The western suburbs of Beijing, see Xinzhai.

The current Jianxinzhai is four or five times larger than when the emperor gave Gao Shishi earlier, but although the area is larger, the buildings in it have not increased much, but two small buildings have been added to the original building complex, and two courtyards have been separated.

One is in the West Chamber, which is more exquisitely repaired, but the furnishings are elegant and simple, and it is for the teacher Guo Pu to live.

One is in the east chamber, which is more atmospheric, and the furnishings are more worthy of the name of the Gao Yu De Scattered Wealth Boy - not to mention anything else, just talking about the furniture inside, there is not a precious red sandalwood from the south, and even the pineapple flower tree that is not uncommon in the Ming Dynasty is not used.

The furniture here is all made of oak wood, which is more common in the north. In fact, oak is not a bad kind of wood, maybe many people say that they have not heard of oak, then you can mention its other name, called "oak" - people who know the history of the British Royal Navy will certainly not be unfamiliar with this word.

Of course, oak furniture is not high and pragmatic in order to save money, and he is not short of this wood, after all, this is in the Ming Dynasty, wood is still guaranteed, even if it is to the south of the rosewood, pineapple trees are also easy to do. He used oak to make furniture because he had specially mobilized a group of carpenters and was familiarizing himself with the properties of oak to lay the foundation for future shipbuilding.

Not only that, Gao Pragmatic even transplanted a few small oak trees in Jianxinzhai to remind himself not to forget this incident.

The scale of Jianxinzhai has expanded a lot, but Gao Shishi has vacated a large piece of white land and has not started construction, so the current Jianxinzhai looks a little empty, and looking east from the east wing where he always lives, it is that open space.

There is a three-story small building in the east wing, called Shouxin Building, which is Gao Shishi's usual residence. The third floor is his bedroom, the second floor is the study, and the first floor is the reception hall.

Although Gao Yude himself has no grade and no rank, no one may dare to treat him as a rankless and unranked idle official, after all, Xiao Ge Lao is not called in vain. Generally speaking, people who can come to meet Gao Pragmatic will definitely be regarded as the number one person in Beijing. But even so, most of these people can only go to the flower hall on the first floor.

Today, however, Gao met with a visitor on the second floor of the Shouxin Building.

This person is none other than Huang Mengyu, the former eunuch of Datong Town, who rushed to Beijing from Datong overnight.

Huang Mengyu is a coarse and meticulous person, and Gao Pragmatic has known this for a long time, so he was not very surprised that Huang Mengyu didn't even enter the gate of the Beijing Division after coming to Beijing, so he came directly to see Xinzhai to meet himself.

As for Huang Mengyu's attitude, Gao Pragmatic is even more satisfied - Huang Mengyu's worship post clearly reads, "Huang Mou, a lackey under Muen's door, bowed for the first hundred times".

Huang Mengyu is a eunuch, but he used a military general to face Wenchen to write this post, which is of course very particular.

The eunuch is the emperor's domestic slave, of course, he should not become the "lackey" of a certain civil servant, that is purely a taboo. But Huang Mengyu, the eunuch, is different, he was born in the border army, according to the habits of the Ming Dynasty, this kind of eunuch can call himself a "minister" even when he is in charge of the court, such as Zheng He was like this back then.

Here, the eunuch regarded himself as a minister, and the court recognized it as such. Of course, the townsmen also have civil and military distinctions, but in Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestral training, eunuchs are not allowed to read, even if this rule has long been broken later, if the eunuchs don't read, how can they be red?

But even so, although the eunuchs of the town guard did the work of supervising the army, their status was still similar to that of military ministers by default—it was impossible for civil officials to regard eunuchs as equals to themselves.

So, Huang Mengyu played a trick here, and used such a greeting post that was the same as that of Wuchen to show his position.

But what best illustrates Huang Mengyu's long-term vision is not this self-humility, but that he did not hand such a greeting to Gao Gong like ordinary people, but handed it to Gao Pragmatic.

It stands to reason that Gao Gong is the emperor, the first assistant of the cabinet and the head of the ministry, and he Huang Mengyu is also Gao Sheng, who returned to Beijing to be the eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor Bingbi, and his status in the inner court is roughly equivalent to the group of assistants in the cabinet. With such an identity, even if you want to hand over a letter of nomination, it should be handed to Gao Gong.

But he didn't hand it to Gao Gong, but directly handed such a letter of worship that could not be taken lightly to the "no grade and no grade" Gao Pragmatic.

Gao Pragmatic couldn't help but sigh in his heart: If Meng Chong had such an overall view and long-term vision as Huang Mengyu, how could he be mixed up like that in the original history, as soon as Long Qing died, he was immediately replaced by Feng Bao, and since then he has disappeared and disappeared from the annals of history?

