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

Chapter 483 Everything goes well
At this time Zeng Jia invited two grass-headed gods to cure Zhu Di's illness.

So Zhu Di built the Hong'en Lingji Palace for these two grass-headed gods and set very high standards for their worship.

Every year on New Year's Day, the Winter Solstice, and the Emperor's birthday, an official from the Cabinet's Ministry of Rites and a eunuch would be sent to Lingji Palace on behalf of the Emperor to offer sacrifices. On the birthdays of gods, officials from the Ministry of Rites would offer sacrifices; on the first and fifteenth days of other days, Taoist priests from the palace would offer sacrifices.

Later, his elder brother Xu Zhizheng was named "Jinque Zhenjun" by Zhu Di, and his younger brother Xu Zhiye was named "Yuque Zhenjun".

You have to know that Zhu Di claimed himself to be the reincarnation of the Zhenwu Emperor. He respected these two so much, so how could people in later generations dare to neglect them?

Therefore, in the early years of Zhengtong, the two were conferred the titles of Chongfu Zhenjun and Longfu Zhenjun.

During the Chenghua period, Xu Zhizheng was given the title of "General Governor of the Nine Heavens Golden Palace, Great Grace, Spiritual Benevolence, Benevolence, and High Wisdom God", and Xu Zhiyan was given the title of "General Governor of the Nine Heavens Jade Palace, Great Grace, Spiritual Benevolence, Benevolence, and High Purity God".

The two good brothers completed the journey from "General" to "God" in this way.

Therefore, Pei Yuan would never dare to touch this list easily.

He casually crossed out a name, which might be a god of great importance whose worship had stopped and who would eventually disappear from the world.

How could Pei Yuan’s small shoulders withstand this?
Regarding this matter... let Han Qianhu handle it.

Pei Yuan thought of Han Qianhu and couldn't help but think of something.

At this time a year ago, he was heavily in debt and had just been returned from the East Factory.

He was also harassed in every way because he brought shame to the Northern Pacification Office.

When Zhang Rong summoned him, Pei Yuan even thought that he might be expelled from the Imperial Guard and would not even have the last chance to turn the situation around.

Pei Yuan still remembered that when Han Qianhu appeared, he knelt in front of those slender legs like a dog in the mud.

And now——, I, Pei Ayuan, have stood up!

Pei Yuan suddenly felt itchy and had the urge to go south.

Apart from the troublesome affairs of the Ministry of Rites, the Xia family and the Xiao family did not give Pei Yuan any worries.

The Xia family instigated Changning Marquis Zhou Yu to also play the victim. For a time, the news about Shouning Marquis bullying various foreign relatives became rampant.

The key is that these are still facts.

Zhu Houzhao was already somewhat disgusted with his two uncles, and now he repeatedly sent people to Zhang Heling's house to scold them.

After Pei Yuan's analysis, the Xia family has realized how unreliable this emperor is.

Although Zhang Heling suffered a setback, they did not have the confidence to be arrogant. After failing to contact Pei Yuan, they simply quit while they were ahead and stayed in the Qingyang Earl's Mansion to avoid the outside troubles.

Thanks to Xiao Jing's help, Queen Xia was finally able to communicate with people outside the palace.

When Queen Xia received Xia Zhu's amulet, she was still shocked.

She didn't expect that just a thought at that time would bring such a big turnaround to her current situation.

That Captain Pei actually had such great power that he could establish contact with Empress Dowager Zhang despite her blockade. And the one who did it was Xiao Jing, a veteran minister of the inner court who had served for four dynasties.

However, Queen Xia was cautious by nature and doubted the reliability of this information channel. She also understood that one should be careful when talking too much.

Therefore, apart from informing everyone that everything was safe outside, there was not much else to say.

Despite this, being able to have a channel to communicate with the outside world also gave Queen Xia, who was seemingly imprisoned, more hope.

Although this expectation is small, it creates a crack in Queen Xia's desperate world, allowing her to feel the wind outside and see the sunshine outside.

Pei Yuan was also very satisfied with Queen Xia's reaction.

An ally who can wait and lie dormant quietly and not cause trouble for Pei Qianhu is a good ally.

At the same time, Xiao Jing, who had already shown his face in front of Queen Xia, took the opportunity to retreat and expressed to the emperor his desire to be appointed to an external post.

Although Zhu Houzhao felt regretful, there was no need for him to go against the empress dowager over such a trivial matter as there was still a good candidate as an alternative.

Xiao Jing is not young anymore, so it is impossible for him to go to important border areas such as Xuan, Da or the Northwest.

The place he was finally given was to work at the state-owned iron smelting factory in Zunhua.

The main reason for this arrangement is that they are close to each other. If Xiao Jingzhen can't hold on one day, Xiao Yan and Xiao Tong can also rush to the funeral in time...

