Chapter 504: Fire and Water (1)
The damage to the entire city of Beijing caused by the flood, caused by various factors, such as weather and man-made factors, is still quite huge. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoEven after the flood receded, the situation in the city did not get much better. For this reason, the imperial court used a lot of manpower and material resources to rebuild the river embankment and reorganize the homes of the people, until the time entered the wax moon, and all this finally improved slightly.
However, even if the people affected by the disaster were temporarily settled, many of whom were arranged to live in temples around the capital such as Tanzheji Temple, although the river channel had been reorganized and the river embankment had been re-erected, and everything seemed to have returned to its original state, the matter of dealing with the flood did not end there.
After Yongdinghe finally got back on track, a group of responsible officials headed by Guo Chaobin, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, also disposed of it. After all, most of the disasters this time were caused by Guo Chaobin's judgment, if they hadn't misjudged the terrain and fixed the river gate there, the Yongding River would not have poured into the capital, even if they made up for it after the disaster, it would be irreparable.
Therefore, on the ninth day of the lunar month, the imperial court issued a clear decree to take away all the official positions of Guo Chaobin, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, and send him to the frontier to atone for his previous sins. Nian has also made a lot of contributions to the court over the years, and his family's wife and children can be exempted from the crime and sent back to their hometown directly, and they will not confiscate their family property. In addition, there was another main responsibility in this matter, and the squire of the Ministry of Labor, Weng Ruda, also had to be severely punished, but because he fell into the water and died after opening the floodgates, he was no longer investigated.
As for some other responsible officials of the Ministry of Industry, they have also been punished quite a bit, or fined or suspended from their posts, which has caused panic in the entire Ministry of Industry and the yamen of the Ministry of Industry, and everyone is in danger.
Of course, there are those who suffer and those who gain. Among them, Yang Chen is the ultimate beneficiary in the entire Ministry of Industry Yamen. In this disaster, he showed a surprising ability to predict, and even argued with Guo Chaobin several times, but his boss insisted on acting for himself, which led to such a tragedy. But that doesn't overshadow its knowledge and ability in water conservancy.
In addition, in the aftermath and pacification work, Yang Chen, who was handpicked by Zhang Juzheng, also did his best to stabilize the situation in the capital as much as possible, which won unanimous praise from the people and the respect of his colleagues and subordinates. So after this flood ended, Yang Chen also received a heavy reward from the imperial court. Although at this stage, he is still only a small head of the Ministry of Industry, but according to insiders, the imperial court has intended to promote Yang Chen to a foreign officer after the New Year to take charge of the water conservancy affairs of the Ming Dynasty.
In addition to these news that have been widely known to the world, in the secret that ordinary people can't see, because of this flood, some different changes have also taken place.
For example, in Dongchang, after this incident, more than 10 fans, 2 100 households, and 1,000 households disappeared. It is said that they were personally ordered to be eliminated by Gonggong Feng, and they used the most chilling suffocation. And after this incident, the already somewhat depressed arrogance of the East Factory has plummeted, at least for a while, even the streets can not see the traces of the fans in gray clothes and white boots.
On the other hand, Jinyiwei's presence during this period of time is stronger than in the past. When Dongchang retreated, they quickly filled the vacancy, and the brocade guards in red uniforms had gradually replaced Dongchang's power in the people, and became the target of several gangs in the capital.
In this way, the power of Jinyiwei is even higher, and in front of Yang Zhen's house, which turned out to be cold, there are always full of cars and horses parked, which is the car of the officialdom and the people who want to have a good relationship with him.
In this regard, Yang Zhen's attitude was neither offended nor too close, but he only sent several civilian officials under his command to meet and talk to these people, and as for the gifts they sent, he also returned them all, which made Yang Zhen, the unique leader of the Jinyi Guard, even more famous.
And with the news that Yang Chen of the Ministry of Industry turned out to be Yang Zhen's brother, both the people and officials looked up to the two brothers, and many people were saying that the Yang brothers would be rare people with both talent and virtue in the Ming Dynasty.
Yang Chen was quite happy about such praise, after all, he had been tainted with the values of the scholars of this era who valued their names more than their profits. But Yang Zhen was a little disapproving: "It's always a good thing that the eldest brother has a good reputation as an official, but I, a Jinyi guard, am engaged in surveillance and secret agent work, and I actually have such a big reputation, but it may not be a good thing." ”
In this regard, Shen Yan, a staff member who has become Yang Zhen's confidant, also agreed: "Yes." Our Jinyi Wei pays attention to secrecy. If your reputation is too loud, and even the whole city knows about it, then it will not be so convenient for us to do anything in the future. ”
Although that is said, in this situation where Jinyiwei and Dongchang are completely opposed, and can even be said to be incompatible, some things still have to go according to the established plan.
