I am a temporary worker in Jinyiwei, how did I become a powerful official?

Chapter 81: Night Banquet at Luo Mansion
In the evening, Biyun was dressed up. She was wearing a Hangzhou silk cotton jacket and skirt, and a pair of embroidered yellow brocade shoes.

There are many head ornaments, including silver centerpieces, silver centerpieces, silver full crowns, silver top hairpins, silver buns, silver flower ornaments, silver hairpins, gold-covered silver earrings, and silver bracelets.

This set of headgear is worth one hundred and fifty taels of silver.

This was made for his daughter-in-law by Lin Youniu after Lin Shisan was promoted to the small flag.

According to Lin Youniu, "You are now the wife of a seventh-rank military officer. You will inevitably socialize with the wives of officials in Beijing. You must have a set of head ornaments that are presentable."

Lin Youniu is indeed an old man who has experienced many years and is very far-sighted.

Hu'er put on a brocade jacket, a tiger-head hat, and a pure gold longevity lock on his chest. He looked like a simple young master from a landlord's family.

Lin Shisan helped Biyun onto the mule. He then picked up Huer and handed him to Biyun. He planned to lead his wife and children to the Luo Mansion by the mule.

Just as they were about to leave, an exquisite sedan chair carrying two women appeared at the entrance of the alley, with the servants of the Luo Mansion leading the way.

The servant walked quickly to Lin Shisan and bowed, "My master knows that Master Shisan's family doesn't have a female sedan chair. He specially sent us to pick up your wife and son."

"Our master also said that Master's Wife and Junior Brother are coming to Luo Mansion for the first time, so we must not lose their dignity."

Lin Shisan sighed: "My benefactor is really thoughtful."

Biyun and Hu'er got on the women's sedan chair. Lin Shisan rode a mule and followed behind the sedan chair. The two sedan bearers' big feet stepped on the snow, making a "creaking" sound.

The moon was above the treetops. Lin Shisan got off his mule in front of the Luo residence.

There were already more than a dozen official sedan chairs, more than thirty women's sedan chairs, and more than twenty horses parked in front of Luo's mansion.

Lin Shisan was a little confused: Why are there more people coming tonight than at the insect viewing party?

He was just about to lift the curtain and help Biyun get out of the sedan chair when two maids from the Luo residence came forward quickly, one lifting the curtain for Biyun and the other offering her hand.

The family of three entered the mansion. The servant led Lin Shisan into the north main hall.

Biyun and her son were taken to the east side hall, where the women's banquet was held.

As soon as Lin Shisan entered the room, Luo Longwen stood up and greeted him with a smile: "Haha, Master, oh no, Lin Chuanfeng from Yongshou Palace is here."

Lin Shisan was surprised again - the main hall was filled with high-ranking officials of the Yan Party.

He thought to himself: Is it worth it for so many first, second, third and fourth-rank officials to come just to celebrate the promotion of a seventh-rank general flagman like me? I guess the Yan Party must have something important to tell Governor Lu.

It is important for people to know themselves. Lin Shisan obviously has this advantage.

Fang Xiang, the military selector of the Ministry of War, said with a smile: "I have long known that Brother Lin is not an ordinary person. This time he was promoted to the General Banner of the Embroidered Uniform Guards and was granted a salary as a close minister to the Emperor. He has a bright future!"

Wan Cai, the official in charge of selecting officials in the Ministry of Personnel, said, "The emperor loves to keep pets. There are a lot of imperial cats, imperial dogs, imperial birds, imperial fish, and imperial turtles in the Western Garden. Some of them always get sick or get lost from time to time. In the future, won't our brother Lin become a frequent visitor to the Yongshou Palace?"

Minister of Personnel Wan Tong said: "Lin Shisan is only 20 years old, and he can enter and leave Yongshou Palace. He will surely have a bright future."

Gao Yao, the Minister of Revenue, said, "As a paid official, you will go to the local areas to do errands and look for new and interesting things for the emperor. You must entertain all the local officials passing by and give them generous gifts. Little Thirteen, you are getting promoted and getting rich."

A group of people praised Lin Shisan to the sky.

Lin Shisan was not flattered. He did not dare to be arrogant in front of a group of officials. He bowed his head and said, "How can I be worthy of such praise from the pillars of the country?"

"I was able to get promoted because I listened to the conversations of the pillars of state at the Insect Appreciation Conference. I learned a lot about being a man and an official."

