Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 216
During the daytime, those who participated in Jianxinzhai's outing party were all children around the age of ten. Even if their identities were a little more eye-catching, after all, their influence was limited. care too much.

But in the afternoon, Cheng Guogong Zhu Xizhong suddenly sent a wave of invitations, inviting a group of honorable officials in Beijing to go to his house to appreciate the plum blossoms, so he had to attract the attention of Dongchang—it was normal for the Jinyiwei to not respond, after all, the current The governor in Jinyi is Zhu Xixiao, Zhu Xizhong's younger brother.

Feng Bao, the eunuch of Bingbi, the supervisor of ceremonies and the admiral of Dongchang, had already left Dong'anmen, and rushed to the Dongchang Yamen in the south of Yanxi Temple in person to listen to the reports from his subordinates, big and small.

There is a south-facing gate in the East Factory, which is closed all year round to add a mysterious and terrifying atmosphere.And the real gate is in the southwest, for people to enter and exit.Inside this gate is the main hall, and there is another small hall on the left side of the hall, in which there are portraits of Yue Fei.There is a brick screen wall behind the hall.On the wall, there are beasts such as Suanni and the story of Di Renjie breaking the tiger.There is an ancestral hall in the west of the hall, which enshrines the title tablets of the eunuchs in charge of the East Factory in the past.There is a stone square in front of the ancestral hall, and the words "Liufang through the ages" are engraved on the forehead of the square.A little south is a criminal prison, which is specially used to receive serious offenders.

Historically, in the early years of Wanli, Feng Bao, as Zhang Juzheng's ally in the palace, supervised Dongchang, and his authority was extremely strong, so he built another Dongchang yamen, called the internal department, and used the original Jiandongchang as the external department.At that time, there was a horizontal plaque in Zhongli of the Internal Administration, with the words "confidant of the imperial court" written on it.The pride revealed in these four words is beyond words.However, it was still Long Qingnian at this time, Feng Bao's status had not yet reached that level, so there was no distinction between inside and outside the East Factory, and he was coming to the only main office of the East Factory at this moment.

"Factory Supervisor, the reason why Cheng Guogong invited all the ministers to the banquet was that he had just recovered from a long illness, and it happened that he had scored twice in the garden, so he was in a good mood... I also heard that the Beijing battalion has been restructured recently, and many generals and soldiers in Beijing feel uneasy. To come forward and call Zhu Xungui to the mansion to comfort and appease." A Pangtou said cautiously.

"Do you believe this?" Feng Bao glanced at him coldly, and said expressionlessly, "It's not such nonsense that the governor wants to hear."

That Pangtou was at a loss for words for a moment, and the other Pangtou next to him hurriedly said: "Duke, please calm down. The low-rankings are just reporting according to the rules, and you don't believe it if it's not true... The matter of Cheng Guogong's banquet was just before the Dugong came. The lower ranks have discussed and analyzed for a while, and think that there are roughly two possibilities."

Holding his airs, Feng Bao unhurriedly took a sip of the teacup, and then said: "I have never seen you do anything famous since I was the admiral of the East Factory. Since you have already discussed this matter, then Let’s talk and listen.”

The leaders present all cursed in their hearts: Our Dongchang’s reputation is bad enough, the more famous things we do, the more infamy it will become.Today is a lenient and benevolent king. If we provoke trouble, I am afraid that you will be the first one to suffer, right?
According to the regulations of the Ming Dynasty, there was one admiral and eunuch in Dongchang, commonly known as Dongchang Admiral, Changgong, Dugong, and factory owner.There are more than forty people in charge, foreman, and secretary. Twelve teams are in charge of affairs, arranged according to Zichou Yinmao, and each leader handles affairs. There are more than [-] people in total.
The Guanfang of the Admiral of Dongchang is engraved with "Imperial Commissioner Governor Dongchang Official School and Eunuch Guanfang", which has more "imperial envoys" than other official offices.Since he has the status of an imperial envoy of the emperor, everything he does represents the emperor, so no one will dare to disobey him.In addition, a sealed tooth seal was engraved, with the four characters "Dongchang Sealed" engraved on it, which was specially used to seal the information of Shangzuo.

