The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

Outside Qingning Palace.

Eunuch Jiang Lu came out and told Yongkang that she did not have to come to pay her respects and asked her to go back.

"I just want to see the imperial grandmother and leave." Yongkang seemed to want to meet the old lady.

Jiang Lu said with a bitter but polite smile: "Your Highness, the Queen Mother is in poor health recently and needs to rest and not be disturbed by outsiders. She will know your thoughts, so you should go back first. Come on. Don’t let these slaves make things difficult.”

Yongkang sighed.

Based on her past personality, she refused to let in and yelled directly outside to let the old lady know that she was outside.

But now she also knows some rules. Since she is not allowed in, it must be because the old lady doesn't want to see her. If she breaks in, she will be unhappy for herself.

"Then say hello to the Imperial Grandmother for me. I'll take my leave."

……

……

Yongkang leaves.

When Jiang Lu entered the inner hall, he saw Empress Dowager Zhou sitting there unhappy.

"Leaving?" Queen Mother Zhou put down the twisted Buddhist beads.

Jiang Lu said: "Yes, Her Royal Highness, the eldest princess, has gone back first and asked my slave to pay her respects to you."

"Tch! Be good when you get it! Who doesn't know that she is very popular now? Did she come to the Ai family to show off her power? Who is the Cui family? She is a married royal girl, and she doesn't know where to turn her elbows! "Of course Queen Mother Zhou was unhappy.

Why is it that your unscrupulous prince-in-law gets the credit, and not us, the children of the Zhou family?
Jiang Lu heard the complaint in the old lady's mouth and said tentatively: "The Queen Mother, do you think you should remind Cai Guogong?"

In Jiang Lu's opinion, maybe the old lady was blaming Zhang Zhou for not giving the Zhou family a chance.

Empress Dowager Zhou said: "Who do you think the Ai family are? Will they disregard the justice of the court for a little personal gain? If the Ai family talks to someone and it reaches the ears of the emperor, what will he think? What is the Zhou family like? Whether there is talent or not is not something the Ai family can decide.”

"Yes, yes." Jiang Lu responded, wondering in his heart.

You're unhappy, but you don't want to argue with Zhang Zhou?
Both stingy and open-minded, you old lady is very conflicted.

Just when Jiang Lu didn't understand what the old woman meant, Queen Mother Zhou asked again: "The children of the Zhou family have been in Yanwu Hall recently, are their lives going smoothly?"

Jiang Lu seemed to understand as soon as he heard this, and said hurriedly: "The classes at Yanwu Hall are closed in winter, and some of them have not gone to class. It has been quite cold these days, but many of the children of Marquis Qingyun and Uncle Chang Ning are here." Working in the Yanwu Hall is no longer a student, but a teacher, especially now that I heard that there is a youth class, and the children of the Zhou family are also in it. "

"That's good."

Empress Dowager Zhou's face seemed to gradually become satisfied, and she nodded and said, "You are proud for a moment, not for a long time. No matter how great your achievement is now, isn't it just those three melons and two dates? Today he killed a hundred people, and tomorrow he kidnapped dozens of people. How can he Is Bi Ping Cai’s contribution greater?”

Jiang Lu understood completely now.

Empress Dowager Zhou planned to "slowly flow", and to deal with the big ones later, so that the children of the Zhou family can contribute to the victory of the grassland, which will be more tangible than the current temporary victory and defeat.

Empress Dowager Zhou said: "Keep a close eye on the Ai family. These unsatisfactory people are usually arrogant! I haven't heard of them causing trouble in Beijing recently. If something unscrupulous happens again, the Ai family will not I will condone them! I will punish them however I want!”

"The Empress Dowager, you... are overly concerned." Jiang Lu actually understood.

The old lady was talking about the two relatives of the Zhou family who often had conflicts with the Zhang family. Not to mention bullying and domination, even violent fights and fatal injuries occurred from time to time.

But it seems that after Zhang Zhou came, the Zhou family and the Zhang family were not so keen on competing for the interests of their relatives.

The interests of the one-third acre of land in the capital seemed to be no longer the most important thing to them. Instead, they were competing for the interests of the Governor's Mansion, or in other words, they were competing to work for Zhang Zhou in order to obtain higher interests.

Empress Dowager Zhou sneered: "How many kilograms they have, others don't know, don't the Ai family know? They only think about reaching the sky in one step, and don't think about what they can do for the court! No matter how dishonest they are, they will be sent to the bitter cold place in the northwest to train for a few years." ...Now that Bingkuan is in the court, even if he is sent to the northwest, it will not be a hard job, and others are still rushing to go. "

Jiang Lu said: "I'm afraid you guys won't be able to bear the hardship."

