The Prosperous Era of Longwan

On the ninth day of the second month of the 41st year of Jiajing's reign, Jiujiang Prefecture Examination was held in Beijing. Lao Kan and others were sent to the examination room. Wei Guangde was a little busy during the two days, so he left the matter to him. Otherwise, as the highest-ranking scholar in Jiujiang in the capital Official, this is what he, a fellow countryman, should have done.

Without him, the news brought by Chen Ju would indeed have a big impact.

The first thing is that Lan Daoxing's words and deeds are weird, and we must find out the reason.

As for the second thing, Wei Guangde hurriedly wrote letters to Nanjing and Jiujiang early the next morning and sent people to deliver them as soon as possible.

That night, Wei Guangde was not very smart. He was very aware of his state, so he didn't do anything. However, when he woke up, although his head still hurt, it didn't stop him from thinking about things.

Hu Zongxian wanted to place a deputy chief soldier on Yu Dayou, so Wei Guangde's natural response was to cut off Hu.

If you want to create this new position, you must recommend a candidate. I will communicate with the Ministry of War first and directly seek to appoint Yu Dayou to take up the post of deputy commander-in-chief.

Regardless of all the conditions, Yu Dayou fully meets the requirements of this position. I wonder if Hu Zongxian will vomit three liters of blood after knowing this.

As for the change of the Poyang garrison to the general, naturally it can only be handled by my father-in-law Xu Pengju. If he wants to seize the territory from the former military governor's mansion, Jiujiang is an important place. I guess my father-in-law will definitely go crazy.

The former military governor's office has those territories. It has jurisdiction over Huguang Dusi, Fujian Dusi, Jiangxi Dusi, Guangdong Dusi, Huguang Xingdu Division, Fujian Xingdu Division, Xingdu Left-behind Division and Zhili Jiujiang Guard.

Among them, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong have all had their command power taken away by Hu Zongxian, and even most of the Southern Zhili garrison has been taken away. Now the eyes are looking at Jiujiang Guard, the only direct guard post. This is to completely Empty the rhythm of the former military governor's mansion.

Wei Guangde didn't know it before because he stayed in the corner of Bengshan Fort. Now that Wei's father has a thousand households, he has entered the Wei command system and knows a lot more.

The Jiujiang Guard not only protects Jiujiang, but also cooperates with Jiujiang Chaoguan to control ships traveling in this water area.

Many ships that are inconvenient to pay attention to can't pass through Jiujiang without Jiujiang Wei's acquiescence. This is also a gray income of Jiujiang Wei.

In fact, in the past, only some ships of Nanjing nobles came and went, but now the business has expanded to the private salt field, and the Nanjing Wei Guogong Mansion took the lead and contacted the entire Yangtze River Guard to escort the big business.

How could such an important link in Jiujiang change hands so easily?

And what kind of position is the Poyang garrison in Hu Zongxian's mouth? It is just a general in charge of the Nanhu Water Camp, and his main responsibility is to exterminate the water bandits in Poyang Lake.

In terms of rank, it is the first level of a guard commander, equivalent to a guerrilla general. The person in charge can be a fellow guard commander, a minister, or even a thousand-household official.

In the military commander system of the Ming Dynasty, there were three levels of command, and the lowest level was naturally the first level of guard commander.

For example, the commander, tongzhi and qianshi of the Jiujiang Guards belonged to the Wei Commandery, and most official records of the Ming Dynasty were also referred to as "commanders".

The second level is naturally the provincial governor's office, which is similar to the level of military regions in later generations. It has multiple guard posts under its jurisdiction and belongs to the command level. The highest official is the commander of the command, and the second level is also the Tongzhi and Qianshi.

The highest level is the Commander-in-Chief, that is, the general of the Fifth Army Commander-in-Chief. The official positions are Left and Right Commander-in-Chief, Tongzhi, and Qianshi. People with this official position either serve in the southern and northern capitals, or in the ninth. Bian Zhongzhen held the position of general military officer.

According to Hu Zongxian, when the Poyang garrison is upgraded to a staff general, it is promoted to the command level. They are also in Jiujiang. As a guard commander, the Jiujiang guards naturally have to obey orders.

After thinking clearly at home, Wei Guangde wrote a letter and went to Prince Yu's Mansion. Naturally, he waited for Prince Yu to come out of the backyard and told Prince Yu about the matter alone. The matter about Jiujiang Wei was naturally not included in this conversation.

To investigate the conflict between Lan Daoxing and Yan Song, it was naturally better for Prince Yu's Mansion to send people privately, so he didn't bother to get involved.

Prince Yu's Mansion is now in the capital, and there are a lot of people below.

