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

Chapter 570: Yuanma Temple Shaoqing

Since they haven't fallen out yet, there's still value in each other being able to use each other.

Moreover, now that Zhang Yong is dead, Zhang Rui no longer has the motivation to continue opposing Pei Yuan.

Pei Yuan didn't mind resuming his flattering relationship with Zhang Rui.

Zhang Rui, who was surrounded by a group of Dongchang eunuchs and guards, soon noticed Pei Yuan who looked at him from time to time.

Zhang Rui's expression remained unchanged, and he smiled and nodded to Pei Yuan.

Pei Yuan wanted to distract himself and relieve the depression in his heart at this moment.

Just as I stood up, someone else came.

The person who came was not an outsider, but Lu Ting, the seal holder of the Imperial Household Department.

Song Chunniang had a good idea of ​​who she could invite to show her support, and Eunuch Lu was a typical one of her own.

As for Lu Ting, this time, as the seal holder of the Imperial Household Department, he condescended to personally attend Song Chunniang's wedding, purely to watch Pei Yuan have fun.

When Eunuch Lu heard that the man he was going to marry was General Song, he immediately made up his mind.

It’s new, you have to go and see it!
So when the day came, Eunuch Lu put aside his palace affairs and came to watch the fun.

When Zhang Rui saw Lu Ting coming in person, he no longer cared about Pei Yuan and hurried over to greet him with a smug look on his face.

Lu Ting and Zhang Rui both belong to the old faction of Hongzhi and are essentially in the same camp.

Within the sphere of influence of the two, all those who are related to them are the same group of people.

Zhang Rui's qualifications were not as strong as Xiao Yan's, and he posed no threat to Lu Ting at all. Moreover, if he, as the governor of the East Factory, wanted to get the position of Silijian in a legitimate way, he would have to get Lu Ting's nod.

So when Zhang Rui saw Lu Ting appear at the wedding of the captain of the Western Factory, he immediately felt that it was him!
Appearing together in such a small circle will undoubtedly bring them closer together.

Lu Ting was not opposed to Zhang Rui's approach. After all, Zhang Rui still had the Queen Mother as his backer, and he couldn't touch her.

Each side has its own business, and they can be said to be keeping to themselves, so there is no need to fight. Whether it is the inner court or the outer court, accepting and tacitly accepting the existence of pluripolitics is a more stable way to enjoy power.

If you really hold on too tightly like Liu Jin did, who knows what others will do?

Lu Ting exchanged a few pleasantries with Zhang Rui, and then actively found the real host Pei Yuan who was ready to watch the fun.

Seeing that Pei Yuan was indeed in poor spirits and seemed quite depressed, Lu Ting immediately realized that he had made a mistake.

Pei Yuan tried to speak a few perfunctorily to Lu Ting, but he was in no mood to say anything more.

Fortunately, it is always lively around, so when I have nothing to say, I can just watch and pass the time.

If outsiders saw this scene, and saw the harmony among the Imperial Household Department, the East and West Factories, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, I wonder what they would think.

Fortunately, the person who arrived later was one of our own, namely the Left General Xiao Yan.

Xiao Yan's Central Military Commander's Office had been stripped of many of its powers and almost became an idle government office.

With Xiao Jing's loss of power, Xiao Yan's hidden power shrank rapidly.

Fortunately, unlike other eunuchs' families who relied on favor to obtain this position, Xiao Yan had risen to this position based on his military merits in the battle of Yanggu, which made his position as the Left General of the Central Army General's Office very secure.

The last time Zhang Rong and Liang Chu teamed up to plot against Pei Yuan, Xiao Yan tipped off Pei Yuan, causing him to raid Liang Chu's residence. When Zhu Houzhao investigated the leak, Pei Yuan decisively revealed the truth and used it to explain why Xiao Yan owed him a favor.

However, there was no follow-up to that incident.

The imperial court naturally could not go back on its word as it had already awarded the military merits. Moreover, Zhu Houzhao had heard from the person involved that it was Pei Yuan who gave it up himself, not the Xiao family who had seized it by force.

Anyway, the Battle of Yanggu was real, and how they divide the credit is their business.

The court had no intention of creating any further trouble.

Xiao Yan is basically in a situation where he has no power but has a lot of free time. Since Pei Yuan is having fun, he naturally comes to drink.

Xiao Yan's appearance here surprised Zhang Rui and made him have a new judgment on the situation.

Lu Ting got to the top after defeating his competitor Xiao Jing.

But we need to look at the specifics.

Lu Ting’s foundation in the palace was very shallow, and he was only qualified to compete with Xiao Jing because of his military achievements in pacifying Bazhou.

Xiao Jing's defeat was due to his inexplicable offense to the Queen Mother, which led to his loss outside the game.

