Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 156 Li Chengliang's Retirement
"Mr. Yuan, am I being shameless by doing this?"
After the Lantern Festival of that year, Zhu Youdong returned to Nanjing impatiently. After meeting Yuan Keli, Zhu Youdong, who had been holding back for a long time and felt uncomfortable for a long time, could not help but tell Yuan Keli everything he had said in front of Emperor Wanli.
After listening carefully to Zhu Youdong's confession, Yuan Keli first knelt on his knees and performed a formal ceremony, then stood up and said, "Thank you for your trust, Your Highness. This is something that a monarch must do."
"I know, but in my heart... I have always hoped that my subjects will be loyal to me, and I will also be responsible for them for my whole life! If they do well, I will be promoted. If they do not do well, I will also leave with dignity. The last thing I want is to play tricks. I don't like my subjects to play tricks on me, and I don't like myself to play tricks on my subjects even more."
"Your Highness!" Yuan Keli said in a more serious tone, "Your Highness, please do not think like that. The pure relationship between the monarch and his subjects that you just described only exists in books, not in reality. You are only the crown prince now, and you do not encounter such things very often. When you ascend the throne as the emperor in the future, I am afraid you will have to deal with it all the time. If you do not adjust your mentality now, how will you deal with it when you rule the world in the future?"
"Yes, Mr. Yuan, I understand."
"Your Highness, as a minister, there is no one who doesn't want to follow a monarch who values friendship and loyalty. But the reason why I came to your side so straightforwardly from my idle home is not because of your loyalty, but because of the methods you showed when dealing with the censors and Donglin Academy! Your performance made me deeply believe that you will definitely be a wise monarch of the Ming Dynasty in the future. For this reason, I am willing to disregard my reputation and take the initiative to come and serve your Highness."
"...Mr. Yuan, I don't quite agree with what you said just now. I know that emotions are a luxury for emperors. However, if a monarch only uses interests and tricks to deal with his subjects, how can the subjects be loyal to him? Therefore, I may use tricks to deal with my subjects like I did this time in the future. But this will definitely not happen too many times. Although you said that the pure and simple relationship between the monarch and his subjects only exists in books, I yearn for that kind of relationship very much and am willing to work towards that direction!"
"I am not optimistic about this, and Your Highness, you must keep this kind of thing to yourself and not tell anyone. Your Majesty, standing at the top and overlooking all living beings, you must also endure all kinds of criticism and pain that all living beings cannot bear. Without such awareness, Your Highness will probably be overwhelmed in the days to come."
After so many years, I still haven't completely changed my loser mentality. But isn't this kind of mentality human nature? I don't want to lose this bit of humanity anyway... Even so, Zhu Youdong still respectfully saluted Yuan Keli: "Yes, Mr. Yuan, I will accept your advice."
…
Starting from the end of 1610, after Xiao Bozhi had been slightly shot a few times and Xiong Tingbi and Kuandian Fort were in trouble, all the censors in the court turned their guns and began to collectively fire at Li Chengliang.
Over the years, Li Chengliang had been impeached many times, so at first, the Ningyuan Marquis' Mansion in Beijing did not take it seriously. But soon after Zhu Youdong returned to Yanjing, he sent Cao Huachun to deliver a message: This time it is not good, your highness's help and words are useless. The people in the Ningyuan Marquis' Mansion panicked.
Who would want the old man to retire at this time? Although the Li family has made a lot of money with His Royal Highness, who would complain about having too much money? As long as the old man is in Liaodong for one day, the Li family can make a lot of money in Liaodong!
Then the Li family began to move around, looking for several imperial censors with whom they had good relations, asking them to come out to defend the case. At the same time, they wrote to Li Ruzhang, Li Shizhong and Li Chunzhong: You three have been enjoying the good life with the crown prince, and it doesn't matter whether the old man retires or not, but what about us? We haven't gotten enough!
Unfortunately, the situation is like this and any struggle is futile.
From the end of the year to the beginning of the new year, a flood of impeachments came pouring in, but for two months, Wanli did not say a word about them. The emperor's intentions were obvious.
In February 1611, Li Chengliang submitted a petition to ask for his death. After a symbolic attempt to retain him, Emperor Wanli finally approved Li Chengliang's retirement.
Although Li Chengliang had retired, he had offended countless people during his years in Liaodong. Therefore, Li Chengliang waited until Du Song, the former general of Jizhen, who succeeded him, returned to Beijing after completing the handover. The impeachment petitions against him and the request to investigate Li Chengliang's various actions in Liaodong over the years continued unabated. Even the Ministry of War did not discuss his retirement benefits, but instead followed the various officials to join in the fun and demanded a strict investigation of the use of military funds during Li Chengliang's tenure as the head of Liaodong.
At this time, in the south, Zhu Youdong asked Zhang Yicheng to open a Ningyuanbo column in Jinling Daily, which reviewed Li Chengliang's experience of more than 80 years in a serialized manner. In these serials, the image of an old soldier who defended his country, sacrificed his youth and eldest son, and still personally took up his sword and mounted his horse to defend the country at an old age emerged.
Then, when the propaganda of Jinling Daily had already sparked heated discussions among the people in Yanjing City, Wanli issued an edict to the Ministry of War: Li Chengliang had made great contributions in pacifying Liao for many years and should be awarded pensions. The ministry should provide preferential treatment.
"Shizhong, I'm really sorry about this. The emperor originally wanted to take advantage of the fact that Earl Ningyuan was in good health and let Du Laiqing (Du Song's pen name, really...) get familiar with Liaodong affairs. It wasn't because he had any doubts about Earl Ningyuan. So, I really have no other choice."
"Your Highness, what are you talking about! Your Highness asked the Jinling Daily to report my grandfather's heroic deeds in a long series of articles, which really made the Li family grateful! My grandfather has been talking about it for a while, saying that with the crown prince's affirmation and his martial arts reputation spread throughout the world, he can rest in peace!"
In fact, Zhu Youdong's move was unintentional: he originally wanted to protect Li Chengliang - I just wanted him to resign so that I could force Nurhaci to revolt. Since he has already resigned, it would be too much for you censors to hold on to him. You want to throw dirty water on him, right? Then I will just add glory to him.
As a result, what he did not only made it easier for Wanli to suppress the impeachment of civil servants, but also made other generals in the Ming Dynasty excited!
In June of this year, countless generals used various connections to ask His Royal Highness the Crown Prince for favors, flattering him with one meaning: Um, Your Highness, do you think I am qualified? Yes, yes~~ If I am not qualified, my ancestors, hehe...
At this point, Zhu Youdong really realized that it was very wise for the Japanese time traveler to start with comics. So he thought: Stop making trouble, from July, Jinling Daily will open two pages, named "Biographies of Famous Officials of the Ming Dynasty", one for military generals and one for civil officials!
In short, with this, not to mention the military generals, even the civil officials in Nanjing have recently looked at Zhu Youdong with a charming look...
"Your Highness, this is my grandfather's handwritten letter to you. In addition to the thank you, there is also an article written by my grandfather himself. It is mainly because there were too many flattering words in the special edition written for him by Jinling Daily a few days ago, and my grandfather felt that he could not bear it. Moreover, not everything my grandfather did in Liaodong over the years was correct. Therefore, my grandfather wants to explain and clarify these things, so as not to make it difficult for Your Highness in the future."
"I am very pleased that Earl Ningyuan has such a heart."
