Yi Song

Chapter 172 The irritable Liang Shicheng

In the custody room of the White Tiger Festival Hall of the Imperial City Division, Liang Shicheng was very agitated.

He sat upright on the seat, with his hands in his sleeves and placed on his abdomen, his breathing slowed down and became long and long.

Zuo Shijin took a stack of documents and walked to the door. Just when he was about to speak out, he heard Yang Ruoshui standing at the door raised his index finger and hissed softly to signal silence.

"What happened to grandpa?" Zuo Shijin asked softly.

"Liang Xiang is tired. He is closing his eyes to rest." Yang Ruoshui replied softly.

"Oh." Zuo Shijin nodded and quietly stood beside Yang Ruoshui, not daring to say anything.

He quietly glanced at Yang Ruoshui, who was tall and tall, with a dignified appearance, and jealousy flashed in his eyes.

At the Ruishengyuan family banquet on the Wanshou Festival of the official family, Li Bangyan acted wantonly and lost his official position first and then his life. The internal ministers who entered the palace were also implicated, and a large number of left and right palace ministers, left and right retainers, and worship officials were either beaten to death or expelled from the palace.

The Imperial City Department was also affected. An enshrined officer who was responsible for the secret writing room suddenly disappeared. The left and right attendants were still thinking about competing for the post and did not want to transfer to Tianliang. Master Liang transferred an engraving officer from elsewhere to take over the confidential writing room. One position.

He is Yang Ruoshui.

This person is smart, capable, cautious, and handles all matters in the confidential writing room in an orderly manner. Liang Shicheng thinks highly of him, praises him full of praise, and relies on him as his right-hand man.

After waiting quietly for a quarter of an hour, Liang Shicheng's voice floated faintly in the room.

"come in."

Yang Ruoshui led Zuo Shijin into the room.

"Xiang Liang/Grandpa!"

"Is there anything going on in the reports today?"

"Reply to Grandpa. Cai Jing and his seventh son are leaving the capital today. They are accompanied by two concubines, six maids, six companions, four guards, and more than ten carts."

Liang Shicheng smiled and said, "The Grand Master has a lot of money. I'm afraid I will end up taking advantage of Gao Qiu and Liu Erlang."

Zuo Shijin waited for a while, and when Liang Shicheng finished speaking, he continued to report: "According to the regulations, Cai You and Cai Chen should have left the capital long ago to take up their posts, but they claimed to be ill, stayed in the capital, and camped around.

Today, Cai You went to the house of Wang Guanren, the governor of Langzhou, and Cai Yi went to the house of Zhu Guanren, the observation envoy of Yongqing Army, each sending a cart of goods. "

Who are Wang Guan and Zhu Guan?

Before Liang Shicheng could ask questions, Yang Ruoshui explained on the side: "Wang Yongxin, the governor of Langzhou, is the elder brother of the royal concubine. Zhu Xiaosun, the observation envoy of the Yongqing Army, is the biological brother of the crown prince."

"Haha, you are so sick that you seek medical treatment in a hurry, and you dare to take any road." Liang Shicheng sneered twice, "Make a copy of this report and give it to Wang Shaozai (Wang Fu)."

"Yes."

"Is there anything else important?"

"Grandpa, there is another big thing."

"What's the big deal?"

"The Lord of Lingguang Academy convened four major merchants in Bianjing a few days ago, as well as 12 major merchants from Hedong, Hebei, Jingdong, and Jingxi, etc., and held a two-day meeting. It is said that Liu Erlang, the envoy of Fengguo Festival, also He attended the meeting and also made a speech. The details of the meeting have never been discovered.

Today, through some investigation, I finally found out that the main topic of this meeting is the establishment of Fufeng Bank. Led by the Master of Lingguang Academy, the Master of Houde Palace and Liu Erlang, 16 large business houses from Gyeonggi Province, Jingdong West, and Hebei Hedong were invited to join. The Queen, Donggong, Gao Taiwei, etc. all participated. "

"Fufeng? Things are prosperous and people are prosperous. The implication is quite good. What is a bank?" Liang Shicheng asked in confusion and turned to Yang Ruoshui involuntarily.

"Prime Minister Liang, my subordinates asked the owner of a firm that he has invested in, and he roughly said that it is basically collecting savings and lending money, and the money is circulated. It is similar to the treasury, but very different. It is difficult to explain clearly in just a few words.

Liu Erlang talked for a whole morning before more than a dozen proprietors who were involved in the business world fully understood. Then these dozen proprietors were so excited that they cried and shouted to join in. Unfortunately, no matter what, the sixteen families only received 30% of the shares. Lingguangyuan and Houde Palace accounted for 55% of the total. The rest are dry shares, held by Liu's family on behalf of him. "

Yang Ruoshui's words made Liang Shicheng couldn't help but touch his bare chin.

"Why is this Liu Erlang so full of all kinds of weird ideas in his head? Being an official, asking for favors, going to war to make money, he didn't fail in any of them!"

