Chapter 153 Right Censor-in-Chief and Jinhua Lieutenant General

Chapter 153 Right Censor-in-Chief and Jinhua Lieutenant General

Chapter 153 Right Censor-in-Chief and Jinhua Lieutenant General (Subscription Request)

In order to welcome the return of Lord Wu, Xu Qing, as his most proud student, naturally had to return to Jiangning Prefecture to be responsible for the welcoming arrangements.

On the other hand, since the matter of Liubo Mountain needs to wait a little longer.

Feng Wu went back with him. She planned to go into seclusion for a while to improve her Taoist skills, and try to further improve her Qi and blood and deepen her practice of the Tiger Demon Bone Refining Fist.

As for Xu Qing, all we can say is that after digesting the experience from the last battle, he will enter a plateau period again.

Although the Seven Flower Ginseng Dew Pill is an elixir made from the Four-curved Spiritual Ginseng, for martial artists who practice internal organs, it only has a good effect when taken for the first time. Later on, it serves more to quickly replenish the consumed qi and blood.

Moreover, after training the internal organs, the growth of Qi and blood is only a part of the improvement of martial arts. The integration of spirit, will, realm and the perfect integration of martial arts into oneself is the key to advancing to a martial arts master.

At this stage, the cultivation of the mind becomes increasingly important.

But material resources are still indispensable.

In other words, even if you work very hard after training your internal organs, you may not necessarily get any results. If you are over 30 years old and gradually pass the peak of your physical condition, even if you work 20 times harder, you may only be able to maintain your peak and not regress.

The older you get, the harder it is to stay at your peak.

At this time, one needs to go through life-and-death battles and tempering in blood and fire in order to make progress courageously.

You must have the magnanimity to disregard life and death.

In this regard, Xu Qing is actually not as pure as Lin Tianwang.

But his biggest advantage is his young body, which is something that King Lin cannot envy.

If one possesses both, there is a very prominent example in the world – Xiong Chan, the abbot of Dachan Temple!

Xiong Chan had already mastered martial arts since he was young, and had experienced many life-and-death battles since his debut.

The previous abbot of Dachan Temple, Master Xukong, was worried that Xiongchan was young and arrogant, and would offend his fellow monks, thus bringing Dachan Temple into an irretrievable situation.

Therefore, before Xiong Chan took over the position of abbot, he set up three three disasters and nine nine difficulties as a test.

Each of these tribulations and difficulties was a matter of life and death for an average master of internal medicine. However, Xiong Chan overcame them one by one with his outstanding martial arts and extraordinary wisdom.

Finally, Abbot Xukong recognized Xiong Chan as the man who could take over the position of abbot of Dachan Temple.

And at the succession ceremony, he was deeply moved that since the founding of the Dachan Temple, no one had obtained the position of abbot as difficultly as Xiong Chan.

Because he had gone through so many hardships, as soon as Xiong Chan took over the position of abbot, he gained the respect and trust of everyone in Dachan Temple.

Since he succeeded as abbot, despite the suppression from the imperial court and the emperor's love for Taoism, he has managed to preserve the vitality of the Great Zen Temple and even developed a lot of potential forces, which have spread.

Although it has not yet regained the glory of the Great Chan Temple during its heyday, in the eyes of knowledgeable people in the world, the foundation of the Great Chan Temple is now very deep and difficult to shake.

However, after Xiong Chan took over as abbot, he did not boast about his abilities or show off his martial arts and talents. Instead, he paid attention to the demands of everyone in the temple and united them.

Even though Taoism was strong, many disciples of the Great Zen Temple, both monks and laymen, still took advantage of various opportunities to infiltrate the middle and lower levels of officialdom and the underworld, creating a vast web.

Moreover, despite his great influence and powerful martial arts, he is more humble towards others, and once he does something wrong, he will correct it immediately.

After Xu Qing learned about Xiong Chan's past, he couldn't help but admire him.

