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

Chapter 426: Your sensitive words are too dense
Zhu Houzhao looked at Pei Yuan with burning eyes.

This made Pei Yuan feel a little uncomfortable.

No..., how.

Just when Pei Yuan was wondering if Zhu Houzhao, a man with no sense of restraint between men and women, was coveting his beauty.

Zhu Houzhao said with a little excitement, "How about you become my first illegitimate son?"

"I don't have a son yet, so you are my eldest son. From now on, we will work together as father and son to protect the Ming Dynasty!"

What the hell!

Pei Yuan was stunned for a moment, he was indeed a little caught off guard.

Before going to Beijing, he had always created an affectionate persona because he was worried that Zhu Houzhao would fall in love with his sunny and handsome appearance.

I didn't expect that he actually wanted to be my godfather!
Faced with this option, Pei Yuan didn't hesitate at all.

Following such a weak-willed and cold-hearted boss is simply seeking death.

Why do Chen Toutie and Cheng Leixiang dare to follow Pei Yuan so steadily?

That's because Pei Yuan will never give in or compromise no matter what desperate situation he faces, and will fight to the last moment even with his teeth and nails.

When they were fighting in the front, they knew without looking back that Pei Yuan would guard their retreat and fight more fiercely than them.

They only need to follow Pei Yuan wholeheartedly, without having to look ahead or behind, nor worry about betrayal from their master.

But what about Zhu Houzhao?

If Pei Yuan worked with him, the first thing he would have to consider was how to protect himself in case he was abandoned by him.

Because if you are too naive, you will be like Liu Jin who was cut into pieces; if you are too wishful, you will be like Zhao Sui who was skinned and made into a saddle.

So how can we protect ourselves?
There are Taoist priests and centurions densely spread across the capital who can help him break through the first line of defense.

Outside the city is Tianjin Wei, which can be used for "air export" at any time.

Going south from Tianjin, the canal, which was unobstructed and surrounded by Luojiao, helped him to hide from the world.

You can also sail to Liaodong from Tianjin and take advantage of the Jurchens who are preparing to protect their religion there to settle in Korea and Japan.

Being Zhu Houzhao's younger brother requires you to consider so many ways out, so how the hell can you work together to do business?
If Pei Yuan coveted this useless reputation, the biggest possibility was that he would join the Adopted Sons Group and serve as the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

——One of dozens of Jinyiwei commanders.

Then, Pei Yuan's position was locked, and he became an irreconcilable hostile force with the upright officials in the court; Li Shishi and the Ning Wang faction had no way to gain strength from then on; in terms of ecological niche, Pei Yuan even came into conflict with Gu Dayong, Lu Ting and others.

At the same time, after defeating dozens of Jinyiwei commanders, Pei Yuan still had to compete for power with dozens of other brothers who held heavy troops.

The worst thing is that as your position changes, your subordinates may also have doubts.

Wang Chang would retire from his post as Governor of Shandong without hesitation and bid farewell to court disputes completely.

Cheng Leixiang's expansion in Tianjin Sanwei will be stopped immediately, and the radicals will be eliminated one after another.

Chen Toutie is also prepared to cut off his tail at any time and bring out a scapegoat.

Ding Hong, the left guard of Xuzhou, and Xu Feng, the forward of Hangzhou, will never be seen again.

Pei Yuan's painstaking plan may have completely collapsed.

It would be better to join Prince Ning.

Pei Yuan hurriedly said to Zhu Houzhao, "No, if this happens, my plan will fail!"

Zhu Houzhao was puzzled, "What do you mean?"

Pei Yuan took a deep breath and quickly explained, "Your Majesty, have you forgotten the original intention of this matter?"

"We came up with this strategy in order to appease those military officers and control those troops."

"Who am I? I am just an ordinary Jinyiwei captain. How can I compete with Shen Zhou, Xu Tai, Jin Fu, Jiang Bin and other brave generals and heroes?"

"If a humble official were also included in the list, wouldn't it be considered as a humiliation by them?"

"In this way, your majesty's plan to win over the hearts of the warriors will be largely destroyed."

Zhu Houzhao was a little hesitant after hearing this, but he insisted, "Those are just hounds that obey orders, not like Pei Qing, who can discuss important matters with me."

Pei Yuan refused to obey and continued, "If that's the case, then there is one of the meritorious officials whose talent and wisdom are ten times greater than mine."

"Compared to him, I am like a firefly to the bright moon. Your Majesty, with this person to help you, what worries do you have?"

Zhu Houzhao was pleasantly surprised when he heard this. "There is another great talent? Who is it?"

Pei Yuan immediately said, "It's He Huan, the commander of Huai'an Guard! He is the perfect candidate for the emperor's eldest son."

Zhu Houzhao was immediately impressed when he heard the name.

After all, he was the finale figure when Gu Dayong commented on the heroes.

Zhu Houzhao asked with some expectation, "This person seems to be really good, but is he really as talented as you said?"

