The Prosperous Era of Longwan

In the first year of Wanli, Xinzheng has been in a tense and strange atmosphere.

The Gao family, a wealthy family in the city, was surrounded by Jin Yiwei. Although they had not broken into the house to arrest anyone, in the eyes of the people, Gao Gong had offended the powerful people in the capital and was definitely doomed.

At this time, the moon was dark and the wind was high, but two figures appeared in the garden on the side of Gao Mansion. They carefully observed their surroundings, and when they saw no one, they approached a remote small door on the garden wall.

The two people gathered in front of the door to tinker for a while. With the creaking sound of the wooden door being opened, two figures quickly passed through the small door and left the Gao Mansion.

He left in such a hurry that he didn't even have time to close the small door.

Two figures left Gao Mansion and ran in one direction along the courtyard wall. What was vaguely visible was that the two figures seemed to have hunched backs. They soon left the courtyard wall of Gao Mansion and turned into an alley.

But after a while, two screams were heard in the alley.

Not long after, several figures appeared. Under the moonlight, it could be vaguely seen that they were wearing blue uniforms. They were the Jinyi Tiqi who came from the capital a few days ago.

Two of them were holding a big bundle in their hands, and they didn't know what was in it.

"Sir, are those two going to be let go just like that?"

"It's not Gao Gong and his family. Why are we arresting them?"

"This baggage"

"Take it back and take a look. Everyone is divided. Everyone on night watch will remind me to keep an eye on them. If one of them escapes, don't blame me for using my family's methods."

"Yes, sir."

As a few people left, the alley returned to silence, as if nothing had happened.

But on the second day, when Gao Gong was still practicing calligraphy in his study, the housekeeper came to report that two servants were missing from the house.

"Do you have a physical bond?"

Gao Gong was still practicing calligraphy and seemed not to be affected at all by the news that the servant had escaped.

"I have no legal status. I am a commoner recruited from Zuojiazhuang outside the city."

The housekeeper said, and after speaking, he took a step forward and asked softly: "Master, do you want me to report it to the official and ask the official to send someone to bring back these two thieves?"

"Is he from the outer courtyard?"

Gao Gong just asked casually, "Did you find any valuables missing?"

"That's not the case. Apart from the clothes and bedding given to them by the government, they are just some furnishings in several rooms in the outer courtyard."

"never mind."

Before the butler finished speaking, Gao Gong had already said, "They are all worthless things. If they want to run away, just let them run away."

At this point, Gao Gong finished writing, Gao Gong put away his pen, and then looked at the housekeeper and said: "If it really comes to that point, they will also have to pay severance pay, so they can just go and ignore it. "

After the housekeeper went out, a sad look appeared on Gao Gong's face.

He is a dignified imperial master, the chief assistant of the Ming Dynasty cabinet, and the minister of Gu Ming, but he would actually take turns to be in this position.

The servant packed his belongings and left Gao's mansion quietly, and he himself was ready to commit suicide by swallowing gold at any time, hoping to save his family.

Xinzheng is not close to the capital, thousands of miles away. After Gao Gong's cronies sneaked out of Gao's mansion, they rushed to deliver Gao Gong's letters to the capital.

At the critical moment, these servants who were loyal to Gao Gong also fought tooth and nail. Even one of the fast horses was lost on the road, and finally arrived in the capital three days later.

Except for people from his hometown, the servants of Gao Mansion are all old people who have lived with Gao Gong in the capital for many years.

After leading the horse into the city gate, he got on his horse and ran quickly to the residence of Ge Shouli, the censor of Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Following the delivery of Gao Gong's letter to Ge Shouli, he then turned to the residence of Yang Bo, the Minister of Civil Service, and finally delivered the letter to Lu Tiaoyang's residence.

After that, the messenger found an inn outside the capital to stay temporarily, waiting for news from the capital.

This was also specifically ordered by Gao Gong.

Gao Gong was naturally very relieved to arrange for the people to travel to the capital. There was actually no point in rushing back to Xinzheng after delivering the letter. It was better to let them stay in the capital.

If it comes time to ransack the house and arrest people, they can still escape and not all be detained.

After leaving the office in the evening, Lu Tiaoyang, Yang Bo and Ge Shouli all read Gao Gong's letters in the mansion, and they were all very worried.

Yes, the frame-up launched by Feng Bao against Gao Gong was no longer a secret among the senior officials of the imperial court, especially since Jin Yiwei was unwilling to take the blame for Feng Bao.

Intentionally or unintentionally, the news that the Assassin King Minister was controlled by Dongchang and that the Jin Yiwei could not even touch him had spread to both the government and the public.

Among them, the one who thinks the most is of course Yang Bo.

He has been in the court for the longest time. He was a Jinshi for eight years in Jiajing and had an official career of more than forty years. He is a real veteran.

The relationship between North Korea and China is complicated. Especially since he returned to the capital in the 37th year of Jiajing and became Minister of the Ministry of War, he has devoted himself to placing cronies and fellow countrymen in North Korea and building a huge network of relationships.

