Chapter 199: Ministers' Attention

Li Zhi came to Zhang Zhimu and did not speak. Zhang Zhimu knew that it was because Li Yunhe was by his side. Li Yunhe immediately understood that it was inconvenient for others to speak in his presence. I came over to say hello to Li Zhi and left.

Li Zhi followed Zhang Zhimu back at this time, and said as he walked: "Mr. Zhang, there is a very bad thing. These days, a couple of newcomers have been asking if we have anyone with tattoos on their faces. ”

Hearing Li Zhi say this, Zhang Zhimu chuckled in his heart, and said in his heart, "It's not good, it's being targeted in the end." ”

Li Zhi also saw Zhang Zhimu's expression and continued: "Since we started to advertise in the "Kiln Gang Weekly" that we want to recruit talents and students, we have been ready for a long time. I know that every family outside who cares about us will take advantage of this opportunity to send us a small worker. I've also installed quite a few of our own people in the recruitment, and these people are looking at things more clearly in the dark. Even among those students, there are our people. I have taken this opportunity to place our own people around ourselves. This is something that only I know. ”

Arriving at Zhang Zhimu's office, Li Zhi continued: "Some time ago, in the process of reviewing the newcomers, we didn't find much suspicion except that some people did not reveal their true identities. But recently, our people suddenly reported that someone had been asking if anyone had ever seen a tattoo on their face? And it's not just about asking one person about it again. Not only is he inquiring, but he also seems very eager, and he is even a little afraid to ask around without revealing his identity. ”

Zhang Zhimu felt a little strange and asked, "Did they all get some urgent instructions?" Now, they don't have too many channels to connect with the outside world, right? ”

Li Zhi replied: "I checked with the outside contact, and we still have a lot of loopholes. The transportation of goods to and from the trade began a long time ago, and there are many people every day. We just wanted to see who they were in contact with, and we were caught tracking one of them. ”

When Zhang Zhimu heard this, he hurriedly asked, "Have you caught anyone?" ”

"Someone caught it. He was caught by us when he went back to his lodgings to pack his things and was about to leave. Li Zhi replied: "At first, this person was very stubborn, and we used some means to recruit him. Because the circumstances of his confession were too important, I hurried to find you. ”

Zhang Zhimu saw that Li Zhi was looking at himself and said, "Go down." ”

Li Zhi continued: "At the beginning, he said that he was from Jinyiwei, not from the East Factory or the West Factory. We felt that he was a little fluency when he spoke, and as a result, he was able to tell the truth with a little more means. They were sent by the Metropolitan Procuratorate and were only accountable to the Metropolitan Inspectorate and the Cabinet Ministers. This person's position is not low, this time a total of four people were sent in, and only one of them had contact with him. He didn't know who the other two were. Their original task was not clear, that is, they had to come in to do detailed work and understand every move of the kiln. This time, they suddenly received an order to find out whether there were any troops with tattoos on their faces hidden in the kiln gang. ”

After listening to Li Zhi's words, Zhang Zhimu said: "They are still asking around about this matter, which means that they haven't found out that Qin Peng is in the kiln." Then Zhang Zhimu fell into deep thought.

He knew it was the cabinet ministers who wanted to get their hands on it.

There is an interesting phenomenon in the Ming Dynasty, that is, Zhu Yuanzhang has not set up a prime minister since then, and the affairs of the court and the central government are all in charge of the cabinet, and the cabinet has the first and auxiliary ministers. Its rights are equivalent to those of the prime minister, but far less than that of the prime minister.

The relationship between Chongzhen and the cabinet ministers can be said to be the most embarrassing and strange in history, they hate each other, depend on each other, and use each other. During Chongzhen's reign, in addition to suppressing the peasant army and resisting the Houjin, he devoted more energy to weakening the power of the civilian clique, and achieved certain results. However, the restraining effect of these scholars on Chongzhen is also obvious. Since Zhang Zhimu was an external force in Emperor Chongzhen, those ministers were very uncomfortable. But they haven't had any real handle to deal with this Zhang Zhimu. It just so happened that all of them had also seen Yaogang's "Yaogang Weekly", which made them seem to see an opportunity, because the more you put out the text, the more chances you will have to be caught. When they saw that the kiln gang was recruiting, they immediately thought of the idea of sending fine work into the kiln gang.

Sure enough, these fine works were easily driven into the interior of the kiln. Unexpectedly, soon the cabinet ministers got a report that they had rebelled against Hukou and killed a thousand households, and it was said that they had gone to Yaogang.

