Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 345 Collusion

Li Zi went to Zhang Luan's house and came back a little late in the evening, but there was no smell of alcohol on his body.

Pang Qing was waiting for him in the living room of the central courtyard. He handed him a page of paper full of names. It was a list of people who had given gifts to Li Zisheng that day. They were all people who wanted to see Li Zisheng but were not able to, so they sent the silver to let Li Zisheng know about these people so that he could have a preference for them in the future when promoting them or selecting officials.

"Put it aside for now. Don't do this for now."

Li Zisheng seemed to be about to do something big. He rolled up his sleeves, strode forward with a mighty sword, and sat down on the throne in the middle.

Pang Qing asked curiously: "Master Dao, what are you doing...?"

Li Zisheng said: "I have discussed this with Lai Zhan. Lai Zhan believes that the most important thing to help the crown prince right now is to curb those who want to change their minds."

"This……"

Pang Qing shook his head and smiled bitterly, "Does he have a new target?"

"How could he not have a target? Lai Zhan is not a fool. Can't he see that Deng Changen is deliberately making an enemy of the crown prince? Deng Changen went to see Concubine Chen before. Although I don't know what they talked about during their secret meeting, I know that Deng Changen, who is good at climbing up the social ladder, will definitely show his loyalty to Concubine Shao and may even offer to help Concubine Shao's son enter the Eastern Palace."

Li Zisheng said angrily.

Pang Qing said: "Master Dao, let me be frank. You must not change your original intention just because of a momentary impulse!"

"What do you mean?"

Li Zisheng frowned and asked, "According to you, I should support Concubine Shao and her son, and then because Deng Changen jumped to Concubine Shao's side, I changed my support to the prince because I was angry?
"No way, Bingkun, do you think I'm a two-faced villain? Haven't I always stood firmly on the side of the prince from the beginning?"

Pang Qing asked: "So you have come to your senses. Do you plan to transfer the power you have in the future?"

After hearing this, Li Zisheng suddenly became like a deflated ball, cursing, "So you have no sense of judgment... No matter what I say to you, you insist on singing the opposite tune and saying something different... Aren't you deliberately ruining my good mood?"

"hehe."

Pang Qing shook his head and smiled bitterly, "I am just acting as your guest and thinking about your future... But in my opinion, no matter who inherits the throne in the future, they will no longer trust you as much as the current emperor... In fact, there is no essential difference between the crown prince and the fourth prince."

"That's it, isn't it? I got my start with the trust of His Majesty. Even if I leave His Majesty, I have saved enough money over the years. A new emperor chooses new ministers. I am mentally prepared for this. Wait, where was I? Hey, you idiot, you always interrupt me when it's not necessary... Let me think about it, where was I just now?"

Li Zisheng kept cursing while talking about his way of dealing with people.

However, Pang Qing heard some helplessness in Li Zisheng's scolding.

He clearly had a choice before: to support the Crown Prince or the Fourth Prince, and even supporting the Fourth Prince could get him some conveniences from the Emperor.

But the current situation forced Li Zisheng to board the prince's ship.

Pang Qing said, "You haven't said anything yet. You didn't tell me what you talked about with Zhang Hanlin."

"Oh, I remember now. I was just talking about going to see Lai Zhan."

Li Zisheng said with a smile, "Laizhan said that it is very likely that Wan An and Liu Ji are standing behind Deng Changen. Do you think this makes sense?"

"Yes, recently, Elder Wan and Elder Liu have become more distant from us. Even their followers, such as Zhou Hongmo, have been acting very ambiguous and no longer rely on you for everything. Even Li Yu has been a little... two-faced in the affairs of the Ministry of Personnel."

Pang Qing directly pointed out the recent changes in the attitudes of court officials.

Li Zisheng nodded: "What you said makes sense... In a peaceful and prosperous era, your majesty will be in good health, my position will be very stable, and they will have to get closer to me.

"The key is that the officials in the court now all know that His Majesty is seriously ill and will probably pass away soon. My good days are coming to an end. How can they obey my orders as before?"

Pang Qing asked: "So you want to deal with the two ministers?"

"Yes."

Li Zisheng nodded and said, "Laizhan said that he plans to make another batch of telescopes and send them to Your Majesty. He said that he will present them in my name."

"Telescope? Why hasn't this matter been resolved yet?"

