In the third year of the Qing calendar (1043), in order to investigate Teng Zijing's case of "corruption, unfair reward and punishment, and embezzlement of public funds", the emperor ordered Yandu to send an envoy to Jingzhou.
However, the emperor had no idea that this "fair and just" person in his eyes actually had a vendetta against the reformists.
After learning that Liang Jian had sued himself for "three major crimes", Teng Zijing was angry. In Teng Zijing's eyes, Liang Jian is a despicable and shameless villain who has been framed for stealing. Thinking of this, Teng Zijing wanted to enter Beijing and fight with Liang Jian, but on second thought, Song Renzong was a wise and divine emperor, and he would certainly not listen to these rumors. There is also an old friend Fan Zhongyan in the DPRK who explained to himself that he must be able to return his innocence. Since this is the case, he will not enter Beijing, so as not to give people the right to talk and regenerate the incident.
However, Teng Zijing did not expect that the result of his bearing the burden of humiliation and longing for him was not that the imperial court returned his innocence, but that the matter was more and more blackened.
In order to restore his innocence, Teng Zijing had prepared all the ledgers, and as long as the imperial court verified them one by one, those "embezzlement of military funds, corruption" and "corruption" would not be self-defeating.
However, after Yan Du arrived in Jingzhou, he paid no attention to these ledgers, but instead ordered an investigation of all the officials in Jingzhou City and asked them to confess to Teng Zijing's "crimes". If he did not confess, Yan Du ordered them to be tortured and forced to give false testimony.
Yan Du was bent on making Teng Zijing's case bigger and more realistic, and he did not hesitate to torture and extort a confession, asking these people to confess to Teng Zijing's incriminating evidence. However, these officials have great respect for Teng Zijing's personality, and even if they are hit on the board, they will never talk nonsense, let alone frame them. After half a day of trial, Yan Du did not try those so-called "incriminating evidence", and could only release these people.
If one count does not work, the yandu regenerates a count. Since he could not find a breakthrough from here, he began to interrogate the Western Xia prisoners. Yan Du hoped that the Western Xia captives would tamper with the confession and give Teng Zijing a charge of "li tong foreign".
However, it turns out that although the Western Xia people did not receive any "noble" education, their conduct in the world was much more noble than those of the so-called "noble".
No matter how severely Yan Du tortured him, the Western Xia captives did not change their mouths, and none of them went to wrongfully accuse Teng Zijing.
In the end, Yan Du, who was embarrassed and angry, ignored it. In his eyes, since no one in Jingzhou had "falsely accused" Teng Zijing, he simply turned the entire Western Front Legion upside down!
Under this thinking, Yan Du ordered that the scope of the investigation be expanded, the entire Western Front Corps be investigated, and Zhang Kang, Di Qing, And Zhong Shiheng arrested to see if they were corrupt or embezzled public funds. If there is, use these incriminating evidence as a handle for them to falsely accuse Teng Zijing.
As soon as this order came out, the servants immediately arrested people everywhere. For a time, Teng Zijing's embezzlement and bribery case actually got bigger and bigger, and countless officials were involved.
According to historical records, because there were too many people arrested, the prison in Jingzhou was actually "full". The rest of the prisoners can only be locked up in the gate. Later, the gate was also full, and it could only be locked up in the barracks.
It can be seen that in order to "sit down" teng Zijing's case, YanDu is so conscientious and conscientious.
After the news of Yan Du's indiscriminate arrest reached the capital, Manchu Wenwu was shocked, and the emperor was also shocked. The advisor Ouyang Xiu immediately went to the imperial court and demanded that Song Renzong immediately issue an edict to stop this arrest, remove Yan Du, and send others to investigate the matter in order to calm the people's anger.
In order not to let the matter deteriorate further, Song Renzong immediately issued a holy decree - ordering Yandu to release all officials, handle the case without branches, and quickly return to the capital to close the case.
As soon as this edict came out, Ouyang Xiuru was relieved, while Yan Du was depressed, he could only release all the officials, hastily closed the case, and returned to Beijing to resume his life.
After returning to the capital, Yan Du did not go to the first time to resume his life, he sneaked to Wang Gongchen's mansion, reported the results of the investigation to Wang Gongchen, and asked for the next action plan.
