prosperous age

Chapter 296 295 Secret Order
Wei Guangde learned the details from Lu Bing, but he was helpless.

He didn't want to be sent out to patrol the border again. It was a hard life.

Although the itinerary will take into account military forts, post stations, etc., but sometimes they will sleep in the countryside, and ride horses all day long, and their buttocks can't bear it.

But it was impossible not to go, and within two days, Wei Guangde was reading in the public room of the Imperial Academy, when he suddenly heard footsteps coming from the courtyard outside, and the person who heard the sound had already entered the courtyard.

For the past two days, Wei Guangde has been preoccupied with something. Although the government and the public have not spread the word, it seems that everything is being pushed forward with the knowledge of the emperor, cabinet ministers, and perhaps senior officials such as Liubu Tangguan.

The sound of footsteps outside made Wei Guangde unconsciously think that someone who delivered the decree had come.

Sending people to border towns to patrol borders naturally does not require the emperor to summon them in person, and even teach them face-to-face, it's like a general going out for an expedition.

Sure enough, the footsteps came from the servant and a few guards delivering the decree, and some Hanlin officials who were wandering around saw someone from the palace coming to deliver the decree, so they followed to see what happened .

It is impossible for you to know what will happen until the decree is read.

Receiving the order in the yamen is naturally not so particular. After being called out by Lu Bu, Wei Guangde accepted the order in the yard, and he was indeed sent to continue patrolling the border. The matter is not finished, so this time he is still appointed as the deputy patrol envoy to continue to patrol Jizhen.

However, to Wei Guangde's surprise, this decree also made some adjustments to his position, which was not mentioned by Chen Ju and Lu Bing before, that is, his errand in Taichang Temple was removed It was replaced by the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Wei Guangde's dream of being the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate is naturally Wei Guangde's dream. Although the grade is still seventh rank, he is a mad dog in the court of the Ming Dynasty. Whoever catches and bites anyone is not punished for his words. It can be said that it is similar to the Internet trolls of later generations.

Later generations legislated to manage Internet trolls, but the Ming Dynasty did not have such an idea. After all, when Zhu Yuanzhang designed this system, he hoped that the censors could supervise the court officials and protect them from retaliation.

Wei Guangde has the skin of Yushi, so when he impeaches people in the future, he will change his name and justify it.

The little servant left after conveying the order, of course Wei Guangde did not forget to give him a piece of silver for them to go back to drink.

For Wei Guangde's job of patrolling the border again, the colleagues seemed to be a little gloating, and stepped forward to congratulate him one after another.

There were quite a lot of people from the Imperial Academy who were sent out to participate in the canonization ceremony and memorial service, but it was rare for Wei Guangde to be sent to patrol the border twice, and he was even given a signboard as a censor.

The next few days were for preparations before departure. Wei Guangde first went to the Metropolitan Procuratorate to receive the Yushi badge and official seal, and Xu Jianglan made other preparations for him, which were just a change of clothes.

The difference from last time is that there are four more guards accompanying him this time. It turned out that there were only Zhang Ji and Li San beside him that time. Follow Wei Guangde on tour.

Going to the border town, even if you haven't heard of the Tartars invading the border recently, you have to be more careful.

This time, because it was not to deal with the war, the border patrol ambassador was no longer a minister-level figure like Weng Pu, but Tang Shunzhi, a doctor of the Ministry of War, because the purpose of this border patrol was to check the number of military and civilian households and the border wall. As for the construction situation, it is natural to choose to let the person in charge of the job do it.

Under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War, there are four divisions under the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Staff, the Ministry of Driving, and the Ministry of Treasury.

The original meaning of "staff side" is territory and territory, and the task of the staff side is actually to manage the country's territory and territory. The command, military situation and logistics in wartime are all under the jurisdiction of the staff.

As for Border Patrol Ambassador Tang Shunzhi, he can be regarded as Wei Guangde's senior. He ranked first in the Jiajing eight-year general examination.

This is a loser competing for a cabinet position, because the winner will only go to the yamen such as the Ministry of Rites or Zhan Shifu.

Although he was a loser, Wei Guangde still met Tang Langzhong alone before departure to learn about the specific arrangements for this patrol.

A few days passed quickly, and just the night before departure, Chen Ju suddenly came late at night without warning, and knocked on the door of Wei's house abruptly.

When Wei Guangde received Chen Ju in front, he was still puzzled. This brother came only the day before yesterday, and said that he would practice it for him in advance. After all, he is a former imperial eunuch, so it is impossible to have time to see Wei Guangde off, so he can only find time to come out of the palace. walk around.

It's come again within two days, is it still here to practice?

