Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 260 Secret Tips (asking for monthly tickets)

Wenhua Hall.

Today is the third day of March, which happens to be the day when Zhu Youtang first held court.

In the morning, the lecturers from the Eastern Palace were not allowed to come to the Wenhua Hall. After all, they had no right to inquire about important affairs of the court. In order to make this hearing appear more formal, several bigwigs from the court came. In addition to the eunuch Tan Chang who holds the seal of the Imperial Household Department, and the chief scribe Wei Tai, even the second assistant of the Cabinet Liu Ji was present. At the same time, Ni Yue, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Rites, was specially asked to give some explanations and instructions to the prince.

As a regular attendant of the Eastern Palace, Qin Ji could only stand about two or three feet behind the crown prince. Even if the crown prince had any questions, he could not ask him directly.

Because Qin Ji did not have the power to interfere in politics.

At the beginning of the hearing, Liu Ji reported some court affairs that had been handled by the cabinet, and told the prince a general account of them without distinguishing between their importance and urgency. The thing that Zhu Youtang remembered most deeply was the palace examination that would be held in the middle of the month.

Because the results of the joint examination were announced in early March, the list of admitted Jinshi had actually come out. The next step was for the new Jinshi to take part in the palace examination. As the crown prince, Zhu Youtang had no right to inquire about the specific progress of the palace examination.

After being influenced by his scheming little wife, even a simple man like Zhu Youtang now knows that he should keep a distance from ministers, so as to avoid being suspected by his old father of forming a clique to seize power.

"…At the beginning of February, dozens of escaped and hidden soldiers hid in Xishan, Jizhou and other places. The Jinyiwei, the commander of the guard affairs, Zhu Ji and others were sent to capture the escaped and hidden soldiers. The deadline was set to one month. Now the deadline has come, and the number of escaped and hidden soldiers captured is far less than the set number. The Ministry of Justice reported to the court to punish the commander Zhu Ji, the deputy commander Yang Gang and others…"

Liu Ji stopped talking here and then looked at the prince.

Zhu Youtang asked in confusion: "What is the Jing Army?"

This question was too direct, and seemed frivolous and ignorant. The bigwigs present all looked embarrassed, not knowing who should come out and explain to the prince.

Finally, it was Wei Tai who stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, the Jing Army is... an army listed by the eunuchs. It is a separate branch and is under the supervision of the Imperial Horse Guards. It is responsible for guarding the palace."

The Jing Army was an army formed and trained by a group of eunuchs, mainly composed of eunuchs' sons and nephews as well as eunuchs who had been punished.

Because this group of people have no future at all, and they work hard day and night without any benefits, and even worse is that Liang Fang, the current eunuch of the Imperial Stables, likes to use public resources for personal gain, and arbitrarily transfers this group of people to build houses and Taoist temples. He does not treat them as human beings at all, and they work hard every day, so the phenomenon of escape is extremely serious.

The soldiers of the Jing Army, whose eggs had been castrated, did not have the ability to fight on the battlefield and make achievements. They were purely a vase army. As the officialdom became increasingly corrupt in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it became very difficult to make a living in the Jing Army. It was better to escape while working. After all, the Ming Dynasty had a vast territory and they could make a living anywhere.
But this would put the Jinyiwei in big trouble. Some soldiers had fled and the higher-ups were investigating. The court asked the Jinyiwei to find these escaped Jingjun soldiers and gave a specific deadline. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, how could they succeed?

Zhu Youtang was silent for a moment, then asked: "Why did the soldiers of the Jing Army commit such a crime? Did the court do anything wrong to them?"

Wei Tai was speechless after being asked this question.

I thought to myself, Your Highness the Crown Prince, you are so kindhearted that you actually ask whether the court is worthy of anyone?
When will the imperial court need to be worthy of others?

Being worthy of you is a favor!
Sorry, that's our right!
Liu Ji said: "Your Highness, in my opinion, the court should arrest those who violate the law of the country. This is to maintain the order. There is no need to ask about the specific reasons. What we should discuss now is how to punish Zhu Ji and others who failed to arrest them."

