Chapter 1133 A sigh!
Hearing the term "Four Regent Ministers", Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, and then waved his hand. Seeing this, Ye Fu, who was kneeling on the ground, kowtowed again, and then left the study under the escort of the guards...

Seeing Ye Fu looking so embarrassed and lonely, Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but sigh. Ye Fu was a brave and resourceful man, a rare rising star in the Fengwu Army!

In order to focus on training him, Ye Mingsheng promoted him to the rank of general of the 14th Division and led him to the Western Expedition. During the Western Expedition, Ye Fu's performance did not disappoint Ye Mingsheng. He showed both wisdom and courage in several key battles, and lived up to Ye Mingsheng's extraordinary promotion.

After returning from the Western Expedition, Ye Fu, who had made many military achievements, was regarded as a rising star by the Fengwu Army. Ye Mingsheng originally planned to let him gain experience for a few more years and then transfer him to the First or Second Army as a commander-in-chief, to take over from Yuan Song and He Jingyun and become the future pillar of the Fengwu Army!

But Ye Mingsheng never expected that Ye Fu would actually fail in this matter. This really made Ye Mingsheng feel heartbroken!

The only thing that comforted Ye Mingsheng was that, judging from the current evidence, although Ye Fu was involved in Ye Baode's conspiracy, and Ye Baode also tried his best to get him to join, he never agreed to Ye Baode's plan from beginning to end and did not completely choose to betray!

And at the last moment Ye Fu also realized his mistake and came to his senses, and chose to turn himself in with Huang Can...

After interrogating Ye Fu, Ye Mingsheng hesitated for a moment but still did not open the letter Ye Baode left for him. Instead, he asked Ye Cheng:
"Has Ye Tie arrived?"

"arrive!"

After receiving a positive answer, Ye Mingsheng immediately ordered:
"Let him in!"

"Yes!"

After an incense stick of time, Ye Tie also walked into the study. Like Ye Fu, he knelt down consciously after entering the study.

Looking at the former captain of his personal guard in front of him, some past events also surfaced in Ye Mingsheng's mind. After a moment of silence, Ye Mingsheng slowly spoke:
"Do you know why Ye Baode held you hostage in the end?"

After saying this, Ye Tie's expression changed several times. After hesitating for a moment, he finally said what he was thinking:

"He probably wants to protect me!"

Ye Mingsheng felt relieved after hearing this answer. He then looked at Ye Tie deeply and slowly said:
"I heard that after you went to see him last night, you wanted Ye Baode to come with you to see me tomorrow. What does Ye Tieni want to do?"

Facing Ye Mingsheng's question, Ye Tie, who was kneeling on the ground, seemed to want to say something but couldn't. He could only lower his head in shame.

Seeing that Ye Tie didn't speak, Ye Mingsheng continued to ask:

“Since the incident of the wordless letter, I heard that you have been investigating this. It has been some time. If you can, tell me what you have found out…”

Ye Tie lowered his head and said:
"I have investigated the illegal activities of Defengxing Company!"

Ye Mingsheng was not surprised to hear this, and immediately asked calmly:
"So you want to take advantage of the New Year to drag Ye Baode to me to surrender, so that you can plead for him?"

After hearing Ye Mingsheng reveal his thoughts, Ye Tie felt even more ashamed and could only say with shame and regret:

"Marshal, I didn't expect Uncle De, no! Ye Baode was so bold that he actually wanted to rebel. I just thought he was just greedy for some money. I was blind and didn't see his true face!"

Ye Mingsheng continued to ask expressionlessly after hearing this:
"When Ye Baodela bought shares in Defengxing Company, why didn't you buy shares? Your deputy general Huang Can earns tens of thousands of taels of wealth from it every year!"

Ye Tie raised his head and preached sincerely:

"I, Ye Tie, don't have much ability, but Marshal Meng, you have been getting more and more powerful over the years, and you have never missed out on various rewards! So I am not short of money, real estate, or land!"

"Marshal, your kindness has always been in Ye Tie's heart. I know you have always hated corruption, so I don't want to get involved and do something that will disappoint you!"

Ye Mingsheng glanced at him coldly and asked:

"You didn't want to disappoint me, so you kept silent about it?"

