After Xu Jie was reprimanded by Jiajing, he felt frightened. After getting off duty that day, he hurriedly summoned everyone to Prince Yu's Mansion for a meeting.
The atmosphere in the study was extremely dull. Xu Jie just sat on the chair and sighed, with no intention of speaking. Gao Gong beside him frowned, not knowing what he was thinking, while Zhang Juzheng was minding his own tea.
Only King Yu Zhu Zaijing was left looking at everyone with a worried look.
"Why are you silent?"
In the end, it was Zhu Zaijing who spoke first, breaking the suffocating silence.
"Alas, Your Majesty, His Majesty is placing more emphasis on the strict Party, and we are at our wits end!"
Xu Jie then sighed and said.
"I see, Your Majesty is not re-employing the strict Party, but re-employing Hu Zongxian!"
Gao Gong glanced at Xu Jie and then said.
"Oh, how come you see it?"
After hearing what Gao Gong said, King Yu Zhu Zaijing couldn't help but become interested.
"Since Hu Zongxian took office as the governor of Zhejiang Province, he has played a vital role in the suppression of Japanese pirates along the southeast coast!"
"The generals appointed by Hu Zongxian, such as Qi Jiguang, Yu Dayou, etc., are all good generals who are good at training troops and commanding elite soldiers. They are not only extremely brave, but also have excellent strategies! Relying on these people, Hu Zongxian only spent less than half a year. In a short time, most of the Japanese pirates in Zhejiang will be wiped out."
"Not only that, he also led his army to wipe out the rebellion caused by Japanese pirates in Fujian and other places, captured the Japanese pirate leader Wang Zhi, and seized 13 million taels of silver for the imperial court!"
Gao Gong said, paused for a moment, and continued: "I would like to ask, with such a capable and loyal subordinate, would you reuse him?"
At this time, Zhang Juzheng on the side was also inspired by Gao Gong's words and said: "We have always fallen into a misunderstanding, that is, although Hu Zongxian is a student of Yan Song, we have arbitrarily classified him as a member of the Yan Party! This is completely inappropriate."
"As far as I know, under the rule of Hu Zongxian, the people of Zhejiang lived a pretty good life, even much better than the place governed by our people. If I have to classify Hu Zongxian, then he is only loyal to one person. That is Your Majesty."
"In other words, Hu Zongxian is a well-deserved member of the "Imperial Party"!"
After Zhang Juzheng finished speaking, he poured himself another cup of hot tea.
After listening to the analysis of the two men, Xu Jie gradually gained some insights and said with joy: "I understand, if we want to regain His Majesty's favor, we have to make some real achievements instead of working all day long. Here the party is united and opposed! This will only arouse His Majesty's disgust."
"But what should we do? The Yan Party has Hu Zongxian, but we don't seem to have a frontier official who is in charge..."
After Xu Jie finished speaking, he frowned and kept thinking about suitable candidates in his mind.
"Who says there isn't? Don't we have Tan Lun, the governor of Fujian?"
Zhang Juzheng on the side couldn't help but remind him.
"Yeah, how could I forget this Tan Lun!"
Xu Jie slapped his head suddenly, as if he was only belatedly aware of it.
"But right now, there are no Japanese pirates to suppress in Fujian. Even the Japanese pirates along the southeast coast have been almost wiped out by Hu Zongxian!"
Xu Jie said and began to frown again.
"Although the Japanese pirates have been almost wiped out by Hu Zongxian, the number of local bandits in Fujian has not decreased. We can seize this opportunity and find another way to wipe out all the bandits in the entire Fujian Province!"
"Not only that, but also to clear up unjust, false and wrong cases, reduce taxes, and make the burden on the people lighter. Isn't this also a solid political achievement?"
Zhang Juzheng turned his attention to Xu Jie and immediately put forward his own idea.
"Yes, Hu Zongxian suppressed the Japanese, so we will suppress the bandits! Anyway, those bandits have done all kinds of bad things, so why don't we take advantage of this opportunity to get rid of them."
