Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2371 What the enemy wants is what we fear

The autumn wind is rustling, the fallen leaves are rustling, the cold rain has just stopped, and the moon is rising above the trees.

Gao Youshi, who had returned to Beijing half a month ago, had just come off duty in the cabinet and returned to his old mansion, which had been named "Duke Jingguo's Mansion" not long ago. Looking a little tired, he went to the study in Rixin Building.

He was really tired.

Autumn is the harvest season, and there are many economic activities related to the autumn harvest that require his close attention as the Prime Minister and Minister of Revenue, who would make policy adjustments and issue direct tasks from time to time;
Autumn is the time for autumn training, autumn exercises and major competitions for the military across the country. As the operator of the new military reform, the progress and performance of the military reform over the past year will be summarized, and he needs to revise or even change some measures according to the actual situation;
Autumn is also the time for final trials and executions of serious cases across the country. Although he was the Prime Minister and Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, he was not directly in charge of criminal punishment in theory, but who said that the Ming Dynasty was a "feudal dynasty"? As the actual first person in charge of the court, under the guidance of the ancient Chinese idea that "human life is of paramount importance", all serious crimes that require the death penalty must be repeatedly reviewed by the three judicial departments, and some representative major cases will definitely be sent to his desk, and through his draft, they will be approved by the emperor...

All these, numerous important tasks, were placed on Gao Youshi's shoulders alone, under the premise that the Emperor announced that he was in poor health as soon as he returned to Beijing and needed to rest for a period of time.

Not to mention that because he had been away from Beijing for too long, there were many reports piled up in Beijing within the Jinghua Group that needed his personal approval, and now he also needed to give instructions one by one. In this situation, even a body of iron would be tired.

Gao Youshi had just sat down in the study. Facing the piles of reports, documents, and letters that filled up most of the desk in front of him, he couldn't help but sigh and said to himself with a bitter smile: "I should have known that I shouldn't have let Liu Xin go to Bangladesh. Now it's good. My son is relieved, but I am suffering."

After a pause, he opened a secret letter and said to himself in a bad mood, "You better not let me down, or I will send you a letter to Beijing to personally spank you with a ruler, even if you are now the governor of Siam."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a knock on the door. Gao Fusi asked, "Who is it?"

Meng Guzhezhe's voice came from outside the door: "Master, it's me."

"Oh, come in."

With his permission, the door of the study was opened, but it was not only Menggu Zhezhe who came in. She was followed by several maids, each holding a plate with three dishes on it. Menggu Zhezhe said, "Master came straight to the study as soon as he returned home. I didn't want to disturb you, but I thought that Master might not have eaten yet, so I had to send him to the study. Master, people are made of iron and rice is made of steel. If you don't eat, you will be hungry. For the sake of the entire Xinzheng Gao family, you can't be so busy that you don't even eat, right?"

As they were talking, the maids had already placed food on the empty table on the other side for Gao Fusi, and then they respectfully stepped aside and stood. Gao Fusi naturally didn't need to pretend to be sleepless in front of Menggu Zhezhe, and he stood up and nodded, "It's not that I'm too busy to eat, but when people are busy to a certain extent, their appetite will be poor, so I forgot just now."

He walked to the table on the side and took a look, and found that even for this non-mealtime snack, the dishes were as rich as usual, with a combination of meat and vegetables, of course, there were sixteen dishes. And judging from the dishes, they were not like the imperial kitchen in the palace where one dish was reheated several times before being cooked, but were all made on the spot.

He suddenly felt a little emotional and said, "Everyone says that the emperor is good, he is the supreme ruler, and he is extremely rich. But if we just talk about eating, from what I see, he is not even as good as my family."

Menggu Zhezhe knew that Gao Youshi often accompanied the emperor to dine, and she knew very well what the imperial meals were like. In fact, there was no need to talk about Gao Youshi. Even she, Gao Youshi's concubine, often ate the imperial meals sent from the palace to reward her husband. To be honest, it was really like that, and it was indeed not as good as the family banquet at the Nanning Marquis's Mansion... Oh no, the Jingguo Duke's Mansion.

After all, although the emperors of the Ming Dynasty theoretically had the most power in history, they were also greatly restricted. In fact, they might even be the most powerful among all dynasties - except for those puppet emperors.

