In the middle of the night, someone sent such a letter with no beginning and no end, and also pointed out that Zhou Zhong would watch it in person, which he was also stunned, and at the same time had a bad premonition, especially when Zhengde was making a fuss about the critical moment, Zhou Zhong felt that the content of this letter would definitely surprise him.

When Zhou Zhong took the letter, turned around and opened it to read it, but after reading it, Zhou Chong took a long breath, put the letter back in the envelope, and then put it in his arms, and when he turned to face Jinxuan, he changed into the original smile again.

After resting with Jinxuan for a night, as soon as it was dawn the next day, Zhou Chong hurried to the palace, as he expected, Zhengde also got up early, and was accompanied by Jiang Bin and others to play badminton, this thing was originally dedicated to Zhengde by Zhou Chong, but unfortunately Zhou Chong's own skills are too poor, and he is far from Zhengde's opponent, but Jiang Bin These martial artists are in good physical condition, and they can play a few games with Zhengde after learning.

Usually, if Zhou Chong sees Yizhengde and Jiang Bin mixed together, he usually won't come forward to dissuade him, because he knows that Zhengde is originally a playful character, and he can dissuade it once, but it is impossible to dissuade it every time, and even if it is too many times, it may hurt the feelings between brothers.

But today, he had something urgent to find Zhengde, so I saw him striding forward and saying to Zhengde, who was sweating profusely: "Brother Huang, my brother has something important to report, and I also invite Brother Huang to enter the palace to talk!" ”

Zhengde also wondered that Zhou Chong would look for him at this time, but when he saw the solemn expression on Zhou Chong's face, he was also shocked in his heart, and immediately put down his racket and came to the side hall with Zhou Chong. While wiping his sweat, he asked, "What." What is it that makes you come to find your brother in such a hurry, second brother? ”

Zhou Zhong was not in a hurry to answer Zhengde's words. Instead, he took out the letter he received last night from his bosom and handed it to him, saying, "Brother Huang, just look at this." ”

Zhengde took the letter and opened it for a look, but his behavior was very strange, not as angry as Zhou Zhong imagined, but showed an inscrutable smile, after a while, I saw Zhengde tear up the letter and said: "These people are really bold enough, I haven't left Beijing yet, and some people have already begun to show loyalty to you, second brother." It's just that they are still not bold enough, and they don't even dare to write a signature, it seems that they want to test your reaction to the second brother. ”

The letter received by Zhou Chong has no beginning or end, but the content of the letter is a sentence of heart, which probably means that when Zhengde leaves the capital, they will all look forward to Zhou Chong's horse, even if Zhou Chong launches a coup d'état and rebels, they are willing to stand on Zhou Chong's side, it can be said that this letter is a letter of loyalty, but the person who wrote the letter is bold. But he didn't dare to write his name, and even the handwriting of the letter looked awkward. It is likely that the writer deliberately wrote the font like this so that it would not be recognized from the handwriting.

With Zhou Chong's sensitive identity, receiving such a letter with ulterior motives can be said to be a big bad thing, and if it is not handled well, I am afraid it will be a disaster. However, after thinking about it for a moment last night, Zhou Chong immediately made a decision, that is, to hand over the letter directly to Zhengde, after all, the two brothers have a deep relationship, rather than deliberately concealing it, it is better to take it out openly and let Zhengde make up his own mind.

"Brother Huang, we won't guess the intention of the person who wrote this letter for the time being, but it can also be seen from this letter that if the royal brother leaves the capital, then it will definitely make people feel unstable, and even make some people have different hearts, so the imperial brother must not leave the capital!" This is the first time that Zhou Chong has directly dissuaded Zhengde from going to Xuanfu, after all, as soon as Zhengde leaves, the entire Ming Dynasty will be pressed on his body.

However, Zhengde laughed and said: "Second brother, the matter of going out to patrol the Xuanfu has not yet been decided, and the court has been arguing, and my brother is upset about listening to it every day, so don't talk about it anymore, in addition, Brother Wei heard that there is a rugby match at the military academy today, and it is also the final of the infantry department and the cavalry department, it must be very exciting, and our brothers naturally can't be absent!" ”

After Zhengde finished speaking, he immediately asked people to prepare breakfast, and then asked Zhou Zhong to accompany him to have a casual breakfast, and dragged him to the military academy. Although Zhou Zhong still wanted to persuade again, looking at Zhengde's appearance, he also knew that no matter how much he persuaded him, it would not be effective, so he could only sigh and watch the ball game with Zhengde for a day.

A letter without a beginning or an end, although the content of the letter is very rebellious, but it can't shake Zhou Chong's position, maybe it's really like what Zhengde said, he wants someone to show loyalty in this way, but the other party's courage is not big enough, so he doesn't dare to write his name, but it is also possible that someone wants to frame Zhou Chong, or there are other possibilities, but these are no longer important, at least for Zhou Chong, this letter just became a ripple in his life, and soon regained calm.