It is not a crime of war.

Xiao Jing has been in the palace for several generations and his faction is still very close.

Originally, Zhang Rui judged that Lu Ting might form a weak Silijian.

However, when he found out that Xiao Yan was also in this small circle and had seemingly friendly interactions with Lu Ting, Zhang Rui quickly changed his opinion.

Could it be that the remnants of Xiao Jing have already defected to Lu Ting?
To be honest, Lu Ting had received help from Xiao Jing in the early days. If the two sides had not been competing for the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Household Department, there would have been no unsolvable conflicts.

Now that the outcome has been decided, it doesn't seem incomprehensible that Xiao Jing and his party would go along with the situation and join Lu Ting.

In this way, Lu Ting's actual power may be even greater than Zhang Rui expected.

Although Zhang Rui can keep his distance from Lu Ting, but won’t he suffer any loss if he builds good relations with all kinds of powerful people?
As Zhang Rui thought about it, he felt more and more that he could use the connections of Captain Song of the Western Factory to have more contact with this small circle.

As a result, the atmosphere at the table became more joyful.

When the original owner of this place, Dou Yu, the Shaoqing of Yuanma Temple, wanted to take advantage of the friendship of the gift of the house and come to attend the wedding to consolidate their relationship.

What we see is a scene of demons dancing wildly and evil spirits rising to the sky.

Although Dou Yu's rank was not low, in the eyes of the real big guys, he was just a horse breeder for the royal family. He was not even a senior official, but just a horse steward.

Under the bored gazes of Lu Ting, Zhang Rui and the other eunuchs they brought with them, Shaoqing of Yuanma Temple was so frightened that he dared not breathe, and deeply regretted coming over to show his courtesy at this time.

Song Chunniang was concerned about the negative impact on Zhang Lian, so she always claimed in her family that she was a military officer of the Jinyiwei.

But Dou Yu knew clearly that this was the Chief of the Criminal Department of the Western Factory.

Dou Yu thought for a moment and decided not to offend the many guests who had already arrived.

Like a primary school student, he sat obediently at an empty table for a while, waiting until all the attention focused on him faded away. He looked around and finally noticed the dejected Jinyiwei captain sitting alone.

Five-grade Kama.

A bit lower grade than him.

This gave Dou Yu a relative sense of security.

It’s you.

Dou Yu was like a poor student who was being oppressed in the class. He instinctively planned to join forces with the Jinyiwei Qianhu who was also a poor student. So Dou Yu stood up dejectedly, half bent over to avoid other people's attention, and moved to Pei Yuan's side little by little.

Pei Yuan was depressed because he had offended his best friend.

And if his guess was correct, after meeting Zhang Yunjun, Song Chunniang would definitely ask Pei Yuan in detail about his previous actions.

Song Chunniang, this woman of the world, is very smart.

After she listened to the conversation between Zhang Yunjun and Pei Yuan, and then heard Pei Yuan's angry words slandering her, and then saw the red marks that Pei Yuan deliberately sucked on Zhang Yunjun's body, how could she not guess the reason?
After all, when Pei Yuan stole her before, he was afraid of leaving any traces, so he never did such a small move.

Pei Yuan now felt that compared with this naked inner judgment and the social death in front of Song Chunniang, he was simply horny and just wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to have sex.

Pei Yuan could now imagine what kind of look Song Chunniang would give him later.

Thinking of this, Pei Yuan's eyes became empty.

Do not!
Just when Pei Yuan was feeling upset and collapsed, Dou Yu secretly sat down next to Pei Yuan's table.

The Jinyiwei who were nearby immediately turned their eyes to Chen Xinjian.

Captain Pei was obviously in a bad mood at the moment. Even after Lu Ting came over and said a few words, he realized that something was wrong and hid away with his brothers.

It's just that Lu Ting knew about the little things between Pei Yuan and Song Chunniang, so he thought a little biasedly and thought that these two had caused some bloody trouble.

When Dou Yu came over, the Jinyiwei were not sure whether they should drive him away.

Chen Xinjian thought about it and felt that he could take a look first, so he shook his head slightly to the Jinyiwei around him.

Dou Yu came to Pei Yuan's table, and seeing that Pei Yuan ignored him, he awkwardly greeted him, "This captain must be a relative of Captain Song."

Since Dou Yu came to curry favor, he was certainly not a civil servant with a moral obsession.

It was just that the Chief of Imperial Household Department and the Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Depot were too high up in his reach, so he didn't even have the courage to approach them.

But I finally got into a high-end game. Even if I don’t have the chance to meet any great people, it would be good to get to know Captain Song’s network of contacts.

After all, he had originally done a favor for Captain Song of the Western Factory, so any future dealings should start with Captain Song.

