The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"What is Gao Gong doing?"

After Wei Guangde recounted the plan that Gao Gong had told him in the restaurant before, Yin Shizhen's face turned ugly and he said dissatisfiedly.

He was upright by nature, but he was not a fool. If he were stupid, he would not be able to pass the Jinshi examination, he would not be elected to the Hanlin Academy, and he would not be sent by Emperor Jiajing to assist King Yu.

"Who made me do something wrong?"

Wei Guangde just sighed and stopped talking, but Yin Shizhen did not shut up.

"A few days ago, I felt that Gao Gong had changed a lot. He was very arrogant when he spoke and acted. It is not an exaggeration to say that a villain is domineering when he succeeds. I never expected that he would become like this after only a few good days."

At this time, Yin Shizhen was already a little angry. He suddenly stood up and was about to walk out, but was held back by Wei Guangde.

"Brother Zhengfu, where are you going?"

Seeing Yin Shizhen's current state, Wei Guangde felt bad. If Yin Shizhen made a big fuss with Gao Gong, he would really put himself on fire.

Although he could see it, it seemed that what Gao Gong told him had not been informed to Prince Yu's Mansion beforehand, and Prince Yu might not know about it.

It's a bit like cutting things off first and telling them later. Do the things first and then talk to King Yu. King Yu probably won't say anything at that time, after all, it's already like this.

"You can't be so stupid. Let you go to Fujian and promise you the position of governor or governor. This will cut off your path to the cabinet."

At this time, Yin Shizhen spoke directly.

"Why"

In response, Wei Guangde just sighed, then let go of Yin Shizhen's hand and sat back in his seat.

"Why don't I know, but what can I do?"

After Wei Guangde sat down, a trace of pain appeared on his face and he said sadly.

Yin Shizhen frowned and said, "I'm looking for Gao Gong, how could this be possible?"

"Don't go. It's not good for me or you."

Wei Guangde replied.

"How dare he ask me to go to Fujian or Zhejiang?"

Yin Shizhen said immediately.

"Maybe he can really do it."

Wei Guangde glanced at Yin Shizhen, then pointed to where he was sitting, motioning for Yin Shizhen to sit down, and then continued: "In the name of doing good for King Yu, get rid of everyone around King Yu.

From now on, the only person King Yu in the capital can rely on is Gao Suqing. We will all be out at that time, and then we will tell King Yu that we can help him control the world, and our promotion will be under his control. "

"Does he still have Sima Zhao's ambition?"

Yin Shizhen, who sat down, frowned even deeper and spoke uncertainly.

"Whoever lends his courage depends on whether he dares to do it. Sima Zhao doesn't know how to do it, but Yan Song's second is hard to say."

Wei Guangde was willing to risk everything at this time. He could feel from Gao Gong's changes in these days and his attitude towards himself that Gao Gong was a real villain.

Since he is a real villain, there is no need to show any affection. It's just that he doesn't want to break up in front of him. Why don't he dare to say it in private?

"No, I have to go back to Prince Yu's Mansion and explain the matter clearly."

Yin Shizhen was about to stand up again, but Wei Guangde stopped him when he put his hand on the armrest.

"What's the use of talking about this now? It's still true. After all, they are doing it for our own good."

Wei Guangde shook his head and said: "I only blame myself for not doing things confidentially and making mistakes.

Besides, will King Yu trust you and me, or Gao Gong? "

Before, Wei Guangde always addressed Gao Gong as "Su Qing" in front of them, but now he is too lazy to talk about etiquette and just calls him by his first name.

"We will discuss this matter later. Even if we plan this now, it may not be possible. After all, His Majesty still has the final say."

At this time, Wei Guangde could only hope that Emperor Jiajing could see through Xu Jie and Gao Gong's tricks. As long as they stopped him when the time came to appoint the governor of Fujian and called him back to the capital, there would still be a chance for everything.

To achieve the long-term plan, Gao Zhong and even Huang Jin in the palace need his management.

No one in the court could help him, so the only people who could speak for him were the people in the palace.

Wei Guangde had already felt that Emperor Jiajing's character determined that he could use people like Yan Song, relatively strong officials, but King Yu's character was not suitable.

As long as Emperor Jiajing discovered Gao Gong's character flaws, and considering King Yu's situation, he would definitely need to support someone who could compete with Gao Gong and restrain Gao Gong from monopolizing the government.

By then, Wei Guangde wouldn't mind publicly standing against Gao Gong or even Xu Jie.

With the emperor's support, Wei Guangde believed that there would be some people standing by his side, at least most of his fellow villagers and contemporaries would choose to lean towards him.

It's not time to break up now, so Wei Guangde naturally doesn't want Yin Shizhen to do bad things, it's not the right time.

