"…… I'm afraid we'll have to think about it in the long run."

Even the most direct beneficiaries like Qian Qianyi have a feeling of unease, and other bureaucrats in the Ming officialdom who are not in line with the position of the shorthair and have not reaped any benefits from the shorthair are naturally even more so. Later, therefore, at a special discussion meeting of the elders on this matter, all of them agreed that this time the imperial court should be cautious and should not rashly admit this "great victory" - they did not want to deny the victory of the Qiong navy. Even though the short-haired gang is flying and domineering, they have never falsely reported their exploits so far. But it was precisely this point that made the members of the court feel more uneasy - when the Qiong Navy first appeared in the Ming military circles when the Dengzhou Rebellion was quelled, it only defeated tens of thousands of rebels with thousands of soldiers.

And now that they are fighting with the Houjin Army, they are even more fierce - 600 people defeated the opponent by 10,000, and they also killed one of the opponent's Belle Lords! If the Qiong navy could really continue to make such magnificent feats, then soon the court would fall into a situation where there was no way to reward them-the phrase "merit is not rewarded" appeared in the minds of several civil officials at the same time, but they quickly forced themselves to dispel this thought--that the short-haired man was not a loyal general who could be solved by a glass of poisoned wine in the play. The family itself is an anti-thief, and he has always put his wariness of the court in the open. The court is really going to be ruthless, and if those guys are forced to rebel again, I don't know if it will be beneficial to the Ming Dynasty, but now the group of people in charge will definitely be unlucky.

"Let's send someone to verify it first, if Qiongzhen has indeed made such a great achievement, it should be rewarded. Otherwise, the rewards and punishments will not be known, and it will be difficult to convince the public in the future."

It was not Qian Qianyi, the spokesperson of the Qiong Navy, who said this, but Zhou Yanru, the first assistant who had always been difficult to deal with them, who should have been ousted by Wen Tiren a year ago. But on this plane. Because of the butterfly wings of the Qiong Navy, the fate of many people has changed, and this Ming Shoufu is also one of them.

Zhou Yanru's evaluation in the history of the Ming Dynasty is not high, mainly because he is too selfish. There is also a problem with looking at people. But he was an extremely intelligent man after all. Otherwise, it is impossible to become an extremely rare "Lianzhong two yuan" in the history of the Ming Dynasty. And since he is sitting in the position of Shousuke, even others can ignore nonsense. But he always has to think about the "big picture" - otherwise he will be the first to be unlucky when the situation collapses. So just when this group of people was thinking about how to suppress short hair, this Zhou Shoufu finally said a "fair word".

And Qian Ge Lao immediately remembered his position, so he hurriedly expressed his support:

"That's right, they've lost a general this time. If the imperial court still ignores the rebellion like the last time Dengzhou put down the rebellion, it will be too chilling. Next time, if you ask them to help the court, I'm afraid it will be difficult."

Talking about the loss of the short-haired army this time, all the bigwigs also showed some kind of knowing expressions on their faces, and they even looked at each other with a knowing attitude, all of which were "I'm happy but it's inconvenient for me to express it publicly, you know why".

"Indeed. I heard that there are more than 100 people in Qiongzhen, and in the past few years, the southern and northern wars have been invincible, and it seems that there has never been a loss so far. Wouldn't it become the story of Song Jiang's expedition to Fangla?"

Wen Tiren shook his head and commented--The people's comparison of Qiong Haijun to a good man in Liangshan has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and even most of the cabinet members think so. Of course, it's no problem to think about it privately, it can be said that these high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty here are actually hoping that those short-haired people will end up with Song Jiang and Lu Junyi, but it is "not appropriate" to say it publicly like this after all.

Therefore, Wen Tiren's remarks did not receive any support, not even a sound evaluation, and were completely ignored, which is supposed to be a very shameful thing, but Wen Tiren didn't care - he didn't expect to get any approval when he said this. Just to show in front of Zhou Yanru that he still maintains the position of "opposing Qiong Haijun and Qian someone" - this is the main reason why the former retains him in the cabinet.

The final decision of the meeting was to ask Zhang Fengyi, the secretary of the Ministry of War, to send people to Lushunkou to verify the authenticity of the battle, and to check whether the Houjin Baylor who was killed was true. In terms of wording, Zhou Yanru said to Zhang Fengyi that he would "do his best to handle it as soon as possible", but he glanced at the other party meaningfully, and the latter also nodded understandingly-there is no need to rush this matter, it is the best policy to delay for a while, and the old bureaucrats understand it.

After the cabinet meeting, Qian Ge Lao actually went to Chen Tao in person, in the past, he would not be so condescending, every time there was something, he just sent a personal entourage to convey it, even if he needed to talk in person, he would definitely call Chen Tao to the door, and he would never take the initiative to find him - this is the leader of Shang Shangge Lao, and he must not lose it.

