Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2397: Changes (XVI) Gods fight, mortals avoid disaster

"I wonder which superior official is here to visit Guangjiku and what brings you here?" An official in ninth-rank uniform hurried out of the gate of Guangjiku and immediately bowed and asked.

The man raised his badge and took out a seal, holding it in his hand, and replied with a smile: "Ambassador Liang, there is a decree from the Prime Minister: 'Guangjiku is forbidden to transfer before the New Year. Anyone who comes to take sulfur, saltpeter, and gunpowder must see the seal, monogram, and private seal of this department, otherwise it is strictly forbidden to transfer.' Ambassador, come and check the seal."

Liang Xingyu, the ambassador of the Ministry of Revenue, quickly took the seal from the man and opened it. Sure enough, the order was exactly the same as what the man said. He looked at the signature again. The seal of the Ministry of Revenue, Gao Youshi's personal signature, and the seal of the owner of Rixinlou were all there. There was no mistake.

Liang Xingyu quickly put it away and said, "I will obey your orders. It's rare for Chen Zhaomo to come to my house, please come in and rest for a while, so that I can show my hospitality."

It turned out that the visitor was one of the Ministry of Revenue's Zhaomos, whose surname was Chen. Zhaomos were of the eighth rank, and their duties included checking files, auditing finances, and supervising officials' behavior. Since Chen Zhaomo was the Ministry of Revenue's Zhaomo, he was the real supervisory official to the ninth rank Ambassador of the Ministry of Revenue's Guangjiku, so it was only natural that Ambassador Liang felt very obedient in front of him.

"That's not necessary. I have to travel to several places today, so I won't delay you any longer." Chen Zhaomo waved his hand.

Ambassador Liang asked curiously, "How many more places do you want to go?"

"Yes, although the Prime Minister has not returned to the cabinet to take charge of affairs, he is a man who cannot sit still. Even when he is ill, he still refuses to delay his work. Look, many orders were sent from the Jingguo Mansion today. Except for the four senior officials in the Ministry of Revenue, almost all of them were sent out to pass on the orders."

The current Ministry of Revenue has long been a "big ministry". In addition to a left vice minister, there are three right vice ministers, so there are "four officials in the hall" - originally there should be five, but the Minister of Revenue is concurrently the prime minister himself, so it is naturally not easy to count him among them.

Ambassador Liang was about to express his feelings when he suddenly discovered that Chen Zhaomo was followed by a large group of soldiers. He was surprised and asked, "Ah? Zhaomo, what are you doing..."

Chen Zhaomo smiled and said, "I forgot to tell you just now that the Prime Minister also issued a written order to the Five Cities Military Department, asking them to deploy defenses in some key locations in the city, and your Guangjiku is one of them."

Liang Xingyu's heart tightened, and he moved closer and asked in a low voice: "I heard that Teruma is also from the Yuanfu province (province refers to the province of origin). What a coincidence, so is I! In this case, Teruma and I are from the same hometown... Teruma, please give me some advice, what happened today, and why did you make such a big fuss?"

"Well..." Chen Zhaomo frowned, as if he didn't want to talk about it. Liang Xingyu hurriedly said, "Zhaomo, you don't know, I got a rare book printed in the Song Dynasty a few days ago. I feel that my home is too cramped to keep it for a long time, so I have always wanted to give it to someone who can treat it well. If Zhaomo is willing to take it over, it will be a blessing for the scholars."

"Really?" Chen Zhaomo was itching in his heart, and could not help but nodded and said, "A literary treasure should not be lost. It is reasonable for you to think so, but..."

"There is also a top-grade Duan inkstone." Liang Xingyu said hurriedly.

"Oh, oh." Chen Zhaomo took a deep breath, nodded again, and said, "Okay, since you have this intention, I can't refuse it... Well, do you know what unusual movements have taken place in and outside the capital since Yuan Fu was infected with the disease?"

"Unusual movement?" Liang Xingyu was startled, and said hesitantly: "I only heard that Prince Ying passed away and His Majesty was furious, but it seems that this matter has been taken over by the Imperial Household and the outer court is not allowed to know about it... I have not heard of other things."

"Ah, you!" Chen Zhaomo looked disappointed and shook his head, "I heard that you were originally a scholar, and were admitted to the capital from your province last year?"

"Yes, yes, Teruma really has a good memory."