"However, Brother Zhengfu, you must also remind Brother Yifu in private to be cautious in your words and actions to avoid being plotted by villains.

Whether it is for King Yu or the world, people like Yan Song must never appear again. "

At this time, Wei Guangde had already compared Gao Gong to Yan Song.

After listening to Wei Guangde's words, Yin Shizhen sat there quietly for a long time before gradually calming down.

I don't know what he thought, but in the end he just nodded slightly.

Everyone has their own ideas, and Wei Guangde doesn't want to delve into it, he just hopes that his words can give Yin Shizhen a warning.

According to the normal historical trend, Chen Yiqin joined the cabinet in the early years of Longqing and served as a cabinet minister for four years. However, in the first two years, Gao Gong and Xu Jie fought in the cabinet, and Gao Gong naturally wanted to win over Chen Yiqin to fight against Xu Jie.

Two years after Xu Jie's downfall, Chen Yiqin was also squeezed out of the cabinet by Gao Gong and was forced to retire.

The person who succeeded Chen Yiqin was Yin Shizhen. However, less than a year after Yin Shizhen entered the cabinet, he and Gao Gong were forced to leave office due to "political differences", and even caused a "cabinet boxing" incident.

However, it seems that civil servants in the Ming Dynasty were used to taking action whenever they disagreed, so most people were not surprised by this.

After sending Yin Shizhen away, Wei Guangde began to figure out his plan. Of course he couldn't sit still and wait for death. He had to take the eunuch's route. He thought about waiting for two days to meet Chen Ju for a chat. There was no rush now anyway. The official document was sent to Fujian and then back. The DPRK made a decision. It will take at least half a month for the decision to come.

This can only be achieved when the court operates extremely efficiently, but Wei Guangde does not doubt that this decision concerning him will be delayed, whether it is the first assistant Yan Song or the second assistant Xu Jie, or even half a foot in the cabinet The high arches all hope to send themselves away.

I didn't expect that I would be so annoying.

Wei Guangde sighed in his heart, thinking that he was very popular, but in the end he seemed to have offended all the powerful people in the dynasty without saying a word. The officialdom was really not easy to mess around with.

Wei Guangde thought of something he had read in later generations, saying that being an official could not lead to any comfort, and that an official career was like sailing against the current. If you don't advance, you will retreat.

When you step into the officialdom, you can only think about continuous progress, unless you just want to be a transparent person within the system and work as a low-level official at the grassroots level all your life.

In the past two years in the capital, most of the money originally given by the family has been spent. Except for 20,000 taels, which were loaned out and interest was collected every year, the rest was used to purchase ginseng from the previous year. Now in the capital, Even throughout the Ming Dynasty, the price of ginseng last year rose sharply.

Wei Guangde didn't care much about the money that was lent out, but he could probably guess that it was all borrowed from his fellow villagers in Jiujiang.

Of course they are not short of money, but they have to send interest to the Wei Mansion every year.

With such an income, Wei Guangde's life in the capital was quite comfortable, at least he didn't have to worry about money.

Thinking of the money, Wei Guangde was naturally thinking about how much he should give to Chen Ju and the people in the palace. To maintain the relationship, it would be impossible without the bond of interest.

Chen Ju is a well-behaved person, but he also likes money, but he knows what money can and cannot be taken, and he is more cautious than most people in the palace.

But this time, Wei Guangde had other ideas.

It is not possible to directly send money. It is best to form a closer relationship of interest, so that even if I go to Fujian, the relationship between the two parties will not be unfamiliar.

As for how to strengthen contact, Wei Guangde has also been considering this matter for a long time.

To be honest, Wei Guangde didn't know as many famous officials of the Ming Dynasty as the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty. Among the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty, there were really many famous people in later generations.

Zheng He who sailed to the West, Wang Zhen from Tumubao, Liu Jin led by the Eight Tigers of Zhengde, Huang Jin who was with Emperor Jiajing, and eight thousand female ghosts who were under Emperor Carpenter.

Phew, it seems that I have the same surname as him. If I end up on the Ming Dynasty's list of traitors, I might end up being listed like this.

Wei Guangde was sitting in the check-in room, thinking wildly. However, Wei Guangde's original plan, so far, from the information Zhang Ji had inquired about, seemed to be lacking in enthusiasm. It seemed inappropriate to play in finance now.

Yes, Wei Guangde plans to start a bank.

Since those businessmen are willing to take money from him and pay him interest, why not become bigger and stronger?

At this stage, the financial industry in the Ming Dynasty has not developed at all. Apart from pawnshops, there is only private lending.

Private lending is actually usury, but the reason for its formation cannot be blamed on others. It is actually caused by the limitations of development.

