Chapter 51 231 Yang Jisheng risked his life to impeach Yan Song

After Ming Wuzong's death, his cousin Zhu Houcong (sound cong) succeeded to the throne, this is Ming Shizong.When Ming Shizong first came to the throne, he took some political improvement measures, such as limiting the power of eunuchs, rectifying taxes, and so on.But later, he became obsessed with Taoism and set up altars in the palace to seek immortals, and gradually became less involved in government affairs.Anyone who caters to his beliefs will be reused. The great scholar Yan Song (sound song) gradually gained the position of the chief minister of the cabinet (equivalent to the prime minister) because he was good at drafting documents for worshiping gods.

Yan Song doesn't have any talents, he only knows how to flatter and flatter horses to win Shizong's favor.After he became the first assistant, together with his son Yan Shifan, he formed a clique for personal gain, corrupted the law, and did all kinds of bad things.At that time, some spineless courtiers took refuge in him, and more than 30 officials became his godsons.With these minions, he can manipulate the government even more. When Yan Song was in power, the Tatar tribe in the north (a branch of the Mongols) became stronger and unified the various tribes of Mongolia, becoming a great threat to the Ming Dynasty.Not only did Yan Song not want to strengthen his combat readiness, but he embezzled the military pay and made the soldiers starve.The Tatar leader Alda invaded the interior several times, but the Ming army had no strength to resist.In 1550 A.D., Alda led his troops to march straight into the suburbs of Beijing.Qiu Luan, Yan Song's fellow party member of the sect of the Ming Dynasty, was the general who led reinforcements from all walks of life to defend the capital.Yan Song was afraid that Qiu Luan would lose the battle, so he instructed Qiu Luan not to resist.As a result, Tatar soldiers were asked to plunder a large number of people, livestock, and property near Beijing, and return with a full load.The more than 100,000 Ming troops near the capital did not shoot a single arrow.

A year later, Qiu Luan colluded with Alta again, preparing to make peace with the Tatars.This incident aroused the indignation of some upright ministers, especially Yang Jisheng, a member of the Ministry of War. Yang Jisheng, a native of Rongcheng, Baoding, was born in poverty.When he was seven years old, he lost his mother. His stepmother treated him badly and made him herd cattle.Yang Jisheng passed the private school while grazing cattle and saw some children in the village studying. He was very envious and asked his brother to let him study.Brother said: "You are too young, what book do you read?" Yang Jisheng replied: "I can herd cattle, but can't I read?"

His father saw that he was ambitious, so he asked him to study while herding cattle, and he made progress very quickly.Later, he took the imperial examination and won the Jinshi, and was appreciated by many ministers in the capital. Yang Jisheng is an upright man, seeing Yan Song, Qiu Luan's behavior of losing power and humiliating the country, he couldn't bear it no matter what.He wrote a memorial to Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty, opposing the peace talks, and hoped that the court would work hard to become stronger, select generals to train troops, and resist the Tatars.Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty was also a little moved after reading the memorial, but he couldn't resist Qiu Luan's urging, and instead demoted Yang Jisheng to Didao (now Lintao, Gansu) to do canon history.

When Yang Jisheng arrived in Didao, he was not discouraged.Didao is a place where ethnic minorities live together, and the locals are illiterate.Yang Jisheng went there, selected more than a hundred teenagers, and asked a teacher to teach them to read.The student's family had no money, so Yang Jisheng sold his horse and his wife's clothes to help them.The local people love Yang Jisheng and call him "Father Yang". After Yang Jisheng was relegated, the Ming Dynasty made peace with the Tatars and conducted business with each other.But soon I Da broke the peace agreement and attacked the border many times.Qiu Luan's conspiracy was exposed, and he fell ill and died of fright.At this time, Ming Shizong realized that Yang Jisheng's opinion was right and transferred him back to the capital.Yan Song also wanted to win over Yang Jisheng, who knew that Yang Jisheng hated Yan Song even more.Just one month after he returned to the capital, he sent a memorial to Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty to impeach (sound he) Yan Song, boldly exposing Yan Song's ten crimes, all of which have real evidence.He also said in the memorial that Yan Song had ten crimes, but he could deceive the emperor, because there were "five traitors" to help him, that is, Yan Song's spies, minions, relatives, slaves, and confidants were all densely distributed around Sejong.

This memorial hit Yan Song's vital point, and Yan Song was so angry that he framed Yang Jisheng in front of Emperor Shizong of Ming Dynasty.Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty was furious, beat Yang Jisheng with a hundred court rods, and put him in prison. Yang Jisheng was beaten with bruises all over his body and his legs were bruised. Even the jailer felt sad when he saw it, but Yang Jisheng remained calm, as if nothing happened.When relatives and friends heard that Yang Jisheng was seriously injured, they gave him a snake gall as medicine through the jailer.Yang Jisheng refused to accept it, saying: "I have the guts myself, I don't need this!"

Yang Jisheng was imprisoned for three years, but there were no charges against him. Some officials wanted to rescue him from prison.Yan Song's party said to Yan Song: "If you don't kill Yang Jisheng, don't you raise a tiger to save yourself future troubles?" Yan Song became cruel and urged Ming Shizong to kill Yang Jisheng. Yan Song has been in power for 21 years, and his party members have been placed in important positions in the court, and their power has grown.Ming Shizong gradually hated him.Once, Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty asked the Taoist priest Lan Daoxing to help the shaman (a superstitious activity). Lan Daoxing borrowed the will of the shaman to persuade Shizong to get rid of Yan Song, and Shizong of the Ming Dynasty was also a little moved.Censor Zou Yinglong found out about this matter, and thought it was a good time to attack Yan Song, but when he thought about Yang Jisheng's end, he was a little hesitant.After careful consideration, it was decided to start with the impeachment of Yan Shifan.

Relying on his father's power, Yan Shifan did many evils.As soon as Zou Yinglong's memorial to impeach Yan Shifan came up, Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty ordered Yan Shifan to be punished, exiled to Leizhou, and ordered Yan Song to retire. Yan Shifan and his fellow gangsters were a group of desperadoes. Before they arrived in Leizhou, they sneaked back to their hometown and took in a group of Jiangyang thieves. They also colluded with the traitor Wang Zhi and Japanese pirates to flee to Japan.This incident was exposed by another censor, Lin Run. The mediocre Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty was also shocked when he saw this memorial, and immediately ordered Yan Shifan and his party to be beheaded for public display, and Yan Song was dismissed as a civilian.The biggest traitor in the Ming Dynasty finally fell.