Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 379 Pig Trotter General
Xu Xiancheng read history books carefully and knew of countless cases in history where people acted desperately, some even doing horrific things.

In the winter of the fifth year of Yuankang reign of Emperor Hui of Jin, a fire broke out in the Luoyang armory, which was also very strange. The fire was not big at the beginning, but in the end, the entire armory was burned down.

The fire burned for a whole day and night, and more than 2.8 million weapons in the arsenal were all burned. Of course, this number is the number on the inventory list. No one can tell how many weapons were actually stored in the arsenal.

In addition to these weapons, there were also many rare treasures of the royal family stored in it. Nothing was left after the fire. Afterwards, when cleaning up the fire scene, they actually found several burnt oil drums at the scene. You know, a place like an arsenal should not have oil drums at all, but this thing appeared at the scene.

From this, we can imagine how the fire started. It was obvious that it could have been put out immediately by pouring a few buckets of water, but because the staff on the scene were procrastinating, the fire grew bigger and bigger. There were also things like oil drums that shouldn't have appeared on the scene, which is really terrifying.

History often repeats itself. The Luoyang Arsenal fire that occurred more than a thousand years ago and the Wanggongchang explosion this time have many similarities. In addition, Wei Zhongxian's constant pressure and sharpening of the Donglin Party before the explosion made Xu Xiancheng assert that the Wanggongchang explosion was definitely man-made, and the perpetrators were the Donglin Party.

The reason is simple. Wei Zhongxian had already put a knife on their necks. The Donglin Party had only two options. One option was to accept their fate and wait for Wei Zhongxian's knife to fall. The second option was to fight back, no matter what means they used, as long as Wei Zhongxian's plan failed. As for losses, they did not consider them at all. The Wanggongchang explosion was probably due to this reason.

On the day when Xu Xiancheng was officially appointed to office, Zhou Yingqiu, the former Vice Minister of Works and current Left Censor-in-Chief, sent someone to deliver a visiting card and invited Xu Xiancheng to visit his residence.

Zhou Yingqiu was a core member of the eunuch party and the leader of the "Ten Dogs" under Wei Zhongxian. Xu Xiancheng didn't want to go to Zhou Yingqiu's sudden invitation, but he had to go. Zhou Yingqiu was not a good person. When he was the left vice minister of the Ministry of Works, he was excluded by the Donglin Party. He had no choice but to resign due to illness and fled to Nanjing, where he took refuge with Wei Zhongxian and was reinstated as the left vice minister of the Nanjing Ministry of Justice.

Last year, that is, in the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, Zhou Yingqiu became the Minister of the Nanjing Ministry of Justice with the support of Wei Zhongxian. This so-called annotation was invented by Wei Zhongxian. To put it bluntly, it means acting, and this acting is only nominal. His purpose is to occupy the position and wait for Wei Zhongxian to get rid of the Donglin Party members in the position of Minister of the Ministry of Justice, so that he can take over the position legitimately.

Then, Zhou Yingqiu didn’t work in the position of adding annotations to the Shangshu for long, as Wei Zhongxian transferred him from Nanjing to the capital and directly appointed him as the Left Censor-in-Chief.

After a slight hesitation, Xu Xiancheng replied to the visitor, informing him that he would visit him and sent him away personally.

After seeing the people off, Xu Xiancheng returned home with a frown on his face. After thinking for a long time, he shook his head and sighed, looking very helpless.

There was no way he could refuse Zhou Yingqiu's invitation. Not to mention Zhou Yingqiu's status and position, he was the Left Censor-in-Chief, the highest-ranking official in the Censorate.

In addition, Zhou Yingqiu was once the second in command of the Ministry of Industry. As a junior, Xu Xiancheng would be wrong if he did not go to the invitation of his senior. Xu Xiancheng also understood that it was better to offend a gentleman than a villain. If he refused, it would not be a good thing for him.

That afternoon, Xu Xiancheng paid a visit. When he arrived at Zhou's house, he did not expect Zhou Yingqiu to come out to greet him in person. Although Zhou Yingqiu just stood in the yard and did not go out of the door, it can be seen that the other party's status and position meant that he attached great importance to such etiquette.

"Mr. Chuntai, I came here in a hurry, please forgive me." Seeing Zhou Yingqiu, Xu Xiancheng hurriedly stepped forward to salute and handed over the gifts he brought.

Although it was just an ordinary gift, Zhou Yingqiu didn't care at all. Instead, he seemed very happy.

Zhou Yingqiu is not young, he is nearly 60 years old now, compared to the young Xu Xiancheng, he is old enough to be a grandfather. But he has a pleasant look, holding Xu Xiancheng's hand and calling him "little friend" all the time, smiling and very polite.

"My dear brother, you've come at the right time. Come on, let's go inside and talk." Zhou Yingqiu said with a smile. He held Xu Xiancheng's hand and pulled him directly into the main house.

When he entered the house, he smelled an enticing aroma, as if something was being cooked in the room on the left, which made Xu Xiancheng a little strange.

In the residence of the dignified Left Censor-in-Chief, cooking is done in the wing room instead of in the kitchen. What's going on? Zhou Yingqiu seemed to have noticed Xu Xiancheng's surprise and laughed. He pointed to the direction of the fragrance and told Xu Xiancheng that he invited Xu Xiancheng today to meet this young talent and to have a drink with him. Look, he is cooking pig's trotters himself. Zhou Yingqiu proudly told Xu Xiancheng that what he is most proud of in his life is not studying or being an official, but his skill in cooking pig's trotters. He is not bragging. He is not even in the top 100 in the world when it comes to writing articles. But when it comes to cooking pig's trotters, no one can compare with him. His stewed pig's trotters are extremely delicious and unique in the world.

