Brother Zhu Youxiao

"Jin Xuan and Yan Yinshao are back, with them, Wang Kejian may be alone..."

In October, as the season entered the cold winter, a voice of worry inevitably sounded in a house in Anxi.

In the study room, two 35-year-old officials were having a long conversation, with stern faces.

"His Highness sent us to Anxi and Beiting to serve, obviously he was already planning for the return of the two of them."

As soon as Li Demao's words were spoken, Zhang Maocai, who was sitting opposite him, nodded his head slightly, and could not deny what he said.

In Yanshan, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of students come out every year, with a total of nearly 80 students.

Although nearly 80 of these 30 people were killed in years of major crimes and exiled to Nanzhou because of their dirty hands and feet, the remaining more than [-] people are still distributed among the ranks of the army and officials.

Officials in the first phase of Yanshan were mainly distributed among civil servants, and among them, Jin Xuan, Cheng De, Yan Yinshao, Li Demao, and Zhang Maocai were the most outstanding.

Among the five, the official positions of the other three need not be said. Li Demao and Zhang Maocai were appointed chief envoys when Anxi and Beiting were established.

Although the two are the heads of the two provinces, since the two provinces belong to frontier fortresses, most matters revolve around the army.

If there are no generals to support them, then they are actually just a display.

However, the reason why they agreed to come to Anxi is naturally because they have their own forces entrenched in it.

Compared with the first phase that all entered the temple, nearly one-third of the Yanshan second phase poured into the army, and they were also the cornerstone of the Ming army reform.

Now if we count carefully, in the second phase of Yanshan, only Wang Kejian and Zhang Xiaocun were civil servants above the fifth rank, but there were many military commanders above the fifth rank.

Li Zicheng, Li Zijing, Liu Zongmin, Liu Tiren, Gao Yigong, Cao Bianjiao, Cao Dingjiao and more than a dozen military generals all came out of the second stage of Yanshan, and they are all currently serving as the generals of the province.

Including the students from the third, fourth, and fifth periods, there are no less than [-] local generals in the army who have connections with Yanshan.

Of course, literati and warriors have never been able to urinate in the same pot, not to mention that Li Zicheng and the others were not qualified to enter Yanshan. If Zhu Youjian hadn't met them and made an allowance for them, they would have to sneak back to Shaanxi, and it is very likely that they will be in the middle of the night. Starve to death on the road.

Therefore, in the eyes of Li Zicheng and his small group, my life was given by the king of Qi, and your petty profits are so disgusting, it is considered kind of me not to kill you, so naturally it is impossible to get together with Li Demao and the others.

Therefore, although Li Demao and the others also have a foundation in the Anxi and Beiting armies, compared to Li Zicheng and others, that foundation is not worth mentioning at all.

If there was anything wrong with Li Demao and Zhang Maocai, Li Guo and Liu Zongmin who were stationed in Anxi City and Beiting City would have chopped them down that night.

Before they came, they didn't realize that the situation had begun to collapse, and they didn't expect that King Qi would suddenly announce the specific time when he would become a vassal this year.

The two of them are now in the Western Regions, and they can't control the situation in the Central Plains.

Even the trains are not repaired here, and the news can only be delivered by carrier pigeons. Once the judgment is wrong, there is no chance of recovery.

What they are relying on now is Wang Kejian and Zhang Xiaocun, who are their direct descendants in the second phase of Yanshan.

However, judging from the current situation, the ability and prestige of the two are not enough to suppress Chengde, but they will be led by Chengde.

Now that Jin Xuan and Yan Yinshao, two people with great prestige in the first and second phases of Yanshan, have returned, those part of the clean Yanshan faction who are not willing to join forces may quickly gather around them.

After all, the Yanshan faction is a reform party, and the education they receive is also a new type of education.

Even though the vast majority of them have suffered from the same problems as the politicians of Ming Dynasty in the political arena of Ming Dynasty, there are still a small number of idealists among them.

"It's a general trend for government schools to replace Yanshan, but even if Jin Xuan can pull out a group of people, I'm afraid the number is not large enough to completely replace us."

Zhang Maocai still had a certain degree of confidence and determination in the situation, what Wang Kejian said to Cheng De was actually what the two of them wanted to say.

There are reasons why the cabinet has six seats and why the Yanshan faction must occupy three seats.

"Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou will definitely join the cabinet. Sun Chuanting's character, and the Liangzi we formed back then, should the crown prince want to attack us in the future, Sun Chuanting will spare no effort."

"Decision-making power is not important. It is mainly a matter of cabinet seats and central and imperial orders."

Li Demao spoke with a heavy heart, and Zhang Maocai, who was sitting opposite him, also frowned when he heard the words:
"You should know that His Highness is not someone who likes to compromise. Right now, His Highness is delaying time, and Cheng De is also delaying time."

"Chengde dragged Yan Yinshao to Beijing, but what about His Highness? Can you guess it?"

Zhang Maocai's words made Li Demao a little uneasy, and he also knew that King Qi could not agree to the Zhongzhi and Lingzhi issues.

If the three cabinet seats and the six-year election system are just the means for the Yanshan faction to protect themselves in these six years, then the issue of the imperial edict and edict will eliminate the root cause of the emperor's desire to kill ministers.

Now that the army has been replaced by the king of Qi, not to mention being loyal to the emperor and the Jian country, but at least they will not be obedient.

They will still carry out the will that should be carried out.

As long as the generals carry out the emperor's orders, the emperor can bypass the cabinet and the six ministries, and only rely on the cooperation of Jin Yiwei and the army to arrest ministers.

This kind of behavior of treating courtiers as slaves will naturally be resisted by the courtiers.

If the person sitting on the throne is Zhu Youjian, then there is nothing, no one dares to resist.

But for Zhu Youxiao who is currently sitting on the throne, people may only know that he has made great achievements and created a peaceful and prosperous world, but they don't know who gave him the achievements behind these words.

Such a situation is as if the chairman took the lead in conquering the country, and then passed the position to his brother who did not make much contribution to the company.

For Zhu Youxiao, Li Demao, Zhang Maocai and others know the bottom line.

They didn't want to fight against King Qi at first, their idea was to stand up and let the emperor give up power a little bit after King Qi became a vassal.

The emperor did not have such high prestige as King Qi, so he could only compromise a little bit so that they could achieve their goals.

The civil servants of the conservative school used this method to seize power from Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Zhanji.

But right now, King Qi doesn't want to leave so easily, but is going to solve the last problem.

This makes two parties who were not in conflict become conflicts.

"You and I are trapped in Anxi. Li Zicheng, Cao Wenzhao and others are watching all the time. It is difficult to get out. With Wang Kejian and the others, they will definitely not be able to fight His Highness."

"Although Chengde is quite talented, his heart is always towards His Highness. You and I should have made plans earlier."

"It's really not possible. How about just keeping the cabinet seats and the six-year electoral system, and discussing the prohibition of generals and the army from intervening in politics?"

Zhang Maocai made a suggestion, that is, to resolutely ensure that generals and the army are not allowed to interfere in politics. In this way, even if the emperor and the prince have an order, as long as the soldiers, horses and yamen servants do not accept the order, it will be difficult for the emperor to deal with them.

It will take at least ten or 20 years of hard work to replace both the soldiers and horses and the government servants with the emperor's own people.

More than ten or twenty years later, the Yanshan faction has long since withdrawn from the wave of the times, and the emperor naturally no longer needs to target them.

It is estimated that at that time, it will be the official school that will appear in the temple and occupy the absolute right to speak.

"We can discuss this..." Hearing Zhang Maocai's words, even Li Demao couldn't help but hesitate and nodded at the same time.

"Think about it first, if you think it's okay, don't ask me, just send a message to the capital directly."

"Time waits for no one. Although Yan Yinshao still has a few months to return to Beijing, Jin Xuan's appeal is greater than him. Presumably, many people have already visited Jin Xuan."

Zhang Maocai spoke quickly, and Li Demao nodded in agreement.

Seeing this, Zhang Maocai got up and bowed and left Li Demao's mansion. Li Demao thought again and again, but still felt that it was not enough to confront King Qi head-on, and finally sent a pigeon to the capital.

"Senior, in this case, I will take my leave first."

"Runtang walk slowly..."

Almost when Li Demao and Zhang Maocai decided to take a step back, Jin Xuan did as they expected, sending away batch after batch of Yanshan officials who came to visit.

In fact, not only Yanshan, but also many private self-study officials of Enke have heard of Jin Xuan's name. After all, his death admonishment caused a lot of trouble.

