Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 412 The Butterfly Effect
Pei Yuan thought about it and asked Lu Ting directly, "What are you going to do?"

Lu Ting looked at Pei Yuan in confusion, then gritted his teeth and said, "I won't accept this!"

"Gu Dayong has been keeping his troops for a year without any progress, but this kind of bastard can still get a baron with the merits given by you, my dear brother."

"But what about me?"

As he spoke, Lu Ting became more heated, "I can tell others about my little contribution, but I can't bring it up in front of you, my dear brother."

"But apart from anything else, do I trust you and obey your orders? Do I have the courage to help you when you need my help?"

"I even let the elite troops of the Bazhou Army go. I was not ambiguous about it."

"Uh..." Pei Yuan's mind was a little confused and he didn't know how to respond.

Then Lu Ting said, "Let's not talk about Gu Dayong."

"Xiao Yan is an outsider. Who is he? Why does he have two uncles?"

"I just got two commanders!"

Pei Yuan listened to Lu Ting's complaints for a while and suddenly came to his senses.

What the hell!

Lu Ting is not talking about the Ministry of War, he is talking about himself.

This resentful tone..., is he blaming me for being biased?

Pei Yuan felt numb.

I ran back to the capital city in a hurry, thinking that I could come to Lu Ting's aid when he was most helpless. But why didn't Lu Ting blame the Ministry of War, the Cabinet, or the Emperor, but thought it was his own fault?

Speaking of Lu Ting, speaking of Gu Dayong, speaking of Xiao Yan, speaking of the Bazhou Army...

Pei Yuan was sorting out his thoughts.

Thinking of Qi Yanming still guarding the door outside without any argument, Pei Yuan suddenly realized, who else could he blame if not himself?

As the mastermind behind all the forces, he can never treat everyone equally.

Captain Pei was now somewhat embarrassed.

No wonder after hearing the court’s decision, Lu Ting did not complain or cry out for injustice, but just waited for me at home.

It turns out that they wanted me to give an explanation.

What the hell.

Pei Yuan admired Lu Ting's bold ally and promised without hesitation, "Don't worry, Eunuch Lu. I will take care of this matter."

Lu Ting's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he immediately asked, "What did Brother Pei say?"

Pei Yuan considered it for a while and made a conservative promise, "At least one baron, if there are more, I'm not sure."

Lu Ting was overjoyed when he heard this.

"My brother has only one son, so one uncle is enough."

After Lu Ting finished speaking, he couldn't help but ask, "Brother Pei, what are you going to do?"

Pei Yuan had already made up his mind, so he said to Lu Ting, "You don't have to get involved in this matter."

"I learned from Wang Qiong, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, that the little wealth accumulated by Liu Jin during his reign was almost completely used up in order to suppress the rebellion in Bazhou."

"The court is short of money right now."

"So suppressing the military merit reward this time should be the common intention of the court and your majesty."

"You didn't fight or compete before, even though you were waiting for me to take charge of this matter, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and it secretly coincided with the wishes of the court and His Majesty."

"This will be of great benefit to you in your subsequent fight for the position of Chief of the Imperial Household Department."

Lu Ting was cheered up after hearing this.

He didn't expect to have such an unexpected gain.

If Pei Yuan's guess came true, then Lu Ting would undoubtedly establish an image of someone who takes the overall situation into consideration in the minds of the cabinet and the emperor, which would be a huge plus.

After this competition, Lu Ting became more aware of the importance of laying a solid foundation.

As a eunuch, no matter how prominent he was when he was in charge of military affairs, his position in the inner court was ultimately the bottom line.

Lu Ting had been working as a garrison eunuch before. He was finally transferred back and had just been transferred to the Imperial Household Department when he was temporarily appointed to the post and went to Jiangnan to snipe Pei Yuan.

Later, under the guidance of Pei Yuan, as the military supervisor of Bai Yu, the governor-general, he schemed to seize Gu Dayong's position as the eunuch in charge of military affairs.

It can be said that as a eunuch, his foundation in the palace was very superficial.

Even if he holds the title of the head of the Imperial Stables, he is weak and alone, and probably cannot take actual control of the Imperial Stables.

Because the two brothers Zhang Xiong and Zhang Rui were previously in charge of the Imperial Stables.

Now the layout of the palace is basically clear. One of these two people will be promoted to the eunuch commander of the Eastern Depot. Although the other one cannot get to the position, he has a brother who is the commander of the Eastern Depot, so he will not be at all afraid when facing Lu Ting.

In particular, Zhang Rui went to the front line to monitor guns during the battle, and he also had military merits.

Moreover, as the seal holder of the Imperial Stables, Lu Ting had an important claim that he had not been able to take back.

That was the Western Factory Commander who was taken away by Gu Dayong and ran away.

Without the seal of the Imperial Stables of the Western Factory Commander, its quality would naturally be greatly reduced.

Now Pei Yuan mentioned the position of the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department again, which gave Lu Ting hope again.

