Chapter 279 278 Candidates
At night, the flower hall in the back garden of Prince Yu's Mansion is still brightly lit.
King Yu was sitting on the upper chair, his arms resting on the armrests, deep in thought, and everyone else in the room was behaving the same way.
Eunuch Li Fang, who was standing on King Yu's side, and Gao Gong, who was sitting next to him, were either frowning or lowering their heads in thought.
The atmosphere in the room was eerily quiet, with not a single sound coming out. It was night again, making the whole environment even quieter.
"Aha."
At this moment, the superior King Yu yawned involuntarily.
At this point in the past, he had already gone to bed. Today, he stayed here because of the news brought back by Gao Gong and Li Fang.
The key point was that staying here seemed to be of no use. After thinking for a long time, he couldn't think of anyone in the capital who could recommend him to compete for the position of Minister of the Ministry of Industry.
To reach a high position, one must at least be of the third rank or be a third-rank official. Those of the fourth rank are almost useless.
If they go up in order, that is, the left and right ministers of the six departments are promoted to serve as ministers, their people are qualified to sit on the position of ministers, but it is quite difficult to jump two or three levels directly to the position of minister.
King Yu's yawning sound naturally alarmed the others, and everyone turned their attention to King Yu at this time.
Being watched by everyone, King Yu felt a little embarrassed because he had lost his composure again just now. He hurriedly put on his regular clothes and said to Gao Gong: "Master Gao, do you think the news sent by Guangde is accurate? Mr. Gu doesn't think it's very good. Reliable, there is no news at all in the court, how did he know?"
In order to divert everyone's attention, King Yu began to talk here and there.
In fact, when he first saw the note, King Yu didn't quite believe what it said.
How long has Wei Guangde been in the capital?
Prince Yu's Mansion is a native of the capital and has not received such news. How could Wei Guangde know about it in advance?
Although Gao Gong said when he came over at night that he completely believed Wei Guangde's words, King Yu also chose to believe it.
If he can't trust others, can he still not trust Gao Gong's vision of others?
But at this moment, he had no choice but to find something to say and cover up the scene just now.
"Your Majesty, there is no need for Wei Guangde to deceive us on this matter."
Gao Gong just said with a faint smile.
King Yu nodded immediately, "Master Gao is right, but I can't think of a suitable candidate for a while, hey."
Gao Gong understood that he had repeatedly screened the people who were close to Prince Yu's Mansion, but he couldn't find anyone. He sighed, "I really can't find the right one, so I will follow Guangde's wishes, as long as I don't let anyone It will be fine if the people from the Yan family continue to occupy this position."
"Send the news to Xu Huating. He has wider connections and may have a candidate. When the time comes, let him recommend the person we choose to the official position of Minister."
At this time, Chen Yiqin also spoke.
"Let us think about it for another two days. There is no news about this matter in the court now, which means it is still very secret. Otherwise, Guangde will definitely give a hint."
Wei Guangde never gave any hint to them to move quickly, which led Gao Gong to think that very few people knew about this matter.
"If it really succeeds, Guangde should take the lead."
King Yu nodded and said.
This information is very important. In the past, what Prince Yu's Mansion lacked was to obtain information in time to respond. Although Wei Guangde did not know where he got the information, it also shows that although he has been an official for a short time, he has already established his own information channels. That's it. To put it bluntly, it's quite remarkable.
Prince Yu's Mansion is not like Jinyiwei, who can deploy people to follow and investigate at will, and know everything they want to know.
The financial and manpower resources of Prince Yu's Mansion dictated that they could only carry out targeted intelligence collection work.
For Gongli, the operation is even more difficult and the risk is too high.
In fact, Prince Yu's Mansion has never found a trustworthy person around Emperor Jiajing. Many times, it relies on Prince Yu's face and affection to find Huang Jin for help.
Huang Jin's attitude towards His Highness has always been very humble, but this is not someone that King Yu can win over. Huang Jin has always been towards Emperor Jiajing.
Wei Guangde only learned about the general strategy decided by Prince Yu's Mansion from Yin Shizhen on the evening of the second day.
It was thought that Wei Guangde did not have any errands with Prince Yu's Palace, so naturally he could not go to the Palace to attend the meeting. He could only ask Yin Shizhen to inform him afterwards, which also revealed that Prince Yu's Palace had already accepted him as a key member.
"Can't you even find a fourth-grade official in the capital?"
Although he is a second-rank minister, as long as the position is suitable and Emperor Jiajing nods, a fourth-rank official can be promoted to a second-rank minister, but most of the time he will be selected from the left and right ministers of the six departments and the ministers of the five temples.