"Use their miserable lives to contribute to our cause! By then, when the Yan Party is defeated and everyone is in power, our Ming Dynasty will surely prosper again!"
After hearing Zhang Juzheng's ideas, Xu Jie was quite approving of it, with a light of hope shining in his eyes.
"Well, this matter is settled! When I return later, I will personally write to Tan Lun and tell him everything." Seeing that the matter was finalized, Xu Jie's tone was full of excitement.
"But Mr. Xu Ge, according to reports from our subordinates, Tan Lun has cut off contact with us since he took office as governor of Fujian. Do you think..."
Gao Gong hesitated and put forward his own idea.
"No, no one knows Tan Lun better than me! He is definitely not such a person. Perhaps it is because he has just taken office so recently that he needs to take extra care of his feathers."
Xu Jie shook his head and rejected Gao Gong's idea resolutely.
"Well, I don't think Tan Lun is such a person either."
Immediately afterwards, Zhang Juzheng on the side also nodded and began to speak for Tan Lun.
"Since both of you said so, I should be worrying too much."
Seeing Xu Jie and Zhang Juzheng looking so confident, Gao Gong also began to doubt whether his guess was correct.
"You should have more trust in subordinates like Tan Lun!"
Xu Jie glanced at Gao Gong with a look of blame on his face.
…
Capital City, Yan Mansion.
Since Xu Jie was reprimanded by His Majesty during the day, as soon as he returned home, Yan Song called Yan Shifan into the house and began to discuss the next countermeasures.
"Father, Xu Jie is currently being reprimanded by His Majesty and is not pleased by His Majesty."
"This is our opportunity at this time! Do you think we should take advantage of this opportunity to catch all these young people in one fell swoop?"
Yan Shifan said, his face full of excitement.
"No, although Xu Jie is disliked by His Majesty, his strength cannot be underestimated! Besides, even if Your Majesty doesn't like Xu Jie, he will not just watch us defeat Qingliu."
After listening to his son Yan Shifan's thoughts, Yan Song shook his head and said slowly.
"Then, father, what should we do now?"
Seeing that his suggestion was not adopted by Yan Song, Yan Shifan asked Yan Song again about the next response.
Yan Song did not answer immediately, but sighed: "I, Yan Song, have accepted a good student!"
"What does father mean?"
When Yan Shifan saw this, his face was full of confusion.
"Do you think His Majesty is using us more? In fact, His Majesty is using Hu Zongxian!"
"Hu Zongxian has repeatedly exterminated Japanese pirates and made great contributions to the court! The situation along the southeastern coast had been supported by him alone before. Now that the Japanese pirates have mostly subsided, His Majesty will naturally reward him heavily. Even for my actions, The teacher is just taking advantage of his own students!"
Yan Song glanced at his son and then explained to him.
"But Hu Zongxian is your student. His Majesty puts Hu Zongxian in such high regard, which does not mean..."
"Oh, Father, I understand!"
After Yan Shifan pondered for a moment, he quickly figured out the key.
"Well, it seems you are not too stupid!"
After Yan Song finished speaking, he picked up the teapot on the side and poured himself a cup of tea.
"Then father, what do you mean, we should strongly support Hu Zongxian next?"
Immediately afterwards, Yan Shifan put forward his conjecture.
"Well, yes, that's not all! We have to do a great job converting rice into mulberry, and let His Majesty see our ability to do things."
"The more efficiently we do things here, the more incompetent Qingliu will appear! His Majesty will be more biased towards us."
"Sometimes, you don't need to be very powerful, you just need to be a little bit stronger than your opponent."
After Yan Song paused for a moment, he warned Yan Shifan.
"Father, I understand!"
After listening to what his father Yan Song said, Yan Shifan's eyes flashed and he said excitedly.
"Before this, I wrote a letter to Hu Zongxian personally! Counting the days, it's almost here."
After Yan Song finished speaking, he turned his gaze to the window, but he didn't know when a full moon had quietly risen in the sky.
(End of chapter)