"Oh."

Zhu Youtang nodded first, then shook his head, "I seem to understand, but I also seem to understand nothing."

Qin Chang smiled and said, "Your Highness, you don't have to understand everything at once. You will gradually understand it in the future."

Zhu Youtang asked, "Can I ask how we should deal with Zhu Ji and others?"

"This……"

Qin Chang thought, there is indeed a huge difference between attending court and handling affairs!

The prince would obviously not be willing to just listen to things without being allowed to ask questions or make decisions. But asking a few questions would seem to be breaking the rules. How would he report to His Majesty when he returns?
"He was not diligent in his investigation, and thus failed to catch the criminals. According to the law, he should be dismissed and investigated. However, since there are many connections involved in this matter, perhaps... he should be given a lighter punishment."

Qin Chang thought about it and decided to characterize the matter as the Prime Minister.

Zhu Ji, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, was also a representative of tragedy during the Chenghua period. In front of him, Wang Zhi, the commander-in-chief of the Western Factory, was all-powerful, and in the back, Shang Ming and others abused their power and did evil.

As a commander who was a hereditary member of the Jinyiwei, his job was to run errands for others. In addition, he had some integrity, and in this chaotic time, he was able to leave a certain reputation as the commander of the Jinyiwei, which was quite commendable.

But precisely because of his limited abilities and his indifference to anyone, he became the target of concentrated criticism.

After all, there are countless forces secretly coveting the position of Jinyiwei's commander-in-chief.

In this incident, it was obvious that someone wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to take down Zhu Ji and replace him with someone who was relatively easier to control.

Zhu Youtang said, "Qin Daban, should I not ask this?"

"No."

Qin Chang smiled and explained, "The prince should ask questions when he encounters any confusion. I, the servant, also have the responsibility to answer your questions. However, when it comes to handling specific matters, the prince does not need to ask about the details. Someone will naturally handle the matter. Major cases like the Jinyiwei are usually handled by your majesty personally."

Precisely because the matter was of great importance, impeaching Zhu Ji was actually a disguised way of letting the emperor make the decision.

After all, even if Zhu Ji no longer had any faction, he was still the emperor's man. To say that he was a rookie who could be easily moved was an exaggeration... Having been the commander of the Imperial Guard for many years, Zhu Ji had considerable power in his hands.

Zhu Youtang nodded: "It's true that we shouldn't make a fuss about nothing."

At this point, Zhu Youtang glanced at Tan Ji behind him, and seeing that Tan Ji was desperately winking at him, he suddenly realized that perhaps he had said too much just now. As the saying goes, "too much talk leads to mistakes", he didn't know if there were any mistakes.

But fortunately, this matter has passed. I must be more careful in the future to avoid arousing the suspicion of my emperor father.

……

……

During a court session in the Wenhua Hall, Zhu Youtang did not feel that he had gained any knowledge and gained very little. This was also related to the fact that he could only listen but not ask questions, let alone make decisions.

After the hearing was over, Liu Ji left with the memorial and deliberately moved closer to Tan Chang.

"Eunuch Qin, may I ask, how should we deal with the Jinyiwei matter?" Liu Ji acted as if he didn't understand the rules at all and asked Qin Chang to give him some advice.

Qin Chang asked in surprise: "Lord Liu, why did you ask our family about the matter of drafting the bill? This doesn't seem to be in accordance with the rules..."

Liu Ji smiled and said, "Didn't Your Majesty say before the Holy Emperor that we should consult the Imperial Household Department when we encounter problems in the future?"

Qin Chang looked unhappy.

Because when the emperor said this, Huai En was still in power.

At that time, Qin Chang was just a eunuch who bowed and nodded beside Huai En and was responsible for smiling. Now at this moment, you are embarrassing me with the emperor's words at that time. What is your intention?

"Lord Liu, may I ask, do you want to report the matter of Zhu Ji to His Majesty?" Qin Chang asked.

