The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Not long after, Yin Shizhen returned to the cabinet and entered Chen Yiqin's duty room without stopping.

When he saw Wei Guangde after entering the door, he was slightly surprised and said, "I'm afraid there's nothing we can do this time. Your Majesty will come back with a high profile."

"Sit down, Yifu. Now that your Majesty has made a decision, it will naturally not be easy to change it.

It just depends on whether Li Shoufu and Zhang Shuda can say something in front of His Majesty. When His Majesty asked me earlier, they could only support His Majesty's words. You should also say okay. "

Chen Yiqin looked at Yin Shizhen with a wry smile and said.

"Why not? Can we still say that it is high-arched? Alas."

Yin Shizhen was very depressed, and lowered his head after sitting down, "I'm just wondering, it's been more than a year, almost two years, why does your majesty think of him again."

"It would be good if Your Majesty remembered it. What I am most worried about is that someone in the palace will get in touch with Gao Gong. That would be dangerous."

Chen Yiqin said, "I was thinking about this on the way back. There will definitely be no memorials to Gao Gong in the outer court, so either His Majesty remembered him, or someone around His Majesty mentioned his name. "

When Yin Shizhen heard Chen Yiqin's words, he suddenly raised his head, "It must be those castrated dogs and treacherous villains who are causing trouble."

"Brother Yifu, be careful what you say."

Seeing Yin Shizhen's mood, Wei Guangde hurriedly reminded him in a low voice.

"Li Chunfang and Zhang Juzheng were summoned together by His Majesty, and they should not object to recalling Gao Gong."

At this time, Yin Shizhen looked at Wei Guangde and said, "When His Majesty calls you over, don't object to this matter or make His Majesty unhappy."

Wei Guangde nodded. Of course he knew what to do. It was definitely not a wise choice to anger the emperor at this time.

Then, Chen Yiqin told him about his invitation to Teng Xiang for a drink tonight, and that Wei Guangde would find Chen Ju to inquire about the news in the palace.

At this point, Yin Shizhen really can't help much. He doesn't have much plans in the palace, and everyone who could speak to him in the past has left the capital.

Sure enough, not long after, a eunuch from the Qianqing Palace came to the cabinet, and Emperor Longqing announced his presence.

It was obvious that Emperor Longqing still had full control over the Forbidden City at this time. Wei Guangde was not in the cabinet before, so the eunuchs did not summon him.

And not long after he came back, the Qianqing Palace should have known the news and sent people to follow.

At this moment, outside the main hall of the Supervisor of Ceremonies located in the west of the Forbidden City, all the eunuchs, eunuchs of all sizes, such as the eunuchs, heads of chambers, and officials were driven out, trembling like quails.

In the main hall of the Supervisor of Ceremonies, a group of big shots from the inner court were having a heated argument, and the centerpiece was naturally an old eunuch sitting on the right, and he was naturally Chen Hong, the eunuch of the East Factory who holds the seal of the imperial eunuch and holds the pen.

There is no airtight wall. Although some of the conversations between Chen Hong and Emperor Longqing seemed hidden, there were always fragments of words that could be heard.

After the emperor began to summon cabinet ministers and proposed calling Gao Gong to return to the court, the news spread like a tide and reached the ears of the big men in the inner court.

After a little digging, the fingers were all pointed at Chen Hong.

"Chen Hong, I really have you. I didn't expect you to eat everything. I guess when Gao Gong comes back, he must help you get rid of me. Ah, he wants to replace me."

Teng Xiang looked at Chen Hong with cold eyes. If he was still in disbelief when he heard the news at the beginning, but after confirming and learning that the person who spoke for Gao Gong in front of Emperor Longqing was Chen Hong, Teng Xiang naturally became disbelieving. Guess his purpose for doing this.

The great eunuch Zhang Hong also looked at Chen Hong with an unkind expression and sneered: "Eunuch Chen, you have broken the rules of our inner court.

In the past, when I saw you asking for favors in front of the Emperor, those of us who were slow to act could only feel jealous. Apart from trying our best to please the Emperor, we never thought of contacting people from the outer court.

You are really good, hehe."

"Eunuch Chen, don't you have anything to say? The Za family is really curious as to how you got in touch with Gao Gong. Did you take the initiative to find him or did he come to find you?"

Feng Bao also looked at Chen Hong with a narrow expression, his eyes uncertain.

In fact, it is of course impossible for the eunuchs in the inner court to have no contact with the outer court, but they all have rules to abide by in the inner court.

People from the outer court asked to come to the inner court. Of course, the cashier was there to handle the matter. There was nothing to say about this.