He couldn't help but ask, "Zhang Yong has been with Your Majesty for many years, and he has the Minister of Personnel Yang Yiqing as his ally. How can he be easily moved?"

Pei Yuan smiled and said, "What about Liu Jin?"

After saying this, Pei Yuan secretly criticized Zhu Houzhao, "The emperor is a heartless person. If he thinks the old knife is no longer useful, he will throw it away without hesitation and replace it with a new one. Isn't your knife pretty good?"

After listening to this, Lu Ting pursed his lips and the expression on his face faded a little.

Pei Yuan continued to say to Lu Ting, "Since you have succeeded in doing so and established an image of a person who knows the big picture, why not continue to be humble and yield."

"If the court asks for your opinion, you just need to firmly hold on to your first achievement and accept all other rewards."

Lu Ting did not shy away from Pei Yuan and asked directly, "What if the court goes along with it? With all my great contributions, I can't leave a title for my nephew, right?"

Pei Yuan had already made a plan, and immediately said calmly, "Don't worry, leave this matter to me. As long as I try to persuade the emperor to increase the rewards for the warriors under him, then your reward will naturally increase as the tide rises and the boats rise."

Only then did Lu Ting understand why Pei Yuan asked him to hold on to the false title of "No. 1 in Military Merit".

In this way, the people below him would accumulate too much merit, and would passively push him, the first merit, to the top. Lu Ting did not have to do anything, and he could naturally gain benefits.

Otherwise, the unfairness of rewards and punishments would be too obvious and there would be no way to explain it to the people of the world.

Lu Ting reminded, "Since the treasury is short of money, I'm afraid Your Majesty may not be willing to reward us generously."

Pei Yuan also knew the difficulty here, "We have to give it a try."

Lu Ting finally felt relieved and was in a good mood to chat and laugh.

Pei Yuan also took the opportunity to ask him, "Since the Ministry of War intends to let Lu Wan serve as the Left Censor-in-Chief, what about Li Shishi, who was previously the Left Censor-in-Chief? Has the court made any arrangements?"

Lu Ting said, "I heard vaguely that he seems to be going to the Ministry of Rites." "Ministry of Rites?" Pei Yuan was a little surprised.

The brief transition of Li Shishi, the Right Censor-in-Chief, to the Left Censor-in-Chief had already caused considerable changes in the historical line, not to mention that he ran to the Ministry of Rites, which had nothing to do with the Censorate system.

You must know that Li Shishi is not an ordinary person. He is one of the important planners of the Ning Wang Rebellion.

Such changes in important historical figures may very likely cause the direction of the times to deviate.

"It is indeed the Ministry of Rites." Lu Ting explained, "My dear brother, you may not know that the Minister of Rites Fu Gui is about to retire."

Pei Yuan was surprised. "Fu Gui was an old minister of your majesty when he was in the Eastern Palace. Your majesty has always respected him very much. How could you allow him to retire?"

Fu Gui was the one who rejected Zhu Houzhao's imperial edict when he wanted to give a hundred hectares of land to foreign monks to build temples.

Moreover, Fu Gui even said to the young eunuch, who the Daqing Dharma King is, how dare he have his title written together with that of the emperor.

When Zhu Houzhao, the tyrant emperor, found out about it, he wiped the saliva off his face, pretended not to hear it, and didn't take it seriously.

Lu Ting then said to Pei Yuan, "It's because he offended Zang Xian."

"Zang Xian?" Pei Yuan was stunned. He didn't expect to hear another familiar name.

Although Zang Xian was Zhu Houzhao's male favorite, his status and position were far inferior to Fu Gui. How could he be qualified to be called an offender?
He said to Lu Ting in disbelief, "Zang Xian, I remember he was a ninth or eighth rank official? How dare he provoke the second rank Minister of Rites?"

Lu Ting rolled his eyes and didn’t know how to explain in detail.

Pei Yuanzong knew that Zang Xian was Zhu Houzhao's male favorite, but he still couldn't understand the conflict between the two. "Isn't the Jiaofangsi under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Rites? How dare Zang Xian provoke the Minister of Rites?"

Lu Ting explained it to Pei Yuan.

"The officials of the Jiaofangsi were very low-class. Zang Xian was unwilling to accept this, so he requested to change the ivory plates to be made like those of court officials, and also requested to recast square seals. Both of these requests were rejected by Fu Gui."

"Zang Xian felt that Fu Gui looked down on the officials of the Jiaofangsi and also looked down on him, so he was filled with resentment."

"But Fu Gui has a problem. He likes the theory of the interaction between heaven and man. Whenever there is a change in the four directions, he will write a letter to Your Majesty saying that it is very scary and ask Your Majesty to reflect on himself."

"As a result, Zang Xian found the weak spot."

Pei Yuan was surprised and said, "What's the problem with this? Aren't all civil servants like this?"

