Jingxi, the royal residence.

There are four guests in the house today, namely Zhang Xuan, Yan Song, Wang Zan and Tang Bohu.

After failing in the seven meetings, Zhang Xuan finally narrowly escaped this year. The palace examination article was originally ranked second, but Zhu Houzhao abided by the Hangzhou agreement, and actually gave Zhang Xuan an example.

In this way, as soon as Zhang Xuan entered the Hanlin Academy, he was labeled as a God Party.

If Zhang Xuan is the imperial party, then Yan Song is the "noble concubine party". During the period when the imperial concubine was in charge of the country, she relied on Yan Song very much, and she had been promoted to be the political envoy of the three grades. Because the imperial concubine always recruits Yan Song to ask about politics, even with the secretary of the general administration, the tide is rising, and it is not completely a decoration like before.

In the past two years, Wang Zan has also been promoted, and he is currently the left waiter of the military department, taking over Huang Ke's previous position.

In comparison, Tang Bohu has the lowest rank. Because of the good picture of the Spring Palace, he was deeply loved by the emperor, and was not only brought back to the capital, but also entered the Hanlin Academy to become a doctor of the eighth grade. From time to time, he was recruited by the emperor into the palace to paint, and it is estimated that he will soon be promoted to a seven-grade review.

Among the four, Zhang Xuan and Wang Zan belong to the reformers, Yan Song has become an old fritter, and Tang Bohu is purely a fortunate minister.

What's more interesting is that although Zhang Xuan is only a new science and technology jinshi, he is only edited by the Hanlin Academy. But Wang Zhan, who is older than him and is the left attendant of the military department, is always looking at Zhang Zhang.

When someone said bad things about Zhang Zhang, and ridiculed Zhang Zhang's luck, Wang Zan would retort sternly: "Zhang Bingyong, Zhejiang Confucian." Although I am also from the list, compared with Zhang Bingyong's list, I don't have enough knowledge to ask myself. Zhang Bingyong can be my teacher! ”

Everyone touched a cup, and Zhang Xuan asked: "Wang Shilang, this year's disaster in various provinces, is the imperial court's disaster relief money and food enough?" ”

"It's definitely not enough," Wang Yuan shook his head and said, "The disaster relief is just a few fewer deaths." Jianghuai has 'cannibalism', where can I save it by relying on charity alone, and I also have some responsibilities. ”

Wang Zan said: "If you are false, don't take responsibility for yourself, this natural disaster is also." ”

"There are also human disasters, and I am the culprit," Wang Yuan said with emotion, "The School of Physics has improved textile machines many times, and I have taken the lead in opening the sea in Hangzhou." In pursuit of profit, people in the world will inevitably abandon grain and plant cotton instead, and now the grain output in Nanzhili and Zhejiang has been greatly reduced. In the bumper year, you can still buy from other provinces, but this year there are disasters in all provinces, and under the disaster in Jianghuai, where is there enough food? If it is hoarded by merchants again, it is expected that people will starve to death. ”

Wang Zan said categorically: "But the sea must be opened, otherwise the south of the Yangtze River will be chaotic, and the long pain is better than the short pain." ”

The evaluation of Wang Zan in the history books only said that he was open-minded, upright, magnanimous, and regardless of personal grievances. But Wang Zan was a radical reformer, he not only advocated the opening of the sea, but also suggested that the transportation of water should be changed to sea transportation!

Zhang Xuan said: "Having said that, we still have to try to ease the situation, otherwise it may lead to a civil uprising." ”

Yan Song suddenly interjected: "Jiangxi's summer grain has risen sharply this year, you don't want to promote Jiangxi's Qingtian policy to the whole country, right?" ”

Wang Zan nodded and said, "That's exactly what I mean." ”

"By no means," Yan Song persuaded, "I'm not doing it for my own selfish gain, and my family doesn't have much land anyway." However, the political reform of Jiangxi Zhitian has caused a lot of controversy, and the ministers of the DPRK and China are shouting, 'Please behead Chen Yong'. One province is already like this, and if there are more provinces, it may lead to party disputes, just like Wang Anshi's change of law! ”

Wang Yuan smiled: "It should indeed be slow. ”

Wang Yuan wanted to boil up for a few more years, and when the conditions were more mature, he would lead the Ming Dynasty to carry out comprehensive reforms.

But the radicals under his command couldn't wait, Gui Cao and Chang Lun were both transferred to the same state and were continuing to reform in the new territory, and they were very unhappy with the local governors. Hangzhou prefect Liu Zhishu wanted to implement reforms in the entire Hangzhou Prefecture, and encountered the crazy counterattack of the gentry in various counties, if it wasn't for Wang Yuan to help bear the pressure, Liu Zhishu would definitely be transferred to other places by the ministry.

Chen Yong's reform in Jiangxi was even more difficult, and if it were not for the pretext of clearing the fields under the pretext of clearing the remnants of the Ning Wang Party and preventing the recurrence of bandits, the Jiangxi Third Division would not have paid any attention to him as a governor.

Jiangxi, there has been a "civil unrest"!

The gentry, who had lost a large amount of land, secretly instructed a group of tenants to directly kill more than 20 Qingtian officials. Some of the soap officials died unjustly, because they profited from clearing the fields, which aroused the anger of the gentry and the common people even more.