But for some people in the outer court who are not kind to eunuchs like them, they will also unite against him, and will not give him any help, and they will not be able to reach out for any amount of money they give him.

There are not many such people, but there is one in this dynasty.

When that man was ostracized by the outer court, the people in the inner court secretly enjoyed themselves, but no one spoke for him.

It wasn't like there was no one. There was one person who helped him speak in front of the emperor, and then he began to be ostracized by other eunuchs, and was finally kicked out.

This person is naturally Li Fang.

In fact, people in the inner court did not dare to provoke Li Fang at first. After all, they had been with Emperor Longqing in the palace for more than ten years and had a close relationship with him.

But Li Fang spoke for Gao Gong at that time, so people in the inner court started to work together to exclude him from that time, and kept saying bad things about him in front of Emperor Longqing.

It took more than half a year to finally wear away Emperor Longqing's affection for him.

But now, there is a person in the inner court who is cheating, so one can imagine how they will deal with him.

"I said, I didn't say good things about him in front of the emperor. Why should I speak for him? Someone framed me."

Of course Chen Hong would not admit anything honestly at this time, and still insisted on what he said at the beginning.

Although he knew that once something was identified by these great eunuchs, regardless of whether there was evidence or not, they would only judge it based on what they investigated.

There was no way he could wash away this stain, but on the surface, he still couldn't admit that he betrayed the eunuch's interests.

In fact, he did not sell out their interests, but only harmed a very few people.

Because Chen Hong was in charge of the Imperial Supervisor and had a relationship with the Dongchang factory official, he had a lot of contact with the outside world and was able to get many weird gadgets to please Emperor Longqing.

Recently, his status in front of the emperor has gradually surpassed that of Meng Chong.

He could only say that he was jealous of Teng Xiang and Meng Chong and made up lies.

However, these words could only deceive the people below, and he knew that their extravagant words would not help the several eunuchs in the room.

If you want others not to know, you have to do nothing unless you do it yourself.

He met with Nao Fang twice and spoke highly of him three times in front of Emperor Longqing.

Maybe no one would notice it the first time or two, but there are so many people in the palace, there is no secret, let alone Qianqing Palace, where countless pairs of eyes are watching.

"Come on, three days ago in Taihe Building, I don't know who was drinking with whom until midnight."

Teng Xiang said with a fierce look in his eyes, "Although I don't know how that boy from Danyang got in touch with Xinzheng, what he did is known to everyone in the government and the public. Even all of you here probably know it." .”

Teng Xiang said this, and after looking around at everyone in the room, he said surreptitiously: "I heard about this a few days ago, and I thought your Eunuch Chen could abide by the rules. Who would have thought that you are such a person.

My position is here. In front of the emperor, everyone fights based on their own abilities. I have nothing to say, but you should never fight for it together with everyone's common enemy.

Meng Chong sent someone to inform me of the news. I couldn't believe it was true. "

"If you say it's not me, it's not me. Believe it or not, I have something else to do, so I won't stay."

Chen Hong knew that staying here would be of no use. He had to go back and make some preparations to guard against retaliation from Tengxiang, Meng Chong and others. He also had to send someone to notify Nao Fang and ask him to leave the capital as soon as possible.

If Nao Fang is captured, even if he replaces Teng Xiang, he will become the target of public criticism in the inner court.

Don't think that being appointed as a palm eunuch by the emperor means that he becomes the number one person in the inner court by overseeing the inner court. If the subordinates do not listen to orders, his admiral becomes a mascot and his rights are emptied by the subordinates. , that’s the biggest joke.

Even if he takes action to replace someone, in such a large inner court, it is not possible to change someone casually.

In many key positions, without the approval of the emperor and empress, he had nothing to do.

If they refuse to admit it, they believe that they are instigating people to play dirty tricks against them behind their backs. They just have to deal with it carefully, as long as no one is caught with evidence.

In the inner court, there are always palm prints and admirals who will suspect this matter, as long as they don't all unite to deal with him.

Under the stern eyes of everyone, Chen Hong quickly walked out of the door of the Supervisor of Ceremonies without looking back. The eunuchs outside the door knew something was wrong when they saw Chen Hong's face, and they all lowered their heads and did not dare to let him look at it. to myself.

They had also heard the previous conversations in the room. They were all fights between big guys. Naturally, they, the little fish and shrimps, were not qualified to participate.

Even if Chen Hong may now become the target of public criticism in the inner court, he is not someone they can provoke.

Especially at this time, maybe just because you don't like it, it will lead to death.

Among the people who bowed their heads, Chen Ju was among them.

It wasn't until Chen Hong walked to the door that he looked up at Chen Hong's back.

