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

Chapter 527: Shandong People Do Not Agree

The dumping of cotton-padded clothes and Yongle Tongbao coins to Japan does not require too much interference from outsiders, as there are only two links that need to be opened up.

One is the Shandong Beiwodusi, um...

There was no concept of financial warfare in this era.

Pei Yuan sold agricultural products and high-value-added currencies, and received real silver in return.

Not to mention the huge profits from a business perspective.

There is nothing wrong with it if we consider it purely from the perspective of the interests between countries.

Selling cotton cloth and cotton clothing will prosper the cotton market and enable people who grow cotton to get more income from the land.

The Yongle Tong Bao coin had been hyped up by several generations of shoguns, and its status was already quite high.

As long as he finds the right input channel, he can not only reap the profits at a high price, but also make those Japanese daimyo who have accumulated Yongle Tongbao coins for generations become poor in an instant.

When a daimyo can no longer afford his expenses, he will naturally try to rob other daimyo. When a samurai goes bankrupt, he will also be eager to overthrow his superiors.

From Pei Yuan's perspective, this was naturally a business war that would make huge profits.

However, it would take some thought to ask the Beiwodusi to help him do such an inappropriate thing as smuggling into Japan.

Another node is the Liaodong Regional Command, which is isolated overseas.

The Liaodong Regional Military Commission was independent in military terms, but was subject to the long-arm jurisdiction of Shandong, especially the military preparation department of the Shandong Provincial Surveillance Commission, which had considerable constraints on the various guards in Liaodong.

In other words, if one wants to establish a base in Liaodong as a transit center for smuggling to North Korea and Japan, one must control Liaodong and Shandong at the same time.

Although Pei Yuan had never been to Liaodong and didn't know much about the situation there, he was very confident about opening up connections in Liaodong.

There is no other reason.

Because seven of the juren in Pei Yuan’s painting were from Liaodong!
You have to know that the area of ​​Liaodong was developed bit by bit by the garrison soldiers and their families who came across the sea from Shandong.

In Liaodong, there was no soil for traditional landlords and powerful people at all, and almost all the scholars who were qualified to emerge came from military officer families.

This is also the reason why Pei Yuan specifically instructed Huo Tao to focus on discovering the candidates from Liaodong.

With these younger brothers taking charge, and Pei Yuan offering some benefits, it would not be difficult for him to reach a cooperation with their families.

On the contrary, in Shandong area, Pei Yuan's penetration is not strong enough.

Because Shandong had a strong atmosphere of imperial examinations and there were high-ranking officials like Mao Ji in the court, many big families had their own channels for advancement.

Those who were able to join Pei Yuan were all from ordinary small landlord families.

In addition to the avoidance system of that era, these Shandong and Liaodong candidates could not serve as officials in the local area even if they passed the imperial examination.

This left a gap in Pei Yuan's layout in Shandong.

He grasped both ends, but lacked control over the core force that actually had execution capabilities.

Fortunately, Pei Yuan didn't have to think too much if he wanted to break the impasse in Liaodong. He just had to get through the Shandong Censor.

As for the Shandong Provincial Surveillance Commissioner, he was Jin Xianmin, the political and legal cadre who was repeatedly "persecuted" and repeatedly "rehabilitated".

Nothing more than spending some money.

Thinking of this, Pei Yuan suddenly became alert and asked Li Shishi, "Does the governor of Dadu know Jin Xianmin, the provincial governor of Shandong? Does the court have any plans for him recently?"

Li Shishi looked at Pei Yuan in surprise, "Brother, why are you suddenly talking about Jin Xianmin?"

Weren’t we just chatting about the Ministry of Rites’ idle days?

Why did you suddenly jump here?
Pei Yuan couldn't help but sigh in his heart when he heard this.

You traitors just need to do whatever you want, but as a behind-the-scenes worker like me, I have a lot more to consider.

Fortunately, Li Shishi had no intention of understanding Pei Qianhu's thinking.

He can't grasp it.

Seeing Pei Yuan asking, Li Shishi thought for a while and said, "I heard Yang Yiqing mention that Jin Xianmin was persecuted by Liu Jin in the past, and now he should be promoted vigorously to set things right. He intends to let Jin Xianmin be the left vice minister of the Ministry of Justice."

"I think after a few days, I can go back to Beijing."

Pei Yuan became a little anxious after hearing this.

He immediately objected, "No! Shandong has been ravaged by bandits and is in need of a kind elder like Jin Xianmin to comfort it. How can we let him leave?"

Li Shishi looked at Pei Yuan in surprise again.

Is this what you should say?
He replied somewhat helplessly, "Yang Yiqing wants to promote him, and I can't block his opportunity."

