Although the Ministry of War dared to conceal the military exploits of the border troops in the northwest and Liaodong, it did not dare to conceal the military exploits of the Governor's Mansion of the Four Seas, after all, Zhou Zhong was in charge of the capital, and he would never allow his subordinates to not be rewarded for their military exploits, and even all the twists and turns and decrees related to the sea needed to be reported or issued through Zhou Zhong's hands, which was the power specially granted to him by Zhengde. Watermark Ad Test: Watermark Ad Test

Zhou Zhong in the study room of Zhao Wangfu carefully read the reward of the Ministry of War to Shen Zhou and others, and then checked the list of meritorious people reported by Wang Shouren, and found that there was no omission, so he put his mind at ease, reviewed it and put it aside, and waited until tomorrow to let people send it to Nanyang quickly.

This is already the last official document today, I saw Zhou Zhong put down the pen and rubbed his head, then stood up and pushed open the window to look, and found that it was already the middle of the moon outside, it is estimated that Jinxuan and they have already fallen asleep, originally he promised to tell Xia Xia a bedtime story, but now it seems that he can only break his trust in his daughter again.

Thinking of this, Zhou Chong couldn't help sighing, he didn't have to be so busy, but during this time, his good brother Zhengde became more and more disagreeable, not only mixed with Jiang Bin and those people every day, but also didn't know whether he listened to Jiang Bin's words or he came up with it himself, and handed over some government affairs in the court to him to deal with, as a result, Zhou Chong had to be busy all day every day, and he didn't have time to enter the palace to see Zhengde, so naturally he couldn't disturb Zhengde and Jiang Bin and others.

In addition, what is even more excessive is that at the time of the last court meeting, Zhengde once again sat on the dragon chair seriously, and then announced to all the ministers that he decided to go to the Xuanfu in the northwest of the capital to inspect it, and the result can be imagined. The ministers below were all frantically opposed, and even many imperial historians took off their gauze hats and asked Zhengde to dispel this idea, otherwise they would resign en masse.

For the opposition of the ministers below. Zhengde also expected it. In fact, the reason why he publicly proposed it this time was to test the reaction of the ministers. Now after seeing so many ministers opposing, he didn't insist, and directly announced the dissolution of the dynasty, but in the next period of time. Zhengde let Jiang Bin actively act in secret, and contacted many boneless ministers to change the direction of the wind, so that they could support Zhengde's method of inspecting the border passes.

A month later, Zhengde again proposed to go on a tour in the court, but the ministers again objected, but this time the ministers contacted by Jiang Bin finally took effect, and they began to openly support Zhengde's decision. And Zhengde also actively cooperated with these people, but for a while, the court was controversial about this matter, and neither side could convince anyone.

In addition, there is one most important thing, that is, Li Dongyang, who is the first assistant to the cabinet, is now seriously ill. It is said that he is now unable to get out of bed, and he is unconscious every day, and he can't pay attention to the government at all. And Li Dongyang's serious illness made the cabinet and the court a little unstable, which is also one of the reasons why Zhengde was able to take advantage of the situation.

Li Dongyang fell, it is said that the position of the first assistant of the cabinet should be taken over by Yang Tinghe, but Yang Tinghe is a little young after all, and his prestige and qualifications are not enough to suppress everyone, so let alone the ministers in the court, even some people in the cabinet are not convinced, after all, they also have their own ideas about the position of first assistant.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that among the ministers who supported Zhengde's patrol, the leader was Wang Qiong, the secretary of the military department, speaking of this Wang Qiong, this person was a rare able minister in the Ming Dynasty, and he was listed as a triple minister of the Ming Dynasty along with Yu Qian and Zhang Juzheng in history.

Wang Qiong's most important achievements are three, one is to govern the Cao River, the second is to quell the Chenhao rebellion, the third is to strengthen the northwest frontier defense, now King Ning has not rebelled, so Wang Qiong's second merit has not been realized, but the first and third merits he has completed, are real merits, it can be said that he can sit in the position of the secretary of the military department, it is by his merits, and Wang Qiong also has the ability to know people, now Wang Shouren, who is the governor of the four seas, was valued by Wang Qiong at the beginning, he originally wanted Wang Shouren to experience a few years in the south, and then reused Wang Shouren, but he didn't expect to be preempted by Zhou Chong.

However, compared with Wang Qiong's merits, his own ethics are not very good, which is also the main reason why he is not as famous as Yu Qian and Zhang Juzheng's achievements, after all, a person with a loss of personal morality, the historian will not give him a big book, especially Wang Qiong also committed the taboo of civil officials.

