Chapter 201 Hai Rui: I am not qualified to play this game
In the study room of Lingtian Courtyard in Yan Mansion.
The three generations of the Yan family gathered together again and held a small meeting.
"Dad, this old guy Xu Jie is so presumptuous. Isn't he afraid of being punished by the Emperor?" After listening to his father's description of Xu Jie's plan, Yan Shifan widened his eyes in shock.
At this moment, the young cabinet minister Yan Shifan also felt a chill in his heart.
Xu Jie's actions, let alone now, even before the 39th year of Jiajing, when the emperor was in seclusion for many years and all the big and small matters of the court were controlled by his father, the Yan family did not dare to do this.
Even though my father framed one loyal person after another, formed cliques for personal gain, and engaged in corruption and bribery, he never overstepped his authority.
This time, Xu Jie really went too far and spread the magic without the emperor's approval.
Of course, it was inevitable that the immortal skills would spread. After all, his Yan family had already begun to teach the immortal skills to their own clansmen and children in secret. Who in the court, such as Zhang Juzheng, had not done so?
In the future, as the imperial court announces, it will enter the dynasty of immortal cultivation. There will also be immortal cultivators in the imperial court, and the immortal arts will spread sooner or later.
In the whole incident, the spread of the immortal method was actually harmless as the court announced the establishment of the Immortal Dynasty two years later, or even less than two years later. The most serious thing about this incident was that Xu Jie did it without the emperor's consent.
This is equivalent to making decisions for the emperor.
"Dad, will the emperor conduct a thorough investigation because of this? We..." Yan Shifan suddenly seemed to have thought of something, and his eyes revealed a nervous look as he looked at his father Yan Song.
"No," Yan Song gave his son a positive answer this time, unlike in the past when he let Yan Shifan figure it out on his own. "I've said before that it's right to be cautious, but you don't have to be too cautious."
"At the beginning of the development of the Ming Dynasty, the first thing to do was to satisfy the absolute rule of the upper class, and then to arrange for the lower class."
"The Emperor has granted us immortal arts and spiritual connections, which means he has tacitly allowed us to grow rapidly in a short period of time."
Hearing his father say this, Yan Shifan felt relieved.
He was not afraid of anything else but that the emperor would be angry with everyone because of Xu Jie's actions.
"Wait," Yan Song sighed at this time, and said, "Whether Xu Jie can turn things around, or... it all depends on the emperor's will, but no matter what, my Yan family will be the winner!"
Hearing his father's words, Yan Shifan couldn't help but smile. This was indeed true.
Regardless of whether the emperor would accept the gift from Xu Jie or not, or how he would deal with Xu Jie, the Yan family had a clean hand in this matter.
Thinking of this, the smile on Yan Shifan's face suddenly froze. No, he remembered that his father wanted to help Xu Jie, right?
"Dad, your deal with Xu Jie..."
Looking at the frozen smile on his son Yan Shifan's face, Yan Song snorted and laughed, saying, "Li Chengwu wants to attack my Yan family, can't my Yan family fight back? As for whether it helps Xu Jie in the process..." Yan Song said in a submissive tone, "I don't know."
Hearing what his father said, Yan Shifan thought for a moment and then smiled again.
Yes, their Yan family has always done this.
We have no idea what Xu Jie is going to do. Even if it comes to the emperor, as long as things don't get out of control, the emperor will still side with the Yan family.
The emperor never dealt with his subjects based on right or wrong, but rather based on their interests and whether the subjects were useful.
As long as the Yan family acts as the sword in the emperor's hand, does not overstep the line, and does not do anything risky, they will be invincible.
Yan Shaoting on the side never interrupted and just listened silently.
His grandfather told him that he must listen carefully, watch carefully, and think carefully. When it comes to court affairs, it is far from enough to rely on a smart mind. He also needs to be bold and careful, and even a bit confused.
He still has a lot to learn.
Yan Shaoting naturally knew that his grandfather Yan Song wanted to train him to be the future pillar of the Yan family.
No matter how powerful a family of immortal cultivators is, at least for the Yan family, dependence on the emperor is their eternal choice.
In the court, by the emperor's side, there must be someone from the Yan family.
