On April 16, the sixth year of Wanli, Zhang Wenming, the father of Zhang Juzheng, was buried in Taihui Mountain.

But after the funeral was over, Zhang Juzheng did not immediately leave for Beijing.

Instead, on the grounds that on the way back to Beijing, it was a time of scorching heat, and the old mother who wanted to be brought to Beijing to be raised, and he was afraid that he would not be able to endure the heat of the journey, and asked Zhu Yijun to allow him to postpone his return, and hoped to return to Beijing in August and September.

Zhu Yijun knew that this was Zhang Ju testing himself, wanting to see if he, the emperor, had really begun to trust Gao Gong more, and no longer needed him to return to Beijing, so he used the excuse to say something in April that he was afraid that his mother would be unbearable and that he wanted to postpone his return.

In fact, Zhu Yijun has already made it clear by calling Gao Gong that Gao Gong has a weakness that Zhang Juzheng does not have, and in the end it is different from Zhang Juzheng's, and it is indeed more suitable to stay in the court as a consultant, and only Zhang Juzheng is really suitable for him, the emperor, to advocate for the great affairs of the world, and to be able to sweep away the aftermath and take responsibility.

Therefore, Zhu Yijun also pretended to be stern and said: "Let the clerk's office pass on this to the cabinet to pass on my message, and ask the cabinet ministers, I look forward to Mr. early day and night, how can I play this again?!" ”

Zhang Whale said yes.

Cabinet Zhang Siwei and Wang Guoguang were shocked when they heard this.

After the eunuch in the clerical room left, Wang Guoguang first said to Zhang Siwei unconvinced: "How dare we prevent Yuanfu from returning to Beijing, how can Your Majesty sprinkle his anger on us?!" ”

Zhang Siwei smiled bitterly and said: "Your Majesty means that we have to urge Yuanfu to return to Beijing for him, and we can't directly urge him, lest people in the world really think that the Son of Heaven can't leave Yuanfu!" ”

Then, Zhang Siwei sighed and said, "Now it seems that Your Majesty is indeed still very dependent on Yuanfu. ”

Wang Guoguang suddenly smiled and asked Zhang Siwei: "Does Ziwei think this is not a good thing?" ”

Zhang Siwei was stunned for a moment, and then said sharply: "The servant didn't say this!" ”

After speaking, Zhang Siwei threw up his sleeves and returned to his duty room, and said in a low voice: "Walked a Zhao Neijiang, and came to Wang Yangcheng, all of them spoke in a weird way, which made people dislike, how long will it take to survive in the cabinet!" ”

Soon after Zhu Yijun announced the cabinet, the officials of the cabinet, the six ministries, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and other departments understood their intentions and asked the emperor to urge Zhang Juzheng to return to Beijing as soon as possible.

Only then did Zhu Yijun ask from the hundred officials to issue a holy decree, saying: "I look forward to Qing day and night, how can I ask for forgiveness!" Stay to send the eunuch to the guest first, and wait for the autumn cool to send the old mother to the north, Qing Yi should go on the road quickly, and finally arrive in Beijing in May, in order to comfort me, Fang is loyal and filial! “

In addition, Zhu Yijun also sent the Jinyi guard to command the servant Zhai Rujing to rush to Jiangling at night, stay by Zhang Juzheng's side, and urge Zhang Juzheng to leave.

After Zhang Juzheng saw the holy decree sent by Zhai Rujing Starry Night, he was immediately overjoyed and hurriedly said: "In this way, it seems that the holy order is difficult to disobey, and we can only go north as soon as possible." ”

"Yuan Fu can understand the holy will, naturally excellent! It can also make the lower officials less harshly criticized, which is really a great achievement. ”

Zhai Rujing replied with a smile.

Zhang Juzheng then asked Zhai Rujing: "How is Yu Gong, who is in charge of the brocade guard, now?" ”

"Duke Yu was impeached by the imperial history, saying that he was privately gifted by foreign ministers, and there is empirical evidence, and the Son of Heaven can hardly hide his mistakes, so he has been sent to Guizhou Duyun to garrison and guard."

Zhai Rujing replied.