Ye Tie explained helplessly:

“When Ye Baode founded Defengxing Company, he told me that Defengxing Company was engaged in legitimate business. You know that I, Ye Tie, am a rough man and don’t know how to do business, so I didn’t think much about it. How could I have known that Ye Baode would be like this…”

After listening to Ye Tie's answer, Ye Mingsheng closed his eyes and fell into silence. Just as the atmosphere in the study became more solemn, Ye Mingsheng spoke again:
"As many as six people from the Ye clan were involved in this case. Ye Tie, why do you think this happened?" Ye Tie, who was kneeling on the ground, hesitated for a moment but still answered:

"I don't know!"

"You don't know or you don't dare to say it, or you don't want to say it?"

As soon as these words reached Ye Tie's heart, he took a deep breath and said slowly:

"Some people in the clan think that you, Marshal, don't trust us and just let us do trivial things. They want to share more of your worries!"

Hearing this, Ye Mingsheng was extremely angry and laughed:
"What a great person who can help me share my worries! What a great person who can help me share my worries!"

Seeing Ye Mingsheng like this, Ye Tie quickly lowered his head and said:
"Death penalty for lowly duties!"

Ye Mingsheng waved his hand and said somewhat uninterestedly:

"Go home and wait for your punishment!"

Ye Tie had been prepared to be imprisoned by Ye Mingsheng, but he did not expect Ye Mingsheng to let him go home and wait for his fate. He was a little surprised, but after a moment of hesitation, he quickly said:

"I humbly obey my orders!"

After saying that, Ye Tie stood up, bowed and walked out of the room. As Ye Tie left, the door was closed again, leaving Ye Mingsheng alone in the study room...
Feeling somewhat tired, Ye Mingsheng leaned back in his chair and took a long rest for a cup of tea. Then his eyes fell on the letter that Ye Baode left for him. After hesitating for a second, Ye Mingsheng chose to open the letter.

The letter was very long and judging from the handwriting, Ye Baode did not finish writing it in one breath but wrote it separately and discontinuously. It seemed that Ye Baode had wanted to tell Ye Mingsheng what was in his heart for a long time.

Seeing the accusations made by Ye Baode in the letter, Ye Mingsheng's face turned pale. Although he wanted to burn this letter of suicide from Ye Baode, he finally controlled his patience and read the letter carefully before destroying it with a candle!
After reading Ye Baode's letter, Ye Mingsheng, who was already very tired, was even more exhausted. Although most of Ye Baode's letter was nonsense, there were even some heart-breaking words!

However, Ye Mingsheng had to admit that some of the content he said was correct!
Ye Mingsheng indeed lacked sufficient confidence in the abilities of the Ye family, and even intentionally did not want the Ye family to take on important tasks!

But Ye Mingsheng felt that this was not his fault. It was not that he, Ye Mingsheng, looked down on his family. It was true that the Ye family had been farming for generations. Let alone any talent, only one in ten people could read and write. Most of the people’s cultural level was only enough to write their own names…
It may sound unpleasant to say, but Ye Mingsheng can only pick the tallest ones among the short ones, like Ye Tie, Ye Dong, Ye Fu, Ye Baode, and even Ye Hongsheng and Wang Xuecheng before. He will try his best to promote those he can!
But the key point is, Ye Mingsheng can promote you, but are you qualified for this position?
Although there has always been a saying in the officialdom of the Great Zhou Dynasty: if your boss says you are capable, then you are capable, even if you are not, that's ok; if your boss says you don't want to, then you are not capable, even if you are.

But Ye Mingsheng is still a rationalist at heart. He hopes that the officials he appoints can shoulder their due responsibilities and benefit the people during their tenure!
Therefore, one of the most important conditions for Ye Mingsheng to employ people is that the capable ones will be given the positions, so Ye Mingsheng does not want to appoint people who are not qualified for the positions!
However, people like Ye Baode believed that they were royal relatives in the Fengwu Army and had made great contributions to the development of the Fengwu Army!

Therefore, they hope to seek some special treatments. They should not be on the same starting line as others in the competition, but should have some priorities!

So after being treated equally by Ye Mingsheng, Ye Baode and the others began to have some resentment towards Ye Mingsheng. They thought that Ye Mingsheng was too harsh on his own people, did not take care of his family members at all, and punished them for the slightest bit of corruption. Some even thought that Ye Mingsheng was deliberately excluding his own family members...

