The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 747 No poison, no husband

Theater.

After nightfall, the theater was still crowded with people. A new play was being performed and many people came to support it. Almost all the big and small fans in the capital had gathered.

Zhang Zhou did not join in the fun that day, but he was still inside the theater. He just moved to the observation deck in the backyard and watched the excitement in the main hall of the theater from afar.

At this time, at the backyard door of the theater, Jiang Dezhong was sitting on a stool, standing up from time to time to take a look, but no one came out. When he was almost impatient, he saw Liu Gui and two Jinyiwei appear in front of him.

"Lord Liu, can I come in and see him?" Jiang Dezhong now has to be very careful when dealing with Liu Gui.

After all, Liu Gui has always been a real Jinyiwei, and he was also the person responsible for protecting Zhang Zhou. Although he still holds the power of a hundred households, he is actually a deputy thousand households on a temporary basis and is very popular in Jinyiwei.

Liu Gui said, "Master Jiang, we are not trying to embarrass you, it is just that... you don't have the time to meet. Can you please visit at another time? Or... at another place?"

Jiang Dezhong sighed, "I know it's not good to visit without a reason, but I can see Minister Zhang here. If I go somewhere else... his gate is too high, I can't just visit him casually. Can you please let me know, at least let me go up to see him and have a few words with him?"

"Then... just wait. It may take a long time."

"It's okay. I can wait. You've worked hard, Master Liu. I'll definitely give you some good wine when you come to my house. I haven't had the time to treat you properly recently."

"Mr. Jiang, you are too polite. Just don't cause any trouble for us."

……

……

After meeting Jiang Dezhong, Liu Gui was not in a hurry to meet Zhang Zhou, because he knew that there were times when Zhang Zhou should not be disturbed.

Below the observation deck, three floors away, Liu Gui was yawning and fiddling with the Embroidered Spring Sword in his hand. The Jinyiwei next to him hurriedly came over to fawn on him and moved a chair for him.

"No need." Liu Gui said, "It's rare to have some free time, so it's okay to stand here for a while. Keep an eye on the surroundings. This place looks safe, but if someone really wants to harm you, do you know which direction the thief will come from? Keep an eye on all sides. Especially the direction of the stage."

As he was speaking, a maid came over to serve tea, which she was going to take upstairs.

Liu Gui pointed and said, "Wait aside first. There is no need to send tea up unless ordered by the higher-ups."

There were two maids, and they stood aside upon hearing this.

At least Liu Gui is the equivalent of Zhang Zhou's butler in the theater, and it seems that he has the final say on everything.

After a long time, little Jang Geum came down from upstairs with a basin of water in her hand.

Liu Gui just smiled and nodded at her, then smiled and said, "Sir, are you ready to meet the guests?"

Little Jang Geum said, "The master is still watching the show, I don't know."

"Hehe." Liu Gui had no temper towards this little girl. After all, they were all around Zhang Zhou. Perhaps in terms of closeness, he was not as good as Jang Geum.

Of course, this is just his idea. Zhang Zhou would never compare the closeness of the people around him. At least Liu Gui felt that as long as she was a woman, he could not afford to offend her, especially the women around Zhang Zhou. Who knows what their status will be in the future and whether they can easily control him?
Being in the world of fame and fortune, if he doesn't even understand this truth, then all the royal food he has eaten in the past few years has been in vain.

"Master Liu, the eunuch Yang who is in charge of the East Factory is here. Would you like to go and greet him in person?"

Just when Liu Gui was wondering whether to go upstairs to take a look, he heard his subordinate coming to report that it was a small flag officer.

Liu Gui said, "I see. I'll go right away. Let's tell the master that there are visitors. But Eunuch Yang is usually easy to talk to. He's probably here to watch the show, too. Just tell him that our master has some private matters to attend to, and he'll probably wait for a while."

……

……

Zhang Zhou actually had nothing serious to do.

However, there were three women around him. In addition to Zhang Lushui who was massaging his waist and legs, there were Chen and Wang Mingshan.

Of course, Wang Mingshan was responsible for protecting him closely. A few days ago, Wang Mingshan was not feeling well, so Zhang Zhou asked her to rest at home, but then she came back to his side...

In Zhang Zhou's opinion, there is one good thing about Xiao Wang, that is, no one cares about what he does, and sometimes he even becomes an "accomplice".

Wang Mingshan is very obedient, probably influenced by her grandfather Wang Yue. The daughters of the Wang family are probably the type who don’t like to use their brains. For her, whatever Zhang Zhou says is right. If she feels confused about something, she must have misunderstood it.