Zhang Juzheng was in a good mood after hearing this, so he smiled at Zhai Rujing and said: "In this way, the general is also promoted." How can the servant delay the public service? ”

As he spoke, Zhang Juzheng instructed Zhang Jingxiu: "Tell your family that you must leave for the north by May 20 at the latest, without delay." ”

After Zhang Juzheng finished speaking, he went to his mother first, preparing to personally inform his mother of the departure to the north.

Zhai Rujing was very grateful to Zhang Juzheng.

On 20 May, Zhang Juzheng, except for seeing only the officials and the vassal kings, refused to stop along the way, and did not see officials from various places, so that he received a lot of gifts and filial piety, in order not to delay the arrival time in Beijing, along the way, he was only escorted by the Jinyi guards, and the boats and cars kept galloping to Beijing.

When Zhang Juzheng had begun to return to Beijing, Ma Ziqiang and Shen Shixing were still on their way to inspect the place.

The two are the new ministers who were elected by Zhang Juzheng to the cabinet, and they are also the successors that Zhang Juzheng intends to choose as the first batch of successors.

Therefore, Zhang Juzheng specially sent the same private letter to these two people before leaving Beijing, and the content of the private message was to ask them more about the people's sufferings in the local area, and carefully consider how to start the Wanli New Deal after the end of the Qingzhang Tianmu, whether to continue to restructure, and what system to change if it is to be reformed?

Moreover, Zhang Juzheng also asked these two people to talk to him about the three new policies that Zhao Zhenji, Hai Rui and he discussed in the past before the imperial court, which were not implemented after inspecting the place, which can be implemented after clearing the acres of land.

Zhang Juzheng put forward these three questions, which can be regarded as three examination questions for these two cabinet ministers, and it can be regarded as wanting to see what these two cabinet ministers hold.

Ma Ziqiang and Shen Shixing naturally knew what they meant, so they didn't dare to slack off.

It's just that soon after Ma Ziqiang left Beijing, he was given a gorgeous boat by the Li family, a wealthy gentry in Tongzhou, in the name of his nephew, and so that Ma Ziqiang enjoyed luxurious treatment as soon as he left Beijing, and on the way south, there were many gentry who asked to see him in the name of his protégé, and some gentry even did not hesitate to bribe their house slaves with a thousand taels of gifts, just to have a chance to invite Ma Ziqiang to have a meal, or even just to see him.

This is something that cannot be avoided.

After all, everyone knows that ministers like Ma Ziqiang will control the world's major politics in the future, so they all want to make the future court politics more beneficial to themselves through Ma Ziqiang, and even hope that they can get more power in the future through Ma Ziqiang.

Whether it is a wealthy gentleman or a rich man, they all know that only power can guarantee the rich, and even win greater wealth.

Therefore, these people also know that no matter how much they invest in Ma Ziqiang, they will not lose money, and even if they don't expect Ma Ziqiang to drive them, they hope that in this way, at least Ma Ziqiang will not use his power to embarrass them because of their slow treatment.

In this era, the cabinet ministers are close to the Son of Heaven, and their legal ability to harm cannot be underestimated.

You must know that in the Ming Dynasty, it happened that one was ordered to inspect the disaster area, because the gentry in the disaster area did not give him a generous gift, but directly told the court that the local wealth could not have a disaster, so that after the local disaster, the disaster was not timely relieved, and many people died.

Ma Ziqiang, as a cabinet minister, and is likely to be a cabinet minister who will preside over major politics in the future, will naturally be treated more carefully by the local gentry.

"How many posts are there today?"

When Ma Ziqiang first arrived in Songjiang on this day, he asked his son Ma Yi about posting to see him.

Ma Yi replied, "There are seventy-six copies." ”

"It's hard to have time to ask the people."

Ma Ziqiang complained and said, "I don't see it!" ”

At this time, Ma Yi said: "It's just that there is an old man Li who lives in Songjiang, and it is better for my father to see him, he is the son of Mr. Chu Bin's sister-in-law Li Fangbo." ”

Chu Bin is You Qi's number.

And You Qi is Zhang Juzheng's house slave.