In the matter of overthrowing Cai Jing a few days ago, Liu Guozhang completely broke Liang Shicheng's heart and made him realize that Liu Erlang and he were not of the same mind.

But he has a deep mind and will not reveal his thoughts easily.

"Changshui Army, Desheng Army, and Zhongba Army. These three Xiang armies under Liu Erlang's control should deploy more men." "Yes, Grandpa." Zuo Shijin responded.

After talking about five or six more things, Liang Shicheng's head was buzzing, but he always felt that something was wrong, something he didn't take care of, but he couldn't remember it for the moment.

In these days, Grand Master Cai fell, and his party members Wang Chi who stayed in Nanjing, Kaifeng Prefecture Shaoyin Wang Shiyong and others were all liquidated and kicked out of the court. The remaining positions were fiercely contested by various factions.

Now everyone's firepower is concentrated on the important officials of the Cai Party such as Privy Councilor Deng Xunwu and the Young Master Yu Shen, as well as the party members of Cai You and Cai Yi. These people were unwilling to fail and resisted stubbornly. The situation in the court seemed calm, but in fact it was intensifying.

Liang Shicheng also actively participated in it, and at the same time secretly eradicated the gang members of King Zhao Kai - he was indeed the number one loyal minister in the East Palace.

These things involved a lot of Liang Shicheng's energy, and it was difficult to take care of other things. Even the design to frame Liu Erlang was temporarily put aside, let alone other things.

However, he is in charge of the Imperial City Department and has a heavy responsibility. If a major accident occurs in Bianjing, he will be the first person to be held accountable by the officials.

After Zuo Shijin finished speaking, Yang Ruoshui said calmly: "Prime Minister Liang, I have something to report."

"explain."

"Spring is coming next month. The provincial examination will begin on the 12th, and the palace examination will be held nine days later. On the 16th, the Wu Jinshi scientific examination will be held. My subordinates have been keeping an eye on these two events, and sent spies to sneak into the tribute examination to detect trends. From then on. At present, it seems that some of the tributes are secretly colluding with each other, intending to use admonishment instead of policy in the provincial examination and make arrogant comments on government affairs."

Liang Shicheng perked up, yes, yes, this was the big thing that he felt he had neglected!

The three-year Jinshi provincial examination is a big deal.

The officials are concerned, all officials are concerned, and the government and the public are watching it intently. If anything goes wrong, it will be an earth-shattering event.

In the past ten years, Liang Shicheng has watched the party strife subside, but Liang Shicheng knows very well what is actually going on.

The Confucian scholars and scribes, mainly Qingliu, were suppressed, the public was furious, and the undercurrent was surging. In addition, the "great traitor" Cai Jing suddenly fell, and party members such as Yu Shen, Zhu Meng, Wang Chi, and Wang Shiyong were eradicated, and Qingliu rejoiced.

Tens of thousands of tribute ministers from various states were excited, thinking that the time had come to bring order to the chaos. It was possible that they would join forces, go to Donghua Gate, or even gather at Donghua Gate to request that all the remaining "treacherous ministers" be eliminated.

There was also a secret agreement to write down the strategy as a remonstrance during the exam. It doesn't matter if there are two copies, but if there are thousands of copies, it will be a big problem.

The government and the public are criticizing, the officials are angry, and the one who suffers is the one who suffers.

I have been too busy recently to take care of this matter, thanks to Yang Ruoshui for reminding me.

Liang Shicheng said kindly: "Ruoshui, continue."

"It's Prime Minister Liang. Let's list out the scholars who have different intentions and divide them into Class A, Class B and Class C. Class A is very dangerous. Their minds are not on the provincial examination next month. They are connecting in all directions. , tribute students from various states, officials in the central court, students from the Imperial Academy, as well as scholars and scholars from the capital, planned to knock on the palace during the spring period.

The leader is eleven people, classified as Class A,

There were thirty-seven followers who obeyed orders, ran left and right, and worked very hard, classified as Class B.

There are also 171 people who are very likely to write remonstrances in the Provincial Examination Policy Papers in order to reach heaven directly. Classified as Class C.

A, B, C, etc., use different surveillance and restraint measures."

"Good! Very good!" Liang Shicheng was very satisfied, "Ruoshui, I am very relieved about your work."

"Thank you, Mr. Liang, for your support. I have one more thing to do."

"Say!"

"A detective discovered that it seems to be selling next month's Jinshi science examination questions."

"Selling test questions?" Liang Shicheng thought for a while but didn't take it to heart.

Many measures were taken in the national and dynasty scientific examinations, such as anonymity, transcribing, evasion, etc. However, in the provincial examinations, how many of the tens of thousands of Jinshi were truly from poor families?

Either they are from aristocratic families or they are the children of officials. After all, they are all members of the Confucian scholar community.

Therefore, when Wang Jinggong destroyed private schools, established official schools, and instituted school building laws, he seemed to have stabbed the lungs of aristocratic families and officials, and he opposed them desperately.

"Just pay attention to this matter. If you find any clues, you must report them to me. Don't act rashly!" Liang Shicheng warned.

(End of this chapter)