Chapter 270 269 Trouble

Although the annual gift has not been issued, Wei Guangde cannot wait for the silver to be issued before starting to send gifts.

After writing the letter, he asked Zhang Ji to pick a few ginsengs and pack them together and give them to Zhao Hu to take with him to meet the caravan returning to Jiujiang.

The reason why Zhao Hu was arranged to go on the road with the caravan was mainly because he had something to take to Nanjing City, and Wei Guangde was not at ease to ask the caravan members for help.

Of course, the caravan has been on the road for more than half a month, and it should have arrived near Henan now, not far from home.

The New Year's festival in my hometown has been resolved, and the only thing left is the relationship that needs to be maintained in the capital.

Yan Song's mansion must be given a gift, and it can't be too little.

The recent search for old ginseng in the capital has caused a shortage of high-quality ginseng, and the price has naturally changed a little, but because there are still many ginsengs of ordinary years, the overall price change is not much.

However, due to the shortage, these old ginsengs have naturally become good things for gifts in the capital during this period.

Wei Guangde also went to see off Xu Jie, Lü Ben and other cabinet ministers, but he didn't see them. They were all sent back by family members or housekeepers.

Weng Pu had been back from Xuanfu for a few days, and Wei Guangde took advantage of the upcoming New Year to go there and give him gifts.

The rest of the time was to wait for the government to give money, and then close the government office, so that he could enjoy the longest rest since he became an official.

Wei Guangde was naturally surprised. There was no news from the palace, and Li Bin was still the eunuch in charge of the Silijian. This made Wei Guangde think that something had gone wrong with Lu Bing, so he didn't take action.

According to Wei Guangde's analysis, Lu Bing should want to get some money from the process of confiscating the family property. Is there a better time than the New Year?

But as time passed quietly, after Wei Guangde received his salary and annual gifts, the New Year atmosphere in the capital officially reached its climax.

This year, the officials in Beijing were still very satisfied, at least the Qingliu were very satisfied. The thing they had been worried about, that the court would not be able to pay salaries and rewards, did not happen.

With money in their hands, the officials began to buy New Year's goods in the market of Beijing. The restaurants and teahouses were already full and could not receive new guests, and the warehouses and shops were even more crowded.

At this time, Beijing was of course the most prosperous city in the world at this time.

There were still ten days before the New Year, but in the eyes of the people in Beijing, it was already the New Year.

Pedestrians were shoulder to shoulder on the street, and vendors took this opportunity to sell their own goods along the street. Business was prosperous, and people lived and worked in peace and contentment.

Although in the eyes of later generations, the people of the Ming Dynasty seemed to be very poor, but in fact, at this time, the people of the Ming Dynasty had the highest level of wealth in the world during this period.

Although it is not the New Year, the Ducheng Temple Market and Dongyue Temple Market in the capital have already opened, and there are already many Beijing citizens who come here to spend money every day.

Wei Guangde has already spent the New Year in the capital, and this time is no exception. He will go around and watch the excitement with his friends.

The various government offices are no longer like usual. Most people go to report for duty and then go to do their own things. The hall official doesn't care, and he has a lot of things to do.

The outside of Chengtian Gate has been blocked, and the craftsmen in the palace have begun to build lanterns here to prepare for the Aoshan Lantern Festival.

There is not much to do in the Hanlin Academy, but there are more things to do in the Taichang Temple, but they have nothing to do with him. The drums and music prepared for the Aoshan Lantern Festival are all prepared in an orderly manner under the supervision of the Taichang Temple Minister and Shaoqing, and the personnel deployment was completed last month.

However, until all the major government offices in the capital were closed, Wei Guangde did not hear the news of Li Bin's fall.

The outside world naturally didn't know what happened in the cabinet and the West Garden before the festival. Everything was kept secret, and only a handful of people knew about it.

Wei Guangde didn't know how much evidence Lu Bing had found of Li Bin's crimes. He just guessed that there should be a lot of corruption and abuse of power. Lu Bing naturally wouldn't tell him his plan in detail.

In fact, what Wei Guangde didn't know was that the evidence of Li Bin's crimes found by Lu Bing actually concealed the reverse scale of Emperor Jiajing.

After a lively New Year, the major government offices in the capital reopened, and Wei Guangde naturally rushed to the Hanlin Academy early to report for duty.

It is worth mentioning that in Wei Guangde's first year as an official, he also went to the two major court meetings that he had to attend, but he lined up outside the Fengtian Gate and performed the ceremony of five bows and three kowtows to the palace in front of him without the emperor.

The major court meetings that Wei Guangde, a seventh-rank official, needed to attend were naturally the two on the winter solstice and the first day of the lunar year, but Emperor Jiajing was no longer interested in these empty rituals at this time and had stopped attending them a few years ago.

