Linxia

Chapter 235, Counterattack

Chapter 235, Counterattack

Time flies, and it is already the fifth year of Tianshun.

Fang family.

In the backyard, Qiuqiu was already thirteen or fourteen years old, and was becoming more and more pretty. She was wearing a lake blue brocade shirt with goose yellow butterflies embroidered on the sleeves, a high and even palace ribbon, and a fan, which made her look more graceful. Beside her, there were two little ones of five or six years old, lying down. They were the two youngest brothers and sisters.

They are the fourth and fifth children after Fang Tai and Fang Xi, a pair of twins, brother Fang Shuo and sister Fang Xing.

The brother and sister were born on the first day of the lunar calendar at midnight, when the sky was full of stars, so the brother was named "Shuo" and the sister was named "Xing".

To be honest, Fang Shuo's luck is not as good as his two brothers. The year he was born, Meng Jiang was transferred back from overseas to guard the Fang family. He has been training him since he was three years old and he has suffered a lot. However, the good thing is that he has grown up very strong. This kid is also smart and learns things very quickly, much better than his two brothers.

Fang Xing is equally smart, but has been influenced by Gu Yuyan and Shi Wenjun. Despite being young, he has a quiet and graceful aura. At this moment, he is holding Guaiguai in one hand and Huahua in the other, and drawing for them, looking very similar to the real girls.

Today, Guaiguai and Huahua are already in their teens, which means they have already entered old age in the lifespan of cats and dogs. They are lazy all day and don’t like to move much.

At this time, the sunlight shone through the grape vines with bunches of green grapes, and fell on the three children, a pair of cats and a dog. Qiuqiu was explaining equations to Fang Shuo, and was teaching her sister how to draw.

Fang Lin came back and saw this scene, a gentle smile appeared on his face, just like his own children and Tian Xuan. He thought it was good to have some preferences of his own.

Tian Xuan learned to read and do accounting at an early age, but he handed over the specific tasks to his subordinates for cross-checking and only focused on the major events, which did not take up much of his energy every month. The year before last, he found a female master to learn lantern shadow play (later shadow puppetry), and often took him and his children to watch the performances; Qiuqiu learned music, chess, calligraphy and painting, but, perhaps because he had heard too many childhood stories, he was most interested in writing novels. Under the guidance of Fang Lin, he even published a book "The Story of Hong Fu"; Fang Tai was the eldest son in the family and was quite interested in business. He studied management and operation diligently; as for Fang Xi... it's better not to mention him. In the past year or two, he had somewhat understood Xu Kuo Lao's attitude towards Xu Xianwen.

"Daddy?" Qiuqiu noticed Fang Lin coming back, and stood up and took two quick steps. After all, she didn't come over to him like she did when they were children, but her attachment to him was still visible.

Fang Shuo and Fang Xing were not so reserved. They shouted "Daddy" and rushed over.

"Hey!" Fang Lin picked up one in each hand.

"Dad, I haven't seen you for most of the day, and you didn't even come back for lunch."

"Yeah, Daddy, where have you been?"

"I went to Xixiang Hutong."

Fang Lin sighed, "Over at the old house, your Grandpa Qiu is gone. When the old couple went to sell vegetables, their cart flipped over and they fell into a ditch. His lower body was paralyzed... Your Grandma Qiu has taken care of him until now, but she passed away, leaving you alone..."

The neighbors in the West Alley, the Qiu family next door, Mr. Qiu is gone now, and Mrs. Qiu has gray hair and dim eyesight, and doesn't look very energetic, probably not much time left;
In the Man family, Man Gensheng later married a widow and treated Grandma Man badly. This time when he went back to the alley, he saw that Grandma Man was so old and thin that he could hardly recognize her. She was not fat at all. Thinking of the past: when the Fang family just moved in, the other party shamelessly went to have tea, was mean to the daughter-in-law Chuntao and forced her to leave, Man Gensheng lost money and was found, he would rather be strangled to death to wake up his son, was pointed out by Fang Lin that he was faking his death and saved his life, and wanted to take Fang's mother to eat and drink... Thinking back to these things now, the hatred and disgust have long faded, leaving only pity;
Xin family, Xin Laogong escaped death, but he also passed away the year before last, with a smile on his face. After all, his family was well-off, with many children and grandchildren. After all, they were old friends. Fang Lin took care of Xin You and his wife. Xin You joined the fleet, and Sha Xiaoyun worked in a women's workshop. The couple's income was considered decent in the city. After Xin Yaer, they gave birth to three sons and one daughter, all of whom were healthy. This time, he also saw Xin Yaer, who was still short and was only two feet tall. However, it was not easy for the Xin family to raise her.

Mr. Ou is fine. Although his hair is completely white and his teeth are almost all gone, he can still walk and take care of himself. The fortune teller who said he has a long time to live turned out to be right, as he has outlived many old people in the alley.

Over there, the Lu family...

Qiuqiu and her two siblings listened to Fang Lin's story. Qiuqiu listened carefully and asked questions from time to time. Fang Shuo and Fang Xing had no interest in these "adult matters". They would go back to do math and draw after listening halfway.