After listening to Yan Du's report, Wang Gongchen wanted to kill him. After thinking about it for half a day, Wang Gongchen told Yan Du: "The matter has come to this point, and the case can only be filed with the existing evidence." We can start with the 'Teng Zijing privately burning accounts', and if we bite this point to death, we may be able to drag Teng Zijing into the water. "
It turned out that during Yandu's interrogation, Teng Zijing saw that he was guarding the ready-made evidence and did not use it, but instead arrested people everywhere, and his heart was extremely angry. Later, Teng Zijing wanted to get angrier and angrier, and after a drunken drink, he actually set a fire and burned all these ledgers.
Originally, Teng Zijing did not burn the accounts, the evidence was conclusive, and Yan Du, Wang Gongchen and others had no way to take him. Burning the ledger is obviously "destroying the corpse and destroying the traces".
The next morning, Yan Du returned the results of the investigation and began to attack Teng Zijing based on the burning of the ledger. After Yan Du finished speaking, the group of ministers immediately exploded the pot, some demanding severe punishment and some demanding leniency. Everyone said a word to me, and completely quarreled.
After the courtiers shouted for a while, Fan Zhongyan came out of the column and gave advice on how to deal with it--whether it was from the case itself or from the feelings of the military and people on the western front, the imperial court should take Teng Zijing lightly to reassure the people.
After Fan Zhongyan finished speaking, the imperial court launched another round of fierce discussion. At this time, Wang Gongchen came out with a wat and said that Fan Zhongyun was protecting the calves and should be dealt with fairly.
Upon hearing this aggressive remark, Fan Zhongyan had no fear, he took off his hat, knelt on the ground, and said to Song Renzong: "Now, Teng Zijing is indeed guilty, and the subject has the crime of recommending negligence, and asks the emperor to remove the minister from his post as governor and assign the place to the place to indignate the common people." However, Teng Zijing was a general who loved the people like a son and turned the tide, and asked the emperor to cherish his talents for the country and sentence Teng Zijing lightly. "
Fan Zhongyan actually did something with the emperor to resign, and this matter was still discussed. Seeing this scene, Song Renzong could only announce his retirement from the dynasty and discuss it another day.
After the dispersal of the dynasty, Emperor Renzong of Song summoned Zhang Dexiang, Yan Shu, and Du Yan, who were "neutral", and asked them how to deal with the matter.
Among the three, Zhang Dexiang and Yan Shu were silent and had nothing to say. Because, although in the eyes of the emperor, they were "neutral" and had no intersection with the "reformists" and "opposition", they were actually "opposition", but they were only hidden more deeply.
The reason why these two brothers are "opposition" is very simple. According to the usual practice, the power to remove officials from promotion and demotion should be the "exclusive power" of the prime minister. However, in order to implement the new policy, Song Renzong issued a special edict allowing Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi to "act cheaply" and freely dismiss officials.
That is to say, the "power" of Zhang Dexiang and Yan Shu was taken away by Fan Zhongyan and others, and if the brothers did not complain in their hearts, they would be called ghosts.
At that time, Zhang Dexiang and Yan Shu did not speak, Du Yan was a reformist, he opened his mouth, Du Yan asked to drop Teng Zijing from light hair, the reason was four words——— "safeguard the new law."
For Song Renzong, now is the key moment to change the law, once fan Zhongyan and others are not supported, let the hundred officials see that there is a gap between the emperor and the reformists, they will rise up and attack them, and then this kind of impeachment of the reformist officials will only increase. In the end, even the most powerful reformists will be completely torn apart by the opposition. At that time, this change of his own law can only end without any disease.
After thinking about this, Song Renzong immediately issued a holy decree: "Although Zhang Kang, Di Qing, and others embezzled public funds and were accused of being accused of crimes, they could only reprimand the country with a little reprimand, and they would not be prosecuted, and they would be allowed to make meritorious deeds in order to repay the state." As for Teng Zijing, he embezzled public funds, which is true; burned the ledger, which is true; deceived the king, and also the truth; and demoted him to The Prefecture of Yuzhou to set an example. "
Of course, although Teng Zijing's official position was demoted, Song Renzong played a careful eye, he did not change Teng Zijing's treatment, or let him get the same salary, which can also be regarded as giving Fan Zhongyan a big face.
At that time, as soon as this verdict came out, Fan Zhong breathed a long sigh of relief. In his eyes, it seems that the emperor still trusts him and still supports reform.