Hearing this, Xu Xiancheng burst into laughter. He had heard a few rumors about Zhou Yingqiu. It was said that Zhou Yingqiu was indeed very good at stewing pig's trotters, and was even nicknamed "Pig's Trotter General".

It was with this skill, plus flattery, that Zhou Yingqiu won Wei Zhongxian's trust. After returning to the capital, Zhou Yingqiu would invite Wei Zhongxian and Wei Liangqing from time to time, and personally stewed pig's trotters to entertain the uncle and nephew, making Wei Zhongxian and Wei Liangqing eat to their heart's content and shout out in delight.

And today, I didn’t expect that I, a mere newly appointed Deputy Director of the Ministry of Works, would have the honor to taste the pig’s trotters of the Pig’s Trotter General. It is truly a great honor!

After the tea was served, Zhou Yingqiu started chatting with Xu Xiancheng. Zhou Yingqiu had been an official for decades and had a good grasp of the art of conversation. His words were gentle and he did not put on airs as a senior. He treated Xu Xiancheng equally, starting with the fact that he had passed the imperial examination last year, and then moved on to talking about his observation of government affairs in the Ministry of Works, thus bringing up his previous work in the Ministry of Works.

Although he knew that Zhou Yingqiu was not a good person, Xu Xiancheng had to admit that Zhou Yingqiu was quite capable. Even though there were rumors that he was no longer a good person, Zhou Yingqiu, who was able to become a second-rank official, would not have been able to climb to his current high position if he had no ability.

In particular, Zhou Yingqiu knew the Ministry of Works very well and knew that Xu Xiancheng was now an official member of the Ministry of Works. As a senior, he explained and guided Xu Xiancheng on the details of the Ministry of Works' work. These instructions were a timely help to Xu Xiancheng, allowing him to understand things he had not known before and the intricate relationships within the Ministry of Works from other perspectives for the first time.

In response, Xu Xiancheng expressed his heartfelt gratitude and stood up to salute Zhou Yingqiu. Zhou Yingqiu stroked his beard and laughed, waving his hand and said, "My dear brother, there is no need to be polite. These are just my experiences. My dear brother has just entered the officialdom, and people in the officialdom are treacherous. Although my dear brother has great talent, he cannot help but guard against open and hidden attacks. If you make a mistake in the officialdom, you will be doomed. I have suffered losses before, and I don't want to see such a talented brother being deceived by villains and end up like me."

At this point, Zhou Yingqiu used his own resignation and leaving Beijing as an example. He told Xu Xiancheng that he was too upright and refused to go along with his colleagues, which led to his being ostracized.

He was the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, the de facto second-in-command of the Ministry of Works, but he was marginalized to the point of resigning due to illness. If it were not for the help of Eunuch Wei Zhongxian, Zhou Yingqiu would have returned to his hometown to become a local gentry long ago. How could he have the glory he has today?
Looking back on those years, Zhou Yingqiu was filled with emotion, and he looked at Xu Xiancheng and spoke earnestly. He said that Xu Xiancheng was not only an outstanding young man, but also a pillar of the country. As a newly-appointed Jinshi, Xu Xiancheng stood out in this appointment, which was the emperor's heavy use and recognition of young officials.

Xu Xiancheng had just entered the officialdom, and although he had a high starting point, he did not know much about the dark side of the officialdom. As an elder, Zhou Yingqiu had the obligation to give some advice to the younger generation, so that Xu Xiancheng could avoid detours and beware of the conspiracy in the officialdom.

In the officialdom, there are many people who are righteous on the surface but actually have bad intentions. They are not good at doing practical things, but they are good at making money, forming cliques and excluding colleagues. Although the Ministry of Works has a low status among the six ministries, it is the most lucrative one besides the Ministry of Revenue.

Moreover, compared with the Ministry of Revenue, which manages silver, the Ministry of Works spends silver. Every year, the four departments and two treasuries of the Ministry of Works spend countless silver. How much of this silver that flows through the hands of the leaders in the Ministry of Works is actually spent? No one knows.

Zhou Yingqiu had inquired about Xu Xiancheng's situation and knew that Xu Xiancheng was a very good young man. Therefore, as a man who loved talents, he had called Xu Xiancheng today to give him some advice, telling him not to go along with those people and to be on guard against the schemes of those hypocrites so as not to fall into their traps.

In addition, in order to repay the Emperor Tianqi's grace, Zhou Yingqiu hoped that Xu Xiancheng could gain a firm foothold in the Ministry of Works, not only to do his own job well, but also to help the court dig out the parasites in the Ministry of Works, eliminate corruption for the court, and clean up the bureaucracy. This is what a scholar should do.

Xu Xiancheng nodded repeatedly after hearing Zhou Yingqiu's words, but he sneered in his heart.

Did this old fox really think he was a fool? Seeing that he was young, he actually tried to win him over in this way, and even tried to pull him into the eunuch party.

Xu Xiancheng was not a three-year-old child, how could he be fooled by Zhou Yingqiu's words? Although what Zhou Yingqiu said just now was indeed true, when he talked about the darkness and corruption in the officialdom, even if he did not mention it explicitly, everyone knew who Zhou Yingqiu was talking about.

Why did Zhou Yingqiu leave the Ministry of Works? Wasn't it because of the Donglin Party's exclusion and attack on him? Otherwise, Zhou Yingqiu would not have resigned from his post as the Left Vice Minister due to illness, and finally fell to the point where he had to surrender to Wei Zhongxian to turn things around.

Now the old matter is brought up again, and under the pretext of doing it for Xu Xiancheng's own good, he is asking Xu Xiancheng to be careful of the Donglin Party, and to help him act as an insider in the Ministry of Works and investigate the Donglin Party's corruption in the Ministry of Works. Isn't this using Xu Xiancheng as a gun?
(End of this chapter)