(Sorry for the heavy posting of this chapter, please do not subscribe. I will contact the platform to apply for deletion on working days, and those who have already subscribed will be refunded)
Yang Lian's expression was more disdainful than angry.
According to this rumor, the Zheng family who had gone deep into Hetuala, the home of the Jurchens in Jianzhou, in Yang Lian's opinion, was just a little more cunning than ordinary women, so that they could get out of the tiger's den and get back the information.
In the Battle of Fushun, victory could only be achieved by relying on the civil servants and generals of the Ming Dynasty.
No matter how remarkable it is, even if this person is as good at amassing money as Ba Qing in the pre-Qin Dynasty, and as brave and loyal as Qin Liangyu today, such a self-groomed girl who is not very old and has no father or brother in the officialdom, can know the rights and wrongs of the court. Any insights?
Zheng Haizhu met Yang Lian's gaze calmly and said calmly and harmoniously: "Mr. Yang's words were thrown to me by Mr. Huang in Songjiang before. But he was still willing to listen to my words. After listening, I finally understand that I don’t hold Dong Lin wrong.”
Yang Lian glanced at Zuo Guangdou and saw that he was leisurely drinking tea with his head down, as if he was staying out of the situation. He suppressed his anger and said to Zheng Haizhu, "I would like to hear the details."
"Mr. Yang," Zheng Haizhu said with a sincere tone, "Back then, when Zhao Mengbai and Duke Zhao were serving in the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the imperial police were too radical, which led to the officials joining forces to fight against the noble faction. From Mr. Sun, the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, to Mr. Zhao, Then Mr. Gu, who recommended Sun Shangshu to the cabinet, was forced to stay away from the court. Isn't this not worth the gain?"
What Zheng Haizhu was talking about was the uproar that swept through the officialdom of the capital nearly thirty years ago.
That year, Emperor Wanli put forward a plan of "three kings standing side by side", insisting not to make his eldest son Zhu Changluo the crown prince, but only alongside Zhu Changxun, who was born to Concubine Zheng. As soon as this statement came out, officials from the Donglin faction who supported Zhu Changluo were in an uproar and targeted Wang Xijue, the head of the cabinet at the time, believing that Wang Xijue did not dare to speak out and remonstrated, and might even be colluding with Concubine Zheng.
Therefore, during the Beijing inspection, Sun Long, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Zhao Nanxing, the doctor of the Examination Department of the Ministry of Personnel, and Gu Xiancheng, the literary and anthology department of the Ministry of Personnel, these Donglin backbones used their power to massacre people who were not under the Donglin sect. official in order to shock the cabinet and force Wang Xijue to resign.
This is some view of later generations, and Zheng Haizhu will not fully accept it.
It is not the focus of this moment to analyze the court officials Zhao Nanxing singled out under her authority. Some of them are truly corrupt officials. She will not use the bottom line of values to judge Yang Lian in her words.
Zheng Haizhu just looked at Yang Lian calmly: "Mr. Yang, I believe that with Mr. Zhao's integrity and self-control, quite a few of those who were deposed by the Beijing Police did have misdeeds and even evil deeds. But haste makes waste in everything. The thunderous thunder may have shaken the house down."
When Yang Lian heard this, he suddenly turned around and sneered: "So in order to protect yourself, you can ignore right and wrong?"
Zheng Haizhu stared at him and said in a harder tone: "Of course we have to distinguish between right and wrong. Then, let me ask Mr. Yang, a member of the Donglin Clan, what is right and what is wrong?"
Yang Lian raised his chin and said eloquently: "Taizu dismissed the Central Committee and established six ministries. The power was not concentrated, but scattered and respected each other. This is great kindness. Wang Xijue, Fang Congzhe and others monopolized the cabinet, gathered power and acted alone, which was great kindness. No. Fraud in the examination room, lack of strength in the frontier army, empty public funds, and desperation of the people are also great wrongs. On the contrary, it is a great good."
Zheng Haizhu responded: "Okay, as the public said, then if the people in charge of the cabinet, from the first assistant to the second assistant, are all under the Donglin sect, what is the difference between several people and one person? It seems that they are scattered and respectful to each other, but in fact There is still one faction that dominates.”
Yang Lian was stunned for a moment, but before he could question him, he heard the woman say again: "According to what I have said, cheating in away games is a great evil. I take this for granted. When I met Mr. Huang by chance in the bandit village, he was accused of exposing the imperial examination. The fraud almost led to death. A few years earlier, Tang Binyin, the leader of the Xuan Party, promoted his protégé Han Jing for personal gain in an away game. Later, the matter was exposed, and the factions in the DPRK and China started a fight. Donglin The disciples must have hated Qi Shijiao, the leader of the Qi Party, who jumped out to protect the Propaganda Party. However, Qi Shijiao taught him that when he was in charge of prisons in Hubei, there were few unjust cases and backlogs. A few years ago, there was a drought in Shandong, and it was Master Qi who wrote "The Hungry People" to Long Live. ”, the imperial court exempted six counties in Shandong from taxes and money, and also distributed one hundred thousand taels of disaster relief money from the Ministry of Household Affairs..."
"Did Huang Zhenchang tell you all of this?" Yang Lian interrupted Zheng Haizhu.
Zheng Haizhu's eyebrows finally knitted up: "Mr. Yang, I do have a close relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Huang, but the world's affairs are spread by the people of the world. Not everything can only be heard from the Donglin Clan, right? I have a branch of a trading company in Shandong, and from Denglai to Yanzhou, the people all remember the merits of Qi Shijiao, and of course I have heard a lot about it."