He added, "Yang Yiqing is now fighting fiercely with Yang Tinghe, and is vigorously promoting officials who were persecuted by Liu Jin. Although Jin Xianmin was dismissed and imprisoned for corruption, he was imprisoned during the two years when Liu Jin was in chaos. Isn't this why he was chosen?"

Pei Yuan was also a little speechless, and couldn't help but curse, "Is Yang Yiqing fucking crazy?"

Li Shishi smiled faintly and said very wisely, "If you don't support him, he will support you. It's just a common thing."

Pei Yuan was touched, remembering how Qian Ning had secretly tricked him today.

He couldn't help but said with deep sorrow, "Brother, I am still too young. If I had listened to my elder brother's advice earlier, I wouldn't be in such a passive position today!"

When Li Shishi heard that Pei Yuan seemed to have suffered a loss, he immediately became interested and was about to ask Pei Yuan to elaborate on it.

Then Pei Yuan asked again, "By the way, why did Yang Yiqing talk to you about this?"

Li Shishi said, "Although he wanted to promote Jin Xianmin, Jin Xianmin had no other achievements to speak of except being demoted during Liu Jin's chaotic rule. Moreover, Tianjin was right under the nose of the court, so he couldn't be wronged by that incident."

"So Yang Yiqing planned to let him go back to the Censorate for a while."

"You also know that it is not easy to return to the capital from the countryside, but if the Censorate returns to the Censorate, it is like returning to your mother's home, and there will be much less resistance."

"He has Yang Yiqing as his backer. He can impeach a few people in the Censorate at will, and no one will dare to say anything. By then, he can improve his reputation and kick out the current vice minister of the Ministry of Justice."

Pei Yuan couldn't help but sigh again. The political environment of the Ming Dynasty was too damn outrageous.

He asked directly, "What position do you plan to give Jin Xianmin?"

Li Shishi was the head of the Censorate, and Yang Yiqing was the head of personnel affairs. The final answer was basically reached during their previous meeting.

Li Shishi said, "Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate."

Pei Yuan glanced at Li Shishi in surprise. "Yang Yiqing spent a lot of money. Did he spend money?"

Li Shishi was quite honest. "For people like us, it's meaningless to talk about money, let alone other things."

Even though the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate was a fourth-rank official and the Shandong Provincial Surveillance Commissioner was a third-rank official, Jin Xianmin was indeed promoted.

Because don't forget, Jin Xianmin ascended to heaven once when he left the Censorate to serve as an official.

At that time, he was directly promoted from the seventh rank Censor to the fourth rank Deputy Censor of Shandong, and was in charge of Tianjin military preparations.

If this BUG can be stuck, officials coming in and out of the Censorate will soon be able to max out their accounts. Hearing that this matter was strongly promoted by Yang Yiqing, Pei Yuan hesitated and asked, "Who do you plan to let take over?"

Li Shishi replied, "The current deputy censor of Shandong is called Wu Xue."

Pei Yuan thought about it and decided not to.

Not having heard of it means it is unknown and unpredictable.

Therefore, Pei Yuan said firmly, "This is absolutely impossible. The people of Shandong will not agree to it!"

The enthusiastic figures of Suzhou people flashed through Pei Yuan’s mind.

He added, "No one can take away the Golden Justice of Shandong."

Li Shishi thought about it and said nothing.

If Pei Yuan wanted to compete with Yang Yiqing over the matter of Jin Xianmin, he would still be happy to watch this drama.

The two were chatting while eating, and then the conversation turned to the Left Governor of Shandong.

The Left Governor Jiang Hong is already going through the procedures of resigning and retaining.

It will retreat soon.

Pei Yuan was still concerned about the next Shandong government official, after all, that was his next key area of ​​development. However, Li Shishi said, "Each has his own candidate, and there is still a fight to see who will be elected. I guess that even if the one who gets elected, he may not be able to keep his seat."

Pei Yuan was speechless.

When Captain Pei was making adjustments to the work of the Seven Ministers, it didn't seem like there were that many things going on.

Probably, because he was dealing with the big guys behind the scenes, and they just drank tea and chatted, and stopped at the end in a decent manner.

The younger brothers in front of the stage have a much worse environment, and they need to use knives to slice them from time to time, so the fights are more fierce.

Pei Yuan also thought of his own affairs, and suggested to Li Shishi, "After you finish your work, how about making room for Liu Pang and letting him go to the Office of Hosts and Guests?"

Li Shishi was a little puzzled, "Why is this?"

Pei Yuan didn't explain much, and said vaguely, "I can use him."

Li Shishi stopped asking any more questions.

Pei Yuan later revealed some useful information to Li Shishi, suggesting that he could try to win over Qian Ning.