Li Jiantai, the first assistant minister who saw this report letter, dropped all the cups, and he said angrily: "We will rely on this 'supposedly' to go to the emperor and tell the emperor that Zhang Zhimu of the kiln gang is hiding the army without permission, and the emperor wants him to do it?" ”

A cabinet minister said, "This is easy to do, so let's just let the sent detailers check this matter at the kiln gang." ”

Another minister said: "No, the people we sent in must make long-term plans and monitor this Zhang Zhimu's every move." ”

The minister retorted: "If we find evidence that Zhang Zhimu is secretly hiding the army, we don't have to go through any more trouble to spy on him?" I saw that no one could protect him then! ”

In the end, they discussed and decided, and ordered these few lurking people to stay away, and at all costs, they must find out the accurate information of the army in Yaogang.

Now the first auxiliary minister Li Jiantai is already the forty-fifth first auxiliary minister of Emperor Chongzhen, history records that Chongzhen reigned for 17 years, appointed 50 first auxiliary ministers, this is the history of Chongzhen fifty ministers.

It stands to reason that there are certain advantages to some restraint between the emperor and the minister, but the Chinese are very strange politically, as long as they are opposition, they will quickly form a state of incompatibility. Politically opposing sides often lose their minds and oppose everything in opposition to the other, even the right opinions. Some people even put forward a more extreme statement, "What the enemy supports, we oppose." "Actually, this can't be done at all, because the enemy likes money and beautiful women, and he likes it too.

These cabinet ministers wanted to cut off the emperor's foreign aid. Because although this Zhang Zhimu has done a lot of good things for the imperial court, for these people, Zhang Zhimu is not his own strength, and he can't touch it and can't catch it, so he is a threat to himself and must be eliminated. This is also the reason why Emperor Chongzhen has not allowed Zhang Zhimu to enter Beijing, he knows very well that these powerful ministers can't come up with any way to the outside world, but the internal fighting is invincible, Zhang Zhimu is such a person who does things without hindrance, if he enters Beijing, he will not escape these hands.

Li Zhi saw that Zhang Zhimu was deep in thought, and did not dare to speak again. When Zhang Zhimu found that he was a little distracted, Li Zhi kept looking at him from the side, smiled and said, "It seems that the ministers of the imperial court still look up to me!" ”

Li Zhi also grinned and said, "The one who contacted him outside was a person who drove to deliver goods to us, and we didn't touch him." Now we have access to three more people lurking in. We didn't move them, I thought about the people who were arranging me for a while, slowly approaching them. Maybe they still have value. ”

Zhang Zhimu is very pleased with Li Zhi's growth and progress, this person is simply a genius when he does these things.

Seeing off Li Zhi, Zhang Zhimu came directly to Zhang Bingchen's health center. Zhang Zhimu was a little dissatisfied with this Zhang Bingchen, because of Qin Peng's matter, Zhang Zhimu had been talking to him for a long time, and there should be a result between success and failure, but Zhang Bingchen didn't even have a letter.

Seeing that Zhang Zhimu's face was not too happy, Zhang Bingchen said, "Mr. Zhang, don't worry. In a few days, my master said that he would come over with some medicine, and he never did anything like skin grafting as you said. He also said that he would make a rack to take the skin, otherwise the skin would be pulled back as soon as it was cut. ”

Zhang Zhimu knew that Zhang Bingchen was to blame, and said, "That's great, this matter must be kept secret." ”

Zhang Zhimu felt that there were some things to talk to Chen Yufeng, so he came to Chen Yufeng's command center. When Chen Yufeng saw Zhang Zhimu coming, he knew that something must be wrong, otherwise Zhang Zhimu would not have time to wander around casually.

Knowing that Zhang Zhimu was coming, Ouyang He also came over and sat down together.

After listening to Zhang Zhimu's introduction, Ouyang He said: "It seems that the powerful ministers in the court value us very much. I look at these things, and we act as if they are nothing. Li Zhi: They did a good job. ”

Chen Yufeng said: "Since the abolition of the prime minister system by Zhu Yuanzhang, the lord of the Ming Dynasty, the power struggle between the courtiers and the emperor has not slowed down, and the struggle has been continuous. ”

Zhang Zhimu knew that Zhu Yuanzhang abolition the prime minister system through the Hu Weiyong case, and since then the Ming Dynasty has no post of prime minister above 10,000 people under one person, and the cabinet is instead in charge of the government, and the minister of the interior is led by the first and auxiliary ministers. The power of the first minister is much smaller than that of the previous prime minister, but the power of the first minister is also constantly expanded, and there are often conflicts with the imperial power. This is also the reason why Emperor Chongzhen has repeatedly dismissed, replaced, and even executed the first and auxiliary ministers.

