The people who participated in the meeting during the day were all children around the age of ten, even if their identities attracted some attention, in the end, the impact was limited, the court officials would not take it too seriously, and the Dongchang directly under the emperor would not care too much.

But in the afternoon, Zhu Xizhong, the Duke of Chengguo, suddenly sent out a set of invitations, inviting a group of honorable officials in Beijing to his house to enjoy the plums, which could not help but attract the attention of Dongchang - it is normal for Jinyi Wei to have no reaction, after all, the current Jinyi Governor is Zhu Xizhong's younger brother Zhu Xixiao.

Feng Bao, the eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor Bingbi and the governor of Dongchang, had already left Dong'anmen and personally rushed to the Dongchang Yamen in the south of Yanxi Temple to listen to the reports of his subordinates.

The East Factory has a south-facing gate that is closed all year round to add to the atmosphere of mystery and terror. The real gate is on the southwest side for people to enter and exit. This gate is the main hall, and there is a small hall on the left side of the hall, which houses the portrait of Yue Fei. There is a brick shadow wall behind the hall. The wall is carved with the story of beasts such as the fox and Di Renjie's broken tiger. There is an ancestral hall in the west of the hall, which enshrines the name tablets of the eunuchs of the Zhangdong Factory in the past dynasties. There is a stone workshop in front of the ancestral hall, and the forehead of the square is engraved with the four words of "eternal Liufang". A little south is a penal prison, which is dedicated to the reception of repeat offenders.

Historically, in the early years of Wanli, Feng Bao, as Zhang Juzheng's ally in the palace, was the governor of Dongchang, and his authority was extremely strong, so he built another Dongchang yamen, called the internal office, and the original Dongchang was used as the external office. At that time, there was a horizontal plaque in the middle of the internal office, which read the words "confidant of the imperial court". The pride revealed in these four words is simply beyond words. However, at this time, it was still the year of Longqing, and Feng Bao's status had not yet reached that point, so there was no distinction between inside and outside the East Factory, and he was the only master of the East Factory at this moment.

"Factory Governor, the reason for inviting the great lords to the banquet of Chengguo is that he has been sick for a long time, and it happens that the garden has two plum blossoms, which is to be in a happy mood...... I also heard that the Beijing camp was restructured recently, and many generals in Beijing were uneasy, so they came forward to summon all the nobles to the palace to comfort and appease. One of the heads said cautiously.

"Do you believe that?" Feng Bao glanced at him coldly, and said expressionlessly: "It's not this nonsense that this governor wants to hear. ”

The head was speechless for a while, and another head next to him hurriedly said: "The Duke of the Governor is angry, and the lowly rank is just reporting according to the routine, and it is not really believed ...... Before the Duke of Chengguo came to the banquet, the lowly rank had already discussed and analyzed it for a while, and thought that there were roughly two possibilities. ”

Feng Bao held the shelf, unhurriedly picked up the teacup and took a sip, before saying: "This governor has never seen you make a name for himself since the commander of the East Factory, since you have discussed this matter, then let's listen to it." ”

The leaders present all scolded in their hearts: Our reputation in Dongchang is bad enough, the more famous we do, the more infamous we are, and the first emperor refused to reuse eunuchs, so we can only hold back. Now he is a man of forgiveness and forgiveness, if we provoke trouble, I'm afraid that the first one who can't afford to be guilty will be you, Feng Dugong, right?

According to the regulations of the Ming Dynasty system, there is a commander and eunuch in the East Factory, commonly known as the Governor of the East Factory, the factory officer, the supervisor and the factory owner. There are more than 40 people in charge of the palm, foreman, and secretary, and 12 groups of stewards, arranged according to the sub-ugly Yinmao, and each leader is in charge of affairs, a total of more than 100 people, and there are more than 1,000 people under it.

The customs defense of the commander of the East Factory is engraved with the words "Governor of Qincha, the official school of the East Factory, and the eunuch customs defense", which is more than the head street of the "Qin Mission" than other official offices. Since he has the identity of the emperor's chaplain, everything he does represents the emperor, and no one will dare to contradict him. In addition, a sealed tooth seal was engraved, and the words "East Factory Seal" were engraved on it, which was specially used to seal the information of the performance.

Since there are so many large and small spies, they must be used to spy on intelligence, and the targets of spying include everyone except the emperor. Collecting information is called "fighting incidents". The incidents involved a wide range of incidents, from homicides, lightning strikes, fires, and even the price of firewood, rice, oil and salt. It can be said that all the actions and remarks of the officials, the military and the people of the world are theoretically under their supervision.

