Smuggling Daming

The Ministry of War has given the Governor's Office of the Four Seas the rewards for this war against Portugal. Although the Ministry of War dared to conceal the military achievements of the frontier troops in the Northwest and Liaodong, it did not dare to conceal the military achievements of the Governor's Office of the Four Seas. After all, Zhou Zhong was sitting in the capital. He absolutely does not allow his subordinates not to be rewarded for their military exploits. Even all memorials and government orders related to the sea need to be reported or issued through the hands of Zhou Zhong. This is the power specially granted to him by Zhengde.

Zhou Zhong in the study of King Zhao's Mansion carefully read the rewards awarded by the Ministry of War to Shen Zhou and others, and then checked the list of meritorious persons reported by Wang Shouren. Go to the side, wait until tomorrow and let someone send it to Nanyang quickly.

This is already the last official document of the day. Zhou Zhong put down his pen and rubbed his head, then stood up and opened the window to have a look. He found that the moon was already in the sky outside. It is estimated that Jinxuan and the others had already fallen asleep. He promised to tell Xia Xia a bedtime story, but now it seems that he can only break his promise to his daughter again.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zhong couldn't help sighing. Originally, he didn't have to be so busy, but during this period of time, his good brother Zhengde became more and more outrageous. He not only messed with Jiang Bin and others every day, but also didn't Knowing whether he believed Jiang Bin's words or thought of it himself, he handed over some government affairs in the court to him. As a result, Zhou Zhong was busy all day every day, and he had no time to enter the palace but saw Zhengde. It also cannot disturb the play of Zhengde, Jiang Bin and others.

What's even more exaggerated is that during the last court meeting, Zhengde once again sat on the dragon chair in a serious manner.Then announce to all ministers.He decided to inspect the Xuan Mansion in the northwest of the capital.The result is naturally predictable, the following ministers were crazy against it, and even many censors even took off their gauze hats and asked Zhengde to dispel this idea, otherwise they would resign collectively.

Masanori had already expected the objections of the ministers below. In fact, the reason why he raised it publicly this time was to test the reaction of the ministers.After seeing so many ministers objecting now, he did not persist and directly announced the disbandment of the court. However, for a while, Zhengde let Jiang Bin actively work in secret, and contacted many boneless ministers to change the direction of the wind. They support Zhengde's method of patrolling the border.

A month later, Zhengde proposed to go on tour again in the court, but was opposed by the ministers again, but this time the ministers contacted by Jiang Bin finally played a role.They began to publicly support Zhengde's decision, and Zhengde also actively cooperated with these people.As a result, for a while, the court was full of disputes about this matter, and neither side could convince the other.

In addition, the most important thing is that Li Dongyang, the chief assistant of the cabinet, is now seriously ill. It is said that he can no longer get out of bed and is unconscious every day, unable to pay attention to the government at all.However, Li Dongyang's serious illness made the cabinet and the court somewhat unstable, which is one of the reasons why Zhengde was able to take advantage of the vacancy.

Li Dongyang has fallen, and it is said that Yang Tinghe should take over the position of chief assistant of the cabinet, but Yang Tinghe is a bit young after all, and his prestige and qualifications are not enough to overwhelm everyone, so let alone a minister in the court, even some people in the cabinet are not convinced. After all, they also have their own ideas about the position of chief assistant.

It is also worth mentioning that among the ministers who supported Zhengde's tour, the leader was Wang Qiong, Shangshu of the Ministry of War. Speaking of this Wang Qiong, this person was regarded as a rare capable minister in Ming Dynasty. He was ranked alongside Yu Qian and Zhang Juzheng in history. He was the triple minister of the Ming Dynasty.

There are three main achievements of Wang Qiong, one is to govern the Caohe River, the other is to put down the Chenhao rebellion, and the third is to strengthen the northwest frontier defense. Now King Ning has not rebelled, so Wang Qiong's second contribution has not yet been realized, but the first and second He has completed the three credits, and they are all real credits. It can be said that he was able to sit in the position of minister of the Ministry of War because of his credits, and Wang Qiong also has the ability to know people. Wang Shouren, who is now the governor of the world, At the very beginning, he was valued by Wang Qiong. At the beginning, he wanted Wang Shouren to practice in the south for a few years, and then reused Wang Shouren, but he didn't expect Zhou Zhong to take the lead.

However, compared to Wang Qiong's achievements, his own integrity is not very good. This is the main reason why although he is on par with Yu Qian and Zhang Juzheng's achievements, he is not as famous as them. He would not treat him with great books, especially Wang Qiong also violated the taboo of civil servants.

Wang Qiong is a capable minister, and at the same time he is also Zhengde's favored minister. The reputation of this favored minister is not very good. This is also the reason why Zhou Zhong didn't like to let others think that he was Zhengde's favored minister. Chen also has another meaning, that is, this favored minister may have some kind of relationship with the emperor, such as Wang Qiong, it is said that he has some kind of ulterior relationship with Zhengde, and Wang Qiong even wore a thorn on his head once. Obscene clothes, sneaked into the leopard room, had sex with Zhengde all night, and when he left the next morning, he happened to be bumped by someone. As a result, this incident was recorded in "Wanli Ye Huo Bian" and passed on to later generations.