"If you can't stand the hard work, then don't complain... That girl asked the Ai family to go to Yongkang. Didn't she always complain before? After all, it is Mao Ren who has perseverance and perseverance. He is also a relative of the emperor. This consort, the Ai family, cannot envy him. No wonder Bingkuan would give him a chance. Just look at his perseverance in hard work. Is it comparable to ordinary people? When Mao Ren comes back, let the girl from Yongkang come to pay his respects. When the couple comes together, the Ai family will be able to see it. Mao Ren, I don’t want to see Yongkang’s duplicitous face again!”

With that said, Queen Mother Zhou stood up and grabbed the Buddhist beads on the table.

This means going in to meditate.

But Jiang Lu was thinking, this has made him angry, is it still useful to worship the Buddha?
People in the world of mortals always want to escape from the world of mortals. Are you the one who is telling the truth?

……

……

Changning Bofu.

The Queen Mother Zhou's decree was directly put into the hands of Zhou Shou and Zhou Yu. In addition to a scolding, she also taught them to "be a good person", which made the second child Zhou Yu very unhappy.

"Old sister, what do you mean by this? It sounds like we have been released from prison, and we will not be able to survive in the future! Could it be that the previous forced purchase of land was known to the Queen Mother?"

Zhou Yu was a little nervous.

Zhou Shou held two walnuts in his hand. Hearing this, he stared at his younger brother with wide eyes and said, "You told me that nothing will happen to this matter! It must be like this! Otherwise, why would my sister do it?" "Yi Zhi gives it to you and me?"

"oops!"

Zhou Yu sat down and looked very annoyed, "It's not a forced sale. They are afraid of our relatives' status and are willing to give us a low price. Besides, the person who came forward is not from the family. This can be known. This It will be difficult to get anything in the future. We have to spend real money. If it were changed before, it would be fine if we didn’t give money.”

Zhou Shou waved his hand and asked the maids and others standing next to him to exit.

Then he said sternly: "You still don't open your eyes. You just had trouble with the two boys from the Zhang family before. They were making trouble and did things without considering the consequences. How many years have you been in Beijing? You don't even have any sense of propriety?"

"Brother, more than half of the land is in the name of your Marquis Mansion. Why do you blame me?" Zhou Yu was very dissatisfied.

Zhou Shou said: "Don't worry about this. Even if the land is returned, others will still say that we are bullying others! As long as we don't make things worse, even if the person in the palace knows about it, he will just turn a blind eye. What else do you want?" How is it?”

"Humph!"

Zhou Yu was still angry.

Zhou Shou sighed: "The Empress Dowager has always told us to take good care of our family business. We are only thinking about the future of the Zhou family. Even if our children work in the governor's house, they will not be recognized. This way , send your son to the northwest for two years of training.

Zhou Yu was shocked, then blew his beard and stared, "Why isn't he my eldest nephew?"

"The eldest son and eldest grandson still have to stay in the capital. If anything happens, they have to be supported by Quanzi, right? You, the Ningbo Mansion, are just a vassal of the Zhou family. Don't be confused about priorities! Besides, you have experienced the northwest. Merit, that brings glory to your face! It is too difficult to be promoted to Duke in the Marquis Palace, but you still have a chance to be promoted to Marquis. "

Zhou Shou is good at tempting.

Your family will do the hard work, and the good thing is that we, the Zhou family brothers, can work together as one.

Zhou Yu tilted his head and said, "I won't do it! Unless my eldest nephew also goes, don't even think about it!"

"Whether I want to go or not, I will tell the Empress Dowager when the time comes, and I will also ask Your Majesty..."

"Brother, you are not following the rules. Are you bullying the small ones?"

"I'm just bullying you, what's the matter? If you are a younger brother, you must have the awareness to be a younger brother! How many more years can you still run around when you are both old? If you can't teach your child well, I'll help you teach him! Our sister may not be able to live for a few years. If we don't wait for now...it will be too late! Then those two boys from the old Zhang family will sit on our brothers' heads and shit, and there's nothing you can do about them! "

……

……

West Nuan Pavilion.

On this day, Zhang Zhou was ordered to enter the palace again. Nominally he was there to discuss matters with the emperor, but in fact he was also taking care of Zhu Youtang's health. By the way, he also had to discuss some matters that could not be discussed in court. They were matters that could not be discussed externally between monarchs and ministers. secret.

"Bingkuan, look at this..."

Zhu Youtang took out a memorial.

This is a memorial written by Zhang Maoshang to impeach Ma Yi. It is said that Ma Yi did not obey orders, led troops out of the customs without authorization, and lacked procedures in the deployment of troops. In addition, the soldiers, horses, food and grass were not provided in time, and Ma Yi's six thousand troops were The troops ate Zhang Mao’s army rations...

In short, Zhang Mao just found fault and made Wang Shouren's painstaking efforts in deploying troops for him in vain.

Zhang Zhou smiled and said, "The wind is blowing a little wrong."