Just as he thought, King Yu had no good impression of Lan Daoxing, or in other words, he hated all the alchemists who played tricks in front of Emperor Jiajing.

This is not because of the teachings of Gao Gong and others, but perhaps his own life experience is the most important reason.

But just as Wei Guangde thought, after King Yu learned that Lan Daoxing had slandered Yan Song in front of Emperor Jiajing, the previous disgust on his face dissipated slightly.

"My father still trusts these people now. If they can do something to rectify Chao Gang, it would be good."

King Yu said calmly, "Just do as you say. I will ask Li Fang to send someone to check in a while. I will also check other people to see if they have any problems with the Yan family."

As for Yu Dayou's matter, King Yu also expressed his support without any reason.

"Yu Dayou was originally the commander-in-chief of Zhejiang Province, but now he is just entrusted with the position of deputy commander-in-chief. It is very suitable."

Prince Yu said this to Wei Guangde at that time, asking him to contact people from the Ministry of War under the guise of Prince Yu's Mansion to handle the matter.

In the past, perhaps King Yu was not interested in these martial arts, but now the situation is different.

If you want long-term peace and stability on the borders of the empire, you can't do it without generals who can fight, and now he has realized the importance of finding these generals.

If you want to be able to enjoy happiness in the harem in the future and not be disturbed by side events, then you must plan ahead, find these people, and use them in the future.

Yes, in Yu Wang's view, facing and solving problems is that simple, as long as you find the right way.

Wei Guangde's nearly one year of teaching at Yu Wang's side actually made Yu Wang become utilitarian, hoping to solve problems in the simplest way.

If the northern Tatars want to cause trouble, they will find good generals to garrison the border. If the Tatars dare to come, they will fight back to see who can outlast the other.

As for the most important thing for the border army to become stronger is sufficient military pay. According to Wei Guangde, the interests of the empire have been divided up by the royal nobles. Trying to steal money from them will probably cause civil strife in the empire.

Civil strife was the most annoying thing for King Yu.

In this case, ignore the interests that have been distributed and turn your attention to other aspects.

The tax department, bureaus and river channels were not allotted to the feudal kings, the salt tax benefits were also divided up by the court and royal nobles, and there were other things, but they had long been divided up.

But it doesn't matter. Without these, then we will focus on the things still left in the hands of the court, one is the banknotes, and the other is the city ships.

The empire carries so many goods from north to south every year, but the bank only receives hundreds of thousands of taels of tax money, which is not enough, absolutely not enough.

Since the Yi people like our Ming Dynasty goods, we can sell them to them. They will buy them from the Japanese pirates, and the court will participate in the distribution of profits.

When those coastal merchants objected, they asked the royal nobles to deal with them. If they could not be suppressed, they threatened to withdraw the benefits granted to them.

This is an exchange, exchanging benefits for benefits.

If you want to keep your profits, you have to bully those businessmen. Anyway, they have been doing this for a long time and have developed a very skilled routine.

In the past, Gao Gong taught King Yu the great principles and let him know what etiquette, justice, integrity, loyalty and filial piety were. However, Wei Guangde taught him the interests behind the great principles.

The essence of any transaction is a process of exchange of interests. Participants weigh the pros and cons and make the final choice. The truth is just a cover-up on the surface to hide the fact of exchange of interests.

What King Yu has to do is to keep his eyes open, see clearly the true face of the participants, their demands, and balance their interests without affecting his own.

Wei Guangde didn't know the impact of his words and deeds on King Yu, but King Yu's reaction was in line with his needs, so he naturally obeyed.

Not long after, Li Fang, who was waiting outside the door, was called into the room by King Yu and arranged the task of tracing the recent situation of Lan Daoxing and other alchemists.

Although Li Fang was a little confused, she still obeyed the order.

In the next two days, Wei Guangde visited the residences of Yang Bo, Minister of War, and two ministers.

Although Yang Bo is the Minister of War, the system established by the Ming Dynasty is not a one-word statement. If Yang Bo's will conflicts with the two ministers, they can certainly write a letter of impeachment.

Of course Wei Guangde didn't want to see this, so he targeted the three bosses of the Ministry of War from the beginning.

Just when Wei Guangde was running about Yu Dayou's affairs, a carriage stopped outside the gate of a Taoist temple outside Beijing. The curtain opened to reveal an old man who was over sixty years old. He reluctantly got out of the carriage with the help of his attendants.

The old man got out of the car, looked back at the carriage, and said with some regret, "I'm old, it's so hard to get off the carriage."

"Master, let's take the sedan next time."

A follower whispered in the old man's ear.

The old man just shook his head, looked at the Taoist temple gate and asked, "Has he arrived?"

"Already arrived."

The attendant replied.

"Then let's go in."

The old man said and walked towards the gate of the Taoist temple.