Since there are so many spies, large and small, they must be used to spy on intelligence, and the objects of intelligence spying include everyone except the emperor.Gathering intelligence is called "fighting incidents."The content of the calls involved a wide range of incidents, ranging from homicides to lightning strikes, fires, and even the price of firewood, rice, oil and salt.It can be said that all the actions and speeches of officials, soldiers and civilians in the world are theoretically under investigation.

If all the incidents happened like this, even though there were mistakes, it was ultimately due to the understanding of the situation. Even if the officials and the people were controlled by spies, it was due to the imperial autocratic regime, and no one could blame others.But the reality is far from that. Those Dongchang fan servants often don't go to the incident themselves, but spend money to buy the incident from the local hooligans.For the sake of money, what can a local ruffian not do?False accusations with anger, tempting people to commit adultery, and making things out of nothing. As a result, unjust cases have repeatedly occurred, and the officials and the people have suffered greatly.

The purpose of setting up the Dongchang spy agency was originally to investigate rebellion, treason and the so-called "treacherous party", that is, to deal with political opponents.Because of this, in the Ming Dynasty, no matter whether it was a single-husband tyrant or a benevolent and wise ruler, since the establishment of Dongchang, no one thought of abolishing it.It's just that some emperors thought it was disgraceful and covered up and restricted it a little bit. If they met a tyrannical and mediocre king, the spies' activities would be even more unscrupulous in indulgence. At this time, Dongchang became an authoritarian eunuch A tool for eradicating dissidents, a slaughterhouse for displaying lust.

Emperor Jiajing had good political skills and didn't care about face, so he didn't rely much on eunuchs; Emperor Longqing had Gao Gong, a teacher who was like his father and son, at his disposal. Baoji Dongchang naturally has little room to play.At this time, the people of Dongchang certainly dare not be reckless, let alone act recklessly.In fact, this is also an important reason why Feng Bao tried every means when Long Qing passed away in history, and he did not hesitate to pass on a false inheritance edict to get involved in "Gu Ming".

But the slanders from the heads of the pendants are all slanders, and it is absolutely impossible for them to compete with Feng Bao.

The first person to speak, Pangtou, replied: "The factory supervisor, the low-ranking people think that the above reasons are not necessarily false, but they are certainly not the main reason."

Feng Bao closed his eyes and gave an indifferent "hmm" as a response.

Napintou continued: "The humble staff and others have analyzed two final possible reasons. The first is that the reform of the Beijing camp has reached a critical moment, and Cheng Guogong needs to reach an agreement with all the important honorables; the second is that It has something to do with this morning, the prince's companion, Gao Yushi, invited the descendants of the honorable families for a spring outing, but there is no way to know the specific connection."

Feng Bao suddenly opened his eyes, waved his hands and said, "The cabinet and the Ministry of War are still in a stalemate over the matter of the Beijing camp. Duke Cheng has always been a very tolerant person. Whether the old man wins or Huo Benbing wins, he will only go to the office and say that everything is obeyed. Especially now that Mr. Zhao Ge's side is in the upper hand, he will not insist on having military ministers alone in order to avoid suspicion. Have you resigned, sir?"

All the heads expressed that "the factory supervisor has a high opinion", "the factory supervisor has a clear view" and so on.

Feng Bao said again: "Originally, the most suspicious thing is that the civil servants and military generals have too close acquaintance. With the name of the Imperial Academy, he is also a civil servant after all, and he travels with the noble children, why didn't you keep a good watch on him?"

"This..." Zhong Dang looked embarrassed.

Feng Bao sneered and said, "Our family knows that it's Zhu Xixiao, the governor of Jinyi, who makes you think it's not easy to do too much, right? But don't forget, my east factory originally wanted to monitor Jinyiwei, even though many people in the factory — Many of you, including many of you, are from Jinyiwei, but you can’t forget your own errands because of this! Otherwise, if something goes wrong, don’t blame our family for not being sympathetic.”

What can everyone say?It's not submissive, saying that he dare not forget his duty.

Feng Bao changed the subject, and said again: "Of course, our family is not unreasonable. Those who are highly pragmatic and invited are all juniors. They are not very old. It is understandable for you to ignore it for a while. But!" His tone suddenly became severe, and he said slowly but with a sense of oppression: "From today onwards, we must not be careless about these people anymore!"

(End of this chapter)