Similarly, as soon as this verdict came out, Wang Gongchen was completely angry. In his eyes, Teng Zijing had committed so many things, and it was only demoted, the salary treatment was still unchanged, and the emperor was too eccentric.
Such a result made Wang Gongchen unable to accept it, and he could not accept it. Therefore, Wang Gongchen ran to the gate of the palace and asked to face the saint, and he wanted to talk to the emperor about this matter. However, the wise Song Renzong already knew that he would come, and he specially ordered that Wang Gongchen should not be allowed to enter the palace. No matter what he did or said, he was not allowed to enter the palace.
Unable to enter the palace, Wang Gongchen was indignant, and he simply knelt on the main hall, counting Teng Zijing's articles and charges, and asked the emperor to change the sentence to correct the situation. However, no matter what Wang Gongchen said, the emperor simply did not allow him to enter the palace.
In the end, seeing that the emperor did not see himself at all, Wang Gongchen simply threw away his hat and resigned and went home.
At this moment, things have completely gone wrong.
It should be known that Wang Gongchen is the overseer of the imperial history, and his job is to impeach officials and supervise the monarch. Nowadays, Yushi has actually resigned his official post and returned home, which is something that has not happened in the entire Renzong Dynasty, and even in the history of the entire Song Dynasty, it is extremely rare.
Moreover, Wang Gongchen, as a person, was also the "leader" who supervised the imperial history.
The next day, all the officials who supervised the Imperial History and the Taichang Temple came to the gate of the palace en masse, shouting that they wanted to enter the palace and that Teng Zijing must be severely punished to uphold the law of the land.
At that time, the entrance to the palace was chaotic, and all kinds of quarrels and noises were endless. Du Yan tried to persuade everyone, but no one paid attention to him. Zhang Dexiang and Yan Shu stood to the side, just looking at it coldly, not asking anything about this matter.
A group of people shouted at the door of the house, and finally angered the emperor. Emperor Renzong of Song ordered King Xuan to enter the palace. After Wang Gongchen came, he saw that the emperor had a face of iron blue, and he did not dare to speak, so he could only kneel there and be silent.
After a while, Song Renzong said, "As a speech official, Wang Aiqing should take into account the overall situation, and not pick a fight because of the disagreement between political views." In such a fuss, Ai Qing got a good name for daring to speak out, but where did he leave it?"
Wang Gongchen just wanted to explain a few words, but Song Renzong waved his hand at him and continued, "Of course, Ai Qing's suggestion will also be carefully considered. It's just that you don't want to do it again in the future. Okay, you can get down on your knees. "
When Song Renzong said this, he was implying to Wang Gongchen: "I know your intentions; Your little trick, I am also clear. From now on, don't dwell on Teng Zijing's case anymore. As long as you give up this case, you will certainly not be treated badly!"
Everyone understands people, Song Renzong said this, Wang Gongchen immediately heard the meaning inside, he immediately prostrated his head and knelt down, and went out of the palace.
After leaving the palace, Wang Gongchen immediately summoned Yan Du and the others and told them not to make any more trouble, and to disperse. As soon as everyone saw it, the leaders said so, and they quickly dispersed.
A few days later, during an early dynasty, Emperor Renzong of Song issued a holy decree deposing Teng Zijing from the post of Zhizhou (知州) and replacing him with the post of Zhizhou (岳州知州). At the same time, he deposed Teng ZiJing Tianzhangge as a servant.
After Teng Zijing was deposed and sent to Yuezhou, Fan Zhongyan was indignant about his old friend's affairs, and he was also chafed at what happened to his old friend. Later, because of a guilty heart, after Teng Zijing finished building the Yueyang Tower, Fan Zhongyan gave him a famous text from ancient times as an encouragement.
This famous article throughout the ages is the well-known "Yueyang Lou Record".
At this point, teng Zijing's case ended completely with such an ending.
Originally, according to the emperor's wishes, in this case, he played fifty boards against each of the two major factions in the DPRK and China, and treated them "equally." As a result, they can abandon their prejudices and change the law together.
However, this can only be said to be the wishful thinking of Song Renzong.
Song Renzong's only way to mediate was either to kill Teng Zijing and repeal the new law, or to support Teng Zijing and maintain the new law. What the emperor is doing now is tantamount to compromising with the "opposition." After the opposition has tasted the benefits of "killing Teng Zijing", how can it stop the flag?