This iron smelting plant was located in Tangshan, Hebei in later generations and was a very important iron smelting base in the Ming Dynasty.

In the fourth year of the Zhengde reign, ten large furnaces were opened here, smelting a total of 486,000 kilograms of pig iron; twenty baizuo furnaces were opened, smelting 280,000 kilograms of wrought iron and 62,000 kilograms of steel.

As a large iron smelting center, there are a large number of craftsmen and laborers here.

Moreover, the craftsmen here have begun to become more specialized. In addition to those who smelt molten iron, there are also those who burn charcoal, pan for sand, cast iron, stir-fry, and cast iron.

The iron products industry has always been an industry with plenty of money. If Xiao Jing went there, he could make a little money and live out his retirement there comfortably.

Pei Yuan was quite satisfied with the result. At least Xiao Jing didn't have to go south to Zunhua, which would not interfere with his plan to kill Zhang Yong.

Xiao Jing's departure allowed the candidate for the eunuch who would be the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Household Department to be quickly determined.

Eunuch Lu Ting, who had made great contributions in pacifying Bazhou, officially took office as the head of the internal ministers and the eunuch in charge of the Silijian.

Gu Dayong finally got rid of the title of Chief Supervisor and, as the Director of the Western Factory, he relied on force to regain the identity of Chief Supervisor of the Imperial Stables.

When the eunuchs who realized the situation belatedly rushed to Lu Ting at night with valuables to flatter him, Eunuch Lu behaved very calmly and was very approachable.

Moreover, the new Chief Seal of the Lu Army was happily discussing politics with them as if nothing had happened, and they were having a heated discussion about why Xiao Jing was so desperate and suddenly ran to support the imprisoned Queen Xia at the critical moment of the fight for the throne.

This made many of the officials who didn't know Lu Ting secretly frightened.

——I didn't expect that Eunuch Lu was so cunning and pretended that it was none of his business.

After Li Shishi learned that Lu Ting had successfully ascended to the throne, he proudly ran to Pei Yuan to take credit for it.

Pei Yuan also gave a response that satisfied him.

As for Prince Ning's restoration of the Three Guards, as long as Li Shishi can pass the first two hurdles, there will be no delay when the Imperial Household Department uses the seal.

Pei Yuan was at ease for a short while before the matter finally came to a conclusion.

After Pei Yuan left, Chen Xinjian rearranged accommodation for the candidates in a nearby temple.

These temples have the function of providing accommodation and are more quiet than hotels and guesthouses, making them ideal for exam preparation.

After waiting for several days, the scroll was hastily framed. After Chen Xinjian got the scroll, he showed it to several scholars.

The people were so impressed by the lifelike painting that it seemed as if the scene of that day was recreated, and they all praised it highly.

When Chen Xinjian proposed to write couplets of poetry on the backing paper of the scroll, everyone readily agreed and wrote their poems one by one.

Pei Yuan also breathed a sigh of relief after hearing that everyone had mentioned the word.

Now that the seeds have been planted, it's time to wait for the flowers to bloom. Now that Huo Tao is right in front of him, Pei Yuan can't openly use this guy's articles to feed those candidates.

So he asked people to collect Huo Tao's writings and send them to Tian Fu, and asked Tian Fu to send his daily writings to the capital.

Pei Yuan gave these two beautiful names, and found opportunities to let the examiners become familiar with their writing styles to facilitate their admission.

In fact, they used the two of them as anchor points to accurately blast the imperial examination.

Both of these rank highly, and the ready-made answers are here.

For an exam like this that involves ideology, it is better to guess the examiners directly rather than trying to guess the examiners.

Candidates such as Bai Jun and Xie Bin already knew the importance of off-field skills, so when they saw that Brother Qianhu had specially sent them something to study carefully, they all understood what he meant and read it eagerly.

During this period, Pei Yuan drank with them twice more.

Then, the Minister of Rites Wang Hua came to officially announce the date of the imperial examination and present the detailed rules of the examination.

Because this was the first large-scale special examination, some practices from the Song Dynasty were followed, such as limiting the status of juren and only conducting recruitment examinations for this class.

The date is set for mid-September.

All the candidates who could get the news and arrive on time would have the opportunity to take part in this special examination.

If I don’t get the news and can’t get to the capital for a while, I can only wait for the regular examination in the ninth year of Zhengde.

After all, you have no direct access to information, no, you don’t even have a channel for information, so you are not eligible to participate in this special examination.

This time, Yan Song, in the name of accompanying Wang Shouren to take the exam and observing the current situation closely, shamelessly stayed at Wang Shouren's house.

Because Ouyang Bijin was a candidate, he had to avoid suspicion and live outside.

As a pillar talent valued by Pei Yuan, Huo Tao had already rented a courtyard for him by Yun Buxian before he came to Beijing.

