Yang Chao naturally knows Zhang Pu, this person is a man of the hour.

Because Zhang Pu is the founder and leader of the most popular political group in Jiangnan, the Fushe.

When it comes to the political groups of the Ming Dynasty, we have to mention the Donglin Party.

During the reign of the Wanli Emperor, relations with civil officials were very tense, so they often fought. If the emperor does not trust civil officials, he can only trust eunuchs, so the eunuchs of the Wanli Dynasty are in charge.

At that time, Gu Xiancheng, a civil official from Jiangnan, and others were excluded and dismissed by the eunuchs, and returned to Jiangnan and rebuilt an ancient Song Dynasty academy called Donglin, where they lectured and talked about politics, attracting a large number of like-minded literati and forming a political force.

This is the origin of the Donglin Party, and the purpose of the establishment of the Donglin Party can be said to be to fight against the eunuchs.

And it was really a real battle of swords and guns, many civil officials in the Wei Zhongxian era died very miserably, it can be said that Donglin was very backbone in the struggle of eunuchs.

After Emperor Chongzhen succeeded to the throne, he defeated the great eunuch Wei Zhongxian, and at first reused the Donglin Party, which was known as the 'gentleman', but the emperor soon found that the Donglin Party people were aggressive, not only fighting with eunuchs, but also fighting with other civil officials, and even fighting with the emperor, making the court a miasma.

The most infuriating thing is that in the eyes of Emperor Chongzhen, these Donglin Party people patronize and fight, but they don't do practical things at all, they just talk about empty words, and Chongzhen's reuse of Donglin Party can't solve any practical problems. On the contrary, the peasant army of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong was huge, and it could not be wiped out from east to west and from north to south on the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

The Jurchen forces outside the border even came to the city of Beijing again and again, ignoring the border fortress and defending the city.

According to the Donglin Party, as long as the emperor is a virtuous minister and a villain, he will naturally obey him, but now he is not saying that his emperor has no kindness, and the people who use it are not virtuous ministers.

The emperor slowly began to feel disgusted with Donglin, since the Donglin Party's own theories proved that he was not a virtuous minister, the emperor was not polite, and expelled one by one high-ranking officials of the Donglin Party from the court, and the Donglin Party completely lost power.

At this time, in the land of Jiangnan, starting from the Donglin Party, a kind of association was formed. Literati groups such as the Ying Society and several societies are everywhere.

Zhang Pu himself participated in the two clubs of Yingshe and Yantai, but Zhang Pu was a very capable activist, and under his operation, he invited many dozens of clubs in Huqiu to form a Fushe.

With the resumption of the society in the examination of several people into the Jinshi into the dynasty as officials, the prestige of the resumption of the society for a while, faintly suppressed the limelight of the Donglin Party, at its peak, there were more than 3,000 people in the community.

But Zhang Pu is a person who has enthusiasm and energy in his activities, but his emotional intelligence as an official is not high, and he soon offended people, and was secretly plotted by Wen Tiren and expelled from the court, and finally his backer Zhou Yanru was also squeezed out of the court by Wen Tiren, and the Fushe also began to lose power, and those scholars who tended to be inflammatory, slowly began to disperse and threw themselves into other groups.

Zhang Pu believes that all this is because the Restoration Society has lost the relationship with Zhou Yanru in the background, so he has been doing the first auxiliary activities for Zhou Yanru's comeback, and the fundamental purpose is actually to hope to revitalize the Restoration Society and realize his political ideals and political ambitions.

Therefore, Zhang Pu raised political funds for Zhou Yanru on the one hand, and instructed the Yanguan of the Restoration Society to constantly impeach cabinet officials, which has now made the emperor a little dissatisfied with the cabinet.

Yang Chao was just a boy who didn't even have a reputation for showing talent before, and it was impossible to know about these things in the court, he only knew that this time it was Zhang Pu who wanted to raise donations for Zhou Yanru and found Ruan Dacheng, Ruan Dacheng didn't want to spend money in vain, so he found a way for himself.

I didn't expect things to be so complicated, not just to get enough money to buy a first assistant, but also a series of complicated political struggles.

After listening to Wang Xiao's explanation, Yang Chao suddenly felt that he was involved in an extremely complex political whirlpool.

"My father learned from the eunuchs that the emperor has recently been extremely dissatisfied with several cabinet assistants, and Zhang Pu instructed some imperial historians of the Restoration Society to constantly impeach His Excellency, and the emperor was already dissatisfied with the cabinet assistants, and slowly had the idea of replacing the first assistant, but he had not yet made up his mind who to use."

