Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 665 The Flag Remains

Xu Qiong's residence.

On the day of the Lantern Festival, Xu Qiong went to the Ministry of Personnel. When he came back, he quickly asked someone to call Shen Lu over and asked him to inform Zhang Luan.

"The censors in the capital have impeached Zhan and listed dozens of charges. They are going to present them all at the court tomorrow morning. You should go and tell him immediately so that he can be mentally prepared."

As soon as they met, Xu Qiong said anxiously.

Shen Lu was quite helpless and said, "I would like to go see him, but the problem is that he is recuperating at home recently, so I can't visit him!"

Xu Qiong frowned and asked, "Why, even you can't see others?"

This seemed quite incredible to Xu Qiong.

It's fine if you, Zhang Luan, don't want to meet the guests, but you can just find a middleman to act as a mouthpiece.

But the problem is that now you don’t even want to meet the middleman?
Do you want to cut yourself off from the court?
Shen Lu said, "That's exactly what happened. I've gone to see him many times in the past few days, but was never allowed to see him. He sent someone to tell him that if there's no news of victory from the northwest, he'll close the door and refuse to see visitors for a day, and won't ask about court affairs."

"he……"

After listening to this, Xu Qiong wanted to ask, is Zhang Laizhan crazy?

Or, how could you, a relative who knows nothing about military affairs, be so confident? How could you actually think that there was really good news from the northwest?
Although Shen Lu was somewhat helpless, he still tried to comfort him: "Mr. Xu, you see there is no news coming from the northwest. Those civil officials in the court are impeaching Lai Zhan at this time. It should be regarded as making things up out of nothing, or even making trouble out of nothing, right? Even if they impeach him, His Majesty will not pay attention to them... Why not wait until the northwest war has an outcome, and then we can consider it. What do you think?"

Xu Qiong frowned and asked, "Why, even you are looking forward to the almost impossible victory news?"

"Why must there be none?"

Shen Lu asked curiously, and then said, "Perhaps there is no need to report any victory. As long as everything is as Lai Zhan said, and the Tatars brazenly invade, doesn't it mean that Lai Zhan really has the ability to see into the secrets of heaven, and he can easily gain a foothold in the court?"

Xu Qiong's face turned even uglier. "If that happens, I'm afraid you'll be criticized by the world even more! You clearly figured out the secrets of heaven, but you didn't stick to your own opinion, which delayed military operations and caused the wealth of the people in the northwest to be plundered by the Tatars... What kind of sin is this?"

"what!?"

Shen Lu was shocked and asked, "Can this be blamed on Lai Zhan? If he really didn't insist, there wouldn't be so many subsequent events, and he wouldn't have risked the world's disapproval and insisted on using troops in the northwest... It was clearly the joint opposition of the officials in the court that prevented him from fully displaying his strengths."

Xu Qiong said with emotion: "Ruxue, I'm not saying anything bad about you, but any scholar in power in the court will not reason with you... As long as you go against their opinions, you are wrong even if you are right, and even more wrong even if you are wrong!"

"..."

Shen Lu was speechless after hearing this, thinking, he is just unreasonable?

But you, Xu, also come from a family of scholars. Is this considered self-mockery and sarcasm?

Xu Qiong said: "No matter how much people criticized Li Shangshu when he was in power, at least he was willing to talk to you about reason. At most, he was just a partisan. If the literati were in power, what they did would be no different, and their methods would even be worse..."

Although Shen Lu did not fully agree with this view, he was very clear that he could only rely on Xu Qiong now, so he nodded quickly.

Xu Qiong continued, "No matter what, you must take my words to Zhang's house today and let Lai Zhan argue with reason... At this critical moment, you must not escape. Even if you know you are in the wrong, you must argue in the court. After all, with the support of His Majesty, he can't lose!"

"Come and see him..."

Shen Lu smiled bitterly and said, "Even if he wanted to go to court, he probably couldn't. His frail body couldn't bear it..."

"Hmph, even if he can't hold on any longer, he has to drag his sick body to court, otherwise it will become a one-sided attack on him by the civil servants... He doesn't even want to argue, is this giving up?"

