Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 220 Bi Ziyan comes to Beijing

"Master, the capital has arrived!"

Outside Beijing, a carriage came slowly.

After hearing from the servant that he had arrived in the capital, Bi Ziyan opened the curtain and looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar capital, feeling a surge of emotion in his heart.

He has not been to the capital for seven years since he was transferred from Taipusi Shaoqing to Tianjin governor in the first year of Taichang.

Now that the new emperor has ascended to power, he has been summoned to serve in the Ministry of Household Affairs. I don't know whether it is good or bad.

As the governor of Tianjin, Bi Ziyan was responsible for supervising the food and salary administration in Liaodong. He knew that the imperial court was already unable to make ends meet under the heavy burden of Liao's salary.

Later, after he was transferred to Nanjing as Minister of Household Affairs, he learned that the financial situation of the imperial court was full of holes.

The eunuchs behaved wildly again, which he couldn't stand anymore, so he was forced to resign.

I don’t know how bad the imperial court’s finances are now.

Knowing that the affairs of the Ministry of Finance were difficult to handle and contained numerous difficulties and obstacles, Bi Ziyan still did not hesitate to take office when the emperor wanted to reinstate him.

He was reinstated as soon as the emperor ascended the throne. Before he even took office, he was transferred from the special governor, Qian Fa Shilang, to the left minister of the household department. There were also rumors that he would be appointed as the minister of the household department. How could he not swear to repay such a favor? It's obvious that there are high hopes.

No matter how difficult the household affairs were, Bi Ziyan was determined to do it.

With thoughts running through his mind, Bi Ziyan was about to order his servants to enter the city. Suddenly, I heard a commotion not far from the city gate, and some familiar faces were gathering together.

"Dong Gong, you have arrived in the capital too!"

Seeing Dong Qichang from a distance, Bi Ziyan hurried over to say hello.

Although his friendship with Dong Qichang was not deep, they had served together in Nanjing. At that time, he was the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing, and Dong Qichang was the Minister of Rites in Nanjing. There is naturally a camaraderie between the two.

Dong Qichang had just arrived in the capital for two days and had not yet formally assumed his duties. Today, I was with Donglin Party officials to see Wu Shangmo off.

Seeing Bi Ziyan arriving, he felt happy. After saying hello, he introduced:

"Today is to see Wu Yushi off."

"For his contribution to the impeachment of Wei Zhongxian, he was promoted by His Majesty to the position of Shanxi Right Chief Envoy."

"We are about to leave today. Let's see everyone off together."

Bi Ziyan heard this strangely and looked at Wu Shangmo in surprise.

Not only was he promoted by the emperor, but he was also sent off by so many officials. What did Wu Shangmo do to have such great influence?

After Dong Qichang's explanation, Bi Ziyan learned that Wu Shangmo had admonished the emperor when he was resigning, and asked the emperor to issue an edict to punish the eunuchs and restore Donglin.

With such a great achievement, it is no wonder that the Donglin Party in the capital saw Wu Shangmo off. Many officials even came here to meet this person.

That is to say, Wu Shangmo did not stay in the capital. Otherwise, with this influence, he would quickly establish prestige among Kedao officials and influence a large number of people.

He and Wu Shangmo met each other and congratulated him on his appointment as chief envoy. Bi Ziyan looked at other senior officials, as well as some familiar faces, and stepped forward to greet them one by one, greeting them one by one.

Although he had just arrived in the capital with only a few servants around him, Bi Ziyan's reputation was not small. Many officials in the capital had been famous for him for a long time.

It can even be said that many officials knew that the reason why the emperor had not allowed Guo Yunhou to leave office was because he was waiting for Bi Ziyan to enter Beijing. Now that he has arrived, the position of Minister of the Ministry of Finance is likely to change. The nine ministers in the court will be replaced by one person.

For such a soon-to-be Jiu Qing, the officials present naturally respected him very much.

However, he was not the most distinguished person today. Wen Anzhi, who saw off Wu Shangmo on behalf of the emperor, was the person with the highest status.

Seeing that Wu Shangmo was about to set off, Wen Anzhi gave a reward on behalf of the emperor, the most important of which was a silver medal of "Correcting the Rope":
"This is a silver medal given by His Majesty. Yushi Wu must keep it well."

"If there is any illegal behavior in the local area, Yushi Wu can correct it and report the matter directly through the Jin Yiwei."

"You have served as a censor before, so you should be familiar with it."

Of course Wu Shangmo is familiar with it, because the seal of the censor with thirteen palm seals is "rope correction". Owning this silver medal means having censorship authority.

This surprised him very much. Could it be that the emperor also asked him to serve as censor to supervise lawlessness in the local area?
Of course, Zhu Youjian did not ask him to continue to serve as censor concurrently. That was the power only the governor had. This "rope and correction" silver seal is used to seal speeches. There are also matching dense folds and sealing methods.

Even, in order to keep the secret notes of the silver seal secret, Zhu Youjian even arranged a guard. While responsible for protecting Wu Shangmo, he was also responsible for the secret report of the silver medal.

Wu Shangmo quickly understood under Wen Anzhi's explanation.

Although he felt that the secret report was not very fair, it still represented the emperor's trust. Wu Shangmo couldn't refuse the emperor's courtesy, so he could only accept the silver medal in front of everyone. In fact, he decided in his heart that there was no need for a secret memorial with a silver seal. In order to avoid being thought of as a villain, he would only do it behind his back.

Saying goodbye to everyone, Wu Shangmo and the guards sent by the emperor slowly set off from the capital to take office in Shanxi.

At this time, he still didn't know the situation in Shanxi and didn't know what he would encounter. The silver medal he thought would not be used will soon come into play.

The power of the Silver Medal Secret Music will be demonstrated in his hands.

After sending Wu Shangmo away, Wen Anzhi's duty on behalf of the emperor was finally over. At this time, he was only a reviewer of the Hanlin Academy and also served as a living room official.

Although this position is low, he is a close minister of the emperor. Not only did the others dare not neglect him, they even wanted to get close to him.

However, Wen Anzhi ignored them, walked directly to Bi Ziyan, and said:

"Mr. Bi has finally arrived in Beijing. Your Majesty has asked many times about it."

"I keep saying that sir, he came too slowly and that he should have arrived in Beijing earlier."

Bi Ziyan was a little embarrassed when he said that, and the officials were even more surprised that the emperor valued Bi Ziyan.

Bi Ziyan started to recover at the end of October. Today, the fourth day of December, he arrived in the capital from Shandong. This speed is by no means slow.

The reason why the emperor felt slow was that he was urgently needed to take office in the Ministry of Revenue.

Otherwise, why wouldn’t other emperors urge them? For example, Dong Qichang and Yuan Keli got up in early September, but only arrived in the capital two days ago. The emperor never urged him, nor did he specially summon him after arriving in Beijing.

Now that Bi Ziyan had just arrived in Beijing, Wen Anzhi pointed out this point, which shows that the emperor valued him.

This made Bi Ziyan's weight in their hearts even heavier. When you come to Japan for promotion, you will naturally have an advantage.

He reminded Bi Ziyan and asked him to prepare for the palace visit. Wen Anzhi left in a hurry and returned to the palace to resume his duties.

In the palace, Zhu Youjian received the news from Wen Anzhi and knew that Bi Ziyan and Dong Qichang had arrived in Beijing. He immediately ordered to summon them and come to the palace tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)