Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 250: Killing multiple birds with one stone

After watching Tan Chang leave, Li Zisheng came to the study and immediately called Pang Qing over. He told him what happened before and then slammed the table: "Let's see how many connections he has made. Is he too close to the prince?"

Pang Qing asked in surprise, "The father-in-law and son-in-law are not close, do they have to be tied together with us?"

"Ok?"

Li Zisheng glared at him again.

Pang Qing rolled his eyes and turned his head away.

Since you have said that you like to listen to my harsh but honest advice, then I will say a few more words that you don't want to hear. This way, at least you know that Zhang Laizhan is only using you to get close to the prince, and now that his goal has been achieved, why must he always put your interests first?

Li Zisheng added: "But if you think about it carefully, presenting a storybook is something that only the prince is more suitable to do. Father and son are connected by heart. The prince was not favored before because he had problems with the way he expressed his filial piety. Now that he has Lai Zhan's guidance, I think he will be like a fish in water and will soon win the favor of His Majesty. It is not just as simple as presenting a storybook.

"If I don't know what's good for me and try to get involved, His Majesty will think I'm not doing my job and I'm busy looking for flattering things to please him. Maybe it won't be worth it."

Pang Qing smiled and said, "Master Dao, your ability to repeat yourself is also improving."

"roll!"

Li Zisheng cursed, "The Crown Prince has turned a disaster into a blessing this time. He was allowed to attend to affairs in the Wenhua Palace... This is a bit troublesome. If there are any major events in the court in the future, the Crown Prince will know everything. The Crown Prince may know more than Your Majesty, and he is young and hot-tempered, so it is not easy to fool him."

Pang Qing disagreed and asked casually, "Who will the prince turn to for help if he has any questions in the future?"

"This……"

Li Zisheng thought for a moment and said, "You mean, the prince will ask Zhang Laizhan for help?"

Pang Qing smiled and said, "Then do you want the prince to ask Zhang Laizhan for help, or ask someone else for help?"

Li Zisheng said: "No matter who the prince asks for help, he can't ask me... I am working for His Majesty, so I should keep a distance from the prince. But if Zhang Laizhan comes to ask for advice... that would be great... haha..."

"Master, who was it that was so wary of that Immortal Zhang and forbade anyone to have any contact with him? Why are you just..."

"roll!"

Li Zisheng cursed, "You are a bad person all day long. You just like to talk nonsense to me. Go and say hello to Zhang Laizhan, congratulate him first, and tell him that I helped him get the position of Minister of the Ministry of Rites."

"Ah? Do you really want to give it to him?"

Pang Qing asked in surprise.

"What else? His Majesty has already ordered that he should be given a suitable official position. Tan Changdu has openly helped him to ask for the position of Minister of the Ministry of Rites. I have also mentioned this matter to Zhang Laizhan. Isn't it most appropriate to give him the actual position of Minister of the Ministry of Rites now?" Li Zisheng asked.

Pang Qing said: "But he also... doesn't understand the duties of the Honglu Temple."

Li Zisheng laughed and said, "The Honglu Temple has not even had a Beijing official in the past two years, but hasn't there been any trouble? With the Shaoqing and the Temple Secretary to take care of it, even if a pig is placed in that position, it is still the Honglu Temple."

Pang Qing gave him a thumbs up and praised, "You are really open-minded, Taoist. Anyway, his position as the Minister of the Ministry of Rites was given by the court according to the rules. Now that the position is vacant, let him take up the temporary position. I think no one will gossip about it. At worst, if he fails to do his job well, we can just dismiss him."

"Bingkun understands me."

Li Zisheng said happily, "This way Zhang Laizhan will remember my kindness. After all, I helped him get his position."

Pang Qing nodded and said, "He was fired in the end, it was his own fault, and he has no experience as an official, so he will have to come to you for advice in the future."

"Hahahaha...killing two birds with one stone. Very good, very good."

Li Zisheng was very proud of this.

……

……

After meeting Li Zisheng, Qin Chang did not rush back to the palace, but went back to his private residence in the city first.

Long before going to Li Zi's provincial government, he had specially asked someone to call Qin Yun to his house. When he got off the carriage and entered the mansion, he happened to see Qin Yun dealing with the gateman.

"what happened?"

Qin Chang stepped forward, glared at the receptionist at the door and asked.

The receptionist came forward and said respectfully, "Master, our nephew is here. He said you personally asked him to come, but he refused to wait at the door and insisted on going in."

Qin Chang said angrily: "We called him here to do something, why did we ask him to wait outside? Since we knew he was our young master, why did we treat him so indifferently?"

"The old slave is wrong."

The receptionist quickly knelt down and admitted his mistake.

Qin Yun looked as if he was used to it, because he had been treated coldly like this many times when he came to the Qin Mansion before, and he was already used to it.

He knew that the servants in the Qin Mansion were all snobbish, and he could not afford to pay the gatekeeper money, so it was common for him to be harassed. Every time he complained, the gatekeepers would admit their mistakes and be nice, but then they would go back to their old ways and continue to harass him. Over time, he would not go to the gatekeepers unless there was something wrong, and would not make himself unhappy.

"Qin Yun, you have had a lot of contact with people in the Zhang Mansion. I wonder who the master of the Zhang family is? This time he wrote a storybook for the East Palace, which was presented to His Majesty by the Crown Prince. His Majesty liked it very much and wanted to grant him an official position." Qin Chang did not have any prejudice, but he was usually arrogant and had no idea what his younger nephews and nephews were thinking.

