The day Xue Haiyuan set off for the capital was April 2nd.

The day after the elimination of the Amin Department, Xue Haiyuan took a team of 10 people, dressed as the Ming army, and set off from Yongping City, parted ways with the large army, and went all the way to the capital.

It is a distance of more than 400 miles from Yongping to the capital, and the 10-person team worked hard to eat and sleep along the way, and finally caught up with the opening time of the capital in the early morning of April 4.

Holding the waist card to convey the emergency military situation, the horse team entered the inner city directly from the Chaoyang Gate in the east of the capital without hindrance.

At the same time when Xue Haiyuan entered the city, the city gate had been slowly opened in Santun Camp, which was more than 300 miles away, and the two bigwigs, Sun Chengzong and Ma Shilong, were also entering the city together.

This is the reason why the crossing crowd has to delay one night in the Santun camp and meet again: to buy more time for Xue Haiyuan, who is far away in the capital.

After entering the city of Beijing, because the sergeant at the head was a local, the team did not ask for directions in the city, and came directly to the door of a house in Huanghuafang in the eastern city.

The lintel of the house is new, the paint is shining, and the style is not a poor family, and the plaque above the head reads two big characters "Luofu".

After getting off the horse and handing over a name post, the door official quickly entered the house to report. It didn't take long for the owner of Luofu, Luo Lishi in the Ministry of Industry to greet him in person.

Luo Lishi is a native of Jiading, and the brother who presided over the family business in Jiading is called Luo Shizhi. The Luo family has a "Luo Garden" in Jiading, when the old man Xiong first arrived in Jiading, Luo Shizhi also used Luo Yuan to entertain the old bear for a while.

The Luo family is a dealer under Mr. Xiong Dao of Shanghai Station, and underwrites various building materials including cement, glass and wood in the hands of Mr. Xiong in the capital.

After receiving a secret letter the day before yesterday, as an important node under the business system established by the cross-member, Mr. Luo asked for sick leave in the yamen, and he didn't go anywhere for the past two days, and he was at home to "recuperate".

Then early this morning, he finally waited for the predetermined post, so Master Luo hurriedly greeted him out of the house.

After seeing a middle-aged man with a little housekeeper wearing a soft robe of household muslin to welcome him out, Xue Haiyuan hurriedly stepped forward and gave a common bow salute to Ming sergeants. When Master Luo saw this junior colonel who came out of the crowd, he instantly understood, and the two sides simply exchanged their surnames, and 10 sergeants were introduced into Luo's house.

Because the basic salary set by Zhu Yuanzhang for officials was too low, the stalk of poor Beijing officials was maintained until the end of the Ming Dynasty.

There are as many officials as dogs in the capital, but except for those who can reap a lot of benefits in good positions, most of them live an ordinary life. In addition to the basic salary, we can only rely on disguised subsidies such as "ice respect" and "carbon respect" for officials in other places to maintain the minimum dignity and entertainment expenses of officials.

In fact, the Qing Dynasty was the same, the poor Beijing officials were real, not talking. When Zeng Guofan was in the capital, he was at the vice provincial level, but he still owed more than 1,000 taels of foreign debts, and he couldn't even afford to go back to his hometown, which can be seen.

Today, Xue Haiyuan's Luo mansion, although the area is not too large, but the interior is beautifully decorated and the appliances are gorgeous, and it is obviously not the virtue of an ordinary poor ghost Jingguan.

But then again, there is no one who does not make a fortune if he deals with the people who cross the crowd. Since the Luo family is one of the agents in the capital, they must belong to the category of people who are making money every day.

After the group was arranged in the side courtyard, Master Luo first ordered his subordinates to bring all kinds of food and toiletries for the guests to rest, and then talked secretly with Xue Haiyuan for a while.

After that, Xue Haiyuan simply ate something, took a quick shower, and then fell asleep - he urgently needed to regain his strength and spirit now.

After settling the guests, Master Luo changed into the black straight decoration of a regular visitor, took a ticket to follow, sat in a sedan chair, and went out to Xianyifang.

Xianyifang is in the west of the imperial city, north of Xuanwu Gate. This place, like other markets in Xicheng, belongs to the area closest to the imperial city, so it is a place where dignitaries and nobles gather.

After Master Luo entered the workshop, the sedan chair turned around and finally stopped in front of the house in a bluestone alley. The door frame of this mansion is open, belonging to the top system of the Ming Dynasty, the word "Wen Mansion" on the door plaque, and the owner is Shang Wen Tiren of the Ministry of Rites of the Dynasty.

After getting off the sedan chair and handing over the post, the Wenfu Men Zheng hurriedly invited Master Luo to the guest hall to watch tea.

Don't look at Master Luo as just a member of the Fifth Labor Department, but officialdom is not a place where you only look at your level. Master Luo Lishi is not only rich, but also has a wide range of contacts, and he is also in charge of the construction of the world's public mansions.

What's more, this lord came to Wenfu not long ago, assigned a craftsman to replace the large-format glass windows for several courtyards in the back house, and also talked and laughed with his own master, which is one of the guests who can't be slowed down.

So Master Luo drank tea in the Wen Mansion with peace of mind, and ranked first in the first place to ask to see Lord Wen today. As for Wen Tiren himself? I'm sorry, Lao Wen will still work in the Ministry of Rites.

