Rule over Ming Dynasty

Chapter 92 Practicing Collusion, Song Cheng's Gratitude

As night falls, the lights of Yongfang are bright.

With the recent personnel changes and more and more disputes in the imperial court, there are frequent exchanges between officials, and Xu Pu, the leader of Qingliu, has become the target of many officials visiting.

Tonight's protagonist belongs to Li Min, the former Shangshu of the Ministry of Accounting. The former Shangshu of the Ministry of Accounting seems to have let go of all the knots in his heart, and his brows have been relaxed at this time.

There are three big round tables here, except for the Minister of the Ministry of Households, Li Si, and other high-ranking ministers, there are mainly Langzhong or Yuanwailang from each important department of the six ministries, and after that are a few low-ranking senior officials.

The lowest official position is actually Yang Tinghe, the eighth-rank Hanlin reviewer. Yang Tinghe's father, Yang Chun, is Xu Pu's protégé.

Li Min raised the wine glass in his hand with a blushing face, and said to the officials present: "I will invite you all to dinner at Xu's residence tonight! You are willing to come to this official's farewell banquet. I am very grateful, let's drink this glass together!" "

"I wish Li Shangshu a smooth journey and return to his hometown!" All the officials raised their wine glasses and responded together.

Although Li Min resigned because he was not pleased by the emperor, with the joint efforts of their civil servant group, their retirement benefits for civil servants were also very generous, and he resolutely returned to be the local emperor.

After Li Min took a sip of the wine, his whole face turned red and he raised his hand and said, "These are the top dishes of various restaurants in the capital, and shad from the south of the Yangtze River, everyone must eat and drink well tonight!"

The officials had already noticed that the meal tonight was quite expensive, and each dish seemed to be very particular.

Yang Tinghe was born in a family of officials in Sichuan. When he was studying in the Imperial College, he was introduced as his son-in-law by Huang Mingshan, the then Prime Minister of the Imperial College. He has seen a lot in the capital these years, but he realized that this former Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs is There is really a lot of gold hidden inside.

Although the food is in the front, some people still don't know what to eat.

Xie Qian was taken care of by Li Min in the past, and he still owes Li Min's silver taels, so it's hard to refuse the invitation to attend this farewell banquet this time.Just looking at shad, I only hate having too many thorns.

What a celebration it would be to move from Shuzi Zuo to Hanlin to serve as a bachelor, but he was ruined by someone at the table, and he had to keep a smile on his face.

The one who had a similar encounter with Xie Qian was Cheng Minzheng, a scholar of the Hanlin Academy. He had already seen that the position of the Hanlin Bachelor was about to come, but Xu Pu, an old man, would play such a trick.

It's just that he and Xu Pu are from the same hometown, and he has been supported and taken care of by Xu Pu along the way. Naturally, it is not easy to show Xu Pu's face, so he also has to accompany a fake smile.

Three rounds of wine, five flavors of food.

Xu Pu has never been a person who only wants to enjoy himself, when he saw that the atmosphere was similar, he coughed lightly towards Ye Qi, the left servant of the household department.

Ye Qi nodded understandingly, and said to Li Min who was at the same table: "Li Shangshu, you live next door to Xie Yikui. It is said that the imperial court seized a lot of property from Xie's house. Is this true?"

As soon as this remark came out, the officials present put down their wine glasses one after another, and looked towards this side curiously.

"This is entirely because someone deliberately spread rumors to slander us Qingliu. I don't know about others, but Xie Yikui is a good official with integrity like water. How could he be corrupt? Although Jin Yiwei transported more than ten truckloads of heavy objects to the East Factory, but The old man has someone in Jinyiwei, and it is full of stones dug from the lake in the backyard!" Li Min immediately said loudly with disdain.

Lake stone?

When the officials present heard that this was the case, they were shocked, and their eyes were filled with excitement.

"Is it true or not, all the lake stones were transported?"

"Li Shangshu has always had great powers, can this matter be false?"

"If that's the case, let's talk about it together!"

……

At first, some of the officials couldn't believe it, but Li Min's news has always been reliable, and it is also in line with the court's reaction these days, and their minds have become active again.

They made a big fuss earlier about the case of the eunuch Chen Zhun, the eunuch who was in charge of ceremonies and Bingbi, for embezzling 50 taels of ink. It was only because Emperor Hongzhi suddenly seized Xie Yikui that they had no choice but to stop. It's going to be difficult again.