Since the emperor did not sit on the throne of Fengtian Hall, the court officials naturally did not need to go in to pay homage. Just bowing outside would complete the ceremony.

In the morning, he chatted with his colleagues in Hanlin Academy for a long time. At noon, he went to Yintai to ask for instructions. He should go to Taichang Temple in the afternoon.

Yintai had no objection. Although it was past the 15th, it was just the beginning of the office and there was nothing to do. Everyone was not focused, not to mention that Hanlin Academy did not have much to do.

When he arrived at Taichang Temple, Wei Guangde felt that from the gatehouse to the inside, the people who came in and out in a hurry had happy faces, as if they had encountered something great.

Wei Guangde did not know what happened in the yamen, so he shook his head and went in directly.

When he arrived at the Dianbo Hall, Wei Guangde saw Yu Shihui sitting behind the desk, and his face was also full of uncontrollable joy.

"Master Yu, what happened in the Yamen today? I walked in and saw everyone was very happy."

Wei Guangde asked casually after entering the door.

"Master Wei, it's normal that you didn't come in the morning and didn't know. After all, most of your time has to be taken care of the errands of revising books in the Hanlin Academy."

Yu Shihui stood up and bowed his hands to Wei Guangde. Yu Shihui had always been very polite to Wei Guangde. After all, he didn't know when he would grow old.

Wei Guangde didn't let Wei Guangde wait for too long. After Wei Guangde sat down, he also sat down and then said, "Did you know about the Emperor's visit to Chengtian Gate on the Lantern Festival night?"

"I know. I was watching the lantern festival down there that night. What happened?"

Wei Guangde was puzzled and said that Emperor Jiajing loved to watch the fun, but I had never heard of him coming out to watch the Aoshan Lantern Festival in the past few years. He only often set off fireworks in the palace for fun.

At the Aoshan Lantern Festival on the night of the 15th day of the lunar month, tens of thousands of people saw the Huagai appear at the top of Chengtianmen City, and they immediately guessed that the emperor was there. Therefore, this year's Aoshan Lantern Festival became the most lively lantern festival.

Tens of thousands of people saluted towards the city head, and the scene was naturally very grand.

Wei Guangde is below. Although he cannot see where Emperor Jiajing is, he is very sure that the emperor is above, otherwise the honor guard cannot appear here.

"Your Majesty is here. He is very satisfied with the lanterns and fireworks. He is also very satisfied with the drum music and the singing and dancing of the palace ladies. This morning, rewards were sent to you from the palace. You should go and get your share yourself, haha."

After listening to Yu Shihui's words, Wei Guangde suddenly realized that no wonder everyone in the yamen was beaming with joy, and they were naturally happy to receive rewards.

He went to get Wei Guangde's share, which was not much, only five taels of silver, and he received an extra month and a half's salary.

Naturally, he didn't feel much about receiving this small amount of money, but it was quite a lot for the officials of Taichang Temple. It was all within their scope of work, and there would be rewards for completing the work.

Not long after, Yan Shifan, the minister of Taichang Temple, summoned the officials from the yamen outside. After receiving the reward, they naturally wanted to go to the palace to express their gratitude.

Zuo Shaoqing Li Kaiyuan is responsible for the daily management of Taichang Temple, but when encountering such a big event, Yan Shifan still has to come back in person and take his men to Xiyuan to express gratitude.

"Guangde, I thought you were on duty at the Hanlin Academy today, but you didn't come over."

Yan Shifan was very affectionate when he saw Wei Guangde. Not only was he a fellow villager, Wei Guangde would go to Yan's house during the holidays, and this year's annual gift was a 600-year-old ginseng.

Nowadays, the 300-year-old ginseng in the capital is basically out of stock. Wei Guangde’s gift is a good one and suits his taste.

Ginseng is a nourishing thing. For the Yan family, the health of Yan Song and Yan Shifan is naturally the most important.

As for Ganoderma lucidum, which is now highly praised by the world, well, the medical officials trusted by the Yan government do not highly praise it. Relatively speaking, they trust the efficacy of ginseng more.

As a subordinate, Wei Guangde naturally did not dare to make excuses. After respectfully saluting Yan Shifan, he saluted Zuo Shaoqing Li Kaiyuan, chatted for a few words, and then retreated to his seat at the back.

Taichang Temple is not far from Xiyuan, and a group of them walked there, which took only a quarter of an hour.

However, the time seemed wrong. Emperor Jiajing did not see them. He just bowed outside Yongshou Palace and was about to leave. At this time, several more eunuchs walked out of the gate of Yongshou Palace.

The reason why Wei Guangde could tell at a glance that they were of high rank was not because he knew much about eunuch clothing. The main reason was that these eunuchs were wearing either unicorn or flying fish suits, and were wrapped with jade belts around their waists. Naturally, they were not ordinary eunuchs.

