Chapter 459 458 Visit

Wei Guangde didn't expect that Dong Yiyuan's letter was actually asking for an official position for his elder brother Dong Yikui.

"Deputy General"

Wei Guangde hesitated a little. Although Dong Yiyuan also said in the letter that his elder brother respected him very much, Wei Guangde knew in his heart that Dong Yikui only respected power.

Relatively speaking, among the generals recruited by Wei Guangde, Dong Yiyuan actually had a very low sense of existence.

He became Wei Guangde's subordinate because he was the first to contact Wei Guangde and was obedient at a critical moment. Otherwise, such generals with no achievements would be a lot in the border town and would not attract his interest at all.

But precisely because Dong Yiyuan was the first general to surrender to him, Wei Guangde really couldn't completely ignore his request.

However, Wei Guangde was not worried about the operation of this matter.

In fact, Wei Guangde had already made up his mind at this time.

During the New Year's Festival, there were not many mansions that could let Prince Yu's Mansion come forward to send gifts, but Prince Yu's Mansion would still send people to send New Year gifts to the six ministries and nine ministers in the capital every year.

Wei Guangde had not paid much attention to this matter before, but if he really wanted to help Dong Yikui find a job, he would have to rush to the residence of Yang Bo, the Minister of War.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of sending New Year gifts, he would talk to Yang Bo about this matter and try to finalize it at once.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde made up his mind. First, he would find someone to check what the situation of Xuanda is now and whether the position of the deputy general of Xuanfu has been promised to someone.

Secondly, he would naturally have to talk to Prince Yu. Arranging generals in border towns is not a small matter.

People like Dong Yiyuan, Ma Fang, and Yu Dayou seem to be serving under him, but even a fool knows that they actually value their identity as people in Prince Yu's residence.

If he did not inform Prince Yu about such a big thing as arranging Dong Yikui, he might be impeached by the censor for having secret dealings with border generals in the future, which is a capital crime.

Thinking back to what Emperor Jiajing said to him in Xiyuan when he came back from Baoan Prefecture, he knew that his private actions had not escaped the surveillance of the Jinyiwei, but Emperor Jiajing did not care because he was a low-ranking official at the time.

He did not care now, but it was hard to say whether Emperor Jiajing and Prince Yu would still think so after his official position was promoted and his power became greater in the future.

Prince Yu was always the real master of this empire.

Wei Guangde was still thinking about this. In Prince Yu's eyes, he was just a liaison between him and the border generals. The border generals were embarrassed to talk to him directly, and they contacted him for trivial matters, so that they would not get burned in the end.

It was a good thing to have a big power, but he did not want to rebel, nor did he want the position of the emperor, so why risk the world's disapproval.

Since Dong Yikui wanted to serve, it was of course not easy to refuse his kindness.

In fact, Emperor Jiajing still attached great importance to the military power of the border towns, and was very cautious in selecting the generals of each town.

The current system of the governor, governor-general and general officer of the border towns plays a very good role in mutual restraint, and it is difficult for anyone to have a different mind.

On the second day, after Wei Guangde got up and entered Prince Yu's mansion, he drank tea and chatted with Yin Shizhan in the courtyard as usual. Prince Yu had not gotten up so early.

"Brother Zhengfu, has the work of sending gifts to each family been assigned in the palace in the next two days?"

Wei Guangde asked about this matter when he had time.

Before Wei Guangde entered the palace, such an errand naturally did not belong to him. It was Chen Yiqin, Yin Shizhan and Li Fang who handled it. Today, he, Zhang Juzheng, and Tang Ruji will naturally be used.

"I talked to Eunuch Li the day before yesterday. According to the practice of previous years, all the officials and eunuchs will send people to send them over. It also shows that His Highness is tolerant of them. Don't refuse when the time comes."

In fact, these things have been the custom of the palace since the time of Gao Gong, and they are repeated every year.

"It is my duty."

Wei Guangde said with a smile.

When Wei Guangde said this, he was actually just asking if there was any arrangement. If it was arranged, he would have to tell him first. If it was not arranged for him to go to Yang Bo's house, he would have to change with someone first.

"When Eunuch Li comes out later, we will discuss it together. There is not much time left before the New Year. Those who should leave should leave."

So Yin Shizhen said.

When Prince Yu came over, it was already late. I think he must have gone to bed very late last night.

Prince Yu likes to enjoy himself, especially the beauty. Wei Guangde heard Gao Gong mention it before, but he didn't take it to heart. However, he has been doing it more frequently in the past two months.

Although this kind of thing is actually beneficial to the heirs of Prince Yu's mansion, it is difficult for the officials of the mansion to say anything.

At the beginning, Prince Yu was honest for a while because Gao Gong was there and because Princess Yu gave birth to a prince.

But now it is different. The prince died young and Princess Yu was gone. Prince Yu quickly promoted Chen, the concubine.

Chen was a commoner girl selected together with Princess Yu's main wife Li. She was sent to Prince Yu's mansion by Emperor Jiajing to be a concubine. After Princess Li died, she was promoted to Princess Yu.

