The Reborn Duke of Ming Dynasty

What Ge Shouli said made Zhang Fan realize something in his heart, but even though he had thought of that aspect, he would never believe it in his heart. They will all fall to his side.

Zhang Fan was not dazzled by his own wishful thinking. On the contrary, his heart was very clear and calm. The so-called everything happens for a reason. This Ge Shouli's obvious gesture of goodwill must be There was a reason, but Zhang Fan didn't quite understand what the reason was.

It is because of Zhang Fan's current stature, which is very possible. Now Zhang Fan is extremely favored by Long Qing. This does not need to be explained by others. Anyone can see it. In addition, he is now in the south of the Yangtze River. A shocking corruption case was solved. Of course, this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that the case solved by Zhang Fan this time brought so much money to Long Qing. Nowadays, it is even more favored by Longqing.

As the Secretary of the Household Department, Ge Shouli actually knew some things earlier than other people, and he himself was not a fool. He was able to guess a lot of things through some news, just like this time, a few days ago, Zhang Fan After reporting the amount of silver collected back to the capital, Long Qing had already approached Ge Shouli to tell him.

Logically speaking, although there are no express regulations on how to deal with the seized dirty silver, it is customary to divide it into two parts, the larger one goes to the treasury of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the smaller one It is collected in the emperor's internal treasury, but this is not absolute. In addition, there is no meddlesome person like Xu Jie in Longqing's court now, and Gao Gong is busy fighting for power. Ge Shouli himself has something wrong. A person who desperately wants to abide by the ancestral system, so Long Qing told him that [-]% of the confiscated silver will go to the treasury of the Ministry of Households, [-]% will go to the emperor's own treasury, and the other [-]% will be given to him. As a reward for Zhang Fan, Long Qing didn't want to keep this matter as a big secret, but he also didn't want to publicize it in court, after all, this kind of thing would only arouse the envy of others and all sorts of other things.

After Ge Shouli listened to Long Qing's words, the first feeling in his heart was jealousy. He was extremely jealous of Zhang Fan. Although he knew that Zhang Fan was very favored by Long Qing, he didn't know the situation too well. Ge Shouli didn't know what kind of status Zhang Fan had with Long Qing, and Long Qing's words made Ge Shouli realize that Zhang Fan's status in Long Qing's mind was quite high, and he was definitely not the kind of temporary emperor. Instinctively, a favorite jester, after all, what Ge Shouli was jealous of was not how much money Zhang Fan received from Long Qing this time, but because he was jealous of Zhang Fan's position in Long Qing's heart.

But afterward, as soon as the feeling of jealousy passed, Ge Shouli felt joy in his heart again. Since Long Qing told him not to publicize this matter, he explained another thing from the side, that is, for Ge Shouli Long Qing is also quite at ease. Ge Shouli is very self-aware. He understands that although he is a smart person, he is only so smart. If he has the wisdom to make decisions, he himself will not agree. The reason is that he understands that he is already at his peak if he can achieve the position of Minister of the Ministry of Finance and the second-rank official of the imperial court. If he wants to go up one step further, he asks himself if he doesn't have that ability. Relying on forming factions and building good interpersonal relationships can be successful. Therefore, what Ge Shouli cares about is not whether he can make further progress, but how he can stay in this position for a long time. Let him work until he is old, and then return to his hometown to provide for the elderly with this honor.

It was also at that time that Ge Shouli truly realized that his current attitude of neither left nor right, standing on the neutral side could at best keep him stable for a while, but not forever. At this time, he was determined to give I found a backer by myself.

As for him, Minister of the Household Department, he is also one of the leaders of the six departments and a second-rank official of the imperial court. If this kind of help shows that he wants to take refuge in one side, no one will object to it. In this way, for Ge Shouli , his choice is very large.

Since Gao Gong finally defeated Xu Jie by playing some tricks, he returned to the court, re-entered the cabinet, and took the position of the cabinet's chief assistant. Today's Gao Gong can be said to be very powerful. He not only formed cliques , trying to expand his power, while he is still sparing no effort to eliminate dissidents. Gao Gong's power is now the most popular, but Ge Shouli is not optimistic about him. Now that there is such a big fanfare, it makes the court look a little bit like a dog. Seeing that Long Qing didn't say anything, Gao Gong became more presumptuous, but this kind of momentum will definitely not last long. Ge Shouli believes that, The time for Gao Gong to make him proud is running out. It won't take long, maybe a few years, maybe a few months, when Long Qing or someone in the court will suddenly attack. Ge Shouli saw this clearly, and immediately gave up. over the high arch.

On the other hand, the faction headed by Zhang Juzheng can be called the Gentlemen's Party. This group of people does things in a disciplined manner. They usually think about the overall situation and consider everything. But let Ge Shouli join If it comes to this side, I'm afraid he is not very willing. This group of people is too strict when they say it. Although Ge Shouli is not a corrupt official or a treacherous person, he still wants to be free. It means that he doesn't want to be restrained too much, and if he plans to be with Zhang Juzheng and his group, it will be a very painful thing. A person is greedy for enjoyment and easily judges a person, but other people will not be like this. Most of those people are rigid and sour scholars, and they are rigid in their actions and even in their speech. Well, they would absolutely not allow someone like Ge Shouli, who acted a little casually, to be with them and "ruin" their reputation.