"This... naturally I don't want to."

Liu Ji said, "To be honest, there is actually external pressure on this matter. Many Jing troops have fled from the Imperial Horse Administration. The number is not just the dozen or so reported, or even over a hundred. If this matter... is investigated in depth, I'm afraid no one will end up well. His Majesty will also be furious."

Tan Chang raised his chin and said, "Didn't the prince give you instructions?"

"Oh."

Liu Ji patted his forehead, pretending to be enlightened, "I see, I see. Let's make a big deal out of a small matter. I'll just pretend I don't know about it."

……

……

Zhang’s pharmacy opened with a sign that read “Huimintang”.

Wang Ji, a famous doctor from Huizhou, is here today, but he is only here temporarily to show his support, because it is impossible for him to live in the capital forever, let alone be employed by the Zhang family on a long-term basis. His main purpose of coming that day was to visit Zhang Luan, but he didn't meet him in person.

Because of the hype, many customers came to get medicine that day.

The Zhang brothers did not need to show up in person, as everything was taken care of by the shop owner, whose surname was Song.

Shopkeeper Song is the old shopkeeper of a local drug store in the capital. He is in his fifties and knows a little about medicine. This time he was hired for a large sum of money to help run the business.

The front hall was crowded with guests, while in the back hall, a group of people were sorting medicinal herbs.

As a guest of honor, Qin Zhao was invited by Zhang Yanling to sit in the accounting office in the backyard to drink tea. Qin Zhao also presented a gift to congratulate the opening of the new shop.

"It seems that the Second Young Master intends to rectify the Beijing medicinal materials market. All the medicinal materials he imports are of the highest quality and are very expensive. However, he is afraid that someone will mix inferior medicinal materials into the products after buying them back, and then cheat and make false claims when the medicines are not effective. Most people cannot handle the waters of medicinal materials, so I hope you can handle it carefully."

Qin Zhao did not own any shares in the herbal medicine shop run by the Zhang family, nor did she want to buy any shares. After all, as an old-established Huizhou merchant family, the Qin family could not be too closely tied to the Zhang family, the new powerful family in the capital.

Zhang Yanling smiled and said, "The goals of doing business are different, and the audiences are also different, so I won't care too much about it."

“The audience?”

Qin Zhao had a puzzled look on his face.

Zhang Yanling said: "My father is now the Minister of the Honglu Temple. Our family should not be involved in business matters, but we still did it. The head of the Qin family should think about the reason behind this..."

Qin Zhao shook his head.

Things were too complicated, and she couldn't see clearly enough.

"I hope that this shop will be disrupted in the next three or five days, and the business will go bankrupt. Not only will we not make any money, but we will also lose a lot of money. My family will not be able to survive in the medical circle in the capital, and everyone will condemn us if we are mentioned in the future..."

Zhang Yanling expressed his business philosophy with a smile.

"Ah this..."

Qin Zhao was surprised and asked, "Second Master, are you joking?"

Zhang Yanling smiled and asked back, "Tomorrow I will raise the price of the herbs in the pharmacy, much higher than the market price, so that people will criticize me. Of course, I will not ruin the reputation of Dr. Wang. He can leave after two days of consultation, and I will pay him a good salary."

Qin Zhao shook his head and said, "Mr. Wang didn't come here for that little consultation fee." "But we can't hire people for free."

Zhang Yanling smiled and said, "In fact, when you have some free time, Master Qin can ask Doctor Wang what he thinks. I think it is no longer suitable for him to stay in the capital. It is time for him to set off back to Huizhou."

"Oh?"

Qin Zhao was even more surprised and asked curiously, "Is this the main reason why the Second Young Master asked me to come here to discuss something?"

"That's it."

Zhang Yanling said, "As long as you tell Doctor Wang, he will understand the trick. You must mention one thing to him, that is, the period of half a year... He will understand."

……

……

Wang Ji was a specially hired famous doctor who came to help Zhang's pharmacy open for business.