Zhu Youtang said disdainfully: "He is completely ignorant! Look at this again..."

After saying that, Zhu Youtang handed over another pile of memorials.

They are all memorials about the inaction of civilian officials who participated in the impeachment of Zhang Mao. Their attacks on Zhang Mao are no less sharp than when they participated in the impeachment of Zhu Hui. It seems that Zhang Mao's actions were worse than Zhu Hui's and should be severely punished.

"I never expected that Zhang Mao, an old man who was wise all his life, could not even grasp the right balance between advance and retreat. In the past, the governor's office and the civil servants had flirted with each other, but now... he still wants to play both sides. This is asking for death! "

When Zhu Youtang said this, there was a hint of ruthlessness in his expression.

Obviously Zhu Youtang had the intention of getting rid of Zhang Mao.

In addition to Zhang Mao not knowing how to do things, he relies on his old skills and pretends to be an old fool in front of the emperor all day long. Now he can't even decide his position. Without getting any credit, he actually stands on the opposite side of the emperor. Will the emperor still choose you, Zhang Mao?
Zhang Zhou said: "When it comes to the situation of the British Duke in the northwest, it cannot be said that there is much fault. He marched continuously and arrived at the right place at the right time every time, without any deviation."

"Bingkuan, you don't mean to say that he has hard work without any merit, right? That's you, but you still speak for him! This kind of person is not worthy of your help."

Zhu Youtang was clearly trying to persuade Zhang Zhou, so he might as well break up with Zhang Mao completely.

Zhang Zhou just smiled and said nothing this time.

Zhu Youtang said: "There is also a memorial from Wang Shouren here, take a look."

Zhang Zhou took it and it was a secret memorial written by Wang Shouren, which was presented directly to the emperor.

When Zhu Youtang was inspecting Zhang Zhou, he also commented: "Wang Shouren said that he led his troops into the grassland and marched westward, and the Tatars had long known his marching direction, so they retreated all the way to the west. The main tribes of Tartar were already around Guanshan. Because of the harsh grassland environment, Wang Shouren did not want to go deep into the army alone to avoid difficulties in withdrawing his troops, so he rushed as far west as possible. "

Zhang Zhou said: "Actually, he has a back-up plan, right?"

"Yes." Zhu Youtang nodded, "This is Datong's general Ma Yi's route map for advancing troops. It was summarized based on what Ye Bushou submitted. Ningxia did not send troops in time, but Ma Yi was able to follow the established route. They have been heading west. According to Wang Shouren's report, if the Tatars continue to retreat westward, they are likely to collide with the troops led by Ma Yi! "

Zhang Zhou took several more memorials and compared the contents with each other to confirm.

As Zhu Youtang said, Wang Shouren and Ma Yi are also cooperating.

Zhu Youtang smiled and said: "Bingkuan, this was all arranged by you, right?"

Zhang Zhou said: "No, I didn't think it was that complicated. Didn't Your Majesty also explain that the troops were sent before winter this year, just to resist foreign barbarians, and not to make any big gains? My abilities are also limited."

"No need to be humble, Bingkuan. I have actually seen for a long time that these generals in the northwest all look to you as their leader. If you hadn't taught them, how could they have such courage, not only marching straight into the grassland, but still taking the risk The cold winter wind and snow were something that never happened before.”

Zhang Zhou thought for a while.

If it is said that he gave the northwest generals courage, there is no objection to this.

That's how fighting is, the more you win, the more people will be willing to fight with you.

People are always willing to stand on the side of the strong, but if the weak want to show their abilities, there are still too few opportunities.

Zhu Youtang said again: "Compare these again... I feel more and more that Zhang Mao, this old man, is blinded by lard, and his brain is not working! Is he digging a hole for himself? Ma Yi Leading troops into the grassland may help him turn the tide and give him a chance to make achievements without even having to do anything on his own! What happens if he gets involved first? This kind of person is simply... ugh!"

Even the emperor was speechless for his minister.

Zhang Zhou also smiled.

Zhang Mao thought that he was on the right side, so he turned around and joined the civil servants in an attempt to help the civil servants rescue Xie Qian in exchange for the civil servants' support for him.

Little did he know that Wen Chen had no intention of helping Zhang Mao at all.

Wen Chen had no choice between Zhang Mao and Zhang Zhou, but sat on the mountain and watched the fight between tigers. What Wen Chen wanted more was for Zhang Mao to launch a fatal blow to Zhang Zhou when the dog jumped over the wall.

Instead of choosing to unite with Zhang Mao to deal with Zhang Zhou.

What do you, Zhang Mao, have to unite with?
We civil servants can't deal with Zhang Zhou, how can we join forces with you? Your greatest value is to use unconventional means to deal with Zhang Zhou! Otherwise, you won’t even be qualified to stand in the court! (End of chapter)