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

Chapter 419 I don't like the word "training", take it back
Pei Yuan was still puzzled, and the eunuch in the bright red dragon robe said, "We heard that after you came back from the south, you were left idle by the East Factory. Later, you were asked to work for Nanjing Jinyiwei. Now you have been working for Han Qianhu?"

Pei Yuan was stunned.

Then he came to his senses.

Although Pei Ayuan was very powerful in his own circle, to people outside the circle, he was still the guy who spread the yellow rumor, was driven away by Qiu Ju, and then taken in by Zhenxie Qianhu.

But this statement is also correct.

Pei Yuan said modestly, "It is just as the eunuch said."

Then the eunuch in the bright red dragon robe smiled and said, "You are a smart man."

"When we went to the East Factory, we sorted out the matter of the Plum Blossom Society. We also noticed you and got the record of your sitting spy during the martial arts examination. We also heard about your outstanding performance when you were escorting tax silver."

"We know your ability, Mr. Pei."

Pei Yuan felt a little embarrassed.

Compared with his subsequent performance, Pei Yuan clearly tricked Qiu Ju when he surrounded the Plum Blossom Society.

Fortunately, Qiu Ju's successor had no intention of standing up for Qiu Ju, but spoke calmly.

"Captain Pei has been to the south several times and fought with them. When you are free, we can chat. I just happened to have something going on and wanted to ask for your opinion."

Pei Yuan roughly understood it.

Just like after Liu Jin's death, the tax collectors were taken over by Zhang Yong, Qiu Ju and others.

Now that these "old people from Hongzhi period" have come to power, the money is of course theirs again.

These "old people from Hongzhi" who came to power would have to demonstrate stronger abilities and open up more space for the emperor so as to stabilize their ecological niche.

Pei Yuan also began to realize one thing.

With the suppression of the Bazhou rebellion, not only did the original political trajectory of the Zhengde era resume, but all other aspects also began to recover.

The hunt for Liu Jin's remnants and the overthrow of Liu Jin's new policies are just the most representative manifestations.

The inner court's struggle for commercial taxes in the south also reignited the war.

Different interests, different positions, and different alliances are once again confused and entangled.

This guy, who was either Zhang Rui or Zhang Xiong, had obviously just taken over the matter and, having taken a fancy to his qualifications, wanted to dig deeper into the matter.

According to his logic, Pei Yuan suffered a great loss in this matter, and made enemies with that side when escorting the tax silver. He should be very happy to see those guys get into trouble.

But damn, you mean business tax?!
A few months ago, I certainly sympathized with the Ming court!
Of course I hate those blood-sucking insects!
But at this critical moment when I am busy preparing for the "China Soybean Oil Group" and the "China Cotton Group", you want to levy commercial taxes?

Isn't this money much more valuable in my hands than if it were taken away by you dead eunuchs?
Pei Yuan forced himself to swallow the words "This is Liu Jin's bad policy" and said righteously, "If the governor needs my humble position, I will definitely do my duty."

The eunuch in the bright red dragon robe smiled and nodded, then got to the point.

"The emperor is dealing with government affairs with the ministers. Let me take you around the palace first to see if there are any evil spirits interfering. If there are no problems, I will take you to report back."

Then he asked in confusion, "Speaking of which, what is this black spot about? Why does it happen every now and then?"

Pei Yuan was a little confused after hearing this.

He proposed to enter the palace to search for the black spot, but he did not use this as an excuse to meet Zhu Houzhao.

As a cadre in charge of organizational work, how could he know anything about exorcism?

But now that I have said it, if there really is some strange thing that has entered the palace and hasn't been found by me, wouldn't that be bad news?

If I had known earlier, I would have brought that old guy Tan Tai Fang Tu with me.

But the arrow was on the string, and Pei Yuan could only say a few perfunctory words, and then followed the eunuch, who was not sure whether it was Zhang Rui or Zhang Xiong, and walked slowly into the palace.

Pei Yuan looked around pretentiously, trying to fish in troubled waters.

Thinking that this eunuch had checked my history, I was confused and wondered if these guys would think I was a liar.

This is very embarrassing for me.

After a while of feeling pain in his balls, Pei Yuan suddenly had an idea and remembered the treasure that could protect him.

He immediately pretended to notice something, stared at an alley, and shouted, "Go!"

The eunuchs turned around in surprise and looked at Pei Yuan together.

Suddenly, a few mice emerged from Pei Yuan's waist pocket.

The eunuchs were startled and were about to scream, but they saw more and more rats crawling out of Pei Yuan's waist pocket. Then the rats gushed out like black water and rushed into the alley one after another!

Several young eunuchs were so frightened that their legs went limp. The eunuch wearing the bright red dragon robe also nervously grabbed those around him.