His reputation was indeed useful. Not only did people from Huizhou who were in Beijing come to the pharmacy to consult him, but patients with difficult and complicated diseases from all over Shuntian Prefecture also came here to seek medical treatment. As a result, the pharmacy was extremely busy in the first two days after it opened.

Just two days later, Qin Zhao went to Wang Ji's residence and found his tired master returning with a medicine box.

"Mr. Wang, didn't you bring your medicine boy with you to the pharmacy?" Qin Zhao asked.

Wang Ji said: "It's a little inconvenient here in the capital... I'm just going to see patients, not to make house calls, so I didn't bring anyone with me."

Qin Zhao asked, "Mr. Wang, what do you think of the Zhang family's pharmacy?"

"Strange!"

Wang Ji gave the most intuitive evaluation.

"What's so strange about it?"

Qin Zhao was also very curious.

After all, she was not involved in the specific operation of the pharmacy. She felt that Zhang Yanling was unpredictable and could only ask the people who were personally involved in it to find clues from them.

Wang Ji sighed, "The people who go to the pharmacy are very diverse. Most of them don't go there to see a doctor, and some don't even go there to get medicine. It's very strange!"

Qin Zhao nodded: "When a new shop opens, even if no one deliberately seeks help, there will be people who will take the initiative to join in the fun and see if they can fish in troubled waters. This kind of situation is not uncommon in the capital."

"Can……"

Wang Ji was a little embarrassed to speak, but he finally gritted his teeth and said, "The pricing of the medicinal materials is very unreasonable! Maybe Zhang's people are deliberately using my reputation to bully the market. The price of the medicinal materials they sell is more than 50% higher than the market price, and some are even more than doubled."

Qin Zhao thought to himself, the price has increased so quickly?

It turns out to be true!

"Perhaps they knew that Mr. Wang was seeing patients, and they wanted to use the excitement of the opening to make a name for themselves. After all, Mr. Wang's reputation as a national expert in Jiangnan medicine is not for nothing, and don't they pay Mr. Wang for his service?"

Qin Zhao meant, do you think famous doctors don't have drug prices to support their consultations? You can't just collect consultation fees, your value is reflected in the drug prices.

Wang Ji said: "I have not seen Zhang Honglu in the past two days, nor have I learned the whole story from him. It is really..."

Qin Zhao said, "The second son of the Zhang family has something for me to tell you. He said there is a deadline of half a year, but I don't know what it is exactly... He said that Mr. Wang should leave the capital as soon as possible because it is a dangerous place."

"what?"

Wang Ji frowned and looked at Qin Zhao.

Qin Zhao continued, "I wanted to find out the truth, but he refused to tell me the truth. It seemed like he was in a hurry. He also said that if I mentioned it to Mr. Wang, you would know what he was talking about."

"Half a year..."

Wang Ji's face was solemn, as if he was thinking about what this deadline meant.

"Actually, Mr. Wang, I don't understand the purpose of the Zhang family running this medicine shop... Zhang Honglu is now a high-ranking official in the capital, and everyone in the court is paying attention to him. If you say that he needs the money earned from running the medicine shop, that's unnecessary. After all, he is the father-in-law of the Eastern Palace and will be awarded a title in the future. Why should he tarnish his reputation for such a small profit?" Qin Zhao sighed.

Wang Ji asked, "I wonder what else he said?"

Qin Zhao didn't want to elaborate, but seeing Wang Ji's serious attitude, he knew he had to say it.

So he said, "It's ridiculous. The second son of the Zhang family said that he didn't plan to run this business for a long time. Even his motives for doing this business were not pure. He actually wanted someone to come and disrupt his business so that he couldn't continue... Some of his words were really hard to say. Just listening to them was sensational."

Wang Ji said: "Is this action intended to make his father bear a bad reputation in the medical community?"

"Maybe... that's what it means."

Qin Zhao nodded.

Captain Wang breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I understand."

"You understand?"

Qin Zhao was even more confused.

It's fine that the second son of the Zhang family is playing dumb, but you are actually pretending to be like that in front of me?

