Chapter 278 277 Delivering the Message
After contacting Gao Gong, Yin Shizhen and others, Wei Guangde already knew that the Yan family had indeed shown their support for King Jing, although he still couldn't figure out why they made such a choice.
Even if Yan Song is old and confused, Yan Shifan is not. He is very shrewd and should not make such a mistake.
Unless he had received some hint from Emperor Jiajing, that's why he made such an unwise choice.
It is impossible for the Yan family and his son not to understand the consequences of supporting King Jing, that is, standing on the opposite side of the world's literati.
According to the system, whether there is a direct descendant or a direct descendant, King Yu should be ranked first in line no matter what.
This is true and irrefutable.
However, Wei Guangde thought of this mainly because he felt that Yan Song might not go back to Emperor Jiajing this time and sacrifice his old face to save Zhao Wenhua.
As a native of Jiangxi, Wei Guangde visited Yan's family quite a few times. Wei Guangde had heard of the incident that caused quite a stir in Yan's family in the past two months.
Zhao Wenhua didn't know where to get a good wine. It is said that long-term drinking can prolong life.
Naturally, he had given it to Yan Song a long time ago. After he returned to the capital last year and was promoted to Minister of the Ministry of Industry, he took advantage of the opportunity to meet the emperor and gave some to Emperor Jiajing. It is said that Emperor Jiajing was very happy after drinking it.
However, after hearing that Yan Song had already had it, he was a little unhappy, and even told Mr. Yan Ge about it alone, which made Mr. Yan lose face with the emperor.
Although this incident did not seem to trigger a break between the Yan family and Zhao Wenhua, Wei Guangde also heard that Zhao Wenhua spent a lot of time to calm down the Yan family's anger.
There is a gap ahead, and the Yan family is afraid that they will not sincerely protect Zhao Wenhua this time.
A big reason why it didn't happen at that time was that the Yan family had already promoted Zhao Wenhua to the throne of Minister of the Ministry of Industry, and there had to be a reason to take him down.
Yes, after Wei Guangde heard about this, he felt that the Yan family's decision to let Zhao Wenhua go was probably a strategy to paralyze Zhao Wenhua. In any case, Zhao Wenhua was the right-hand man of the Yan family and his son.
The imperial court does not belong to the Yan family, so naturally it cannot be taken over casually. That would be too disrespectful of the emperor.
No matter at any time, no matter to anyone, as the emperor, he will never allow his ministers to control the court situation in this way.
If the Yan family doesn't care about Zhao Wenhua's life or death, then the position of Minister of the Ministry of Industry will inevitably be vacant.
Of course Wei Guangde didn't think he had a chance, but felt that there were no talents in Prince Yu's Mansion.
Wei Guangde didn't believe that in such a large court, no one would secretly surrender to Prince Yu's Mansion.
As long as you have enough qualifications and level, you can operate it.
In fact, Prince Yu's power in the court has always been weak, and their support mainly comes from low-level officials.
Because of their rank, most high-ranking officials would not express their opinions publicly. They could only say a few words of help in secret.
Although the Minister of the Ministry of Industry has a low status among the six bureaus, he is still one of the six bureaus.
If Prince Yu's Mansion takes the opportunity to make arrangements early and strives for it with all its strength when the opportunity comes, it may not be impossible to succeed.
To take a step back, even if there is no suitable person and the position cannot be won, as long as someone from the Huang Yan family takes over, it will be considered a victory.
Chen Ju was at home, so Wei Guangde couldn't leave him behind and went to Yin Shizhen or Gao Gong to hint about the matter. He could only take action the next day.
On duty the next day, before Wei Guangde entered the Hanlin Academy, he gave Zhang Ji, who was accompanying him, a note and asked him to contact Gao Gong or Yin Shizhen to pass on the news.
After having more contact with the people in Prince Yu's Mansion, he could see that Gao Gong was the leader of Prince Yu's Mansion, and Yin Shizhen didn't seem to have much say.
In the afternoon, Zhang Ji sent back the news that the note had been given to Master Gao. After reading it, Master Gao asked Wei Guangde to go to the last restaurant later to talk.
In fact, Gao Gong was still very confused when he saw Wei Guangde's note. He could completely understand the meaning of the note, but he had no idea what happened behind it, so he had to ask Wei Guangde to meet him later so that he could ask questions in person.
"Wenhua will resign soon."
Wei Guangde wrote these six words on the note. Wenhua naturally refers to Zhao Wenhua. There is no one with the same name as Zhao Wenhua among the hundreds of officials in the capital. His resignation soon will naturally imply that he will lose his official position.
The use of the word "Li" instead of the word "Sheng" also points out Zhao Wenhua's fate.
In fact, when Wei Guangde wrote this note, he guessed that Gao Gong would definitely ask him for the reason, and it seemed that Zhao Wenhua's resignation had nothing to do with Prince Yu's palace. What did Wei Guangde mean by passing on this news?
