Idle courtiers

Chapter 345 A dead end

This Shi Wenjiang is now purely pretending to be Zhou Nan's master, so he asked.

The questions he asked were all official matters, Zhou Nan couldn't bear it anymore, and was about to reprimand him.

Suddenly, Shi Wenjiang slapped his thigh, "Understood, it must have been sent to the southeast front."

Zhou Nan's heart moved: "Send it to the southeast front?"

Shi Wenjiang: "Yan Song collapsed, Hu Zongxian was imprisoned, and the southeast war was temporarily managed by Fujian governor Tan Lun. Do you know who this Tan Lun belongs to?" He didn't wait for Zhou Nan to guess, and directly revealed the answer: "People from Prince Yu's Mansion."

Liu Gen: "That's not right. Pindao heard people say that Tan Lun is now the Minister of the Ministry of War Yang Bo. At the beginning, Governor Tan resigned and returned to his hometown because of Ding You when he was in Fujian. It turns out that it was Da Sima Yang's intentional recommendation that he got the post of governor of Fujian, but it has nothing to do with the palace."

"Haha, you only know the other one, not the other." Shi Wenjiang laughed, and pointed at Liu Gen with a haughty face: "At the time when Da Sima served as the governor of Xuanda, he repeatedly defeated the enemy's invasion, and made great achievements. The emperor wanted to recruit him back to the imperial court to serve as Minister of the Ministry of War, and he was concerned about the border, so he asked Yan Song. Yan Song had always disliked Yang Bo, so he asked Jiangdong to temporarily arrange the affairs of the Ministry of War and wait for the end of the autumn defense to discuss slowly, so he did not call Yang Bo Bo. The two are at odds over this, and Yang Shangshu also contributed to the downfall this time."

"It's also because Yang Shangshu and the Wangfu are united in the matter of invading strictness, and Tan Erhua is talented and outstanding, and he is the one whom the crown prince will work hard to support. In the future, Tan Lun will be to King Yu just as Hu Ruzhen is to Yan. It will be the face of the Wangfu. , Naturally, we must vigorously support it.”

"It doesn't matter if the Yan Party is eradicated now, but it is a problem to raise military expenses in Fujian. Although Tan Erhua's talent is not inferior to Hu Zongxian, but without money, he, a clever woman, can't cook without rice. Now, the treasury is empty, and the world is afraid As far as the emperor’s internal funds can be used, it is estimated that all the internal funds have been moved by King Yu to fill the big hole in Fujian, so how can we still have money for our Daolu Department?”

Zhou Nan's spirit was shaken. Indeed, only Yu Wang, the future emperor, dared to use internal funds.

According to real historical records, after Tan Lun became the Prime Minister of Fujian Military Affairs, he fell into the eyes of King Yu and completely became the military chief of Fujian. He led Qi Jiguang and others to fight vigorously and made great achievements.

Later, there was a rebellion in Sichuan, and he was transferred to be the governor of Sichuan and wiped out the rebels in Fushun.

During the Longqing Dynasty, the emperor transferred him back to the court to serve as Minister of the Ministry of War, and since then he has reached the pinnacle of his life.

Liu Gen was taken aback when he heard the words: "Mr. Shi, the emperor's internal finance supervisor dares to move, isn't he afraid of losing his head?"

"Your Majesty is already old, and once the emperor and the courtiers, this is especially true in the inner court. How dare the supervisor of ceremonies offend the future prince, it's too late to please him! Even if he is punished by the emperor now because of this incident, the king of love is not I kept it in my heart, and I will make up for it in the future. In the prison, I have never been afraid of the bold and bold officials. Guess who this person is?"

Liugen: "Huang Jin is in the palm of the supervisor of ceremonies?"

"No no no, Eunuch Huang is too old to work for another year. I guess this person is Chen Hong." Shi Wenjiang said: "Chen Hong ruined the palace because of King Jing's seizure of his heir. In the future, when His Majesty lives forever, It's when his head falls to the ground. Now there is such an opportunity to protect yourself, why not seize it?"