"It should be a guest." Zhang Zhou looked down from the window, but when he saw Liu Gui hurriedly heading towards the main courtyard, he knew that someone had come and Liu Gui had to receive him.

The reason why the daughter of the Chen family came to Beijing this time was to meet Ning Tong. After all, she was not the daughter of the Pingjiang Earl's family. She was just a salt merchant, and now she was just one of the many officials and businessmen of Zhang Zhou. Everything she had belonged to Zhang Zhou, and even her hometown had long been the same as Zhang Zhou.

She really wanted to have more contact with Ning Tong. Although she didn't know that Ning Tong had been taken in by Zhang Zhou, in her opinion, Ning Tong was a capable woman who could bring her some help.

"Go to the second floor and wait first." Zhang Zhou said, "I'll see the guests here, then you can come back."

"Yes."

After paying her respects, Daughter Chen retreated to the stairs and then turned around and went downstairs.

Zhang Zhou called Wang Mingshan to come over, pointed to the screen next to him and said, "When guests come, you wait inside. As for you..."

Zhang Zhou finally looked at Zhang Lushui and shook his head, saying, "Go down first. Even if I come to the theater these days, you don't need to come up. North Korea is going to send a group of envoys to Beijing recently... Among them is a person... Forget it. I won't say much to you, you go down first."

"Yes."

Zhang Lushui obviously had no idea what Zhang Zhou was talking about.

Even though she thought she could see through people's hearts and even understand men's preferences, she seemed helpless when it came to Zhang Zhou.

It may also be because she did not speak the language. She was never able to become proficient in Chinese, and Zhang Zhou did not bother to study her language, so Zhang Lushui often just acted as a maid, and occasionally as an interpreter to manage some musicians sent from Korea.

…………

Yang Peng walked up to the third floor with anxious steps and rumbling footsteps.

After seeing Zhang Zhou, he seemed to not even care about basic etiquette, and hurried over and said, "Sir, His Majesty sent a message saying that you must come to the palace tomorrow morning to discuss important matters with you."

Zhang Zhou said, "What's the matter? If you are in a hurry, you don't have to wait until tomorrow."

Yang Peng said helplessly: "From what we know so far, it seems to involve internal unrest in Tatar. I heard that something happened on the grassland. The grassland Khan had an internal mutiny. It is not clear whether the news is true. But I also heard that Huoshai, who had previously surrendered to our Ming Dynasty, is in a hurry to lead his troops to the grassland this time. It is very likely that he wants to fish in troubled waters."

"Oh?" Zhang Zhou looked surprised.

Yang Peng said, "I heard that even the three guards of Duoyan have made unusual moves. I think there will be more news tonight about what happened. You may not know about it while you are here, but the people in the upper court should have known about it."

Zhang Zhou nodded and said, "What happened in the grasslands may be good for us, but it may not be all good. It may also accelerate their internal integration... But I think it's about time. The Tatars have been defeated repeatedly in the battles against our Ming Dynasty in recent years. If their internal camp is still as solid as a rock, it's really unreasonable. This day will happen sooner or later."

"You are right." Yang Peng smiled, "In fact, Your Majesty is also looking forward to this day. Back then, whether it was the Huns, the Turks, or the Khitans, they were all ultimately defeated by internal mutinies. However, all of this was based on the strength of the Ming army. Now that the Ming army has entered the grasslands, and there has been a rebellion among the Tatars, perhaps this battle... can pacify the grasslands?"

"I hope so." Zhang Zhou said, "Eunuch Yang, do you have anything else to say?"

Yang Peng looked embarrassed, but he seemed to grit his teeth and said, "Indeed, there is, but it's a little... hard to talk about."

Zhang Zhou said, "Eunuch Yang, is this for personal matters?"

"Haha." Yang Peng said with a slightly awkward smile, "My nephew Yang Zhi has been serving in the Jinyiwei. I want to follow you and hope that you can make achievements. But I don't have the opportunity..."

Yang Peng's nephew Yang Zhi is a very powerful person. As far as Zhang Zhou knows, he is a second-generation eunuch in the capital.

In the past, relying on Yang Peng's power, he acted lawless in the capital. Of course, he was also cautious about his lawlessness. For example, Yang Zhi did not dare to offend the Zhou and Zhang families' relatives, but apart from these two families, he seemed to ignore the others.

The most well-known thing about Yang Zhi is that he was involved in the Mancang'er case. Since then, Yang Zhi was arranged by Yang Peng to work in the Jinyiwei, but because he had no special skills, he could not make a name for himself.

