I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 132: Teachers and Students Reach a Tacit Understanding

Am I a variable?
Zhang Juzheng understood what Xu Jie meant.

The relationship between me and the Crown Prince is deeper than that between me and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

Among His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the tutors, the one with whom he had the best relationship was Gao Gong, followed by Chen Yiqin, Yin Shidan, and finally it was his turn.

Among the tutors of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Li Chunfang ranked first, I was second, followed by Pan Jixun, Zhao Zhenji and Xu Wei.

However, the status of the last two, as staff members, is more important.

Among the first three tutors, he had spent the most time with the Crown Prince and their feelings were probably the deepest, a relationship that was forged through quarrels.

Li Chunfang and Pan Jixun were both modest gentlemen, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince often discussed with them. Only I, often argued, influenced the Crown Prince, and the Crown Prince also influenced me.

Looking around at the people in the crown prince's pocket, Hu Zongxian was a capable and competent official who was brave enough to take on responsibilities, but he had a stern personality and was unable to reconcile yin and yang when he entered the cabinet.

Xu Wei was the Crown Prince's think tank, but his qualifications were too inexperienced and he failed even the imperial examination, so he was difficult to convince the public.

Well, I heard that the Crown Prince hired a teacher for himself, his name is Li Zhi, who was a juren, but his qualifications were too shallow.

After counting it over and over again, Zhang Juzheng's heart was warmed.

When he looked up, he saw Xu Jie's expectant eyes and understood what his teacher was thinking.

The teacher hoped that he would take over his legacy, and more importantly, he hoped that he could compete openly and secretly with Gao Gong to ensure that the teacher could enjoy a glorious old age, as well as the prosperity and wealth of his Xu family's descendants.

Fighting with Gao Gong is indeed very difficult.

But what Zhang Juzheng thought was that if he agreed, his teacher would pass all his connections and resources to him, the successor.

The teacher had been in official service for forty years and in the cabinet for more than ten years, holding the highest position among the officials in the country, and had countless students and former officials.

The connections and resources are amazing. If I could transfer them all to myself, I would benefit greatly from them!

Having made up his mind, Zhang Juzheng did not try to hide his feelings and said, "Teacher, please rest assured.

Although Gao Gong and I are colleagues in the Prince Yu Palace, the relationship between a student and a teacher is as close as blood. The teacher's business is also the student's business. Ju Zheng will do his best to take on the responsibility."

In a private conversation between teacher and student, Zhang Juzheng made it clear directly.

Hearing Zhang Juzheng's expression of his feelings, Xu Jie was overjoyed, and his wrinkled face was filled with smiles.

To be honest, Xu Jie was not very afraid of Gao Gong.

No matter how arrogant and violent Gao Da Huzi was, he had to follow the rules of the officialdom. Xu Jie had plenty of ways to deal with him. Although he might suffer a little, he could always deal with it.

Xu Jie was afraid of Zhu Yijun.

When His Royal Highness the Crown Prince took the opportunity of suppressing the Japanese pirates in the southeast to protect Hu Zongxian and others and establish the Prince's Party, he, Xu Jie, led the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Party to secretly trip him up, because they had an old grudge against each other.

The Crown Prince doesn't follow any rules.

The Jin Party hated him and wanted to deal with Hu Zongxian by skinning him to the bone in order to prevent the Crown Prince Party from taking over the Nine Frontiers. The Crown Prince directly traced back to the Gengxu Incident and chopped off many heads, leaving the Jin Party with nothing but skin and bones.

Who could bear it if such schemes and methods were used against himself and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Party?

Those little things between the Southeastern family and the Japanese pirates cannot be investigated!
If His Royal Highness the Crown Prince also uses this trick to trace back the Japanese threat in the southeast, how many people will die!
When the nest is destroyed, no egg can remain intact. The Southeast family is under investigation, how can the Xu family remain intact?

Xu Jie could see that Zhu Yijun valued Zhang Juzheng, so he wanted to gain respect in front of Zhu Yijun through Zhang Juzheng.

Now that Zhang Juzheng is willing to take on the responsibility alone, Xu Jie is naturally willing to pass on his legacy and connections to Zhang Juzheng.

Teachers and students complement each other.

Xu Jie passed on his personal connections to his student Zhang Juzheng, which strengthened Zhang Juzheng's strength. He would then be more valued by Zhu Yijun, have more say, and be more capable of preserving his family's wealth and glory.

Xu Jie stroked his beard and said, "Uncle, I know something about the malpractices in horse administration that you have uncovered.