Nowadays, in the entire court, the most relaxed and comfortable family is naturally the Yan family.
Even Prince Yu and Prince Jing were not as relaxed as Yan Song and his two generations of grandchildren in terms of mentality at this moment.
As for Li Chengwu and others, they have not had a moment of relaxation since the official war with Qingliu, and their nerves have always been tense.
At this time, Li Mansion.
More than half of the senior officials from the six ministries, the Inspectorate, the Dali Temple, etc. gathered together again.
"According to the letter Mingyuan sent back, Hai Rui investigated Zhang Wenyuan's suicide and smuggling all the way from Fuzhou Prefecture. It only took him one month to find out the truth in Nanjing..."
At this time, Zhang Tingrui, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Inspectorate, spoke with a look of satisfaction on his face.
"It seems that Hai Rui is quite capable!" Upon hearing this, the others nodded.
"All the clues now point to Nanjing City," said Xu Zhengzhi, the Minister of Justice.
"Doesn't this mean that officials of all ranks in Nanjing are involved in the smuggling of spiritual resources from Yingzhou Prefecture to Songjiang Prefecture?"
"In fact, we should have thought of this earlier," said Wang Jingming, the Minister of Personnel, adding, "Tang Shunzhi, the Governor-General of Zhejiang Province, is now stationed in Nanjing City, and Tang Shunzhi is a member of the Yan Party."
"Now that we are moving the cabinet, Yan Song and others will definitely stick together. We can see this from the last discussion in Wenhua Hall..." At this point, Wang Jingming's eyes suddenly flashed with a gleam of light, and then he looked at Li Chengwu who was sitting at the top, and said:
"It seems that the city of Nanjing is hiding a big secret!"
"But, what could it be?" Hearing this, the others couldn't help but start thinking about it. But after a moment, everyone raised their heads at the same time and looked at Li Chengwu.
"Immortal magic!" Facing everyone's gaze, Li Chengwu also spoke at this time.
"Spiritual resources are used to prepare for cultivating immortals, and if one wants to cultivate immortals, one must have immortal methods. If the high-ranking officials in Nanjing City all obtain immortal methods, they will naturally have a reason to protect Songjiang Prefecture!"
"And this is the real reason why Songjiang Prefecture, which was clearly relocated to Nanzhili in the 41st year of Jiajing, did not report the evidence of Zhang Wenyuan's smuggling to Nanjing, but instead secretly reported it to us!"
"It's a pity that Zhang Bowen was also silenced by them." Someone said, sighing and clapping his hands with his fists.
"In fact, what I want to know more now is whether the emperor knows that Xu Jie gave the magic to the officials in Nanjing?" At this time, Yang Shoucheng, the president of the Hanlin Academy, suddenly spoke while pinching his beard.
The others were startled when they heard this.
"It should have been tacitly approved... right?" Dali Temple Minister Li Weiqing said uncertainly.
"No, I just think that the emperor doesn't know about this!" At this time, Zhao Wenxuan, the Minister of Public Administration, suddenly spoke.
Zhao Wenxuan is a middle-aged man with a thin build, gray hair, and a very shrewd look. He is about forty-five or forty-six years old.
When Zhao Wenxuan opened his mouth, everyone looked at him, waiting for his inference.
"Have you forgotten? The most important thing for our Ming Dynasty now is to complete Yan Shifan's 'Qisi Innovation' reform."
"And the deadline that the Emperor gave Yan Shifan was the imperial examination at the beginning of the 52nd year of Jiajing!"
"In order to cooperate with the reforms promoted by the father and son of the Yan family, our Tongzhengshisi, from top to bottom, is working hard to sell the 'Da Ming Za Bao'. Every month, the two capitals and 13 provinces of the Ming Dynasty have special miscellaneous newspapers on sale and report them to the Tongzhengshisi."
"But what does this have to do with the Nanjing incident?" someone asked.
The others looked at Zhao Wenxuan, thoughtfully.
"Brother Wenxuan, what do you want to talk about? The next stage after the court reforms?" Li Chengwu suddenly spoke up. "I remember that according to the court's plan, in the 47th year of Jiajing, the 'concentration of land and reduction of clans' was completed, and then the 'inspirational reform' national policy was implemented."
