prosperous age

Chapter 238 Chapter 237

On the second day after Wei Guangde returned to Beijing, there was a lot of traffic and people coming and going in front of the Jiujiang Guild Hall, but there was no request to come to Xiyuan to summon him.

Xiyuan didn't deliver the decree, but it doesn't mean that no one is looking for Wei Guangde.

Around noon, two small sedan chairs stopped outside the Jiujiang Guild Hall. Gao Gong and Yin Shizhen got off the sedan chairs one after another, and entered the Jiujiang Guild Hall with two guards carrying a suitcase.

Wei Guangde did not entertain them in the lobby of the guild hall, but led them into the small courtyard behind them.

"Guangde, congratulations, the news of the great victory in Baoanzhou, the prince and us are very happy, it's not easy, it's not easy."

After entering the room and taking a seat, Gao Gong laughed.

And Wei Guangde hurriedly said modestly: "Don't dare to be praised by a high-ranking lord. It is because the current emperor is full of blessings, and the frontier soldiers can only win the victory with their lives. The actions of the lower officials are really insignificant."

"Your Majesty Wei is humble, how can it be insignificant, the border guards are so powerful, these years there will be no Tartars invading everywhere without a solution, it is your credit, it is your credit, no one else can take it away, the prince and us both I know."

Yin Shizhen interjected with a faint smile.

Wei Guangde pretended to be embarrassed and laughed twice.

Afterwards, the two asked Wei Guangde about the progress of the battle during his trip to the Xuanfu. To be honest, although Wei Guangde reported the progress of the battle, the text was still not as intuitive as the person involved.

"This Liu Dazhang really deserves to die. When he was in Liaodong, he was still very brave and good at fighting. How come he is so unbearable in Xuanfu. He is a dignified right-handed governor, afraid of the enemy and fighting, shameful."

Hearing that Wei Guangde said that Ma Fang was in a deep siege, he planned to take the opportunity of thousands of households in the Alda Department to deploy troops to support Alta Khan, to capture the barracks of the Alta Department with all his strength, and then send the whole army to rescue Ma Fang's Department, but was met by Liu Dazhang. After stopping him, Yin Shizhen couldn't help but cursed.

"Don't be impatient, Guangde won in the end."

Gao Gong couldn't see Yin Shizhen's somewhat irritable temper very much, so he stopped him aloud.

Only then did Yin Shizhen shut up resentfully, in the palace, Gao Gong was always above him, so no matter when, Shangguan was always Shangguan.

After Wei Guangde said that Dong Yiyuan would take control of Liu Dazhang and suppress the commotion of Liu Dazhang's soldiers, Gao Gong nodded his head, and Yin Shizhen clapped his hands again.

Unknowingly, when it was time for lunch, Wei Guangde asked Zhang Ji to inform the guild hall that they would not go out to eat when the food and drink were brought in at noon today.

When dealing with the people of Prince Yu's Mansion, Wei Guangde thinks it's better to keep a low profile.

Although the arrival of Gao Gong and Yin Shizhen cannot be hidden from those who are interested, but if they avoid it a little, at least no one will know about it.

In fact, after receiving the notification that Gao Gong and the others had come, Wei Guangde knew that this was Prince Yu's Mansion showing favor to him, and in the afternoon or tomorrow, King Jing's Mansion might also make some moves.

"It's already lunch time, look, we chatted and forgot about business."

Hearing Wei Guangde calling for food and wine, Gao Gong suddenly realized and smiled, and then called the guards outside the door to carry a wooden box.

Wei Guangde knew at a glance that it should be the money he lent them before, and this is the money he had lent to them.

Paying back the money is a matter of course, and there is no reason to refuse.

Looking at it like this, the financial crisis of Prince Yu's Mansion should have been resolved. It seems that Mr. Yan Shifan is too clever and greedy for money, taking any money.

What Wei Guangde can figure out, Yan Shifan, who is as smart as Yan Shifan, can't think of it. He dares to take a chestnut out of the fire. It is because the sky must make him crazy if he wants to destroy it.

However, what Gao Gong said next made Wei Guangde stunned.

"Guangde, here is 500 taels of silver. 2000 taels were lent to you at the beginning, and now you are repaying them. The remaining 500 taels are the interest given to you according to the market practice."

"That's unnecessary. At the beginning, I didn't think about collecting any interest from the palace. It was just a rescue."

Wei Guangde hastily declined, it would be good if he didn't send money to Prince Yu, and he still wants to earn money from him?
Wei Guangde is not an old birthday star, he doesn't want to court death.

"That's not what I said. There is no free money in the world. If there is, Guangde, if you find me a few more 100,000 taels, I will want it."

Yin Shizhen said jokingly.

"Ha ha."