"In Journey to the West, it is said that a white-haired mouse at the Buddha's feet could become a spirit after eating the oil from the Buddha's lamp. What's more, the mouse is a living person?"

"Everyone present here is the true Buddha of the Ming Dynasty!"

Wow, the high officials were originally flattering Lin Shisan. Lin Shisan simply threw the compliments back. He was called "the pillar of the country" and "the true Buddha", which made the high officials feel happy.

Luo Longwen cheered, "Well said! Everyone, my master has been promoted but he is not arrogant. There are few young people in the officialdom today who have such a character."

Wan Tong said, "I am in charge of the Ministry of Personnel. I have seen too many young officials who were promoted quickly and became arrogant and did not know their own weight. It is rare to find someone with the character of Lin Shisan."

The Luo Mansion's flattery contest is over. Lin Shisan and a group of old foxes in the officialdom have ended up in a tie.

Let’s get down to business.

Luo Longwen said, "Today I am hosting a banquet to celebrate my master's promotion. Before we start, there are a few things to discuss."

Lin Shisan thought: OK, finally we are getting to the point. After going through so much trouble, there is still something that needs to be passed on to Governor Lu and the Emperor behind Governor Lu.

All the officials fell silent. Luo Longwen looked at Ouyang Bijin, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War.

Ouyang Bijin cleared his throat and said, "Zhao Wenhua and Hu Zongxian from the southeast submitted a proposal to the Ministry of War. They plan to contact the Japanese leader Wang Zhi, persuade him to surrender, and then use Wang Zhi to fight the Japanese pirates."

"People are two-faced. If we try to persuade them to surrender, Xu Cifu's group might say that Zhao Wenhua and Hu Zongxian are colluding with the Japanese. Oh, it's frustrating."

The Wang Zhi that Ouyang Bijin mentioned was the biggest Japanese leader, who called himself "the Master of the Five Peaks Ship" at sea.

This person is not considered a Han woman. The reason is very simple. Han women work for foreign enemies.

Wang Zhi, on the other hand, was the opposite. It was the Japanese who were attached to him and worked for him.

Wang Zhi owned the largest smuggling and pirate fleet in the world. He monopolized the firearms trade between Portugal and Japan. He also had a large territory in Satsuma.

To put it bluntly, Wang Zhi had money, guns, territory, food, and people.

The Japanese country had been in constant conflict among villages and towns for years, and the sixty-six feudal lords were most in need of firearms. In the words of later generations, Wang Zhi was their king of war.

Therefore, the lords of the sixty-six fiefs and even the shogun had to be polite to Wang Zhi.

The first step in Hu Zongxian's strategy to pacify the Japanese was to persuade Wang Zhi to surrender.

Ouyang Bijin said those words just now in order to let Lin Shisan pass the message to Lu Bing, who would then pass it on to Emperor Jiajing in Yongshou Palace.

This would prevent the Qingliu faction from falsely accusing Zhao and Hu of colluding with the Japanese when they started to negotiate surrender.

Lin Shisan kept Ouyang Bijin's words in mind and prepared to report them verbatim.

Minister of Personnel Wan Tong said: "Alas. It is too difficult to do anything practical in the court now. The emperor just sent Zhao Wenhua and Hu Zongxian to the southeast to fight against the Japanese. Xu Jie sent Zhao Zhenji to manage the food and wages in the rear to hinder the work."

"A few days ago, Prince Yu's Mansion sent me another letter of recommendation. It recommended the Supervisory Censor Wang Bengu to serve as the Zhejiang Provincial Censor."

"It is said that Prince Yu recommended Wang Bengu, but in fact it was Xu Jie and his group who recommended Wang Bengu."

"Xu Jie's move is to continue to interfere in the southeast."

Luo Longwen gathered up his saliva and said, "Ah, bah! What kind of a person is Wang Bengu? I can see through him at a glance!"

"Besides nagging and finding fault all day long, what else can he do?"

"He is just a noisy crow! If he goes to the southeast, he will only ruin the cause of resisting the Japanese invaders!"

Although Lao Luo has a carefree personality and is not as slick as the typical bureaucrats who came from the imperial examination system, he is very good at judging people, and his words will come true in the near future.

Lin Shisan also wrote down the second major event of the night: the Yan Party opposed Wang Bengu's inspection tour to Zhejiang.

(End of this chapter)