Shanghu County, outside Li Jin's mansion.
"Bo Wen, what do you think of Li Jin?"
After Zhu Yuanzhang walked out of Li Jin's mansion, he was very confused.
According to Zhu Yuanzhang's original temper, he should have been furious, arrested corrupt officials like Li Jin, and peeled daylilies.
But after Li Jin's explanation, Zhu Yuanzhang felt hesitant and didn't know what to do for a while.
After Liu Bowen heard Zhu Yuanzhang's question, he instantly understood Zhu Yuanzhang's inner struggle.
In Liu Bowen's view, although Li Jin was greedy for money, if it was true that he was greedy for money for the common people as Li Jin said, then Li Jin was indeed a great talent.
Moreover, under the governance of Li Jin, the people of Shanghu County did not have to worry about food and clothing, and he was considered a qualified official.
Of course, Liu Bowen was not as hostile as Zhu Yuanzhang towards corrupt officials.
Zhu Yuanzhang was deeply oppressed by corrupt officials since he was a child, which led to Zhu Yuanzhang's parents all hanging in front of him.
Most of his brothers also starved to death due to exploitation by officials.
This kind of hatred for killing his father is also the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang hated the rule of the Yuan Dynasty and hated corrupt officials.
However, Liu Bowen himself was from a noble family, so he had long been accustomed to this kind of situation, and he had no hatred for corrupt officials.
On the contrary, he valued the official's ability more. As Li Jin said, if all upright officials were like Lu Mingyi, then this kind of upright official should be killed the most.
However, since Zhu Yuanzhang hated corrupt officials, as his minister, Liu Bowen naturally had to be consistent with the emperor.
"Your Majesty, I think Li Jin is a difficult person to figure out. What we should do depends on how he behaves in the future."
Liu Bowen's words were equivalent to making peace with each other. He said nothing, which only made Zhu Yuanzhang more confused.
Queen Ma was honest after all and said:
"Chongba, even if you want Li Jin, you have to get the secret recipe for making mirrors from Li Jin first."
"Now the Ming Dynasty's treasury is empty, and the inner palace is even more unsustainable. We still have a prince, but we haven't bought new clothes for a long time."
Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang could only sigh and said:
"If you let the dog officer live for a few more days, we will kill him sooner or later."
There was no way, Zhu Yuanzhang also wanted to kill Li Jin, but Li Jin gave him too much.
As Queen Ma said, although the Ming Dynasty was established in the past few years, the southern and northern expeditions continued, and the Ming Dynasty's treasury had long been empty.
As long as Mongolia in the Northern Yuan Dynasty was immortal, Zhu Yuanzhang could not sleep well.
Not only the Northern Yuan Dynasty, but also Gansu in the northwest, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan and other places in the southwest have residual Yuan Dynasty forces.
In order to support the army in the expedition, Zhu Yuanzhang pawned all his pants, and his internal funds were too poor to uncover the pot.
Empress Ma even had to weave her own cloth to subsidize the internal funds, but she could not make ends meet.
Now that Queen Ma had finally found a profitable business, she didn't want Zhu Yuanzhang to kill Li Jin like this.
Queen Ma has already thought that when she returns to Yingtian, these mirrors will definitely make a lot of money.
You should have a good year this year!
Liu Bowen also interjected at this time:
"Your Majesty, it's time to return to Yingtian. I'm afraid that the court has accumulated a lot of government affairs that need you to handle."
Zhu Yuanzhang looked around, glanced at the surrounding high-rise buildings with nostalgia, and sighed:
"This is what the prosperous times were like!"
"Although it is good to go to Shanghai, it is fundamental to be talented."
Liu Bowen continued to advise.
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and returned to Beijing tomorrow.
.....
Early in the morning, Zhu Yuanzhang took a carriage to Yingtian Mansion.
After a night of thinking, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to keep Li Jin and wait until he returned to the capital to investigate Li Jin clearly before making any plans.
After settling the rent payment, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the bill in his hand, and an idea flashed as if he thought of something.