Xu Qiong said angrily.

Both Xu Qiong and Shen Lu were wondering at this moment, what kind of backer have we found?

We all united under your banner, Zhang Laizhan, and thought that the future was bright. But you, the leader, collapsed without a fight. You had a good hand, but why did you have to do such a weird thing?

Shen Lu said, "Okay, I'll go right away... Even if I can't see Lai Zhan himself, I can still see my nephew Yan Ling... With Yan Ling here, you can relax, it won't be much different from seeing Lai Zhan."

"Go quickly." Xu Qiong did not care whether his brother-in-law Shen Lu was going to see Zhang Luan or his nephew. What he was thinking in his heart was to make Zhang Luan feel the urgency and urge Zhang Luan to defend himself at the court meeting.

……

……

Shen Lu knew that he could not meet Zhang Luan, so he simply went to find Zhang Yanling.

Fortunately, Zhang Yanling had left his uncle a channel for emergency contact, giving him the opportunity to find someone to inform him of the meeting. But even with this channel, it was almost sunset when the two met, which made Shen Lu very anxious.

"Don't worry, uncle. My father has already planned everything." When Zhang Yanling saw Shen Lu and learned of Xu Qiong's warning, he smiled and comforted him.

Shen Lu was somewhat puzzled: "I wonder what your father has calculated?"

Zhang Yanling smiled and said, "He had anticipated the development of the military situation in the northwest, the criticisms from the people in the court, the trust that Your Majesty had in him, and the fact that when the news of victory in the northwest reached the capital, the officials who had criticized him would be so ashamed that they would be unable to deal with themselves."

Shen Lu frowned and asked, "Really?"

"At least that's what my father said, but I always feel that those officials in Beijing are not so shameless." Zhang Yanling said with a relaxed expression, "But my father didn't force it. Even if his colleagues didn't understand, he was prepared to stick to his own opinion. He was not afraid even if he was crushed to pieces."

Shen Lu couldn't help but sigh after hearing this: "He is not afraid of being torn to pieces, he wants to keep his innocence in the world... Is your father trying to emulate Yu Shaobao? He is really... a man of steel!"

Zhang Yanling thought, is what you said true or not? Do you really think my cheap father is a man of integrity, or do you think he is just a lazy donkey?
"Uncle, please tell Uncle Xu to rest assured that my father can handle this little scene." Zhang Yanling encouraged, "Even if he is nailed to the pillar of shame for a while, my father can face it calmly, and he will never give up any minister who can make achievements for the Ming Dynasty, and he will definitely carry this banner!"

Shen Lu couldn't help but widen his eyes when he heard this.

It seems like you are questioning, if your father doesn't want to do it anymore, how can you still hold up the flag?

is that a lie?

Zhang Yanling continued, "My father said that even if he cannot stay in the court due to some things in the future, he will encourage me to join the court alone and protect the flag for him. The flag of our Zhang family will not fall so easily!"

After hearing this, Shen Lu started to complain in his heart.

I thought to myself, it turns out that both you and your son are so mysteriously confident!

But why does this confidence seem so...

Feeling awkward?
Is this a bit too blindly optimistic?
"Then... can you let me meet your father? It would be better if we can talk things out face to face."

Shen Lu made a request.

Zhang Yanling laughed: "Uncle, what do you think my father would say in front of you? Can he talk to you seriously?"

"he……"

Shen Lu thought to himself, every time he met your father, he talked about all kinds of nonsense and I have never heard him say anything from the heart.

On the contrary, you, kid, sound like you are talking about solid stuff, but why do you feel even more hollow than your father?
"Uncle, is the salt I gave you earlier enough?"

Zhang Yanling said, "If it's not enough, the Ministry of Revenue will release some of it later. The Huizhou merchants have exchanged a lot of money, how about giving some to you?"

"Then...thank you for your help."

When Shen Lu heard this, he instantly felt that the younger one was better than the older one.

In any case, when it comes to matters involving practical interests, this nephew never plays tricks on him.

As for the older one, apart from playing dumb with him, he just kept pretending to be ignorant in front of him.

(End of this chapter)