Ming Dynasty: My Father Zhang Juzheng

Chapter 33: Grand Secretary Visits the Eunuch's Residence at Night
Zhang Jing's mansion is located in Denghua Hutong, Fugui Street, covering an area of ​​more than ten acres.

He was originally a minor eunuch under the command of Zhang Hong, the eunuch in charge of ceremonies. During the twenty years since he entered the palace, he has been cautious and diligent.

In the early years of the Wanli reign, Feng Baorong became the head of the Imperial Household Department and immediately set about purging the remnants of Meng Chong.

It was at this time that Zhang Jing's wife became a mother-in-law and became a eunuch in the Silijian.

In the sixth year of Wanli, he was appreciated by the emperor again, and now he became the chief eunuch of Silijian, second only to Feng Bao and Zhang Cheng, the eunuch of Silijian.

When one becomes prominent, there will naturally be countless people trying to curry favor with him.

The wretched young man who had a conflict with the emperor today had Zhang Jing as his godfather, which was why he was so fearless.

His name was Zhang Yun, and he was originally the nephew of Zhang Jing.

Thinking that Zhang Jing, a eunuch, could not carry on the family line, he volunteered to continue Zhang Jing's family line.

Zhang Jing was naturally happy. After all, who doesn’t want to be worshipped after death?

In addition, his son was quite filial to him, and Zhang Jing also valued him very much, which led to the development of Zhang Yun's bully character.

But after he had a conflict with the little emperor, he walked around, felt bored, and went straight to Denghua Hutong.

After getting off the carriage, the two servants guarding the door immediately came up to him with a smile and said flatteringly, "Sir."

"Has our father woken up?" Zhang Yun asked.

"woke up."

Zhang Yun was delighted when he heard the voice, and anxious to take credit, he rushed in with the corner of his robe lifted up.

At this time, in the living room.

I saw two figures sitting opposite each other.

One of them was about fifty years old, with a tall build, broad nose, prominent cheekbones, and was wearing a green summer cloth robe and a jade belt around his waist. He looked imposing just by sitting there.

It was Zhang Siwei, the second assistant of the cabinet.

As for the man opposite, he was about 47 or 48 years old, with a fair complexion, and wore a dark silk robe. Although he always had a smile on his face, he always gave people a gloomy feeling.

It was the eunuch Zhang Jing, the chief eunuch of ceremonies.

One of them was one of the most important figures in the inner court, and the other was the second-in-command among the outer officials.

The two were both oppressed by others, becoming the ears of a deaf man - decorations. They were in the same boat, and they came together because they had the same suffering and the same bad habits.

Zhang Jing smiled and took a sip of tea, saying, "When we were outside the capital, we knew that Feng Bao's nephew had caused a big disaster. This time, let's see how Zhang Juzheng will offend Feng Bao's nephew."

"Zhang Juzheng, this old fox, is dragging his feet now. The incident happened more than a month ago, and the censors have submitted five or six memorials, requesting that the case be closed as soon as possible, but he insists on dragging it out. This matter has really been left unresolved because of his delay." A trace of viciousness flashed across Zhang Siwei's eyes.

"Will he delay us when we come back this time?" Zhang Jing smiled and said, "Let's not talk about anything else. I think that in the emperor's heart, I am no worse than Feng Bao."

"Feng Bao, this old fellow, relies on his early entry into the palace to be on guard against me everywhere. I will avenge him sooner or later."

"From the tone of Eunuch Zhang, it seems that this trip out of Beijing was very fruitful!" Zhang Siwei joked with a smile.

Zhang Jing stood up, smiled mysteriously, looked at Zhang Siwei and asked, "Guess how much money we got for the emperor this time?"

"One hundred thousand taels?" Zhang Siwei asked without hesitation.

"No, guess again." Zhang Jing shook his head.

"One hundred and fifty thousand?"

"wrong."

"Could it be two hundred thousand?"

"Hahaha," Zhang Jing laughed out loud, and took a step forward to Zhang Siwei. He lowered his eyes and teased him, "Master Zhang, your family is one of the richest in Shanxi after all, why are you still so stingy?"