With a soft "ding" sound, Zuo Guangdou closed the lid of the tea cup and said to Yang Lian with a sense of relaxing the atmosphere: "Wen Ru, I heard it. What Mrs. Zheng meant is that the Qi Poetry Sect has some followers. My duty is to worry about the cold and despair of the people, which is the great kindness you just mentioned."
"Thank you, Mr. Zuo." Zheng Haizhu bowed to salute and his voice deepened, "The word 'clique' comes from the spirit of criticizing each other. Even if the juniors consider themselves friends of Donglin and preach to Qi, Chu and Zhejiang, they are not willing to use it. The word 'Party'. In the eyes of younger generations, there is only the difference between hard work and empty talk, and only the difference between good ministers and mediocre people. Moreover, no one is perfect. Flaws are exposed due to factional disputes. This cannot be used to determine that he is a treacherous villain. If he is a person, he will be reported to the emperor, and he will be driven out of the court and never used again."
Yang Lian subconsciously wanted to refute, but he couldn't find a strong arrow. After all, when the Donglin Sect was founded, its slogan was to oppose empty talk and internal friction, and to serve the country and benefit the people.
Zheng Haizhu regained some of the sharpness in her eyes, and returned to a gentle and gentle tone.
"Mr. Yang, this junior is originally from a small county in Fujian Province. Fortunately, my brother at home is well-read, so it is not too late for this junior to become enlightened. Due to fate, I have been living in various places and have some experience, so I will speak freely without presumptuousness. For this junior, I want to express my opinions to you. This is especially true because when I was in Fushun, I saw with my own eyes that the Liaodong Army, the Zhejiang Army, and the Shilichuan Army worked together to achieve the great victory in Fushun and to keep the Tatars out of the pass. So today..."
"It doesn't matter, the world's affairs can be discussed by everyone in the world, but I, Donglin's affairs, can't be discussed by outsiders." Yang Lian nodded and said dullly.
After all, he was not a narrow-minded person, and he had a lot of experience as a local official and exposed to three religions and nine streams. He could still see the righteousness of the woman in front of him when she talked about the common people and the country.
Yang Lian then called the servant to add a cup of tea, and then spoke slowly: "Mrs. Zheng, I understand, you are not only talking to express your mind, but also to persuade me to do some errands in Liu Ke Gallery." In Donglin, don't make great progress when the new king comes to the throne, lest the officials around him get excited and join forces, and the government appears to be attacked by various factions. If the new king can't bear the disturbance, he really uses Songjiang Switch and Chongming to recruit troops to punish him. Huang Zhenchang and you will lose both your official career, military success and business profits."
Zheng Haizhu stood up, gave a blessing ceremony, and said frankly: "That's exactly what it means, but it's not just that."
"Oh? What else is there to care about?"
"Mr. Yang, the time when the new king ascends the throne and the emperor's eldest grandson canonize the crown prince is just around the corner. The prince has not yet left the palace to study. I have a request that may sound deviant. I would like to work with Xu Hanlin to teach the prince the art of Western firearms."
…
Half an hour later, Zheng Haizhu left Yang Mansion.
Yang Lian's wife and daughter-in-law escorted her out and handed a bundle to Hua Er.
"Mrs. Zheng, the baby's skin is delicate and she wears old clothes so it won't be pierced. Madam, please explain the reason to Mrs. Ma."
Yang's wife followed her husband's instructions from the servants when he was visiting guests, and prepared the coat and pants worn by her grandson, as well as a small gold lock, and asked Zheng Haizhu to bring it to Zhang Fengyi who was about to give birth.
Zheng Haizhu accepted it with a smile and thanked Feng Yi.
In her mind, she gave Yang Lian a lot of attention for this detail.
This gentleman did not have the bad habit of despising military generals that some Ming Dynasty civil servants had, and he was obviously not on bad terms with Zhang Quan, the "non-party person" in the Ministry of War. Therefore, during the dinner, he heard himself reveal that he was going to visit General Ma's female family members today. At this time, the etiquette was immediately performed.
The Zuo family's carriage, carrying Zheng Haizhu's master and servant, sped away.
In Yang Mansion, Zuo Guangdou was still sitting in the hall, continuing to discuss with Yang Lian.
Yang Lian frowned and asked, "Gongzhi, have you already agreed to what this woman mentioned?"
Zuo Guangdou shook his head: "Brother Nian must decide."
But he nodded again: "But she had a deep talk with me yesterday. Brother Nian and Brother Yu feel that this person is really useful, and his mind may not be inferior to that of men in the officialdom."
Yang Lian said: "How can you see it?"
Zuo Guangdou said: "I asked her if she knew about the assault case, and she said she heard Huang Zunsu talk about it. Then I asked her again. At that time, there was a lot of discussion in the court, and officials from the three parties in Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang jumped out and said it was us. The case planned by Dong Lin was to find a fool to break into the palace to murder the prince and frame Concubine Zheng. What did Mrs. Zheng think? But she directly said that the emperor must not have had such an idea at the time."
"Oh?" Yang Lian's eyes flashed, "Why did she reason like this?"
"She said, if the thief Zhang Cha can enter the inner court with a big stick, he needs to be facilitated by a palace attendant. Since ancient times, it has been a taboo for the emperor to have the inner court collude with the court officials. Long live the emperor can tolerate the officials of Donglin like snowflakes. I submit this memorial, but we will never allow the reckless man sought by the foreign minister to easily enter the bedside. If Long Live is really suspicious of our Donglin, he will never take the initiative to quell the matter."
After hearing this, Yang Lian stared at Zuo Guangdou and agreed: "This Zheng family, indeed, understands some of the emperor's thoughts."
"Brother Nian, don't forget that she is a woman and understands the concubine's intentions." Zuo Guangdou said meaningfully.