Wei Guangde now really understands the strength of Prince Yu's Mansion in Beijing. It is indeed very weak.
It's no wonder that the Ministry of Revenue can also block the salary and annual gifts from Prince Yu's palace, and Prince Yu has no choice.
The available connections are all among low-level officials, but as long as someone above them speaks, the people below naturally don't dare to be accommodating in private.
After frowning slightly, Wei Guangde continued to ask: "What about outside the capital? For example, over there in Nanjing?"
Wei Guangde knew that there was another Six Ministries in Nanjing. Most of the officials there were officials who had lost power in the court or were preparing for promotion. They first went to Nanjing to raise their official positions. Therefore, there were a large number of idle personnel in the Six Ministries in Nanjing. There must be people who have come to Prince Yu's Mansion.
Judging from the weakness of Prince Yu's Mansion, it is hard to say that the officials with higher grades who came close to him would lose their power and be demoted to the Sixth Department of Nanjing to retire.
But this time is an opportunity for them to revive.
Of course, Wei Guangde just treated a dead horse as a living horse doctor. He said casually, after all, he didn't know who were on the side of Prince Yu's Mansion?
"Nanjing?"
When Yin Shizhen heard Wei Guangde mention the officials in Nanjing, he seemed to be stunned for a moment. Apparently they had never thought about Nanjing before.
The small imperial court in Nanjing was just a nursing home. Generally, those transferred there could only be used for nursing care until they became official. This was considered a courtesy given by the imperial court.
No official is willing to go to Nanjing to serve. Only officials who need to go to Nanjing for gold plating and upgraded officials will go there. However, their tenure is very short and they will be transferred to a new position in a few months.
Because of this impression, Yin Shizhen and the others really didn't think about selecting people from Nanjing at the beginning, and only focused on the one-third of an acre in the capital.
After being reminded by Wei Guangde, Yin Shizhen suddenly thought of a candidate.
This person moved closer to Prince Yu's Mansion relatively early, because when he was in Henan, he was impeached by Henan Governor Chen Hui for being greedy and illegal, with bad personal ethics. In order to keep his official position, he threw himself into the arms of Prince Yu's Mansion at this time.
In order to help him reduce his punishment, Prince Yu's Mansion also tried its best to let him get through this difficulty safely, but he was relegated to Shandong Yanyun Tongzhi. Later, because of his achievements in military affairs, when thieves broke out in Shandong, he joined the army to quell them.
According to meritorious service, he was moved to inspect the envoys, and the left and right administrative envoys were all in Shaanxi. He became the right deputy censor of the capital, governor of other areas, and was promoted to the position of right minister of the Ministry of War, governor of the military affairs of the three sides.
However, at this time, as the right minister of the Ministry of War, with the name of Prince Yu's Palace on his head, he was naturally suppressed from the top. The result was that he went to Nanjing for promotion. A few years later, he gradually faded away. The sights of everyone in Prince Yu's Mansion.
Being reminded by Wei Guangde, Yin Shizhen suddenly remembered that there was actually such a person in the palace, and he was qualified to compete equally for the position of Minister of the Ministry of Industry.
Wei Guangde noticed the change in the expression on Yin Shizhen's face and immediately guessed that there might be something interesting, so he asked: "Is there such a candidate?"
"Ahem. I can't find him in the capital, but when you mentioned Nanjing, Guangde, I really thought of such a person. He was also the first to join the prince, and he can be considered an old man."
"What's your current position?"
Wei Guangde didn't want to hear about this person's past. Now he was concerned about whether this person was qualified enough to compete for the position in the Sixth Department of the Capital.
"Well, he is now the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing."
Hearing what Yin Shizhen said, Wei Guangde quickly searched his memory and knew who the person he was talking about was.
Jia Yingchun.
Of course Wei Guangde didn't know what this person's abilities were. It was the first time he heard this person's name.
But no matter what, if you can climb to the position of minister, there should be no doubt about your ability.
It should be said that he was also among the first group of people to reap the dividends from Prince Yu's Mansion. It is estimated that those who joined him in the early days got the benefits of promotion. That is to say, those who joined the sect in recent years may not have benefited, but have been dragged down.
"Will the Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing be transferred to the Ministry of Industry in Beijing?"
Wei Guangde murmured a few words in his mouth, and then asked Yin Shizhen: "Is this person reliable?"
After all, he had been demoted to Nanjing for many years, and it was hard to say whether he had other thoughts.
Tigers and leopards cannot be ridden, and people's hearts are separated from their stomachs. Don't talk about your intimate affairs and make friends.
Yin Shizhen shook his head. What he meant was of course not that Jia Yingchun was unreliable, but that he didn't know.