Pei Yuan said decisively, "What Gu Dayong said was just a few of Commander He's superficial knowledge."

"Your Majesty should still remember that there was a thief leader in the rebel army named Zhao Sui, who once wrote a letter to Your Majesty."

Zhu Houzhao thought about it and said in a displeased tone, "Is it that scholar who overestimates his own abilities?"

Pei Yuan was silent for a moment, then said, "That's right. Zhao Sui has a bandit nickname, Zhuge Jianggan, who is very resourceful. It was thanks to this man as a military advisor that the Bazhou rebels became stronger and stronger, and even caused chaos in half of the Ming Dynasty."

"However, despite Zhuge Liang and Jiang Gan's numerous ingenious strategies, they could not even move south to Huai'an in the face of He Huan's calm response."

"Later, in order to avoid He Huan, the Bazhou bandit army even chose to risk going north and attacking the imperial army."

"Even among the enemy troops, those Bazhou bandits respectfully called He Huan 'Little Zhongda'. They believed that he had the ability to rival Zhuge Liang and Jiang Gan."

After hearing this, Zhu Houzhao was excited for a while, and then was stunned.

Good guy, Xiao Zhongda!
It feels like the Yongding River is surging.

Zhu Houzhao asked Pei Yuan anxiously, "Xiao Zhongda?"

Pei Yuan just now subconsciously wanted to discredit He Huan, but suddenly realized that he had to use He Huan to take the blame, so he hurriedly explained for He Huan.

"Your Majesty, please understand. Xiao Zhongda and the like are just some unfounded slanders by the rebels. They are simply calling a black cat a white cat."

Zhu Houzhao was speechless again.

You use too many sensitive words.

Do you two have a grudge against each other?

It's just that Zhu Houzhao himself is young and strong, and he compares himself to people like Cao Cao and Cao Pi, so he is confident that he can control this person.

He was a cold-blooded person, not a soft-hearted person, and he didn't think a small commander would be a disaster.

If there was anything really wrong, He Huan could be dragged out and beheaded at will.

Zhu Houzhao weighed the pros and cons for a long while, and finally said, "Well, let me talk about it after I meet this person."

Zhu Houzhao asked Pei Yuan many questions with great interest.

Pei Yuan was worried that he would want to adopt him as his son again, so he deliberately acted unremarkable in the subsequent process.

Zhu Houzhao was somewhat disappointed and wanted to return to the palace. He had just found a good way to adopt a son, and he couldn't wait to secretly summon those meritorious officials to listen to their opinions.

If the acceptance rate is high and this plan succeeds, he can then plan the next step.

He looked at the sky and said to Pei Yuan, "I have been out for a long time, and I have to go back to the palace. If you have any good ideas, you can come and see me directly."

Thinking that Pei Yuan had come up with such a good idea, he couldn't leave it without any reward, so he said, "Last time I saw that you liked the Feiyu suit, so I'll give you one."

"Don't be in a hurry to leave Beijing during this period. If there are any changes, I will come to you for consultation."

When Pei Yuan heard that the Feiyu suit was finally available, he was overjoyed and immediately expressed his gratitude.

After Zhu Houzhao got up and left, the Jinyiwei in the teahouse also left one after another. Pei Yuan then breathed a sigh of relief.

It is very difficult for a sunny and handsome person like me to be a good official in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Houzhao is a very dishonest boy.

When he was in Xuanfu, the local eunuch in charge borrowed a singing musician from the Prince of Dai's palace in order to please Zhu Houzhao.

This musician is a little white-haired boy, and his nickname is "White on the Head".

Zhu Houzhao liked it very much when he saw it, so he shamelessly teased the little white-haired boy, "Little brother, since your hair is white, is your waist white?"

The little white-haired boy can’t do anything about it.

The ending of this relationship is very sad.

——"When the emperor came to power, all the eunuchs were castrated. They were worried that the emperor might want to call him into the inner court, so they asked this question."

Although Pei Yuan was not questioned by the Dog Emperor whether he was innocent or not, it was still very shocking that Zhu Houzhao wanted him to be Pei Qianhu's son.

Pei Yuan couldn't just jump into the hole he had dug himself.

Pei Yuan drank a few cups of tea to calm himself, and was not in a hurry to leave. He simply reviewed what he had gained this time.

First, he recommended Wang Qiong to the emperor.

Firstly, he could give an explanation to Wang Qiong and try hard to improve his favorability with him.

Secondly, he could use the emperor's hand to make Wang Qiong and Yang Tinghe hostile to each other, so that Yang Tinghe and Wang Qiong, his political opponent, could interact with each other in advance.

Thirdly, the appearance of Wang Qiong could strengthen Yang Tinghe's opponent. In this way, Zhu Houzhao could deal with Zhang Yong without worrying that Yang Yiqing would be unusable and would destroy the political balance.

Pei Yuan and the two brothers Zhang Yong and Zhang Rong have already formed a great feud, and Pei Yuan has always been wary of revenge from these two people.

