Chapter 858 947 Lottery

In the first year of Wanli, Xinzheng has been in a tense and strange atmosphere.

The Gao family, a wealthy family in the city, was surrounded by Jinyi guards. Although they had not broken into the house to arrest anyone, in the eyes of the people, Gao Gong had offended the powerful people in the capital and was definitely doomed.

At this time, the moon was dark and the wind was high, but two figures appeared in the garden on the side of Gao Mansion. They carefully observed their surroundings, and when they saw no one, they approached a remote small door on the garden wall.

The two people gathered in front of the door to tinker for a while. With the creaking sound of the wooden door being opened, two figures quickly passed through the small door and left the Gao Mansion.

He left in such a hurry that he didn't even have time to close the small door.

Two figures left Gao Mansion and ran in one direction along the courtyard wall. What was vaguely visible was that the two figures seemed to have hunched backs. They soon left the courtyard wall of Gao Mansion and turned into an alley.

But after a while, two screams were heard in the alley.

Not long after, several figures appeared. Under the moonlight, it could be vaguely seen that they were wearing blue uniforms. They were the Jinyi Tiqi who came from the capital a few days ago.

Two of them were holding a big bundle in their hands, and they didn't know what was in it.

"Sir, are you going to let those two go like this?"

"It's not Gao Gong and his family. Why are we arresting them?"

"This baggage"

"Take it back and take a look. Everyone is divided. Everyone on night watch will remind me to keep an eye on them. If one of them escapes, don't blame me for using my family's methods."

"Yes, sir."

As a few people left, the alley returned to silence, as if nothing had happened.

But on the second day, when Gao Gong was still practicing calligraphy in his study, the housekeeper came to report that two servants were missing from the house.

"Do you have a physical bond?"

Gao Gong was still practicing calligraphy and seemed not to be affected at all by the news that the servant had escaped.

"I have no legal status. I am a commoner recruited from Zuojiazhuang outside the city."

The housekeeper said, and after speaking, he took a step forward and asked softly: "Master, do you want me to report it to the official and ask the official to send someone to bring back these two thieves?"

"Is he from the outer courtyard?"

Gao Gong just asked casually, "Did you find any valuables missing?"

"That's not the case. Apart from the clothes and bedding given to them by the government, they are just some furnishings in several rooms in the outer courtyard."

"never mind."

Before the butler finished speaking, Gao Gong had already said, "They are all worthless things. If they want to run away, just let them run away."

At this point, after finishing writing a few words, Gao Gong put away his pen, then looked at the housekeeper and said: "If it really comes to that point, they will also have to pay severance pay, so they can just go and ignore it. "

After the housekeeper went out, a sad look appeared on Gao Gong's face.

He is a dignified imperial master, the chief assistant of the Ming Dynasty cabinet, and the minister of care, but he would actually take turns to be in this position.

The servant packed his belongings and left Gao's mansion quietly, and he himself was ready to commit suicide by swallowing gold at any time, hoping to save his family.

Xinzheng is not close to the capital, thousands of miles away. After Gao Gong's cronies sneaked out of Gao's mansion, they rushed to deliver Gao Gong's letters to the capital.

At the critical moment, these servants who were loyal to Gao Gong also fought tooth and nail, even losing one of their fast horses on the road, and finally arrived in the capital three days later.

Except for people from his hometown, the servants of Gao Mansion are all old people who have lived with Gao Gong in the capital for many years.

After leading the horse into the city gate, he got on his horse and ran quickly to the residence of Ge Shouli, the censor of Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Following the delivery of Gao Gong's letter to Ge Shouli, he then turned to the residence of Yang Bo, the Minister of Civil Service, and finally delivered the letter to Lu Tiaoyang's residence.

After that, the messenger found an inn outside the capital to stay temporarily, waiting for news from the capital.

This was also specifically ordered by Gao Gong.

Gao Gong was naturally very relieved to arrange for the people to travel to the capital. It was actually pointless to rush back to Xinzheng after delivering the letter. It was better to let them stay in the capital.

If it comes time to ransack the house and arrest people, they can still escape and not all be detained.

After leaving the office in the evening, Lu Tiaoyang, Yang Bo and Ge Shouli all read Gao Gong's letters in the mansion, and they were all very worried.

Yes, the frame-up launched by Feng Bao against Gao Gong was no longer a secret among the senior officials of the imperial court, especially since Jin Yiwei was unwilling to take the blame for Feng Bao.

Intentionally or unintentionally, the news that the Assassin King Minister was controlled by Dongchang and that the Jin Yiwei could not even touch him had spread to both the government and the public.

Among them, the one who thinks the most is of course Yang Bo.

He has been in the court for the longest time. He was a Jinshi for eight years in Jiajing and had an official career of more than forty years. He is a real veteran.

The relationship between North Korea and China is complicated. Especially since he returned to the capital in the 37th year of Jiajing and became Minister of the Ministry of War, he has devoted himself to placing cronies and fellow countrymen in North Korea and building a huge network of relationships.

