Zhang Shize who beat him..."

When they heard that the emperor wanted to execute the British Duke Zhang Shize, the civil servants were overjoyed. Zhang Shize was the right-hand man of the crown prince and the commander of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry of the National Guard. Killing Zhang Shize would be equivalent to cutting off one of the crown prince's arms.

Led by Xie Sheng, they once again aimed their guns at the British Duke Zhang Shize:

"Your Majesty is wise. Zhang Shize is so bold that he openly beats the court official in the court. Please Your Majesty, please kill Zhang Shize to bring justice to the court!"

When Emperor Chongzhen saw that the civil servants were openly attacking the British, he suppressed his smile and said helplessly:

"My dear friends, Zhang Shize is arrogant and domineering. He actually dared to beat the court official in front of me. He deserves to be killed. However, the British lineage is extremely loyal to the Ming Dynasty. In their hands, they still have the iron certificate given by Emperor Chengzu to avoid death. I cannot disobey my ancestors."

To kill the British Duke, what do you think should be done with Zhang Shize?"

"This...Your Majesty..."

Yes, Zhang Shize has an iron ticket to avoid death, which was given by Emperor Chengzu. It is impossible to kill Zhang Shize, but it is even more impossible to let Zhang Shize go.

Several civil servants looked at each other. They thought that Chongzhen was still the same emperor as before. Under the pressure of the ministers, they began to give in. Xie Sheng bowed and said:

"Your Majesty is wise, the British prince despises the court, let alone the Holy One. You see, two of my teeth were knocked out by him. I believe that Zhang Shize is bound to be guilty of death and live, so he can be demoted to the rank..."

Before Xie Sheng finished speaking, more than twenty civil servants and censors immediately bowed to support:

"I second the proposal!"

Yang Tinglin hurriedly left the class to play:

"Your Majesty, no, the British princes are the pillars of the Ming Dynasty. The young prince also led tigers and leopards to fight in the capital and made great contributions to the establishment of slaves. Beating Xie Sheng is even more unfair to His Highness. How can he be demoted at will? I think it is a punishment for a small country.

Just ten taels of silver as compensation!"

"Your Majesty, I think Master Yang's words are reasonable..."

This time someone finally stood up to support Yang Tinglin. Chongzhen looked at the people who seconded the proposal and found that they were the Prince Consort Gong Yonggu, the Prince of Sincerity Liu Kongzhao, the Marquis of Xinle Liu Wenbing, and seven or eight other nobles.

Chongzhen nodded secretly. It turned out that the prince was not fighting alone, but there were still people to support him. He slowly stood up and walked down the Imperial Street, walked up to Xie Sheng, and stared at Xie Sheng for a long time without saying a word.

Xie Sheng felt his back begin to feel cold, and he hurriedly bowed and said:

"Your Majesty, I think..."

"That's bullshit. I was very optimistic about you. If nothing else happens, you will have a place in the cabinet, but your performance today has disappointed me."

"The eight-year-old prince led troops out of the capital to suppress bandits. As officials of the Ming Dynasty, you are supposed to be the prince's strong support, but you are selfish and instead attack and slander the prince behind his back."

"No matter what the prince has done wrong, as a human minister, he should not be insulted. He is your king. Is there no distinction between king and minister in your eyes?"

"I have been working diligently since I came to the throne, but the Ming Dynasty suffered natural and man-made disasters and the building was about to collapse. Why is this? Today I finally understand that it is all because of your selfishness, cliques, and inaction."

"Where are the sages' books you read? Did you read them all into the stomach of a dog? How can such an act be worthy of being an official of the imperial court? After passing the decree, Xie Sheng and other three ministers were pushed out of the Meridian Gate to death with sticks, and their property was confiscated. All other officials who seconded the proposal were punished with sticks.

Twenty, if any official dares to talk openly about the prince behind his back in the future, he will be killed without mercy!"

No one in the civil and military circles of the entire dynasty expected that Emperor Chongzhen, who usually gave in to the civil service group, suddenly showed his power today and actually killed three ministers in a row and punished more than 20 civil servants and censors.

Li Ruolian and Zhang Shize suddenly felt that they looked like the crown prince's father, and they burst into tears in excitement.

Gong Yonggu and the other nobles were overjoyed when they saw that the emperor suddenly became tough.
To be continued...