Therefore, after learning of his return, almost all of them visited Jin Xuan, whether it was Yanshan's idealist school or the folk self-study school who was excluded by Yanshan.

Although they knew that once Yanshan's idea was successful, the old law of "not punishing scholar-bureaucrats" would reappear, which would be a good thing for them, and they would not have to worry about the emperor killing them.

But the problem is that the prerequisite for enjoying this good thing is that they have to be officials at that time.

Judging from the contempt and exclusion of other officials in the Yanshan Party, they wanted to still be officials at that time, which was more difficult than if the king of Qi did not become a vassal.

That being the case, he might as well join Jin Xuan's faction with King Qi as his team first, and then defeat the Yanshan faction first.

Even if they can't be defeated, the "meat" dropped by the Yanshan faction after being hit hard is enough for them to eat for a long time.

Right now, Jin Xuan had just sent away a junior, and after a while, many people knocked on his door.

For them, Jin Xuan also welcomed them one by one, which made many Yanshan officials hiding in the dark grit their teeth.

It's just that their hiding methods are too poor, Jin Xuan just glanced around and knew where they might be peeping.

However, he doesn't care about these, because he is completing the second task that King Qi told him...to win people's hearts.

Swords and soldiers cannot move, but even if political means are used to deal with the Yanshan faction, Zhu Youjian is absolutely sure.

Once all parties grow strong, they will split internally. If one group can fight against another, then in the temple, Zhu Youjian can quickly pull up a new force against the Yanshan faction.

However, even so, it will take a long time to find many criminal evidences against the Yanshan faction.

Often, Jin Yiwei found an official's criminal evidence, and that official took the initiative to resign, making the so-called evidence worthless.

There is a difference between active and passive substitutions, and the officials of the Yanshan faction in Beijing know this well.

Since the civil uprising in northern Shaanxi, when Sun Chuanting inspected the provinces and killed tens of thousands of Yanshan officials, officials of the Yanshan faction often operated in this way.

If the crime is too serious and may implicate colleagues, they will surrender themselves and be dispatched to Nanzhou.

If the punishment is too small, the Nadu Procuratorate will argue with the Ministry of Punishments and Dali Temple, and reduce the imprisonment to lighter punishments such as fines, flogging, and court battles.

Chengde's prestige was accumulated in this way. Under his protection, although the Yanshan faction was suppressed, it has not suffered serious damage.

However, the current situation seems to have changed. King Qi is determined to clean up Yanshan, and Cheng De's previous methods will soon no longer work.

"In just one month, 320, [-] officials were arrested and exiled, and punished for their crimes, with a maximum of [-] lashes. How did they get reduced to the point where they need to be exiled to Lingbei?"

"If we don't fight back, how will the officials below treat us?"

In Chengde's courtyard, when Wang Kejian and Zhang Xiaocun arrived with two documents, Zhang Xiaocun immediately asked Chengde his opinion on this matter.

But regarding this, Cheng Deyun said calmly: "There are hundreds of thousands of people in Yanshan, you can't help but kill more than 1000 people?"

"There are more than 1000 people. You can make up for them by just recommending some from the official school to participate in Enke. Don't worry."

Cheng De took a sip of tea, and Zhang Xiaocun also realized that he was too impulsive, so he couldn't help but sat back in his seat with a trace of temper.

After he sat down, Wang Kejian next to him also took out a handwritten letter and said:
"In the Western Regions, the two seniors think that we can take a step back, not to abolish the Central Decree and Decree, nor to argue about decision-making, but to limit military commanders and the army from interfering in politics, and retain the new cabinet system."

The battle between the King of Qi and the Yanshan faction started with the initial retreat of the Yanshan faction, but Chengde knew very well that King Qi wanted more than that.

However, he didn't need to discuss this with Wang Kejian and Zhang Xiaocun, so facing Wang Kejian's words, Cheng De just nodded slightly:
"I will continue to inform His Highness about this matter in the future. As for whether His Highness agrees, it still depends on His Highness."

"If you have nothing else to do, then just leave now."

Chengde served tea to see off the guests, the two did not stay long after seeing this, and exited the small courtyard after bowing to each other.

They didn't discuss Jin Xuan's affairs. After all, everyone could see that Jin Xuan's confidence was King Qi. As long as King Qi nodded, Jin Xuan would immediately stop what he was doing.

but……

"Regression is regress, but there are quite a lot of careful thoughts in it."