But this time, it was Shoufu Zhou Yanru who contacted him privately after the meeting and asked him about the itinerary of the team from Qionghai Town to Beijing - since Shorthair claimed to have a clipper ship that could reach Liaodong from Qiongzhou in a few days, their northward march should not be delayed for so long. In the past, Zhou Yanru was very unimpressed by this group of arrogant and arrogant guys who dared to claim that they wanted to talk about economic issues face-to-face with the Ming court. But now, he felt the need to talk to the other side - not a matter of salt taxes or coinage, but militarily, the fighting power displayed by the Joan navy had earned them enough respect for their negotiating team.

Zhou Yanru was very polite, but Qian Qianyi felt some kind of threat from it—he had been acting as Qionghai Town for a long time. [,！ The image of the spokesperson in the imperial court appeared. He had already thought about it: although those short-haired people were strong, they could act recklessly and have simple ideas, which seemed very immature to the Ming officialdom, which could be clearly seen from Chen Tao. They need someone who is familiar with the inside of the court and has a high enough status to speak for them. Qian Qianyi has always thought that this position belongs to him, after all, he was the one who promoted Zhao'an.

But looking at Zhou Shoufu's attitude now, he seems to have a faint intention to improve the relationship with Short Hair, so that his role as a middleman is greatly reduced? Although only not long ago, Qian Qianyi was still worried about the fact that the ideological system and style of action of those short-haired people were completely different from the Ming tradition, but now when it comes to the issue of their own interests, the worries about the country and the court have all been thrown out of the clouds.

When Qian Ge Lao found Chen Tao, the latter and Chen Dalei were inspecting a warehouse in Nancheng, and there were several other people present. Seeing Qian Qianyi appear in person, the two of them were quite surprised, and they didn't know what important thing was for the Pavilion Boss to come forward in person.

But Qian Qianyi was even more surprised, because he saw several eunuchs here, the first of which was Wang Chengen, who was next to the emperor. Wang Chengen's qualifications are very deep, and he is also the old man who served the Son of Heaven when he was in the hidden mansion. However, he is relatively low-key and does not know much about things, so he is not as beautiful as Gao Qiqian, Cao Huachun and others from the Qiandi, but it is precisely because he has not done much that he is more trusted in front of the Son of Heaven.

With this prince here, of course Qian Qianyi didn't dare to put up any score, so when Er Chen came up to greet him and ask him about his intention, he politely said that it was not a big deal. The prince must be here for the affairs of the palace, that's the important thing, and I'll wait here.

So the two of them really didn't say anything polite to him, and continued to turn around and discuss with the prince and a few of his entourage. Qian Qianyi stood by and listened for a moment, only then did he realize that what he said just now was really right - Wang Chengen was indeed here for the affairs of the palace. And it's really related to the emperor, if it wasn't directly related to the Son of Heaven, it wouldn't be necessary for this big mink in the palace to come out.

-- Winter is here again, and there is still nothing to eat in the northern stables in winter, and even in the imperial dining room for the emperor, there is very little room for choice of ingredients. Meat vegetables are not affected, nothing more than slaughtering a few more pigs and killing a few sheep, but vegetables and fruits and other things, since ancient times, have followed the season, at most there are only some cellared Chinese cabbage, pickled radishes, etc., fruits are nothing more than frozen persimmons, frozen pears and the like, plus jujube walnuts and other dried fruits that can be put on the table, and can barely make up more than a dozen dishes during the New Year's Festival.

It's been like this for thousands of years, and no one thinks much about it. But last winter, Chen Tao brought a batch of southern fruits and vegetables to the stable, which immediately stirred people's hearts -- before this, although Jingshi had known that the southern areas of Guangzhou and Fujian were like spring all year round, even in January and February, when the north was cold and frozen, the south could still enjoy quite a wealth of fresh vegetables and fruits. But people only regard it as a regional specialty, and never think that the fruits and vegetables from the south can be transported to the north to be eaten—the distance is so far that the road must have gone bad. Even if it is forcibly transported regardless of the cost, its number is extremely small. Even if he is the supreme emperor, only Tang Xuanzong has been so extravagant in history for his beloved concubine, and then he has been condemned for thousands of years as a guide to the mediocre behavior of the country......

So last winter, when Shorthair miraculously did this, it was boiling for a long time among the Kyoshi at once. From the Lantern Festival to the beginning of spring - but it was a little late at that time, and the Spring Festival was missed. Moreover, out of prudence at that time, Chen Tao and others did not provide fruits and vegetables to the palace at the first time. This incident made Queen Zhou, who presided over the feed, very unhappy, and felt that the grand palace banquet was not even comparable to the minister's family, which was too embarrassing, and she had to repeat it several times every time she mentioned it in the past year.

So this winter, the Son of Heaven's cronies, Wang Chengen's father-in-law, intervened in this matter from the very beginning, and personally came to negotiate with Chen Tao and others, and must ask to ensure the supply of fruits and vegetables in the palace during the New Year!

(.) U