After suppressing the East Factory several times, this time it hit the backbone of the East Factory hard, and even Feng Bao was almost implicated, Yang Zhen knew that the two sides had reached a situation where they would not die. Don't look at the recent Dongchang seems to be very honest and has given up a lot of territory, but he knows very well that this is just a contraction of the other party before raising the final counterattack, and once he is a little careless, he may be counterattacked by them in turn. Therefore, if we want to maintain, or even expand, the current gains, we must take advantage of the victory to pursue.
As for how to pursue, he had to act according to the strategy that Shen Yan had given before - continue to reduce his wings by looking through the crimes committed by Dongchang in the past. With the power of the East Factory that once covered the sky with one hand, and the bad quality of those guys, they must have been a traitor.
But this matter must be as concealed as possible, if the Dongchang side has detected the purpose of Jinyiwei early, I am afraid that they will make corresponding preparations and countermeasures, and it will be too difficult for Yang Zhen to take the opportunity to attack them. And now this situation is obviously not conducive to Jinyiwei doing this.
"I didn't expect that this false name would also be a drag on people, and I knew that this was the case, so I should have tried to keep a low profile at that time." Yang Zhen couldn't help but smile bitterly and shook his head and sighed after learning that even some bold guys outside the Yamen of the Zhenfu Division came to disturb him.
"Actually, you don't have to worry too much, my lord, although this is really not very good for us at the moment, but in the long run, it is a good thing." At this time, Shen Yan could only comfort Yang Zhen like this: "After all, the reputation of our Jinyiwei has always been not good, but your lord, you have won a good reputation, which will bring us a lot of convenience in the future." ”
"I'm the most realistic person, how can I care about the future that I can't see until the immediate problems are solved?" Yang Zhen smiled bitterly and said: "But there is a little benefit that is true, at least when I asked people to go to Shuntianfu and other yamen to check the cases related to Dongchang, they didn't dare to obstruct it anymore." ”
"My lord, the lower official has another opinion." Shen Yan said suddenly.
"Oh? Tell me about it. ”
"We must try to hide this from the East Factory. Although they seem to be very honest and low-key lately, and seem to ignore the outside world, there is no guarantee that they will not spy on us in the dark. ”
"Well, you're right!" Yang Zhen raised his eyebrows, and nodded again and again: "I will tell my brothers to be careful and try not to show any flaws, so as not to let them notice." ”
"It's just one of the options, but I thought we could do a little more tricks than that." Shen Yan suddenly smiled and said.
"Tricks?" Yang Zhen narrowed his eyes and asked thoughtfully.
"In fact, those people in Dongchang also know that we will not stop easily, if we die down during this time, they will see the problem. So what I mean is that we just make a show and make it clear that we're going to continue to struggle with them. For example, send some people to monitor the side of the East Factory, as well as dignitaries like Zhao Wuxian. In this way, their attention will also fall on these brothers, and they will ignore the actions on the other side of us. Shen Yan said what he meant.
After Yang Zhen thought about it for a while, he applauded: "Okay! It's a clever plan, and the suspicious soldiers might be able to find out something. In addition, I have already had the intention to practice those secret agents now, and I just happened to use him as a target! It's a triple win, good! ”
Seeing that Yang Zhen not only adopted his suggestion, but also praised it so much, Shen Yan was naturally very happy in his heart, and quickly hugged his fists and thanked him.
So, in the fifth year of Wanli, as the flood passed, the people in Beijing began to prepare for the New Year - although many families have suffered disasters, but the whole year is busy and hard, there must be a day to relax and celebrate, this year is always going to pass, and everyone hopes to live well, in order to wash away the bad luck of the past year - when the open and secret struggle between Dongchang and Jinyiwei in the capital has completely risen to a new level.
I don't know if it's because the camouflage and concealment of the spies' eyeliner is too poor, or because the eyesight of the people in the East Factory is too good, but in just a few days, these Jinyi Guard's hands that are tracking, lurking, and snooping have been seen through by the people of the East Factory.
When they learned of this situation, many people in the East Factory couldn't sit still, and they asked Zhao Wuxian and others for their lives, allowing their brothers to fight back. Otherwise, if you are bullied by Jinyiwei like this, you won't be able to live your life.
When Zhao Wuxian reported the situation to Feng Bao's side, Feng Gonggong finally couldn't bear it anymore: "Yang Zhen, you are really too deceitful. If I don't give you a little bit of power, you really think that we can't do anything about you in the East Factory! Tell me to go down and find the right opportunity to teach those bastards a good lesson! ”