On August 1, the fourteenth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Changluo, completed his enthronement ceremony, with the year name Taichang.

Out of etiquette, this era name will not be used until the first month of the following year, and in the next four months, the empire's annual name "Wanli" is still used in the records of the first emperor.

Keeping the year name, no matter how solemn the Ministry of Rites says, everyone's hearts are just superficial articles.

The political animals of the two capitals of the empire and the provincial and state capitals, their sense of "going and staying" is more focused on the personnel changes of important ministers in the inner and outer courts.

However, anyone who is well-informed and knows that Wanli's edict was drafted by Zhu Changluo's teacher Sun Chengzong, most of them will conclude that the first and auxiliary party of the cabinet has come to an end in his "career as a solitary minister".

Everyone estimated that those who were about to enter the cabinet, Zhou Jiamo, the secretary of the Ministry at the time, Zhang Wenda, the then imperial history of the Zuodu, and Ye Xianggao, who was the former head of the cabinet and the current resignation at home, these Donglin factions with meritorious contributions to the prince, or pro-Donglin factions, are all possible candidates.

As for the new leader of the celebrant supervisor, he doesn't even need to choose, he must be the companion who has faithfully protected Zhu Changluo all the way, Wang An.

On this day, it is almost the beginning of Shen, the northeast outside the Forbidden City, near Banzai Mountain.

Liu Shimin came out of the Inner Weaving and Dyeing Bureau and waited at the door of the celebrant opposite.

Soon, several Da Jue in scarlet clothes stepped out of the door.

"Father-in-law Lu, Father-in-law Cui, Father-in-law Wang......"

Liu Shimin stepped forward and saluted Lu Shou, Cui Wensheng, and Wang An.

Lu Shou, who was still the eunuch in charge of the seal of the celebrant at the moment, twitched the corners of his mouth, glanced at Cui Wensheng, and smiled at Wang An: "You godson, you are about to return to your hometown like our family." ”

Among the emperor's edicts was to stop weaving, Liu Shimin was in charge of the weaving bureau, and Lu Shou was about to resign from the post of master of ceremonies, so he would tease Liu Shimin like this.

Lu Shou is an old man in front of Wanli, and many years ago he formed an alliance with Zheng Guifei's confidant eunuch Cui Wensheng, betting that Zhu Changxun could be made the crown prince, but unfortunately it backfired.

When the queen of Wanli died this spring, Lu Shou bet that Zheng Guifei could get the throne, but he was wrong again.

Concubine Zheng did not receive the throne from her terminally ill husband, nor did she receive the empress dowager's honorific words in the edict drafted by the opposition Wenchen.

Soon after Zhu Changluo ascended the throne, the first assistant Fang Congzhe asked Lu Shou about it, and heard that the people from Dongchang had entered the Fusi of Jinyi Weibei Town, and they had peeled off the skin of the Jiangnan scribe who preached the evil deeds of Zhu Changxun, the king of fortune, in the capital, which was to challenge the world's scholars.

Lu Shou then understood that Fang Fox, who was old in the eunuch field, was hinting to him that the next inner and outer courts would be controlled by Wang An and Donglin, and he Fang Shoufu was ready to pick up his tail and be a man, Lu Zhangyin should be more interesting, and hurry up to vacate the position of the palm seal of the celebrant and give it to Wang An.

Let them out by themselves, and call someone to drive them down, the latter will not only lose face, but may also lose his life.

At this moment, Cui Wensheng, who was beside Lu Shou, squinted his triangular eyes, and took Lu Shou's stubble without smiling: "Grandpa Lu said this, Gonggong Liu is the most painful junior of the prince, and he is a famous talent in the twenty-four yamen of our inner court. ”

Liu Shimin bent his waist lower, and said respectfully to the Quan Jue beside Concubine Zheng: "Gonggong Cui, how dare you think of anything wrong, waiting here, because of Songjiang Mansion, there are some new silk and cotton blended sweat towels, because the last time the Long Live Lord said that he likes to like blue and lighter, he came to invite the prince to go to the Inner Weaving and Dyeing Bureau to palm his eyes today. ”

Cui Wensheng walked over and patted him on the shoulder: "Well, the Inner Weaving and Dyeing Bureau is also a good place, fat." ”

After that, accompanied by Lu Shou, he walked away.

Wang An was gentle from beginning to end.

Seeing that the two political enemies of the inner court had gone away, he raised his hand to signal Liu Shimin, who was still bowing, and whispered "I have wronged you" while walking into the Inner Weaving and Dyeing Bureau.