This is not surprising, as they were both born here and have rarely met their neighbors in Xixiang Hutong.

"Dad, Grandpa, Grandma, and my third brother, when will they come back?" Qiuqiu asked.

"Dad doesn't know either. If you miss them, you can go out to sea to see them. But if you go to Southeast Asia, you can only see your grandpa and grandma. Your third brother ran away to the West without saying a word." Fang Lin mentioned Fang Xi, and a rare look of anger appeared on his face.

Two years ago, Fang's father was bored at the dock, and when he heard that there was a business overseas that needed to be taken care of, he went to Southeast Asia, and naturally Fang's mother followed him.

As for Fang Xi, he probably listened to too many stories like "Robinson Crusoe" and "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" when he was a child, so he was very adventurous and yearned to go overseas. Fang Lin was also an open-minded person, so he let Fang Chuanhui take him out. The first two years were fine, he just wandered around Luzon and Southeast Asia, and then he wrote a letter two days ago saying that he had gone to the West... No, he went to the West, to the Western Paradise!

When he knew about this, he almost breathed a sigh of relief. Although it is relatively safe to travel overseas now, the route from Daxia to Nanyang, and then going west from Nanyang, is relatively bumpy, and there are often accidents, such as pirates, killer waves off the Cape of Good Hope, etc.... But after all, he is his own son, so he still wrote a letter to Missy to ask him to take care of him.

At this time, Butler Deng came in and said that there was a letter from the capital.

Fang Lin took the letter, asked Qiuqiu to look after his two younger brothers and sisters, and went to the study with a solemn expression.

During the past five or six years, the situation in Huai'an has been stable.

After Yan Shideng let himself go, he took in twelve concubines in three years and moved to another place three years ago. The new prefect was named Dong Qichang. Unlike Yan Shideng who was obsessed with going to the central government, this prefect Dong took the initiative to retire from the court. Probably because he saw the endless fighting between the eunuchs and the civil servants, and the eunuchs headed by Wei Zhongxian were becoming more and more powerful, so he took the initiative to come to the local area to avoid the turmoil.

Fang Lin has studied the life of the prefect Dong, who is over fifty years old, and gave a sixteen-character evaluation of him, "shrewd in personnel matters, flexible and agile, willing to demonstrate his strength, and stop when he cannot". Such a smart person, when he came to Huai'an, would naturally get along well with him.

However, this Prefect Dong is fond of calligraphy and seems to want to achieve something in calligraphy. He has the intention to leave and I heard that he is planning to resign recently.

In short, Fang Lin did not make a fuss in Huai'an, but kept the situation calm. His biggest move was to take advantage of the disaster to gradually relocate people from the Jianghuai area to overseas areas. In small numbers and multiple times, he moved away 70,000 to 80,000 people, making the Luzon base and the Nanyang base more prosperous.

On the other hand, the capital has been in turmoil in recent years. The Censor Han Yuanjing, who was related to Fang Lin, was dismissed from office; Pu Yuanhao, the former prefect Pu, was also exiled to Lingnan...

After opening the letter, it turned out to be a big deal. A month ago, two cabinet ministers led a conspiracy to contact the forces against Wei Zhongxian, gathered 53 officials, and wrote a letter to Emperor Tianshun to die in the hope of getting rid of Wei Zhongxian.

Among these thirty-six people, there are cabinet ministers, six important officials, and censors of the Supervisory Council... They are spread across the key departments of the court and represent a considerable political force.

However, there was a traitor among them. Wei Zhongxian learned about it through secret channels and went to Emperor Tianshun to cry and complain overnight.

Emperor Tianshun had been persuaded and was hesitating whether to kill or demote Wei Zhongxian. Wei Zhongxian came crying overnight, starting with the story of the late emperor and recounting his hardships over the years...

Emperor Tianshun may have thought that Wei Zhongxian had made great contributions to stabilizing the situation in Daxia and had also found famous calligraphers and painters to communicate with him. If he killed Wei Zhongxian, he would have to take over. He may also have thought that Emperor Hongtai had told him before his death that the group of civil servants could not be trusted... In the end, he changed his mind. Not only did he not investigate Wei Zhongxian, but out of guilt, in order to appease him, he even allowed Wei Zhongxian to go a step further and appointed him as the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department!

Wei Zhongxian encountered such a dangerous situation and escaped this disaster, so how could he not counterattack?

The next day, at the imperial court, all officials were asked to kneel in the Golden Throne Hall and the list was read out... In the following half a month, all the officials on the list were imprisoned...

Dong Zugao was also on the list. It was not that Dong Zugao did not know how to protect himself. It was because his teacher, also his father-in-law, Tao Chengbi, was one of the two university scholars who took the lead in this matter. People in the officialdom are not in control of their own destiny. They cannot avoid it just by saying so. He once enjoyed the benefits brought by this important status, but now he is dragged into the water and has to sign the name together.