Pang Qing asked in surprise, "So, Zhang Hanlin is implicitly admitting that he was the one who invented the telescope from the beginning?"

Li Zisheng said with a dark face: "Is it him? You still don't know it? Apart from Zhang Laizhan, who else can come up with such a good thing and give it to the prince without hesitation to help him overcome the crisis?"

"That's true."

Pang Qing nodded thoughtfully.

Li Zisheng said: "Laizhan's intention is to distract the two old men, Wan'an and Liu Ji, so that they can no longer promote the change of crown prince and help the crown prince ascend the throne smoothly. Moreover, Laizhan has personally visited the East Palace and communicated with the crown prince, which means that this relationship is already very stable."

Pang Qing smiled and congratulated him: "That means that no matter what I do for the prince in the future, the prince will know it very well and leave a foundation with him."

"Yes."

Li Zisheng said with great confidence, "In the past, the Crown Prince might not be able to see what I did. Some people might know clearly in their hearts, but they would sow discord in front of the Crown Prince, alienating him or even holding me accountable. But now the situation is different. With Lai Zhan as a bridge to help me communicate, the Crown Prince will remember my merits."

Pang Qing asked with interest: "What are you going to do?"

Li Zisheng said coldly: "I will make sure that those two old bastards, Wan'an and Liu Ji, never have a peaceful day. Find someone to impeach the Tongzhou Warehouse incident and make it known to everyone. If His Majesty doesn't bring it up, I will take the initiative to expose it for him... Humph, dare not obey my orders? Let none of them have a good life!"

“You are really…”

Pang Qing really wanted to say, you are really a typical petty-minded person.

Just because someone distances themselves from you a little, you want to torture them to death?
"Bingkun must remember that in the court, it's either you or I. It seems that establishing the fourth prince can preserve our wealth and glory, but that also depends on the timing.

"Concubine Shao is not capable of planning for her son right now. If she really has that ability one day, she will definitely defeat us one by one, and we will still end up in a bad way. Rather than regretting it later, it is better to directly surrender to the Crown Prince...

"Whether the prince thinks highly of me or not, he is at least a man who values ​​friendship and loyalty. If I have been kind to him, how could he repay me with hatred?"

Li Zisheng was extremely confident in the prince's character. Pang Qing wanted to remind him that in the face of power, there is no distinction between good and bad people.

It only takes a moment for the prince to protect you or to listen to those ministers and hold you accountable.

However, Pang Qing could only think of ways to strengthen Li Zisheng's confidence at this moment. He nodded and agreed, "Master Dao is right. As long as you are willing to help me, I believe the prince will definitely return the favor, considering the close relationship between Li Zhan and the prince, and your past experience of helping the princess successfully enter the East Palace."

……

……

Li Zisheng is very efficient in his work.

He said that he wanted to expose the Tongzhou Warehouse affair without any ambiguity. He had connections and the power to speak in the court, so it would be easy for him to find someone to expose the Tongzhou Warehouse scandal.

The memorial was quickly sent to the Imperial Household Department through the Tongzhengshisi Yamen, which he controlled, and at the same time the Chancellor also went to the cabinet.

After Xiao Jing received the memorial, he quickly presented it to Wei Tai, who then took it to Qin Chang for review.

"Tongzhou granary?"

Tan Chang seemed a little puzzled, "What's going on at Tongzhou Warehouse?"

Wei Tai said: "It is said that there has been a serious deficit in the past few years, and even the water storages on both sides of the canal are all empty. This time, it is obvious that there is something else going on, and the spearhead is directly aimed at the Ministry of Revenue."

Tan Chang shook his head and said, "Although Li Min, the Minister of Revenue, is in charge of a department, how can a minister alone shoulder all the responsibilities regarding the Tongzhou warehouse?"

"That's... the Minister of Imperial Household Department and Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue Wu Yuan?"

Wei Tai frowned, "Wu Yuan is partly responsible, but he is mainly responsible for the storage of the capital. If we really want to investigate, I'm afraid it will be more of a fuss than a result."

Qin Chang said: "If you want to know who the target of the impeachment is, you can tell by looking at the purpose of these people... The person who is in charge of the Ministry of Revenue's warehouse and can cause such a big commotion must be related to the Ministry of Revenue's Left Vice Minister Sun Ren and Right Vice Minister Li Si, or these two people are causing trouble."