"This time, we got a total of 300,000 silver taels!"

"So much?!" Zhang Siwei frowned, and was shocked. But the income of the emperor's treasury mainly came from two parts, one of which was "seed field".

The second is to collect taxes on gold, silver, copper, iron and other minerals in the world.

In order to make more money, Zhang Jing suggested opening more mines across the country and then sending eunuchs to collect the money.

As soon as those eunuchs arrived at the localities, they imposed heavy taxes, extorted bribes, and made the people and the local authorities suffer terribly.

The income of the inner treasury increased, but the people had long been fed up with it.

This time, a tax of 300,000 taels was collected. I don’t know how many people would lose their families.

Although Zhang Siwei also disliked Zhang Jing, he could only hide his dissatisfaction in his heart because the two were allies. He smiled and said flattering words: "Eunuch Zhang is really amazing. No wonder the emperor trusts you so much."

Zhang Jing chuckled and sat back in his original seat.

"A few days ago, we heard that Zhang Juzheng was already suffering from a deficiency of Qi and blood, but his complexion has improved a little recently?"

"Yes." Zhang Siwei nodded and added, "His health has indeed improved a lot recently, but from what we can see, it's like a rabbit's tail - it can't grow longer."

After saying that, the two looked at each other and smiled.

After a few seconds of silence, Zhang Jing's eyes flashed with coldness and he said, "Well, let's go to the palace tomorrow, first to see the emperor, and second to persuade Feng Bao to understand who is the master of the palace!"

Zhang Siwei nodded slightly, and suddenly remembered something, and reminded: "Zhang Juzheng's youngest son has been getting along well with the emperor recently. Don't underestimate this kid, he is even more sinister than his father."

"Oh? Tell me."

"Today I went to the residence of Wu Qingbo to pay a visit, and I happened to run into this boy coming out."

Zhang Jing was confused and couldn't help asking, "Where is he going and what is he doing? Wu Qingbo wanted to skin Zhang Juzheng alive and eat his flesh, so why would he get together with Zhang Juzheng's son?"

"That's his brilliance. He used some tricks to make Wu Qingbo lose his mind."

"What means?" Zhang Jing asked nervously.

"Confer the title of Marquis on Wuqing Earl." Zhang Siwei raised his eyes to look at Zhang Jing and said word by word.

Zhang Jing was stunned for a moment, obviously shocked by the news.

He was silent for several seconds before he shook his head repeatedly, his face full of disbelief: "Impossible, impossible, how could Zhang Juzheng, that old antique, allow Wuqingbo to be conferred the title of marquis."

As he spoke, he became extremely excited: "Chunshang, it was he who rejected Wu Qingbo's request for the title of Marquis."

"It's a different time now." Zhang Siwei stood up, walked to the window, looked for a long time before saying, "Right now, the most important thing for him is to put Feng Bangning's matter behind him."

"This is called killing two birds with one stone!"

Zhang Jing's eyes showed a trace of resentment when he heard this, and he snorted, "No matter how powerful he is, what can he do? If he continues to do this, he will definitely die in a few years. The emperor is in his prime, and he will deal with the Zhang family sooner or later."

"You said, if Zhang Juzheng retired at the peak of his career, the emperor would still have some teacher-student relationship with him..." Zhang Siwei did not respond, but started to ask a riddle.

"Impossible!" Zhang Jing shook his head firmly and joked, "How could that old guy give up his power? Take you, Zhang Ge Lao, for example. Aren't you also fighting to the death for power?"

No one is immune to the corruption of power.

The feeling of having the power of life and death, of controlling other people's lives, is something no one would give up once they have experienced it.

Zhang Siwei thought about it and smiled, and stopped worrying about it.

At this time, the night was getting darker. Zhang Siwei stood up to say goodbye, and Zhang Jing saw him off to the door.

As soon as Zhang Siwei left, Zhang Yun sneaked in from outside like a thief, holding a few scrolls in his hands.

"Godfather, I bought this specially to honor you."

Zhang Jing took it, put it on the table and unfolded it, then exclaimed, "Great! This painting is great! I was just wondering what to give to the emperor. This painting is perfect."

(End of this chapter)