Chapter 1607: Each Has His Own Agenda

Deshengmen was suddenly put on alert and the road was closed. The government troops blocked the idle people entering and leaving the road and cleared the road to wait for the important people to pass.

The people waited for a long time before they saw an unmarked luxurious four-wheeled carriage slowly driving into the capital, escorted by a team of Jinyiwei.

In the carriage, Zhang Juzheng sat against the wall with disheveled hair and beard, looking at the changing scenery outside the window with a distracted gaze, letting his tears flow silently, wetting a large area of ​​his lapel.

No matter what, he is his biological father who gave birth to him, raised him, and taught him to read!

Since the 36th year of Jiajing, after returning to the capital after a three-year vacation, he plunged into politics, first serving as a lecturer in Prince Yu's Palace, and then assisting Teacher Xu in overthrowing Yan.

At that time, he thought that he would go home to visit his parents after the Yan Party was eliminated and Yu Yu was cleared.

However, after the fall of the Yan Party and the beginning of the Longqing Dynasty, he was promoted to the rank of Grand Secretary, but he became even more deeply involved in the political struggle and did not dare to relax for a moment.

He could only postpone his family visit plan until he became the Prime Minister...

Finally, he pushed his opponents away one by one and took the position of Prime Minister. But taking the position was only a means, not an end. He came for reform, not to abuse his power!

So he worked hard to start the Wanli New Deal, and also taught the little emperor carefully and met all the requirements of his mother, but he still had no time to return home...

Until this year, because of the emperor's engagement and land survey, he missed the chance to see his father for the last time. He has not been back to Jingzhou for twenty years and has not seen his old father!

I always thought I would go back next year, after I was done with this round of work, but who would have thought that this would be our last farewell...

Even though Zhang Juzheng had the sun, moon, mountains and rivers in his heart, he was completely overwhelmed by the guilt of not returning home for twenty years.

After the carriage drove directly into the mansion and closed the door tightly, You Qi opened the door and saw that his master's eyes had swollen like peaches.

"Master, please accept my condolences!" You Qi quickly squeezed out two tears and helped Zhang Juzheng, who was crying his heart out, get off the carriage.

"Hurry, dress Bu Gu in mourning and prepare the mourning hall." As soon as Zhang Xianggong got off the car, he ordered in a hoarse voice.

He was the prime minister of the dynasty, so no matter what, he could not return home immediately after hearing the news of the death. He had to report the death to the emperor first and get permission before returning home to mourn.

During this period of time, as a filial son, one must first set up a mourning hall in the local area to keep vigil for the ancestor remotely and express grief from afar.

But in this way, nothing can be hidden...

"Uh, yes..." You Qi was worried that Zhang Juzheng had lost his mind because of the sudden bad news. After hesitating for a moment, he still reminded him in a low voice:

"But Master, this is the advance message from my son-in-law via carrier pigeon. The express mail from the province, which is eight hundred miles away, will take two days to arrive, not to mention the Third Young Master coming to officially announce the death..."

"What do you mean?" Zhang Juzheng asked coldly.

"What I mean is, should we suppress the news first? Quickly notify Eunuch Feng, Li Bu Tang and the others privately, so that everyone can discuss countermeasures and make preparations in advance?"

Zhang Juzheng looked at him strangely. Yes, this is the safest way. But shouldn't you be patient and wait until I come back from playing ball and close the door?

What happened next was that he ran there in a panic and gave Bu Gu a bolt from the blue in public. How could others not taste the bitterness of that?

Believe it or not, if it is not made public today, it will be all over the city tomorrow, with people saying all kinds of weird things.

Alas, there is no way. How smart can you expect a slave to be?

Zhang Xianggong looked at You Qi for a while, which made him feel hairy all over, and then he said in a hoarse voice: "Set up the mourning hall!"

"Yes!" You Qi was startled and dared not say more.

Zhang Juzheng didn't have the energy to argue with him, so he ordered, "Go to the Hanlin Academy and ask Sixiu to ask for leave for mourning. Then let Mr. Li draft Bu Gu's mourning... Forget it, I'll write it myself..."

Zhang Juzheng certainly had staff, but how many people in this world could keep up with his thinking and were qualified to give him advice?

He is also a detail-obsessed person with a terrible temper. Even a capable person cannot stand his cowardly temper. If you don't believe me, just look at how Mr. Zhao supports the lonely painter and the double-edged writer. After the old couple were pardoned in the first year of the Wanli reign, they took a long vacation and went out to have fun.

Zhao Shouzheng would write to them from time to time, asking them to have fun and not to rush back... As a result, the two shameless people played for five years. Zhao Hao didn't owe them a day's salary...