These people were quite knowledgeable and knew that these things were controlled by Pei Yuan, so they did not call for the guards in a hurry.

Pei Yuan pretended for a while, then pointed with his hand, and the rats that had just rushed into the alley swarmed back again.

It was fine when those rats left just now, but now these rats are running back towards them in dense groups, and the impact on them is different.

Even the few eunuchs who were more steady could not hold on any longer and fled backwards.

The rats were still some distance away from Pei Yuan when they pounced on him and disappeared into the air.

After all the mice were captured, Pei Yuan said with an unfathomable look on his face, "I don't know where this wronged ghost came from, but it's safe now."

Pei Yuan heard that there were many despicable things happening in the palace, so he might as well cover them up.

After hearing what Pei Yuan said, none of the eunuchs dared to ask any further questions.

After walking a little further, he saw a low palace and Pei Yuan remembered that he still had something on him that he had not used.

He immediately shouted again, "Great and Mighty Heavenly Dragon!"

Suddenly, a blood-red cassock jumped out from Pei Yuan's body, then spread out in a square shape and swirled in the air above Pei Yuan.

Several eunuchs were stunned.

Pei Yuan shouted again, "Go!"

Then the cassock fluttering in the wind suddenly rushed into the low hall.

Several palace maids and eunuchs who were sweeping the hall rushed out crying, and the eunuchs around Pei Yuan quickly stopped them.

After a while, the cassock flew back, curled up like a snake, and wrapped around Pei Yuan's waist.

Several eunuchs exclaimed again, and this time they were brave enough to look forward.

Pei Yuan was secretly proud.

You know how powerful I am...

He took the opportunity to pretend to be cool and said, "It doesn't matter."

The eunuch in the bright red dragon robe said with a look of astonishment and sigh, "I didn't expect that you have such skills in just a few years. Captain Han has trained you really well."

What the hell!

Pei Yuan was unhappy.

Fuck you.

I don't like the word "training", please take it back!
Pei Yuan then lost interest in performing. Pei Yuan knew that the Eastern Palace was idle at the moment, so he kept circling around the Eastern Palace in the spirit of not causing trouble.

The eunuch in the bright red dragon robe suddenly paused, as if he was thinking of something.

Then, he smiled and said to Pei Yuan, "Captain Pei, please follow me."

Pei Yuan was somewhat puzzled, but had no reason to refuse, so he followed the old eunuch out.

When the view ahead became clear, Pei Yuan was startled and looked at the palace and asked, "What is this..."

The eunuch in the bright red python robe said calmly, "This is Kunning Palace. Captain Pei, please take a look to see if there is anything evil or inappropriate here."

Pei Yuan remained expressionless upon hearing this, but alarm bells were ringing in his heart.

Pei Yuan was known to slack off in the Eastern Palace, so how could this old eunuch be so bold as to bring himself here.

Could it be that he was expecting to find out something?

Is this aimed at Queen Xia?
Where does he get the courage from?

Pei Yuan felt unbelievable at first, but then he thought that it was probably because Zhu Houzhao's sexual orientation had shifted drastically recently, which made these eunuchs who knew him well know that Empress Xia was no longer favored, so they dared to make false accusations.

But why is he like this?
Pei Yuan thought rapidly in his mind.

Suddenly I remembered what Cheng Leixiang told me last time.

Cheng Leixiang said that the problems he encountered in Tianjin were extremely troublesome.

The imperial estates and relatives of the emperor's wife were frantically seizing land there, and they were fighting each other very fiercely.

Three years ago, the Grand Princess of Yixing, Xia Ru, Earl of Qingyang, and Wang Min, a captain of the Imperial Guard, fought each other for land, and many people died.

The previous commander of Tianjin Wei was said to have died of illness, but in fact it was because of the affairs of the imperial farm. He offended the eunuch Zhang Rui who was in charge of the imperial farm and committed suicide by taking poison in the camp.

The reason why the parties fought so fiercely was that the Three Guards of Tianjin belonged to a real land guard station and they really had a large tract of land.

Thinking of this, Pei Yuan quickly confirmed the identity of the eunuch in front of him.

This person was the eunuch Zhang Rui who had previously guarded the imperial farm in the Three Guards of Tianjin.

The target he deliberately guided the enemy to attack was most likely Qingyang Bo Xia Ru, the father of the current queen.

Although Pei Yuan wanted to sort out the chaos in Tianjin Wei and had already made a preliminary plan, this was the critical moment of "beating the seven", and it was not wise to involve the royal family and relatives now.

Pei Yuan had to shrink the front line and first establish the post-war order to suppress the rebellion in Bazhou.

Pei Yuan immediately responded calmly with a "OK" and pretended to walk around outside the Kunning Palace a few times.

The palace maids and eunuchs in Kunning Palace were a little surprised to see this group of people.

