Ming Dynasty: I, Yan Maoqing, am truly radiating auspicious energy!

Chapter 133 Doctor Yan, just give in to the Emperor.

Xia Mansion.

Guo Xun had already left Beijing, and Yan Song had also left Beijing long ago.

But Xia Yan remained stubbornly in the capital, refusing to leave, even though he had only been dismissed from his post and was now living in retirement.

Unlike Guo Xun and Yan Song, who were given responsibilities but were not in a hurry because the emperor did not issue an edict setting a deadline, they were not in a rush.

Furthermore, now that the Yan Song affair has happened.

When the Emperor stripped them of their titles and privileges, he must have also become aware of the unbearable burden placed on Zhai Luan, Xu Zan, and Zhang Bi.

Therefore, as long as he finds a way to contact his former colleagues in various departments and make some small moves to create some unsolvable problems for the current cabinet, he might be able to get the emperor to issue an edict to reinstate him in a few days. If he is in a hurry to leave the capital now, he will probably be wasting his time.

"Yan Maoqing actually wrote a seditious letter, and the Emperor imprisoned him overnight?"

Xia Yan naturally learned of this news as well.

Upon hearing this news, Xia Yan initially thought she had misheard.

He simply couldn't believe that someone as shrewd and worldly as Yan Maoqing would make such a basic mistake.

"Sophisticated and shrewd"... that's how he describes Yan Maoqing now.

After all, it's rare to find a young man like Yan Maoqing who doesn't flinch when interacting with him, who even dares to tell deadly jokes in front of him, yet can still handle things efficiently.

However, after he ordered someone to find the two issues of "Breaking the Japanese Pirates" published by Yan Maoqing under the name Niubi Shanren, and read them carefully...

He was even less convinced!

This mistake is more than just basic; it's downright stupid!
Could it be that he misjudged Yan Maoqing before, and now that Yiguo Gong Guo Xun is no longer in charge, this young man has lost his backbone and has been misled by others. In a moment of madness, he did something so stupid that he could be courting death?

"This fool actually dared to provoke that force in the southeast. He's truly ignorant and fearless..."

Xia Yan shook her head slightly, sighing to herself.

It was impossible to tell whether these words were gloating or a blatant expression of insincere sympathy for Yan Maoqing.

Having served as Grand Secretary for many years, he was naturally well aware of the forces in the southeast.

Let's just put it that way.

Whoever enters the cabinet or becomes the Minister of the Six Ministries will immediately have lobbyists from the Southeast faction come to offer gifts.

Even he dared not refuse such a generous gift that was offered to him so readily.

Yes, we dared not refuse!

You have no choice but to accept it!

Anyone who insists on not accepting the offer can forget about sitting comfortably in the cabinet and the six ministries. Before long, political troubles will arise against them, and impeachment memorials from all angles will follow one after another until they are exhausted and have no choice but to compromise and submit, or be brought down and leave office in disgrace.

Xia Yan had learned a lesson the hard way, and thus understood a principle very early on.

The Ming Dynasty is the Ming Dynasty, and the Southeast is the Southeast.

No matter how far the emperor's reach is, it can't extend to the southeast.

Even if the reach of the Southeast is short, it can still extend into the capital.

That sounds a bit counterintuitive and hard to understand, doesn't it?

actually not.

As the most economically prosperous region in the Ming Dynasty, the southeast has long formed a deeply rooted political and business interest community after more than two hundred years of integration and collusion by some people. Moreover, it is the most powerful interest community in the Ming Dynasty.

Today, this community of shared interests is already an unbreakable bond.

Accepting their gifts is tantamount to offering a pledge of allegiance and tacitly becoming a member of this interest group.

Even if we don't do anything for them, we have to turn a blind eye to some things.

If you refuse their gifts, it would be considered ungrateful. They would immediately activate their xenophobic tendencies, making everything you do extremely difficult, and even directly impacting national affairs, resulting in a very poor political record...

The situation here is so complex that even Xia Yan can't fathom it, explain it, or investigate it.

The only thing he knows for sure now is...

This community of interests has already controlled the inflow of silver into the Ming Dynasty, and the profits involved are far beyond those of ordinary industries. It is even equivalent to having control over the Ming Dynasty's minting rights in disguise.

This alone is enough to make the Southeast issue a stubborn problem that court officials, and even the emperor, have to compromise on in some matters!
After all, this is no longer a problem that can be solved by simply taking out one or two people.

Even if the Emperor didn't know these things, how could he not see the trend of declining tax revenue in the southeast region over the years?
Take the salt tax as an example.

Xia Yan clearly remembered that when he entered the cabinet in the fifteenth year of Jiajing's reign, the four salt transport offices of Liangzhe, Lianghuai, Changlu, and Hedong could still collect 2.17 million taels of salt tax annually.

But this year, the salt tax collected has dropped to 1.72 million taels.

In recent years, the number of households in the Ming Dynasty has been on the rise, and the amount of salt used should naturally also be on the rise. However, without the Ming court reducing taxes, the amount of salt tax collected has been decreasing day by day, which is enough to explain the problem.

The Emperor did order people to verify this matter.

However, the officials who went to verify the facts either returned with "reasonable" explanations or encountered accidents and never returned, which even made the fires that the emperor encountered more and more frequently.

This forced the emperor to back down and turn a blind eye.

Yan Maoqing's "Record of Defeating the Japanese Pirates," especially the second installment, while not yet touching the core of this community of interests, did bring some things that shouldn't have been discussed into the open, which inevitably led to huge trouble for him...

However, putting those things aside...

For Xia Yan, the most important thing right now is to get reinstated.

From Yan Maoqing's matter, Xia Yan saw an opportunity he couldn't refuse:

"The Emperor's attitude is still unclear. If I want to join the cabinet, I'm afraid I still need the support of the Duke of Yi and the Duke of Cheng."

"If I were to instigate my disciples to rescue Yan Maoqing at this moment, whether it succeeds or not, the Duke of Yi would owe me a favor, and I would then have the opportunity to truly reconcile with him and have him join the Duke of Cheng in fully supporting my reinstatement!"

"Moreover, if Minister Yan Mao puts these matters into the open, after I am reinstated, I may be able to take advantage of the situation in front of the Emperor and thus secure my position in the cabinet."

"How can we easily miss such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?"

……

Beizhen Fusi.

It was not a prison, but a separate courtyard in the back.

"Doctor Yan, the Emperor is treating you so well now, it's unprecedented. You should submit to the Emperor."

Lu Bing huddled close to Yan Maoqing, forcing a smile as he earnestly tried to persuade her.

Yan Maoqing naturally had no idea.

At this moment, the Hanlin Academy was in complete chaos, and the so-called "Yan Party" had inexplicably begun to take shape.

Moreover, even though Shen Kun and Chen Yingda are not yet influential enough, Xia Yan is now preparing to use the power he has cultivated in the court over the years, for his own benefit.

Now, the two forces are joining forces to rescue him.

Yan Maoqing would never know.

What kind of waves will these two forces create in the imperial court once they join forces, and what kind of shock will they bring to Zhu Houcong, who believes he has at least a firm grip on the capital's court?

He now only finds Lu Bing a bit noisy:

"Commander Lu, didn't I already say that?"

“I have the right to remain silent until my lawyer… no, until the person who is supposed to visit me arrives.”

(End of this chapter)