Chapter 276 275 Xuanfu Military Pay

"Hey, brother, you don't know. The Emperor has been very worried about your official position. It's just that you are too young and the Emperor cannot be appointed as an official. But don't worry, you have recorded all your contributions, and there will be opportunities in the future."

Chen Ju became a eunuch in the true sense. He was no longer an eunuch of no grade. His speech was different from before. He no longer called the emperor throne, but changed his name to Emperor.

With his grade, he is also considered an instructor.

Although admirals like Huang Jin called themselves "slaves" in front of Emperor Jiajing, they were so modest.

Strictly speaking, Huang Jin was a second-rank admiral and eunuch. The memorials written to Emperor Jiajing were to represent himself with "subjects".

"The Emperor is worried about my reward?"

Wei Guangde looked at Chen Ju with disbelief.

"Of course, look, we have saved the 'Yongle Original' this time. What a great contribution. Let me tell you, many of the books are already lonely, and the original books can no longer be found outside. If the original books are destroyed, it will be really amazing. No more, do you know?"

Chen Ju now smacked his lips and continued, "What's more, this book was compiled by our ancestors. Just like this, is it worthy of our ancestors?

It’s just a pity that the rewards for you were very arguing. In the end, the emperor heard Xu Jie’s words and said that you are still young and need to be trained, so he was the Zuo Sizhilang of the Zhanshi Mansion.

The emperor doesn’t even establish a prince. What kind of trouble does the Zhanshi Mansion have? You should just wait and get enough experience. If you were born a few years earlier.”

Soon, the food and drinks ordered were served, and the occasion of the two people talking was transferred from the lobby to the dining room.

"Today the emperor left the West Garden and stepped on the city wall, saying that he wanted to see the lives of the people in the capital, hehe."

The two of them had a chat every sentence. Wei Guangde talked about the Hanlin Academy, and Chen Ju told Wei Guangde about the latest news in the palace. It could be said that the two of them had a silent exchange of intelligence.

But no matter how you look at it, the information in the yamen mentioned by Wei Guangde is not as strong as the information in the palace revealed by Chen Ju.

"The emperor moved to Zhengyangmen Tower and said that the city tower was old and broken, so it was time to rebuild it. Perhaps it was because he thought of the fire in the palace. Now the emperor said he would make new whatever he saw."

Drinking the wine in a glass and eating the dishes in a plate, Chen Ju continued to talk about the itinerary of Emperor Jiajing today.

"Have you passed the message to the cabinet?"

Wei Guangde was really shocked at this moment. How much money would it cost to rebuild the three halls? It is now a rumor in the yamen. The current financial resources of the Ming Dynasty court cannot support such a large project.

Those corridors are fine, and there are ready-made woods, and the craftsmen can just dispatch them directly, and they can't spend a lot of money. They can start construction with just one order.

However, Zhengyangmen Tower is a huge building with several floors. It is not as much as building a palace. It is better to build one of the three halls first with that amount of money.

What's more, the inner city walls were also disrepaired. In the past few years, all the money for repairing the city walls was poured into the construction of the outer city walls at once, resulting in the fact that there was no money to repair other city walls in recent years.

After repairing Zhengyang Gate, do you also need to repair several damaged city walls around it?

"I handed over the words, but there was no reply yet."

Chen Ju said.

Time flies and a few days have passed. The news that Emperor Jiajing issued an order to rebuild the Zhengyang Gate Tower has spread in the court, which naturally made all officials discuss it.

The Ministry of Works, which used to be very active in repairing such projects, did not expose any opinions this time, and its attitude was a bit unpredictable.

The current Minister of Works is Zhao Wenhua. In ancient and modern times, both in China and abroad, it means that there is a lot of money to make money.

What kind of person is Zhao Wenhua?

This person will not mention his ability to do things, but he knows how to be a human being, and he will become accustomed to being angry with others.

He passed the imperial examination in the eighth year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty. He was first appointed as the head of the Ministry of Justice, and later transferred to the Imperial College. At that time, Yan Song was the Imperial College Priest.

He recognized Yan Song as his adoptive father and set foot on the Yan family. Yan Song's development later proved that he had a good vision at that time.

Shortly after Yan Song entered the cabinet, Zhao Wenhua was appointed as the Tongzheng Envoy, and all the memorials had to be passed through him before they could be sent to the palace, which naturally allowed Yan Song to get a lot of information as soon as possible.

After Yan Song killed Xia Yan as the chief minister of the cabinet, any memorials impeached Yan Song would be sent to Yan Song for a review first and then submitted to Emperor Jiajing. This gave Yan Song enough time to prepare for the response. After all, his son Yan Shifan was not a big deal and he would seize the loopholes in the memorials to fight back.

Of course, not all the blame is not taken. When it is time to admit his mistake, Yan Song was willing to admit his mistake to Emperor Jiajing. He was particularly keen on taking the blame for Emperor Jiajing, so he has always been favored, so Emperor Jiajing trusted him more.