Especially since Pei Yuan was obviously an official from outside the palace, it was a bit strange that he appeared outside the queen's bedroom.

If it weren't for the fact that Zhang Rui, the powerful eunuch who had been very powerful recently, was accompanying them, those people would have come out to drive them away.

Pei Yuan turned around a few times and said to Zhang Rui, "It's fine here."

Zhang Rui was still a little unwilling. He thought for a moment and said to Pei Yuan, "This is a very important place. We can't let anything go wrong. We might as well go in and investigate carefully."

Pei Yuan glanced at Zhang Rui with a half-smile.

Even if he didn't find anything evil, the mere fact that a foreign official had entered the queen's bedroom was enough to make Zhu Houzhao feel nauseated.

Queen Xia was already out of favor.

If Zhang Rui were to compete with Qingyang Bo again in the future, he would be able to cut off Qingyang Bo's external support just by relying on this bad feeling.

However, even Pei Yuan had taken this price into account.

Although Zhang Rui looks kind, he is actually a vicious guy.

Pei Yuan said indifferently, "I am a lowly official and cannot tell anything. If the Governor is worried, then I will ask someone to urgently invite Captain Han to the capital."

Zhang Rui's expression remained unchanged. He smiled and said, "Since Captain Pei said so, we naturally believe it. Where else do you want to go?"

Pei Yuan certainly didn't want to look anywhere, so he said, "I am a foreign minister, and I have some external affairs to report to the emperor. The harem is huge, and it is not something I can enter without permission. If the governor finds anything wrong, it won't be too late to ask me to go to the palace to deal with it."

Zhang Rui said, "Okay, I'll take you to see the emperor right away."

While walking with Zhang Rui, Pei Yuan was thinking about the eunuch's performance today.

Fighting for power is not uncommon, but Pei Yuan was still surprised that Zhang Rui was so bold as to use Queen Xia to attack Earl of Qingyang.

He is so brave.

and many more.

The old people of Hongzhi, the old people of Hongzhi...

At this time Pei Yuan suddenly realized one thing. Aren’t the so-called "old people of Hongzhi" the group of servants who served Emperor Hongzhi back then?

Emperor Hongzhi is dead, but the current Empress Dowager is still alive!
In other words, the rise of the "old people of Hongzhi" also means the growing power of Empress Dowager Zhang.

If Zhang Rui had the support of the Queen Mother, Marquis of Shouning Zhang Heling, and Marquis of Jianchang Zhang Yanling, then it would be reasonable for him to suppress Queen Xia and Earl of Qingyang.

If Pei Yuan remembered correctly, Marquis Shouning and Empress Dowager Zhou's younger brother, Earl Changning Zhou Yu, also had a bloody battle in the capital.

As they are in the same ecological niche as the in-laws, Empress Dowager Zhang’s clan is ruthless towards both their superiors and their subordinates.

Pei Yuan silently memorized the key points here and followed Zhang Rui to a side hall.

Zhang Rui left Pei Yuan outside and went in to report to the emperor. Not long after, he came out and said to Pei Yuan, "Go in, don't be disrespectful in front of the emperor."

Pei Yuan was about to enter the hall when Zhang Rui stretched out his hand in front of Pei Yuan and gestured to him with his eyes.

Pei Yuan suddenly realized and quickly took off his mouse bag and the cassock and handed them over.

Zhang Rui casually handed it to a young eunuch beside him and led Pei Yuan into the hall.

Pei Yuan took a quick look at the people in the hall as soon as he entered the room, then he bowed with great respect and waited for the emperor to ask him questions.

When Zhu Houzhao saw Pei Yuan coming in, he asked with a smile, "How is it? Is there anything evil in my palace?"

Pei Yuan replied, "My cultivation is still shallow, but I am doing my best. If there is anything unusual, I can send someone to rush south to invite Captain Han to the capital."

Zhu Houzhao didn't care, and said casually, "Get up, just do your best, I am the King of Dharma, how dare those evil spirits approach me?"

Then he burst into laughter.

After Pei Yuan stood up, he lowered his head obediently and acted respectful.

After a long while, Zhu Houzhao asked, "By the way, how is the Luojiao matter going?"

Pei Yuan replied solemnly, "It was done very poorly."

"Hmm?" Zhu Houzhao's good mood was gone, and his voice was a little angry. "What's going on?"

Pei Yuan said, "The local prefectures and counties were perfunctory in their duties and ignored the imperial edict, and did not catch a single true Luo believer. Later, when those prefecture and county officials saw that I and Eunuch Gu personally went to Shandong to investigate the case, they actually tortured them into confessing, and many innocent people were made to take the blame."

Zhu Houzhao was furious when he heard this, "How dare they?!"

(End of this chapter)