After all, tomorrow, he will follow Tang Shunzhi to patrol the border.

"Hurry up, get some food and drink for Zajia, Zajia is hungry."

When Chen Ju arrived at Wei Guangde's place, he didn't see anyone at all, and said loudly to Wei Guangde.

"Brother just came out of the palace? Haven't you had dinner yet?"

Wei Guangde wondered.

"I just came out, and I only found out today when I accompanied the emperor to have a wedding ceremony. Eunuch Huang's job is really hard to do. He was hungry after two meals with him."

Chen Ju replied.

Wei Guangde blinked his eyes when he heard the words, and said to himself that you didn't eat two meals and you didn't eat something in the palace before you came out.

But I thought so, but I still didn't waste any time and came out with a meal in the kitchen.

Soon the food and wine were served on the table. After all, Wei Guangde is now an official, and the things prepared at home are still very complete. Even if the mansion has just had dinner, it is no problem to clean up a table of food and wine now.

Wei Guangde accompanied Chen Ju, and accompanied Chen Ju for a drink. Xu Jianglan just stopped by to take a look. In the first two days after arriving in the capital, Chen Ju heard the news and walked around, so he knew him.

However, after Chen Ju had eaten and drank enough, he asked the maid who was waiting on the side to go out to help him clean up a room to rest, and when he spoke, he slapped Wei Guangde again.

After the maid left, Chen Ju asked Zhang Ji to watch outside, no one was allowed to approach, and he had to watch at the front door and rear windows.

Zhang Ji just glanced at Wei Guangde, seeing him nodding, he immediately nodded and went out without hesitation.

After seeing Zhang Ji going out, Wei Guangde looked at Chen Ju suspiciously, wondering what kind of medicine he was selling in his gourd.

At this moment, Chen Ju took out a note from his sleeve and handed it to Wei Guangde, and said to him in a low voice: "The emperor gave it to you, see for yourself."

"what?"

Wei Guangde almost screamed out in shock, but he immediately controlled it as soon as he uttered it. Fortunately, the sound was not loud.

Wei Guangde took the note, with a few simple words on it, "Investigate the Xuanfu".

Wei Guangde looked at the note in his hand inexplicably, and simply looked back at Chen Ju.

"What does the emperor mean by this? The job I took was just to inspect the side wall of Ji Town, but I didn't have the mission to go to Xuanfu Datong, and Master Tang didn't arrange a trip there either."

Wei Guangde had no choice but to say to Chen Ju suspiciously.

"It's up to you to find a way by yourself, find an opportunity to get out when you are patrolling Ji Town, and go to Xuan Mansion to have a look."

Perhaps Chen Ju also felt that the information for Wei Guangde was a bit lacking, so he leaned closer to Wei Guangde at this moment, and said to him in a lower voice: "As Godfather said, a group of White Lotus believers were executed in Xuanda Governor's Mansion two months ago. One is Shen Lian, I wonder if Guangde knows about it."

Chen Ju knew that Wei Guangde already had a character called Shandai, but he was still used to calling Wei Guangde by his name.

Wei Guangde shook his head, saying that he had never heard of this person.

Chen Ju explained again in a low voice: "I don't know if it's normal. Before you passed the Jinshi exam, this person had already been demoted there. Let me briefly say that Shen Lian was a Jinshi in the 17th year of Jiajing, and was later asked to work in Jinyiwei by Governor Lu. , Because of the impeachment of Mr. Yan Ge, he was dismissed from office and demoted to the border town.

The emperor did not believe that Shen Lian would be a member of the Bailian Cult. The current governor of Xuanda, Yang Shun, is the godson of Yan Ge. Xuanda has been repaying his merits in the past year, saying how many Mongolian Tartars he had killed. Two, the emperor is a little suspicious.

Jin Yiwei checked it before, and it is said that because Shen Lian reprimanded Governor Xuan, the governor ordered his generals to kill Liang and pretend to be rewarded by the court, the emperor asked you to go to Xuan Mansion to see what was going on. "

Hearing what Chen Ju said, Wei Guangde suddenly realized that the Xuan Mansion was in serious trouble, and the emperor was suspicious, but after thinking about it, he felt something was wrong.

Shouldn't it be Jin Yiwei's job to investigate the case?
"How did you find me? Shouldn't Governor Lu send people from Jinyiwei to investigate, or let Eunuch Huang send people from the East Factory?"

Regarding Wei Guangde's question, Chen Ju suddenly showed a hint of hesitation.

Regarding this matter, he also mentioned it at the beginning, of course not to Emperor Jiajing, but to his godfather Gao Zhong.