After that, Wei Guangde saw Gao Zhong's figure. Among these eunuchs, none like Chen Ju could even get close to him.

Yan Shifan seemed to be very familiar with them. When he saw them coming out, Yan Shifan stopped and started chatting warmly when they approached.

Wei Guangde and Gao Zhong looked at each other and showed no other signs.

On the fourteenth day, Wei Guangde invited Chen Ju to his place for a drink. During the dinner, Wei Guangde couldn't help but quietly asked his subordinate about the situation of the ceremonial supervisor.

However, it is obvious that Chen Ju did not know the news about Li Bin's crime. He only said that everything was normal in the Li Prison and that His Majesty was very satisfied with the performance of his godfather and the others in the past year.

Then Wei Guangde asked about Li Bin's current situation, and was even more surprised when he learned that there had been no change.

At this time, Wei Guangde could only think that Lu Bing had not collected more evidence to convict Li Bin of his crime, so he had not yet reported to impeach him.

It was Wei Guangde who couldn't hold his temper and repeatedly asked the Supervisor of Ceremonies, especially Li Bin's situation, which naturally aroused Chen Ju's alert. After questioning, Wei Guangde quietly revealed that he had learned that someone was pursuing Li Bin.

As for Chen Ju's question about who was tracking Li Bin, Wei Guangde would not say anything even if he killed him. He only said that he heard the news from someone of the same year.

Chen Ju naturally didn't believe Wei Guangde's excuse, but since Wei Guangde didn't tell him, there was nothing he could do. When he returned to the palace, he found an opportunity to quietly report to his godfather Gao Zhong.

Wei Guangde didn't know what happened after that. After all, Chen Ju didn't contact him for the next few days.

Even the matter of him reporting Gao Zhong was calculated by Wei Guangde.

However, Wei Guangde, who was standing not far away, did not gain nothing. At least when he heard Yan Shifan talking to them, he took his seat and saw Li Bin, and stole one thousand two hundred taels of silver from him. Money-grubbing eunuch.

To be honest, Li Bin was really inconspicuous among the eunuchs. He didn't even know how much Emperor Jiajing valued him.

However, after Wei Guangde's careful observation, he found that Li Bin was quite decent, except for his eyes, which were rare among men.

His eyes were black and white, with a slight blush around his eyes and corners. I don't know how this eunuch maintained himself.

When facing the eunuchs and Yan Shifan who were not inferior to him, he spoke less and smiled more, and his eyes were narrowed into two crescents.

Seeing this scene, Wei Guangde couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart.

It's not that he was jealous of others' good looks, but he was not used to this kind of thing. If it was a woman, it would probably be very charming, and Wei Guangde would be very happy to take a few more glances, but if it was a eunuch

Li Bin left a deep impression on Wei Guangde, but Wei Guangde was most interested in when this guy would fall.

After waiting for two days, Wei Guangde was on duty normally, but when he returned home that day, he was reported by the servants that Chen Ju was waiting for him in the lobby.

Chen Ju is here?

Wei Guangde felt a little strange, but he didn't waste time and walked directly into the hall.

After the two of them exchanged greetings and sat down, Wei Guangde naturally asked Chen Ju why he came here.

Chen Ju was a royal eunuch, but unlike those small eunuchs in the palace, he was still very eye-catching. Although he didn't have a high rank now, it's possible that Emperor Jiajing would give him an official title one day.

"Last time when we were drinking, you talked about Li Bin. Today, godfather told me about it. Guess what?"

Chen Ju looked at the room and said to Wei Guangde in a low voice.

"Why, did you find anything?"

Wei Guangde asked curiously, looking at Chen Ju so mysteriously, as if he really found something.

"I don't know the situation outside the palace. Godfather noticed that Huang Gong's people in the palace were paying attention to Li Bin's every move intentionally or unintentionally."

Hearing Chen Ju's words, Wei Guangde understood. He had long guessed that Huang Jin must be involved in this matter.

No matter how long Lu Bing's Jinyiwei's hands were, they couldn't reach into the palace. That was the territory of the East Factory. It was unknown whether Huang Jin's actions had been approved by Emperor Jiajing.

With Huang Jin in the palace and Lu Bing outside the palace, it was obvious that Li Bin was already a dead fish.

"Do you know anyone else in the palace?"

At this moment, Chen Ju suddenly asked.

Wei Guangde was shocked, knowing that Gao Zhong suspected that he was close to Huang Jin's people, and probably got the news from there.

This time it was a bit troublesome. If he didn't explain it well, it would cause a crack in the good relationship he had established with Gao Zhong.

Wei Guangde was secretly angry at his recklessness and quickly thought about how to explain.