Chapter 56 Zhu Yuanzhang is suspicious of Liu Bowen
Chapter 56 Zhu Yuanzhang is suspicious of Liu Bowen

Inside the Wuying Palace in the imperial city.

Zhu Yuanzhang threw a memorial to the ground and angrily said to the eunuch Yunqi: "Look, look, it's another memorial impeaching Liu Bowen for speaking on hearsay and attacking court officials!"

Yun Qi walked forward tremblingly, picked up the memorial and flipped through it, then exclaimed: "Your Majesty, this is the 28th memorial impeaching Liu Zhongcheng today."

Zhu Yuanzhang sneered upon hearing this and said, "This shows how arrogant Liu Ji is, causing the wrath of heaven and the resentment of the people."

Yun Qi was puzzled and whispered, "Logically speaking, Yang Xian had just died. As Yang Xian's teacher, Liu Zhongcheng should have kept a low profile and acted as low-key as possible. How could he have caused so many ministers to criticize him?"

Zhu Yuanzhang sneered, "You can only blame him for not knowing how to make friends with his colleagues. He also relied on his position as the Chief Censor and boasted that he had made great contributions in conquering the world with me, thinking that I really dare not touch him!"

Yun Qi still had doubts in his heart, and whispered: "Could it be that Yang Xiangang died, so the Huaixi Party took advantage of the victory to attack Liu Zhongcheng, the leader of the Zhejiang East Party?"

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang knew that Yunqi was right, but the Huaixi faction were all old family members who had followed him to conquer the world from the very beginning, and Zhu Yuanzhang did not want to think badly of them from the bottom of his heart.

Moreover, before Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to clean up these powerful people and pave the way for his grandson, he actually didn't want to touch these people from his hometown.

However, the existence of the Zhejiang East Party was also supported by Zhu Yuanzhang himself.

Just ask, at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, all the six dukes were from Huaixi.

However, Liu Bowen, whose ability was even greater than that of Li Shanchang, was only given a small title of Earl of Chengyi, and was not even given the rank of Marquis.

In fact, the strength of the Zhejiang East Party was far inferior to that of the Huaixi Party headed by Li Shanchang. But why were they able to compete with Li Shanchang and even crush the Huaixi Party to the ground at one point?
In addition to Liu Bowen's own talents, it is also inseparable from Zhu Yuanzhang's secret support and acquiescence.

Now, as the spokesperson cultivated by Liu Bowen, with the death of Yang Xian, the power of the Zhejiang East Party has been greatly reduced. The Huaixi faction will naturally take advantage of the victory to impeach Liu Bowen.

Although anyone with a sound mind knows that these impeachment memorials will not have much effect, it would be great if they could disgust Liu Bowen.

As the Chief Censor, I think Liu Bowen was the only one who could impeach others. There was no such thing as someone impeaching him.

But obviously, the actions of the Huaixi Party were not completely without effect.

Because they successfully evoked some bad memories of Zhu Yuanzhang about Liu Bowen.

For example, when Zhu Yuanzhang started the rebellion, the young Ming King was once besieged by the Yuan army and was in urgent need of rescue.

However, Liu Bowen, who was actually Zhu Yuanzhang's adviser at that time, strongly advised Zhu Yuanzhang to watch the young Ming King die at the hands of the Yuan army without any rescue.

At that time, this incident left an invisible gap in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart.

You must know that at that time, the Little Ming King was the spiritual leader of the rebel army and the nominal object of loyalty of Zhu Yuanzhang's rebel army.

His lord was besieged by the Yuan army, and his life or death depended on a single night.

As a subordinate, Zhu Yuanzhang should have sent troops to rescue.

However, Liu Bowen ignored the opinions of the people of the world and insisted on not rescuing the young Ming King, and watched him die at the hands of the Yuan army.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang knew that Liu Bowen's idea was correct, he just couldn't get over it.

Because at that time, the Little Ming King had no real significance other than being the nominal leader of the rebel army.

At that time, the Yuan army besieged the young Ming king, and they wanted to use the young Ming king to attract Zhu Yuanzhang to lead the army to rescue him, so as to set up an ambush and annihilate Zhu Yuanzhang. It is conceivable that if Zhu Yuanzhang really led the army to rescue him, the consequences would be very serious.

Although he understood it, Zhu Yuanzhang has been thinking about one thing ever since then.

If he were surrounded by enemies that day, would Liu Bowen immediately make a decision to support one of his sons as emperor, and, just as he had advocated not to rescue the young Ming King, would he ask his sons and the civil and military officials in the court not to rescue him?

Just watch yourself being surrounded and killed by the enemy?

Obviously, this hypothetical question has no answer, but based on Zhu Yuanzhang's understanding of Liu Bowen, he always felt that this possibility was very high.

Although emperors since ancient times have liked capable ministers, what they value more is whether they are loyal enough to them.

However, this incident caused Zhu Yuanzhang to have serious doubts about Liu Bowen's loyalty.

It no longer matters whether the Huaixi Party maliciously attacked Liu Bowen. Now Zhu Yuanzhang just wants to know whether Liu Bowen is loyal to him enough and whether he is still as arrogant as before.

Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang said to Yunqi: "Send someone to summon Liu Bowen to see me immediately."

Yun Qi was shocked. They had just been discussing the increasing number of memorials impeaching Liu Bowen during this period, but the next moment Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to summon Liu Bowen. What did this mean?
But Yun Qi didn't dare to ask at all and immediately followed the order.

The residence of the Chief Censor, Liu Bowen’s home.

Looking at the eunuch who was the most trusted by the emperor, Liu Bowen felt disappointed.

Ever since Yang Xian died, Liu Bowen had expected that this day would come sooner or later, but he didn't expect it to come so soon.

But after he calmed down, Liu Bowen smiled and said, "Thank you for waiting for me, Eunuch Yun. I will go to the palace with you after I change my clothes."

Yun Qi smiled wryly and said, "We are not in a hurry, but His Majesty is waiting to see the Minister, and I hope you can hurry up."

"Of course." Liu Bowen agreed, and his guess became more and more certain.

It seems that Zhu Yuanzhang's sudden visit to me is definitely not a good thing!

If Zhu Yuanzhang still relied on me as much as he did before the meeting, then the little eunuch in front of him would definitely not dare to treat me with such a disrespectful attitude.

It can only be said that Liu Bowen is worthy of being the number one think tank of the Ming Dynasty. He immediately noticed the problem based on just a slight change.

But despite his worries, Liu Bowen quickly changed his clothes and followed Yunqi into the palace.

As soon as Liu Bowen stepped into the Wuying Hall, Zhu Yuanzhang raised his hand to stop him before he even had time to salute.

Zhu Yuanzhang was seen looking at Liu Bowen with a kind smile on his face.

If Yun Qi had not seen with his own eyes how angry Zhu Yuanzhang was, he would not have believed that the two were the same person.

It can only be said that Yunqi still has too little political experience, and has not yet truly realized that the officialdom is sometimes full of intrigues.

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said, "Bo Wen, who do you think is more suitable to be the left chancellor?"

(End of this chapter)