Huang Mengyu's approach is not only to have a long-term vision, knowing that he will not be able to get much more promotion opportunity in the position of the eunuch of Bingbi soon, he must slowly polish his qualifications, and deepen the emperor's family's understanding and trust in himself, which will take at least several years or even more than ten years, so there is no absolute need to rush to Gao Gong's side - at that time, even if everything goes well with Gao Gong, it is almost time to be old.

At the same time, this approach is also very decisive, because this is a bet on Gao Pragmatic, and Gao Pragmatic is only ten years old!

Normally speaking, even if the high level of pragmatism is unparalleled in academic performance and the career is smooth sailing, I am afraid that it will take more than ten years to have a chance to return to the capital.

So, it's a big gamble! What he bets on is that the time of Gao Gong and Gao Pragmatic can be connected, or even if their uncle and nephew cannot achieve a seamless connection, then at least there will be people from the "Gao Party" among them who can make a transition.

Gao Pragmatic did have such preparations, so he strongly persuaded Gao Gong to recall Guo Pu back to Beijing to recover, because in history, Guo Pu lived until the twenty-first year of Wanli!

But why is Huang Mengyu so sure? There is a little misunderstanding here: in Huang Mengyu's eyes, the bridging figure between the two generations of the Gao Party is not Guo Pu, who is a little older than Gao Gong, but Gao Shiwei's uncle!

In Huang Mengyu's view, Gao Gong recalled Guo Pu back to Beijing to recover, one of which was of course to continue to strengthen Gao Party's ability to control the cabinet, and the other was to pave the way for recommending Zhang Siwei to join the cabinet!

It is known that the number of people in the cabinet, although not customized, is generally four or five people. And there are only three people left in the current cabinet: Gao Gong, Guo Pu, and Zhang Juzheng.

In fact, Huang Mengyu vaguely felt that the relationship between Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng did not seem to be as good as rumored by the outside world, so intimate, which Huang Mengyu was a little suspicious when Gao Gong asked Guo Pu to be in charge of the "rectification of the post road" proposed by Gao Pragmatic.

However, even if there is no discord between Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng, the two are really close and good allies, it doesn't matter, because the cabinet is still short of members, at least one more person should be able to make up, and this person should be Zhang Siwei in Huang Mengyu's opinion.

Zhang Siwei is the best bridging figure between the two generations of the Gao Party in terms of age, seniority, intimacy and even governing philosophy, so Huang Mengyu made up a cabinet timetable for himself to take power:

If Gao Gong is usually at the age of seventy, it will be eleven or twelve years later, when Gao Pragmatic was already in his early twenties, according to the level of his performance in this test, it was estimated that he had already been named on the gold list and officially entered the official career.

At this time, Gao Gong can rest assured and push Zhang Siwei up, Zhang Siwei is about fifty-seven years old at this time. Then Gao Gong's class continued to work until he was seventy years old, and then another twelve or thirteen years later, and Gao Cheng was about thirty-three years old at this time. Gao pragmatic is deeply favored by the saint, and he is the prince's companion, if he is early in the jinshi, at this age, he is already fully qualified to enter the cabinet!

Huang Mengyu himself is only thirty-one years old this year, and he is in his early fifties after more than 20 years, although he is already a grandfather in terms of the people, but for people in the officialdom, this is simply a golden age.

Even, if you are lucky, you will be able to get what you want in the Zhang Siwei era!

Thinking of this, Huang Mengyu's gratitude to Gao Pragmatic was even more real, and he said respectfully: "Waiter, you also know that my old Huang has been in the border town for a long time, and he doesn't know much about the things in Beijing. This time, he was able to return to Shenjing with the help of the attendant and the Yuan Fu, and Lao Huang was really grateful in his heart, that is, ...... I don't know what to do to live up to your expectations, and I hope you will read it. ”

He doesn't shout Gao Pragmatic "Virtue", not because he doesn't know that Virtue is a palace official, and he is more optimistic about his future than Attendant, but because this "Attendant Reading" can show that he and Gao Pragmatic have known each other early, and they are old friends.

Gao pragmatically smiled, he didn't pretend to be polite to a smart person like Huang Mengyu, and said directly: "Lao Huang, you have a few tasks, but we can talk about the others later, but the most important one you have to remember now." ”

"Please read and advise." Huang Mengyu nodded again and again, making a deaf look.

Gao Shi looked him in the eye and said slowly: "Go and go against Feng Bao, let him think that you are the one we transferred back to Jingshi to replace him, and try to let him focus all his energy on you." ”