Who restricted the emperor so much? Zhu Yuanzhang and the civil service group. Zhu Yuanzhang imposed a lot of restrictions on the emperors based on the ancestral system, and the civil service group imposed a lot of restrictions on the emperor based on Confucianism and the "legitimacy of the sage monarch" as a means.

In the end, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty could only eat according to the "four dishes and one soup" standard given by Zhu Yuanzhang. If the Empress Dowager Cixi, who later said she "didn't know where to start eating" when there were 108 dishes in front of her, knew about this, she would probably laugh out loud - are the descendants of the Zhu family really emperors?

However, what Gao Youshi did not expect was that Menggu Zhezhe actually said something that surprised him quite a bit.

Menggu Zhezhe said: "What the master said is true, but the expenses of the master's food are earned by the master's family, which is all legal income. It is not the place of outsiders to comment on how it is used. The emperor's food is the fat of the people. The whole world supports one person, so naturally he must be restrained and be vigilant. He cannot be extravagant and scare the people... These two are not the same."

Gao Fusi was picking up his chopsticks at this time. When he heard this, he was surprised but also a little relieved. He said, "Menggu, it seems that you have gained a lot from studying over the years."

Menggu Zhezhe bowed and said half seriously and half jokingly, "As the saying goes, one becomes redder when near a red person. I am just lucky to have a husband who has won six first place in the imperial examination. Over the years, even if I have been slightly influenced by him, I should have some literary aura around me."

Gao Youshi laughed heartily and shook his head, saying, "You have acquired this literary talent through your own hard study. What does it have to do with me? This is not my credit, so I dare not accept it."

Then he paused for a moment, showing a thoughtful expression, and continued, "I thought about this before I went to Nanjing. With your current knowledge, if you just take care of the children at home every day, it would be a waste of your talent. Why don't you join the secretariat to help out... But time was tight at the time, and I accompanied the emperor to the south soon after, so this matter was delayed. Now that you are back in Beijing, why not do what I thought before."

Menggu Zhezhe hesitated and said, "But Madam and my sisters are not in the mansion. If I go to the secretariat to help, the children in the mansion may be out of discipline..."

Gao Fusi waved his hand and said, "There are many teachers in the mansion who are not here for nothing. There are also mature and prudent maids who can be entrusted with important tasks. How can they be undisciplined? In the final analysis, whether the children are well disciplined depends on whether I am strict. If I don't spoil them, the children will have their own teachers to teach them when they make mistakes. How can they be undisciplined?

On the contrary, you may not be as strict as the teachers in disciplining him sometimes... You don't need to explain yourself, let me ask you a question first: When Gao Yuan was in the mansion, how many harsh words did you say to him?" Menggu Zhezhe was about to speak, and finally could only explain in a low voice: "He is the eldest son of the master, so he can't... can't be scolded easily, otherwise how can he establish his authority in the future?"

The reason behind this is obviously not just about how Gao Yuan will establish his authority in the future, and it can even be said that this is not the main issue. Gao Youshi knows very well that even if Gao Yuan was scolded and even punished by his aunts every day when he was a child, once his father, the head of the family, died and Gao Yuan inherited the family business, his authority would naturally be established along with his power - at least in the mansion.

But then what? If Gao Yuan is a magnanimous person, then it's fine. But if he is not magnanimous enough, the concubines may not have a good life. Of course, as far as the "concubines" are concerned, no matter how hard their lives are, considering that the Gao family is a prominent Confucian family, they will not be so bad that they will have material difficulties. But for the future of their children...

All in all, although Menggu Zhezhe refused to admit it, Gao Youshi knew in his heart that it was not just her. Even Liu Xin, Gao Yuan's teacher and aunt, might not be willing to humiliate Gao Yuan too much.

The eldest son of this era could be so fearless. To be honest, apart from Gao Youshi himself, only Huang Zhiting dared to teach Gao Yuan a lesson with a stern face.

At present, the only thing that made Gao Youshi feel relieved was that Gao Yuan seemed to be relatively obedient, at least he did not show any tendency to be perverse or violent - although he did not seem to approve of any ideological system other than Confucianism, and even had a disdain for some of the sects he had encountered after the Western Expedition.

But then again, Gao Yuan's attitude seemed to be quite accepted within Jinghua. After all, Jinghua's development and expansion were too smooth, and it was natural for them to look down on losers.

