prosperous age

Chapter 581 Chapter 580 Cabinet Dispute
The huge paper wealth of the Yan family appeared in the eyes of the emperor and Beijing officials. Because of such a large amount of income in the inner court, Emperor Jiajing seemed to be hardened.

After summoning Xu Jie, Yan Na and other cabinet ministers to discuss twice, the cabinet again discussed with the Ministry of Rites to further increase the number of scribes from the current 300 to 500.

At the same time, the palace issued a decree to ask Cheng Shoujie, the censor of Jiangxi Province, to hand over all the collected gold and silver to the Secretary of Transportation as soon as possible, and send them to the capital for storage.

Emperor Jiajing wanted to reap the spoils and didn't want to wait any longer.

As for how much he will gain in the end, it is unknown.

The pressure of Wei Guangde's school record work also increased suddenly.

When there were only more than a hundred copying scholars before, he could still read books slowly and easily, but when there were 300 people, the time he could spare was greatly shortened. After the Ministry of Rites further increased the number of scholars, copying books The speed also suddenly accelerated, and Wei Guangde had to devote most of his time to it.

For most scholars, reading is really not work, but study, but for Wei Guangde now, he feels a little tired, which is caused by too leisurely work in the past few years.

Thinking about it, in the Hanlin Academy, it might not be possible to compile one or two memoirs for him to check in a month, but now the transcribed ceremonies are sent to the value room almost every day.

Although Yan Na and Li Chunfang are the chief school officials, they have too many errands in the cabinet, and they hardly care about the work here. The books that have been transcribed in each room are inspected by the branch school officials of the other two rooms twice. Proofreading to ensure the correctness of transcribed books.

Undoubtedly, the arrangement of the two elders has increased Wei Guangde's work pressure.

Splitting it up, Wei Guangde has to review at least two or three books every day before he can complete the errands assigned to him.

On this day, Wei Guangde took a vacation for himself because he had fought continuously for half a month, and took a day off to take a bath. As a result, when he returned to the guard room today, he saw five newly transcribed "Yongle Canon" on his desk.

Exhaling a long breath, Wei Guangde had no choice but to walk to his seat, picked up a book above and glanced at it.

"Lubu."

After he shouted, Lu Bu quickly entered the room and saluted him: "My lord, wait a moment, the water for tea will be hot soon."

After Lu Bu sent Wei Guangde into the house, he hurried to make tea for him, now he heard his call and thought it was tea, so he hurried into the house and explained.

"Bring me the original copies of these books. Also, which room sent these books?"

Wei Guangde asked.

For proofreading, he had to read the original version of "Yongle Dadian" first, otherwise how would he know if there were any mistakes.

"These four books were sent by four adults, Zhang Juzheng, Xu Shixing, Wang Xilie, and Zhang Siwei, and the other one was transcribed by this room, which was just delivered yesterday."

Although Yan Na started his career by relying on Qing Ci, he was really rigorous in his work. All the copied books were scattered widely. None of the five books on Wei Guangde's desk were duplicated, and they came from Wufang.

"Okay, got it, go and send the original."

Although there are more than [-] volumes in the "Yongle Dadian", each volume is numbered, and there is a special person from the Ministry of Rites to send and receive records, so there is no worry about loss or confusion.

Not long after, Lu Bu delivered the four original copies, but Wei Guangde didn't read the transcripts, but opened the original copies and looked at them with relish.

Thanks to his excellent memory, Wei Guangde is naturally handy after reading the original copy and then reading the transcribed book.

Just when Wei Guangde finished reading the original copy and began to pick up the transcript to read, there were suddenly footsteps outside, and when he looked up, he saw that Lu Bu had trotted into the room.

"Why are you so panicked and frizzy."

Wei Guangde said dissatisfiedly, what kind of place is this, how could he be in such a hurry.

"My lord, hurry to the front, there is an angel from the palace outside to call you over."

Lu Bu took a few breaths before speaking.

"In the palace? What did the palace ask me to do?"

Wei Guangde asked suspiciously, he didn't get the news, there was a decree from the palace to him.

This is not a good signal. I am completely ignorant of the affairs in the palace.

"My lord, you should go to the front first, it doesn't seem to be a bad thing."

Lu Bu said hastily.

"Oh, why?"

Although Wei Guangde was relieved when he heard Lu Bu's words, he still had to put on the calm and calm attitude of an official, and hurried forward without hearing what might be good news.

"My father-in-law from the palace, when I was called over, I didn't look bad."

Lu Bu hastily explained.

After getting his posture right, Wei Guangde got up calmly, straightened his official robes, and then walked towards the main hall.

Today's decree is different from the previous two times. As the chief school officials, Yan Na and Li Chunfang were not present. Obviously, this time the decree should be issued to individuals.

Seeing the smiling face of the eunuch passing the decree, Wei Guangde knew that it should not be a bad thing.

