"My daughter has long said that as long as we in the Chen family stay safe and do more things that benefit the country and the people, the court will see it."
When Gu'anbo Chen Jingxing came to the palace to tell Empress Dowager Chen that he had just received an order from Zhu Yijun to give him three hundred yuan in salary and to shady his sons and officials. Empress Dowager Chen also started talking to her father, Chen Jingxing, and asked with a smile: "Father, do you believe it now?"
Chen Jingxing nodded: "Yes, I believe it. His Majesty is truly benevolent and filial. Although he has a biological mother, he has not forgotten you as his aunt, so that we also follow him to benefit from Xifu."
"The emperor is a benevolent and filial son, and all the ministers he uses are also ministers. Father, you must strictly control the children of the Chen family. As long as you do well, the court will see it. But you can't act recklessly. You know, even the Li family, because If something went wrong and was severely punished, if the Chen family does the same in the future, they will not be taken care of any more than the Li family."
Queen Mother Chen said.
Chen Jingxing raised his hand and said yes.
Empress Dowager Li also learned about the Chen family being rewarded, so she called her brother Li Jin here.
Although Li Jin is the younger brother of Empress Dowager Li, because life was too hard when the Li family was not yet prosperous, he was unwilling to work as a mason, so he could not bear to castrate himself and entered the palace. In the end, he served Empress Dowager Li, and now because he is still Zhu Yijun The one who is related to his uncle has been promoted to the rank of eunuch and eunuch.
This can be regarded as a very special one among the uncles of the Ming Dynasty. He is both the emperor's servant and the emperor's uncle.
As for Li Jin, because he had stayed with Empress Li since he entered the palace, he was closely controlled by Empress Li. On the contrary, he was not as reckless and ignorant of the law as his brothers outside, and he had no obvious evil deeds in history.
Now, when Empress Dowager Li asked him to come, Li Jin still said respectfully: "Your Majesty."
"Privately, we should treat each other as brother and sister."
Queen Mother Li said.
Li Jin raised his hand and said yes.
Queen Mother Li then said: "You must also know that the Chen family has received a reward."
"knew."
Li Jin said.
Empress Dowager Li said again: "It's not good that our Li family is in trouble! Nowadays, the court officials are governing the Qingming Festival. The more law-abiding and self-disciplined people are, the more noble they will be. The more ignorant they are, the more likely they will suffer. Even relatives of the emperor are no exception. You can take me This idea is spread to the Li family's children outside, especially Wen Quan, who was exiled to the army. Don't really let those from the outer court get closer to the Chen family, and give her a good reputation!"
"yes!"
Li Jin agreed, and he naturally understood who his sister was talking about.
As for Li Wenquan, Empress Dowager Li's eldest brother and uncle Zhu Yijun, not long after he was sent to Jizhou, he was recognized by Xu Fan, who had been in exile here for many days.
After all, they were all children of powerful people who drank wine together in the past.
Xu Fan, who already had tendons that were quite dark, came over first and shouted: "Uncle Guo, Uncle Guo, why are you here to join the army?"
Li Wenquan ignored Xu Fan.
And Xu Fan said: "The world is getting more and more abnormal. It's just that I, the former chief auxiliary son, was exiled from the army. I didn't expect that you, uncle Guo, would also be exiled from the army. Isn't it possible that the surname in this world is Zhang?"
"you do not say!"
Li Wenquan replied and asked: "How come your father has trained such a student?"
"My father also regrets it now."
Xu Fan said, "Uncle, just wait until your nephew, the emperor, takes charge."
"However, you don't know that life in the army is not easy. Zhang Jiangling gave all the money he collected to Tan Zili and used it to build the border wall with new recruits. As a result, the people in the army now have to carry bricks every day!"
"And the bricks on this side of the wall are big and heavy and difficult to move. The key point is that they are as cold as ice in winter and as hot as fire in summer. People don't want to touch them."
"After all, my uncle is a relative of the emperor, so there is no need to arrange a living for him. Take the shackles off him, just don't let him escape, and send someone to follow him."