Especially in Xie Yikui's case, a large amount of corrupt money was not copied, so they can continue to flaunt themselves as clean and honest civil servants, thus forcing the emperor to abandon eunuchs and reuse their civil servants.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Ye Qi, the left servant of the Household Department, said, "I have heard that His Majesty intends to train thirteen eunuchs to go out of the capital and the thirteen provinces!"

"It's really unheard of for eunuchs to be used so much. Let alone the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty, the century-old foundation may be ruined! As the subjects of the Ming Dynasty, we must not let His Majesty do such nonsense!" He Congdang, the left servant of the Ministry of War, even strongly expressed his position .

The officials present all agreed, and when they learned that Jin Yiwei was transported from Xie's house, they were all lake stones, and their confidence became stronger in an instant, and they immediately geared up and prepared to do a big job.

Xie Qian and Yang Tinghe are both smart people. Xie Qian knows that his teacher is not profitable and does not get up early, while Yang Tinghe is a politician with a lot of wisdom. Xu Pu.

The smartest politician was undoubtedly the one who didn't say anything, but the people below had already done everything he wanted to do, and he, Xu Pu, wanted to officially take up the banner of fighting against the imperial power.

"Tomorrow, I will go up to speak directly to His Majesty!"

After everyone's discussion, Dang even reached a consensus, and tomorrow they will show off the muscles of their civil servants to the new monarch, and let him understand that the court still has to rely on their civil servants.

"Come, let's drink this cup together!" Li Min seemed to be in a good mood tonight, and immediately raised the wine glass in his hand high and said excitedly.

Even though he was squeezed out by the new king and had to leave the court, it was something worth bragging to have directed such a show before he left.

"There is no confidant in the road ahead, and everyone in the world does not know the king, let's drink together!" The official's Wenxuan Secretary Lang Zhong said something politely, and then raised his glass and drank it all in one gulp.

Li Min naturally knows the importance of "confidant at the end of the world".It is precisely because of this group of "confidantes", that the sons and nephews of their own clan must be taken care of when they become officials in the court.

As for the locality, there is no need to worry about no one to fawn on, not to mention that the magistrate of Xuzhou and the magistrate of Xiangcheng only nodded and bowed to him, a second-rank Beijing official who has become an official. These two are actually promoted by himself.

From sunset, it's a new day.

The Forbidden City is shrouded in dark clouds, but the majestic palace remains undiminished.

Song Cheng, who was dressed as a fifth-rank official, had a somewhat haggard face, but he just tidied himself up neatly, but he came from the direction of Xie's house, and followed the little yellow gate to the Qianqing gate to ask for an audience.

There are many things in the world that cannot be achieved without hard work, and there are still no traces in the account books.

After Song Cheng reported the situation in Dongnuange, he also felt deeply ashamed and said: "I have owed you the grace of God, please punish me!"

"This is a matter of finding a needle in a haystack. Song Aiqing has been out of Xie's house for three days. This time is also hard work. You should go home and rest today!" Although Zhu Youtang was disappointed, he was also compassionate.

Song Cheng felt Zhu Youshen's concern, and a warm current rushed into his heart. Suddenly, as if he wanted something, he immediately took out a deposit ticket from his sleeve and said, "Your Majesty, this is the book that I found in the Xie family's house. A deposit slip from him can be regarded as Xie Yikui's stolen silver, and is now at His Majesty's disposal!"

"Deposit the ticket? Present it!" Zhu Youtang was a little interested, and Dang even ordered.

Although he had already learned about the financial industry in this era, they were all money houses and pawnshops that were mainly lending money. There were only a few money shops that were purely for deposit and withdrawal obligations, but none of them were engaged in business such as bills of exchange.

In fact, the credit of money shops in this era has not yet risen, especially in the absence of strong business gang endorsement, and now usually the deposit certificates are less than 1 taels.

After all, the current money shop only has the function of deposit and withdrawal, who is willing to hand over their property to the money shop easily?
Song Cheng gave the deposit ticket to Liu Jin, and Liu Jin passed the deposit ticket to Zhu Youtang.

"Hehe... 210, that's a lot! Song Aiqing, this thing is convenient to hide, have you never thought about keeping it for yourself?" Zhu Youtang saw that the above amount was enough to make people feel uncomfortable. His heart was moved, and he couldn't help asking curiously.

Song Cheng raised his face and looked at Hongzhi, seeming to be just and righteous: "I'm doing business according to the order, and I will definitely not take any ill-gotten gains!"

Zhu Youtang was very satisfied with Song Cheng's demeanor of adhering to the principle, as long as he handed over the deposit check to Liu Jin to cash it, he caught a glimpse of the amount on it and suddenly felt a slight twitch in his heart.

(End of this chapter)