In July of the eleventh year of Zhengde, it was early autumn, and the leaves on the trees were still green, but Zhengde had already hurriedly asked Jiang Bin to order the 40,000 border troops of the four outer families, and 5,000 Shenji battalions, and then left the capital with these 45,000 people. In addition, Zhou Chong, the king of Zhao, was crowned as a prisoner and took charge of the Ming dynasty on his behalf.

For Zhengde's wayward move, except for Wang Qiong, who chose to support it for the sake of opposition, most of the others were opposed, and even the Empress Dowager Zhang in the palace didn't want to see her son run to the border, but unfortunately Zhengde wanted to fight and was about to go crazy, and he was already extremely tired of the games in the capital, so no matter who stopped him, he would not stop his steps, so in the end he went without hesitation.

On the day Zhengde left, Zhou Chong went to see each other, the two brothers stood in the long pavilion outside the north gate of Beijing and said a lot of words, there were only the two of them in the pavilion at that time, even Gu Dayong was sent to dozens of meters outside the pavilion, only to see Zhou Chong and the two sitting in the pavilion, but they didn't know what the two brothers were talking about, and afterwards Zhou Chong and Zhengde did not reveal this conversation to anyone, until thousands of years later, their conversation became a big mystery in history, Although there are many people who have reconstructed countless versions of this conversation based on what happened later, all of them are wrong in one way or another, and they are not convincing at all.

After Zhou Chong sent Zhengde away, he did not immediately take over the government, but locked himself alone in the palace for several days, he did not see any outsiders in these days, and he also blocked the people who asked to see him, the only one who could see him, except for the princess and a few children, there was only one outsider, and this person was Jiao Fang, the most important adviser around Zhou Chong.

Just like the conversation between Zhou Chong and Zhengde before, no one knows what Zhou Chong and Jiao Fang talked about in the past few days, and I don't know what kind of agreement the two of them reached, but just a few days later, Zhou Chong suddenly appeared at the Ming Dynasty's court meeting, although Zhengde was not there, but Zhou Chong was appointed as the supervisor, so next to Zhengde's dragon chair, another chair was added, which is where Zhou Chong sat when he went to court in the future.

Although Zhou Chong was a prince before, and Zhengde also handed over some government affairs to him, but Zhou Chong did not participate in the court meeting, because the court meeting was the core meeting of the Ming Dynasty to deal with government affairs, generally speaking, except for the emperor and the crown prince, other royal families could not participate, so Zhou Chong had not participated until he became a prisoner, and he came to the court meeting for the first time.

For Zhou Chong's arrival, the ministers in the court have long been mentally prepared, after all, Zhengde has made a holy decree before, and Zhou Chong has done a very good job both before and after entering Beijing, especially he has reached an agreement with Li Dongyang and Yang Tinghe before, ready to squeeze out Jiang Bin together, although it was not successful, but this friendship is still there, so for Zhou Chong, the prison country, the ministers are also very respectful.

Zhou Chong's performance at the court meeting is also remarkable, for the government affairs reported by the ministers below, he will never interfere if he can let the people below handle it himself, and some really need him to make a decision, he will ask if there is any precedent before, if there is, then follow the previous precedent, if not, then put it down for the time being, and he will discuss a feasible strategy with the cabinet.

It can be said that Zhou Chong's performance in the court has been unanimously praised by all the courtiers, and even many people still think in their hearts, if it was the King Zhao in front of him who ascended the throne instead of the Noble Majesty, maybe Daming would have become a different appearance a long time ago, where would he still be in such a difficult situation at home and abroad as a few years ago?

However, just when the ministers in the court relaxed their vigilance against Zhou Chong, Zhou Chong suddenly showed his fangs, and this pair of fangs was a holy decree left by Zhengde, when he asked people to read out the holy decree at the end of the court meeting, everyone was dumbfounded, especially Yang Tinghe and several other cabinet ministers, they couldn't believe it, because the content of the holy decree was very simple, that is, to reactivate Jiao Fang, and restore his position as a cabinet scholar, that is, Jiao Fang finally entered the cabinet again.

For this appointment, whether it is the southern official group headed by Yang Tinghe or the northern official group headed by Wang Qiong, they have no preparation, and even when they heard this appointment, they still felt a little unbelievable, after all, Jiao Fang was involved in Liu Jin's case at the beginning, although because he resigned early, so he was very little implicated, but with his actions with Liu Jin at the beginning, plus he is already over eighty years old this year, how can he be out again?

It was also because everyone didn't expect it, so when the holy decree was read, the entire court was silent, everyone, you look at me, I look at you, no one dared to believe that this was true.

For the reaction of the court, Zhou Zhong also had already expected, but he did not give the ministers time to react at all, after reading the holy decree of Zhengde, he immediately announced his retirement from the court, and then in the afternoon of the same day, Jiao Fang smiled and wore official clothes to Wenyuan Pavilion to work, although Yang Tinghe and others did not welcome Jiao Fang, but there was no way, and even they wanted to oppose it and could not find anyone, because the Zhengde who made the holy decree had already run to the Xuanfu.

