Ming Dynasty 1566

Chapter 85

"How can this be done?" Xu Jie stood there and looked closely at Chen Hong who was going to move the chair.

Chen Hong was still moving the chair on the side, which was exactly the chair that Zhang Juzheng moved during the day, and moved it to the opposite side of Xu Jie’s case, and put it down, just like Zhang Juzheng sat down in the subordinate’s position during the daytime: “Why? Said that I am a generation later than the elders of the cabinet, and as long as the elders of the cabinet are on duty in the cabinet, I will come here to criticize the red." As he said, he moved the cabinet post proposed by Xu Jiepiao to the elder in front of him. Picking up a copy of the case and holding a vermilion pen, he approved the two red letters "approved" at the signing office.

Xu Jie still stood there looking at him.

Chen Hong lowered his head, and took another ticket, intending to read it without looking at it, and wrote the word "approved" again on the signature.

"Please slow down." Xu Jie had no choice but to stop him, "Should Eunuch Chen check whether the cabinet's proposal is appropriate, and then approve it?"

Chen Hong looked up at him with a smile, and picked up another copy of his ticket: "The emperor trusts Mr. Ge, what else do I not trust? No matter whether it is appropriate or not, I will bear the burden with Mr. Ge .” Then he went to criticize the red.

"Eunuch Chen, this is not in line with the system. In the past, Eunuch Lu, who was drafted by the strict cabinet, had to review it with several other officials who wrote the papers. Eunuch Chen knows this. Such approval is absolutely inappropriate." Xu Jie said and moved the stack of tickets in front of him: "How about I read it one by one, and Eunuch Chen should approve it after listening to it."

Chen Hong's hand stopped, and he slowly put the vermilion pen back on the pen stand, and looked at Xu Jie with sincerity in his eyes: "Mr. I know, Eunuch Lu has never changed Mr. Yan Ge's proposal. They are just making a scene. Now the emperor has handed over the cabinet to Mr. Xu Ge and the supervisor of ceremonies to our family. We will not come to those false Yes. I work with the same monarch, and I say the word "loyalty" to the emperor, and the word "faith" to each other. I can trust the old man from the bottom of my heart. Zhang Juzheng came in."

Chen Hong was eager to replace Lu Fang, but he used Yan Song's position as the chief assistant to win him over!Xu Jie was not only alert, but also a wave of disgust surged up.What I hate Yan Song most is whether he separates the monarch and his ministers for the purpose of collecting money for the palace and doing private things. As a famous minister of mind and learning, Xu Jie's most taboo is that people think that he overthrew Yan Song in order to seek the position of chief assistant.Regardless of whether Yan Song fell from power this time, even if Yan Song was kicked out of the cabinet and took the position of chief assistant, the current emperor would use himself as the second Yan Song. The deep-seated reason for hesitating and ignoring this matter.Seeing that he judged others with his own heart, Xu Jie sneered in his heart, but pretended to be terrified, and replied: "Xu is very grateful to Mr. Chen for his trust. But the imperial court system must not be replaced by private trust. What's more, Xu is still the second assistant, but because Yan Ge is old and sick, he is temporarily in charge of cabinet affairs..."

"Elder Ge!" Chen Hong interrupted Xu Jie, "Does Elder Ge still think that he is only a temporary agent in the current situation?"

Xu Jie was surprised: "The emperor and the imperial court have no intention to adjust the cabinet. Of course Xu is only temporarily handling cabinet affairs."

Chen Hong's face moved closer to him: "There are two sentences that Mr. Ge has never heard before?"

Xu Jie only looked at him.

Chen Hong: "Don't you hear that 'the waves behind the Yangtze River drive the waves ahead, and the new generation is better than the old'!"

How superficial it is!Xu Jie could no longer pretend to be a snake, and the spirit of a scholar showed up. He covered his ears with his palms, shook his head lightly and said: "Recently Xu re-read Han Changli's "Sacrifice to the Twelve Langs". "Since this year, the pale ones may turn white, and the shaken ones may fall off. The hairy blood is getting weaker and the ambition is getting weaker. I will die if I don't follow you." Xu is sixty-five , Although it is not like Han Yu's tooth loss and hair loss back then, but his eyes are dizzy and his ears are back. There was a tinnitus just now, and now there is still a buzzing sound. The old man did not hear a word of the two sentences that Eunuch Chen said. I hope my father-in-law will forgive me, and I hope my father-in-law will stop talking."

