Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 784: Keep Your Respect
In the Huagai Hall, Li Shanchang suddenly felt sweat on his back.

He could feel that many eyes in the hall were secretly glancing at him, even the look of General Xu Da beside him was a little curious.

And he could clearly hear the voice of Li Wenzhong beside him, who was eager to see the world in chaos:
"Your Majesty, it seems that Hu Weiyong is also quite wealthy!"

What a shitty fortune! Li Shanchang cursed in his heart.

It would have been fine earlier, but later on, when this Hu became the prime minister, he was in the limelight and his family background was very clear to everyone - after all, even if you were visiting him, you had to please him, right?
In other words, if the Hu family could really come up with two hundred gold coins, he probably would not have submitted to Your Majesty at the beginning, but would have used the gold as travel expenses to flee south to avoid the war.

There was no need to think about it at the moment. The instinct of being immersed in officialdom for so long drove Li Shanchang to stand up, take a step forward, and then kneel down in the middle:

"Old minister..."

Before he finished speaking, tears appeared in the corners of his eyes. Everyone saw the great magistrate lower his head again, but his voice became even more mournful and low:
"This old minister will pay you a fee to make amends."

Li Wenzhong was simply astonished for a moment.

He neither admitted his fault nor begged for leniency, but only said that he would make up the difference. However, he did not say whether it was due to his crime or what the reason was.

Most importantly, based on Li Wenzhong's understanding of his uncle, this trick is very useful.

That being said, the Grand Censor has indeed followed his uncle for more than twenty years, and this cannot be erased in any way. Whether it is considered from the perspective of nostalgia or as an old friend of his hometown, it is solid.

Don’t you see that the Grand Censor has more certificates of immunity from death than they do?

Moreover, it was true that my uncle's favor towards the Grand Censor was not as strong as before, but it had only been a year since the incident of Hu Weiyong. Seeing that Yunnan was about to mobilize troops again and the Hu people in the north were making unusual movements, it was impossible for the court to start a war again at this time.

Sure enough, Li Wenzhong looked at his uncle and snorted:

"This matter was not notified in the list of crimes last year. What is the need to talk about it? Get up."

Li Shanchang was equally calm, and he knew very well that His Majesty hated procrastination, so he simply stood up, but he took a closer look at Li Wenzhong as he stood up.

Li Wenzhong didn't care so much. Seeing that there was nothing interesting to see here with Li Shanchang, he simply turned around and talked to Xu Da:
"The future generations will praise my uncle for building the Great Wall, which shows that Shanhaiguan is likely to be a success. I congratulate the general in advance for his further achievements."

Xu Da was a man of few words, but he sighed and shook his head when he heard this.

"After all, it is better to be in the battle line and destroy the enemy outside the Great Wall."

This was probably because he missed the late General Chang again. Li Wenzhong was not discouraged and shook his head solemnly:

"Warfare is nothing more than attack and defense. Uncle built a strong pass and was called the Great Wall of the Frontier. It is clear that it is enough to prevent the remnant Yuan from attacking in vain."

"In this way, the athletes will not have to worry about defeating the Hu. Now all we need is for my uncle to not get sick. Sooner or later, the Great Wall on the Frontier will be the Great Wall that will crush the remnant Yuan Dynasty."

Hearing Li Wenzhong's frank remarks, Xu Da also smiled and nodded:
"General Li is now immersed in maritime affairs, and now with the help of the Light Curtain Miracle, the threat of Japanese pirates will not be far away."

"However, General Li must also remember that we must be extremely cautious when starting a war. The current situation in Yunnan and Shanhaiguan cannot be resolved in one year..."

Li Wenzhong felt a little helpless for a moment. He knew that Uncle Xu was upright and always talked about government affairs rather than personal feelings, but he was also used to giving him some advice as an elder, and the result was the situation before him. Even Li Wenzhong could guess what his uncle was going to say, which was nothing more than that he was leaving Beijing and reminded Li Wenzhong to remember to do his best to assist His Majesty.

There was no need to talk about these things. He was my uncle, especially an uncle who was willing to consider managing Japan's affairs. ...

In Guangzheng Hall, Zhao Kuangyin did not care much about this power struggle. Instead, he admired the deeds of Emperor Hongwu from what he heard between the lines:
"He started an army with 24 men and finally pacified the world. He is truly a man of great talent never seen before."

According to his summary, Emperor Ming initially submitted to others, but eventually had disagreements, so he fled with twenty-four people and eventually conquered Chuzhou.

What is briefly described in these few words is probably the true picture of the rise of Emperor Hongwu.

Compared to Zhao Kuangyin's admiration for his martial arts, Zhao Pu was concerned about another thing:
"The Ming Dynasty still follows the Yuan system?"

For Zhao Pu, one of the things he was most proud of was assisting the emperor in establishing the official system of the Song Dynasty.

The Privy Councilor was appointed to be in charge of military affairs, the Three Commissioners to be in charge of finances, and the Vice Prime Minister was appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister to share the power of the Prime Minister. Such mutual constraints would eventually eliminate the disaster of the feudal lords, and it was also the foundation of the Song Dynasty.

But now looking at the meaning of Hu Weiyong's promotion, this enlightened system seems to be similar to the one changed by Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty, which immediately made Zhao Pu a little discouraged.

"The change of government system should be done with caution. The Ming Dynasty is nearly 400 years away from us, so there is no need to blindly imitate the ancient times."

"We should take the Ming history in the light curtain as our advisor and extract its essence to improve the Song Dynasty."

Zhao Pu nodded at Zhao Kuangyin's instructions, and he calmed down, ready to see what the major case of the Ming Dynasty was.

[For Hu Weiyong, for fifteen years he has been unable to catch up with his fellow countryman Li Shanchang.

But after being promoted to deputy prime minister, Hu Weiyong seemed to see the dawn of overtaking.

Perhaps it was because the Yuan Dynasty inherited the Mongol Khanate's military power, so in order to replace the Yuan Dynasty, it needed a stronger martial virtue. From this point of view, it can explain why there were so few literati among Zhu Yuanzhang's old friends.

Among the six dukes and twenty-eight marquises who were divided into groups in the third year of Hongwu, Li Shanchang was the only civil servant.

Of course, there is also a slight possibility that because Zhu came from a humble background, most of his old friends were similar and basically could not afford to go to school.

But in short, the reason why the nobles in the early Ming Dynasty were so arrogant was not only because Zhu Yuanzhang was too lenient, but also because there were too many military officials who were infected with the wild atmosphere of the Yuan Dynasty.

After all, the overall quality of this group of nobles is not high. Although they have become the new aristocracy of the Ming Dynasty, they essentially grew up under the rule of Mongolian nobles, so it is inevitable that they will follow suit after becoming masters.

As a result, Li Shanchang inevitably became arrogant.

After all, you only need to recall that it was he who built the framework for Zhu Yuanzhang's conquest of the world, it was he who guarded the rear when Zhu Yuanzhang led his troops to fight, and it was still he who built the framework after the founding of the Ming Dynasty - how would Zhu Yuanzhang live without us, Li?

Therefore, if any of the council officials spoke disrespectfully to him, Li Shanchang would depose them. When Liu Ji reported to Zhu Yuanzhang and had his arrogant cronies executed, he would scold Liu Ji harshly during the discussion of laws.

Liu Ji was straightforward and retired to go home. This made the perceptive Li Shanchang smell the news:

Or should I take the initiative and save some dignity? 】

(End of this chapter)