Fortunately, the Dachan Temple's base is in the north, under the eyes of the imperial court, and is greatly constrained. If it were in the south, it is estimated that the old fox Duke Wei would have to collude with this person. When Xu Qing just started his career, he might have been solved by him in a casual manner.

Right now, the cooperation between Xu Qing and Xiong Chan is more of a superficial one.

In the ambiguous stage.

Don't take the initiative, don't refuse, and don't be responsible.

In addition, the only holy place for cultivation that has a great influence in Nanzhili is actually the Tianshi Dao of Longhu Mountain, which has close ties with the Lu family, a large family in Nanzhili.

However, the most powerful people in Taoism today are actually the Taoists from the Longmen School of Taihe Mountain.

The Longmen Sect originated from the Quanzhen Taoism, and is now the strongest branch of the Quanzhen Taoism since its collapse in the previous dynasty. It is favored by the emperor and has the momentum to revive the Quanzhen Taoism's former heyday.

The former Governor-General of Southern Zhili, Li Wendi, and the current imperial teacher and abbot of Chaotian Temple, were both from the Longmen School.

However, in Xu Qing's opinion, the Longmen Sect is undoubtedly a pawn used by the emperor to balance the Tianshi Dao.

It is impossible to become the world's number one religion like Quanzhen Taoism.

Moreover, Taoism has great influence among the powerful and wealthy, which is one of the main reasons why the emperor supports Taoism. He wants to use it to sow discord among the powerful and wealthy families.

The heart of Tao is subtle, and the heart of man is dangerous.

Human hearts are unpredictable; how can they be controlled by political schemes?

Xu Qing believed that the supreme position lies in being upright and honest, and political intrigues are ultimately minor.

Relying on political tricks may be effective for a while, but it will eventually undermine the foundation.

Of course, he is just a keyboard warrior. If he were to reach that position, he would probably do a much worse job than the old emperor.

After all, no matter how smart you are or how many magic spells you have, you can't do anything if you encounter a group of teammates who hold you back.

The magic here refers to criminal law and power politics, and the best of them is the married woman Cao.

He was good at fighting, scheming, and well versed in criminal law. He tried to suppress the aristocratic families, but in vain.

Moreover, Cao Wei's exploitation of the lower-class people was rare in all dynasties.

The rule of the Legalists since the Qin Dynasty was not actually the rule of law, but more like slavery, emphasizing "tiring and weakening the people."

It is said that the people are arrogant and idle when they have nothing to do, and are easy to control when they are busy and idle.

Those who have always been in a high position have all secretly agreed with this.

Some don’t say it, some do, but they all do it this way.

Even Xu Qing himself.

They would use the members of the Fushe Society to build academies.

"Above me, everyone is equal; below me, there are clear classes. I have the same bad habits as others." Xu Qing reflected on himself, but found it difficult to make changes.

Academic freedom is allowed, but if the organizational structure is loose, Xu Qing doesn’t know what to do.

He can only copy homework.

After all, even Li Shimin used this method when governing the country.

In order to escape the heavy labor during the Zhenguan period, some people even chose to cut off their own hands and feet.

It can be said that the harsh rule of the Zhenguan version is more ferocious than a tiger.

However, Xu Qing has one advantage: he has high demands on his subordinates, but he is also willing to share the profits. Xu Qing personally does not care about enjoyment and wealth.

Those who follow him are destined to eat meat, and even ordinary people can only drink soup.

It's better than many other masters who make their subordinates suffer and just make empty promises.

Under other masters, one could only obtain these benefits through corruption and oppression of the good people; but under Xu Jieyuan, one could obtain them simply by enduring hardships and doing practical work.

This is also what Xu Qing can do.

But rule by man is bound to end with the death of the leader.

If there is no human rule, well, hell on earth is definitely no joke.

After all, governing a prefecture is much easier than governing the whole world. Jiangning Prefecture is under Xu Qing's supervision, so he can take care of many details.

If he wants to expand further, he can only rely on more talents who share the same ideals as him.

At least he can implement this set of ideas.

This is also the significance of Fushe.

Even if it gets deformed in the end, it's better than nothing.