For this point of joking, it was like a slap in the face to myself.Chen Hong's face, which had always been extremely sincere, turned gloomy, and he stood up abruptly, holding the stack of tickets on the table: "Since Mr. Ge despises our family so much, our family will bring Mr. Ge's tickets back to the secretary. The supervisor of etiquette has finished the review slowly." Holding the pile of tickets, he kicked the chair away with his feet, and walked towards the door of the duty room.

Two young eunuchs carried lanterns and rushed from the courtyard gate to the gate of the duty room, shining light on Chen Hong, and went away.

Xu Jie watched the light of the lantern disappear outside the courtyard gate, and sneered: "Hold the lantern, prepare the toilet paper, I'll show you my respect!"

After a while, a lantern floated from the left side door of the corridor to the door of the duty room outside the window. Xu Jie straightened his clothes and left the desk and walked towards the door. He blocked Xu Jie, and before Xu Jie saw his face clearly, a page of paper was handed to him.

Xu Jie was already startled when he saw the paper with a light pink background, but he was even more shocked when he saw the few lines on the paper!
The paper is imperial paper, the characters are Jiajing's familiar regular script, and there are four ancient poems written on it: "There are beauties in the northern country, who are peerless and independent. Once you see the city of Qingren, see you again in the country of Qingren."

Xu Jie suddenly raised his head, only then did he see clearly that it was Huang Jin who came!
In front of the lantern, Huang Jin also looked at him deeply, and said in a low voice: "These four poems are typed in four characters. The emperor is waiting for the old man in the cabinet to present the answer to the riddle. Let's write it under the imperial note." Go to the desk and put the imperial note on the desk.

Xu Jie slowly walked towards the case, and the answer to the mystery was figured out in these few steps. He didn't dare to sit, so he stood in front of the chair where Chen Hong was sitting just now, picked up his pen, bowed down, and wrote in Yujian Respectfully and respectfully wrote the four regular characters of "good for yourself", cupped it with both hands, gently dried the ink, and handed it to Huang Jin.

Huang Jin showed a faint smile: "Mr. Ge is very knowledgeable." He took the imperial paper and turned around and walked out.

Xu Jie stood there in a daze, until another lantern appeared at the door, and a voice came in: "The villain serves the old man out of respect."

Only then did Xu Jie recover from his daze, and walked slowly towards the door.

At sunset, the lights rose, and the books hanging in the yard were moved to Yan Song's study box by box.

What books are placed where, when and where to take which volume to check which page, these are the reading habits that Yan Song has cultivated for decades. Before the age of 75, after publishing the books every year, he regarded it as a pleasure to put different books in the places he knew well, and he did it himself, and never asked his servants to do it for him. At the age of 76, after finishing the book drying, he suddenly felt powerless when he moved the tens of thousands of volumes to the bookshelf. He called Yan Shifan, who often accompanied his father to study here, and Yan Shifan put the books on the bookshelf. , Yan Song found that it was almost as good as the one he had laid out.Every year since then, I have asked my son to do it for me.Today, I had to arrange these books by myself again, so I had to call two attendants to help.

One follower held a seat lamp and followed him closely, illuminating the empty bookshelf, while the other follower listened to his instructions in front of the bookcase.

Yan Song: ""Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals"."

"Yes." The attendant in front of the bookcase took out a box of books and handed it over.

Yan Song took it with both hands, and looked at the cover through his glasses: "Wrong. It's the box from the Song version."

The attendant said, "Damn the villain." Then he put the box of books back into the original box, and took out another box from another box, which also had "Lu Shi Chunqiu" printed on it, but he still didn't know if it was the Song edition. Then he opened the ivory book holder, ready to read it.

"Just hand it over." Yan Song called him to stop.

"Yes." The attendant inserted the ivory book into the jacket again, and carried the box of books over.

Yan Song only glanced at the cover and said, "This is it." He took it with both hands, and put it in the shelf space at head height.

""Zuo Zhuan". The set that Hu Zongxian hand-copied." Yan Song said again while putting the book down.