Wang Xiao continued.

Yang Chao already understood: "So, Zhang Pu is now basically in control of the situation. ”

Zhang Pu was just taking advantage of the situation, the emperor was dissatisfied with the cabinet, Zhang Pu sent officials from the Fushe to take the opportunity to impeach, and the emperor was already planning to replace, all of which seemed to be under Zhang Pu's control.

Wang Xiao said: "It's already a matter of course." It's just that it's not so easy to get the emperor to enable Zhou Yanru. Someone has to deliver a message by the emperor's side, and the emperor is now quite disappointed in civil officials, and those who can speak are eunuchs. ”

The civil officials of the Ming Dynasty always disappointed the emperor again and again, if the eunuchs of the Wanli and Tianqi dynasties were in power, which led to the chaos in the world, then Chongzhen reused the civil officials at the beginning, and got it to the present, I have to say that the civil officials are incompetent, which makes the emperor very disappointed.

Yang Chao said: "So Zhang Pu wants to raise donations to bribe eunuchs?" ”

Wang Xiao said: "That's right. In fact, Zhang Pu is only short of money now. ”

Yang Chao couldn't help but wonder again: "In this case, why didn't your Wang family directly find Zhang Pu to donate?" ”

Wang Xiao smiled bitterly: "Zhang Pu, although he is poor, he is not greedy for officials. We businessmen are not shy about raising donations this time, and he only raises money among the literati. I'd rather look for Ruan Dayue than look for me and other businessmen. ”

Yang Chao was not only dumbfounded, but it turned out that the literati despised businessmen and a social prejudice.

"So when you hear me here, you want to seize this opportunity."

Yang Chao said with a smile, he couldn't help but admire Wang Xiao's vision, which was accurate enough, poisonous enough, and very strong in action.

Let such a person be an official, it may be much better than those scholars with low eyes and low skills to be officials.

Wang Xiao said with a smile: "Brother Yang, don't blame, the little brother is also at the right time." Since you have come across it, you can't miss it. ”

Yang Chao doesn't care, everyone has their own interests, as long as they don't offend the interests of others, there is nothing to blame, let yourself live, let others live, this is Yang Chao's creed.

Nodding his head, he said, "Then, it's not just your Wang family who understands the situation in the court. It's okay, this time you should invite more of these big businessmen who know the situation, and spread it out in the province, and the impact will not be good. ”

Wang Xiao said: "That's nature. In fact, there are definitely not many businessmen who can know the situation in the court. As far as I know, there are no more than three families in Hangzhou who have this ability, except for my Wang family. Nanjing, or a few, but definitely no more than ten. ”

Yang Chao said: "Ten is enough. ”

The Wang family can throw out 10,000 taels, and the ten families can get 100,000 taels, which is definitely enough to bribe the eunuchs.

Wang Xiao said: "Brother Yang, don't worry, leave it to me, although my family's business is not mainly in Nanjing, but I still have some contacts with the wealthy businessmen in Nanjing." ”

Yang Chao nodded: "Brother Wang, do it boldly." ”

At this time, Yang Chao's heart couldn't help but be touched, and he didn't know what the consequences of the political whirlpool he was involved in would bring to him, and he couldn't say whether he was happy or worried.

Zhou Yanru can definitely be the first assistant, so he will definitely be able to achieve great success in this political meeting.

But what worries me is that I will not anger Zhang Pu behind the scenes by rashly introducing these businessmen.

If Zhang Pu is angered, Zhang Pu will control the court situation in the future, although it is unlikely that he will deal with a small person like himself, but he will not take any care of himself, then his efforts will be in vain.

What's more, Yang Chao is showing Ruan Dacheng an eye, will he be very passive and hated by the Donglin Party that will gain power in the future, after all, the relationship between Ruan Dacheng and the Donglin Party is not harmonious, and through this political meeting, it may not really be improved.

But Yang Chao will not give up easily, and this is also a rare opportunity.

At the same time, Yang Chao didn't plan to be so simple, since he had taken such a big risk and didn't get any practical benefits for himself, Yang Chao would never be reconciled.

Last time, I helped Wang Xiao want to get involved with Shi Kefa, but it didn't work, but it was just a hidden relationship with the Wang family, and there was no practical benefit for the time being. This time, Yang Chao must learn a lesson, not only to obtain a vast network of relationships and build a good relationship for the future, but also to win over a reliable force that can be used in front of him.

Therefore, he quietly changed his plan in his heart, and the purpose of this meeting was not only limited to the relationship with the officials of Donglin of the Restoration Society, but Yang Chao had to win over a force that could be used for himself.