On the way back, he kept urging the guards to speed up. It seemed that he was eager to return home.
Liu Bowen next to him was dumbfounded, thinking that something big had happened in the court.
Within a few days, Zhu Yuanzhang finally returned to Yingtian.
When he heard that Zhu Yuanzhang had returned to Yingtian, Li Shanchang personally led all the civil and military officials to greet Zhu Yuanzhang.
These days, Zhu Yuanzhang is visiting the south incognito, and all government affairs, large and small, are handed over to Li Shanchang.
However, Li Shanchang had stayed with Zhu Yuanzhang for so many years, so he naturally knew which things he could manage and which things he absolutely could not touch.
As the prime minister of the Ming Dynasty, Li Shanchang was indeed one person above ten thousand people. Now he is an extremely popular minister and has unlimited glory.
But only Li Shanchang knew that as prime minister under Zhu Yuanzhang, he was just a decoration in the court.
Zhu Yuanzhang's desire to control power made Li Shanchang tremble in his position as prime minister, and he did not dare to do anything beyond his reach.
Fortunately, after Zhu Yuanzhang left, no major changes occurred in Ming Dynasty, otherwise Li Shanchang would have asked Zhu Yuanzhang for help.
Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang's carriage from a distance, Li Shanchang hurried forward to greet Zhu Yuanzhang.
After Zhu Yuanzhang got off the car, Li Shanchang immediately bowed and said:
"Shan Chang pays homage to the superior, who patrols privately in secret. Thank you for your hard work!"
All the civil and military officials behind him also bowed down and saluted Zhu Yuanzhang.
Li Shanchang called Zhu Yuanzhang the superior rather than the emperor, which showed the difference between him and other courtiers.
At the beginning of Zhu Yuanzhang's rebellion, Li Shanchang had always called Zhu Yuanzhang "Shangshang". Now, there are no more than three people in the court who are qualified to call Zhu Yuanzhang "Shangshang" again.
Zhu Yuanzhang saw that all the officials were there. Although he was covered in dust, he was still in high spirits.
"Everyone, dear to you, I have worked hard these past few days while we were away."
"Now follow us to Fengtian Palace, we have something important to say."
Hearing that Zhu Yuanzhang had something big to say, Li Shanchang looked at Liu Bowen subconsciously.
Since Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, most of the old brothers who followed Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the world were descendants of Huaixi.
These people are all from Huaixi. They are either fellow villagers or in-laws. They form an extremely powerful force in the court, the Huaixi dignitaries.
Zhu Yuanzhang deeply realized the terror of these Huaixi dignitaries. Once something unexpected happened, it would even affect the Ming Dynasty, and Prime Minister Li Shanchang was the leader of the Huaixi dignitaries.
In order to balance the forces in the court, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to cultivate another force as an opponent of the arrogant and powerful generals.
And the candidate he selected was Liu Ji and Liu Bowen.
Liu Bowen was from Qingtian, Zhejiang, and belonged to eastern Zhejiang. With Zhu Yuanzhang's secret help, Liu Bowen has now become the leader of the scholars in eastern Zhejiang.
With the formation of the East Zhejiang Party, Huaixi and East Zhejiang also formed a completely antagonistic situation under Zhu Yuanzhang's secret promotion.
Liu Bowen and Li Shanchang were also incompatible with each other and restricted each other.
Even if this is not what Liu Bowen wants, under Zhu Yuanzhang's will, he can only be a flag obediently.
The two forces in the court were fighting each other, which was exactly what Zhu Yuanzhang wanted.
It was under Zhu Yuanzhang's layout that the arrogant and domineering arrogance of the Huaixi dignitaries was gradually suppressed by Zhu Yuanzhang.
However, these people put their hatred on Liu Bowen, and were still grateful to Zhu Yuanzhang.
At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang mentioned that he had something important to say. Li Shanchang suspected that it was Liu Bowen who made another small report next to Zhu Yuanzhang.
Liu Bowen didn't know what Zhu Yuanzhang had in mind. Seeing Li Shanchang's evil eyes, Liu Bowen laughed it off.