"It is for the purpose of carrying out the third and fourth stages of land reform."
"That is to say, no matter how you calculate it, the imperial court will not announce the matter of the immortal law to the public before the national policy of 'Innovation' is implemented."
"Not bad!" Zhao Wenxuan nodded.
"Also, everyone, please don't forget that no matter from which perspective, the immortal law should be announced from the top level, and then passed down to the lower levels, layer by layer, so that it will be easier to manage!"
"For example, the first group of people in my Ming Dynasty who obtained the immortal law and embarked on the immortal path were the cabinet elders," Zhao Wenxuan said, his eyes flashing with a glimmer of insight, and he said slowly: "So, no matter what, we should be the first to obtain the immortal law."
"Then there are officials of all ranks from Nanjing!"
"Nanjing is the old capital, and the power of Nanzhili is now in the hands of the Governor-General of Zhejiang, Tang Shunzhi. So how can the officials in Nanjing obtain the immortal law?"
"Therefore, I dare to conclude that the officials in Nanjing obtained the immortal method and helped the Xu family smuggle spiritual resources. This was all done without the emperor's knowledge!"
"Even the families behind all the cabinet elders are involved. After all, from Yingzhou Prefecture to the inland, the entire area is within the scope of Nanzhili! Any smuggling route must be transported from Nanzhili to the entire Ming Dynasty!"
"Hiss!" After analyzing it layer by layer, everyone present couldn't help but take a breath of cold air at this moment. At the same time, everyone's heart started pounding at this moment, and they felt the blood rushing.
Because they discovered an incredible secret!
A big secret: if the matter is exposed and made a big fuss, the emperor will be furious, and all the elders in the cabinet will be liquidated one by one. The cabinet is deceiving the emperor!
The cabinet will practice cultivation techniques in Nanjing without telling the emperor today, but what about tomorrow? What will they do tomorrow?
As an emperor, no one would allow such a thing to happen. Xiuxian, that is the legendary "immortal". If a large army of Xiuxian was organized, wouldn't the Ming Dynasty change its master in an instant?
Thinking of these, even the calm Li Chengwu became a little excited at the moment, and felt that victory was just around the corner and within reach!
He had already seen the opportunity to destroy the cabinet in one fell swoop! "Brother Zhang," Li Chengwu looked at Zhang Tingrui, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Supervisory Office, and said solemnly, "Nanjing City is the territory of the Yan Party. We cannot interfere. Now we have no choice but to let Chen Mingyuan leave Songjiang Prefecture as the Supervisory Censor and follow Hai Rui to Nanjing to investigate the case!"
"In this way, we can know the movements in Nanjing!" After saying that, Li Chengwu looked at Zhao Wenxuan of the Tongzhengshisi and said in a deep voice: "Brother Wenxuan, it's your turn to take action!"
"Immediately spread the news throughout the country that every official in Nanjing is practicing Taoism, but you must distance yourself from us!"
At this moment, Li Chengwu was in full control, exuding a powerful aura from head to toe, and his words were full of energy. It seemed as if he had returned to the days when he was fighting against the Jurchen tribe in Liaodong Regional Military Commission!
He had never imagined that the bloodless party struggles in the imperial court could be so tense and exciting, making his blood boil.
"Don't worry," Zhao Wenxuan smiled confidently and said, "Before the Three Religions War, the last Tongzhengshi was under the command of Yan Song. After he was dealt with, I have verified through various sources that many illegal booksellers in the Ming Dynasty are now colluding with the government and privately printing Ming miscellaneous newspapers."
"I have been keeping these people in my control and have not dealt with them. I originally wanted to use them as my political achievements, but I didn't expect that they would come in handy at this time. This time, let them do some publicity for the elders."
When Zhao Wenxuan spoke, he had an attitude of planning and winning a battle from thousands of miles away, and his eyes were full of confidence.
"Ministry of Personnel," Li Chengwu looked at the Minister of Personnel Wang Jingming and said, "Brother Jingming, from today on, we will strictly investigate the relationship between the officials of Nanzhili and the cabinet..."
"Don't worry, Wang has already started preparing." The Minister of Personnel Wang Jingming also had a confident look on his face.