Of course, he could choose to stay out of Gao Gong's matter, but Gao Gong's eyes were really vicious and he knew that as long as he surrendered to him, Yang Bo would definitely not be able to sit back and watch him being wronged.

Yes, it can be said that Gao Gong and Yang Bo have nothing to do with each other, but after all, they are both important officials in the imperial court, and each has his or her own network of relationships.

And these networks of relationships often overlap accidentally.

At this time, Yang Bo declined all visitors and locked himself in the study alone, thinking quietly.

At this time, there were two letters on the desk, one on the left and one on the right.

A letter was naturally written by Gao Gong to him to plead for mercy, hoping that he could help resolve this crisis.

The other letter was written by his fellow countryman Wang Chonggu, the governor of Xuanda, and the purpose was naturally to plead for Gao Gong.

Wang Chonggu was recorded in history for completing the Longqing Peace Agreement. Later generations only know that he was the leader of the peace talks between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia, but why did Gao Gong choose Wang Chonggu instead of others?

Of course, Wang Chonggu did not meet all this by coincidence.

In fact, if someone else had proposed peace negotiations with the Mongolian Amada Khan to the court, the final result would have been completely different.

There is naturally a reason why Wang Chonggu proposed this idea and the powerful faction of the Ming Dynasty cabinet represented by Gao Gong also chose to support it.

That is, there is a close relationship between Wang Chonggu and Gao Gong, and the network behind Wang Chonggu is naturally also an important relationship between Gao Gong.

In fact, this is a network of in-laws and interests among Puzhou political and business people. The unbreakable power network formed during the Jia, Long and Wan years gave Shanxi merchants and Shanxi bureaucrats rare opportunities and space for development.

However, it prospered and then declined, and the Puzhou official and business interest network gradually weakened as the core figures passed away one after another.

The core figures of this network of relationships between political and business people in Puzhou are Wang Chonggu, Yang Bo and Zhang Siwei.

Wang Chonggu and Gao Gong were of the same year. They were both Jinshi in Jiajing for 20 years, and their relationship has always been very close.

This kind of close relationship was also an important reason why Gao Gong originally chose Zhang Siwei to join the official department, and then chose to support him in joining the cabinet.

In the early stages of Wang Chonggu and Zhang Siwei's official promotion, they were almost all promoted because of Gao Gong's support. As Yang Bo, who was related to Wang Chonggu by marriage, naturally he could not take it lightly.

Although he cooperated more with Xu Jie and Zhang Juzheng, it was because Xu Jie was firmly in the position of chief minister of the cabinet during the late Jiajing period and the early Longqing period, and many arrangements required their support.

Gao Gong had the friendship and support of Wang Chonggu as a classmate, and the same was true for his nephew Zhang Siwei, but the relationship between Gao Gong and Wang Chonggu was so good.

Therefore, after Wang Chonggu learned that a conspiracy against Gao Gong was brewing in the capital, Wang Chonggu immediately wrote to his in-law Yang Bo who was far away in the capital, asking him to provide help in exonerating Gao Gong.

Yang Bo's son married Wang Chonggu's daughter, who had a good family background.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng chose to promote Zhang Siwei after he secured his position as chief minister in order to maintain a long-term cooperative relationship with the forces behind Yang Bo.

However, Zhang Juzheng did not realize an important issue until his death, that is, whether he supported the Shanxi Gang more, or Gao Gong supported the Shanxi Gang more.

The most important thing Zhang Juzheng missed was that Yin Shizhen made an angry move against Gao Gong in the cabinet. The main reason was that Yin Shizhen already knew that Gao Gong wanted to expel him.

At that time, Zhang Juzheng stepped forward as a peacemaker, but he was completely unaware of a piece of information that was very important to the Shanxi Gang, that is, Gao Gong wanted to replace Yin Shizhen with Zhang Siwei.

Yang Bo and Wang Chonggu were both in the court as military and civilian officials, so it was destined to be difficult for them to join the cabinet. However, unlike Zhang Siwei, Zhang Siwei had a chance to join the cabinet.

The person who paved the way and built the bridge for Zhang Siwei was Gao Gong.

Even a few years later, Zhang Juzheng still brought Zhang Si into the cabinet, but it was five years later than Gao Gong's original efforts.

As for Zhang Juzheng, after he secured his position as chief minister, the first person he brought into the cabinet was not Zhang Siwei, but Lu Tiaoyang, the Minister of Rites, which naturally caused him to lose a lot of points in front of the Shanxi gang.

Yang Bo looked at the two letters in front of him and thought of Zhang Siwei who came to see him yesterday.

Obviously, Wang Chonggu's letter was not only written to him, but also to his nephew Zhang Siwei.

After some weighing, Yang Bo finally made a decision to help Gao Gong get rid of the suspicion in Minister Wang's case.

He is getting old after all, and Zhang Siwei will still need to hold up the banner of the Shanxi Gang in the future.

It may not be a good thing for the Yang family to flirt with Zhang Siwei at this time.

Although he is now in power, both Wang Chonggu and Zhang Siwei appear to be very close to him.