Near the end of the year, Zhang Juzheng and Tang Ruji received an errand from Yin Shizhan to the Ministry of Revenue to receive this year's salary and annual gift. Yin Shizhan and Li Fang were also discussing the preparations for Prince Yu's mansion for the New Year this year. Wei Guangde found an opportunity to communicate with Prince Yu alone.

Wei Guangde naturally couldn't say much about Prince Yu's private affairs. What he wanted to talk about today was naturally the letter from Dong Yiyuan.

I briefly talked about the process of getting acquainted with Dong Yiyuan. King Yu had previously learned about the process of the Battle of Baoan Prefecture in detail, so he naturally knew who it was. It was the cavalry commander Qian who controlled the then Xuanfu Commander-in-Chief. .

In terms of credit, Dong Yiyuan naturally deserves a lot of credit, otherwise Wei Guangde would definitely not have been able to take military power on that occasion, and there would be no Wei Guangde today.

At first, King Yu thought Wei Guangde was planning to talk to Dong Yiyuan and help him find an official position.

"Dong Yiyuan is good. He has vision and courage at critical moments. He is worth cultivating."

King Yu just smiled and nodded. In his opinion, it was enough for him to say so, and Wei Guangde could just watch the operations. After all, he was just a guerrilla general in Ji Town. Even if he was promoted, he would only be a general, and even if he wanted real power, he would be nothing more than a general. Operate to a certain road and be guarded.

"Yiyuan wrote to me yesterday, wanting to introduce his brother to your Highness's house."

Dong Yiyuan's letter asked Wei Guangde for help, but of course Wei Guangde couldn't say that here. He only said that he wanted to join Prince Yu's family.

"His brother? Is the Dong family the general of the border town?"

King Yu asked curiously.

Knowing that Dong Yiyuan was one thing, King Yu was not in the mood to inquire about their family background, he just asked casually.

"Your Highness, Dong Yiyuan has a brother named Dong Yikui, who is the current guard general of Xuanfu East Road. He can be regarded as inheriting his father's legacy.

Their father was Dong Yang, the former Datong military general. Ananda Khan died in the battle when he sent troops to attack Dishui Cliff. Dong Yikui took over the family's hereditary military position and served as the commanding officer. Later, he was promoted to military general based on his merits. "

Wei Guangde briefly talked about the situation of the Dong family and his son, and King Yu also nodded.

No matter what, the Dong family has shed sweat and blood for his old Zhu family.

"After Zhongliang."

King Yu nodded and said, thinking about the meaning of Wei Guangde's words, he realized something: "He is already a staff general, so what he wants this time is to reach the rank of general soldier?"

"Your Highness Congrui, Ma Fang was previously guarding the Xuanfu West Road as deputy general, Dong Yikui was guarding the east road as a general, and Ma Fang was guarding the Xuanfu east and west.

Now that Ma Fangjigong has succeeded Li Xian as the chief military officer of the Xuanfu, the position of deputy chief military officer of the Xuanfu has become vacant. "

Wei Guangde said.

"So Shandai, what are your plans?"

King Yu nodded slightly, one carrot after another, Ma Fang was promoted, and Xuan Mansion was short of a deputy general soldier.

This does not mean that each town in the border town must have a chief soldier and a deputy chief soldier, but with this position, at least someone can take over at critical moments, so that after the general soldier's accident, the group will be leaderless and fight on their own.

"When I go to Yang Shangshu's house in a few days, I plan to go there and talk to Yang Shangshu to see if the Ministry of War has made arrangements, but this must be approved by His Highness."

Wei Guangde said bluntly.

"Xuanfu is the northwest gateway to the capital. Dong Yikui can be stationed on Xuanfu East Road for a long time. I guess he will have many military exploits, right?"

King Yu asked.

"Relatively speaking, the west road is at the junction of Xuanfu and Datong, and the direction of Anda's attack is here. There are also a lot of wars on the east road, but they are all small fights.

It should be said that Dong Yikui's defense of Xuanfu East Road was quite effective. At least there was no major danger and the Tatars had not yet broken through. "

Wei Guangde couldn't brag. To tell the truth, Dong Yikui ate less when he lost the battle, but he didn't win many battles. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been tepid on the East Road.

King Yu was not stupid, and he naturally understood the meaning of Wei Guangde's words. He was a well-behaved general.

"I agree, you can do this."

King Yu knew that Wei Guangde naturally wanted to help when he said this.

It's just a deputy commander, so it's not a big deal.

However, as Wei Guangde said before, whether it can be done depends on the plan of the Ministry of War. If the Ministry of War already has a candidate, Dong Yikui's matter will be a bit troublesome.

"Understood. I'll test it out when I go to see Da Sima in two days."

When Wei Guangde saw King Yu nodding, he was naturally relieved, and then talked about this year's Aoshan Lantern Festival in the capital.

"Hey, don't talk about the Aoshan Lantern Festival. I only found out about it yesterday. You know about the Yongshou Palace being burned down. Do you know how to get away with it?"