"Ministry of Rites," Li Chengwu looked at the Minister of Rites Zhao Chongli and said, "Be prepared to receive the new Imperial College. The cabinet has been overthrown, but the court's national policy of 'initiating innovation' cannot be affected."
"Don't worry, I have already told the students and asked them to wait patiently." Zhao Chongli said confidently.
After finishing all the arrangements, Li Chengwu took a deep breath and looked at everyone, then he clasped his fists solemnly and said, "Your performance today has proved that if the six departments work together, there is no need for the so-called cabinet to command."
"I want to prove to all officials in the world that with the six ministries in the court, there is no need for a so-called cabinet!"
"After all, the Ming Dynasty is supported by the six ministries, not by some people talking nonsense!"
After these words were spoken, everyone looked at Li Chengwu with enthusiasm and admiration in their eyes!
If before, everyone was dissatisfied with, or even disdainful of, this soldier-like bully, now everyone has been deeply impressed by Li Chengwu's personal charm.
Everything happened just as Xu Jie expected. Li Chengwu and others did take the bait. They had no reason not to take it!
Because the situation he set up leaves no way out, and only in this way will Li Chengwu and others believe it!
"Next, it's the emperor's turn to join the game..." Inside the Xu Mansion, Xu Jie sat quietly on the chair and spoke slowly.
This is a decisive move, life and death depends on the emperor's decision.
As for Li Chengwu and others, they will definitely make a big deal out of this. At that time, everyone will be greeted by an imperial sword that can wipe out everything. Life and death will only depend on the blade.
……
Mid-July, the 50th year of Jiajing’s reign.
"Swoosh!" A golden stream of light suddenly shot out from the Purple Gold Mountain and rushed straight towards the huge falcon in the sky.
"Chirp!" The falcon sensed the danger, let out a cry, and flapped its wings to try to escape.
However, it was impossible for it to avoid this golden light. The light instantly turned into a golden rope and wrapped around its body. The falcon let out a mournful cry and fell from the sky.
"Boom!" Smoke and dust rolled, making the robes of Hai Rui and Wang Yongji rustle. However, Hai Rui had a gloomy face at this moment, and in his hand, there was a small bright yellow talisman floating.
If you look closely, you can see a big "Bi" character engraved on the front of the talisman.
This is a gold-attributed trapped character talisman.
Once the spiritual energy is activated, a rope will emerge from the talisman and bind the enemy.
As for the trapped talisman, in the world of immortal cultivation, there are only two of each talisman in a small package of ten five-element talismans. It costs only seven taels of spiritual energy, making it a cheap talisman.
Jiajing gave Hai Rui six or seven small packages of five-element talismans.
Even the medium-sized pack of five-element talismans, which cost twenty-four taels of spiritual energy per pack, Jiajing was generous and gave three packs. At the same time, he also gave Hai Rui a high-level water-attribute attack talisman.
Jiajing had Hai Rui in charge of Ningbo Prefecture for no reason. Just that high-level water-attributed attack talisman, once activated at sea, would be no less effective than the one that destroyed Yinshan.
It even looks more stunning because it is at sea.
It is precisely because of this that Hai Rui holds the absolute power of a cultivator in his hands, so he can beat up the so-called overseas countries at will. He can really resist thousands of troops by himself.
"Wow!" At this time, Wang Yongji waved his hand, and the spiritual energy dispersed the billowing smoke and dust in front of him, revealing a huge spiritual falcon that was struggling and wailing in pain in the pit.
"Which one is this?" Hai Rui stepped forward, looked at the falcon in front of him, and said in a cold voice.
Wang Yongji noticed that his friend was in a bad mood, so he did not say anything to persuade him. He just said calmly: "This month, it's the 40th one, and there are more than 20 crows among them..."
They have been staying in Nanjing for more than a month.
In the past month or so, the number of spiritual birds discovered can be said to be seventy or eighty, nearly a hundred.
The most important thing is that these spiritual birds are not ordinary spiritual birds that have mutated after absorbing spiritual energy. In terms of size and attack power alone, they are comparable to the spiritual birds raised in the suburbs of Beijing and used exclusively by the imperial court.
And these are just the ones they have discovered. There are many more they have not discovered and are still in activity.