He always felt that your position as a captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard was obtained with my help. It is your supreme honor to meet you. What else are you not satisfied with?
Qin Yun said, "In reply to your question, Uncle, Mr. Zhang rarely goes out. Even if he does go out, he usually goes to see a few people like Shen Jingli from the Silver Desk. He rarely interacts with people."

At this time, Qin Yun knew the limits very well, and he knew exactly what to say and what not to say.

"Didn't they say that the master of the Zhang family also had dealings with Li Zisheng's government?" Qin Chang asked.

"It seems so, but I'm not sure about this kind of thing."

Tan Yun concealed something again.

"Too."

Qin Chang nodded and said, "Even if they have had contact, they will not tell you the truth. How about this, you should pay more attention to the Zhang Mansion recently and see who the Zhang family has contact with. I will tell the leaders of the Jinyiwei to send you to handle this matter, and then transfer you to the Eastern Depot to be in charge of the punishment."

"Yes!"

Tan Chang accepted the order respectfully.

Although before leaving, Qin Chang still asked his nephew to go to the accounting office to collect the reward money as usual. After all, he was doing things for him. On the surface, Qin Chang still wanted to take care of his younger generations of nephews.

But the water in the Qin Mansion is too deep, and the phenomenon of disobeying orders would actually appear in the Prime Minister's Mansion, which is quite strange.

This time, Qin Yun left Qin Chang's mansion more resolutely.

There was no need to take Qin Chang's words to the accounting office. They might not give him any money anyway. Even if they did, they would look down on him for only giving him a few coins, which would be embarrassing. So he might as well give it up. Getting the position of a captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard was already what he wanted, so there was no need to worry about the reward money.

After all, even if he had a dozen more coins, it would not bring any substantial improvement to his life. Moreover, Qin Chang, the elder, had made too many empty promises. Qin Yun couldn't even remember how many times this had happened, and he pretended not to hear anything.

But there is one thing... He is still quite happy, and this is why he is eager to leave Qin Mansion, because Qin Chang asked him to supervise Zhang Mansion, which means that he can get along with Zhang family again with a legitimate reason... After returning to Jinyiwei, his life was in a daze, and he felt uncomfortable if he didn't deal with Zhang family for a day.

So he immediately ran to Zhang Yanling's laboratory in the north of the city and met the second son of the Zhang family.

"Captain Qin? How come you have time to come? You came just in time. I was planning to have someone bring the rent to you these days. Don't mind that I'm a few days late."

As he spoke, Zhang Yanling handed over a bulging purse that he had prepared long ago.

Qin Yun took it in his hand and weighed it, and he felt that the weight was not right. He knew without even opening it that the heavy thing inside was not copper coins or Ming Dynasty treasure notes, but silver.

"Second Young Master, that's too many." Qin Yun said.

Zhang Yanling smiled and said, "The rent of the house has been discussed long ago. In addition, you have been helping me with work recently and have done a lot. After all, you are an imperial official, so I cannot give you a salary directly, but you need to receive a little money to support yourself every month. Otherwise, I will be embarrassed to ask you for help in the future."

Tan Yun was very moved after hearing this, but he quickly declined: "It is my honor to work for the Second Young Master, how can I ask for anything in return?"

Zhang Yanling shook his head, "You are wrong. Captain Qin is working for the court. We are using public property for personal purposes, so we should give him some compensation. Please accept this money. It is also a necessary expense for the cooperation between my Zhang family and the Qin family. Just think of it as a gift from me. Anyway, the Qin family will not be at ease if I don't give you the money."

This is equivalent to giving Qin Yun a way out.

The money is not given to you by me, Zhang Yanling alone, but we need your help in doing business with the Qin family. You are helping us now, and we may need you to stand up and act as a shield when facing the government.

Just think of it as the protection fee you collect.

Tan Yun was a little embarrassed and hesitated: "I don't know what to say."

Zhang Yanling said with a smile: "It's a pity that I can't drink now. I will definitely drink with Captain Qin in the future. Captain Qin, are you not busy now?"

Qin Yun said bluntly: "I just went to see Eunuch Qin, that is... my uncle, and he asked me to pay more attention to the situation in Zhang's house... Has anything happened in your house recently that aroused suspicion from others?"

"Even the Imperial Household Department's Supervisor, Mr. Qin Yin, has started to pay attention to our Zhang Mansion?"

Zhang Yanling smiled and waved his hands, saying, "Captain Qin, you shouldn't have mentioned this to me."

Tan Yun said seriously: "Second Master treats me with sincerity, how can I hide anything when I encounter something?"

Zhang Yanling knew that Qin Yun was ready to return home.

There is no other way. Who made me a poor boy who relied on connections to become a centurion in the Jinyiwei, who has no knowledge and is ostracized by my colleagues in the Jinyiwei, and has no chance to make merit? And I urgently hope to change my future and destiny through the appreciation of some people.
It wasn't because of how much favor Zhang Yanling showed to Qin Yun that made Qin Yun return to his heart, but because his sincerity made Qin Yun feel that cooperation between the two sides, or even surrender, would give him a better future.

Zhang Yanling sighed, "I haven't paid much attention to business matters recently. After all, many industries are still in the experimental stage and cannot be put into production yet. But we have been investing in the prince. The prince is my brother-in-law. It is only natural for a brother-in-law to help his brother-in-law, right?"

"Yes."

Qin Yun was very excited when he heard this.

The eunuch who holds the seal of the Imperial Household Department is certainly powerful, but can he be as powerful as the crown prince and the future brother-in-law of the emperor?

"Since Captain Qin is free, let's go out of town today and take you to see our new property and the progress of the workshop. It's a good opportunity for Captain Qin to give us some pointers."

"You are too polite, sir. I really want to go out with you to see some of the world."

(End of this chapter)