Seeing that Ouyang Bijin was highly regarded by Pei Yuan, he made a deliberate effort to make friends with him, and their relationship quickly warmed up.

When he learned that Ouyang Bijin was looking for a place to live, he directly asked him to live with him.

Seeing that everyone's learning atmosphere was so good, Pei Yuan had no choice but to reluctantly ignore the development of Luojiao and let Tian Fu go to Beijing to prepare for the next exam.

On this day, Pei Yuan received a secret report sent back by Yun Buxian from Shanxi.

It turned out that the so-called remnants of the Maitreya Sect were indeed some businessmen in disguise.

They used the name of Maitreya religion to secretly sell iron pots, medicinal herbs, and tea to people outside the Great Wall, and exchanged them for furs and other items from the various Darut tribes.

Yun Buxian roughly figured out the patterns of some people and planned to make a big move.

Pei Yuan thought about it and provided Yun Buxian with another fifty Jinyiwei.

Although Pei Yuan didn't like Yun Buxian very much, Yun Buxian was working for him after all.

How much he earns is another matter, but at least Yun Buxian’s serious attitude towards work is worth supporting.

As soon as the Jinyiwei left, Chen Xinjian hurried over to report to Pei Yuan, "Captain, I found out about Zhang Xiong."

"Oh?" Pei Yuan immediately perked up.

"Zhang Yong goes south" and "Zhang Xiong goes north" are two extremely important prerequisites for assassinating Zhang Yong.

Although Zhang Yong stepped down, he had served as the Prime Minister before.

All parties are accustomed to ending things amicably. Even if they are unwilling to give up, they will at most carry out political persecution, and rarely carry out physical annihilation.

There are only two people who have done this in recent years, one before and one after.

The one in front was Liu Jin who had sent assassins to hunt down the exiled Wang Shouren, and the one in the back was Prince Ning who sent cavalry to hunt down and burn Fei Hong's boat.

These two people are not very rule-abiding, but most people are still worried that they may be eliminated equally after they step down, so they are still very restrained in their actions.

Pei Yuan was certain that as long as Zhang Yongyi died, it would be the biggest case in the seventh year of Zhengde.

It was even bigger than the case of killing Liang Ci'ao and massacring the entire Sanheyi Station.

Only someone with a strong background like Zhang Xiong can take on this matter and prevent the subsequent investigation from escalating.

Pei Yuan immediately asked, "Where is the person?"

Chen Xinjian said quickly, "They have already returned from the south. According to estimates, they should be almost in Yangzhou by now."

Chen Xinjian also knew what Pei Yuan was concerned about, so he said to him directly, "Our people secretly checked the books along the way. According to the number of people registered at the post station, they had a huge difference in the number of people going back and forth."

“When we were heading south from Beijing, we had more than 600 people, but when we were coming back from the south, we only had more than 200.”

Chen Xinjian sighed, "Zhang Xiong suffered heavy losses on this trip!"

Pei Yuan asked, "Have you figured out the specific process?"

Chen Xinjian shook his head. "They were not in a good mood. Whether they were eating or doing other things, they rarely talked, and no one mentioned the damage."

Pei Yuan thought to himself, could it be that those interest groups have driven these Dongchang Tiqi who went out to collect taxes into autism?

Pei Yuan gloated for a while, but then he started to worry about how to deal with the situation in the south in the future.

But now is not the time to worry about so many things. Since Zhang Xiong has already headed north, Pei Yuan should prepare as soon as possible.

So he asked again, "What about Zhang Yong? Isn't he ready to go south yet?"

Chen Xinjian replied, "He probably wants to delay for a few more days, hoping that the emperor will change his mind. After all, when Gu Dayong was in power, he was re-employed and the Western Factory was reopened for him."

Pei Yuan said decisively, "We can't give him any room for luck."

He thought for a moment and said, "How about this. You have someone spread a rumor that Zhang Yong threatened to the outside world that the Queen Mother had made a promise to him and would definitely protect his position. So Zhang Yong plans to stall and wait for the Queen Mother to speak."

Chen Xinjian asked in confusion, "Is Qian Hu planning to use this to anger His Majesty, or the Queen Mother?"

Pei Yuan laughed and said, "Why use a butcher knife to kill a chicken? We just need to let Zhang Yong hear this rumor."

"Even if Zhang Yong really wanted to do this, he should have waited quietly for his master's mercy like an old dog, instead of making a big fuss about it and putting his master in an embarrassing situation."

"As a senior eunuch in the palace, how could Zhang Yong not know the mean and ungrateful personalities of the mother and son?"

"After hearing such rumors, he could naturally see the lethality of these rumors. Even if it was to avoid suspicion, he was forced to leave the capital and head south as soon as possible."

"After all, some things cannot stand scrutiny."

"It doesn't matter whether he thinks so or not. What matters is what people who hear this will think."

(End of this chapter)