However, not every member of the Fushe Society could understand him and accept this idea.

Some members who withdrew from the Fushe Society have recently met with yamen clerks who were replaced during the land survey.

Most of these members are children of wealthy families and have a lot of dealings with these clerks on a daily basis.

They withdrew from the Fushe Society and were blamed by the elders of their family. Like the clerks who were replaced, they had many complaints against Xu Qing.

"Zheng County Magistrate is submissive to Xu Gongming, largely because Xu Gongming's county examination teacher became the prefect of Jinyang Prefecture, his hometown. Now the official document has been passed down that Lord Wu has been promoted to Right Censor-in-Chief and will no longer have any influence on Zheng County Magistrate's hometown." An old clerk revealed the news.

"Zheng Zhixian is like a puppet now, and everyone has seen how humiliated he was in court. Besides, Xu Gongming is in Nanzhili, and he can't be said to have absolute control over everything. After all, Zheng Zhixian is the Marquis of Baili, and he can't always be treated as a puppet by Xu Gongming. Why don't you go and test Zheng Zhixian to see if he can get your position back."

"Zheng Zhixian is the Duke of Wei's man. The Duke's Mansion has been humiliated several times. If Xu Gongming continues to push his limits, everyone will understand the right and wrong."

"Let's go and give it a try. Besides, we all know the philosophy of the Fushe Society. At worst, we can go to Yingtian Prefecture to start a new Fushe Society. Maybe we can even get the appreciation of the Duke and let those old people in the family who look down on us see..."

These members who withdrew, because their families had cut off their monthly salaries, and these clerks were resentful, hit it off immediately.

Taking advantage of the alcohol, they went to the yamen in groups of three or four to look for County Magistrate Zheng.

County Magistrate Zheng knew some of them and listened to them patiently. When he heard that these old clerks actually wanted to resume their posts, his first reaction was that Xu Qing was deliberately testing him, and he hurriedly said in shock, "What nonsense are you talking about?"

These clerks and members of the community, however, continued to speak in a humble manner, analyzing the pros and cons with him, and also told him about Lord Wu's affairs, asking County Magistrate Zheng not to panic anymore.

County Magistrate Zheng immediately understood, "So they are a bunch of drunkards."

He immediately sent yamen runners to arrest these people, and beat each of them with fifty lashes on the charge of raging in court. Then they were thrown into prison, waiting for their families to redeem them.

I really think he is a fool.

But these people came at the right time.

County Magistrate Zheng was worried that he had no chance to curry favor with Xu Jieyuan and the Right Censor-in-Chief.

He finally understood that Lord Wu had clung to Mr. Xu's thigh, and in just less than two years, he was promoted from a seventh-rank county magistrate to the prime minister's attention and was promoted to the position of Right Censor-in-Chief.

It’s okay for me to fuck you!

Although Lord Wu was a top-three Jinshi, and his talent and background surpassed that of a Juren, he did not seek a quasi-high official position like the Right Censor-in-Chief, and he would not mind being given an ordinary fifth-rank prefectural position.

If Master Xu can really help him get promoted, then Master Xu is his real grandfather!

After doing this, County Magistrate Zheng immediately took Mr. Xu's lackey Guo Zhuang to Xu's residence to report his achievements.

After hearing the purpose of County Magistrate Zheng's visit, Xu Qing couldn't help but want to laugh.

In fact, it is better to use familiar people than new ones. He was also considering who would replace the prefect of Jiangning after Prefect He left office.

It is true that County Magistrate Zheng’s character is not very good, but his ability to know how to adapt to the times is indeed his advantage.

And it seems that it is not impossible to be a transitional character.

But being the chief judge would be too conspicuous for him.

After our mentor Wu arrives, we will discuss the matter and give him the title of Tongzhi. Then we can ask the Ministry of Personnel to find a reason to keep the position of Jiangning Prefecture vacant temporarily.

This will be easier to handle.

As for the reasons for promotion, they are easy to find.

Land surveying is the top priority nowadays. County Magistrate Zheng has been involved in this, so he must have made a great contribution. If his contribution is sent to the Ministry of Personnel, there will naturally be something to say.