Of course, he could choose to stay out of Gao Gong's matter, but Gao Gong's eyes were really vicious and he knew that as long as he surrendered to him, Yang Bo would definitely not be able to sit back and watch him being wronged.

Yes, it can be said that Gao Gong and Yang Bo have nothing to do with each other, but after all, they are both important officials of the imperial court, and each has his or her own network of relationships.

And these networks of relationships often overlap accidentally.

At this time, Yang Bo declined all visitors and locked himself in the study alone, thinking quietly.

At this time, there were two letters on the desk, one on the left and one on the right.

A letter was naturally a plea letter written by Gao Gong to him, hoping that he could help resolve this crisis.

The other letter was written by his fellow villager, Wang Chonggu, the governor of Xuanda, and his purpose was naturally to plead for Gao Gong.

Wang Chonggu was recorded in history for completing the Longqing Peace Talks. People in later generations only knew that the peace talks between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia were led by him, but why did Gao Gong choose Wang Chonggu instead of others?

All this, of course, was not because Wang Chonggu happened to be in the right place.

In fact, if someone else proposed to the court to negotiate with Mongolian Altan Khan, the final result would be very different.

There was a reason why Wang Chonggu proposed this idea and the powerful faction of the Ming Dynasty cabinet represented by Gao Gong also chose to support it.

That is, there was a close relationship between Wang Chonggu and Gao Gong, and the network of relationships behind Wang Chonggu was naturally an important relationship for Gao Gong.

In fact, this was a network of in-laws between the political and business people in Puzhou, and the interests were linked. The unbreakable network of power formed during the Jia, Long, and Wan years gave Shanxi merchants and Shanxi bureaucrats rare development opportunities and space.

But after its peak, the Puzhou official-business interest network gradually loosened with the death of the core figures.

The core figures of this network of relationships between Puzhou politicians and businessmen, which was formed by in-laws, were Wang Chonggu, Yang Bo and Zhang Siwei.

Wang Chonggu and Gao Gong were born in the same year and both were Jinshi in the 20th year of Jiajing. They had always had a very close relationship.

Such a close relationship was also an important reason why Gao Gong chose Zhang Siwei to enter the Ministry of Personnel and then chose to support him to enter the cabinet.

In the early days of Wang Chonggu and Zhang Siwei's official promotion, they were almost all promoted because of Gao Gong's support. As Yang Bo, who had a marriage relationship with Wang Chonggu, naturally could not take it lightly.

Although he cooperated more with Xu Jie and Zhang Juzheng, it was also because Xu Jie sat firmly in the position of the cabinet's chief minister in the late Jiajing period and the early Longqing period, and many arrangements needed their support.

Gao Gong had a classmate friendship with Wang Chonggu and a favor of support, and the same was true for his nephew Zhang Siwei, but how good was the relationship between Gao Gong and Wang Chonggu.

So when Wang Chonggu knew that the capital was brewing a conspiracy against Gao Gong, Wang Chonggu immediately wrote to his relative Yang Bo in the capital, asking him to help Gao Gong get rid of the charges.

Yang Bo's son married Wang Chonggu's daughter, so they had a good relationship.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng chose to promote Zhang Siwei after he secured the position of Prime Minister in order to maintain a long-term cooperative relationship with the forces behind Yang Bo.

However, Zhang Juzheng did not realize an important issue until his death, that is, whether he supported the Shanxi Gang more or Gao Gong supported the Shanxi Gang more.

Among them, the most important item Zhang Juzheng missed was that Yin Shizan was angry and attacked Gao Gong in the cabinet, and the main reason was that Yin Shizan already knew that Gao Gong wanted to expel him.

At that time, Zhang Juzheng stepped forward as a peacemaker to mediate, but he did not realize a very important information for the Shanxi Gang, that is, Gao Gong wanted to replace Yin Shizan with Zhang Siwei.

Yang Bo and Wang Chonggu were both military and civil officials in the court, so it was destined that it would be difficult for them to enter the cabinet. However, Zhang Siwei was different. Zhang Siwei had a chance to enter the cabinet.

And the person who paved the way for Zhang Siwei was Gao Gong.

Even after several years, Zhang Juzheng still pulled Zhang Siwei into the cabinet, but it was five years later than Gao Gong's efforts.

As for Zhang Juzheng, after he sat firmly on the throne of the Prime Minister, the first person he pulled into the cabinet was not Zhang Siwei, but Lu Diaoyang, the Minister of Rites, which naturally lost points in front of the Shanxi Gang.

Yang Bo looked at the two letters in front of him and thought of Zhang Siwei who came to see him yesterday.

Obviously, Wang Chonggu's letter was not only written to him, but also to his nephew Zhang Siwei.

After weighing the pros and cons, Yang Bo finally made a decision, which was to help Gao Gong clear the suspicion of the Wang Dachen case.

After all, he was old, and Zhang Siwei would still need to raise the banner of the Shanxi Gang in the future.

It might not be a good thing for the Yang family to offend Zhang Siwei at this time.

Although he is in power now, both Wang Chonggu and Zhang Siwei seem to be very close to him.

