Smuggling Daming

In July of the 11th year of Zhengde, it was the beginning of autumn, and the leaves on the trees were still green, but Zhengde had already hurriedly asked Jiang Bin to order the 5000 Frontier Army from four other families, and another 5000 people from the Shenji Battalion. With these [-] people, they left the capital in a mighty way.In addition, Zhou Zhong, the king of Zhao, was granted the title of Jian Guo, and he was in charge of the Ming Dynasty's government on his behalf.

For Zhengde's willful move, except for Wang Qiong who opposed for the sake of opposition, most of the others were opposed. Even Queen Mother Zhang in the palace did not want to see her son run to the border. It's a pity that Zhengde wanted to fight like crazy, and he was already extremely bored with the games in the capital, so no matter who blocked him, he would not stop his footsteps, so in the end he walked without hesitation.

On the day Zhengde left, Zhou Zhong went to see each other off. The two brothers stood in the long pavilion outside the north gate of Beijing and talked a lot. At that time, there were only the two of them in the pavilion, and even Gu Dayong was sent dozens of meters outside the pavilion. I could only see Zhou Zhong sitting in the pavilion, but I didn't know what the two brothers were talking about. Afterwards, Zhou Zhong and Zhengde didn't disclose this conversation to anyone until thousands of years later, This conversation between them has become a great mystery in history. Although many people have restored countless versions of this conversation based on what happened later, they all have mistakes of one kind or another, which is not convincing at all.

After Zhou Zhong sent Zhengde away, he didn't immediately take over the government, but locked himself in the palace alone for several days. During these few days, he didn't see any outsiders, and even turned back those who asked for an audience.The only person who can see him, apart from the princess and a few children, is only one outsider, and this person is Jiao Fang, the most important counselor around Zhou Zhong.

Just like the conversation between Zhou Zhong and Zhengde before, no one knows what Zhou Zhong and Jiao Fang talked about in the past few days, let alone whether they reached any agreement, but just a few days later, Zhou Zhong Zhong suddenly appeared at the court meeting of Ming Dynasty, although Zhengde was not there.But Zhou Zhong was appointed as the supervisor of the country.So next to Zhengde's dragon chair, another chair was added, and this is where Zhou Zhong sat when he went to court in the future.

Although Zhou Zhong was a prince before, and Zhengde also entrusted him with some government affairs.But Zhou Zhong did not attend the court meeting.Because the court meeting is the core meeting of Ming Dynasty to deal with government affairs.Generally speaking, except for the emperor and the prince, other royal families are not allowed to participate, so Zhou Zhong used to avoid suspicion.In order not to arouse the resentment of those civil servants, he did not participate in it all the time. It was not until he became a supervisor that he came to the court meeting for the first time.

For Zhou Zhong's arrival, the ministers in the court had already been mentally prepared. After all, Zhengde had issued an imperial decree before, and Zhou Zhong had done a very good job both before and after entering Beijing, especially when he was with Li Dongyang before. He and Yang Tinghe reached an agreement to squeeze Jiang Bin out together. Although they failed, this friendship still exists. Therefore, the ministers also showed great respect for Zhou Zhong, the supervisor of the country.

Zhou Zhong's performance at the court meeting was also remarkable. As for the government affairs reported by the officials below, he would never intervene if he could let the people below handle them by himself. If he really needed to make a decision, he would ask There is no precedent before, if there is, then follow the previous precedent, if not, then let it go temporarily, he will discuss a feasible strategy with the cabinet.

It can be said that Zhou Zhong's performance in the court hall was unanimously praised by all the courtiers, and many people even thought in their hearts that if it was the Zhao Wang in front of them instead of the mischievous His Majesty who ascended the throne, maybe Daming has changed into a different look early on. How can it still be in trouble at home and abroad like it was a few years ago?

However, when all the ministers in the court relaxed their guard against Zhou Zhong, Zhou Zhong suddenly showed his fangs, and this pair of fangs was an imperial decree left by Zhengde. After the reading, everyone was stunned, especially Yang Tinghe and other cabinet ministers, who couldn't believe it, because the content of the imperial decree was very simple, that is to reactivate Jiao Fang and restore his position as a cabinet scholar. In other words, Jiao Fang finally entered the cabinet again.

For this appointment, neither the southern official group headed by Yang Tinghe nor the northern official group headed by Wang Qiong, they were not prepared at all, and even when they heard the appointment, they still felt a little unbelievable. In the case involving Liu Jin, although he had little involvement because he resigned early, but with what he did with Liu Jin at the beginning, and he is already over 80 years old this year, how could he become an official again?

It was precisely that no one had thought of it, so when the imperial decree was read out, the entire court hall was silent, everyone looked at me and I looked at you, no one could believe it was true.