As the old man approached, the door seemed to be sensing something. A wooden door gently opened inward, revealing a gap just big enough for one person to enter. The old man and several followers walked into the Taoist temple from here.

The carriage that had been left outside the door had restarted without any haste at this time and continued to move along the avenue, but there were only a few figures missing around the carriage.

There was a lot of time between the carriage stopping and leaving. Not long after, a panting figure appeared on the way the carriage came. He ran to the Taoist temple gate and looked around, then looked down at the ruts on the road, and then continued towards the road. Chase in the direction of the carriage.

Behind a big tree on the roadside in the distance, a figure quietly watched everything happening in front of the Taoist temple.

"Your Highness."

Wei Guangde was called here by Li Fang. After entering, he found that there was no one else in the room except King Yu.

"Please take a seat."

King Yu seemed to have come back to his senses after hearing Wei Guangde's words, and said to him with a forced smile.

"What did Yang Shangshu of the Ministry of War say?"

After Wei Guangde sat down, King Yu asked.

"Yang Shangshu of the Ministry of War and the two ministers have agreed that if Your Majesty asks the Ministry of War to select the deputy commander-in-chief of Southern Jiangxi, they will recommend Yu Dayou for this position."

Wei Guangde smiled easily.

The lobbying in the past two days went very smoothly. Perhaps because of the face of Prince Yu's palace, or because it saw that Yu Dayou did have strong commanding abilities, the Ministry of War did not object to recommending Yu Dayou.

"That's good. I'll make great use of Yu Dayou in the future. It's great to be able to upgrade my rank back now."

After Prince Yu nodded slightly, he turned his head and glanced at Li Fang beside him, "I'd better tell you."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Li Fang agreed, then took a step forward and told the two of them some clues he had discovered in recent days.

"The people below didn't find any connection between the Yan family and Taoist Lan."

Wei Guangde said with some surprise.

"No, I sent someone to check all of Daozhang Lan's recent itinerary and found no conflicts with the Yan family.

Also, I have contacted the palace, and Taoist Master Lan did say this in front of the emperor that day, and soon after, Mr. Yan Ge came to Xiyuan to ask for an audience. "

Li Fang replied.

"You mean this was all a coincidence?"

Wei Guangde asked with a slight frown.

"At first, I did think so, but yesterday I received news that our people had spotted Mr. Xu Ge riding a carriage out of the city."

At this time, Li Fang looked a little weird and said: "Shandai may not have imagined where Xu Ge was going when he left the city."

Wei Guangde was slightly moved when he saw Li Fang's face, and guessed: "Is he going to see Lan Daoxing?"

Wei Guangde just said the words casually because he saw Li Fang's strange expression, but he didn't expect that what he saw was Li Fang's nod.

"Mr. Xu Ge and Lan Daoxing have a private connection?"

Seeing Li Fang's actions, Wei Guangde didn't know that there must be a hidden secret, and it seemed that Li Fang had already figured it out, otherwise he wouldn't have reported it to King Yu, and even called himself here to know about it.

"The people we followed Taoist Master Lan did follow to a small Taoist temple outside the city, and Mr. Xu Ge's carriage also passed there later. The people monitoring it were just not sure whether it was Mr. Xu Ge who entered the Taoist temple."

At this time, Li Fang finally told Wei Guangde what his men had discovered yesterday, and then continued: "However, according to the description of the person who monitored Taoist Master Lan, the carriage stopped in front of the Taoist temple for a while, and someone got off the car and entered the Taoist temple. The carriage left after that, and we passed there after tracking Mr. Xu Ge’s people.”

"Wait a minute, Eunuch Li, you also sent people to follow Mr. Xu Ge?"

Wei Guangde suddenly noticed a problem and asked hurriedly.

"A few days ago, we didn't find any bad blood between Taoist Lan and Yan Ge's family, so we sent people to also keep an eye on Xu and Yuan. After all, if something happens to Mr. Yan Ge, they will be the ones to benefit."

Having said this, Li Fang turned to Prince Yu and said, "I didn't inform His Highness before, please punish me."

"Okay, let's not talk about this. You'd better tell Shandai what you found."

King Yu just shook his head and then gave instructions.

Wei Guangde remained calm, but when the two of them were not paying attention, he secretly glanced at the seemingly stupid and harmless King Yu.

"Yes, Your Highness."

Li Fang bowed, stood up straight, and then said to Wei Guangde: "We found out that Master Lan is a disciple of Xin Xue."

Hearing this, Wei Guangde opened his mouth slightly, and seemed to understand the reason why Lan Daoxing and Xu Jie were in contact.

Xu Jie is the disciple of Xinxue with the largest official position in the Jiajing Dynasty today.