It was even more difficult to find, the attendant was sweating on his brow, and he took out several boxes of books from one box, but he couldn't find the "Zuo Zhuan" that the old man wanted, so he went to another box to look for it.

Yan Song stood by the bookshelf, illuminated by the lamp, and waited for a long time.

The face of the person looking for the book was covered with sweat, and the person holding the lamp was anxious: "You come and get the lamp, and I will look for it."

"Forget it." Yan Song stopped them again, "Go, call your uncle."

The two followers were taken aback and looked at each other.

The entourage holding the lamp asked cautiously: "Did Ge Lao say that he asked the little people to invite Xiao Ge Lao?"

Yan Song nodded slightly.

The attendant was still worried: "Old Ge, your old man has ordered you during the day not to see anyone in the past half a month, especially not to let Mr. Ge enter the mansion."

Yan Songxu looked up: "But others don't follow the rules. Didn't Xu Jie meet Zhang Juzheng in the cabinet this afternoon?"

The attendant knew that he hadn't forgotten something, but knew it well, so he went away in peace.

Hearing his father calling him, Yan Shifan flew over like flying.After he came in, he called "Father" and stopped looking at his father. He glanced at the bookcases in the room, took off his outer shirt, tucked a corner of his inner shirt into his belt, and went to carry the books.

The servants have already avoided it.Yan Song was sitting alone on the recliner, watching his son skillfully take boxes of books out of the box and put them in different spaces of the bookshelf. In the eyes of the old father, the young son appeared again: how much he let himself Satisfied!How comfortable I used to be!How I once made myself feel that future generations will be prosperous!The look of love and affection that had always been revealed then emerged again from the dim old eyes.

"Don't move in a hurry, first wipe your face and have a sip of tea." The figure in Yan Song's eyes was still that of Yan Shifan in his twenties.

"I'm not tired. Let's take a rest, my son will be ready soon." Yan Shifan's face was beaded with fine beads of sweat, and he kept moving the books out of the box and placing them in the space on the shelf where they should be placed.

This voice is no longer the voice of his son back then, but the words he answered aroused Yan Song's affection for his son back then.He slowly sat up straight: "Has the box of "Han Changli Collection" been moved out?"

Only then did Yan Shifan straighten his back in front of the bookcase: "It's moved out, do you want to read it now?"

Yan Song: "Find out the volume "Sacrifice to the Twelve Langs"."

Yan Shifan had a feeling, looked at his father, and seeing that he was looking at him, he walked to a bookshelf, took down a box of books from the space on the right at the top, unplugged the book, and opened it from inside. He took out a volume, and quickly turned to the article "Sacrifice to the Twelve Langs". When he walked to his father, he picked up the pair of glasses on the desk, walked to his father, and handed them over with both hands.

Yan Song looked up at his son: "I don't want to read it, you read it to me, just read the six sentences of 'I came this year'."

Yan Shifan is also a well-educated person, so he didn't need to hold the book to read, not to mention the father and son were united, and immediately understood the deep meaning of his father's desire to read these six sentences by himself. There was a moment of silence.

"Read it." Yan Song knew his son's mood at the moment, and when he urged him, he increased his tone.

Yan Shifan closed his eyes and began to memorize: "Since this year, the pale ones may turn white, and the wavering ones may fall off. The hairy blood is getting weaker, the ambition is getting weaker, and I will die if I don't follow you..."

The father and son were silent for a moment.

"Do you know why Dad asked you to read this paragraph?" Yan Song asked breaking the silence.

Yan Shifan: "It's nothing more than blaming my son. Dad is old, and my son didn't want to make trouble at your age. But after more than 20 years, we have killed, imprisoned, and killed so many people. Dad is If you want to spend your old age in peace, they will not let you go. If your son is not standing up front, who can stand up front instead of your father."

Yan Song: "Just because a few of you go to the forbidden gate of Xiyuan to make a fuss, is that also called standing in front of me? Your father will not be in the cabinet for a day, and none of you, Luo Longwen, and Yan Maoqing can enter the gate of Xiyuan. Zhang Juzheng went in, and he could plan with Xu Jie in the secret room and spread the order to the world. One day your father really died, you don't need to go to the gate of Xiyuan to make trouble, and he can arrest you all with an order while sitting at home !"