Gao Gong just smiled when he heard the words, and continued: "Put the money here, I don't care about the rest.

Originally, when you returned to Beijing, we should hold a welcome banquet for you, but here today, we didn't intend to pay for the wine. "

After the banquet, Gao Gong and Yin Shizhen took their leave and left.

In the afternoon, as expected, someone from King Jing’s Mansion also sent gifts, and they kindly invited Wei Guangde to visit the mansion again, but at this time, Wei Guangde naturally tried to find a way to decline, but the conversation was naturally related to the need to wait for Xiyuan in the guild hall. news over there.

Not being summoned by Emperor Jiajing for a day, Wei Guangde was out of breath. He didn't know what the emperor was thinking, so he had no choice but to speculate about the emperor.

In fact, trying to figure out the emperor's heart is a very taboo topic. After all, no matter who is the emperor, he doesn't like his subordinates to find out his own temperament, especially the current emperor who thinks he is very smart.

However, as a subject, there is no one who doesn't think about what he wants, unless he doesn't want to be an official anymore, or he is just waiting to die and doesn't want to make progress.

Wei Guangde has just entered the officialdom at this time, so naturally he has no idea of ​​finding a place to retire, and the cabinet is his current goal.

Wei Guangde began to carefully recall the pond newspapers he had read before, hoping to tease out Emperor Jiajing's temperament from them, so that he could match him in Xiyuan by then.

But after thinking about it for a long time, it seems that he is no different from an ordinary emperor. If there is one, he is ruthless and merciless, and he never relents in killing people.

Yes, Wei Guangde found out after recalling that the chancellor who seems to have died in the hands of the current one is really not rare.

I won't talk about the event of Daliyi, how many people were killed by the imperial staff.

After fighting with the ministers, there are still black hands behind him, and he directly chopped off the capital and assistants at that time. This seems to be the first to create the Ming Dynasty. The dignitaries killed by Zhu Yuanzhang at that time cannot be compared with those behind. There is no comparison, the purpose is different.

At the noon banquet, Wei Guangde talked to Gao Gong and Yin Shizhen intentionally or unintentionally, but it was obvious that they also kept secrets.

In fact, it is not surprising that most courtiers only discuss in private with familiar and trusted officials about today's temperament.

Gao Gong and the others really wanted to win over Wei Guangde, but after all, the contact time was too short, so they were not completely at ease. Even if it is useless.

The courtiers had little contact with the emperor, and naturally their familiarity was greatly reduced. That is to say, the cabinet and the six ministries and nine ministers could still meet with the emperor when they had something to do, and when they had fasting and sacrificial offerings, they needed to offer green poems. They also had the opportunity to meet the emperor.

Gao Gong was fine, he was also an expert at writing Qing Ci, Yin Shizhen, who could only write poetry and essays, was not very popular with Emperor Jiajing.

But at that time Gao Gong was not willing to talk about these things, but diverted the topic to other places, Wei Guangde was also helpless.

This is the meaning that has not been fully accepted by them. Showing favor now is just an expression of meaning, and it will depend on performance later.

In the end, Wei Guangde found that apart from knowing that Emperor Jiajing loved to practice Taoism and Qing Ci, he seemed to have nothing to think about, so let’s think about Yan Song, he must have something special about him being so liked by Emperor Jiajing.

The experience of Yan Song is very interesting. He was born in Chenghua 16 years, Hongzhi 18 years and passed the examination of Yi Chou Ke Jinshi, No. 2 in the second class.

At this time, Yan Song got a serious illness, forcing him to resign from his official position and return to his hometown. During the ten years when Yan Song returned to his hometown to recuperate, it was the time when the eunuch Liu Jin was in power.

This made Wei Guangde think of another person. Wei Guangde had heard it mentioned before, but he didn't have the slightest impression. The person he didn't know until he entered the Imperial Academy was Zhang Juzheng.

In the Ming Dynasty, when Wei Guangde first heard about Zhang Juzheng, Zeng Xingwu was referring to Mr. Taiyue. At that time, Wei Guangde thought he was an old Hanlin who would return home to retire when he was old, so he didn't think much about it.

It was only after entering the Imperial Academy that I realized that Mr. Taiyue Zeng Xingwu mentioned was actually the famous Zhang Juzheng.

Zhang Juzheng, courtesy name Shuda, nickname Taiyue, childhood name Zhang Baigui, native of Wei, Jingzhou, Huguang, in the 26th year of Jiajing, Zhang Juzheng No. 9 Jinshi in the second class of the middle school, selected Shu Jishi, he was 23 years old that year.

Zhang Juzheng's three years as a concubine coincided with the most intense political struggles in the Ming Dynasty. Yan Song defeated Xia Yan and became the chief assistant, and Xia Yan died in the street.