Pei Yuan glanced at Dou Yu coldly, "Who are you?"

Dou Yu forced a smile on his face, laughed dryly, and then said, "I am the Shaoqing of the Yuanma Temple. I have some friendship with Captain Song. I came here to express my gratitude to Captain Song for doing good things for me."

One sentence, two central ideas.

I have a good relationship with Captain Song.

I'm here to give a gift.

As soon as these words were spoken, the expression of the captain of the Jinyiwei on the opposite side softened a lot.

Then he asked, "Are you the Shaoqing of Yuanma Temple? The Shaoqing of Yuanma Temple who gave this house to Captain Song?"

Dou Yu couldn't help but feel secretly happy when he heard Pei Yuan say this.

Compared to those who took advantage of the situation and refused to admit it, Captain Song was indeed a respectable man. Not only did he accept the favor, he even had no qualms about mentioning it to others.

You know, if this happens, everyone will know that Captain Song owes him a favor.

If I really wanted to ask for a place from the Captain of the Western Factory at that time, if Captain Song did not agree, I would probably be criticized by many people.

Accepting gifts to get things done is a universal official ethics.

If you accept gifts but don't do anything, will it affect others' enthusiasm for giving gifts? How do you expect your colleagues to accept gifts in the future? What's the difference between this and eating and ruining the pot?
Captain Song had already accepted it, so Dou Yu naturally did not back down and immediately said with a smile, "Dou heard that Captain Song was in a hurry to get married and didn't have a new house. It just so happened that I had just packed up my house and hadn't moved in yet."

"So after much thought, Dou decided to help them achieve their goals, so he gave this house to Captain Song."

The captain of the Jinyiwei guard opposite him looked at him with admiration, "I didn't expect Dou Shaoqing to be so magnanimous."

As the captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard was speaking, he suddenly saw a roll of yellow silk slipping out of his sleeve.

Dou Yu was sharp-eyed and asked hurriedly, "What is this?"

On the contrary, the captain of the Jinyiwei who lost the thing was a little slow to realize it. He picked it up from the ground and put it back into his sleeve, "Nothing, nothing."

Dou Yu was a connoisseur of valuables. When the other party slowly picked it up, Dou Yu had a rough judgement that it should be an imperial decree.

Then he saw the captain of the Jinyiwei looking at him with admiration, "Although Dou Shaoqing is very magnanimous, but if this happens, won't I have no place to live?"

Dou Yu knew that when he attended such high-profile occasions, his identity was given by himself.

So he waved his hand generously and said, "It's alright. The house in Chengqingfang is almost finished. To be honest, it's closer for me to go to court there."

"If it weren't for the fact that the people living there are all civil servants of a certain rank, I'm afraid Captain Song wouldn't be able to get used to it. I would like to ask Captain Song to choose another one."

Then the captain of the Jinyiwei said with emotion, "It's not easy to live in the capital. It seems that you have taken a lot."

Dou Yu felt uncomfortable hearing this.

What's going on? I gave the gift to the chief of the Western Factory, Song Qianhu. Would this Jinyiwei Qianhu be so ignorant as to lecture me?

Don’t you see what kind of lineup is here to watch the ceremony today? !

Dou Yu looked at Pei Yuan with a half-smile, "Are you going to sue me?"

The captain of the Imperial Guards rejected the idea immediately. "How is that possible? I'm determined to make you my friend! Brother, I saw that you got a lot, and I'm afraid that others would impeach you."

Dou Yu seemed to have heard a joke, "Impeach me?"

The governor of the East Factory is here, the chief of the West Factory is also here, and the seal of the Imperial Household Department is also here.

Are you still afraid of being impeached?

That would only be possible if Liu Jin was resurrected and Neichang was reborn.

But the captain of the Jinyiwei waved his hand and called a nearby Jinyiwei general flag.

When the Jinyiwei chief flag came over, he heard the Jinyiwei captain ask, "Does our Jinyiwei have any materials to report the Shaoqing of Yuanma Temple?"

Chen Xinjian was a little confused after hearing this.

That would only work if Shaoqing of Yuanma Temple had some weird side job.

Chen Xinjian hesitated and shook his head.

Dou Yu looked at him in confusion, and saw that the captain of the Jinyiwei was unmoved. He asked in a friendly manner, "Go ask the Left Censor-in-Chief Li Shishi if the Censorate has any documents to impeach the Junior Secretary of the Yuanma Temple. If so, bring them to me for a look."

Chen Xinjian glanced at the confused Dou Yu and bowed, "I'll do it right away."

Dou Yu opened his mouth wide as he watched Chen Xinjian leave, then looked at the captain of the Jinyiwei, and suddenly he had an inexplicable sense of déjà vu.

(End of this chapter)