When Yang Bo made up his mind to go to the cabinet to see Zhang Juzheng tomorrow to plead for Gao Gong, Ge Shouli also made up his mind after reading Gao Gong's letter.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is Feng Bao's revenge against Gao Gong. As for whether Zhang Juzheng is involved, it is hard to say, but as the boss of the Censorate, he certainly cannot let the eunuchs succeed in suppressing and retaliating against civil officials.

This is also the power and responsibility of the Censorate.

However, after receiving Gao Gong's letter, the cabinet assistant Lu Diaoyang hesitated slightly, and finally just planned to wait and see.

Because this time it involves Feng Bao, the first eunuch in the palace, and there is the shadow of the chief assistant Zhang Juzheng looming behind him, it is really difficult for him to make a choice.

Regardless of what was said, Zhang Juzheng had helped him by bringing him into the cabinet. Otherwise, even if he became the Minister of Rites, he might not be able to enter the cabinet successfully in his lifetime.

So, the next day, the duty room of Zhang Juzheng, the chief minister of the cabinet, became lively. Yang Bo and Ge Shouli came to visit Zhang Juzheng one after another, and they had been spying for quite a long time.

When Zhang Juzheng sent them out, his face was also very ugly.

Yes, the two of them chose to remind Zhang Juzheng that the recent public opinion in the capital pointed to the fact that Feng Bao was the leader of this case in order to retaliate against Gao Gong's suppression of him.

However, Zhang Juzheng was also under great pressure at this time. After all, he was the chief minister and had the most say. If Feng Bao wanted to convict Gao Gong, he could not avoid Zhang Juzheng. Therefore, under the pressure of court officials and Feng Bao, Zhang Juzheng was already in a situation where he was bullied from both sides.

Feng Bao knew that he had helped Zhang Juzheng a lot, so he dared to put forward conditions to Zhang Juzheng, hoping that he would take action in this case of Wang Dachen and completely solve Gao Gong.

Although Zhang Juzheng wanted to not participate in this matter, it was difficult for him to make a decision in the face of Feng Bao's relentless entanglement.

Until the end of the court, Zhang Juzheng did not summon Wei Guangde and Lu Diaoyang to discuss the matter.

In this regard, Lu Diaoyang, as an assistant minister, thought that he had seen through Zhang Juzheng's plan, so he would naturally not take the initiative to raise Gao Gong's matter. He would deal with Gao Gong's letter when he returned, so as not to be implicated in the end because of this letter and be labeled as a member of the Gao Party.

After all, Gao Gong's case involved the assassination of the emperor, which was not an ordinary case.

Zhang Juzheng, who was worried, walked out of the palace gate and got on the sedan chair. With the efforts of the sedan bearers, the sedan chair was steadily lifted and went to Zhang's house.

Zhang Juzheng felt very depressed at this time. He and Gao Gong had no deep hatred, but it was just because of the position of the Prime Minister of the Cabinet.

Now that he has achieved his wish, should he really cooperate with Feng Bao to kill Gao Gong?

He always felt that it was not worth it, but in order to realize his ambition, he knew that he had to maintain a good relationship with Feng Bao, otherwise many policies of the cabinet might be blocked in the palace.

Maybe Feng Bao's ability to get things done is not enough, but he is still very proficient in saying bad things.

Just inadvertently, in front of the two Empress Dowagers, he might cause trouble for the cabinet administration.

It seemed that the space of the sedan chair was too small, and he was suppressed inside and outside. Zhang Juzheng lifted the curtain of the sedan chair and looked out, and a red building appeared in his eyes.

"Stop the sedan chair."

Zhang Juzheng did not put down the curtain of the sedan chair, and suddenly shouted loudly.

The building he saw was the Guandi Temple that can be seen everywhere in the city of Sijiu.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the belief in Guandi reached its peak. At that time, there were more than a hundred Guandi temples and temples dedicated to Guan Gong in Beijing.

The sedan chair was lowered, the curtain was lifted, and Zhang Juzheng came out of the sedan chair. He ignored the attendant who came up and walked straight into the Guandi Temple.

Standing in the hall, Zhang Juzheng tidied his robes, and then he devoutly burned incense and kowtowed to Guandi.

When he was undecided, he chose to ask for divination, hoping to get guidance from heaven.

Zhang Juzheng came in in an official robe, and the temple keeper had been waiting to serve him.

However, Zhang Juzheng was very official, and the temple keeper did not dare to speak before Zhang Juzheng spoke.

After the worship, Zhang Juzheng walked to the desk, held the divination tube with both hands, and shook it gently.

"Click."

As the shaking accelerated, a bamboo stick jumped out of the divination tube and fell on the desk.

Zhang Juzheng put down the lottery tube, reached out to pick up the bamboo stick, and looked at the lottery carefully.

"Geng Geng Zhong Ping Su Qiong shed tears"

Zhang Juzheng frowned slightly when he saw the lottery, and then continued to read.

"The heavens have already known your heart, why do you need to ask me to resolve your doubts? I hope you will change your mind and follow filial piety and brotherhood, so that you don't have to worry about your family not being compatible"