Speaking of the Aoshan Lantern Festival, King Yu became interested.

"That night at Yongshou Palace"

King Yu told Wei Guangde all the information he learned from Feng Bao. Huang Jin had previously issued a hush-hush order, strictly prohibiting the cause of the fire from being communicated to the outer court.

Of course, those who should know knew it, but they pretended not to know. In short, the outer court only regarded the cause of the fire in Yongshou Palace as accidental, and there was no news that the fire was caused by the emperor's order to set off fireworks.

"Fireworks set off by Feng Bao?"

Wei Guangde stared at King Yu dumbfounded, but King Yu nodded while holding back his laughter.

Burning down a palace was not a big deal in the eyes of the royal family. It was just a matter of burning it down and building a new one.

Feng Bao was sent to Prince Yu's Mansion. Although people in the Prince's Mansion were curious, they asked Li Fang privately. Naturally, Li Fang didn't know at first.

However, King Yu also wanted to see the fireworks yesterday, but he frightened his attendant Feng Bao so much that he hurriedly stopped him, and then he told him the reason why he was assigned.

Coincidentally, in less than two days, it was the day when Wei Guangde, on behalf of Prince Yu's Palace, presented a New Year's gift to Yang Bo, Minister of War, and the person Li Fang arranged to go with Wei Guangde was Feng Bao.

"Eunuch Feng, we are not outsiders. We all work in Prince Yu's Mansion, so we should get closer to him in the future."

On the way out, Wei Guangde also intended to have a good relationship with Feng Bao.

Now Feng Bao's rank has been lowered. He was a fifth-rank ambassador of the treasury before, but now he is only a sixth-rank attendant. This is the lowest rank among the eunuchs, and he has nothing left.

Unlike the outer court, the inner court of the Ming Dynasty also has separate positions and ranks.

Although Huang Jin is a superintendent eunuch, his rank is limited by the rules set by Zhu Yuanzhang, and he is only a fourth-rank eunuch, which is the highest rank among eunuchs.

As for the eunuch who holds the seal of the Imperial Horse Administration, he is only the left junior eunuch, a fourth-rank eunuch, and Gao Zhong's rank is only the fifth-rank left eunuch.

This rank is somewhat linked to seniority, but a high rank is actually not important for eunuchs. What is important is what the emperor sends you to manage.

Even if you are a sixth-rank eunuch, if you manage a popular government office, you will have a lot of say in the inner court.

But if it is a junior eunuch of the fourth rank, if he does not get an assignment, but is just a position like the general manager of a certain palace, then the right to speak depends on the status of the master behind him in the palace.

Although the eunuchs' ranks are not high, because they are close to the emperor, as long as they please the emperor, they can also wear many imperial robes. With imperial robes, naturally, they don't care about ranks and patches.

These are also the eunuchs with real status in the Ming Dynasty. Most of them wear either flying fish clothes or unicorn clothes, and there are even some wearing python clothes.

They can ignore the requirements of the outer court for the official rank of the clothes. If they are distinguished by the outer court officials, only a few people in the inner court are qualified to wear flying fish clothes, and others can only wear unicorn clothes.

"Mr. Wei, you are too kind. Just call me Feng Bao from now on."

Prince Yu values ​​Wei Guangde, and Feng Bao is naturally not blind. He dare not show his face in front of Wei Guangde, not to mention that it is not an exaggeration for him to say that he is living under someone else's roof.

The real turning point in Feng Bao's life was actually in Prince Yu's Mansion. He was sent by Prince Yu to take care of the prince, that is, the future Emperor Wanli. It was from that moment that he ushered in earth-shaking changes.

Yang Bo would naturally not neglect the visitors from Prince Yu's Mansion. He personally greeted them. He was not welcoming Wei Guangde but Prince Yu.

Entering Yang's Mansion, Wei Guangde asked Feng Bao to present the gift list, and they were all greetings and some polite words.

They were all just courtesy visits, and the delay was generally not very long. Afterwards, Yang's Mansion would also send people to return the gifts, but Wei Guangde had other things to do today, so he naturally would not leave soon.

"Grand Sima, I wanted to visit you a few days ago, but the Lord was worried about state affairs, and Shandai was afraid that I would disturb the Lord's rest by visiting rashly."

"Haha, I welcome Shandai to visit me at any time. State affairs are difficult, and the Ministry of War often has inconsiderate things. I really hope that Shandai can give some advice frequently."

A few days ago, it was not about Yu Dayou, but about Ma Fang. Yang Bo knew it clearly.

"Grand Marshal, I am grateful for your kindness. Now that Ma Fang is appointed as the general of Xuanfu, does the Ministry of War have any candidates for his vacant deputy general?"

Wei Guangde was a wise man, so there was no need for him to beat around the bush.

"Yes, the Ministry of War has indeed considered it."

Yang Bo stroked his beard and answered. Although he had some guesses, Yang Bo did not say much, but waited and saw what would happen.