Shortly after Lin Yanchao visited Shenfu, there was a major earthquake in the officialdom.

That is, Shen Li, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, asked for Zhishi.

Shen Li, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, although he had been sick before, came back to see things later. This time, it was unexpected to take the initiative to mention Zhishi, of course, the reason was not because he was sick, but because Shen Li was involved in the fraud case in the science field.

This matter should start with the Ying Tianxiang test in the year of Wanli Renwu.

At that time, the chief examiner who presided over the Ying Tianxiang examination was Shen Li, and the deputy chief examiner was Shen Maoxiao, who was currently the secretary of Nanjing Guozijian and was the editor of Hanlin at that time.

Shen Maoxiao and Shen Li are kind, and they are also a member of the Qingliu Party.

At that time, it was revealed that Shen Maoxiao accepted bribes of 1,000 taels of silver from each of the five people in the Nanjing Township Examination, and then took the money for personal gain, and after receiving the money, he returned to his hometown to buy land and property.

In addition to accepting bribes, he also attached himself to the ministers, at that time, there was a former official in Tianxiang, and Wang Zhiding, the son of Zhang Juzheng's ally Wang Zhang, was also a high school person, which is really intriguing.

Everyone knows that this matter is also the consistent routine of the official, on the surface, it is to attack Shen Maoxiao for favoritism, but in fact, it is to blame the examiner Shen Li, but because Shen Li is the teacher of the Son of Heaven, he does not dare to speak out, so he knocks on the side and implements Shen Maoxiao's crime, and Shen Li is also to blame.

When the Son of Heaven found out, he escorted these five people to Beijing, and asked the five to retake the examination in front of the Ministry of Rites, the cabinet scholars, and the Jinyi Guard.

After the re-examination, four of these five people are well-versed in humanities and science, and they do have real talents and real learning, but Danyang He Xueli is full of nonsense, and he does not have the qualifications of Chinese style at all.

But Shen Li, this He Xueli originally didn't take him, but he was a supervisor of Nanjing Guozi, and at that time, Shen Li, Shen Maoxiao, couldn't reluctantly admit him at the invitation of local officials in Nanjing, so he was the last one.

However, it can be seen from the results of the matter that in fact, the accusation of this imperial historian is really chasing after the wind, Shen Mao Xiaoshi did not take bribes, and four of the five people are really talented and learned, and this He Xueli is still due to the affection of Nanjing officials.

But in the end, the Son of Heaven demoted Shen Maoxiao to one level and appointed him as the judge of the two Huai salt transportation.

Later, the case found out that the patrol of the township test at that time, Yu Shi Lin Yingxun and Zhang Yikun were marked on the volume for Wang Zhang's son.

At that time, Lin Shiyingxun had been promoted to Nanjing Shang Baoqing, and Zhang Yikun was already at home, but they were all dismissed from the official position by the Son of Heaven.

However, because Wang Zhen's son was actually taken for him, Shen Li immediately went to beg for a rest, and asked the original file to be rechecked to prove his innocence.

However, Shen Shixing waited for the Son of Heaven to keep Shen Li, but refused to transfer the original file for review, Shen Li was immediately angry when he heard it, so he resigned and went home.

In this way, Shen Shixing was about to drive Shen Li back to his home, which made Lin Yanchao a little surprised, and after the previous Jiuqing court discussion, Lin Yanchao thought that the relationship between Shen Shixing and Shen Li had eased.

Unexpectedly, Shen Shixing still didn't let Shen Li go, of course, his methods were not very excessive, leaving room for others.

Although Shen Li is gone, there is still a household secretary in the court, Song Qi, which will not make the Son of Heaven feel that Shen Shixing has monopoly power, and at the same time, without Shen Li's support, Song Qi is lonely and unable to confront Shen Shixing as before.

At this point, Lin Yanchao also felt that Shen Shixing had done a good enough job, so he brought back the disadvantage caused by Song Qi's appointment as the head of the household department last year.

After Shen Li left, who was the new secretary of the Ministry of Rites?

The Ministry of Rites is one of the Nine Qings.

If the three cabinets are the most core decision-making circle, then the outer circle is Jiuqing, and together there are twelve officials.

The further expanded decision-making circle is the officials above the third grade in Beijing.