Today it was not his turn to attend the Palace of Qianqing. As a attendant, he naturally came to the Supervisor of Ceremonies. He did not expect to see this scene.

Not long after, Zhang Hong, Feng Bao and others also went out and left here, but Chen Ju also noticed that their faces were not very good.

Although Chen Ju's status is not high, he is Gao Zhong's godson after all, and he has been advised by Huang Jin, so he is also very sensitive to politics.

He already understood what was going on in the previous conversation in the ceremonial prison.

What the eunuchs fear most is that someone has more trust from the emperor than them, so they have to find ways to drive this person out of the court.

But unfortunately, a traitor appeared inside, and he brought this person back.

The Supervisor of Ceremonies stirred up a storm, and the cabinet was also filled with dark clouds.

In Li Chunfang's duty room, all the cabinet ministers have already arrived.

Wei Guangde was the last cabinet minister summoned by Emperor Longqing, and he had also returned from Qianqing Palace at this time.

"His Majesty was delighted when I left."

Wei Guangde smiled bitterly and said to Li Chunfang and others.

"hehe."

After Wei Guangde finished speaking, everyone smiled bitterly, and no one noticed the glint in Zhang Juzheng's eyes.

"By the way, today I went to the Ordnance Bureau and took a look at a new type of artillery they are developing."

When Wei Guangde met with Emperor Longqing before, on the one hand he agreed with the emperor's opinion of calling Gao Gong back to the court, and at the same time he also talked about the Ordnance Bureau's casting of new cannons.

He only said that it was a prototype of the cannon, and he looked pretty good, so he asked them to mass-produce ten of them first, and hand them over to the Shenji Battalion to pull them out during the grand parade to increase Ming's military power.

It also clearly explains that this cannon looks very powerful, but because it is a prototype cannon, the craftsmen have not yet figured out how to cast it, so it cannot be used.

Even if it is a prototype gun, it cannot be used, it is just a prototype.

Emperor Longqing didn't have much interest in firearms now, so he just listened to Wei Guangde's words casually and didn't take them to heart.

At this time, the matter was discussed again in the cabinet. Li Chunfang, Chen Yiqin and others did not pay attention to it, but perhaps because of his relationship with the military household, Zhang Juzheng seemed much more serious.

He asked Wei Guangde many questions and got a general understanding of this kind of artillery.

"Shan Loan, if the Ordnance Bureau builds such a large artillery, it may have great range and power, but the firing speed is still not as good as the Fo Lang machine.

Why didn't the Ordnance Bureau consider digging out the breech and placing the sub-cartridge according to the style of the Franco machine?

In this way, in the time it takes to fire one shot, you can fire several shots in succession.

As far as I know, the frontier army prefers Franco aircraft rather than general artillery. "

Zhang Juzheng already knew the appearance of this kind of cannon from Wei Guangde's description. It was actually a thickened and elongated general cannon, a larger general cannon.

Wei Guangde's statement that the range should be more than two miles also attracted Zhang Juzheng's attention.

However, when he thought about it, if the Folang machine gun was made the size of this artillery, the range should be very long, but more importantly, the gun had a fast rate of fire.

So Wei Guangde explained that the real reason why the Franco cannon could not fire far was that the air tightness was not high. Even the sub-cartridge carefully crafted by the craftsmen could not seal all the gaps.

In order to illustrate the authenticity of this theory, Wei Guangde also mentioned some experiments that the Ming army had conducted, including experiments with similar-sized firearms, one was a Folang machine style, and the other was a general cannon style.

With a negligible difference in ammunition, the range of the two artillery is also vastly different.

After the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty came into contact with the Folang machine, they discovered this problem very early, that is, the range was insufficient. They thought of many ways to solve it, but they all failed in the end.

However, this was the first time for Li Chunfang and others to hear that the Franco machine gun had actually conducted such a complicated experiment.

"Now I want to see what the mighty general cannon like Shandai said is like. It is several times more powerful than the general cannon, haha."

Li Chunfang became interested at this time and spoke.

After the yamen were dismissed, they came out of the cabinet, and Wei Guangde was stopped by Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhen again.

"You didn't come back before. When Li Zishi talked about the scene when they were summoned by His Majesty, I always felt something was wrong."

Soon, Wei Guangde learned from Chen Yiqin what he said was wrong.

After the shock, Li Chunfang expressed her support for Gao Gong's return to the court, and then proposed that he would become an official and retire.

Of course Emperor Longqing would not agree and immediately rejected it.

However, when Zhang Juzheng expressed his opinions, in addition to supporting Gao Gong's return to the court, he also believed that he could be promoted to second assistant and prepared to take over from Li Chunfang.