These two paths are no longer feasible, so Ge ​​Shouli will naturally not just think that he is really no one wants him. What Long Qing said to him earlier made him think of another possibility, Zhang Fan, Zhang Fan It has been less than a year since he entered the official career, but his achievements in this year can be compared to the achievements of other people who have worked hard for most of their lives. Even many people may not be able to reach Zhang Fan's current level in their entire lives. high.

This is indeed a very good object of refuge. Although Zhang Fan's current climate has not yet fully formed, his bright future has been clearly shown in front of everyone. Not only does he have the great strength of the current emperor Long Qing Favor and trust, especially the trust of the current crown prince and the future Ming emperor Zhu Yijun, the two are a teacher-student relationship, which is definitely an important sign of prosperity. Although Zhang Fan can be regarded as a prosperity now, what will happen in the future? So, who can say for sure.

Moreover, for Ge Shouli, choosing Zhang Fan as the object of refuge has an even more important advantage. Zhang Fan has not entered the official career for a long time, because he is too young and has too little qualifications. It is not related to many people in the court, but Zhang Fan will have a group of people who will follow him and help him in the future. This situation is absolutely no one can deny. Ge Shouli took the initiative to show Zhang Fan Alright, if I want to get into Zhang Fan's power circle that doesn't have a framework yet, in the future when Zhang Fan's power grows stronger, Ge Shouli will be able to call himself a patriarch. Even if the official road cannot go further, it will be smooth sailing and very stable.

After understanding this truth, Ge Shouli made a decision. Until now, all the situations were the same as what Zhang Fan had guessed, but later, things were different. It was slightly different from what I imagined. What Ge Shouli did today was entirely Ge Shouli's own decision. He didn't greet anyone, whether it was the neutral faction he was in now, or anyone else. He didn't even reveal his thoughts. Although what he did today was decided after thinking a lot in his heart, for many people, what he did was still too sudden.

Sure enough, Ge Shouli's words not only attracted Zhang Fan's attention to him, but also attracted the attention of other courtiers standing on both sides. Although there was no discussion in the court, these officials They were exchanging opinions with each other with their eyes, and more eyes were on Ge Shouli and Zhang Fan, as if they wanted to see some clues from them.

On the emperor's throne above the high platform, Long Qing didn't express any opinion on this, but there was a laugh that showed that he was very happy now. Afterwards, Long Qing also fell silent, as if he also wanted to see what was going on now .

The situation in the court hall below is now more interesting. Those who belong to the same faction as Ge Shouli all have inexplicable expressions. Presumably, Ge Shouli did not reveal any of his plans before, and those people also He didn't know anything at all, and Ge Shouli's sudden and obvious overtures to Zhang Fan really made this group of people who have always advertised their neutrality extremely suspicious, and it also made them feel a little annoyed. After all, Ge Shouli is also a leader of their neutral faction, a person who can speak up, and now Ge Shouli has shown a good impression of Zhang Fan without warning, and more importantly, these people are not at all. He didn't get any omens, and he didn't hear anything from Ge Shouli.

It's not that they object to Ge Shouli's actions, or that they don't like Zhang Fan at all, but what they are annoyed is that Ge Shouli is so self-assessed and acts like this without consulting them at all. Agreeing to Ge Shouli's approach is normal, and they are ready to collectively fall to Zhang Fan, although perhaps in the end, many of them will feel that there is nothing wrong with doing so, after all, they are not looking at Zhang Fan's future development direction. I don't know, it can be said that if they followed Ge Shouli's impromptu idea and stood in Zhang Fan's camp, it would be a good choice, but it's just a matter of speaking, no matter how they are, they don't care. No matter how you make do, there is still some dignity that needs to be preserved, or I can't hold back my face.

In short, it’s just one sentence, they didn’t disagree with Ge Shouli’s decision, but they were angry at Ge Shouli’s arbitrary behavior.

The other courtiers were also very concerned about this situation, but they didn't know that Ge Shouli's current behavior was just his own decision, and he didn't bring anyone else from the middle faction together. It seems that Ge Shouli is a heavyweight in the middle faction, and what he said must represent the thoughts of many people in that faction.

Therefore, there is a kind of thinking in the court now, that is, the middle faction with the largest number of people is about to fall to Zhang Fan. The middle row has a large number of people. The person who will not appear too frequently in the court will become the master of the most powerful faction in the Ming court. Although everyone knows that there are so many courtiers standing in the middle, it is absolutely impossible for them all to fall to Zhang Fan , but even if it is only half, it is definitely enough for Zhang Fan to quickly expand his power.

This news is not bad for some people, like Zhang Juzheng who knows Zhang Fan better, and although Zhang Juzheng will not obviously agree with this, he will not express his opposition either. Compared with Zhang Juzheng, the possibility of agreeing Sex is great.

For Gao Gong and his group, this is definitely bad news. Gao Gong and Zhang Fan are currently in a state of anxiety, and this variable will definitely make Gao Gong feel extremely troublesome.

But now, facing this sudden incident, Gao Gong has no way to change anything for a while, so he just stays where he is, and doesn't pay attention to anything anymore, it seems that he has already started to find a solution.

And at this time, Long Qing continued to ask about the just-concluded Jiangnan War,