There are no permanent enemies in politics, only permanent interests.

The Wangfu was naturally happy to see Chen Hong, chief inspector of ceremonies, Bingbi, and the admiral of the East Factory vote. Who would think that he had too much power?

Liu Gen asked again: "There is a bottomless pit in Fujian, and the internal funds are short of money. Once your majesty finds out, how will it be settled?"

"Make up for the old debt with the new one, let's delay it slowly! This time, our secretary should have encountered the situation where the supervisor of ceremonies had just sent the inner treasury to Fujian, and the money was tight, but we couldn't even get out 6 to [-] taels of silver. "Shi Wenjiang smiled and looked at Zhou Nan: "Master Zhou, if you don't have money, you can't do your job. If you can't do it, you will be punished by the emperor. In order to protect yourself, you can only report to the palace. But once you report it, you will have no future prospects." Don’t want it anymore? No matter how you look at it, it’s a dead end!”

"Besides, I suspect that this is a deliberate move by the palace. They want to use this to drive you out of the Daolu Department so that they can deploy their own staff."

Hearing what Shi Wenjiang said, Zhou Nan realized the seriousness of the problem, and couldn't help taking a breath.

This man surnamed Shi has a clear understanding of the affairs of the court, and he knows all the officials' resumes and their ins and outs. He is indeed a talent.

If this person's background is innocent, he can rely on him for help.

Zhou Nan thought in his heart, in fact, I am now a sixth-rank official, and it is also standard to have a few staff members to do things that are inconvenient to do and say things that are inconvenient to say.It's really unbelievable that an official of the seventh rank and above has no master in the court, and it falls into the eyes of the world.

After all, I'm still used to being a small official, and I don't have the sense of being a superior!

Zhou Nan asked: "Mr. Shi, is there a way to break the situation?"

Shi Wenjiang: "If he is not in his position, he will not seek his own government." He refused very simply.

Zhou Nan and Liu Gen discussed for a long time, but to no avail.

When Liu Gen left, Zhou Nan asked: "Mr. Shi, I'm sorry for my stupidity, but I haven't heard anyone say that Anton has produced such an outstanding person as you before. Why do I ask for advice?"

Shi Wenjiang looked displeased: "15 taels of silver for work and food a month, clothes at four o'clock, and three days off every ten days for bathing. Qingming, Dragon Boat Festival, and Zhongyuan Festival, each with 50 taels of red envelopes, and [-] taels at the end of the year. Would you like it?" ?”

Zhou Nan was dumbfounded, he had such a big appetite, such a madman!This kind of treatment is at least the standard for a provincial governor's staff.

However, this kid is indeed talented, and if he missed it, Zhou Nan would be reluctant to give up.

Just nodded: "Okay, I will bother Mr. to praise the painting for me."

"Refreshing!" Shi Wenjiang then took out a letter from his sleeve and handed it over: "This is a letter from my father to your lord."

"Who is your father?" Zhou Nan took the letter and read it, only to find that the letter was written by Shi Jieren, the magistrate of Andong County who promoted him back then.

The letter was very simple, probably meaning that he was a clean official, his family had no money, and his life was quite difficult.To be a gentleman, to eat with one basket, to drink with one ladle, to live in a shabby house without changing one's ambition, to be willing to be poor is what a gentleman can do.

But there are too many people in the family, and it has been impossible to open the pot.

There is only one son, Shi Wenjiang, who is [-] this year and doesn't like stereotyped articles. It seems that the imperial examination is hopeless.And entrust it to Zimu to be an aide, to mix and chew.

Please also ask Zimu to take care of him when he sees the relationship between you and me in the past.This son is very crazy, if he does something wrong, he will take more responsibility.

Zhou Nan was shocked: "It turns out that Mr. Shi is the son of Shizhi County, why didn't you say it earlier."

Shi Wenjiang: "A good bird chooses a tree to live in. If I take out my father's letter as soon as I come, how can I see Master Zhou's true character?"

This scholar really has read too many novels, so he came to test me.Zhou Nan didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Have you tested it now?"

