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

Chapter 537 Loyal Officials and Righteous Men
"Zang Xian?" Li Shishi hesitated slightly.

Originally, Li Shishi did ask Zang Xian to arrange this matter, but Pei Yuan intervened.

Moreover, in order to enhance Li Shishi's reputation, Pei Yuan pointed out the key to "passing three levels" in advance in front of the two of them.

Although this greatly won Li Shishi's favor, it also made Zang Xian aware of the dangers of the conspiracy being leaked, and he immediately terminated his cooperation with Li Shishi.

Li Shishi was then busy with the "Encyclopedia of Merit" and the "Great Discussion of Merits", and then the Beijing Inspection in collaboration with the Ministry of Personnel. He finally had time to deal with this matter.

Now that the "three-level breakthrough" plan has been restarted, the obstacle of the ritual doctor has been easily solved.

However, the sudden outbreak of conflict between the border troops and the Embroidered Uniform Guards left Pei Yuan, the yellow-haired man who had intervened in the matter, with no energy to intervene.

The only solution now is to return this plan to Zang Xian, the takeover candidate.

Pei Yuan also felt that introducing Zang Xian was a good thing. At least he himself could not bring Yang Tinghe into this plan.

Without the asset injection from Yang Tinghe and his faction, the Ning Wang faction would definitely not have been as powerful as it was later.

Pei Yuan was still hoping to use Prince Ning's knife to cut open the rotten flesh of the Ming Dynasty, and of course he didn't want to delay Prince Ning's rage.

When Yang Tinghe and others faced an emperor without an heir who tried to rebel, they also needed Prince Ning as a backup to clean up the mess.

Everyone was heading in both directions.

Pei Yuan said to Li Shishi, "Yes, the situation in the court is complicated now. Only Zang Xian can clean up this mess."

Li Shishi hesitated and said, "After you left Beijing, I invited Zang Xian to the banquet several times, but he ignored me. I'm afraid he doesn't want to get involved in this matter."

Pei Yuan explained, "Before, Zang Xian didn't know about our relationship and was also worried about me, so he was inevitably wary."

"This time I asked him for help, which was like giving him a flaw. Naturally, he is not afraid of being involved."

"As long as the price offered by Dadu Xian is sincere, Zang Xian should be interested."

Li Shishi said hurriedly, "Okay, I will remember this."

Pei Yuan was anxious to see Qian Ning, so he said goodbye to Li Shishi in a hurry.

On the way, Pei Yuan changed his mind and decided that since he was going to deliver the letter in person while entering the palace, there was no need to divide it into two trips.

I should go find Yan'er and ask for the other document, and see if there is a chance to give it to Queen Xia together.

Pei Yuan immediately changed direction and headed to the Bodhi Temple where Jiao Yaner was temporarily housed.

In the Bodhi Temple, Pei Yuan saw Jiao Yan'er, who was still in shock, and Bi Jun, who was working beside her.

Pei Yuan wanted to use Jiao Yan'er to check and balance Jiao Fang's party in the future, so naturally he did not regard her as an ordinary woman. He simply explained to her the fight between the Jinyiwei and the border troops, asked her to hide here well, and then asked her for the letter from last time.

Jiao Yan'er didn't say much and quickly told Pei Yuan where the secret letter was hidden.

Pei Yuan hurried back to the old house in Dengshikou and took out the secret letter.

Fortunately, the two places were not far from each other, so not much time was wasted.

When they hurried to the front of the palace, Pei Yuan and his party were stopped by patrol soldiers before they could even get close, "It's getting late, the palace will be locked soon, and outsiders are not allowed to enter."

Perhaps having heard the patrol's movements, an alerted Jinyiwei military officer came over and shouted, "Don't you see the Jinyiwei uniforms? These are our people, the military officers on duty tonight."

Seeing this, Pei Yuan quickly showed his ivory badge.

The Jinyiwei officer threw a small piece of silver to the patrolman and said in a deep voice, "Something happened at home, so I'm a little late."

The patrolman didn't say much, just smiled and let the Jinyiwei officer lead the person in.

After they entered the palace gate and were a little further away from the soldiers, Pei Yuan whispered to the Jinyiwei officer, "Is it okay?"

The Jinyiwei officer said nonchalantly, "What's the big deal? If something goes wrong, the commander will cover the money, so who dares to act rashly?"

Pei Yuan took a look at the centurion. Just from his tone, he could tell how arrogant Qian Ning and his gang were.

Speaking of which, Qian Ning's promotion to the commander-in-chief was also due to Pei Yuan's contribution.

As a military garrison, the highest rank of Jinyiwei should be the commander.

But there was no way out. Pei Yuan's adopted son strategy proposed in advance led Zhu Houzhao to appoint a large number of Jinyiwei commanders. As a result, Qian Ning, the Jinyiwei commander who actually did the work, no longer had enough deterrent power.