However, although Zhou Chong's life has returned to the previous peace, the court is still quarreling about Zhengde's tour, and the support faction is headed by Wang Qiong, the secretary of the military department, and the opponents are mainly Yang Ting and these cabinet ministers.

In recent years, after careful efforts, the grain production of the Ming Dynasty has exploded year by year, and the economy has developed very rapidly, for the people of the Ming Dynasty, as long as there is grain in their hands, they will not have other ideas, and the development of the economy has made the treasury of the Ming Dynasty very sufficient, and the money in all aspects is also very generous, especially in the border army, it is very willing to spend money, the little prince of Tatar led his troops to the south several times, and was defeated by the border army of the Ming Dynasty, not only failed to grab any materials and population, but also lost the army and lost the generals.

It is precisely because of this that although the court of the Ming Dynasty made a lot of noise, and even delayed the disposal of government affairs, it did not have much impact on the Ming Dynasty, the domestic public sentiment is stable, and there are no enemies abroad who dare to provoke the Ming Dynasty at this time, it is estimated that Zhengde also thinks so, so he not only favors Wang Qiong's side, but even fanned the flames from it, making the two factions quarrel more lively.

However, when the court was arguing about Zhengde's patrol, there was a sudden bad news, and Li Dongyang, the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty, finally died of illness last night at the age of 70 after lingering on the sickbed for many days.

Li Dongyang is not only the first assistant of the cabinet, but also he is also the minister of the first emperor's personal order, he entered the court as an official at the age of 20, and worked hard for the Ming Dynasty for a full 50 years, and later became a cabinet scholar, assisting the emperors of the two dynasties of Xiaozong and Zhengde, which can be described as a high degree of hard work, so his death, the people of the time called it "50 years of the establishment of the dynasty, 18 years of the country".

In addition, Li Dongyang is also the backbone of the southern bureaucratic clique, and as long as he is there, the southern clique will not be chaotic, and the cabinet will not be chaotic either. But now that Li Dongyang is dead, the shock to the Ming and the opposition can be said to be very huge, especially for the officials from the southern faction, they feel that the six gods have no master, after all, they have long been accustomed to the situation that the court has Li Dongyang, the head of the cabinet from the southern faction, is in charge, and now that Li Dongyang is dead, this makes most people feel uncomfortable.

For Li Dongyang's death, although Yang Tinghe and others in the cabinet were shocked, they were also psychologically prepared, and they also knew that at this critical moment of arguing whether Zhengde was on patrol, Li Dongyang's death would definitely deal a great blow to the morale of his side, and it was even likely to lose to Wang Qiong and others, resulting in Zhengde's smooth travel, so in order to deal with this problem, Yang Tinghe and others immediately proposed to Zhengde to suspend the discussion on the matter of going on patrol, and now the most important thing is to deal with Li Dongyang's funeral. After all, the other party is the first assistant of the cabinet and the minister of life, so his funeral naturally cannot be neglected.

Although Zhengde is messing around, he still respects Li Dongyang very much, and he also knows that even if he takes advantage of Li Dongyang's death to get the matter done now, it will cause a strong backlash from Yang Tinghe and others in the future, so it is better to deal with Li Dongyang's funeral now, and then take advantage of the unstable morale of Yang Ting and the party to settle the matter of the tour in one fell swoop.

Li Dongyang's death in the office of the first assistant of the cabinet can be described as a dedication, coupled with his special status, so for Li Dongyang's posthumous affairs, the Ming Dynasty quickly reached a point in the court, and posthumously presented Li Dongyang with the title of Wenzheng.

As for Li Dongyang's funeral, it was also specially instructed by Zhengde to be handled by the Ministry of Rites, and all the flowers were also made from his inner library, and Li Dongyang's son was also rewarded, which can be said to be extremely generous, but because Li Dongyang asked to be buried in his hometown Chaling before he died, the real funeral will be held in Chaling.

Regarding Li Dongyang's funeral, although Yang Tinghe and others tried their best to delay, they hoped to use this time to consolidate the hearts of the people and revive the morale of officials in the south. But Wang Qiong and those people didn't give them a chance at all, they actively handled Li Dongyang's funeral, and even did not hesitate to give Li Dongyang, the extremely noble nickname of "Wenzheng", so it only took a month to deal with Li Dongyang's funeral.

After the funeral was handled, Wang Qiong immediately mobilized the strength of his own side and once again brought the matter of Zhengde's patrol to the court, but Yang Tinghe and others naturally opposed it with all their might, but unfortunately after the blow of Li Dongyang's death, the hearts of the people on their side were a little uneven, especially Zhengde also promoted several people from Wang Qiong's side to important positions, which greatly increased their right to speak, even if Yang Ting and those cabinet scholars all opposed, but in the end they could not resist the siege of Wang Qiong and these people.

Three months after Li Dongyang's death, Zhengde finally won the battle for this patrol, and he could finally leave the capital where he was imprisoned and go to the outside world. (To be continued......)