Li Shishi said with some concern, "Qian Ning is already a commander-in-chief. It will be no problem for him to be promoted to the left and right commanders in the future. He has a very close relationship with the emperor in private. No matter what King Ning does, he can't give Qian Ning more. If I try to win him over, I'm afraid I'll be asking for trouble."

Pei Yuan said confidently, "Give it a try. You don't have to be too deliberate. Who knows, as soon as you show some interest, Qian Ning might come to you on his own."

Qian Ning is also a person with some insight.

After seeing that Zhu Houzhao always had affairs with other men and only occasionally had affairs with him, he came to a conclusion.

——They can’t give birth to a son, so why is it that the emperor always messes with them?

If this continues, no one will have a good ending.

Therefore, after realizing this, it was this group of military generals who began to panic first.

Jiang Bin thought that the women in the palace might not have a good life. Since he was always bold and reckless, he secretly took Zhu Houzhao to a brothel.

As a result, Brother Zhaozi was pure-hearted and had no feelings about it.

Seeing that this trick had no effect, Jiang Bin racked his brains to think about the beauties he had seen.

Later, he remembered that there were many beautiful women among the musicians in Xuanfu, who might be able to stir Zhu Houzhao's calm heart. So when they were at the border, Jiang Bin often took Zhu Houzhao to choose from the musicians.

Unexpectedly, Brother Zhaozi was not moved by those beautiful women, but his eyes lit up and he fell in love with a young man with a very white waist among the musicians.

The other generals in the border town were so anxious that their eyes turned red when they saw that Brother Zhaozi was getting older but still didn't have sex with women.

When they first became Zhu Houzhao's sons, they were very happy.

But when he saw that Zhu Houzhao had no son, he thought of the terrible consequences.

Later, these border town generals made up their minds. When they heard that the sister of Yansui General Ma Ang became pregnant after marrying Commander Bi Chun, they directly snatched the pregnant woman from Bi Chun and forcibly sent her to the palace.

This job was done a bit roughly.

This is also the reason why Pei Yuan has always been reluctant to have too much conflict with the border troops. When Pei Yuan has a son in the future, his brothers will be the most grateful group of people.

After all, everyone is tired of cutting down trees.

Compared with those border troops, Qian Ning's ideas are more intelligent and very practical.

The civil officials kept urging Zhu Houzhao to adopt a son from the royal family as soon as possible, but they did not dare to take the risk of taking any substantive action. However, Qian Ning was different.

He directly ordered someone to summon the Prince of Ning to come and burn incense at the Taimiao during the ceremony.

What is the Imperial Ancestral Temple? What is the meaning of continuing the incense offering to the Imperial Ancestral Temple?
After Prince Ning finished presiding over the ceremony and before returning to his fiefdom, Qian Ning brought out a series of ceremonial objects, falsely claiming that they were gifts from the emperor, and gave them to Prince Ning as rewards.

This time he said nothing, yet it seemed as if he had said everything.

As a result, this move immediately made Ning Wang's faction the most popular.

So did Zhu Houzhao know about these things?
Of course he knows.

——But he is also very desperate!
He just doesn't have a son!

He could only watch a group of people who had no future like him, frantically trying to find ways to save themselves.

He acquiesced to the pregnant woman entering the palace, and acquiesced to the Ning Wang's son to burn incense in the Taimiao instead of his non-existent son.

He was obviously a powerful and brave king, but he had no choice but to let it happen.

Pei Yuan had a bold guess that by the end of the Zhengde period, Zhu Houzhao should have been completely gone.

Otherwise, he would not have given up all hope and allowed the military commanders tied to him to save themselves.

Zhu Houzhao has not reached that stage yet, but Pei Yuan got to know Qian Ning again today and had a new view of Qian Ning's cunning. He believes that Qian Ning may not be unable to see that step now.

If Li Shishi had contacted Qian Ning earlier, perhaps Qian Ning would have been able to identify the direction of self-rescue earlier.

Pei Yuan, a Jinyiwei, was nominally a royal guard, but in reality an outsider.

He knew the emperor's situation far less clearly than people close to him like Qian Ning.

With Qian Ning as a target, Pei Yuan can accurately judge Zhu Houzhao's situation based on his actions.

It can even be said that if the border generals really get desperate and send the pregnant woman to the palace, Pei Yuan may be able to use Qian Ning, who has long had ulterior motives, to offset the risks.

Li Shishi hesitated for a long time and could not make up his mind. He could only say, "I will ask King Ning about this matter."

Pei Yuan had no objection to this. He was full and had decided to leave, so he said goodbye to Li Shishi immediately.

(End of this chapter)