In the following years, although there were constant memorials of impeachment of Yan Song's illegal activities, the position of chief minister of the cabinet was still stable.

Zhao Wenhua and Yan Shifan have a good relationship. After all, they are both the same type of people, they are greedy for money and have a very luxurious life.

In recent years, the Japanese invasion in Jiangnan became increasingly serious, and Zhao Wenhua regarded this as an opportunity for promotion. Not only did he actively make suggestions, he also went to Zhejiang twice to supervise the war, and took over the benefits Hu Zongxian had obtained from tax increases in the Jiangnan region, and also began to gain military merits.

When dealing with his former Governor General of Jiangnan, Zhao Wenhua secretly impeached Zhang Jingjian and hooked up the Japanese pirates, and eventually killed Zhang Jing and his military achievements, and Zhao Wenhua successfully grabbed them.

Later, after overthrowing Li Mo, the Minister of Personnel and forcing Wang Yongbin of the Minister of Rites, he was vacant for two consecutive positions to make him finally succeed in advancing to the Minister of Works.

What a big project to rebuild the Zhengyang Gate Tower? Zhao Wenhua was not tempted. This made people in the yamen below speculate whether there was something wrong with Yan Song.

Of course, the first thing that everyone speculated was the financial problems of the court. Perhaps it was so bad that even the chief minister, who had always been the only emperor Jiajing order, dared not continue to blindly follow.

After all, even if the city tower is rebuilt, the money will be paid by the imperial court. For the officials of the Ministry of Works, there is no loss, but only benefits.

However, soon, a piece of news spread rapidly throughout the major yamen offices in Beijing. Zhao Wenhua, Minister of Works, and Lord Zhao, died of illness due to continuous missions to Jiangsu and Zhejiang to fight against the Japanese.

The intention of the palace to the cabinet was very clear. The reconstruction of the Zhengyang Gate Tower was supervised by Zhao Wenhua, the Minister of Works of the Ministry of Works. Now that the person in charge fell ill, the project could only be delayed.

However, for the clever timing of Zhao Wenhua's illness, naturally not many people really believe that he is really sick. Although he was endorsed by the imperial physician of the Imperial Hospital, the jokes circulating in the capital are unbelievable.

The trend of the court has changed drastically, which has made the low-level officials in Beijing a little confused and unable to figure out the situation. Perhaps only officials such as cabinet ministers and six ministers and nine ministers know the reason.

Wei Guangde naturally knew about these things, but he didn't care.

The officials of the Ming Dynasty were one radish and one pit. Even if the radish on it was pulled out, they would not be able to wait for him to substitute.

As Chen Ju said, he is too young.

Thinking about the time when I went to court or played the same thing in Xiyuan, there were a group of officials in their forties, fifties, fifties and sixties, all of whom were white-haired and white-haired and unshaven bearded. I guess everyone would feel uncomfortable.

Qualifications, maybe that's how it comes about.

Zhao Wenhua has not messed with Wei Guangde yet, so naturally he is not willing to offend him.

When I visited Yan's mansion before, I would be taken to drink when I met Yan Shifan. Zhao Wenhua was often seen during the meal.

The two of them had dealt with each other, but they did not interfere with the river.

Wei Guangde didn't know what would happen in the end when Zhao Wenhua was so openly disobeying Emperor Jiajing's will, but when he thought about it, he felt heartbroken. Wei Guangde would never do such a stupid thing, even if it was really instructed by Yan Song.

If you don't do it well, you have to face the thunderous anger.

However, although Zhao Wenhua said he could not do anything, the Ministry of Works continued to operate effectively under the management of the left and right ministers.

During the discussion on the reconstruction of the three halls, the Ministry of Works proposed to inquire about the restoration plan between the three halls in the 19th year of Yongle and the Zhengtong period, and also asked to calculate the huge reconstruction project and all expenses.

Of course, such memorials were quickly approved by Emperor Jiajing, and the two ministries of the Ministry of Rites and Works said that the palace court had all the principles of reincarnation and respect when it was relied on benevolence and love, and not to sell straightforwardness to loyalty, otherwise it would be a difficult situation.

Minister of Rites Wushan Minister of Works Zhao Wenhua jointly wrote a letter that the important places of the court should be repaired urgently, but the work costs are heavy, and the management must be carried out in sequence. Rong Chen and others will work with the officials of the Inner Lishui and the Jinyiwei of the Ministry of the Ministry of Lishui.

However, after the memorial was entered into the Xiyuan, Emperor Jiajing directly set the construction order, and first made the Gongmen and Wulou. The projects of the three halls can be delayed before they can be discussed. The official meeting will still report the matter.

However, these had little to do with Wei Guangde, because he received a letter from Ma Fang, who was already the deputy general of the Xuanfu, asking for help to ask the court for a batch of military pay for the Xuanfu.

