prosperous age

Chapter 266 Chapter 265 Financial Dilemma
When Zaiyu heard that he was ordered to kill his wife and concubine first, he hanged himself to death.

When Wei Guangde heard the news from Junzhou, his heart sank.

The joy of knocking down a prince has disappeared. Although King Hui deserves to die for his inhumanity, the key point is that he is a relative of the emperor, and he can be regarded as the younger brother of the current emperor. No one knows.

Wei Guangde panicked.

During this period of time, after King Hui expelled the country, Wei Guangde's popularity rose again.

Regardless of whether others are envious or jealous, anyway, he played the first performance, and the number one hero who overthrew King Hui was naturally Wei Guangde.

It's just that no matter how high he was praised at the beginning, Wei Guangde's guilt is now so great.

In a hurry, Wei Guangde asked Zhang Ji to contact Chen Ju to find out how Emperor Jiajing in Xiyuan reacted to the news of King Hui's suicide.

If the reaction is strong, Wei Guangde must behave with his tail between his legs.

Fortunately, Emperor Jiajing was just stunned for a while after learning that King Hui committed suicide, and his emotions were somewhat affected, but it was not a big deal, and he didn't mean to hold anyone accountable.

After receiving Chen Ju's reply, Wei Guangde felt relieved.

At this time, Xu Bangrui, who was far away in Nanjing, was sitting in a pavilion in his garden. In the pavilion, a young girl about sixteen or seventeen years old, in a gorgeous palace attire, was sitting in the middle of the pavilion stroking the strings.

This girl has bright eyes and white teeth, icy muscles and fine bones, a blue green smoked sweater, and a pleated skirt scattered with water mist and green grass, which does not look seductive at all, only revealing a trace of charming temperament.

Although the hands are fluctuating rapidly on the strings, the golden step shaker inserted obliquely on the black hair and the falling pearls and jade seem to be completely motionless, adding a touch of dignified temperament.

"Clang clang clang clang clang."

The young girl's piano skills are not good, but her technique is very skilled.

The melodious sound of the piano came to his ears, Xu Bangrui looked at the girl with a warm smile on his face at this moment, and smiled at his gorgeously dressed wife leaning beside him: "Little sister has improved in piano skills, and you Let’s play the piano too.”

"I'll forget it. Lan Meizi's piano skills are outstanding. I'm willing to bow down and play my hole flute."

For the girls in the families of high-ranking officials and dignitaries, there are not many opportunities to go out, so they can only pass the time at home with piano, chess, calligraphy and painting.

For a family like Duke Wei's, it is natural to find the best teachers for their children.

Wei Guogong's mansion not only invited famous people to establish ethnology and train members of the Xu family, but also invited many famous masters of other skills to teach their skills at home, so although Xu Jianglan is young, she is very familiar with the skills of the zither.

The members of the Xu family are actually pretty good, and they have a sense of propriety. At least they won’t go out and cause any catastrophe. It’s just that those who take the imperial examinations are a little bit short of careers. If they don’t use a little relationship, few scholars can pass the exam. Let alone raising people.

But these people are nothing to Wei Guogong's mansion, they all separated and went out, and they just take care of them a little bit on weekdays.

For these ineffective children, the Xu family's strategy is also very simple. When they are young, they take the imperial examinations, and when they are old, they get out to take charge of the army.

Anyway, the Xu family has been in charge of Nanjing's military power for a long time, and their influence in the Jiangnan Guards is also deep-rooted. It is still very simple to install a few people.

"A letter came from the capital two days ago. It seems that you haven't told Lan Meizi what his future husband-in-law said, haha"

Mrs. Xu has a gentle and gentle personality, and she speaks the same way. At this time, she suddenly whispered to Xu Bangrui.

"It's all about men's affairs, not about my little sister."

The corner of Xu Bangrui's mouth raised into a smile, "Maybe Wei Guangde is also thin-skinned, I'm sorry to say, hehe."

The letter was written to Xu Bangrui, so Wei Guangde naturally wouldn't involve Xu Jianglan in the letter, and Xu was just chatting with Xu Bangrui, making small jokes.

But when it came to that letter, Xu Bangrui fell silent.

When Xu Huai came back, he not only brought back the letter, but also sent back a shocking news, that is, Wei Guangde was invited by Jin Yiwei before writing the letter. According to what Wei Guangde said later, he was taken to Beijing Town Fusi.

Wei Guangde didn't say much about the specific reasons, and Xu Huai could only speculate secretly, so when he returned to Nanjing to meet Xu Bangrui and presented the letter written by Wei Guangde, he immediately revealed the news.

Wei Guangde also intentionally cast a veil of mystery at this time, so when he returned home, he never mentioned that Jin Yiwei had different thoughts about him than his family members.