I, the intermediary, was the only one kept in the dark.

Wang Ji said, "Master Qin, to be honest, someone from the Imperial Hospital recently came to me to inquire about liver disease treatment, and also said that they wanted me to treat the patient."

"Imperial Hospital, could it be..."

Qin Zhao was shocked.

When mentioning the Imperial Medical Service, one will naturally associate it with the Imperial Palace, and when thinking of the Imperial Palace, one will inevitably associate it with the Emperor.

Wang Ji sighed, "Although they didn't tell me who they were treating, I knew there was a big deal going on because of their secretive attitude, so I refused on the spot. I guess this is what the Zhang family wanted to wake me up with."

"That's...something to avoid."

Qin Zhao finally understood everything at this time.

If the emperor was ill, then the Zhang family's actions would make sense.

No one wants to take responsibility.

But isn’t Zhang Luan… too irresponsible?
Is this still the miracle doctor Zhang who risked his life to cure smallpox and saved the world?
Wang Ji said: "Based on what I know about the patient's condition, I guess that this person has had liver disease for a long time, and the condition has been prolonged, or will show signs of rapid deterioration within a year or so. By then, I'm afraid..."

"understood."

Qin Zhao understood and said, "Then you should leave the capital immediately and go back to Huizhou. It just so happens that there... I have something to deal with, so I would like to ask Mr. Wang to help me deal with it. I will also give you a generous gift as a thank you."

Now that things have come to this, Qin Zhao is a smart man. You, Wang Ji, don't want to treat the emperor, and Zhang Luan probably does too.

You both judged that the patient might only live for a year or so, and that nothing can be done with human power, so why are you trying so hard?

Wang Ji said: "No wonder I always feel like someone is watching me these past few days. Some people even come to my clinic from time to time to ask about some strange liver disease symptoms and seek a cure."

Qin Zhao asked tentatively, "You mean, someone is secretly following you, or even asking you for details about liver disease treatment through someone else? Many people who come to the pharmacy to consult and prescribe medicine on behalf of others have ulterior motives?"

"Ah."

Wang Ji nodded.

Qin Zhao said, "Then Mr. Wang, you don't have to say goodbye to Mr. Zhang. I have a few ships heading to Tongzhou. When you get to Tongzhou, you can continue to take the ship or change to a carriage to go south. Just follow the caravan along the way, and it should be...safe."

She is a smart person.

All signs indicate that Wang Ji has been targeted.

Not only the people in the Imperial Hospital might take advantage of Wang Ji, but even some people around the emperor would keep an eye on the doctors with good reputations in the capital, secretly following them and ready to pull them back to be used as scapegoats at any time.

Wang Ji stood up and bowed his hands in thanks: "Thank you, Mr. Qin, for your great help."

Qin Zhao stood up and said with a smile, "I'm sorry, I have caused unnecessary trouble to Mr. Wang."

"No no."

Wang Ji shook his head and said, "Going to Xingji and then coming to the capital is the most meaningful thing in my life. I gained a lot from this trip, and I came into contact with too many human relationships and the right and wrong. This time I owe Mr. Qin a huge favor. If you need me to drive you in the future, just give me your orders."

Qin Zhao felt warmed when he heard this.

In order to repay a favor and help Wang Ji, Wang Ji also valued friendship and promises, and was thinking about how to give back. What he said was very pleasing to the ear and pertinent, and he was not just trying to please her.

This is also the reason why she trusts Wang Ji.

"Mr. Wang has noble medical ethics and is a model of the medical community in Huizhou. He must not be used by villains and involved in unnecessary disasters. Although Lord Zhang did not come forward in person, he asked his son to remind him. I think he did not want Mr. Wang to be involved in the right and wrong of the imperial palace." Qin Zhao said.

Wang Ji sighed, "Mr. Zhang is truly a noble man. He has an extraordinary mind, which I cannot compare to. Mr. Qin, we will meet again in the future."

(The last six hours of September, please support me with monthly tickets! Thank you!)

(End of this chapter)