When Chengde's memorial was sent to the Qi Palace, Zhu Youjian faced the memorial, leaned on his chair, and said in front of Sun Shoufa and others:
"Generals and the army are not allowed to intervene in politics. The obvious purpose is to prevent the chaos of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, but right now the biggest force supporting the imperial power is the army."

"If I agree now, maybe it will be peaceful for a few years in Ming Dynasty, but if there are people forming cliques for personal gain in the future, then above the temple will be the words of the civil servants."

"If I agree to this matter, if the descendants of the Zhu family see a dagger in the future and have no choice but to use the army, I'm afraid they will put a hat on them again."

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian threw the memorial on the table: "Don't worry about it, let's continue with our..."

After finishing speaking, Zhu Youjian stood up and looked at the "Map of Emperor Ming Qi Guokun" behind him.

Right now, he is discussing with Man Gui, Sun Yingyuan, and Huang Long the military towns and military pressure that Qi will focus on in the future.

For Qi State, for a long time to come, its pressure will come from the sea, so Zhu Youjian also adjusted the military expenditure of the army with the understanding of Qi State's finances.

Qi State does not need too many troops, and in the present and the next 30 years, only 10 troops are enough.

"The line of defense is mainly based on the sea. The army's duty is to defend the homeland and cooperate with the DPRK and the country's navy in landing operations."

"Secondly..."

Zhu Youjian talked about the major national defense affairs of Qi State, and the content of Chengde's memorial to Qi Wangfu was quickly passed on to the East Palace.

October is the day of graduating from government schools, and it is also the day of Enke. Taking this opportunity, Zhu Ciran recruited more than 2000 subordinate officials. Adding the original hundreds of people, the number of subordinate officials in the East Palace has reached as many as 3000.

Such a number of subordinate officials is unique in all dynasties.

The person in charge of managing and leading these subordinate officials is Sun Kewang who just came back from Anxi.

At this moment, he was flipping through the documents of these officials, facing Zhu Ciran who was processing the memorial.

Even though most of the memorials were violated by yin and yang, Zhu Ciran still had to deal with it bravely, and he couldn't pile up the matter to Yanshan and Qi Wang's mansion to decide the winner, that would delay a lot of things.

However, while dealing with it, he couldn't help but glance at Sun Kewang.

Compared with when he left, Sun Kewang's skin is much darker now, and his face is also covered with wind and frost.

After two years of events, Sun Kewang turned Shanshan County into a prosperous county with a population of [-] and arable land of [-]. Its taxation situation can even be ranked in the middle of the more than [-] counties in Daming.

Such a feat, of course, has been awarded two first grades for two consecutive years.

In addition to Apocalypse's first grade in 19 years, Sun Kewang has won three first grades in a row. Right now, he is also managing the affairs of the East Palace as the "generation Shao Zhanshi" from the fifth rank.

Shao Zhanshi is a fourth-rank official, while Sun Kewang is only a fifth-rank official.

However, this does not affect Zhu Ciran's trust in him, and Sun Kewang will also use his ability to repay Zhu Ciran.

It took him six hours to read through the papers of more than a hundred of the more important officials among the three thousand officials, and then he raised his head and looked at Zhu Ciran, bowed and said:

"Your Highness, the lower officials have read it. There is nothing wrong with the arrangement of most of the official posts. However, Yanshan currently occupies many positions. If they don't make room, these officials may not be able to be promoted in the future."

Sun Kewang is not good at strategy, otherwise he would not be able to defeat Li Dingguo in history, and finally chose to leave in anger.

His talent is more like that of Xiao He's civil servants, and it is for this reason that when the East Palace expands, Zhu Ciran will temporarily let him change from his original official position to manage the East Palace.

It is said that it is to manage Zhan Shifu in the East Palace, but in fact it is to let Sun Kewang lead the civil servants below to accumulate achievements together, and wait for the Yanshan faction to fall and divide up the official positions.

"How do you think this fight will end?"

Zhu Ciran pushed the news that he had just obtained it to Sun Kewang, and Sun Kewang took a glance and pondered for a moment: "Yanshan's concession means that they feel that they are not His Royal Highness Qi's opponent."

"However, even if they don't give in, the officials don't think they are His Royal Highness Qi's opponents."