Hu Weiyong's case lasted for more than 10 years, killing more than 30,000 people, making it a major case in the early Ming Dynasty. There are many speculations and interpretations about Hu Weiyong's case in later generations. But there is a consensus that this is the result of a struggle between imperial power and vassals.

Zhang Zhimu suddenly thought, why not take advantage of the contradiction between them, and said: "I think there is some news that should be notified to Gonggong Li, because the people who came to our kiln haven't gotten any useful information after all, so we might as well send people to Gonggong Li as a favor." In this way, the emperor will soon know about it, and we didn't kill this person, and it seems that we are very upright. ”

Ouyang He clapped his hands after hearing this, and said, "Wonderful, wonderful!" ”

Zhang Zhimu told Li Zhi: "Since this person used to say that he was Jinyiwei, we will send a favor to my husband and hand this person over to my husband to deal with." ”

Listening to Zhang Zhang Zhimu's words, Li Zhi's eyes widened, and he said, "Send him away, and it will be difficult for those three people to monitor anymore." Including the one who sent the letter back and forth is going to be useless. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Not necessarily, send him away, he doesn't dare to admit that he confessed to these circumstances, no matter what, it is unlikely that this person is alive." Even if they are all exposed, it is nothing if they leave, they are not Li Zicheng's people, and they are not very useful. ”

Li Zhi nodded and said, "Yes, I understand." In addition, Li Zicheng's intelligence station at Lingshui Wharf, as you said, they thought that we hadn't touched them for so long, so they thought that they had not been exposed, and slowly there were already signs of activity. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Continue to monitor and put a long line to catch big fish." ”

Giving someone to Father-in-law Li was personally sent by Li Zhi. Li Zhi and the others went to a total of three carriages, tied the people they caught, tied their mouths, and put them in the middle carriage. didn't stop all the way, until I ran to Grandpa Li's house.

Seeing Gonggong Li, Li Zhishili said: "Hello Gonggong Li, I will send you someone on the order of President Zhang, this person said that he is from Jinyiwei and comes to our kiln Ganghu." Mr. Zhang said that for the sake of Father-in-law Li's face, he couldn't treat this person slowly. No matter what this person does, let Gonggong Li handle it himself. They are all Jinyiwei's. ”

After listening to Li Zhi's introduction, Father-in-law Li laughed and said, "Haha." There is no smarter person in the world than Zhang Dongjia. This owner gave me the problem. O master! ”

Li Zhi is responsible for all the contact with Father-in-law Li, and Father-in-law Li and Li Zhi are also very familiar, and Father-in-law Li asked again: "I said Li Zhi, you just sent me the trouble, but you didn't bring me good wine, and after drinking the wine from your kiln, I won't drink anything else." ”

Li Zhi smiled at Gonggong Li and said, "Don't think about it, we Mr. Zhang will know that you are good." I dare not bring it to you. With a wave of his hand, the man behind him moved the jar down from the carriage. Seeing a jar of wine, Gonggong Li's smiling eyes were squeezed out.

Now the supply of wine in Yaogang is in short supply, and almost every day there are wine merchants who come to the door to ask to buy wine. Now wine merchants don't book in advance, and they can't buy good wine from Yaogang at all.

Zhang Zhimu gave people to Gonggong Li, which did bring a little trouble to Gonggong Li. Because outsiders look at Jinyiwei lawlessly, the "Three Law Divisions" (i.e., the Criminal Department, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Dali Temple) have no right to interfere in the cases handled by Jinyiwei. In fact, when they didn't catch the handle of the cabinet ministers, they didn't dare to easily offend these important ministers in the court.

Gonggong Li knows the relationship between the monarch and the minister in the court very well, this person is obviously the cabinet ministers for Zhang Zhimu, thinking that it seems that Zhang Zhimu is not simple, this person must also understand these things in the court, and handing this person over to me is to inform the emperor that someone has done something to him, and also let the emperor know the movements of these important ministers of the court. But the difficulty is how to deal with this person. Execute this person for no reason, no. In any case, this person was sent by Dali Temple and was a member of the imperial court. It won't work to let him go back, if this person says anything unfavorable to Zhang Zhimu, it is tantamount to giving the emperor a problem, and he will be unable to escape the blame.

It seems that the old method can only be adopted, send this person back to the capital, and when he is about to arrive in the capital, this person suddenly dies.