Although this level of promotion was a great success for County Magistrate Zheng, it was actually just a matter of a word from Minister Zhang.

Because the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel is mainly responsible for the performance evaluation of ordinary officials, while the Left Vice Minister is the person who actually decides on promotion decisions.

As for the Shangshu, matters of this level have to be reviewed by the heavenly officials, so he must be extremely busy.

Of course, when it is finally passed, you still need to go through the process with the Tianguan.

But it’s just a process.

Generally speaking, unless the matter decided by the Little Heavenly Official involves any major interests, the Heavenly Official will turn a blind eye.

After all, he is the default successor to the Minister of Personnel.

After you leave office, your people will still have to look at other people's faces.

Don't think that the future Buddha is not a Buddha! Xu Qing's mind flashed through his mind, and he became more and more enthusiastic about County Magistrate Zheng, and ordered his servants to serve him good tea.

County Magistrate Zheng had never received such special treatment in Master Xu's house, and his eyes were a little red. In order to show his sincerity, he didn't even lift up his sleeves.

According to historical records, An Lushan recognized the imperial concubine as his mother.

He, Zheng, just lacks this opportunity.

After some greetings, he sent County Magistrate Zheng away.

Xu Qing had expected that the members who resigned and the clerks who were dismissed would cause trouble, but unfortunately these people were just drunk and crazy and did not make a big deal out of it, otherwise he could use this as an excuse to make an example of them.

"The heads and elders of the wealthy and powerful families are all ruthless and ruthless. Even if we kill a chicken to scare the monkeys, they will only kneel faster. But there is no weasel that doesn't steal chickens. There is still a long time to come, so we can slowly fight them off." Xu Qing has now established the Jiangzuo Merchants Alliance. The current main body is the Farmers' Association led by him and a group of gentry from Jiangning Prefecture and poor members of the Fushe Society.

The Farmers' Association is still in its infancy and is a small-scale operation.

On the other hand, he used the incense money from Jinguang Temple to establish his own bank during the development of the Chamber of Commerce.

Fa Yue’s financial management ability is okay, but he still needs more professional talents, so he can only look for them slowly.

The business has grown like a snowball, with so many things to deal with.

Although Xu Qing was very anxious about this, he did not look for someone randomly.

Because it is still in the early stages, loyalty is far more important than ability.

As for County Magistrate Zheng, there is another consideration for employing him.

We have to leave some buffer space on the side of Duke Wei.

Although everyone seems to be in opposition now, in fact it is not to the point of being like water and fire.

As long as the Duke of Wei understood that Xu Qing's foundation was solid and could not be eliminated suddenly, he would not really fight to the death.

Moreover, with the Duke of Wei's easing relationship in place, the court would not be able to suppress Xu Qing too harshly in the future.

This is a relatively long-term plan, but it needs to be planned in advance.

Xu Qing has a clear view of the general situation.

The central government of the imperial court is actually taking things one step at a time.

Surveying the land was a pretext to bring up the issue of suppressing the Japanese rebellion, and this was the only way to temporarily calm the southeast.

If the southeast is peaceful, the court can profit by reopening its maritime trade.

With the entry of external interests, the resistance to internal change will be reduced.

But this will also damage the smuggling interests of the southeastern nobles.

From the root, smuggling by the wealthy families is a separate force, because the people who control silk, tea and porcelain cannot be confused with the wealthy families who engage in smuggling.

In this way, the force that the imperial court has to fight against will not be as strong as expected.

The grand move of surveying the land was first shown, but in fact it was just a lot of noise with little action. This undoubtedly showed that the central government would not force the rentier classes such as the wealthy and powerful, the gentry and the nobles to do too much.

To put it bluntly, it means first making clear one's attitude of daring to overturn the table, and then engaging in some bargaining. The actual purpose is to suppress smuggling and seize this part of the profits.

They also took this opportunity to train a group of naval forces and gain control of the discourse power at sea, which naturally further threatened the gentry in the southeast and consolidated the financial resources of the southeast, ensuring that subsequent reforms would not come to a standstill due to problems in the southeast.