After the First World War in Bao'anzhou last year, Ma Fang was promoted to the General of Xuanfu, assisting the general in guarding the front line of Xuanfu, and adding a unit of his troops to nearly 3,000 troops.

In October, Altan's troops invaded Datong, and Ma Fang was ordered to support and made another contribution. In November, he was promoted to deputy general of Xuanfu.

Since December last year, the food and wages that the imperial court should have been allocated have never been here again. The soldiers have not received military wages for nearly half a year, which has also made the soldiers at the bottom full of complaints, and the combat power of the entire Xuanfu army has declined rapidly.

Even if Ma Fang's troops obtained some food by regaining the occupied military fields, they were only enough for the soldiers to make a living, and now he could not hold on.

Even Yang Bo, the governor of Xuanda, and the generals of Datong and Xuanfu continued to submit requests to the court for payments, but they were all fruitless.

At this time, Wei Guangde asked the court for salary, and when he thought about it, he felt like a big head.

What happened at the end of last year? As far as Wei Guangde knows, the Ministry of Revenue almost couldn't even get the salary and annual gifts of officials in Beijing.

Now that Ma Fang has found her here, if she can't help Ma Fang get things done, she guessed that Ma Fang should underestimate her, but the problem is that she really doesn't have the ability, after all, her foundation is too shallow.

Wei Guangde received a letter from Ma Fang and sent someone to settle Ma Fang's messenger and sat alone in the study to find a solution.

The only relationship that can be used now is Gao Zhong’s side, so I’ll talk to Chen Ju.

Governor Xuanda and the generals of the two towns submitted memorials. I guess they were not sure whether they were being suppressed in the cabinet or the liexi supervisor. At this time, someone had to turn it out and send it to Emperor Jiajing.

I think that with Emperor Jiajing's temper, the court would still urge the court to deal with the border affairs as soon as possible.

If the border army cannot get military salary when they become soldiers, the consequences can be imagined. Emperor Jiajing would never want to have such a shameful thing as the "Gengxu Incident".

He called Zhang Ji and told him to wait for Chen Ju outside Xiyuan Gate, and invited him to the mansion to have a drink.

Now Wei Guangde's family still has several thousand taels of silver deposit, and Xu Bangrui from Nanjing alone sent 5,000 taels of silver to allow Wei Guangde to establish a good relationship with the palace.

The silver was only delivered after Li Bin fell after the New Year, and two letters were sent in a hurry.

Xu Bangrui had thought about paying money to help get Li Bin down. The money was sent out, and the first letter was taken away.

But at this time, when news of Li Bin being imprisoned came, he naturally understood that Wei Guangde had taken action, so he hurriedly wrote another letter and sent someone to the capital.

The second letter naturally refers to money. Since Wei Guangde has defeated Li Bin, Xu Bangrui will pay the money to let him continue to make friends with noble people in the palace.

Now Xu Bangrui has fully trusted Wei Guangde, and he also believes that Wei Guangde must have found a backer in the palace.

Whether he can inherit the title of Duke of Wei depends to a large extent on Emperor Xin. As the eldest son, he has a great chance. After all, Xu Bangning is not the true son, and he can only be ranked behind him in terms of inherited titles.

Now the money is still in the warehouse in his house, so I just happened to send some to Chen Ju and Gao Zhong to get closer and help me ask whether the military pay in Xuanfu was stopped in the Silijian or in the cabinet.

If you are in the Silijian, it should be easier to deal with, after all, it is a business.

If it is in the cabinet, it will be a little more troublesome, after all, it doesn’t matter to the cabinet.

After a while, it seemed that if the memorial was not in the Silijian, he could only talk to Gao Gong to see if Prince Yu's mansion had arranged a suspicion in the cabinet.

King Yu should also be determined to compete for the throne. At least after contacting Gao Gong and others, Wei Guangde could feel the sharpness in them. Although the situation in the Yu Mansion was in a difficult situation, they were still full of confidence.

Zhang Ji was moving very quickly. At noon the next day, Wei Guangde received the news that Wei Guangde walked straight into the restaurant with Chen Ju Yue during lunch break.

In front of Chen Ju, Wei Guangde did not hide anything. After entering the private room and showing off his favor to Chen Ju, he sat down. When the restaurant delivered the food and food, all the people left, Wei Guangde told Chen Ju about Xuan Da’s military pay.

"I knew it last time I met. The emperor did not take the matter of your connection with Ma Fang to heart at that time."

In front of Chen Ju, Wei Guangde was too lazy to hide anything. What Emperor Jiajing knew about was to hide for whom, but Chen Ju's next words still made Wei Guangde a little scared.

"Ma Fang's official position was different from now on. It was a taboo for officials in the court to have contact with the border town leader. Of course, you are a little slight now, so the emperor is not worried about you. If you are in a high position in the future, it is probably not a good thing."

After eating and drinking, when the two got up and left the restaurant, Chen Ju whispered: "When you go back, I'll ask your godfather and see what's going on."
Chapter completed!