If it was taken away, Wei Guangde would never come back that day.

But Zhang Ji, Zhao Hu and others didn't know, neither did Xu Huai and the current Xu Bangrui, so they could only guess what happened during the period that allowed Wei Guangde to be released so quickly.

Xu Bangrui naturally thought of the palace who could let Jin Yiwei release him, and there was no one else except the one in the palace who had the right.

But if the one let go, then why did he give up the driver's ticket to take him back.

I really can't figure it out. The only explanation that can be given is what Wei Guangde did. The man in the palace needed an answer, so he asked Jin Yiwei to take him down for questioning, and the result was accepted by that man, so he gave him another answer that day. released.

No one thought that Wei Guangde's driving sticker had never been obtained at all, and Emperor Jiajing, who practiced Taoism in Xiyuan, didn't know about it at all.

What did Wei Guangde do to please the emperor?

Is it about the impeachment of King Hui?

Xu Bangrui couldn't help but speculate on the events before and after the incident, and made a series of analysis on his own, but the result has been far from the truth and is unknown for thousands of miles.

And the content of Wei Guangde's letter shocked him even more, directly analyzing the threat level of several people revealed in his previous letter.

Well, Xu Bangrui just reminded Wei Guangde to watch out for these people who are behind his back to ruin his future, but he didn't want Wei Guangde to deal with anyone.

For Xinke Jinshi, it is enough to be an official when first entering the officialdom, and the top priority is to secure the position under the buttocks.

But the brother-in-law I chose seems a bit unexpected, and he directly analyzed in the letter that the relationship that my father took care of in Beijing is the most threatening eunuch in the palace, and he also said that he would try his best to find a way bring him down.

Now Wei Guangde has made the best use of the trend, and Lu Bing has his eyes on Li Bin, a big fish, so he will not be able to jump for a few days.

At the very least, according to Wei Guangde's speculation, except for the Jinyiwei who was ordered by Lu Bing to carry out surveillance and investigation tasks, the number of people who knew about it would not be more than one hand. Son.

Now that I know it, it's natural to maximize the effect, and it's okay to brag about my brother-in-law.

Lu Bing dared to touch the person in charge of ceremonies, at least the admiral Huang Jin must have known about it, otherwise he would be slapping Huang Jin in the face, after all, he was the one who arrested him.

As for Gao Zhong, Wei Guangde would not tell them, Gao Zhong probably didn't know about it.

As for what Wei Guangde bragged about Xu Bangrui, it is actually very simple, that is, he will find a way to bring down Li Bin within half a year.

When the cow blows into Xu Bangrui's ears, what Xu Bangrui can think of is that Wei Guangde may still have support in the palace.

Emperor Jiajing?

That can't, the emperor can't help Wei Guangde deal with his own slaves.

Even if the house slave made a mistake, he would beat, scold and punish him casually, but he would not be affected by Wei Guangde.

In fact, there are a few people in the palace who are more powerful than Li Bin. Although Li Bin is the eunuch of Bingbi, there are many eunuchs of Bingbi.

Wei Guangde dared to think of a way to bring down Li Bin. Naturally, the eunuch who was more powerful than Li Bin was his backer.

Getting through the relationship with the eunuch is not something that can be done with empty words, it must be real money.

Thinking of this, Xu Bangrui couldn't help touching his forehead, thinking about whether to ask Xu Huai to send Wei Guangde some property next time.

Xu Bangrui really has a general understanding of the background of the Wei family.

At the time of the Hundred Households Office in Bengshanbao, the Wei family probably had a family property of a thousand taels of silver, which was accumulated over the years. After all, it was just a small official of a hundred households.

It was only launched when we went to Zhejiang to fight Japanese pirates. Although we don't know the details, we can guess from the later generosity of the Wei family that at least tens of thousands of taels of silver were still in the account.

Just as Xu Bangrui was thinking of this, the melodious sound of the piano disappeared. Xu Jianglan had withdrawn his hands and slowly got up and walked over. Sitting next to his sister-in-law Xu, he looked at the elder brother who had just recovered, with curiosity in his eyes.

Just now, Xu Jianglan felt that her piano skills had improved again. In the past, she would get praise and applause from her elder brother when she stopped, but this time she came over, and her elder brother looked like he had just woken up from a dream. What are you thinking.

Xu Bangrui coughed twice to cover up his embarrassment, while Xu on the side had already taken up the topic, praising Xu Jiang for his superb Lanqin skills.

Soon, under the praise of her sister-in-law, Xu Jianglan was already blushing and embarrassed. It was really Xu who praised her too much, and she almost thought that she was really number one in the world.