I have to say that the Prime Minister has a very clear strategic thinking.

But whether it will succeed remains unknown.

Xu Qing is not the core of the reform faction now, but he is forced to become the sharp weapon of the prime minister's reform. This is also a helpless move.

If he hadn't made this choice, he would have been dead long ago and would never have been able to achieve his current career.

If his strength does not grow rapidly, he will not be able to deal with the crisis in a few years.

These are all due to the current situation.

Xu Qing continued to make detailed plans and arranged his subordinates to implement them in an orderly manner. No matter whether they were effective or not, they would just push forward with it.

It doesn’t matter if you do it wrong or not well.

First you have to gain experience and lessons, then you can summarize. As long as you keep doing things, you will always find ways to make things better.

Before he knew it, Xu Qing had waited for Lord Wu.

Now he is the Right Censor-in-Chief!
...

...

A group of people went to Tianxiang Court to welcome Lord Wu.

Naturally, Magistrate He also came.

Although he was flexible, he still felt jealous when he saw his old subordinate become the Right Censor-in-Chief of the Inspectorate so quickly.

Is it because Old Wu knew Xu Qing earlier?

He had known Mrs. Xu even earlier!

It's a pity that Feng Wu has been in seclusion these days, otherwise Governor He would have to go the niece's route.

In addition, he has been in more and more frequent contact with Inspector Feng recently.

The previous grudges have long disappeared under the pressure of career advancement.

This is how the officialdom works. One person has his own job. If you take one step slowly, you will take every step slowly. You have to fight for it.

As the group of people toasted each other, Lord Wu really felt as if he was in another world.

He could never have imagined that he, a mere third-class Jinshi, would have such a bizarre encounter in less than two years.

Thank you my good disciples!
Although they hadn't seen each other for a while, the look in Lord Wu's eyes when he looked at Xu Qing became more and more cordial.

Also attending the banquet was Meng Yuxuan, the lieutenant general of the Jinghaiwei Navy.

He is a hereditary military officer, and is now sent by the court to the southeast to deal with pirates. He also holds the position of Lieutenant General of Jinhua Prefecture in the neighboring Zhijiang Province.

After hearing this, Xu Qing really wanted to ask Admiral Meng, now that he has arrived in Jinhua Prefecture, whether he would like to visit a remote Buddhist temple outside.

The story of A Chinese Ghost Story takes place in a monastery in the northern suburbs of Jinhua.

Lanruo is not the name of a Buddhist temple, but a name, and is an unofficial temple.

So although Xu Qing also inquired about the Buddhist temples in Jinhua Prefecture, he did not know whether this story actually happened or in which temple it happened.

But he believed that there must be similar stories in this world with demons, gods and ghosts.

"Ruqian, you have heard about Gongming's deeds on Giant Whale Island. From now on, you and Gongming will be my right-hand men and women, and we will work together to achieve great things. Come, let's drink this glass." Lord Wu was drunk and pulled Xu Qing and Meng Yuxuan to drink.

Ruqian is the courtesy name of Lieutenant General Meng.

Xu Qing felt somewhat familiar with this word.

Meng Yuxuan is a man of few words, but he is well-educated and has the temperament of a Confucian general. However, Xu Qing can see that he has high skills.

His temples were not bulging like those of other warriors, his eyes were restrained, and his energy and blood were hidden deep inside.

There was also a familiar aura that Xu Qing felt.

"Da Zen Temple's martial arts?"

He was secretly surprised.

There is no doubt that Meng Yuxuan's martial arts skills are definitely related to the Dachan Temple.

Moreover, the guards around Meng Yuxuan this time were indeed lay disciples of the Great Zen Temple. However, Xu Qing initially thought that they were the same as Guards Wang and Ma.

Now after his observation, it seems that Meng Yuxuan himself has a connection with the Dachan Temple.

He thought this was a good thing.