This includes Zhan Shifu Zhan Shi, the prince's guest, Shuntian Mansion Yin, Taichang Siqing, Guanglu Siqing, Taifu Siqing, and the twelve squires of the six departments in Beijing, all of which are added together, counting the absence of officials, generally less than 30 people.

According to the rules, the vacancy of the Ministry of Rites, one of the nine Qings, must be elected by officials above the third grade in Beijing through the meeting, one person, one vote.

Since Lin Yanchao served as the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, he has the right to vote.

However, this vote is still up to the times.

In the end, after the secret exchange of power by the bigwigs, the result of the meeting was that the secretary of the Ministry of Rites was promoted by Zhu Geng, the left waiter of the Ministry of Officials.

This result is not unexpected.

As for Zhu Geng's departure, the position of the left attendant of the Ministry of Officials is vacant.

The officialdom has to be adjusted again, and Zhao Huan, the right attendant of the original ministry, replaced Zhu Geng as the left attendant.

And the right waiter of the Ministry of Rites is vacant again, according to the past practice, the current left waiter of the Ministry of Rites is likely to fill this position.

Transferred from the Ministry of Rites to the Ministry of Officials, although it was a transfer at the same level, everyone knew that it was like a two-level promotion.

However, Yu Shenxing, the left waiter of the Ministry of Rites, was not promoted, so Lin Yanchao could not move from the right waiter to the left waiter.

Now that Shen Lizhi is home, Shen Shixing personally sent a letter to Shen to invite him out of the mountain.

Shen Yi didn't say a word, and rushed from his hometown in Zhejiang to Beijing to serve as the right attendant of the ministry.

Seeing this, Lin Yanchao sighed that Shen Zheng was consistent, and Zhu Geng was the first successor of Shen Shixing.

By the way, Zhao Zhigao was also promoted to the head of the Nanjing Ministry of Officials.

For Lin Yanchao at the moment, the most important thing is that the top boss has been replaced.

Zhu Geng returned to the Ministry of Rites as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites.

Zhu Geng is an old acquaintance of Lin Yanchao, the two have a good relationship, and his son-in-law Zhang Rulin is still Lin Yanchao's protégé.

As soon as he was appointed on the same day, Lin Yanchao took Zhang Rulin and Xu Huobo's two protégés to Zhu Geng's house to congratulate him.

Lin Yanchao just arrived at Zhu Geng's house, and found that he was a step late, it turned out that Zhu Geng's family was already full of friends, and many of them were Zhejiang officials.

Lin Yanchao is also relieved to think about it, Zhu Geng is the home of the official eunuch, his father Zhu Gongjie once served as the governor of Taizhou, Zhu Geng's father-in-law Chen He and Xu Wen are known as the top ten masters of Vietnam, Zhu Geng must have traveled widely in Zhejiang.

And Zhu Geng and now Ding Wei are at home in Nanjing, the waiter of the Nanjing Rite Department, Luo Wanhua, and Zhang Rulin's father Zhang Yuanchen are studying at Yanghe Academy in Zhejiang, classmates, and there are not many in-laws.

Originally, many of these officials were not in Beijing, but now it is the triennial foreign official plan, so they all happened to come here.

All of a sudden, many officials with Zhejiang accents were talking and laughing in the living room.

Lin Yanchao just went to the living room and didn't enter the door, but stood outside the hall for a while, Xu Huobo wondered why Lin Yanchao didn't enter the hall.

At this time, Zhu Gengfang was late, and said apologetically: "Rude, rude, the foolish brother has been negligent and made Zong Hai wait too long." ”

Lin Yanchao didn't mind, but said with a smile: "It's Lin who came one step late, and he didn't come to visit the main hall first, blame me, blame me." ”

Zhu Geng laughed and said: "Where, the foolish brother has not yet received the official seal, even if the foolish brother is in the main hall, it is also in official affairs, you and I are still called as before in private." ”

Lin Yanchao knew Zhu Geng's temperament, and he was not polite with him, so he offered congratulatory gifts at the moment, and asked two disciples to meet Zhu Geng.

Zhu Geng just nodded when he saw his son-in-law, and then said to Lin Yanchao: "I'll talk about other things later, I'll introduce a few friends to you." ”

Lin Yanchao immediately left with Zhu Geng.