The most important thing for a country is the military, and the most important thing for the military is the horses. When going to war, the war horses must be fat and strong, and their muscles must be stretched; in normal times, war horses must also be well-fed in order to be prepared for emergencies.

The practice in our dynasty is to raise horses according to household registration, that is, the households raise horses in public stables and put them on pastures, and they must provide them in time when there is a war. The designated horse farms are in Liaodong and Shandong. However, the people regard raising horses as labor service, and try every means to avoid horse service, so they bribe officials and escape from the household. In addition, due to the annexation of fields, the designated pastures in Liaodong and Shandong are decreasing day by day, and they cannot afford to raise the annual quota of horses. Horse households must pay for horse feed, which is another considerable expense.

Over time, the horse administration has accumulated many problems, and the horse service has become a harsh policy that has brought disaster to Shandong. Uncle, if you want to get rid of the bad policies, you need some courage and means. "

Zhang Juzheng was a little surprised. He originally thought that the teacher was absent-minded and did not hear what he said clearly. Unexpectedly, he knew the problem and pointed out the root of the problem right away.

"Teacher, in addition to horse labor, the border troops also suffered from horse labor. The court allocated war horses to the border cavalry, and provided them with fodder and other money and food according to the quota. Unfortunately, corrupt officials were rampant, and they embezzled and deducted money. The border troops could only pay for the horse fodder themselves.

The government office regularly inspected the condition of the war horses, which became an opportunity for corrupt officials to extort money. Over time, the border cavalry could not bear the burden and simply killed the horses as soon as they received them, and they could sell the horse meat for some money. Although they had to pay money to compensate for the horses, this helpless move was the lesser of two evils.

Xu Jie was also surprised. "Has the horse administration been corrupted to this extent? We really need to rectify it. Otherwise, the border troops will be left without horses, which will be a disaster.

Now the imperial court has reached an agreement with Altan Khan to open border trade, so that good horses can be continuously exchanged for from the north. This is indeed a good opportunity to eliminate the long-standing malpractices in horse administration.

Well, Uncle, I can recommend you to be the Right Vice-Censor-in-Chief and Governor of Shandong, and take good care of the horse affairs in Shandong and Liaodong."

Zhang Juzheng stood up and bowed deeply: "Thank you for your guidance, teacher."

It was past noon.

Xu Wei took a sedan chair and came to the Sifang Inn.

During the two or three months of negotiations, Xu Wei came here almost every day and felt that this place was as familiar to him as his own home.

When Habulie saw Xu Wei, he smiled and bowed, "Sir, are you here?"

"Yes, Xu is here to pay his respects to the Khan."

"Please wait a moment while I go and inform you."

After a while, Xu Wei entered the inner courtyard and Bosihaer received him in the flower hall.

"Mr. Wenchang, we have decided to go back in five days. That day will be a good day." Boshaer said happily.

"Haha, that's good. The Lifanyuan will hold a banquet in three days to see off the Khans."

After a few words of consolation, Xu Wei took out a cowhide bag and handed it to Bosihaer.

"Mr. Wenchang, what is this?"

"These are the personal belongings of Xin Ai Huang Taiji that our army seized in Liuhe. Now that he has been released and returned home, these items must be returned. However, as soon as he left the house, he left the capital without even saying hello, so we had no choice but to send the things to the Khan."

Bosihaer rolled his eyes and replied with a smile, "Thank you very much, Mr. Wenchang, you are so thoughtful!

After chatting for half an hour about the details of the farewell banquet held by the Dingliyuan, Xu Wei said goodbye and left.

After thinking about it, Boshaer opened the cowhide bag.

Inside is a small scroll, slightly larger than the cow's face. It depicts a woman wearing the clothing of a Tumed noblewoman, and is lifelike.

When he saw this woman, Boshaer's face changed.

Isn’t this Zhongjin Hatun, the favorite of his brother Altan Khan?

He quickly put the scroll away and reached into the cowhide bag again.

He took out a piece of cow bone, which was of a strange shape and had crooked patterns on it, which looked more like patterns than words.

Boshaer's face turned pale.

This is a spellcasting object used by shamans to curse people to death, similar to the Central Plains puppet witchcraft.

Bosihaer carefully turned over the cow bone and saw "Altan" engraved in Mongolian on the back.

hiss--!
Bertha took a breath.

Altan is the real name of Altan Khan, but the transliteration of it by people in the Ming Dynasty is different.

(End of this chapter)