While Yang Bo made up his mind to go to the cabinet to see Zhang Juzheng tomorrow to plead for Gao Gong, Ge Shouli also made up his mind secretly after reading Gao Gong's letter.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this was Feng Bao's revenge against Gao Gong. It is hard to say whether Zhang Juzheng was involved, but as the boss of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, he certainly could not let the eunuchs succeed in suppressing and retaliating against civil servants.

This is also the power and responsibility of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

On the other hand, Lu Tiaoyang, the assistant minister of the cabinet, only hesitated slightly after receiving Gao Gong's letter, and finally decided to just wait and see.

Because this time it involved Feng Bao, the number one eunuch in the palace, and the shadow of the chief assistant Zhang Juzheng loomed behind him, it was really difficult for him to make a choice.

In any case, Zhang Juzheng helped him by inviting him to join the cabinet. Otherwise, even if he became the Minister of Rites, he might not be able to successfully join the cabinet in his lifetime.

As a result, the room on duty of Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant to the cabinet, became lively on the second day. Yang Bo and Ge Shouli came to visit Zhang Juzheng one after another, and they had been spying for a long time.

When Zhang Juzheng sent them out, his face was also very ugly.

Yes, both of them chose to remind Zhang Juzheng that the recent public opinion trend in the capital pointed to the case being led by Feng Bao in revenge for Gao Gong's suppression of him.

However, Zhang Juzheng is facing a lot of pressure at this time. After all, he is the chief minister and has the most say. If Feng Bao wants to convict Gao Gong, he cannot get around Zhang Juzheng. Therefore, under the pressure from the courtiers and Feng Bao, Zhang Juzheng is already on both sides. The situation of being angry.

Feng Bao knew that he was of great help to Zhang Juzheng, so he dared to put forward conditions to Zhang Juzheng, hoping that he would take action in the case of Minister Wang and completely solve Gao Gong.

Although Zhang Juzheng had the intention not to participate in this matter, it seemed difficult to make a choice in the face of Feng Bao's unrelenting entanglement.

Until Sanya, Zhang Juzheng did not summon Wei Guangde and Lu Tiaoyang to discuss the matter.

In this regard, Lu Tiaoyang, as an assistant minister, thought that he had understood Zhang Juzheng's plan, so naturally he would not take the initiative to raise the issue of Gong Gong. He would deal with Gao Gong's letters when he returned, lest he get the last one, because this letter He was involved in it and was labeled as a high-ranking party member.

After all, Gao Gong's case involves the assassination of the emperor, which is not an ordinary case.

Zhang Juzheng, who was worried, walked out of the palace gate and got into the sedan chair. As the bearer exerted his strength, the sedan chair was steadily lifted and headed towards the Zhang Mansion.

Zhang Juzheng felt very depressed at this time. He and Gao Gong did not have any deep hatred at all, but it was just because of their position as chief minister of the cabinet.

Now that he has got what he wanted, do he really want to cooperate with Feng Bao and kill Gao Gong?

He always felt unworthy, but in order to realize his ambition, he knew that he had to maintain a good relationship with Feng Bao, otherwise many of the cabinet's policies might be blocked in the palace.

Maybe Feng Baocheng's ability is not enough, but when it comes to bad things, I'm afraid he is still very proficient.

All it takes is one inadvertently saying something bad about the government in front of the Queen Mother of the two palaces, and it may cause difficulties in the administration of the cabinet.

It seemed that the space in the sedan was too small, and everything inside and outside was suppressing him. Zhang Juzheng casually lifted the curtain of the sedan and looked outside, and a red building appeared in his eyes.

"Stop the sedan."

Zhang Juzheng suddenly shouted loudly without lowering the sedan curtain.

The building he saw was the Guandi Temple that can be seen everywhere in Sijiu City.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the belief in Guandi was pushed to its peak. At that time, there were more than 100 Guandi temples and temples mainly dedicated to Guan Gong in Beijing.

The sedan was put down, the curtain was raised, Zhang Juzheng got out of the sedan, ignored the entourage who came up, and walked straight into the Guandi Temple.

Standing in the main hall, Zhang Juzheng straightened his robes, then offered incense and kowtowed devoutly to Emperor Guan.

Undecided, he chose to seek divination, hoping to get guidance from God.

Zhang Juzheng came in wearing official robes, and Miao Zhu was already waiting to serve him.

It's just that Zhang Juzheng's official aura was very strong, so the temple minister didn't dare to say anything until Zhang Juzheng said something.

After the worship, Zhang Juzheng walked to the desk aside, held the lottery tube in both hands, and shook it gently.

"Crack."

As the shaking accelerated, a bamboo stick jumped out of the tube and fell onto the desk.

Zhang Juzheng put down the bamboo stick, reached out to pick up the bamboo stick, and looked carefully at the signature on it.

"Su Qiong sheds tears during Geng Geng Zhongping"

Zhang Juzheng frowned slightly when he saw the signature, and then continued reading.

"The king's heart is already known to heaven, so why ask me to be suspicious? I hope that my son will change his plans and become a filial brother, so that he won't worry about the incompatibility of his family."