In the letter, Ye Baode gave an example. He had always been diligent in the Dadongsheng Company, working tirelessly to create hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in profit for the treasury every year. During the war of the Fengwu Army, the Dadongsheng Company, which he led, also completed the task of transporting materials with guaranteed quality and quantity, and never made any mistakes!

In cooperating with Ye Mingsheng's reforms, he also worked hard to ensure that Ye Mingsheng's requirements could be implemented. However, even though he worked so hard, when Ye Mingsheng was planning to establish six ministries, he, Ye Baode, was not even considered for the position of Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Revenue!

According to what Ye Baode said in the letter, he thought that Zhang Juning, the Left Vice Minister, was not a big deal. After all, he was also a veteran of the Fengwu Army with rich experience and great contributions. Ye Baode would accept it if he was ranked ahead of him!
But who was Hu Ming, the Right Vice Minister? How could a defeated general who surrendered be directly appointed as the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue?
In terms of contributions to the Fengwu Army, hard work, and the closeness of his relationship with Ye Mingsheng, he, Ye Baode, is not far above Hu Ming. What right does this Hu guy have to boss him around and act like a minister in front of him?
If Ye Baode only harbored resentment towards Ye Mingsheng before, then the loss of the position of Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, which Ye Baode regarded as a sure thing, completely ignited the anger in Ye Baode's heart...
The investigation of Sun Jing'an added fuel to the fire. After realizing that the truth about Defengxing Company could not be hidden, Ye Baode also understood that the "Ye" in his surname could not save his life, so he simply decided to go all out and give it a try!
However, Ye Baode was well aware that Ye Mingsheng had a high prestige in the army. If he chose to rebel directly, not only would he not succeed, he might even have very few followers!

So Ye Baode came up with a vicious plan, which was to fabricate a lie that Murong Qingwu had an affair with Ye Kui, the commander of the Royal Guard Battalion, and launched a mutiny to put Ye Mingsheng under house arrest!

He also forged a token and a so-called secret decree, wanting to commit rebellion in the name of killing the rebels and rescuing the commander-in-chief!

Although Ye Baode had good intentions, his lies and the token and imperial edict did mislead some middle and lower-level generals, making them indignant and eager to rush into Ye Mansion to kill the rebels and rescue the Marshal!
However, in terms of specific implementation, his ideas were not accepted by others, and due to the haste of things, some mistakes occurred and the news leaked, which ultimately led to failure!
Ye Mingsheng has decided to hand this matter over to the Ministry of Justice, the Censorate, and the Dali Temple for a joint trial, and let Li Jian, Zhu Xiaojie and others try the prisoners except Ye Tie. Ye Mingsheng believes that they will give a fair and just result...
As for Ye Tie, his former captain of the personal guard, Ye Mingsheng could only sigh!
First of all, Ye Tie was not a shareholder of Defengxing Company, and did not participate in Defengxing’s evil deeds such as selling illegal salt in Qi and Lu, forced buying and selling, and forcing women into prostitution!
Secondly, when Ye Baode and others plotted rebellion, although they used Ye Tie's name, Ye Tie was actually unaware of it.
The tiger-head token in his hand, which could mobilize all of Yijing's troops, was never lost and was always in Ye Tie's hands.

The tiger head token in Ye Baode's hand was forged by the craftsmen of the First Manufacturing Bureau. As for why the craftsmen of the First Manufacturing Bureau were able to forge it, the reason was very simple because Ye Tie's tiger head token was also made by the craftsmen of the First Manufacturing Bureau!

Ye Tie only made two real mistakes this time!
Firstly, as the general of Yijing, he should be aware of the troop movements, so his lack of knowledge has constituted a dereliction of duty!

Secondly, after learning about the illegal activities of Defengxing Company, he did not inform Ye Mingsheng immediately, but was still thinking about shielding Ye Baode and brought Ye Baode to him to beg for mercy. This is also a crime of knowing the truth and not reporting it!

For these two reasons, there would be no problem for Ye Mingsheng to dismiss him from his post, but what can he do after all, as humans are not plants or trees and are not heartless?
So to be honest, Ye Mingsheng has not yet figured out how to deal with Ye Tie, but what Ye Mingsheng can be sure of is that he does not want Ye Tie to be publicly tried and convicted by the three courts!

Compared with a public trial, Ye Mingsheng prefers to make a decision to punish Ye Tie directly after he has an idea...
(End of this chapter)