After a lot of thoughts, Gao Youshi finally just shook his head and said, "Let's do this for now. You will go to the secretariat tomorrow and sort out the various documents that have been piled up recently."

Gao Fusi was still the boss of the family, and since he insisted, Menggu Zhezhe had no choice but to agree. Gao Fusi began to eat, and said, "I just opened the letter on the table and haven't read it yet. Can you read it to me?"

Menggu Zhezhe got up to get it. When she came back, she glanced at the maids and said, "Go wait next door. I'll ring the bell to let you know if anything happens."

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

The maids all bowed and filed out. Pulling the bell is a design of the Rixin Building. It can be found in Gao Youshi's study and other places. It is a simple mechanism used to notify servants. You can pull a silk rope in the room, and there is a turntable mechanism between the roof and the floor, which will pull the bell hanging in another room. When the bell rings, the servant or maid waiting in the other room will come over immediately.

The letter that Gao Youshi asked Menggu Zhezhe to read was actually written after the Ministry of Internal Affairs' pigeon station received a pigeon message from Bangladesh. The content of the letter was a report on the peace agreement reached between the Southern Xinjiang Western Expedition Army and Jahangir.

Gao Fusi looked calm after hearing this, but asked, "Menggu, you know what happened to the Western Expedition Army before. What do you think of this letter now?"

“Although this agreement appears to be a certain victory for our army, in fact, it is just a stopgap measure taken by Jahangir.” Menggu Zhezhe said this with certainty, and her voice echoed in the study, sounding particularly clear.

Not only that, perhaps because Gao Youshi had just given her the power to inquire about "government affairs", she seemed much more confident than usual. After saying this, she stood up, walked to the large map hanging on the wall, her eyes fell on the two locations of Bangladesh and Mewar, and pointed with her fingers.

"Jahangir is now forced to withdraw his troops. Apparently, the rebellion in Mewar has distracted him." Her finger gently traced the distance from Bengal to Mewar on the map. "His troops seem to be sufficient, but obviously not sufficient to form an absolute advantage in both directions. Therefore, he needs to concentrate his forces to suppress the rebellion. As a result, he has to temporarily retreat in Bengal.

After all, Mewar is closer to his capital, Agra. If the rebellion in Mewar gets bigger and spreads to the surrounding areas, or even threatens Agra, then his rear will be unstable and the war in Bengal will not be successful. "

Gao Fusi nodded and gestured for her to continue.

So Menggu Zhezhe continued: "But this does not mean that the war is over. The Mughal Empire has been in India for nearly a hundred years, and its foundation is at least much deeper than our army. Once they solve their internal problems, with Jahangir's vain character, he will definitely look east again to save face."

There was a hint of coldness in her voice. "So, we cannot let down our guard just because of this agreement. Instead, we should use this agreement as a cover to make all preparations for counterattacks, and even... take the initiative to attack at the right time."

Gao Youshi's eyes flashed with a gleam of light. He certainly knew that this temporary peace agreement was just the calm before the storm. He certainly couldn't sit back and watch the Mughal Empire regroup, so he had to take action to ensure that the Southern Xinjiang Army always maintained the initiative. However, he didn't expect Menggu Zhezhe to not take this agreement seriously, and even bluntly said that he could take the initiative to attack when necessary.

This is of course an exaggeration. In reality, it means breaking promises and is a completely profit-seeking and realistic approach. Of course, as we all know, in politics, only those who stick to this approach can succeed to the end.

What surprised Gao Youshi was that Menggu Zhezhe, after reading so many books over the years, was able to not be bound by the Confucianism's talk of benevolence, righteousness, and morality. Once the time came to make a real judgment, the decisiveness that the Jurchens developed in the harsh environment suddenly took the commanding heights.

However, Gao Youshi, who was already known as a "Confucian master", did not comment on this, but continued to ask, "If you were to decide the next move of the Western Expedition Army, what would you do?"

Menggu Zhezhe obviously regarded his words as some kind of test. His expression became extremely serious. He examined the map again, and his fingers moved back and forth between Bangladesh and Mewar. He already had a plan in mind.

"My husband once said: What the enemy wants, I fear. So if it is up to me to decide, then there is only one principle: whatever Jahangir wants, I will not let him get his wish. He wants to quickly quell the Mewar rebellion, so I will find ways to support the Mewar people and never let him succeed easily." Menggu Zhezhe said without hesitation.
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