——Of course, the higher the risk, the greater the reward. If this action is successful, the great reputation of defeating the eunuch party will surely make them famous throughout the country, and Dong Zugao will surely be able to go further, saving himself countless years of hard work, and enter the cabinet in one step to rule the world.

But isn’t this a failure?

Now that Dong Zugao has been arrested and imprisoned, this letter was written by Dong's wife.

Fang Lin was shocked after reading the letter. He sighed and said, "I knew that Wei Zhongxian would fight back, but I didn't expect that Brother Dong would be so deeply involved at this time and place."

"Alas, after Censor Han and Lord Pu, it is finally Brother Dong's turn!"

There's no doubt about it, he can't just sit back and watch this happen.

Not to mention that Dong Zugao helped him a lot. When he had a literary battle with Zhang Yide, Dong Zugao spoke for him despite the pressure from the whole court. He also protected him over the years. He passed on the news of the court in the capital so that he would not be blocked from speaking, and thus be able to sit back and watch the world's affairs with peace of mind... Just the relationship between the two of them has gone beyond a relationship of interest and is incomparable.

"We must save him, but how? Wei Zhongxian, that 9,000-year-old man is not someone who is easy to talk to. This is not going to be easy!"

From the attitude of Eunuch Li at the time, Fang Lin guessed that Emperor Hongtai probably had instructed Wei Zhongxian to look after him. However, it was hard to say how much face he still had in Wei Zhongxian's eyes after the past five or six years.

However, he soon thought of someone who could help with this matter: Zhang Ruian!
It was the man I met at Baihao Temple a few years ago when I was on my way to the capital and passed by Jining Prefecture in Lu. He used the eternal lamp of the deity statue to read and practice calligraphy. Before leaving, he borrowed one hundred taels of silver from him.

The scholar in Baihao Temple at that time passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi in the first year of Tianshun. He ranked third in the palace examination and was awarded the title of Tanhua (Three Places in the Imperial Examination). He was then appointed as an editor in the Hanlin Academy.

When Fang Lin heard the news, he was very happy for Zhang Ruian. He felt that he had finally made it. From now on, his mother, who "gave all the good things in the house to Zhang Ruian and only ate barley porridge with water", would no longer have to live a hard life.

This man was also grateful and contacted Fang Lin. As soon as he received his salary and had enough money, he immediately returned the original one hundred taels of silver.

However, for this man who Fang Lin once commented on as "a wind rising from the tip of a green reed", passing the imperial examination was only the beginning. In just less than five years, Zhang Ruian's official career rose rapidly. In the fourth year of Tianshun, he was appointed as the Minister of Rites. In the autumn of the same year, he entered the cabinet and was promoted to the Grand Secretary of Jianji Palace and given the title of Junior Tutor!
What does it mean to enter the cabinet? From the perspective of the Daxia system, it means entering the center of power, and one step away from becoming the prime minister.

If you ask why Zhang Ruian was promoted so quickly, is it because he has real ability?
Yes, this person is indeed talented, but this is not a reason for him to surpass his predecessor Dong Zugao and have such a successful career and rise to the top.

At this point, the answer is obvious. Zhang Ruian defected to Wei Zhongxian and rose to prominence step by step with Wei Zhongxian's support.

At that time, Zhang Ruian was the third place winner in the imperial examination, and Wei Zhongxian was not yet as powerful as he is now. Most scholars were reserved and polite, and disdained to join him. Therefore, when Zhang Ruian, the third place winner, joined him, was humble and willing to bend his back, spoke well, and was capable, how could Wei Zhongxian not like such a talent? How could he not make him his confidant?
Another very important point is that Zhang Ruian is good at calligraphy and landscape painting... Hey, doesn't this match up with Emperor Tianshun?

In short, he was a third place winner in the imperial examination, had good abilities, was supported by Wei Zhongxian, and was favored by Emperor Tianshun...all these factors combined allowed Zhang Ruian to rise to prominence in just a few years.

Among these, the most important thing is the support of Wei Zhongxian, which has both advantages and disadvantages.

It is hard to say what Wei Zhongxian did or didn't do. Let's just talk about this man. He was really greedy when he had money. His reputation of greed was well-known in the capital. Objectively speaking, most of those who colluded with Wei Zhongxian were not much better. Therefore, Zhang Ruian's reputation was ruined. Scholars were ashamed to associate with him, thinking it was a disgrace to the culture.

——However, it is hard to say how many educated people were ashamed to associate with him, thinking it was a disgrace to society, while secretly envious, jealous and resentful of him behind his back, wanting to replace him but unable to do so.

"No matter what, Zhang Ruian, this old friend, is now at the top of the power pyramid of Daxia. If we talk about who in Daxia can persuade Wei Zhongxian to save Dong Zugao, this person is definitely one of the few."

Fang Lin thought to himself, took out his pen, ink, paper and inkstone, sat down and began to write a letter.

……

Because Dong Zugao's matter was urgent, Fang Lin sent a private letter through the Jinyiwei channel for the first time. A few days later, the letter arrived in the capital.

……

(End of this chapter)

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