044 Zhou Yanru's cunning

Peacefully spent more than a month, the early winter of the seventh year of the Apocalypse. In the past ten years, the winter in Beijing has become colder and colder year by year, and the cold air coming down from Siberia has been unstoppable after passing the Zunhua line, passing through the obstruction of the city walls, and roaring unbridled in the city.

Late at night and close to the third watch in the middle of the night, the cabinet that had been crowded all day became deserted.

It was the coldest part of the day, and several of the scribes on duty simply spread the thick blankets and half covered them on their chairs, and they still felt shivering and cold. At this time, it is estimated that there will be no major incident, and everyone is lying on the chair and pretending to sleep.

"Xiangye Zhou, summoned by the emperor."

The sound of the cabinet servant woke up Zhou Yanru on duty, and he quickly got up. I saw a twenty-six or seven-year-old eunuch in front of him, dressed in a red gold-woven moire robe that only the emperor's close attendants could wear. Zhou Yanru was still in a trance, but the eunuch was already half-kneeling and saluting him:

"Minister Wu Zhi, kowtow to the prime minister."

Zhou Yanru hurriedly humbled him. Zhu Youzhen was more ruthless in terms of eunuchs, and he was very taboo about going out of bounds when working. After killing a few repeat offenders in front of everyone within the palace walls, the eunuchs are now very modest.

But Zhou Yanru knows very well the power of these people, and he also knows the disadvantages of being unforgiving, and he will never be arrogant and sloppy in treating these eunuchs, especially the big eunuchs around the emperor.

"Dare to ask Your Majesty what is the matter?"

This is not Zhou Yanru's big deal, but as a cabinet assistant, he must have asked such a question when he heard the emperor's summons.

Knowing the emperor's problems or needs, the ministers should prepare materials as soon as possible or convene relevant people in advance, etc., and save the time when they are in a hurry.

"Your Majesty has finished reading Xiangye's "Please Clean Up the Salt Introduction", and asked Xiangye to negotiate matters related to salt production."

Walking into the Wenhua Palace, Zhou Yanru saw Zhu Youzhen nailing small nails to the map, and silk threads of different colors linked these nails. Seeing Zhou Yanru come in, Zhu Youzhen put down the work in his hand, pointed to the rice wine and side dishes on the table and said:

"Knowing that Zhou Xianggong is on duty today, thinking that it is cold on a cold night, I just received the Shaoxing rice wine sent back by Emperor Yi'an's sister-in-law, and I also specially asked the imperial meal to prepare a basket of crabs, and specially summoned you to come over and have a drink."

Zhou Yanru was a little nervous, he knew that the emperor was going to talk about the salt tax, and he actually had to make such a whole thing, it seemed that the emperor's plan was not small.

When he just thought that the emperor would have to drink a few more glasses before he got down to business, he didn't expect the emperor's first sentence to come straight over:

"This cup of jade rope is drunk by yourself, and you will be punished for the incompleteness of what is written on it."

Zhou Yanru smiled bitterly, sometimes you think that this young and ignorant person is young, but he is old and skillful. Sometimes you think this is scheming, but sometimes he exposes the young emperor's out-of-the-box from time to time.

The emperor spoke, and Zhou Yanru was not polite, so he quickly raised his glass and drank it all, fortunately, the degree of rice wine is not high, and it is comfortable to drink it warmly.

Seeing him finish drinking, Zhu Youzhen also raised his glass and touched it in the air, and drank it all.

After drinking, Zhu Youzhen clapped his hands and asked the little eunuch beside him to hand him a small mahogany box.

"I also give you the right to play the secret fold, from now on, if you feel that you don't need to make it public, you can report the secret fold separately. Don't be like you are now. ”

Zhou Yanru looked at his clean-up salt citation, which was densely written by the emperor in black and red pencil.

"Have another drink." There is no way, Zhou Yanru thinks it's okay to cheat.

Zhu Youzhen touched the puppet bead in his pocket, thought about it and put it back. He persuaded himself that there were still many opportunities to need puppet beads in the future, and now I am not rich, and there are twelve left.

"The minister asks the emperor for a favor." Seeing that Zhu Youzhen didn't speak, Zhou Yanru also knew why the emperor summoned him in the middle of the night when there was no one on the third watch.

Zhu Youzhen looked at him and said, "Let's talk about it, I am not a bodhisattva in the temple, what can be achieved will be successful, and what cannot be achieved will not be successful." ”

"The minister wants to ask Huang Zongxi for a favor."

Zhu Youzhen was a little surprised. Huang Zongxi was originally one of the characters in Zhu Youzhen's bag, but he had no choice but to defend left and right, but this one still walked into the case of stabbing Xu Xianchun and Tian Ergeng, and what was even more terrifying was that he also broke away from the original timeline and stabbed Xu Xianchun to death directly.

The plea for innocence in the court floated like snowflakes, and in the end, Zhu Youzhen still criticized the unforgivable guilt, and now people are still waiting in Dali Temple to fall.

According to Zhu Youzhen's idea, he wanted to send Huang Zongxi to Hong Chengchou. Hong Chengchou is good at fighting the internal army, and he is a little worse at Fumin, and at the same time, he is too conservative in his thinking, and with a down-to-earth and ideal Huang Zongxi, there is a little hope for long-term peace and stability in the northwest.

But that's not the thing now.

This is good, without one Huang Zongxi, he can exchange Zhou Yanru's motivation to kill the royal nobles. This matter has come to this point by mistake, and Zhu Youzhen has to have good luck.

"Cheng, the jade rope has been said, but killing people on the spot, and wanting to completely get away with it is an idiot's dream. How about being sent to Liaodong for fifteen years in the army? ”

"My majesty, just his body, he died in Liaodong." Zhou Yanru felt that he could ask for a little more treatment.

"Cheng, then Xi'an Mansion for five years, how about it?"

"The minister thanks Your Majesty for Huang Zongxi, and respects Your Majesty."

Zhou Yanru, who entered the cabinet, seemed to be already a potential leader of Donglin, and he was an official in turn, and ten Huang Zongxi couldn't catch up. But he himself knows that whether it is in terms of learning, especially in the leadership of new trends of thought, he is now far behind Huang Zongxi. Especially after the leader of the eunuch party this time and avenged the six gentlemen of Donglin, his prestige has been growing day by day.

Zhou Yanru understands that this is the disadvantage of being an official. It is natural to maintain the stability of the system within the system, and this is the requirement of the system for all bureaucrats within itself. In the long run, nature and the scholars in the rivers and lakes who naively think about the fate of their families and countries will go farther and farther.

But now, as long as the emperor does not doubt his loyalty, the matter of interceding for Huang Zongxi will bring him more benefits than expected. Think about it, I will be Huang Zongxi's benefactor for the rest of my life, and I will crush Huang Zongxi.

Zhu Youzhen is also happy, Huang Zongxi's matter was originally another mountain that he wanted to support again, although it is said that Donglin has not gathered from the beginning, but there are two leading figures, this is the norm of an organization.

Both of them drank a big cup, and Zhou Yanru hurriedly went back to find out about the salt tax.

He didn't know what the emperor thought, but he knew that this scoundrel form wanted to blackmail the emperor once, so he had to quickly arrange something to dilute the shadow of this matter in the emperor's mind. Otherwise, this little thorn in the heart will burst out sooner or later.