Since there are many warriors in Dachan Temple and they have wide connections in the martial arts world, it would definitely be a good thing if they could use their power to deal with the Dongming Gang.

The Prime Minister is also interesting. He is on guard against the Dachan Temple, and in the matter of pacifying the pirates, he uses Meng Yuxuan, a person who has martial arts skills and is related to the Dachan Temple.

I have to say, this trick is quite clever.

Moreover, Meng Yuxuan himself probably has some patriotism.

Xu Qing communicated with him and found that Meng Yuxuan had the temperament of a civil official who was concerned about the country and the people.

He is different from military officers like Zuo Qianhu who tend to be idealistic.

Meng Yuxuan has a high emotional intelligence. Although he is not good at speaking, what he says is neither humble nor arrogant, which makes people feel very comfortable.

It may even make people ignore his identity as a military general.

Meng Yuxuan and Xu Qing were chatting happily, and he said, "Xu Jieyuan, I know you are the most talented person in Jiangnan. I wrote a poem about my life's aspirations, and I would like to ask you to correct it. Is that okay?"

He looked a little embarrassed as he spoke.

At this time, he was more like a literature lover, eager to get comments from contemporary literary masters.

Xu Qing smiled and said, "Brother Meng, please don't embarrass me. I am only slightly familiar with eight-part essays. The saying that you are the most talented person in Jiangnan is just flattery by the villagers. It doesn't count. However, I think Brother Meng has a refined temperament. If you have any poems, they must be excellent. I am willing to listen to them."

After Meng Yuxuan and Xu Qing came into contact, they felt that the other party was gentle and kind, and was unknowingly kind, which was very different from the rumors outside, and Meng Yuxuan felt quite good about him.

He then said, "Then I will show you my ugliness."

So Lord Wu and Lord He listened with great interest.

Meng Yuxuan recited off the cuff: "I am resting in my small building for the time being, and I am worried about the old alliance. I call for wine to greet the guests, and sit down to discuss military affairs. The clouds are full of toothpicks, and the stars contain precious swords. I don't want to be a marquis, but I hope the sea will be calm."

After he finished writing a poem, everyone in the room sighed.

Especially Lord Wu, who sighed: "Ruqian, you have such a talent for writing, but I didn't know it. You kept it from me so hard..."

Lord He also applauded and praised that the artistic conception of this poem reflects the feelings of scholars and officials who are concerned about the country and the people. It is definitely a top-notch work that can be passed down to future generations.

Civil officials have always looked down on military officials, but when Meng Yuxuan's poem came out, even Lord He felt sorry that Meng Yuxuan did not take the imperial examination. It would be a good story if he could become a general or a prime minister in the future.

Pity!
Xu Qing was secretly shocked.

Because he knew that this poem was clearly written by Qi Jiguang, a historical figure in his previous life.

He looked at Meng Yuxuan again, his eyes were completely different.

Could he be the Qi Jiguang of this world?

His eyes became very eager!
This is a famous general of the time!
Xu Qing naturally couldn't help but receive some praise.

Meng Yuxuan was very happy when he saw that the poem he had carefully prepared was praised by the Nanzhili Jieyuan, the second-class Jinshi He Zhifu, and Lord Wu.

In fact, he is also a person that the Prime Minister values ​​very much, but the benefits of being able to infiltrate the civil service are self-evident, and it brings a great sense of accomplishment.

With Meng Yuxuan's poems, the banquet became more lively.

However, Lord Wu did not ask Xu Qing to compose a poem.

After all, people of low social status would offer poems, or they would be inspired to write poems.

If he asked Xu Qing to write a poem again, it would be disrespectful to his benefactor.

Moreover, his academic qualifications as a third-class Jinshi were not very impressive compared to the academic qualifications of the Nanzhili Jieyuan.

The innate bloodline is suppressed.

Afterwards, the guests and hosts had a great time.

Lord Wu waited until everyone else left before he privately took Xu Qing into a separate room to talk.

The reason is that I haven't seen Xu Qing for a long time, and tonight the teacher and student will sleep on the same bed with their feet touching.

(End of this chapter)