"Whenever there is trouble in the world, we should just blame the emperor. How to solve the problem is not the point."

Lu Ting also found it funny when he thought about that incident.

"I heard that it was because some time ago, a black demon appeared in Hejian, Shunde and Zhuozhou. The black demon came out at night and injured people, some of them died, which made the people uneasy."

"Later, the same creature appeared in the capital. The people started to spread rumors that it was red and black, that the big one was like a dog, and the small one was like a cat. It also made sounds like the wind. The residents held fighting sticks at night and kept warning each other until dawn. They were afraid to sleep."

"So Fu Gui wrote a letter to the emperor, asking him to cultivate his moral character and reflect on himself, otherwise there would be changes in the world."

"What was the result? Fu Gui's alarmist memorial had just been submitted when we received the news of the great victory on the Huguang front."

"Later, this matter was known to Zang Xian, who accused Fu Gui of being ignorant and deliberately slandering the emperor. He also recruited a group of followers to create momentum."

"I don't know what the Censorate has gone crazy for. Many censors have followed suit and submitted impeachment petitions."

"With the victory in Huguang, it is a matter of great celebration for the whole world to be able to put down this long-lasting rebellion. Naturally, Fu Gui's words are not convincing at all."

"So Fu Gui had submitted several resignations. Although the emperor did not approve them, he felt humiliated and returned home on the pretext of illness."

Lu Ting was talking about gossip in the capital, but he didn't notice Pei Yuan's eyes widened.

Black spot?

Hejian and Shunde prefectures?
When Pei Yuan and Gu Dayong were looking forward to disasters, they never came.

Pei Yuan even had to operate manually and create a Luo Jiao himself.

As a result, Luo Sect has now appeared, and its weight in Pei Yuan's heart has gradually increased, and dark spots have appeared in Hejian and Shunde.

Should the West Factory take care of it? Should I take care of it myself?

This black spot...

The timing of its appearance is a bit strange.

Pei Yuan was secretly alert.

My thoughts returned to what Lu Ting said.

If Pei Yuan remembered correctly, Fu Gui originally requested to retire because the censor Zhang Yu reported the disaster in Yunnan, and then he angered Zhu Houzhao.

Unexpectedly, the rebellion of the Bazhou Army was ended ahead of schedule by himself. The butterfly's wings actually caused Fu Gui to run into the muzzle of a gun.

When Zang Xian got this opportunity, he naturally wanted to bite Fu Gui to death.

It is understandable that the Left Censor-in-Chief Li Shishi asked the censors to help Zang Xian, a political broker, because he wanted to seek help from him.

As a result, this series of events led to Fu Gui's early retirement.

As Fu Gui was one of the seven ministers of the court, his position change triggered a series of games.

What made the court's clean forces ecstatic was that the position of one of the Seven Great Ministers was vacant, which would be just the right place to house Lu Wanwan, who had made great military achievements.

By saving the Ministry of War, He Jian also defended the Qingliu's most solid position.

But Lu Wan's original position was the Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, and he had made great contributions in suppressing rebellions. So how could it be possible to make him the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites?

The most logical path for Lu Wan to advance is to take a step forward and become the Minister of War.

This is exactly what the Qingliu people could not accept when they learned that Lu Wan had become the new leader of Liu Jin's remnants.

So they came up with the idea of ​​giving Lu Wan a higher title.

Lu Wan's additional title was Right Censor-in-Chief.

If you take a step forward and become the Left Censor-in-Chief, it is also a good promotion path.

The only trouble is that the current position of Left Censor-in-Chief is occupied by someone named Li Shishi who came from the Nanjing Censorate.

Later, He Jian and others contacted Li Shishi with the mentality of giving it a try. Unexpectedly, Li Shishi agreed very readily.

In other words, Pei Yuan didn't know the inside story.

Otherwise, he would have guessed Li Shishi’s thoughts at the first moment.

Because the first step of the "three-level breakthrough" plan he formulated for Li Shishi was to get through the Ministry of Rites and get the Ministry's ceremonial doctor to agree.

Only with the nod from the ceremonial doctor of the Ministry of Rites could the restored Three Guards of Prince Ning be defined as ceremonial guards.

In the original history, this hurdle alone was enough to hold back Prince Ning and his party, and they finally spent a lot of energy to get through it.

Although Pei Yuan didn't know the details, he was able to quickly analyze it just by looking at the results.

Li Shishi's acquisition of the Ministry of Rites meant that the progress of "breaking three levels" was greatly accelerated!
In this way, the offensive of Prince Ning's party in the court may become more rapid.

You know, according to the original history, the one who rushed forward with the flag in hand when "breaking through three passes" was Lu Wan, who was in charge of the Ministry of War at that time!

Now Lu Wan did not go to the Ministry of War, but went to the Censorate instead; although Li Shishi left the Censorate, he became the Minister of Rites, one of the Seven Great Ministers.

The situation in the court suddenly became confusing.

(End of this chapter)