In order to improve Qian Ning's status, Zhu Houzhao adopted him as his adopted son and promoted him from the commander of the Jinyiwei to the commander-in-chief of the Jinyiwei.

The power is still the same, but the grade has been raised to the second grade.

This was not Zhu Houzhao's original idea, but there was actually a precedent for it.

The first person to receive special treatment was Yuan Bin, a member of the Imperial Guard who was captured along with Emperor Yingzong.

Yuan Bin took good care of Zhu Qizhen during his captivity. After Yingzong returned to the court, Emperor Jingtai and the court officials were very moved.

This is a loyal and righteous man rarely seen in a century!
So they gritted their teeth and promoted Yuan Bin to the sixth rank of Jinyiwei trial captain.

What is the concept?

The makeshift teams that Pei Yuan sent to the five prefectures of Shandong were headed by a trial centurion.

Afterwards, Zhu Qizhen was imprisoned in Nangong for eight years like a dog. After Zhu Qizhen was released, Yuan Bin, who was already in his fifties, finally had a leap in his life.

It only took Zhu Qizhen one year to promote Yuan Bin from a sixth-rank trial centurion to a third-rank commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

When he found that he could no longer add points, Zhu Qizhen realized that Yuan Bin's position in the Jinyiwei had reached the upper limit, so Zhu Qizhen added the position of Duzhijianshi to the Jinyiwei.

This was the first time that the Jinyiwei had the concept of "capital".

After Shang Lu, the chief minister of the cabinet, was dismissed, Yuan Bin wanted his house, and Zhu Qizhen immediately agreed. Yuan Bin felt that the house of the chief minister of the cabinet was a little small, so Zhu Qizhen rebuilt it for him and restored his family home.

Later, Yuan Bin, who was nearly 60 years old, lost his wife, so Zhu Qizhen immediately looked for a second wife for him. In the end, he chose a noblewoman from the empress dowager's relatives to marry him, and asked his uncle Sun Xianzong to officiate the wedding.

pity……

Yuan Bin was probably just trying out the pattern of a hundred households. After his life made a rapid leap forward, he completely forgot who he was.

Later, he, a high-ranking official of the Jinyiwei, was pushed to the front by civil officials to fight against another Jinyiwei commander, Menda.

In this regard, I can only say that anyone can jump out to fight against the emperor, but it cannot be the Jinyiwei!

Even if it can be Jinyiwei, it can't be you!
Think about it, you have been a sixth-rank official for eight years in obscurity.

Think about it, you fill up that year, and then continue to create new official positions and improve their ranks.

Think about the house of the Prime Minister of the Cabinet that you are going to visit. Think about the noble lady of the relative that you, an old man in your sixties, married, and the betrothal gift that someone paid for you.

Think about it again, when the emperor was "worried about the factions among court officials and wanted to know about foreign affairs" and therefore promoted the Jinyiwei Menda, who was the idiot who relied on the emperor's old favor to act like a big shot?

I can only say again that even a magic lamp has a limit on the number of wishes you can make...

But fortunately, Yuan Bin is still lucky.

Zhu Qizhen did not forget the friendship they had shared through thick and thin, and finally warned Menda that no matter what he did, he must give him a living Yuan Bin.

Unable to do anything about Yuan Bin's power, they could only send him to Nanjing Jinyiwei to live in seclusion with a salary.

What's even more fortunate is that after Zhu Qizhen's son, Emperor Chenghua, ascended the throne, Yuan Bin's magic lamp count was refreshed!
Yuan Bin returned to the capital again and was able to continue making wishes happily.

Although Emperor Chenghua did not like his father, he did not forget the kindness of Yuan Bin in sharing hardships with his father, so this time he gave him the title of "Du Du Jianshi" instead of "Du Du Jianshi".

For the first time, the concept of "commander-in-chief" was introduced to the Jinyiwei.

Unfortunately, Governor Yuan had a big house and his wife was still alive, so Emperor Chenghua didn’t know what else to give him for the time being.

Yuan Bin's final rewards were: Guanglu Dafu, Shangzhuguo, Zuojun Dudu, his mother and wife were granted the title of first-rank ladies, and his descendants inherited the title of Jinyi Jianshi.

It can be said that there are not many people who can have so many good things coming out of the Zhu family and still have a good ending.

Qian Ning had almost no merit, but he was able to become the commander-in-chief by citing the old example of Yuan Bin. This was a microcosm of Zhu Houzhao's indiscriminate awarding of military positions.

If Pei Yuan did not have a clear understanding and always held on to the power in his hands, what would be the point of being a hollow commander, a deputy commander, or even a left or right governor?

Pei Yuan hesitated for a moment and asked the Jinyiwei officer, "May I ask what I should call you, brother?"