"Sun Ren..."

Wei Tai thought for a moment and asked in surprise, "This person seems to be Liu Ji's man. He has an extremely close relationship with Liu Ji. I haven't heard of any bad deeds by him."

Qin Chang said: "If you knew the whole story, how could he live in peace? Many things in the court are deceived by the superiors but not the subordinates. Maybe the people below know the inside story very well, but the people above are kept in the dark."

Wei Tai asked: "Should we report this matter? If we talk about the serious deficit in Tongzhou Warehouse at this time, will it be..."

Qin Chang said: "I know what you mean. Your Majesty may not be in the mood to care about these things now, but I still want to ask someone for his opinion... I always feel that this matter is not simple."

……

……

On this day, Li Zisheng entered the palace and went to the Qianqing Palace to meet the emperor.

Qin Chang deliberately came to the palace gate to greet him and walked inside with him. It seemed that he was leading the way, but in fact he was taking the opportunity to communicate with Li Zisheng and exchange ideas.

Qin Chang turned around and asked, "Master Li, have you heard that the imperial censors jointly submitted a memorial saying that the Tongzhou warehouse was in deficit and that there were problems with the dispatch of military supplies in the northwest?"

Li Zisheng smiled and said, "Eunuch Tan, does His Majesty know about this?"

"I don't know yet."

Qin Chang said with emotion, "Your Majesty has been seriously unwell recently and has no intention of attending to state affairs. Isn't it time for us to greet you first and ask for your opinion?"

"I think that since someone has brought it up, we should investigate it thoroughly... It used to be said that the Beijing warehouse was related to military supplies for the northwest front, but I heard that the Tongzhou warehouse has been getting bigger and bigger in recent years. In the past, grain was first sent to Taicang, and when it could no longer hold food, it was transported to Tongzhou. But now the situation is reversed."

Li Zisheng did not say whether this matter had anything to do with him, but started to talk about it first, "Ever since His Majesty issued an order to reform the grain transport system, I feel that the transportation of grain has become more and more confusing."

During the Chenghua period, the imperial court changed the grain transport system to a long-distance transport system, also known as the exchange system or the direct delivery system. That is, the military officers in charge of the exchange system would cross the river and exchange grain directly at the water stations in various counties in the south of the Yangtze River, eliminating the need for the people to transport grain. However, they had to pay an additional fee for crossing the river. In other words, the transportation of grain was entirely borne by the official army, which greatly facilitated the transportation of grain for the people.

But the most obvious change was that the grain transportation in the Ming Dynasty became a monopoly of the imperial court, or even a monopoly of official duties. Many official documents were not kept by local government, which made it easier for those in charge to manipulate the matter.

Tan Chang nodded and said, "We understand."

Li Zisheng laughed and said, "Oh, look at what I said. This matter has nothing to do with me. I came to the palace to discuss the appointment of people in the court. In addition, there are some other situations such as the evolution of the heavens that I want to mention to Your Majesty."

"Is there anything big going on?"

Qin Chang couldn't help but ask questions.

"Oh, no."

Li Zisheng said, "Recently, there have been reports of auspicious events from various places. I also observed the celestial phenomena at night and found that the Purple Star is strong. It can be said that Your Majesty will be in good health in the short term."

Qin Chang couldn't help but said awkwardly: "Master Li, you must know that His Majesty has been taking the elixir made by Deng Changen recently, right? If what you said is connected with this matter... is it really okay?"

In Qin Chang's opinion, is it necessary for you to dig a hole for yourself?

When you offered medicine to His Majesty, the Purple Star dimmed. Now that he has taken Deng Changen's elixir, the Purple Star has become stronger?
Li Zisheng said, "I always say what I think. What I observed is indeed true... I'm afraid it's not just me. The people in the Imperial Observatory will also observe it. Can I hide it from Your Majesty?"

"Haha, you...really...never seek personal gain. I admire you. I admire you."

Qin Chang was thinking.

Do you, Li Zisheng, really have such a good attitude?

Or do you intend to praise Deng Changen to death?
The more your majesty feels that Deng Changen's medicine is effective, the more likely it is that something will go wrong. The more obvious your majesty's hatred for Deng Changen will be. By then...

(End of this chapter)