The ten branch school officials all arrived in a short time. There is no distinction between high and low in the school record ceremony here, but there are still differences in grades. From the fourth grade Guozijian Jijiu Zhang Juzheng to the fifth grade Zhan Shifu Sijing Bureau Ma Wei Guangde naturally stood in the front row, while the other branch school officials were only at the sixth rank at the highest level.

"Fengtian Chengyun Emperor."

The eunuch who delivered the decree read out the emperor's decree in cadence, and the ten branch school officials who received the decree soon all showed joy.

It really is a good thing.

Now that the speed of transcribing the Grand Ceremony is speeding up, all the branch school officials are naturally very busy. At this time, Emperor Jiajing naturally issued a decree to reward them, giving them rewards for promotion and meritorious service, and a reward of ten taels of silver per person.

Along with Zhang Juzheng and the branch school officials thanking each other and receiving the decree, Wei Guangde took a wooden plate from the servant next to him, on which ten ingots of silver were neatly placed.

Afterwards, the ten branch school officials sent the messenger angel to leave, and one by one stepped forward to express their thanks to the eunuch in front of the door.

When Wei Guangde stepped forward, he took out an ingot of silver from his sleeve and handed it directly to the opponent.

He can't break these unspoken rules, even if he is backed by King Yu, there are people in the palace.

It is worth mentioning that Gao Zhong's health is completely failing. Chen Ju has asked him twice for old-fashioned ginseng, but after taking it, the effect is minimal, and he just keeps breathing.

As Gao Zhong's most valued godson, Chen Ju temporarily resigned from his job in Yongshou Palace during this time, and is serving Gao Zhong wholeheartedly, which is why Wei Guangde has no information about the palace.

"Congratulations to Mr. Wei for his promotion."

For other Hanlin officials, their official promotion is slow, and they can only be credited. In this way, points can be added in the three-year assessment, so as to achieve smooth promotion. However, Zhang Juzheng originally jumped from the sixth rank to the fourth rank. There is no way to get promoted, so the nine of them only recorded their merits once, while Wei Guangde actually got a chance to be promoted.

Zhan Shifu Zuochunfang Zuo Shuzi, the official position of the fifth rank, now falls to him.

But strictly speaking, he was half a rank ahead of Zhang Juzheng for a short time before, but after this promotion, he is still half a rank behind Zhang Juzheng.

It can only be said that there are people in the court who are good at being officials, and with Xu Jie's support, it is difficult for Zhang Juzheng to not develop.

"Happy together."

Wei Guangde also accepted the congratulations from his colleagues with a smile on his face at this moment, and then invited everyone to have a drink in the concert alley in the evening, and Zhang Juzheng took the lead in responding.

Wei Guangde immediately asked Lu Bu to call his family and let him go to Yanle Hutong first to arrange the evening activities.

Today's errands have to be done well, otherwise if the news spreads to the palace, I am afraid that the official position of Zuo Shuzi, who has just arrived, will be lost.

The work of the school recorder is no longer an easy job, and the daily pressure is huge, and two months have passed quietly.

During these two months, there were not many major events in the court, but Wei Guangde's greatest reliance in the palace, Gao Zhong, finally passed away. He will return to Yongshou Palace as an errand, which was arranged by Eunuch Huang Jin Huang.

Although he had been away from the palace for a period of time, Chen Ju's duty earned him the favor of many eunuchs in the palace.

An eunuch, without a lifeline, can only rely on his own relatives, and these godsons in the palace.

Chen Ju served Gao Zhong wholeheartedly during the last period of time, which made the eunuchs very envious.

On this day, Wei Guangde was on his way home after leaving the Yamen, but his carriage was suddenly stopped by someone.

"What's going on outside?"

Feeling that the carriage was not going away, Wei Guangde in the carriage immediately asked.

"My lord, I'm a servant in the palace asking to see you."

Li San, who was driving the horse, replied.

Lifting the curtain of the car, Wei Guangde looked out, and it was indeed the person next to Li Fang.

The waiter had already saluted first after seeing the curtain of the car opened: "My lord Wei."

"What's the matter?"

Wei Guangde asked lightly.

In the past few months, he usually only went to the palace every six or seven days. Yin Shizhen took care of the affairs of the palace, but everything went smoothly.

"Your Highness is welcome."

The waiter said.

"What's the matter, Your Highness?"

Wei Guangde blinked, thinking about the recent government affairs, there seemed to be nothing worth talking about, so he asked suspiciously.

"The slave does not know."

The waiter replied.

Looking at the carriage parked by the road ahead, Wei Guangde said, "Lead the way ahead."

The servant trotted back to the carriage, and then the two carriages drove towards Prince Yu's mansion one after the other.

When Wei Guangde saw King Yu, he was very strange, there were only King Yu and Li Fang in the room, Yin Shizhen had never seen him, and Zhang Juzheng was naturally not there either.