After all, Gao Zhong stayed with Emperor Jiajing for a longer time and knew much more about this master, so he also made an analysis for Chen Ju, but should he tell Wei Guangde?
Although Emperor Jiajing seemed indifferent to the government, but after the "Great Rites" incident, he deeply realized the difference between monopolizing power and being sidelined.

When he first arrived in the capital, his foothold was not stable. His will can only be used in the palace. If the will is sent outside, as long as it involves "big rituals", it will be rejected by the gang of civil officials. What is this for a teenage emperor? kind of feeling.

Now Emperor Jiajing seems to be very relieved of Yan Song, and he also delegates power to him, often entrusting Yan Song to take care of important matters, but in fact, it can be seen from the six officials that Yan Song can control a considerable number of positions, but the key Yamen is still under control. People who are not from Yan Song's family, that is, the so-called Qingliu Occupation, they can argue with Yan Song on major court affairs, and in the end he, the emperor, has to make the decision.

More than that, he also supported his milk brother Lu Bing in every possible way, and gave him full power to supervise the officials, which was actually a side effect of Yan Song's restriction on the court.

It was only in the past two years that Lu Bing and Yan Song were suspected of fighting openly and secretly. Anyway, the relationship between the two was a bit disharmonious. Emperor Jiajing naturally noticed it. Also similar.

It's just that at this stage, Yan Song's ability to handle affairs seems to be unreplaceable, and Lu Bing's situation is similar. He needs a reassuring person to help him watch the court.

This time, Wei Guangde was sent to investigate Shen Lian's matter, thinking about Zhao Wenhua's matter before, according to Gao Zhong's opinion, it was Emperor Jiajing who was actually warning Yan Song.

Now Yan Song, perhaps some small actions have been noticed by Emperor Jiajing, causing his dissatisfaction, so Wei Guangde's investigation of the Xuanfu this time, as long as evidence of Yang Shun's illegality is found, it is very likely that Emperor Jiajing will be taken down and severely punished.

Of course, this is just Gao Zhong's guess, and he also told Chen Ju about another one. After all, Chen Ju is his godson with good character. No secrets.

"Perhaps, the emperor still wants to use the impeachment of Yang Shun to create a gap between Wei Guangde and the Yan family."

Chen Ju couldn't help but think of the possibility that his godfather told him before. If the emperor really had such an idea, it would have a great impact. This means that Yan Song, who has been in power for nearly ten years, may not be far away from resignation.

Both Yan Song and Wei Guangde are from Jiangxi, and Jiangxi people are closely related to each other. This has long been a consensus in the Ming Dynasty. Officials in other places are quite dissatisfied with this, thinking that they are the township party.

As far as Chen Ju knew, when Wei Guangde was in the capital, he would run to the Yan Mansion at least once a month, let alone other people, who would only run more diligently than him.

Although Wei Guangde's influence is small now, among the Jinshi of Bingchen Division, his influence is no less than that of the No. lost his love.

Perhaps it was the first battle in Baoanzhou and the impeachment of King Hui that made Emperor Jiajing know Wei Guangde again. Before picking him up, it could be said that he was rewarding him for fighting for the country, but now he still looks at him differently. It will be because of these things again, but I think this person can be used, but needs to be honed.

Chen Ju's hesitation was naturally noticed by Wei Guangde. Although he was confused, he really wanted to know how much Chen Ju knew in his stomach.

From Wei Guangde's point of view, since Chen Ju has been serving Emperor Jiajing, he must know more about the inside story.

As for Chen Ju, looking at Wei Guangde's expectant eyes, he finally softened his heart. Although his godfather said that it is best not to tell Wei Guangde and let him realize it by himself, but Chen Ju's character is like this, he is a bit affectionate and righteous. He felt that Wei Guangde's friendship with him was sincere, unlike those people who had been close to him in the past year, who came to curry favor with him because they saw his rising status in front of the emperor.

When Wei Guangde met him back then, he was just a servant with no rank.

After hesitating for a moment, Chen Ju still whispered the words of his godfather to Wei Guangde, including his godfather's deeper speculation later on. The emperor may already be a little dissatisfied with Yan Song, and maybe he doesn't want him to have too close a relationship with the Yan family. Wei Guangde.

Nothing lasts forever.

Wei Guangde naturally knew this truth. When Emperor Jiajing appointed Yan Song as the chief assistant of the cabinet, maybe the two could still trust each other, but now that time has passed, Yan Song's way of governing may not be as good as before.

However, in terms of financial management, it seems that there is no one who can replace him in the court, so Yan Song's position is still stable for a period of time.

Wei Guangde didn't know Yan Song's final outcome, but he also knew it would not be very good, but he didn't expect that Emperor Jiajing might already have an idea in his heart.

(End of this chapter)