The day passed quickly. After getting off duty, Wei Guangde went home and changed into his regular clothes before going out. He got on Li San's carriage and headed to the appointed restaurant.
The restaurant is very close to the Tenth Prince's Mansion, on a not-so-busy street.
When the carriage arrived in front of the restaurant, Wei Guangde opened the curtain and looked around. No one was paying attention, so he got out of the carriage and quickly entered the restaurant.
In fact, he knew that doing this was just a trick, and people with intentions could not hide it, but he still did it subconsciously.
Entering the restaurant, Wei Guangde went straight to a private room on the second floor using the familiar route. When the waiter in the store saw Wei Guangde, he just ducked aside.
This is the property of Prince Yu's Mansion. From the shopkeeper to the waiters, they are all domestic slaves belonging to Prince Yu's Mansion. This is not the first time Wei Guangde has come here, so he naturally knows him.
When Wei Guangde walked into the private room, the people inside were a bit unexpected. Only two people were waiting inside.
"Sorry, I'm late. Please don't be offended, Mr. Gao and Eunuch Li."
Seeing that it was the two of them, Wei Guangde immediately raised his hands and bowed.
Gao Gong and Li Fang also stood up and bowed their hands to Wei Guangde, then spread their right hands to signal Wei Guangde to sit down.
They didn't start talking after entering the room, but waited until the waiter brought the ordered wine and food and closed the door before they started chatting.
"Guangde, what do you mean by that note? I showed it to His Highness. What did Zhao Wenhua do?"
The lack of time was only one reason for what happened yesterday, but more importantly, there were only a few people around Emperor Jiajing on the city tower at that time. Except for Huang Jin and Chen Ju, the other eunuchs stood far away.
Maybe the eunuch who recognized the owner of that house would guess something later, but he probably didn't react so quickly. He would only think of the reason when Zhao Wenhua fell.
It is normal that Prince Yu's Mansion did not receive any news.
Wei Guangde would not think that King Yu was really a little white rabbit who did not know how to win over the eunuchs around the emperor to find out information.
Even if he really couldn't think of it, could people like Gao Gong and Li Fang not think of it?
"I wonder if you two adults know that the Emperor asked the Ministry of Industry to build a new alchemy room in Xiyuan two months ago?"
Wei Guangde asked calmly.
"I know, what's wrong?"
Li Fang replied, while Gao Gong just nodded slightly.
"You also know about the Zhengyangmen Tower, right?"
This time Wei Guangde didn't ask, but said it directly.
"You mean, His Majesty is not happy because the alchemy room is poorly repaired, and he is angry with Zhao Wenhua because of the Zhengyangmen tower?"
Gao Gong said at this time, "In fact, in my opinion, the Zhengyang Gate Tower should not be repaired.
Nowadays, the imperial court is facing difficulties in spending money, so why spend huge sums of money to repair the gates of the inner city? There are signs of disasters in various places again, so it is time to work hard to reorganize the imperial court. The money will always be of great use. "
Although he and Zhao Wenhua were not from the same group, Gao Gong still expressed his opinion. He did not think that Zhao Wenhua did something wrong, on the contrary, he was very supportive.
"hehe."
In response, Wei Guangde just smiled lightly.
If Chen Ju hadn't told the story about the mansion, Wei Guangde wouldn't have felt that Zhao Wenhua had done anything wrong. But with the reason for the mansion, Wei Guangde felt that Zhao Wenhua was looking for death.
Living near the imperial city, one should keep a low profile, but one is extravagant and wants to build a high-rise building. Who is this to show?
Hearing Wei Guangde's laughter, Gao Gong, who had looked righteous before, stopped talking and stared at Wei Guangde, waiting for him to reveal the answer.
There must be something going on later, otherwise Wei Guangde wouldn't laugh.
His laughter was not laughing at himself, but the implication was that he was laughing at Zhao Wenhua.
"Master Zhao has a mansion near the imperial city."
When Wei Guangde said this, he looked at Gao Gong and Li Fang, and then continued: "A three-story pavilion has been built in this house in recent days."
"Um?"
"How dare he do this?"
The first voice was from Li Fang, and the second question was from Gao Gong.
They have understood that Zhao Wenhua is really looking for death.
You told the emperor earlier that the weather was bad and it was not convenient for construction, but you built a tall building at home. Isn't this waiting for the building to collapse?
What is the background of the Zhao family?
No matter what, the Zhao family has always been from a poor family. That is to say, Zhao Wenhua is smart and successful in reading, so he can successfully turn around. How did Mei Ji come to live in a mansion now? Of course he can figure it out.
As for someone in the court praising Zhao Wenhua for knowing people and being good at appointing people, it is even more nonsense. He has indeed always recommended Hu Zongxian, and Hu Zongxian also successfully eliminated the Xuhai Japanese pirate group.