The centurion hurriedly said with a smile, "I dare not, my name is Qian Yong."

Pei Yuan heard the name and asked, "Then I wonder what you and Commander Qian Du should be called?"

The centurion smiled and said, "The commander-in-chief will soon be listed in the imperial register, and his family will become members of the royal family. So he recognized me as his godson and continued the Qian family's legacy."

Pei Yuan thought to himself when he heard this, they really can't be called brothers, there's a generation gap between them.

Pei Yuan asked tentatively, "Where is the commander now? When can he come to see us?"

Qian Yong said, "Today, His Majesty is sleeping in the palace, and the commander-in-chief must be serving by his side. I can't tell when he will be free. Captain Pei, please come with me to the office to rest first."

Pei Yuan knew what was going on, and asked Qian Yong casually, "I heard that the commander-in-chief was beaten by the emperor because of Jiang Bin's incident. Is it serious?"

Qian Yong was proud to hear this and said, "That's nothing. I did it for those soldiers to see. The commander didn't even get a scratch on his skin."

After hearing this, Pei Yuan immediately looked down upon the Jinyiwei in Beizhen.

These Jinyiwei followed the emperor around all day long and even forgot that they were also military households.

He is nothing more than a respectable servant, yet he looks down on his military origin.

Pei Yuan pretended to be concerned and asked, "What about the follow-up? What did the emperor say? Did he not embarrass the commander?"

Qian Yong was confused, "What can I say?"

Pei Yuan said, "I heard that Li Cong, Shen Zhou and the others have been stirring up trouble. The four outer armies stationed at the Yongshou Marquis's residence are already in an uproar. Could it be that the palace has no idea about this?"

Qian Yong laughed and said disdainfully, "They are just a bunch of clowns."

"The emperor is intelligent and well versed in military affairs. How can he allow himself to be held hostage by those arrogant and powerful generals?"

"If we show weakness easily because of this, we will be controlled by others in the long run."

Pei Yuan saw that Qian Yong was rough and didn't seem like someone who had such insight.

Thinking about his father-son relationship with Qian Ning, he secretly thought that this should be Qian Ning's opinion.

No wonder Qian Ning was so confident in keeping a close eye on the emperor and allowing the border troops to make trouble.

only……

Pei Yuan originally thought that Qian Ning must be panicked at the moment, so he didn't care about anything else and called him into the palace to discuss things.

But seeing his fearless attitude, Pei Yuan couldn't help but pause and a bold guess emerged in his mind.

The commotion of the border troops is certainly a crisis that Qian Ning has to face, but from a certain perspective, it may also be an opportunity to take down the four outer armies.

Although Zhu Houzhao was not able to withstand pressure, he was not a complete wimp.

He could drive across the grassland in the wind and snow, and he could also personally go into battle to kill the enemy. He was a very brave man.

How could such a person, having seen through the tricks of the border troops, easily bow to those guys?

Thinking of the tug of war between these parties, Pei Yuan suddenly felt that the situation before him seemed to become more complicated.

The border troops were already brewing a sense of unrest, and the nearest Xuanfu might respond at any time. At the same time, Qian Ning hoped to use this incident to anger the emperor and completely drive away the four outer armies.

Moreover, this possibility is not small.

As long as Qian Ning can stabilize Xuanfu and other outer garrison troops and control the unrest within the scope of the "Four Outer Armies", the emperor, who will have no worries, will most likely be inclined to show his majesty and suppress those unruly troops.

In this way, even if the four outer armies were easily put down, guys like Jiang Bin, Shen Zhou, and Li Cong would definitely not have a good ending.

Judging from the results, perhaps we can even borrow the power of civil servants in this process.

But on the other hand, once Xuanfu responded, the situation would deteriorate sharply, and Zhu Houzhao would most likely immediately punish Qian Ning and Pei Yuan in an effort to quickly resolve the situation.

There is room for maneuver here, but it's no different from dancing on the edge of a knife.

Pei Yuan thought about Qian Yong's optimistic mood and Qian Ning's action of urgently summoning him to the palace, and slowly put himself in Qian Ning's perspective to think about the matter.

If I were Qian Ning, what should I do in the current bad situation to solve this problem without any risk?

As Pei Yuan was thinking about it, he suddenly felt a sense of alarm and came up with a dangerous answer.

——Channing doesn’t need to completely solve this problem!
All he had to do was to make the situation worse before Xuanfu could react, and provoke the emperor to expel the four foreign armies.

After the four outer armies are driven out, facing the border troops that may change, it will not be just Qian Ning who will have to face the problem, but everyone.

At that time, whether actively or passively, the entire court will be forced to take the initiative to calm the situation.

And it would be even better if the person who exacerbated the situation was not him, Qian Ning.

(End of this chapter)