If it is all such an incident, although there are drawbacks, after all, it is an understanding of the situation, even if the officials and the people are subject to the spies, it is also caused by the imperial autocracy, and others cannot complain. But the truth is far from the case, those Dongchang officials often do not fight the incident themselves, but spend money to buy things from the ruffians and hooligans. What should the ruffians not do for money? False accusations were made by intimidating people and making things out of nothing, and as a result, unjust cases were repeatedly filed, and the officials and the people suffered greatly.

The purpose of setting up the Dongchang secret service was originally to investigate rebellion, rebellion, and the so-called "traitorous party", that is, to deal with the political opposition. Because of this, in the Ming Dynasty, whether it was a single tyrant or a benevolent and virtuous lord, since the East Factory was set up, no one ever thought of abolishing it. However, some emperors thought that this matter was not very glorious and covered it up and restricted it slightly, and if they encountered a tyrannical and mediocre king, the activities of the spies would be more unscrupulous in their indulgence, and the Dongchang would become a tool for the authoritarian eunuchs to eradicate dissent, showing the slaughterhouse of obscenity.

Emperor Jiajing's political skills are in place, and he doesn't care about face, so he doesn't rely much on eunuchs; Emperor Longqing had Gao Gong, a teacher who was in love with father and son, available, and even the appointment of the master of ceremonies and the palm seal of Gao Gong was solicited for Gao Gong's opinion, so Feng Bao and Dongchang naturally had no room to play. At this time, of course, the people of Dongchang did not dare to be reckless, let alone arrogant. In fact, this is also an important reason why Feng Bao tried every means to get involved in "caring for his life" when Longqing died in history, even if he did not hesitate to fake the edict.

But the heads of the belly slander and let them follow Feng Bao, that is absolutely undaring.

The first person to speak replied: "The factory governor, the lowly rank and others think that the above reasons for Cheng Guogong to convene the night banquet of all the nobles and nobles this time are not necessarily false, but they are certainly not the main reason. ”

Feng Bao closed his eyes and ignored the "um", which was regarded as a response.

Na Yutou continued: "The inferior people have analyzed two last possible reasons, the first is that the matter of the reform of the Beijing camp has been disputed to a critical moment, and the Duke of Chengguo needs to reach an agreement with all the important nobles; The second is related to this morning, the prince's companion Gao Pragmatic invited the children of the noble family to go on a spring outing, but there is no way to know what the specific relationship is. ”

Feng Bao suddenly opened his eyes, waved his hand and said: "The matter of Jingying, the cabinet and the military department are still deadlocked, Chengguo Gong has always been a very tolerant person, he will not take the lead to oppose the big policy that is about to become a foregone conclusion, whether it is Zhao Ge Lao winning or Huo Benbing winning, he will only say everything and obey orders." Especially now that Zhao Gelao's side has the advantage, in order to avoid suspicion, he will not insist on the military minister being in charge alone - didn't he resign with the British Duke last time? ”

The heads of the company have expressed that "the factory supervisor has a high view", "the factory supervisor sees thousands of miles" and so on.

Feng Bao said again: "Originally, the civil and military generals had too thick a relationship, which was the most suspicious thing, although Gao Pragmatic was specially appointed as an official without scientific research, and he was just a tasteless official who did not enter the stream, but in the end, he was hung in the name of the Hanlin Academy, and he was also a civil minister, he traveled with the children of Xungui, why didn't you keep a good watch?" ”

"This ......" Zhong Jue's face was difficult.

Feng Bao sneered: "Our family knows that it is nothing more than Zhu Xixiao, the governor of brocade clothes, who makes you feel that you are not doing too much, right?" But don't forget, my East Factory was supposed to monitor Jinyiwei, even if many people in the factory, including many of you, came from Jinyiwei, but you can't forget your own errands because of this! Otherwise, if something goes wrong, don't blame our family for not being emotional. ”

What can the head of the crowd say? It's not a promise, saying that he doesn't dare to forget his duty.

Feng Bao changed his words and said: "Of course, our family is not unreasonable, the people invited by Gao Pragmatic are all juniors, who are not very old, and it is understandable that you ignore them for a while." But! His tone suddenly became stern, and he said slowly but very oppressively: "From today onwards, we must no longer be careless about these people!" ”