At this time, Qi Jiguang came over and gave instructions to his subordinates.
Therefore, Li Wenquan was not assigned the job of moving bricks.
Xu Fan couldn't calm down after listening for a long time.
Li Wenquan didn't appreciate Qi Jiguang's sentiments. He just looked around and saw that the wall behind Xu Fan was out of place. He walked over and took a look at it, and gave a thumbs up: "No! No! This is wrong!" The wall is crooked!”
Seeing this, Qi Jiguang came over and asked, "Why did uncle Guo say that?"
"This book is crooked!"
“I have several generations of masons in my family, and I can tell just by looking at them!”
As he spoke, Li Wenquan raised his right thumb again to make a thumbs up gesture and said to Qi Jiguang: "See for yourself!"
Then, when Qi Jiguang came over to take a look, Li Wenquan said: "Qi Yuanjing, is this how you spent my emperor's nephew's money to build a border wall for my emperor's nephew? Such a crooked wall will probably collapse in a few years. !”
Before his sister Empress Dowager Li entered the palace and was made a concubine, that is, before the Li family became prosperous, Li Wenquan followed his father Li Wei and worked as a mason. He started doing it since he was a child, so he was considered a working people of this era. He has very professional talents and rich experience in building walls. At this time, he directly pointed out the problem due to the influence of his past professional habits.
After Qi Jiguang looked at it carefully, he said: "Cut down the person who supervised the construction of this wall!"
Qi Jiguang has always been very strict in managing the army. Historically, he even dared to execute his own son for violating military discipline. Therefore, after he himself discovered that the wall was indeed crooked, he directly ordered the person responsible for this section of the wall to be chopped down.
Li Wenquan was a little stunned after hearing this.
Then, Qi Jiguang ordered people to tear down this section of the wall and build it again.
Li Wenquan watched for a while and couldn't help but roll up his sleeves and said, "Let me do it. He is obviously still a novice. From the first glance, he just came to the border town to make a living."
"Give me the masonry knife!"
Li Wenquan said and took the masonry knife from the man's hand.
Qi Jiguang didn't stop him when he saw this, he just walked closer and whispered: "Uncle, the Queen Mother in the palace has a kind message, asking you to behave well and not to embarrass the Li family again."
Li Wenquan was concentrating on building the wall at this time, so he did not raise his head to look at Qi Jiguang. He only said: "You can help me answer the question to the empress, and tell me that I am working hard on building the wall for Your Majesty! You are not causing trouble!"
"There is also something wrong with this mud. The rice soup has obviously been added too little! It is different from the mud I saw when I came here. The previous ones are correct, but this one is wrong. It will collapse when used to build walls. I use low-quality cotton for winter clothes and I will freeze at most. , but if you build a wall like this, it will collapse!"
Li Wenquan also spoke at this time.
"Kill the person responsible for this mud, too!"
After hearing this, Qi Jiguang continued to give instructions.
Qi Jiguang's subordinates were very shocked: "Is this uncle here to cause trouble? He killed two people just after he came!"
…
Half a month later.
Wenhua Hall.
Zhang Juzheng reported to Zhu Yijun while Zhu Yijun was receiving the lecture: "Your Majesty, Qi Jiguang, the Prime Minister of Jizhou Military Affairs, reported that my uncle Guo is quite insightful in supervising fortifications, which made up for the shortcomings of the border towns where civil and military officials were incompetent. , several issues have been discovered.”
"But I believe that although my uncle is a relative and is in exile, he should use his talents and restore his official status to supervise the construction of the border wall. This is not considered delegating power to his relatives, but only a temporary authorization to inspect it for your majesty. There was also an order in the past. It is not a violation of the old practice for relatives to inspect the project, as long as they are dismissed from their duties when they return to Beijing."
Zhu Yijun laughed after hearing this: "This shows that he was right to be exiled to the army. Let him continue to guard and inspect Jizhou with the salary of a royal guard of thousands of households. He will return to the capital when he is pardoned."
"I obey the decree!"
Zhang Juzheng responded.