The two women quickly laughed together, and after a while, Xu brought up "Wei Guangde", the killer weapon against Xu Jianglan these days, and Xu Jianglan soon couldn't stand the stimulation and began to fight with Xu.

Before Xu Bangrui could think about it, he saw his two daughters making a fuss in the pavilion, well, don't take any offense, so he got up and went back to his study.

Although he is in Duke Wei's mansion, the resources that Xu Bangrui can use are very limited.

Duke Wei's mansion has a lot of silver, in addition to its own salary, there are also huge profits from the mansion's property, contributions from all parties, and income from the army.

As Xu Pengju was the garrison of Nanjing, all the troops of the Nanjing Jingying and the nearby garrisons were under his management. Every year, the salary issued by the Nanjing Ministry of War had to go through his hands first, so it was naturally rich and luscious.

However, all the money in the mansion is in the hands of the old man, Xu Bangrui can only use his share of the regular money and some privately accumulated properties, even if he wants to support Wei Guangde, he is a bit powerless.

Sitting in the study, thinking of the Xu family's hereditary title and the rich wealth of the mansion, Xu Bangrui was naturally unwilling to be left behind. Finally, he gritted his teeth, and after calculating the money he could get, he decided to make a decision next time. Let Xu Huai send 5000 taels of silver to help Wei Guangde get through the relationship in the palace.

He also thinks far away, and the nearest thing is naturally to bring down Li Bin. The long-term goal is of course that when there is a turmoil about his attacking the prince, someone in the palace can say a few words for him in front of the emperor.

If Wei Guangde had told him a month ago that he could overthrow the eunuch Bingbi, the supervisor of ceremonies, Xu Bangrui would definitely not believe it.

But now, Xu Bangruixin.

Compared with Li Bin and King Hui, there is a huge disparity in status. Although the power is incomparable, Li Bin is a hot figure, and King Hui is just an empty-handed prince, but that is also the existence of the royal family, the noble prince.

But what about the result?

Being directly impeached by Wei Guangde's memorandum to the extent of committing suicide, Wei Guangde said that he tried to find a way to bring down Li Bin, Xu Bangrui really couldn't take it lightly.

Xu Bangrui had already received the news of King Hui's suicide, but he was not a personal participant after all, and he didn't feel the feeling of Wei Guangde's hairs standing on end and spine chilling when he heard the news.

And what about Wei Guangde?
After confirming that Emperor Jiajing didn't have any opinion on him about King Hui's suicide, Wei Guangde still chose to act in a low-key manner, and he was still on duty on time every day, not daring to relax in the slightest.

And it was the end of the year, and the problem of the imperial court's financial distress also appeared before the eyes of all officials in Beijing.

In fact, since Emperor Jiajing ascended the throne, the weather has been abnormal, and there have been many famines in the northern and southern provinces, resulting in continuous deficits in the court.

Over the past 20 years, the imperial court could still barely provide money to relieve the victims, but the money was not just collected, but the accumulation of previous generations of emperors, that is, the use of old treasury money, which was sealed up after the accumulation was filled with the treasury. silver.

The silver in the imperial treasury was exhausted during the Zhengde Dynasty, that is, the old stock was not used as long as it was struggling.

Thirty years after Jiajing, the financial difficulties became more and more serious, especially after insisting on building the southern city wall of Beijing. Although the defense of the capital city was greatly improved, the last trace of financial resources of the imperial court was completely drained.

Last year, due to financial pressure, Emperor Jiajing not only acquiesced to Zhao Wenhua's use of the silk accumulated in various manufacturing bureaus in the south of the Yangtze River for cash in sea trade, but also decreed to restart the mining of minerals in various provinces, hoping to increase fiscal revenue through mining.

At this time, Emperor Jiajing was sitting in the Xiyuan, looking at the memorial in front of him.

Zhang Qin, the head of the household department, entered the mines in Baoshan, Shandong, with 270 taels of gold and more than 150 taels of silver; Zuo Tongzheng Wang Huai, Jin Yiwei Qianhu Jin Tianjue, and internal envoys entered Jizhou Wangwangyu purple ore with [-] catties of silver mines.
"Insatiable."

Emperor Jiajing looked at the memorial on the table in silence for a long time, and finally said something.

Huang Jin, who was standing on one side, and Gao Zhong, who was standing next to him, were silent and dared not speak out. His Majesty was out of breath.

"Preach the decree, the order is to be taken from the actual situation, and the officials and the people are strictly prohibited from hiding and invading. Another order is to mine the unopened land without delay."

"Yes."

Huang Jin and Gao Zhong answered almost in unison, and then Gao Zhong quickly approved the red on the memorial, directly writing the words of Emperor Jiajing on it, and waited for the memorial to be issued after it was approved and printed by Huang Jin.

(End of this chapter)