There are three large rooms next to the living room, and when Lin Yanchao walked here with Zhu Geng, he saw a table of people sitting here.

If Xu Huobo was here, he would understand why Lin Yanchao didn't enter the living room just now. Because the people sitting in the living room waiting were ordinary officials, Lin Yanchao walked in and was not in a good position.

But those who can let Zhu Geng personally receive them in Yaju must be adults.

Lin Yanchao walked to Yaju to take a look, and the officials present also got up, they didn't need to look, and they knew that Zhu Geng could personally greet him was by no means a lowly official.

Lin Yanchao glanced away, but saw that there were people sitting at this table, Lu Guangzu, the secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Officials, Shen Sixiao, the governor of Shaanxi, Chen Younian, the governor of Jiangxi, Sun Yan, the secretary of Dali Temple, and the officials were all given to Chen and the suburbs.

No wonder there is this small circle, Zhu Geng cooled a room of officials outside.

And after seeing these people, and then thinking of Luo Wanhua, the waiter of the Southern Rite Department in Ding Wei, and the right waiter of the Ministry of Officials, Shen Zhengyi, who came back, Lin Yanchao suddenly thought of a famous word in history, that is, the Zhejiang Party!

The leader of the Zhejiang Party is Zhu Geng, Shen Zhengyi.

Although Shen has not arrived, the people in the room are the backbone of the Zhejiang Party, and of course, the leader has to add a Fang Congzhe.

However, Fang Congzhe is not enough to have a 'coffee position' now, and he is not qualified to sit at this table.

Historically, it is not for nothing that the Zhejiang Party has been called a regional party by the Donglin Party.

When the Zhejiang Party was the most powerful in history, the three departments of the Ministry of Officials were all from Zhejiang, and the Shangshu of the Ministry was Sun Yan, a native of Pingyao, Shaoxing Prefecture, Zhejiang, Luo Wanhua, a member of the Shaoxing Mansion, a member of the Shaoxing Mansion, a member of the Right Chamberlain Chen Younian, and a native of Pingyao, Shaoxing Prefecture.

It is equivalent to saying that the Zhejiang Party controls the entire ministry, which is inseparable from the officialdom's emphasis on hometown friendship at that time.

Lin Yanchao was invited by Zhu Geng to sit here, and he also regarded him as his own, all of them were big officials, but Chen Hejiao's official position was lower, but he was the leader of the ministers.

Lin Yanchao greeted the officials at the moment, and everyone had only known each other before, but they didn't have any dealings, because no one expected that Lin Yanchao would climb so fast in the past few years, and suddenly reach the level of being on an equal footing with them, or even higher than a head above.

Officialdom bullies the old and not the young.

Everyone does not dare to call themselves predecessors in the field, and they all meet each other with ordinary courtesy.

As soon as he took his seat, Chen Younian, the governor of Jiangxi, said with a smile: "Listen to Brother Jin Ting, how many words does Zong Hai know about Shaoxing?" ”

Lin Yanchao smiled and said: "The two case masters below, Chen Gong, the prefect of Fuzhou Prefecture, and Tao Gong, the superintendent, are both from Shaoxing. Therefore, I can speak a few words of Shaoxing dialect without a teacher. ”

Everyone laughed, and Lu Guangzu immediately said in Shaoxing dialect: "Zong Hai must be modest when he says a few words, and with Zong Hai's ability to never forget, maybe he can speak better than me and others here." ”

Zhu Geng said with a smile: "Eh, Lu Gong is wrong, it should be forgotten, not forgotten." ”

Everyone laughed, and Lu Guangzu smiled: "What's the difference, don't forget it." ”

Lu Guangzu, as the secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Officials, went to Beijing to report on his work this time. Lin Yanchao had a relationship with Lu Guangzu back then, so he was also very familiar.

Lin Yanchao smiled and said in Shaoxing dialect: "In front of Duke Lu and all the adults, how dare you show ugliness." ”

Everyone chatted with each other in Shaoxing dialect, and Lin Yanchao automatically substituted for him, without the slightest barrier.

Lin Yanchao thought to himself that with Zhu Geng's relationship, would he want to become a member of the Zhejiang Party in the future.