Wang Qiong is a capable minister, and at the same time he is also a favorite of Zhengde, the reputation of this favorite minister is not very good, which is why Zhou Chong did not like to let others think that he was a favorite minister of Zhengde, because in the Ming Dynasty, the favored minister has another meaning, that is, this favorite minister is likely to have some kind of relationship with the emperor, such as Wang Qiong, it is said that he has some kind of ulterior relationship with Zhengde, and even once Wang Qiong wore a stinger and obscene clothes, sneaked into the leopard room, and drank all night with Zhengde, and when he left the next morning, he happened to be bumped into. As a result, this incident was recorded by later generations in the "Wanli Ye Ed.", which was passed on to later generations.

In addition, Wang Qiong has always liked to echo Zhengde in the court, which makes his reputation in the officialdom has not been very good, plus he is a native of Shanxi, that is, an official in the north, and has always been rejected by officials in the south, otherwise with his political achievements, he would have been called into the cabinet by Li Dongyang a long time ago, but it is Wang Qiong who has not been able to enter the cabinet, so he has always been at odds with Li Dongyang and others.

After Jiao Fang left the court before, among the officials from the north, Wang Qiong's official position was the highest and the most influential, so after Wang Qiong expressed his stance on supporting Zhengde's patrol, those northern officials who occupied a weak position in the court almost overwhelmingly supported Zhengde's patrol, after all, the struggle between officials from the north and the south was actually close to the party struggle at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

The group of northern officials led by Wang Qiong, coupled with Jiang Bin's encirclement of a group of southern officials, these people became the main force supporting Zhengde's patrol, although their number was smaller than that of the opposition, but because the court had the support of Zhengde, so the two sides fought endlessly for this, and now they have been arguing for two months, but they still have not been able to fight for a high position.

After all, now the Ming Dynasty is becoming more and more stable, and the northern border army has been replaced with new weapons, and the military cadets have been replenished one after another, which has greatly increased the combat effectiveness of the border army, coupled with his efforts, so that the military department does not dare to conceal the merits of the border army as before, and with the stimulation of military achievements, the morale of the border army has increased greatly, and there is no need for Zhengde to inspect at all.

However, although Zhou Chong objected, he was not good at expressing any opinion on this matter, because everyone knew that if Zhengde left the capital, then he would definitely be the prisoner of the country, and if Zhengde had any accidents, then he would be the next emperor of the Ming Dynasty, so in order to avoid suspicion, Zhou Chong could only stay at home, ignore the court, and only deal with what happened in the Daming Sea.

Thinking of this, Zhou Chong, who was standing in front of the window, couldn't help sighing, if Zhengde was just going to Xuanfu to inspect, then there would be nothing, but Zhengde would definitely take Jiang Bin's outer four armies to go, in this way, Zhengde will definitely be more favored by Jiang Bin, plus Zhengde has lived in the palace since he was a child, and has never seen the outside world, although Xuanfu is not more prosperous than Jiangnan, but it also has a different flavor, in case Zhengde indulges in it, I am afraid that he will really be deceived by Jiang Bin in the future.

Just when Zhou Chong was thinking about his thoughts, suddenly the door of the study behind him opened, and then he saw Jinxuan walking in with a plate, and when he saw Zhou Chong turn around, he smiled slightly and said: "Husband, it's late at night, I boiled some lotus seed porridge for you, drink it and rest quickly!" ”

Looking at the gentle and virtuous Jinxuan, Zhou Zhong couldn't help but walk over and support Jinxuan and said lovingly: "Why don't you rest so late?" ”

"I had already slept just now, and I thought that my husband was still busy with government affairs, so I got up and boiled some porridge, you should drink it while it was hot!" Jinxuan gently put down the tray, asked Zhou Zhong to sit down, and said while serving him porridge.

Zhou Zhong did feel a little hungry at this time, so he took the bowl handed by Jinxuan and drank up the lotus seed porridge in a few bites. Jinxuan saw that her husband drank sweetly, and she also pursed her lips and smiled at the moment, and served him another bowl, but Zhou Chong drank three bowls in a row, but he still felt only half full, which is not to blame Zhou Chong for eating, but the bowl that Jinxuan took was too small, speaking of which, there are rules for everything in the palace, and even what kind of bowl Zhou Chong uses.

"Okay, don't eat so much at night, otherwise it's easy to gain weight, at the age of the husband, if you are fat, it will be difficult to lose weight!" Jinxuan knew that Zhou Chong was not full, but she refused to let him eat any more, after all, it was the middle of the night, and eating too much before going to bed was not only difficult to digest, but also easy to gain weight.

"Hehe, it's a blessing to be able to eat, what's there to get fat, it's a big deal to exercise a little more tomorrow morning, and no matter how much you eat, you're not afraid of getting fat!" Although Zhou Zhong said this, he didn't eat anymore, and then helped Jinxuan clean up her things and let the maid send them down, and then the two were ready to go back to the room to rest.

But just as Zhou Zhong and Jinxuan walked out of the study, suddenly there was a rush of footsteps outside, and then the fat housekeeper Xu ran over panting, holding a letter in his hand and said: "Lord Wang, someone sent a letter outside, and he didn't say who sent it, only that the old servant would personally present it to you." ”