Before the Zhengde Dynasty, the number of the Ming Dynasty's cabinet was not fixed, sometimes three or four people, sometimes five or six people, before Jiao Fang entered the cabinet again, the cabinet had a total of four scholars, namely Yang Tinghe, Liang Chu and Liu Zhong, and because of the previous support for Zhengde to go on patrol, finally got the opportunity to enter the cabinet Shangshu Wang Qiong, and now with Jiao Fang, the cabinet has five people.

Speaking of which, among the five cabinet ministers, Yang Tinghe and Liang Chu are both representatives of the southern official group, and they have not been on the right path with Jiao Fang before, and the relationship between the two sides is very strong, so they are naturally very unhappy about Jiao Fang's comeback. As for that Lord Liu Zhong, although he is a northerner, he has always been very close to the southern official group, and he has also clashed with Jiao Fang before, so he will not have a good face towards Jiao Fang.

The last Wang Qiong and Jiao Fang are both representatives of the northern official group, but they are one after the other, Wang Qiong has replaced Jiao Fang as the head of the northern officials, and has successfully entered the cabinet, if he can get the support of all the northern officials in the future, he will definitely be able to call for wind and rain in the cabinet, but unfortunately he never expected that Jiao Fang, who is already in his eighties, will enter the cabinet again, which makes his prestige be covered, and as a result, Wang Qiong is also a little dissatisfied with Jiao Fang's arrival.

Jiao Fang is old in the accident, naturally understands his current situation, it is no exaggeration to say that he is now a lonely person, especially those of his cronies in the past have been belittled, although the remaining northern officials still have some incense for him, but they will not stand by his side resolutely, not to mention the officials in the south, these people are eager to pour dirty water on themselves, let alone support themselves, so the most important thing for him now is to find a reliable ally.

It is precisely because of this that after the official business was done that day, Jiao Fang stopped Wang Qiong, who was going home, and then said with a smile: "Lord Wang, the old man returned to the cabinet today, and some things are not clear, so I want to ask Lord Wang for advice, and I hope Lord Wang will not refuse!" ”

For Jiao Fang, although Wang Qiong was dissatisfied with him, but when the two were officials in the same dynasty before, because they were both northern officials, their friendship with each other was not bad, plus Wang Qiong also knew that now Jiao Fang has a deep friendship with King Zhao of the prison country, this time Jiao Fang can enter the cabinet again, there must be King Zhao behind him to help him, so Wang Qiong didn't dare to offend Jiao Fang too much, and said with a smile at the moment: "Jiao Ge is invited, where do the juniors dare to resign?" ”

At the moment, Jiao Fang and Wang Qiong came to a newly opened restaurant in Beijing recently, the name is also Wanghai Pavilion, it is said to be the branch of Wanghai Pavilion in Shuangyu Port, and Zhou Zhong is naturally behind it, but what others don't know is that Jiao Fang also has a small amount of shares in Wanghai Pavilion, after all, he also has a large family to support, and he naturally doesn't have to worry about losing money when he does business with Zhou Chong.

Of course, this Wanghai Pavilion in the capital naturally does not have the sea to let it look, but like the Wanghai Pavilion of Shuangyu Port, the area of this Wanghai Pavilion is also very large, and it is a symbol of strength to have such a large piece of land in the capital where every inch of land is valuable, and the food is also unusually chic and delicious, so as soon as the Wanghai Pavilion opened, it was called the first restaurant in the capital by the good deeds.

After Jiao Fang and Wang Qiong came to Wanghai Pavilion, the two of them found a separate pavilion to sit down, surrounded by empty grass, and there was no need to worry about the conversation being listened to by others, which is why Jiao Fang chose the place to talk here.

After the wine and food came up, Jiao Fang and Wang Qiong chatted while eating, but at this time, the two of them were chatting about some gossip, or some interesting things about humanity, or some of Jiao Fang's experiences in the south, anyway, they were all topics to kill time, and no one took the initiative to talk about business, which is also the stinky problem of all officials, no matter what they talk about, they have to say a lot of nonsense in advance to open the topic, Zhou Zhong has long hated this, but he is powerless to change.

After sprinkling three rounds, Jiao Fang put down his chopsticks with a smile and said: "Lord Wang, the old man can return to the cabinet this time, in addition to His Majesty's appreciation, the most important thing is to have the care of His Royal Highness King Zhao, otherwise my old bones can only stay in my hometown and wait for death." ”

"The elder of the pavilion is serious, you are the important minister of my Ming Dynasty, you have suffered a small setback before, and sooner or later you will still be reused by the court, and now is the time for the elder pavilion to show his ambitions!" Although Wang Qiong's words seemed to be praising Jiao Fang, in fact, he secretly complained that Jiao Fang was so old, but he still went to the court to divide power.

With Jiao Fang's shrewdness, he naturally heard Wang Qiong's dissatisfaction, but he smiled and then said an irrelevant word, but it was this sentence that made Wang Qiong's face change greatly. rs

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