"I see you are from the same hometown, so I will talk to you a little more today." Chen Zhaomo sighed, "For people like you and me who were not born as Jinshi, it is very difficult to be an official in Beijing. Without a mentor, there is no protection. Therefore, you must visit the ministers (referring to senior officials) of this province and ask for an opportunity to serve under them. Otherwise, if something happens, who can protect you?

Like today, you are still clueless when the time comes, and you only know that the Prince of Ying has passed away... I tell you, the Prince of Ying has passed away, it's no big deal. In fact, this is probably just a trick played by someone to attract the emperor's attention and distract his mind."

"Ah?" Liang Xingyu took a breath and asked in a low voice: "The death of a great prince is just someone's trick?"

"Humph, there are so many princes in the world, so what if a few die? As long as it does not affect the country, the emperor might even hope that a few more will die, but he cannot say this freely."

It seems that the rare Song Dynasty edition and the top-grade Duan inkstone are indeed very effective, and they can make Chen Zhaomo "speak freely". He paused, and then continued: "However, Prince Ying is the eldest son of the emperor after all. The emperor must conduct a thorough investigation and be a kind father. That's why the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guards have been mobilized in such a large-scale manner, pretending to turn the capital upside down, but...

Humph, they are just pretending. Based on my experience, in a few days they will report back to the emperor and say that the incident with Prince Ying was purely an accident."

Liang Xingyu asked: "Is the order issued by the Prime Minister today also because he is worried about the factory guards messing around, so he is strengthening control?"

"That's not the case." Chen Zhaomo shook his head and said, "Guangjiku, like yours, stores sulfur, saltpeter and made gunpowder. What does it have to do with the death of Prince Ying? The factory guards can't find it here even if they want to investigate. What's more, Guangjiku is under the Ministry of Revenue, and Tian Changdu was promoted by the prime minister, and Wang Tishuai is a distant relative of the prime minister. How could they trespass into Guangjiku and humiliate the prime minister for no reason?"

"If that's the case, why did the Prime Minister mobilize the troops to deploy defenses?" Liang Xingyu was even more puzzled.

"That's why I said you were out of touch with the news." Chen Zhaomo said helplessly, "But I don't think you'd understand if I told you too much, so I'll just keep it simple:

In the past two days, the four Tengxiang guards were asked to return to the camp. It was said that the Imperial Horse Administration wanted to give them an annual reward. The Second Longjiang Army set up a tent and returned to Beijing to receive the military flag. It is currently stationed in the northern camp of Beijing. The Third Regiment of the Imperial Guard received military equipment yesterday. Although the reason was not stated, it was probably to guard against the Second Longjiang Army, a foreign army...

However, the most important piece of news is the news that has just arrived, saying that Commander Ma of the Imperial Guard has received an imperial decree and has also taken over a town of military equipment to go northwest to Zhangjiakou to welcome the Shunyi King to the capital for the first time since the Tumed surrender. "

Liang Xingyu was stunned and said, "But this doesn't seem to have anything to do with Guangjiku's strengthening of its defenses, right?"

Chen Zhaomo looked a bit troubled and said helplessly: "I have talked about this, why are you still confused? The Imperial Guard consists of five regiments and one brigade. The first regiment is commanded by Ma Chengxun, who is considered to be the personal guard of Commander Ma and also an old subordinate of Yuan Fu. The third regiment is commanded by Ma Dong, also an old subordinate of Yuan Fu.

These two towns were Yuanfu's most influential old subordinates. Although the other second town was commanded by Zu Chengxun, it was actually led by Yuanfu's brother-in-law, Li Rumei, the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard. However, the Tieling Li family and Yuanfu had always been on and off, and no one knew what the relationship between them was.

The fourth town is commanded by Xiao Ruxun. Logically, he is also an old subordinate of Yuanfu, but his relationship is not as close as that of the generals of Xuanda. The troops of this town are mainly from Jizhen and Changping. It is hard to say whether Xiao Ruxun can use them as he pleases. Hey, speaking of the fourth town, I think Yuanfu's favorite commander should be Qi Jin, but Qi Jin's qualifications are slightly inferior. He has just taken over as the general of Korea and it is not time for him to return to Beijing.