Shi Wenjiang: "I have tried it. My lord is a person who is eager for talents and has a broad mind. He is worthy of my trust. As the saying goes, if you are poor in the downtown area, no one asks you, and if you are rich, you have distant relatives in the mountains; when a person leaves, the tea will be cold; The wall fell and everyone pushed it. When my father was in power, others came to please him. Once something bad happened, everyone would avoid it. People's hearts, people's hearts!"

Zhou Nan interrupted Master Shi's emotion and asked, "Is your father okay?"

"It's easy to find somewhere to go. He was dismissed from his post as the county magistrate in Guizhou and returned to his hometown to farm the land to make a living."

It turned out that Shi Jieren came to power by changing farming to mulberry.In order to promote him, the imperial court specially transferred him to Guizhou to be trained as a county magistrate.

But I don't want to change the field to mulberry and it will be completely abolished within a year.Shi Jieren was also implicated and dismissed.The little political star in the past has now been completely reduced.

Speaking of which, Zhou Nan, the county magistrate in the Shiji, was also responsible for falling into this field, and he was naturally guilty in his heart.

He also looked at the patches on Shi Wenjiang's clothes. Obviously, this kid has suffered a lot recently.

He couldn't help feeling sour in his heart, and said, "I'll write a letter to your father later, and attach 200 taels of silver. You can trust someone you trust to take it back. It's a little bit of my heart. Wen Jiang, don't worry about doing things with me. .” If I have a future in the future, I can’t help finding an official position for General Shiwen to repay the kindness of Shizhi County.

Shi Wenjiang: "Thank you, my lord."

Zhou Nan sighed, and asked again: "Wenjiang, in your opinion, how can this matter be broken now?"

Shi Wenjiang: "I just arrived in the capital, and I don't know much about the affairs of the court. I'm afraid I can't come up with any ideas."

Zhou Nan: "This matter involves the future battle for the position of chief assistant..." He told Shi Wenjiang the ins and outs of Xu Jie and Gao Gong's battle for the position in detail.

Shi Wenjiang listened carefully, interrupted Zhou Nan in many places and asked again.Finally nodded: "Understood, my lord did not intend to get involved with Mr. Xu Ge, and regarded himself as his disciple. In fact, when you are in your position, being a minister of Zaifu is not good for your imperial examination. It is better to draw a clear line early You should clarify this matter with the Wangfu, but it is clear that it is really a headache to let go of the errand in front of the servant of Xiyuan! Anyway, you have to settle the matter of the money Done."

"Fundraising, how do you raise it? That's at least 6 to [-] taels, so what do you have to pay it back?" Zhou Nan shook his head with a wry smile.

Time was running out, and he was going to Xiyuan in two days, so he was not allowed to calmly raise money.

Speaking of which, both the host and guest are helpless.

Since he couldn't think of a way, Shi Wenjiang didn't bother thinking, and left Zhou Nan to clean up his future office in the signing room.

Zhou Nan was pondering in the study, and after a while, Shi Wenjiang came back, holding a post in his hand, and said in a low voice: "Chen Hong, the admiral of the East Factory, sent a post to ask you to speak, the person who came is not kind!"

When Zhou Nan thought of Chen Hong's ferocious expression when he arrested the imperial envoy Shen Yang that day, he felt a chill in his heart.

He immediately realized that Eunuch Chen was acting for the palace.

He unfolded the invitation and looked at it. It said that he had admired Mr. Zhou for a long time and wanted to see him.I happen to be on a business trip to the palace tonight, and I want to meet you, so please do honor me.

The location is in a royal garden next to Shichahai.

"Can I not reward you?" Zhou Nan shook his head: "Isn't it because of serving the emperor that I want this official to quit. Anyway, it's a blessing or a curse, and it's a disaster that can't be avoided. My lord will go to the meeting tonight. He is Eunuch Chen. Wen Jiang is really smart, he guessed that Chen Hong had fallen to King Yu, and he was the one who allocated the money in his pocket."

(End of this chapter)