Wei Guangde didn't know whether Zhang Juzheng had been taught a lesson by the experience during that time, anyway, Zhang Juzheng had returned to his hometown in Huguang a few years ago in the name of recuperating his illness.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde couldn't help thinking, if he wants to stand out and take the position of chief assistant, should he also learn from Yan Song and Zhang Juzheng and go home to recuperate.

Yan Song is powerful enough, in fact, in my impression, it seems that Zhang Juzheng is not as violent as Zhang Juzheng, and he is directly the existence of power. It seems that in the novels I read, this Zhang Juzheng even directly trains the emperor, just like training his son.

When he was alive, it was a vigorous one, but after death, it seemed to be very miserable, causing himself and family members to suffer.

However, in my impression, later generations will definitely praise him. Although there are mistakes, the credit far outweighs the fault. Some people even directly say that this man has extended the life of the Ming Dynasty for a hundred years.

As for Zhang Juzheng's reforms, Wei Guangde can't remember clearly, anyway, it must have touched the interests of the rich and powerful, although he handled some places very smoothly, but if touched, it was touched, and in the end he was counterattacked.

Let’s talk about Yan Song, this person has the ability to govern. You can see that the government’s treasury is not enough, but it is still in operation. The imperial court can still maintain its operation in a state of severe deficit, and there are reliefs for natural disasters in various places, but it is definitely insufficient to a certain extent.

However, Wei Guangde felt that Yan Song's greatest strength was in giving money to Emperor Jiajing.

Regardless of the insufficient expenditure of the imperial court, it seems that as long as Emperor Jiajing asks for money, Yan Song can find ways to satisfy it.

The money was finally used for the emperor's Taoism, either for fasting and offering sacrifices, or for building Taoist temples.

Emperor Jiajing liked money, and he also liked being patted on the back. As long as his needs were met, he could talk about anything.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde's eyes brightened, and then dimmed again.

The money that person asked for was not a small amount, and it had to be well-known. The emperor would not plunder people's wealth, and his reputation was not good.

Besides, I estimated that my little money would be spent after two fastings.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde looked at the box under his feet, curled his lips, it was still too small.

During the whole night, Wei Guangde thought about how to please the Emperor Jiajing, how to do what he likes, how to do a good job in the dragon's fart, and how to solve the problem of insufficient treasury. This is a bit troublesome and difficult to solve.

To solve the treasury problem, then find a way to collect money.

But the reality is that the rich don't get their taxes raised, and the poor don't get much taxed, and they will rebel if they are in a hurry.

Rebellion has always been linked to exorbitant taxes and corrupt officials. The common people are not driven into a hurry, and they really don't think of rebelling. They are all for food, and rebellion is actually for food.

But having said that, because no one introduced Emperor Jiajing's preferences, Wei Guangde still didn't think of what to say to him to make the emperor happy, and to reward him with something more.

In the end, Wei Guangde had no choice but to grit his teeth and heart, let's talk about it after seeing the emperor.

Borrowing strength and attacking strength, seeing tricks and dismantling tricks, and following the emperor's words, I don't believe it will make the emperor unhappy.

Besides, I am a seventh-rank sesame official, so I won't make the emperor angry. After all, he picked it up with one hand, so this time it is considered a shame for him.

Disciple of the Son of Heaven, hehe.
Wei Guangde felt that he, the emperor's protégé, didn't seem to have borrowed the emperor's glory, but instead he had given the emperor Jiajing glory.

The next day, in the morning, there was still no one from Xiyuan to look for him, making Wei Guangde think that this might be the case again today, that Emperor Jiajing had forgotten himself, maybe he was busy with his great career of cultivation, and it would be easy to go crazy if he interrupted him a little.

But in the afternoon, a carriage drove to the gate of Jiujiang Guild Hall, followed by two guards on horseback.

After the carriage came to a complete stop, a servant jumped out of the carriage, looked up at the plaque with four big characters "Jiujiang Guild Hall" directly above the gate, and then walked in.

"This father-in-law, I don't know if it's for dinner or."

The shopkeeper saw the carriage outside the door and greeted him a long time ago. He thought it was a master, but it turned out that the one who came in was a servant from the palace. interrupt.

"Please ask Master Wei Guangde of the Imperial Academy to come out, I have something to do with him."

The waiter was not polite to the manager of the guild hall, but his words were mild.

Eunuchs are the most observant. The emperor looks good to Wei Guangde, so they will never offend him.

Hearing that he was looking for Wei Guangde, the shopkeeper immediately moved a chair for the waiter, asked him to sit down, arranged for him to serve tea, and ran to the backyard to find Wei Guangde.

"Housekeeper, they are here."

Hearing what the shopkeeper said, Wei Guangde finally breathed a sigh of relief, the emperor has not forgotten him.

(End of this chapter)