"Yanshan started too late. It has only been 16 years since Tianqi five years ago. Although it occupies a lot of power in the middle and grassroots, it has never built a high platform. At present, there is still no cabinet minister who speaks for it in the cabinet."

"If they can unite with Zhou Yanru, the 'Gu Party' who betrayed the Qi Palace back then, and attack the Qi Palace together, maybe things will work."

"But right now, they look down on Zhou Yanru, and Zhou Yanru looks down on them even more."

"As long as they don't unite, there will be very few threats to His Highness, King Qi, and Long Live."

"Right now, we only need to wait until Yan Yinshao and others return to Beijing, and I think we can probably see which side has the absolute advantage."

Sun Kewang is not good at strategy, so it is not bad to be able to analyze it like this.

However, he is not good at strategy, but someone is good at it.

"Go and ask Zhong Ji to come over and let him see the news."

Zhu Ciran gave instructions to the eunuch in the palace, and the eunuch bowed out of the Chunhe Palace when he heard the words, and soon called Du Yinxi into the palace.

After Sun Kewang and Du Yinxi met, they nodded their heads as a greeting.

They have no conflicts, nor do they conflict with Zhu Ciran's help, Sun Kewang is the ruler, Du Yinxi is the supervisor and counselor.

After entering the Palace of Spring Harmony, Du Yinxi first read the news about the Yanshan School's Furuan, and then pointed out:

"Although this seems to be to prevent the emergence of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, it is actually a tactic to delay the troops."

"They just want to stall for time and let King Qi leave on the winter solstice of the 23rd year of Tianqi."

"Once His Royal Highness King Qi leaves, they can use their identities as cabinet ministers to make a fuss."

"It cannot be said that they have not regressed, but the scope of this regress is a bit small, and it is normal for His Royal Highness Qi to disagree."

"If you really want to regress, you should give up three cabinet seats and support the six-year cabinet election system."

"There are seven normal cabinet seats. With the number of officials in Yanshan, it is not a problem to win two or three."

"But only three of them were won. Facing Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting, and the other two who are likely to be Zhou Yanru and Wen Tiren, they cannot please the cabinet team."

"This cabinet team is still aimed at them in essence, so they will ask to reduce the number of seats to six, because only in this way can they be sure to check and balance the temple."

"However, judging from the reaction of His Royal Highness King Qi, His Highness King Qi cannot accept even this condition."

"It's easy to push them into a hurry, but they don't dare to use weapons, they can only watch the time being dragged out by His Highness King Qi."

Speaking of this, Du Yinxi looked at Zhu Ciran, closed the information in his hand and solemnly said:
"The most important thing right now is to see how many people the new Zuodu censor Jin Xuan and the Youqin capital censor Yan Yinshao who has not yet arrived in the capital can recruit and how big a team can be organized."

"As long as this group of officials who oppose the Yanshan faction gather together, the situation where the Yanshan faction dominates the sky will be disintegrated, whether it is temples, localities, or the army."

"The battlefield is limited to the temple, which is good for the people and the world, and the situation in the East Palace can also be improved."

"As long as the situation is clear, when Sun Gechen and Hong Gechen start investigating the case in Nanzhili, use Nanzhili to clean up the Yanshan officials in the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, and then the East Palace officials will fill in, then the general trend will be certain."

Du Yinxi's words basically connected Zhu Youjian's step-by-step plans together.

Qi Wangfu takes the lead, and Jin Xuan and Yan Yinshao build momentum.

As long as the power of the two parties is equal, the emperor, prince, and king of Qi are all here, and Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou can start to clean up Jiangnan.

The five provinces of Jiugang, Jiangnan Province and Yingzhou accounted for more than [-]% of the Ming Dynasty's tax revenue. As long as they got these five provinces, the Yanshan faction could not threaten anything.

but……

"However, the key to the final move is to have enough replacement officials. We may not be able to replace the entire Jiangnan officials with only three thousand officials from the East Palace."

Du Yinxi's expression was troubled, which made Zhu Ciran's originally bright mood sink again.

In the end, he actually became a dragger.

"Not necessarily..." Sun Kewang said suddenly, causing Zhu Ciran and Du Yinxi to look at him.

Facing the puzzled eyes of the two, Sun Kewang said, "I think His Royal Highness King Qi's arrangements have already begun for the matter of the officials."

"As for this arrangement, I think it's probably in..."

Update at [-] p.m.