Zhou Zhong had expected the reaction from the court, but he did not give the ministers any time to react. After reading the imperial decree of Zhengde, he immediately announced his withdrawal from the court, and then that afternoon, Jiao Fang put on his official uniform with a smile on his face I went to Wenyuan Pavilion to work. Although Yang Tinghe and others didn't welcome Jiao Fang very much, they couldn't do anything about it. Even if they wanted to object, they couldn't find anyone, because Zhengde, who issued the imperial edict, had already gone to Xuanfu.

Before the Zhengde Dynasty, the number of cabinet members in the Ming Dynasty was not fixed. Sometimes there were three or four people, sometimes five or six people. Before Jiao Fang entered the cabinet again, there were four great scholars in the cabinet. Wang Qiong, Minister of the Ministry of War, who supported Zhengde's tour before and finally got the chance to join the cabinet, and now with Jiao Fang, there are five people in the cabinet.

Speaking of which, among the five cabinet ministers, Yang Tinghe and Liang Chu are representatives of the southern official group. They had been at odds with Jiao Fang before, and the relationship between the two parties was very limited. Therefore, they were naturally very unhappy about Jiao Fang's comeback.As for Mr. Liu Zhong Liu, although he is from the north, he has always been close to the southern official group, and had conflicts with Jiao Fang before, so he will not have a good face on Jiao Fang.

The last Wang Qiong and Jiao Fang are both representatives of the northern official group, but they are one after the other. Wang Qiong has already replaced Jiao Fang as the head of the northern officials, and has successfully joined the cabinet. If he can get all the northern officials in the future With his support, he will definitely be able to call the shots in the cabinet. Unfortunately, he never expected that Jiao Fang, who is already in his 80s, would join the cabinet again. Arrived a little dissatisfied.

Jiao Fang is old in accidents, so he naturally understands his current situation. It is no exaggeration to say that he is a loner now, especially when his cronies were all demoted before. Although the remaining northern officials still have some affection for him, But he will not stand by his side resolutely, let alone the officials in the south, these people want to pour dirty water on themselves, and they are even less likely to support him, so the most important thing for him now is to find a reliable ally.

It is precisely because of this that Jiao Fang stopped Wang Qiong who was going home after finishing her work that day, and then said with a smile: "Master Wang, the old man returned to the cabinet today, and some things are unclear, so I want to ask Wang Qiong My lord, please ask for advice, and I hope that lord Wang will not refuse!"

Regarding Jiao Fang, although Wang Qiong was dissatisfied with him, when the two were officials in the same dynasty, because they were both officials in the north, they had a good relationship with each other. Zhao Wang has a deep friendship. This time Jiao Fang can enter the cabinet again, and Zhao Wang must be behind him to help him, so Wang Qiong didn't dare to offend Jiao Fang too much, and said with a smile: "Jiao Ge always invites you, what is the junior?" Dare to refuse?"

At the moment, Jiao Fang and Wang Qiong came to a newly opened restaurant in Beijing, also called Wanghai Pavilion. It is said that it is a branch of Wanghai Pavilion in Shuangyu Port. Zhou Zhong is behind it, but what others don’t know is that Jiao Fang is in Wanghai Pavilion. There is also a small amount of shares in the pavilion. After all, he also has a large family to support, so naturally he doesn't have to worry about losing money when doing business with Zhou Zhong.

Of course, this Wanghai Pavilion in the capital naturally does not have the sea to let it look at, but like the Wanghai Pavilion in Shuangyu Port, this Wanghai Pavilion covers a huge area, and it is possible to have such a large piece of land in the capital where every inch of land is expensive. The land itself is a symbol of strength, and the food it cooks is also unusually unique and delicious, so Wanghai Pavilion was called the No. [-] restaurant in the capital by good people as soon as it opened.

After Jiao Fang and Wang Qiong came to the Wanghai Pavilion, they found a separate pavilion to sit down, surrounded by open grassland, so they didn't have to worry about the conversation being overheard by others, which is why Jiao Fang chose this place for the conversation.

After the food and wine were served, Jiao Fang and Wang Qiong chatted while eating, but at this moment they were chatting about some gossip, or some interesting things about humanities, or some knowledge of Jiao Fang in the south, anyway. No one took the initiative to talk about some time-killing topics. This is also the stink of all officials. No matter what they talk about, they have to talk a lot of nonsense beforehand to start the topic. Zhou Zhong has long hated this, but Powerless to change.

After spending three rounds, Jiao Fang put down her chopsticks with a smile and said, "Master Wang, besides His Majesty's appreciation, the most important thing for me to return to the cabinet this time is His Royal Highness Zhao's care. The old bones can only stay in their hometown and wait to die."

"Old man Ge is serious. You are an important minister of my Ming Dynasty. You have suffered a small setback before, and sooner or later you will be reused by the court. Now is the time for old man Ge to show his ambition!" Although Wang Qiong's words seemed to be He praised Jiao Fang, but in fact, he also secretly complained that Jiao Fang was so old, but still wanted to divide power in the court.

With Jiao Fang's shrewdness, she could hear Wang Qiong's dissatisfaction, but he laughed and said something irrelevant, but it was this sentence that made Wang Qiong's face change drastically. (to be continued..)