Lending is only a private practice in the contemporary era. Because there is no credit system, lenders cannot guarantee collection from borrowers. Therefore, private lending involves large households in the same village lending money to small households. Because the loan channels are narrow and the risks are extremely high, the interest rates are naturally not low. .

Although pawnshops charge collateral for lending, they naturally don't want to let the money go in vain when they see the interest rates on private loans. Therefore, the interest rates of pawnshops are consistent with the interest rates of private loans, which is high.

Because the interest rate was high, during the Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi's reform enacted the "Green Seed Law". The original intention was naturally to reduce the burden of borrowing on the lower class people, especially earmarked funds, and the loans could only be used for agricultural production.

Wei Guangde's imagined bank was naturally not run by him alone. He also wanted to introduce some shareholders, including the eunuchs in the palace.

Those people have a lot of money in their hands.

What Wei Guangde wants to do is naturally to run a pure money bank. In addition to the money exchange and lending business, he also wants to absorb deposits and lend money to earn the difference.

As for the cool banknotes he saw on TV before, Wei Guangde doesn't have the guts to do it now.

Although there are now private banknotes that function like banknotes, banknotes are not the main business of shops, because most of the ones that issue banknotes are pawnshops, and they do not issue many banknotes, and most of them rely on real transactions.

In other words, issuance of meeting tickets is very risky in the eyes of pawnshops or stores, and is not their main business. The reason why this function is retained is mainly to facilitate customer transactions.

When issuing banknotes in a bank, Wei Guangde felt that the anti-counterfeiting process was too troublesome, and he did not have the power. Even if the use of banknotes was limited to the local area and was not allowed to be used in other places, he did not have such strong credibility.

Doing loan business requires unprecedented development of the commodity economy. Although the economic development of the Ming Dynasty was not bad in the past few years, business in the south was difficult to do due to the Japanese invasion. Many merchants were actually shrinking, so they had no choice but to go north. The businessmen are still operating, but they dare not expand their scale easily.

Just wait and see.

Wei Guangde thought to himself, after reading the reports from Fujian, he would decide whether to recruit people from the palace to set up a bank. If not, he would borrow money from them and give it to businessmen. He would not earn any interest, so he could be a selfless porter. , the main purpose is nothing more than to maintain a good relationship.

Wei Guangde was still watching and waiting. After Gao Gong returned, he sent news to Xu Jie in the cabinet. Wei Guangde agreed to go to Fujian to serve as the censor.

Xu Jie would not pay attention to what Wei Guangde thought. In his opinion, it was all the business of Prince Yu's Mansion.

Previously, there had been adjustments among the people in the court. Gao Gong was to be promoted to the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, and the post of Jiji Jiu in the Imperial College was vacant. His original intention was to let the student Zhang Juzheng take over Gao Gong's position.

It was just that Zhang Juzheng was of higher rank and less qualified, so Xu Jie settled for the next best thing and decided to go to Prince Yu's Mansion, planning to send Zhang Juzheng to Prince Yu's Mansion to serve as a lecturer for Prince Yu.

This time there was a big change in the official positions in the DPRK. Zhang Juzheng's current official position in the Imperial Academy was not enough, so he naturally aimed at being a bachelor or a lecturer, and raised his rank by half a level, to the fifth rank.

That night, Xu Jie hosted a banquet for Gao Gong at his house and called Zhang Juzheng there as well.

"Today, I have drafted the memorials of the two ministers Wu and Gao and sent them to the Chief of Ceremonies."

At the banquet, Xu Jie said seemingly casually.

The two ministers of Wu and Gao naturally refer to Wu Shan, the minister of the Ministry of Rites, and Gao Yao, the minister of the household department. They are currently discussing the affairs of the Prince Jing's Mansion with the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, Ouyang Bijin, and the Chief of the Prince Jing's Mansion. Now that they are reporting, naturally the Prince Yu's Mansion is paying close attention to it. The palace renovation project.

The current situation is that King Jing and his team are deliberately delaying the construction period, and the imperial court and Prince Yu's Mansion naturally hope to cut through the mess quickly and send King Jing away as soon as possible.

Therefore, Gao Gong immediately became energetic after hearing what Xu Jie said.

"How do you think your majesty will respond?"

Xu Jie's vote plan will definitely not criticize Wu and Gao, but he will never blame Prince Jing's Mansion. Naturally, the target of the attack can only be aimed at Ouyang Bijin, Minister of Industry.

Anyway, some time ago, Ouyang Bijin also submitted a resignation letter, but was rejected by Emperor Jiajing.

Ouyang Bijin, now among the officials of the Liubu Hall, Yan Song and his family are the only two left, Wu Peng, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. It can be said that Yan Song's power has been greatly reduced.

"It should be completed by the Ministry of Industry within a time limit. I'm afraid Ouyang Shangshu will not be around for long."

Xu Jie glanced at Gao Gong and said lightly.