Lu Chengxiang is also an idle person, and he is very concerned about killing Hukou and Zhangjiakou. He said to Zhang Zhimu: "Mr. Zhang, I don't think I will wait until the beginning of spring, I want to go north first and deal with the killing of Hukou and Zhangjiakou." I also discussed with Yang Jing, his carriage can go with him first without carrying passengers, because when we go south to Jinnan, our carriage has withstood the test and is very durable. ”

Zhang Zhimu knew that in this season, unless there was an emergency, ordinary people would not go north to kill Hukou, and it seemed that Lu Chengxiang couldn't sit still in the atmosphere of the entire kiln. Zhang Zhimu thought for a while, if he was fully prepared, as long as the cold protection measures were in place and the team was not frostbitten, there should not be much danger. He said, "Let's discuss it." This time we went north, Liu Bensheng and Lu Bingyi had to follow, because our development project in Zhangjiakou depended on them to design. ”

Lu Chengxiang said: "This time I went north, the snow on the road has not melted, and ordinary carriages cannot go, so I am going to take a thousand camels and five four-wheeled carriages for our passenger transport." These carriages can have stoves on them, and the bedding is prepared on the carriages, so that Mr. Lu and Liu Bensheng will not suffer much and let them enjoy happiness all the way. ”

Zhang Zhimu said with a smile: "Hearing you say this, if I can go, I want to go." ”

Lu Chengxiang and their northward journey, several leaders of Yaogang held a meeting to discuss it, and decided that Lu Chengxiang would lead the team, Liu Yun and Yang Jing would go together, and bring a hundred musketeers with them. Because of this northward journey, the threat of force is not too great, and the main threat is still the cold weather and the frozen roads. This time, I brought a thousand camels mainly to deliver grain to the Hukou Branch, and the person who accompanied Qin Peng back last time said that there was not much food in the Hukou Branch, and it was sold in limited quantities every day, otherwise it would have been sold out long ago.

This time, 1,000 camels were able to send more than 2,000 stone of grain to Hukou, and slowly sold a little bit every day, and they could be sold until the beginning of spring. When the snow on the road has melted, you can use horse-drawn carts to transport grain in large quantities. Regarding the matter of grain, Lu Chengxiang was a little worried that his grain would not be enough to eat, Zhang Zhimu said: "When the Yellow River is opened in the spring, our ships will go to the south to transport grain, and now our military strength is absolutely capable of protecting the grain ships to transport grain back." ”

Chen Yufeng also said: "Mr. Lu, don't worry, after the battle of Qinshui, our combat effectiveness has been tested, as long as we mount mortars on the warship, plus that telescope, only we will fight others, and it will be difficult for others to hit us." Self-defense should be fine. If it really doesn't work, our team will go out to carry an armed escort, and we will also bring back the grain. ”

Seeing that Chen Yufeng was so confident, Lu Chengxiang was even more confident, and he also knew that the strength of the kiln was different from the last time he went south, which also made Lu Chengxiang feel that his waist was harder.

However, Lu Chengxiang had two things to do when he went to kill Hukou and Zhangjiakou this time, because the garrisons in these two places had already been replaced, and Lu Chengxiang had to bring some gifts to inquire about them to see what their attitude towards the Yaogang people was. Zhang Zhimu said: "It stands to reason that based on our reputation and the friendship of the previous garrison, the new garrison should give us some face. ”

Lu Chengxiang felt that now that he was leading the team north, there should be no big problem, if there was anything wrong, he would wait for Zhang Zhimu to personally go out and solve it. Now the significance of going north this time is not trivial, which means that the entire Shanxi from the south of Shanxi to the north of Shanxi, the commercial network of Yaogang is connected.

Lu Bingyi and his disciples, as well as Liu Bensheng and others, all knew that they were going to Zhangjiakou to help design a commercial community this time, so they were also very well prepared, not only bringing the necessary design tools, but also bringing a lot of cement samples and mechanically cut stone samples from the kiln. Because in the future, the construction of Zhangjiakou's commercial area will be completed by local people, and only a few of their own people can be left for guidance, and the builders have not seen the materials used. The weather is warm, and the cement will be transported to Zhangjiakou before construction. Only a few samples can be brought with you now.

What Lu Bingyi and the others didn't expect was that Yaogang would send five four-wheeled passenger carriages to go, all of which had heating facilities, and the flues of those big iron stoves passed under the cars, and the cars were very warm, and the smoke from the burning did not enter the cars. This made Lu Bingyi and the others, who were ready to suffer a little, very surprised, and now they will enjoy happiness on the road.

Since this time, the caravan was mainly transporting grain, and the caravan set out from this side of the cave. Loading grain from here is the nearest one.

Seeing off the caravan of Lu Chengxiang and others, Zhang Zhimu was very excited, he knew that Lu Chengxiang's departure this time was another big step forward for Yaogang. Shanxi, Jin, South and North will all be opened. It would be nice if the southeast of Jin, on both sides of the Qinshui River, was also opened. But the things of the world are as if they were sensitive. Those castle alliances on both sides of the Qinshui have already sent people to find them.

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