When Liu Ziyu heard this, his slight annoyance suddenly disappeared, and he became respectful instead: "So, what does Deyuan want to do?"
"I want to resign from my post and go out to govern a region like Zhao Yuanzhen (Zhao Ding) did," Zhang Jun answered simply.
Liu Ziyu was not surprised at all, he just smiled bitterly: "You advised me to raise my standards and let me stay in the center, but you want to run away..."
"I advised you to stay here because you are useful here. Didn't the incident in Xiangyang prove my words?" Zhang Jun disagreed. "And I am asking to leave now because I am useless staying in the center."
"The truth is always yours." Liu Ziyu's smile became even more bitter. "Then where are you going?"
"I estimate that in a month or two, someone in Guanzhong will come out to clean up the situation... There are seven or eight commanders, so there must be one or two who are either arrogant or loyal, right?"
"Of course...you want to go to Shaanxi?" Liu Ziyu frowned slightly.
"I want to go to Sichuan and Shaanxi," Zhang Deyuan corrected. "The emperor hates civil officials taking charge of military affairs. If I ask Shaanxi now, the emperor will definitely not allow it... But I am originally from Shu, and I want to go to Shu to appease the people, just like Zhao Ding stayed in Huainan to support Zhang Boying (Zhang Jun) and stayed in Sichuan to support Guanzhong. The emperor has nothing to say."
"Then wait for a powerful figure to emerge in Guanzhong and become your Zhang Boying?" Liu Yanxiu seemed to be thinking. "It makes sense, but there are still a few difficulties... The emperor asked you to take care of Han Shizhong. After you leave, who will respond to Han Shizhong?"
Zhang Jun smiled bitterly: "This is another reason why I asked to go. Han Shizhong is the general closest to Nanyang. Your Majesty is always worried about him. You can just take care of him yourself. Why do you need me to take care of him? This is a different time, that is a different time."
"That's right." Liu Ziyu nodded gently. "Who are you going to recommend as the Chief Censor after you leave? Hu Mingzhong? It can't be Li Guang, right? He was once an aide to Prime Minister Li. We should be careful about this kind of thing."
"I'm not stupid enough to let Li Guang do it, but I can't accept the fact that you asked me to recommend Hu Mingzhong." Zhang Jun shook his head. "He Zhu, the Censor-in-Chief, Fan Zongyin, the Minister of Rites, Zhu Shengfei, the Minister of Works, Ye Mengde, the Imperial Academy Scholar, Li Ruopu... these are all the choices at the moment. If the emperor asks me, I will just recommend them and let the emperor choose."
Liu Ziyu wanted to say something. Since he knew that the emperor was nostalgic, how could these people be compared with Hu Mingzhong who took off his clothes in front of the curtain that day? However, since it was related to the position of the Chief Censor, as a close minister in front of the emperor, he did not want to say more.
"If Ruode goes to Sichuan and I can't go with him, have you ever thought about finding a suitable military adviser to be in charge of the written matters in your staff?" Thinking of this, Liu Yanxiu simply changed the subject.
"I have already considered this matter." Zhang Jun raised his cup and drank again. "Zhe Yanzhi was demoted to Changhua Army (Hainan), I want to ask the government to pardon him, and then ask to join the army in Sichuan; even the equally important finance, I have also taken a fancy to a person, this time in Sichuan, I must make some achievements..."
Liu Ziyu knew that the other party was determined to leave, so he didn't want to say much and just raised his glass to drink as a friend.
In this way, the two of them took a rare break and drank from morning until the sun was setting. They went back drunk together and rested directly in Zhang Jun's house... However, before they had slept for a moment and were still drunk, a eunuch suddenly came and delivered an imperial decree, saying that the emperor had an appointment and asked the two of them to leave the city in plain clothes as soon as possible.
The two men stood up in a daze, one feeling dizzy and the other feeling confused. The eunuch had no choice but to ask Zhang Jun's family to find a mule cart to take them out of the city, but they ended up in Baihe.
By this time, there was still enough sunlight, but no less than a hundred people had gathered on the bank of the Baihe River, not to mention the eunuchs, guards, imperial doctors, and painters, there were also several ministers, several chancellors, several Hanlin scholars, several secretaries of the imperial court, and of course several of the emperor's most trusted close ministers. Almost everyone was there.
Emperor Zhao was wearing only a loose-fitting, cross-collared linen robe, and was standing under a tree by the river with Madam Wu, who was also dressed casually. When he turned around and saw two drunken henchmen climbing down from the mule cart, he couldn't help but laugh:
"Deyuan, Yanxiu, you two are really too much. You know that the weather is beautiful today and the riverside is beautiful, but you just drink and have fun by yourselves. Unlike me, I am thinking about you when I come out for a rare trip!"
Zhang Jun and Liu Ziyu looked at each other and bowed awkwardly. Liu Ziyu was fine, but Zhang Jun had the demeanor of a scholar and had drunk a lot, so he staggered and almost fell to the ground.
"There is no etiquette today." Zhao Jiu raised his hand to signal the eunuch to help the two drunkards up, and then laughed again. "It's like this, I have admired the poems of the great scholar Su since I was a child, so today I specially held a banquet to entertain the descendants of the great scholar Su. However, I am not well-educated, and I am afraid of making a fool of myself, so I asked you guys to give me courage..."
Liu Ziyu was fine, but Zhang Jun instinctively realized that the emperor was going to make trouble again... Because there would be a large-scale palace examination to appoint officials tomorrow, which was a top-notch event. It was the so-called critical moment, so why would he summon important officials here today to entertain Su Shi's grandson?
However, Zhang Zhongcheng was drunk and had a splitting headache just thinking about it, but he could only respond in a daze.
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