This is a great contribution to Hu Zongxian. In the past, the Japanese pirates along the coast were serious and noisy. The main force was two groups, one was Wang Zhi and the other was Xu Hai.
Now that the Xuhai Japanese pirate group has collapsed, as long as Wang Zhi and his group of Japanese pirates are defeated, there will no longer be a large group of Japanese pirates along the coast, but only sporadic stragglers.
No matter what conspiracy and tricks Hu Zongxian used, it is an indisputable fact that the Xuhai Japanese pirate group was destroyed. Even if the means were disgraceful, it was worthy of the overall situation.
Now Hu Zongxian's next target has naturally shifted to Wang Zhi. How to destroy this group of Japanese pirates is his top priority.
As for the remaining ones, even if a few groups of small Japanese pirates come together to commit crimes, they are actually vulnerable to a huge blow. After all, they are temporarily gathered together.
However, there are not without discerning people in the DPRK. Everyone knows the reason why Zhao Wenhua supports Hu Zongxian. Hu supports raising taxes to suppress Japanese invaders, that is, increasing military investment. There is no need to think carefully about how many tricks there are in this.
No benefit, no early morning.
Zhao Wenhua fully supports it, and there must be huge benefits in it.
The private room fell into silence, with the only sound of Wei Guangde moving his chopsticks. At this time, Li Fang and Gao Gong were analyzing the feasibility of this matter.
Will Emperor Jiajing capture Zhao Wenhua?
How would Yan Song react?
These are all things to consider.
"I forgot to tell you that a few months ago, Zhao Wenhua had the intention of pulling over the mountain, but Mr. Yan Ge severely dealt with it. Now the relationship between the two parties seems to be back to what it was before, but according to my observation, this may not be the case."
While eating the food, Wei Guangde noticed that Li Fang and Gao Gong started to communicate with their eyes from deep in thought. Wei Guangde did not intend to play riddles, and directly threw another bomb, intending to blow them up completely.
"what happened?"
Gao Gong was the first to ask.
Wei Guangde told them about Zhao Wenhua's presentation of wine to Emperor Jiajing, which he had already confirmed from Chen Ju.
After all, the previous news came from the Yan Mansion, and Wei Guangde did not dare to be 100% sure about this matter. However, after Chen Ju's confirmation, Wei Guangde naturally knew that this matter was true.
"Zhao Wenhua is finished."
After hearing that this happened during the period, Gao Gong immediately made his own judgment.
Without Yan Song's help, Zhao Wenhua's future has been determined.
No matter who it is, they will not show mercy to those who have expressed their disapproval. Wei Guangde can guess the Yan family's current attitude towards Zhao Wenhua, and Gao Gong can naturally guess it as well.
"I understand what you mean. Now that I know this, I'm still very confident. Who should be nominated to compete for the position of Minister of the Ministry of Industry?"
By this time, Gao Gong already understood what Wei Guangde meant, which was to see if anyone in Prince Yu's palace could be qualified to compete for the position of Minister of the Ministry of Industry.
When Wei Guangde heard this, he knew that Gao Gong already understood what he meant, so he nodded and said nothing.
After Gao Gong said this, Li Fang understood Wei Guangde's purpose of informing them of the news.
Thinking about it, Prince Yu's Palace is not unaware of the problem of their lack of voice in the court, but there is no way. As long as these officials promoted by Emperor Jiajing ascend to high positions, they will not dare to publicly express their support for them. This is a taboo of the emperor. The behavior can only be secretly ventilating in private.
For example, Xu Jie was secretly connected with Prince Yu's Mansion, but everyone knew that the chief minister, Yan Song, had the final say in the cabinet.
If someone from Prince Yu's palace can be arranged to hold the position of Minister of the Ministry of Industry, no matter what, they will have their mouthpiece at the ministry meeting.
This is the candidate, it’s hard to be sure.
Without him, the foundation of Prince Yu's Mansion is still too shallow, and not many third- and fourth-rank officials fall in love with them.
After a while, Gao Gong handed over to Wei Guangde and said: "Thank you Guangde for sending this news. I won't ask you the source of the news. I know you won't lie to us about this matter.
Even though, for a while, we couldn't think of what to do, we had to discuss it when we got back. "
"Thank you Guangde, the prince will not forget your help."
Li Fang also answered the conversation.
"Don't say that. I have said before that I don't care about King Yu or King Jing. According to the rules, King Yu is King Yu. If my brother is King Jing, I will support King Jing without hesitation."
Wei Guangde still used his usual rhetoric. He was remaking it. According to the ancestral system, he should be King Yu. Naturally, he also chose to support King Yu.
On this issue, Wei Guangde also thought about it for a long time and felt that it should not be too explicit and should have a sense of integrity as a scholar.
In this way, I am not following the trend and choosing to support King Yu because of the high chance of King Yu ascending to the throne, but because of the ancestral system, "rituals" are like this, and he is just maintaining the ancestral system.