So the slogan "Please behead Chen Yong" appeared, not a matter of transferring or demoting officials, but the gentry wanted to destroy Chen Yong physically.

With this kind of political experience, even if Chen Yong has outstanding political achievements, he will never want to enter the cabinet in this life, and he will never want to serve in the Sixth Ministry. His only way to be promoted is to be promoted to the Metropolitan Procuratorate, either as a governor in various places, or as a big troll in the central government.

Wang Zan and Zhang Xuan were not worried, they heard about the expansion of the scale of sea opening, and immediately wanted to change the transportation to sea transportation. Of course, it is a gradual reform, and how much grain is allocated each year and transported from the sea to Tianjin, which is equivalent to a supplementary option for Cao Yun.

There was also the Qiantang Water Division, where the officers and men trembled at first, but after receiving benefits in Nanyang, their morale was instantly "high." The officers and soldiers clamored for war, sweeping away all the small nearby countries, and it was nothing more than grabbing more goods and land.

Especially on the other side of Temasek (Singapore), where the King of Malacca lived in exile. There was a gold mine found in a nearby river, and Man Zheng wrote to Wang Yuan, hoping to find an opportunity to fight Malacca and occupy Johor Bahru (the capital of later Malaysia) for gold panning.

And those immigrants who were transported to Singapore were supposed to let them farm. As soon as the news of the gold mine broke, they crossed the strait to pan for gold, and they were so angry that they were seeking loans for seeds and farm tools from the migrants.

Li Long, the capital of Zhejiang, who initially opposed the opening of the sea, now sends his henchmen to engage in sea trade and make a lot of money. He found that there was no Ningbo in the new Kaihai city, and immediately wrote a letter to persuade Wang Yuan, and several major families in Ningbo also wrote letters one after another, hoping that Wang Shilang would let Ningbo go regardless of his previous suspicions.

Wang Yuan agreed, which was regarded as a hard beating of those guys.

All of the above made Wang Yuan deeply realize that there is no turning back arrow for reform, and it is even difficult to stabilize it. Those with vested interests in reform, as well as those who are in the vanguard of reform, want to speed up the reform process once they make a move. Those whose interests have been damaged will have to fight back, and the two sides will live to the death, and there is no room for compromise.

This nationwide catastrophe gave Qingliu a reason to fight back.

Although Yang Tinghe did not come forward, Liang Chu, Mao Ji, Mao Cheng, Jiang Mian and others danced extremely excitedly. The officials of the science and Taoism, the impeachment every day is nothing more than competing with the people for profit, the anger of the heavens and the resentment of the people, and the emperor with soft ears has long been moved.

Attacks on Wang Yuan also became more and more frequent, with some saying that Wang Yuan was making profits by opening up the sea, some saying that Wang Yuan was using Qingtian to occupy land, and some saying that Wang Yuan was engaged in smuggling in Tianjin.

Wang Erlang's officialdom reputation suddenly became extremely bad, and many of the new science and technology scholars believed that Wang Yuan was a bad guy.

After drinking a meal, although he didn't say it explicitly, everyone had a score in their hearts.

Yan Song continued to be in charge of the General Administration Department, and knew the internal and external political information, which was equivalent to the eyes and ears of this small group - the sending and receiving of official documents of the imperial court, the appointment and dismissal of civil and military officials, the conscription of troops in the garrison, the internal and external concerts and small reports, and the recitals sent back by the cabinet, all of which had to be taken to the General Administration Department to go through the process.

Yan Song doesn't seem to have any decision-making power, but the right to know is extremely terrifying.

Everyone's expectation for Yan Song's future is to serve as the secretary of the ministry. In the future, you can find an opportunity to recommend Yan Song as the right attendant of the ministry, and gradually let him climb to the position of a heavenly official.

Wang Zhan's short-term goal is to wait for Wang Qiong to enter the cabinet, and then automatically promote to the secretary of the military department.

As long as Zhang Xuan survives the three-year period of entering the scholarhood, it is a sure thing to be promoted to a scholar or a lecturer. Because he is old, well-educated, and appreciated by the emperor, he can run the Hanlin Academy for a small group in the future.

As for Wang Yuan, his merits have already come out, and he will only be able to be substantially promoted after a few more years, unless he inexplicably makes a splashing contribution.

Tang Bohu's continued service as a fortunate minister seems insignificant, but it is actually very important.

Zhan Ruoshui, who has just returned to Beijing, has been promoted to a bachelor's degree. This person is also inclined to reform, before Zhang Xuan took charge of the Hanlin Academy, Zhan Ruoshui could be the first to stand on the Hanlin Academy.

Wang Yangming, who is far away in Nanjing, also has to stay up slowly. Before Yan Song became the secretary of the ministry, see if he could send Wang Yangming to the position of the secretary of the ministry, anyway, Wang Yangming's career must be preserved.

The members of Wang Yuan's small group either pursued reform or became officials. Their common characteristic is that they are not accepted by Qingliu, so they spontaneously rise together to develop themselves. Wang Qiong, the secretary of the Ministry of War, can be co-opted, but there is no need for that for the time being, because Wang Qiong is the emperor's confidant.