Zhang Zhou said: "Eunuch Yang is in charge of the East Factory. If he wants to arrange a job for your nephew, or even give him a chance to make meritorious contributions, there should be a lot of opportunities. Why do you ask me?"

Yang Peng smiled bitterly and said, "Sir, only you can bring out talented people. Who doesn't want to be by your side? This brat is always the first to cause trouble, but if he really wants to get things done, without the help of a noble person like you, I'm afraid he..."

"Oh, then let's assign him something to do first." Zhang Zhou said, "Recently, artillery drills are being held outside the city every day, and we need some Jinyiwei to assist. If you don't mind, let's assign him there first. What's his current position?"

"He's just the chief flag officer." Yang Peng said.

"Very good. He will be promoted to a centurion in the future. If he makes more contributions, he will be promoted further. Eunuch Yang, you are very caring for the younger generation, but you are not partial to them. If it were an ordinary person, he would have been arranged to be a centurion or something like that long ago." Zhang Zhou said.

Yang Peng said with a smile: "With you here, the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guards can't do anything wrong. Those who broke the rules before, didn't they get a bad ending now?"

This brings up a person, Li Zhang.

After Li Zhang resigned as the eunuch commander of the Eastern Depot, he was transferred to the northwest, but recently news of Li Zhang's death came.

As to how he died, it is still worth discussing. As far as Zhang Zhou knows, Li Zhang's death is more or less related to Yang Peng. It seems that Yang Peng is also afraid that a ruthless eunuch like Li Zhang will retaliate against him after returning to Beijing... He may have taken the initiative.

These eunuchs usually seemed very respectful to him, but when it came to killing people to silence them, they were just as bad.

This also made Zhang Zhou feel that if he underestimated the group of people in front of him, he might not even know how he died.

People with power may not be as easy to talk to as he is, or even win people over with virtue, because powerful people must first make it impossible for their political opponents to get up, and physical elimination is actually the best way.

It is inevitable to have the intention to harm others, but it is also necessary to be on guard against others.

In short,...

If others play dirty tricks on you, you need to be more dirty than them. Once you lose power, the people below will make you fall into irretrievable ruin without the emperor's order.

Zhang Zhou said: "Just for your nephew's matter?"

Yang Peng said, "There is one more thing. Your Majesty asked about sending ships to sea. Previously, Guo Ang, the former Jinyiwei Beizhenfusi Zhenfushi, led the Jinyiwei to go to sea on the ship. If it becomes a custom in the future, the East Factory may be responsible for this matter."

Zhang Zhou nodded and said, "There is a precedent."

This refers to some of the unwritten rules when Zheng He sailed to the West, which allowed the East Factory to be deeply involved in the sailings. The emperor trusted this group of people, and it was also necessary to have eunuchs and the Jinyiwei who were assigned to the East Factory to perform supervisory duties.

Otherwise, what should we do if the generals or officials who went out to sea set up their own camps and refused to come back?
Yang Peng said, "The East Factory actually has no experience in this, and we need your personal guidance. In addition, His Majesty has also urged the planting of new grains. These crops are currently only promoted in the surrounding areas of Northern Zhili. Not many are planted in Shandong, but there are quite a few in Liaodong... His Majesty has previously issued orders to the princes of various places, asking them to promote planting in various places. Only the Xingwang Mansion in Anlu responded positively."

"is it?"

Zhang Zhou smiled.

It seemed that if Yang Peng hadn't mentioned it, he would have almost forgotten about the Prince Xing's Mansion, which is now inconspicuous in Anlu.

Although the Xingwang Mansion will not make any moves in the next twenty years and will not even attract anyone's attention, this itself is a thorn in history. It will bring about changes in the Ming Dynasty's political power in the future and will also bring some adverse effects to Zhang Zhou.
If he can control Zhu Youtang and his son now, the Prince Xing's Mansion is beyond his control.

In other words, as long as he didn't want Zhu Youtang or Zhu Houzhao to have no descendants, at least he would have no connection with the Prince Xing's Mansion, even in this life.

But I’m afraid…

Something unexpected happened.

Although Zhu Youtang now seems to have two sons, and Concubine Xian is pregnant with another, it is unknown whether it is a boy or a girl. However, having just one more child is obviously not safe, and it seems to be a foregone conclusion that Zhu Houzhao will not be able to have children in the future...

In this case, Zhang Zhou seemed to have no choice but to choose one thing... that was to nip the rise of Prince Xing's Mansion in the bud, or even do something to make it completely unrecoverable.

This is probably what one has to do when he is in the world of fame and fortune, because Zhang Zhou also needs to survive.

(End of this chapter)