"Meet Your Highness."

Wei Guangde bowed deeply to King Yu and said in his mouth.

"Be kind and make a living. You don't need to be too polite here. I told you a long time ago, but you just don't listen."

King Yu got up to help each other, and said.

"The gift cannot be neglected."

As Wei Guangde said it, he naturally didn't think so in his heart, but this was in the Ming Dynasty, not the later generations.

That is to say, there is no need to kneel and salute when seeing King Yu, otherwise Wei Guangde might not come to King Yu's mansion once a month.

"Your Highness called me today, I don't know what it is?"

Wei Guangde asked.

"You can know about good loans, the gold and silver sent by Jiangxi yesterday to confiscate the Yan family's wealth?"

At this time, King Yu turned around and sat back in his seat, raised his right hand falsely, signaling Wei Guangde to sit on the chair on the left.

Wei Guangde clasped his hands, sat down, and then asked with a puzzled face, "But the Yan family's 200 million taels of silver arrived in the capital?"

After he finished speaking, he saw King Yu shaking his head and sighing: "How can there be two million taels, there are only more than 200 taels, and there are more than [-] taels of gold, which is close to the amount reported in the report. The jade wares are not far behind the Zoubao."

For this situation, Wei Guangde had already expected it, so he didn't care about it at all.

These things that could be transported to the capital should have been seized from the Yan family on the spot, otherwise there would never be so many.

"I don't know Your Highness"

At this time, Wei Guangde will naturally not take the initiative to expose this matter. The impact is too great. To put it bluntly, it will cause a major earthquake in the officialdom in the south of the Yangtze River, and even lead to instability in the south of the Yangtze River.

"I'm afraid Shandai doesn't know yet. This afternoon, there was a fierce dispute between Mr. Xu Ge and Mr. Yan Ge in the cabinet."

King Yu continued.

"Oh?"

Wei Guangde nodded, indicating that he knew it, but he didn't understand the reason.

"According to Cheng Shoujie's memorial to Beijing with the gold and silver, the remaining one million taels of silver are still in various places in the south of the Yangtze River, and he is hurrying to pursue it later.

I don't know about this, what do you think of Shandai? "

King Yu said.

Wei Guangde probably understood that what King Yu said was just a casual remark, so-called asking his opinion, what can he think.

In fact, what Wei Guangde is most curious about now is what is the dispute between Yan Na and Xu Jie.

After all, it happened in a short period of time. If we go out for a drink tonight, I'm afraid we will know why those two big bosses are pinching each other.

"Since Mr. Cheng already knows where the silver is, it's just a matter of recovering it later. Is there any difficulty?"

Wei Guangde replied.

"That's right, Gu also thinks so, I'll recover the money later, just gather up a certain amount and hand it over to the Water Transport Yamen to send it to the capital."

King Yu nodded slightly, but his expression was very bad, and he continued to say: "It's just that the memorial has reached the cabinet, but the opinions of Mr. Xu Ge and Mr. Yan Ge are slightly different."

"Huh? What's the difference? They both have the same purpose of recovering money. Is it necessary to argue and go to war?"

Wei Guangde was really curious about what happened in the cabinet that made King Yu look so strange.

"Mr. Xu Ge's opinion is to let Cheng Shoujie continue to recover the dirty silver from the Yan family in Jiangxi, and send a batch to the capital after recovering a batch."

King Yu continued talking from above, while Wei Guangde kept nodding below.

At first glance, it seems that there is nothing wrong with it, but he also knows that King Yu seems to have found something wrong.

"Old Yan Ge means to ask Cheng Shoujie to report the situation of dirty money from various places to the capital, and the cabinet will consolidate the six ministries to the various places, and hand it over within a time limit without delay, otherwise the Jinyiti cavalry will be dispatched directly to ask questions."

Speaking of this, King Yu paused and looked at Wei Guangde, "Shan Loan, which of the two old elders do you think has the most secure opinion?"

Knowing the content of the dispute between Xu Jie and Yan Na, Wei Guangde understood what was going on.

Look at it this way, the confiscation of Yan's family property this time has become a wealth feast for Xu Jie's party. I am afraid that the people of the Xu party want to eat their fill at once, leaving more than one million taels of silver, as well as those fields and houses, the Xu party will be ruthless. One bite is all it takes.

Wei Guangde thought about it for a while, and then said in a calm manner: "Old Yan Ge's idea is implemented, and the entire Jiangnan officialdom will be thrown into chaos for a while.

What Xu Ge meant was more stability. Anyway, where the money is and how much it is is recorded in the record, step by step.

I think both opinions are feasible, and it is better to leave it to His Majesty Gan Gang. "

The cabinet was originally a place to provide advice to the emperor. Since the two disagreed, it would be good to write it in the memorandum.

However, these words were said to King Yu, and he naturally knew the deep meaning clearly.

(End of this chapter)