In the depths of the Weaving and Dyeing Bureau, after the cronies and little eunuchs covered the door of the house, Wang An said to Liu Shimin: "Ruoyu, I will ask you about someone, Songjiang Zheng's family, Zheng Haizhu." Is this woman from Donglin? ”

Liu Shimin, as before, said without showing any hesitation in front of Wang An: "Godfather, when she was still hired by the Han family, she became friendly with Huang Zunsu, a civil official of the Donglin faction. However, if you want to say that it is a subordinate of Donglin, it is not enough, I think that this girl is closer to Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua, who like Taixi firearms. ”

Wang An lowered his eyes and listened carefully, this information was basically the same as that transmitted by Dong Qichang, Yang Lian and others, so he nodded and said, "It's not the Qichu Zhejiang Party, it's fine." If you are foolish, the eldest son of the emperor is about to go out of the pavilion to study, and the people from Donglin came to me and told me to let this Zheng family come to give a lecture to my brother. ”

Liu Shimin was stunned.

That day in his house, Zheng Haizhu said that he was going to see Yang Lian Zuo Guangdou, Liu Shimin thought that it was like the interaction with Huang Zunsu, doing business and recruiting troops, and looking for Donglin Wenchen, who was going to be powerful in Beijing, as a backer, but he didn't expect that this girl could be so favored by Yang Lian.

Wang An saw Liu Shimin's surprise, changed his words, and said with a pleasant face: "If you are foolish, do you think, why am I close to Donglin?" ”

Liu Shimin said: "Because Donglin has always adhered to the right path in the battle for the country. ”

Wang An said: "That's right, if you are foolish, whoever is good to your brother will be with whom." Yang Lian moved me this time, also because this Zheng family is worried about Xinjun, and we are all the way. ”

"She, what's the problem?" Liu Shimin inquired.

Wang An looked outside the door, leaned over and whispered, "She expected something right." She said that Concubine Zheng Guifei may not be willing to give up, she must first keep her position in charge of the harem, the new emperor has no queen, and several candidates have poor qualifications, and it is impossible to be crowned queen, so the title of the queen mother is very important. Concubine Zheng Guifei must bend her mind to envelop the new emperor, and ask the new emperor to give her the honorific title of queen mother, what other tricks can a harem woman come up with, it is nothing more than to send a woman in the name of Guangyan's heir. ”

When Liu Shimin heard the last few words, his eyes were full of surprise and praise, and he blurted out: "Sure enough, yesterday there was a lot of movement in Yikun Palace, and Concubine Zheng Guifei sent eight beauties to Qianqing Palace. ”

Wang An said in a deep voice: "Long live the lord has a soft temperament, and he actually picked up those eight palace people. Ahem, don't talk about it. It's just that Zheng Haizhu is so good at speculating on all kinds of thoughts, and she invited Ying to Wenhua Hall by herself, which is very useful. Even if she works for the Heavenly Family, she has her own plan, Yang Lian said that most of the plan is to stabilize the industry and battalion soldiers in her own hands, make firearms for the court and guard the country, there is nothing wrong with it. What's more, she gave a lecture to the emperor's eldest grandson, talked about the new things outside, and won the favor of the little brother, who might tell her the secrets of the inner court that you and I don't know. ”

Liu Shimin had already understood what Wang An and Yang Lian were thinking.

In fact, today, before Wang An asked him, he should have made a decision, as long as he, Liu Shimin, as another source, did not say anything about Zheng Haizhu's hard injuries, Wang An's decision would not be changed.

But Liu Shimin, thinking of the big changes that may occur in a year or a few months, somehow hoped that the girl surnamed Zheng would be as far away from the Zhu family as possible.

"Godfather," Liu Shimin weighed the proportions of his words, and said, "It sounds like we have another good helper, but the lecturers in Wenhuadian have always been Hanlin bachelors, and this Zheng family has no name and no share, so I am afraid that those bird speakers outside will splash dirty water without covering their mouths." ”

Wang An waved his hand: "Yang Lian himself is a speech official, and he has already thought about this section." Zheng, it's just that she doesn't have any names such as Hanlin Academy's revision and editing, but she has an edict, and she is also a name given by the imperial court. Moreover, Xu Guangqi has been an emperor, is his reputation enough? Xu Guangqi likes the fire attack of Western France, and the courtiers know it, and the Zheng family is close to him, so he simply made the firearm directly, and this time the Zheng family taught together as his disciple. Didn't the first emperor say in his edict that he was worried that the border provocation had begun, and it was advisable to send more internal funds to help the army. How did the Battle of Fushun teach the Tartars back then? Isn't it precisely artillery and guns? Inheriting the last wish of the emperor, he taught the eldest son of the emperor how to stop the provocation. ”

The more Wang An spoke, the smoother it became, as if he was already in a state of reporting time to the new monarch.

Liu Shimin still wanted to make one last effort, and said with embarrassment: "But she is a woman, will the other lecturers of the Hanlin Academy ...... Especially Sun Chengzong's old-fashioned. ”

Wang An chuckled: "If you are foolish, you have been in the palace for 20 years, and the female officials of various bureaus and departments in this palace, from seven to five grades, and hundreds of people, are not the emperor's concubines. Why, when a foreign woman entered the Wenhua Palace, it made those Hanlin masters feel ashamed? ”

Liu Shimin choked, and finally immediately changed his state of relief: "It's my son who is stupid." Godfather is right. ”