Although these words were harsh, Yan Shifan raised his head in astonishment and looked at his father: "Dad knows what happened today at home?"

"I know what you know, and I know what you don't!" Yan Song suddenly showed an awe-inspiring majesty, "I am still the chief assistant, the chief assistant of the Ming Dynasty for 20 years! Many people, do I dare not know about the affairs of the court? A tiger can take a nap after eating a man, does your father dare to take a nap!"

This kind of majesty was often seen before Yan Song was 75 years old, but he has never seen it again since the age of 75. Today, seeing his father's majesty reappeared, Yan Shifan's usual domineering spirit immediately became a little witch, and he immediately became like a child. He moved a stool and sat down in front of his father: "Father, do you always know what they want to do?"

Yan Song didn't answer, but asked instead: "I haven't answered what I asked you just now. Do you know why I want you to read Han Yu's "Sacrifice to the Twelve Lang Wen"?"

No matter how smart Yan Shifan was, he also understood that his father told him to read these few words at this time, which was not what he just said.

Yan Song: "Then I'll tell you, these few words were said by Xu Jie to Chen Hong in the cabinet half an hour ago."

Yan Shifan's aggressive strings immediately tightened: "Xu Jie means that father is getting old, and he wants to bring him down with Chen Hong?"

Yan Song shook his head: "He doesn't dare yet, and he doesn't have the ability. Chen Hong wants to take Lu Fang's position, but Xu Jie doesn't have the guts right now. Just let him sit, and he can't sit still. Do you know why? "

Yan Shifan thought for a while: "The emperor still can't leave father!"

Yan Song: "Also, the Ming Dynasty is inseparable from your father. In the past 20 years, your father has not only killed, imprisoned, and dismissed people, but also employed people! The treasury depends on the people I use to save money, and the border gates depend on me. Those who can’t get along with the emperor will be dealt with by the people I use! This is what I want to tell you, the first thing to do is to use the right talents. In recent years, I have entrusted the matter of employing people to You, who did you use? Zheng Michang, He Maocai? Last night, Babaili, Zhejiang sent their confessions urgently, and they sold you all, do you know?"

Yan Shifan stood up abruptly: "These two bastards! Shangben! I'll call someone Shangben and kill them all!"

"Who should be called to get the book? How to get the book? Kill them, or kill you?" Seeing that he was impetuous again, Yan Song asked several times.

Yan Shifan's mind became clearer, but his heart was on fire, and he fell into the habit of walking around again. There were many bookcases piled up in the room, and he seemed even more manic when he paced back and forth.

"Sit in front of the desk!" Yan Song shouted in a low voice.

Yan Shifan stopped in his tracks, so he walked to the desk and sat down.

Yan Song: "Pick up the pen, I say, you write."

Yan Shifan picked up the pen, his heart was still in confusion, and he looked at Yan Song from afar.

Yan Song closed his eyes and began to read: "Brother Ruzhen Tai Jian."

Yan Shifan was stunned: "Father asked me to write a letter to Hu Zongxian?"

Yan Song still closed his eyes: "It's not a letter, but a thank you, and an apology!"

Yan Shifan slowly put down his pen: "Father, son, I really don't know why you always believe in him so much? This year's change of rice to mulberry would not have happened if he hadn't interfered with it. I don't know what to thank him for, son. What crime should I pay him!"

Yan Song opened his eyes suddenly, and shot straight at Yan Shifan: "Destroying the dikes and flooding the fields is a sin of heaven. If it weren't for the flooding of nine counties, tens of thousands of people would have died. How many heads were found, he would have killed them all with one shoulder." The burden is already taken, shouldn’t I be thankful for this kind of affection? The governor of Zhejiang, who still doesn’t let him see me, made Zheng Michang and He Maocai make trouble, and made another big event of getting involved. It’s settled, shouldn’t this crime be paid for?”

Yan Shifan's breath was blocked in his throat, and he swallowed vigorously, there was nothing to say.

Yan Song: "Take out your little skills in writing green poems, and say that you are confused and use improper people, and let him see that I am old, and ask him to do one thing well."

Only then did Yan Shifan get serious, slowly picked up the pen again, and asked in a low voice, "What's the matter?"

(End of this chapter)