I just sat and drank tea all the time. Because Master Luo was anxious, he didn't talk to the guests who came to the door one after another to line up - although the Ministry of Rites is not as hot as the Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of Households, it is the first department in name after all, so there are still visitors who come to visit Lord Wen every day.

It wasn't until 11 o'clock in the morning that Master Luo waited for Wen Tiren Wenshang, who got off work, to take a sedan chair back home.

After that, it was another half an hour, and after Lord Wen washed and changed his clothes and used some snacks to pad his stomach, Master Luo was led by the servants to the big room that Lord Wen used to meet guests on weekdays.

Halfway through, Luo Lishi couldn't help but secretly call for luck: today's visit was also very abrupt, and he was quite lucky to be able to meet Wen Tiren "in time" without any forks in the middle.

But he couldn't help it. Due to the vague information given to him by the Crossing Crowd before, it was not until the day before yesterday that the messenger brought a clear request, so he has not been able to arrange the layout, resulting in the current situation being a bit passive.

In the midst of his thoughts, the servant opened the curtain of the door, and Loris stretched out his foot over the threshold of the room. In the bright room projected by the glass light, an old man in an indigo cotton robe, thin and energetic, half-lying on a wicker chair, was turning his head with a smile: "Ben Song is okay?" ”

Luo Lishi hurriedly stepped forward and bowed, and shouted: "Lishi see Master Zongbo." ”

"Excuse me, seat." Wen Tiren, who was still smiling, pointed to the empty chair beside him with a jade ruyi in his hand: "But what new things have arrived in Beijing?" ”

Luo Lishi's face turned solemn when he heard this, he took two steps forward, and said in a low voice: "My lord, I have something to enter Beijing, but it is a Tartar head!" ”

"Huh?"

"A total of 4,000, among them are Amin and Shuoto's!"

"You, are you crazy?"

"My lord, this is true."

"Then what are you doing with me?"

"Give away someone's head!"

Half an hour after Luo Lishi saw Wen Tiren, the housekeeper of the Wen Mansion suddenly came to the concierge and informed the people waiting for the meeting today: The old man suddenly felt unwell and would not be a guest today.

At the same time, one of Luo Lishi's subordinates who stayed in the sedan hall of Wen Mansion got the message, and immediately got on the horse and returned to the house, and called Xue Haiyuan, who was still asleep.

Xue Haiyuan, who had slept all morning, was much better after getting up. After washing and changing clothes, he ate hastily, and followed the people of Luofu all the way to the back door of Wenfu. Then Xue Haiyuan, who was dressed in a green coat and felt hat and dressed as a long-dresser, was led in by the housekeeper from the back door of the Wen Mansion.

..........................................

Cao Zongbing went to Beijing this time, and he had an important strategic task, that is, to win over a cabinet ally for the crossing forces.

The impact that a good ally can make is huge. Just look at Xiong Wencan, after crossing Zhongzhao'an, he almost did whatever he wanted in Fujian, and in a short period of time, both places have achieved great development, and a win-win situation has been truly achieved.

So this time, taking the opportunity of going to Beijing, General Cao, who has military exploits, took advantage of the situation to win over a cabinet ally and lay out a broader level for the future, which is the proper meaning of the question.

Now the question arises: who to woo?

There is no doubt that the first choice was Comrade Wen Tiren, who was still in the Ministry of Rites at the time.

Wen Tiren, the word Changqing, is a native of Jili Village, Nanxun, Huzhou. In the twenty-sixth year of Wanli, Chongzhen was promoted to the Ministry of Rites in the early years, and assisted in the affairs of the Zhan Mansion.

In this matter, there is a very simple screening plan for the traversal: whoever has been on the stage for a long time will be wooed.

Due to the frequent changes of cabinet personnel in the Chongzhen Dynasty, only in the first ten years after Chongzhen came to power, more than 50 cabinet ministers were transferred, so the first consideration of the public can only be the time of the collaborators' reign.

And Wen Tiren, in history, will officially enter the cabinet in two months. After this old man entered the cabinet, he set a record: the longest-serving auxiliary minister during the Chongzhen period.

Counting from the second assistant to the first assistant, Wen Tiren has been a cabinet minister for a total of seven years.

This time span is enough for the traversal. Seven years later, the ghost of the crossing force knows what it has become, maybe the cannons have been aimed at Chongwenmen, and it doesn't matter if there are allies at that time.

As for Wen Tiren's political leaning, governance ability, and other conditions, it is not really important here to travel through the public.

First of all, in the eyes of the traversing public, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, whether it was Donglin or the Eunuch Party, or even the Qichu and Zhejiang Parties, all of them were all raccoon dogs. These people seem to be confrontational, but in fact, they are all infighting between scholars and doctors, and no group of people can save the country and the people and turn the tide.

So the traversal crowd doesn't care about Wen Tiren's political leanings.

In addition, it is now the equivalent of a giant man picking allies among a group of dwarfs. With the support of the traversal public, no matter what style the selected dwarf was before, he will be supported by a huge amount of resources later, so that he will have a smooth ride in the court and show his "excellent" governance ability.

Therefore, the traversal does not care about this person's ability to govern.

Besides, the mess of the Chongzhen Dynasty, in history, changed until the death of the country, and I haven't seen any of the first assistants who can leave some deeds that can be appreciated by future generations.

So since it's all the same, it's him: Wen Tiren.

Reading is exciting, reading is wonderful!

( = )