"I have to go back and ask. After all, only Eunuch Li knows whether he has had any contact with the palace in recent years."
As Prince Yu's personal secretary, Li Fang naturally knows the most secrets in Prince Yu's palace. Perhaps even Gao Gong doesn't know as much as he does.
"Let's talk to the prince as soon as possible and see if there is anyone else available in Nanjing. It's best to clear it up as soon as possible. If there is a chance, we can use the talents there."
Wei Guangde felt that since there was one Jia Yingchun, there might be a second and third one. These people were dragged down by the palace and were demoted to Nanjing to live in retirement. Maybe some of them would be unwilling and finally choose to leave Prince Yu's palace.
Therefore, those who activate Nanjing still need to choose carefully, and at the same time, they must try their best to gain opportunities for recovery, so as not to chill people's hearts.
Yin Shizhen naturally understood Wei Guangde's thoughts and nodded slightly, "I'll go back and talk about this matter right away. They should really consider it."
Although it was getting late, Yin Shizhen hurriedly said goodbye to Wei Guangde and went to find Gao Gong.
The people most involved in Prince Yu's secret affairs were Li Fang and Gao Gong.
Beijing and Nanjing are thousands of miles apart, and it would take a month to send a message back and forth. They didn't have much time to waste.
If you really choose to push Jia Yingchun to the top, you must first confirm whether he is still the same as before. These investigations will take time.
After that, it would take a long time to build momentum for him in the capital, so there was no time to waste.
First discuss with Gao Gong, and then go to King Yu to discuss it. This is the sequence that Yin Shizhen thought of, step by step.
Gao Gong's home is not far from here. It can be said that most of the houses of the palace's subordinate officials are around Prince Yu's palace. This is also to facilitate the prince's summons.
After Gao Gong received Yin Shizhen and learned Wei Guangde's thoughts from him, he naturally thought of Jia Yingchun.
When Jia Yingchun joined Prince Yu's Mansion, Gao Gongdu had not yet entered the Prince's Mansion to give lectures, and was older than him.
However, this person only knew him. He had only met him twice when he was still the minister of the Ministry of War, and they had very little interaction with him.
"Go to the palace and ask Manager Li."
Gao Gong thought about it and said to Yin Shizhen.
It didn't take long for the two of them to see Li Fang in the outer courtyard of the palace.
At this point in time, naturally, we can't disturb King Yu's rest. In fact, if something really happens, Gao Gong and Li Fang will discuss it, and King Yu won't have any objections.
In addition to the impact of the thought of fighting for himself and his mother and concubine, King Yu was able to reach this point. The promotion of Gao Gong, Li Fang and others was also inseparable.
In fact, as far as King Yu himself is concerned, he is a relatively lazy person who is more content with having fun. Such a person is more suitable to be a leisurely prince.
But the affairs of the Emperor's family are not that simple.
It was so late. Gao Gong and Yin Shizhen came to see him, thinking that something big had happened. When they heard that they asked about the connection between Jia Yingchun in Nanjing and the palace, although it was strange, Li Fang still nodded, "Yes, every year." There were several letters exchanged.”
"How is he? After all these years in Nanjing, can he still be trusted?"
Gao Gong asked anxiously, Gao Gong is such a person, he is impatient in doing things.
Hearing this, Li Fang did not dare to answer immediately, but thought about it carefully before hesitatingly said: "It should be okay, after all, the prince had gone to great lengths to get him out of the crime. Looking at his letters over the years, Nothing has changed, just like before, there are gifts for all festivals.”
After speaking, Li Fang stared at Gao Gong and Yin Shizhen, wanting to know the reason why they asked. There must be something going on.
Regarding Li Fang's curious eyes, Gao Gong naturally would not hide it, "Didn't Zhengfu go to see Guangde today? Guangde mentioned an idea, that is, from Nanjing, we should see if there are any suitable candidates to compete for the position of the six ministers in the capital. candidate."
That's enough. Li Fang will understand what they mean.
"Snapped."
Sure enough, when Gao Gong finished speaking, Li Fang had already slapped his thigh, "Oh, look at my mind, Zaza didn't think of this at that time.
We still have several people who were sent there in Nanjing. We thought they would be there for retirement, but we didn’t expect to take the opportunity to get them back. "
"Yes, what Guangde means is that we need to check the people in Nanjing carefully. If they are still the same as before, we will help them build momentum in the capital and try to take this opportunity to win the position of Minister of the Ministry of Industry."
Gao Gong nodded in response.
"Yes, yes, yes, I will go find the letter right away. We will read the details. We will also arrange for someone to go to Nanjing to check. We will make all the preparations that need to be made."
"The prince's side."
"Your Majesty, now that you have a rest, we can settle this matter."