In addition, Wang Qiong has always liked to agree with Zhengde in the court, which made his reputation in the officialdom not very good. In addition, he is from Shanxi, that is, officials in the north, and has always been rejected by officials in the south. Li Dongyang's political achievements have long been called into the cabinet by Li Dongyang, but it is also Wang Qiong who has not been able to enter the cabinet, so he has always been at odds with Li Dongyang and others. Sing the opposite tune.

After Jiao Fang left the court before, Wang Qiong had the highest official position and the greatest influence among the officials who were born in the north. Officials in the north almost overwhelmingly supported Zhengde's tour. After all, the struggle between officials from the north and the south was actually close to the party struggle in the late Ming Dynasty. Everything was focused on attacking each other, opposing for the sake of opposing, without considering the consequences of the matter at all.

The northern official group led by Wang Qiong, together with Jiang Bin's win over a group of southern officials, these people became the main force supporting Zhengde's tour. , so the two sides have been fighting endlessly for this. It has been a full two months since they have been arguing, but they still haven't been able to come to a conclusion.

Regarding the matter of Zhengde's patrol, Zhou Zhong himself held an objection. After all, now that Ming Dynasty is becoming more and more stable, the northern frontier army has been replaced with new weapons, and the army's cadets have been replenished, which has greatly increased the combat effectiveness of the frontier army. His efforts made the Ministry of War dare not conceal the merits of the frontier army as before. With the stimulation of military achievements, the morale of the frontier army was greatly increased, and there was no need for Zhengde to patrol.

However, although Zhou Zhong objected, he was not good at expressing any opinions on this matter, because everyone knew that if Zhengde left the capital, then he would definitely be the supervisor of the country, and if there was any accident to Zhengde, then he would be Daming Xia. He was the emperor for one term, so in order to avoid suspicion, Zhou Zhong could only bury his head and stay at home. He didn't care about what happened in the court, and only dealt with what happened in the Daming sea area.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zhong standing in front of the window couldn't help sighing. Originally, if Zhengde just went to Xuanfu to inspect, then it would be nothing, but Zhengde would definitely take Jiang Bin and the other four foreign armies there. , Zhengde will definitely have more trust in Jiang Bin, plus Zhengde lived in the palace since he was a child, and has never seen the outside world at all. Although the Xuan Mansion is not as prosperous as Jiangnan, it has a special flavor. He was really deceived by Jiang Bin.

Just when Zhou Zhong was thinking about something, suddenly the door of the study behind him opened, and then I saw Jin Xuan walking in with a plate, and when Zhou Zhong turned around, she smiled slightly and said, "Husband, it's late at night." , I made some lotus seed porridge for you, drink it and take a rest!"

Looking at the gentle and virtuous Jinxuan, Zhou Zhong couldn't help but walk over to support Jinxuan and said lovingly, "Why don't you rest so late?"

"I fell asleep just now, thinking that my husband is still busy with government affairs, so I got up and made some porridge, drink it while it's hot!" Jin Xuan gently put down the tray, and let Zhou Zhong sit down again, Serving him porridge while saying.

Zhou Zhong really felt a little hungry at this time, so he took the bowl from Jin Xuan and drank up the lotus seed porridge in a few gulps.Seeing that her husband was drinking deliciously, Jinxuan pursed her lips and smiled, and gave him another bowl. As a result, Zhou Zhong drank three bowls in a row, but still felt half full. It was not because Zhou Zhong could eat, but because Jinxuan The bowl he took was too small. Speaking of which, there are rules for everything in the palace, even what kind of bowl Zhou Zhong uses. Such a small bowl is the standard equipment for Zhou Zhong when he is full. It is said that it is to prevent him from drinking too much. gluttony.

"Okay, don't eat so much at night, or you will easily gain weight. At your husband's age, if you gain weight, it will be difficult to lose weight!" Jinxuan knew that Zhou Zhong was not full, but she refused to let him eat any more. , after all, it is midnight now, eating too much before going to bed is not only bad for digestion, but also easy to gain weight.

"Hey, it's a blessing to be able to eat. What's the point of gaining weight? The big deal is to exercise more tomorrow morning. No matter how much you eat, you won't be afraid of getting fat!" Although Zhou Zhong said so, he didn't eat any more, and then helped Jinxuan remove the food. After tidying up and sending the maid down, the two were ready to go back to their room to rest.

However, just as Zhou Zhong and Jinxuan walked out of the study, there was a sudden sound of hurried footsteps outside, and then the fat butler Xu ran over panting, holding a book in his hand and saying: "My lord, outside Someone sent a letter, and I didn't say who sent it, but I asked the old servant to present it to you in person." (To be continued...)