"Humph!" Hai Rui snorted coldly when he heard this, with a cold light flashing in his eyes, "Termite!"
As he spoke, he waved his hand, and a cold light flashed in the storage bag on his waist. A long sword appeared, and as he swung his hand, the huge head of the spirit falcon flew up directly, hot blood spilled, and a rich spiritual energy dissipated.
"The spiritual energy contained in the blood is surprisingly so concentrated," Wang Yongji stepped forward, leaned over, dipped his finger in the blood of the spiritual falcon, rubbed his fingers gently, stood up and sighed, "The quality has reached the top grade."
"Unfortunately, these spiritual birds are all domesticated, but they do not belong to the court, so we have to kill them." After saying this, Wang Yongji looked at Hai Rui and said, "Brother Gangfeng, it seems that the hidden conspiracy in Nanjing City is no longer suspenseful. It is exactly what we thought before."
"Lord Xu has distributed magic to the people and officials in Nanjing. His purpose in attracting you to Nanjing is to use you to make this game reasonable and flawless. To be more precise, he wants to give Li Chengwu a chance to join the game. The arrival of Supervisory Censor Chen Mingyuan not long ago just proves this point."
"This shows that Li Chengwu has also realized this and he believes it," Wang Yongji said, shaking his head. "To be honest, I feel a chill on the back of my neck when I think about it now."
"Tell me, how dare he do that?" Wang Yongji couldn't understand.
Well, not to mention that he couldn't figure it out at the moment, even when Hai Rui thought about it carefully, his eyelids twitched slightly.
Is it a big deal to distribute magic to the people and officials of Nanjing? No, it is not a big deal at all. Not to mention Hai Rui, even Wang Yongji would not take it seriously.
Even if all the hundreds of thousands of people in Nanjing City have immortal magic, what can they do? The capital city only needs to send out the Immortal Guards to easily suppress them, or even a high-level attack talisman will do.
Not to mention, there are only 30,000 of these people.
And these 30,000 people were strictly marked, monitored and observed.
In addition, each person only obtains a small amount of spiritual rice. People with sufficient talent and qualifications can successfully draw Qi into the body through this little bit of spiritual resources.
And then, then nothing!
First of all, the "Qi-inducing Art" only has visualization diagrams, and the formula only reaches the point where it can open the acupoints. There is no subsequent content, and these people are just the "seedlings" of cultivating immortals.
Even with that little bit of spiritual energy, it could only successfully draw Qi into the body, but it was not enough to open up even a single acupoint.
These people can never achieve anything!
Those who are not talented enough, even if they take pills to remove impurities and diseases, but cannot draw Qi into the body and start opening up the acupoints with that little bit of spiritual rice, will be abandoned directly.
Therefore, these immortal cultivators were equivalent to the 30,000 immortal seedlings that Xu Jie prepared for the court, but in the end, even the harvest was less than 30,000.
Just wait for the Ming Dynasty to announce it, and when it enters the Immortal Dynasty, it will be directly and perfectly accepted, incorporated into the court, and then obtain subsequent immortal magic.
And in the city of Nanjing, the immortal methods that spread during the process will spread like seeds and grow wildly.
Those who obtain the immortal methods have no resources and can only seek refuge with the imperial court. In this way, the imperial court will obtain a steady supply of wild immortal seedlings.
If one day, the Ming Dynasty had spiritual energy, then everyone would be cultivating immortals. In such a huge dynasty of cultivating immortals, it would be strange if one or two casual cultivators appeared among the people. Could it be a big deal?
Compared to the imperial court that had been ahead of everyone for who knows how long, what could a mere casual cultivator count for? As long as the imperial court was willing, anyone who dared to offend could be easily suppressed.
Therefore, Hai Rui and Wang Yongji would not take this matter to heart at all.
What the two of them cared about more at this moment, and what everyone wanted to know was, was the emperor's attitude towards this matter.
To put it bluntly, the emperor's attitude is more important than the impact caused by this incident.
"Brother Gangfeng, what should we do next? You are an important part of this game. How do you make the next move?" Wang Yongji looked at Hai Rui.
"I am no longer qualified to play this game of chess!" Hai Rui said in a low voice, looking up at the sky, "It all depends on the Emperor..."
"..."
(End of this chapter)