Zhang Yong's resignation can provide Pei Yuan with a relatively better political environment.

No matter who between Xiao Jing and Lu Ting takes the position of the seal of the Imperial Household Department, they are both better than Zhang Yong who controls the Imperial Household Department.

Secondly, it sets the tone for the “great discussion of merit”.

The "Grand Debate on Merit" was presided over by the Ministry of War. To attack the "Grand Debate on Merit" was to attack the authority of the Ministry of War.

Once the plan put forward by the Ministry of War is taken over by the emperor's "adopted son policy", the emperor's reputation will be greatly increased.

You must know that after Liu Jin's new policy failed, the civil officials were beating the fallen dog.

The current public opinion is leading the emperor's image in the direction of being naughty and unreliable.

As long as Zhu Houzhao is defined and denied as a person, it doesn't matter whether he is right or wrong.

However, the heaven-defying method of "adopted son strategy" was actually a weapon used by Zhu Houzhao to break through politically in history!

Once Zhu Houzhao came up with such an amazing move to quell the controversy caused by the "Great Debate on Merits", his image among the civil and military officials in the court would be greatly enhanced.

This will not only affect the consolidation of the victory of the Qingliu, but may also lead to the revival of the faction supporting reform.

Moreover, if this "adopted son strategy" succeeds, it will also bring about a bad impact.

Ever since Emperor Yingzong was defeated in Tumu Fortress, the Ministry of War took away the military power of the Beijing camp, and the Five Military Commandery became almost a decoration.

The "Adopted Son Policy" bypassed the Ministry of War's control over the emperor and directly used the personal relationship between father and son to win over those military officers and make them work for the emperor.

This immediately broke the shackles on the emperor's leading troops.

If Pei Yuan remembered correctly, Zhu Houzhao would soon have his good sons transfer troops from the border to Beijing for training.

Then, through the exchange between Beijing and the border, a part of the border troops was incorporated into the Beijing camp.

Later, Zhu Houzhao stopped acting and directly selected some soldiers and trained two battalions of his own personal guards.

One battalion was called the Ganyong Battalion, led by his adopted son Xu Tai; the other battalion was called the Shenwei Battalion, led by his adopted son Jiang Bin.

These two battalions of elite troops were directly under the command of the mighty general Zhu Shou, also known as Zhu Houzhao himself.

Being able to capture these useful troops was the most critical factor in Zhu Houzhao's control of Xuanfu, victory in Yingzhou, and courage to take advantage of Prince Ning's Rebellion to march towards Nanjing.

Pei Yuan was generally happy to see this happen.

Pei Yuan said thoughtfully, "'The most watched in the world' and 'the most powerful military men' will soon be achieved. Next, we should dismember the Qingliu camp and make 'the civil officials the most frustrated'..."

"I'm so worried about Ming Dynasty."

Pei Yuan was moved by himself for a while, threw a few copper coins on the table, and stood up and left the tea shop.

When Chen Xinjian saw Pei Yuan coming out, he immediately came forward and asked, "Captain, where are we going next?"

Pei Yuan thought for a moment and asked him, "Is Jiao Huangzhong still with Wei Ne?"

As Pei Yuan's trusted leader, Chen Xinjian has taken over the spies in the city.

Upon hearing this, he immediately replied, "Captain, although Jiao Hanlin is at Wei Ne's house, he has been out visiting frequently in the past few days, so it may be difficult to find him now."

Pei Yuan said calmly, "Then have someone leave a letter for him, and when he comes back, come to see me."

Chen Xinjian whispered, "Last time, Qianhu left Jiao Hanlin alone and made him angry and leave. This time, I'm afraid..."

Pei Yuan didn't really care, "Whatever."

If Jiao Huangzhong still couldn't see the situation clearly and still had illusions, Pei Yuan didn't intend to waste time on him.

Chen Xinjian asked again, "Is Qianhu going back to Zhihua Temple or to the old house at Dengshikou?"

Pei Yuan came to greet Zhu Houzhao early in the morning and waited in the teahouse until the court was dismissed. He chatted with Zhu Houzhao for a long time. He was no longer in the mood to deal with official business, so he said, "Let him meet me at the old house in Dengshikou."

Chen Xinjian quickly arranged people to do the work.

Pei Yuan returned home and was about to go to Jiao Yaner to curry favor with her and tell her about Jiao Huangzhong's situation.

Someone came to report that someone had sent an invitation.

Pei Yuan was a little surprised.

He doesn't have many friends, and even if he has some contact with them, most of them talk about shameful things and often meet up secretly. Who would be so serious to post a message to him?

Pei Yuan took the visiting card and took a look, and it turned out to be from Zang Xian.

Pei Yuan frowned, unable to guess what was going on.

If this Zang Xian was just an ordinary member of the Jiaofangsi Fengluan, perhaps they would just make an appointment to eat and drink together.

But Zang Xian is a famous political broker, and his dinner parties are not easy to attend.

(End of this chapter)