As for the Fifth Regiment, most of its troops came from Shaanxi, and the then chief and deputy commanders were You Jixian and Du Song. They could barely be considered as former subordinates of the Prime Minister, but their relationship with the Prime Minister was even worse than that of Xiao Ruxun. Whether they were reliable, the Prime Minister might not dare to guarantee it. Well, if Commander Ma was there, he would be reliable, but if Commander Ma was not there... that was hard to say."

After explaining, Chen Zhaomo smiled and patted Liang Xingyu on the shoulder, saying, "Don't you understand yet? It doesn't matter, that's because I only said half of it.

Didn’t I say just now that the Four Tengxiang Guards have already gathered in the camp? Although nominally the Imperial Stables are going to distribute annual rewards, the timing is actually different from previous years—it’s half a month earlier!

In addition, it is said that on the first day when Yuan Fu was recuperating from illness, Shen Ge Lao, who was in charge of writing, ordered in the name of the cabinet to transfer his student, Qian Menggao, the former military governor of Ning, to escort the Second Longjiang Army to Jizhen, and at the same time asked Qian Menggao to return to Beijing to report on his work. According to the rules, Qian Menggao should have left the soldiers he brought with him in Jizhen, but he insisted on taking them to Tongzhou, which was only 40 miles away from the capital.

Hey, now you may understand what I mean? I mean, why did the Prime Minister mobilize the troops of the Five Cities Military Department to strengthen the defense of the confidential areas in the city? "

Liang Xingyu still didn't know enough about the power structure of the upper echelons in Beijing. Even after hearing this, he still had to carefully ponder the relationship between these bigwigs. He sorted it out carefully, and then thought: "Could it be that the prime minister is worried about Li Hujun and Shen Gelao... This, this is impossible?"

"Whether it will happen or not is not something you and I can guess." Chen Zhaomo spread his hands and said, "It's not that I'm belittling myself, but the fact is that people like you and me are just scraps of the officialdom in the capital.

Ambassador Liang, the gods above are about to fight. At this moment, mortals like you and me will be lucky as long as we don't get implicated and suffer disaster... Be cautious. Caution is the greatest reliance for survival. Do you understand?"

Liang Xingyu thanked him immediately, but Chen Zhaomo waved his hand and gave up. Liang Xingyu asked again, "Besides Guangjiku, how many other 'confidential places' will be strengthened in defense today?"

Chen Zhaomo sighed, "That's a lot. All of the ten western warehouses are there, especially the Wu warehouse where weapons and armor are stored. There are also the Armory Bureau, the Military Equipment Bureau, the Armor Factory, and the Wanggong Factory. I guess they will all be taken over by the Five Cities Army today."

Liang Xingyu was surprised and said, "This is really strange. The Military Equipment Bureau is under the Ministry of Industry. It's fine if the Prime Minister ordered the Five Cities Military Department to take over. But the Military Equipment Bureau is one of the eight bureaus in the inner court. How can the cabinet dispatch troops to take over?"

"You are so smart." Chen Zhaomo smiled and said, "It is indeed not the turn of the outer court to intervene in the Armour Bureau, but the eunuch in charge of the Armour Bureau is the adopted son of the eunuch Chen of the Imperial Household Department. Think about it, Chen has known the Prime Minister for many years, and the Armour Bureau has to rely on the Jinghua Ordnance to transfer some technology so that it can start working again. So, can the Armour Bureau conflict with the Prime Minister's wishes?"

Liang Xingyu suddenly realized and wanted to ask for more information, but Chen Zhaomo waved his hand and said, "We have been delayed for long enough. We can't go on like this. Let's talk about this today. When you come to my house to talk, I will explain in detail these things that you must know as an official in Beijing... Ambassador Liang, I will go first."

"Okay, okay, okay, I'm really sorry to bother you today." Liang Xingyu bowed and said, "If you have time, how about I visit you tonight?"

"Okay, okay." Chen Zhaomo returned the greeting casually, turned around and said to the people from the Five Cities Military Department: "I have done my job, you can do as you please." After that, he took the rest of the people and left quickly.

Well, a mere eighth-rank Zhaomo in a place like the capital where many officials gather, can’t really get a sedan chair or a carriage to get around, and can only walk everywhere.

This world has always been like this.
-

Thanks to the book friend “ceo iron” for his support of 6 monthly tickets, thank you!

Thanks to book friends "Book Friend 20220503135738940", "Book Friend 20210301106460958630", and "GJC0516" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!