Otherwise you won't be able to keep these things. You are talented but are repeatedly beaten by society into abnormality.

How could Zhang Juzheng worship these perverts like his ancestors? So after searching for a long time, he finally hired a teacher who could write and calculate and draft some unimportant documents. He had to write the really important documents himself.

A memorial like this one, which asks the emperor for a long vacation and contains countless instructions, cannot be done by someone else.

Soon, the maid took off the master's gorgeous clothes and helped him put on a green robe with a sash.

The servants in the mansion also quickly put on mourning clothes, and then set up a mourning hall in the front yard, put away all the red lanterns and other things, and pasted white paper on the vermilion lacquered door and green windows...

While waiting for the funeral hall to be set up, Zhang Juzheng picked up his pen and wrote a petition for mercy:

"On the 15th of this month, I received a letter from my hometown, informing me that my father, Zhang Wenming, had passed away on September 13th. When I heard the news, my heart was broken. I was so sad that I was unconscious and could not speak. I could only cry blood...'

Mr. Zhang's tears once again fell on the manuscript paper, blurring the ink he had just written...

~~

On the other side, You Qi received the order and went out. He first sent someone to the East Factory to tell Xu Jue to inform the palace immediately. He also changed into mourning clothes and rushed to the Hanlin Academy to report the news.

Zhang Sixiu had been awarded the title of Hanlin Editor for more than half a year after he passed the imperial examination. Together with Shen Maoxue and Zeng Chaojie, who were also ranked in the top three, he copied the Yongle Encyclopedia in the Hanlin Academy as usual.

When he was called out and saw You Qi in heavy mourning, Zhang Sixiu almost fainted from fright.

When You Qi told him the bad news, Zhang Sixiu fell to the ground crying and was helped up by Shen Maoxue who followed him out.

After crying for a long time, he went to the duty room of the Hanlin Bachelor at the reminder of Shen Maoxue and asked for leave from Wang Xijue, the Chancellor of the Chancellery and the President of the Academy.

The chef was a kind-hearted man, known as the Bodhisattva King, and Zhang Juzheng brought him back from Nanjing to Beijing to train him as a key cadre. So he could not sit still when he heard about the death.

"Go back quickly to accompany your father. You can take care of the paperwork later." Wang Xijue said as he began to take off his clothes in front of his subordinates.

He took off his third-rank official robes, put on some plain clothes and said, "Let's go. I'll go with you. First, I'll represent the Hanlin Academy to pay respects to our ancestors, and then see if anyone can help!"

The kind-hearted Chef Wang shouted this out, and the entire Hanlin Academy knew about it.

The Hanlin Academy was next to the six ministries, so in less than a minute, the officials from the six ministries knew about it...

“I’ll go!”

“Fuck…”

"Damn it!" Everyone was stunned upon hearing the news. But most officials were actually secretly happy.

Wow, God is really watching over us. Now we are all saved, the Ming Dynasty is saved...it's just that no one dares to say it out loud.

The ministers and secretaries quickly changed into plain clothes and rushed to Dashamao Hutong to pay their respects.

~~

The Palace of Wisdom.

The emperor was attending his last class of the day. The cabinet's second assistant, Lu Diaoyang, was personally supervising Wanli's calligraphy practice, while Feng Bao was watching from the side.

Over the past five years, Lu Diaoyang and Zhang Xianggong taught Emperor Wanli one day each, just like Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng took turns in the past.

When he was fifteen, Zhu Yijun had made great progress in calligraphy, but he also had a lot of thorns on his buttocks.

He was obviously restless, asking for water and asking the eunuch to rub his shoulders. But he didn't dare to say "I don't want to write anymore..."

He was not afraid of this old lady-like Lu Diaoyang, he was worried about Feng Bao.

The damn eunuch loves to inform the queen mother the most. After the terrible queen mother scolds him, she will tell the most terrible Mr. Zhang.

Therefore, Wanli was tightly held by this iron triangle and dared only to do some harmless little moves and did not dare to struggle at all.

Suddenly, the palace door opened silently, and a young eunuch came in quietly and whispered in Eunuch Feng's ear.

"Ah!" Feng Bao was suddenly struck by lightning and stood up suddenly.

He has been in charge of the Imperial Household Department and the East Factory for many years, and he has great power inside and outside the palace. He has changed a lot. The only thing that has not changed is his original intention towards Shuda...

When he suddenly heard about his uncle's death, he felt sadder than if his own father had died.

Because his father was a gambler, and he sold him into the palace to pay off his gambling debts...

"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Wanli immediately put down his pen and asked interestedly.

"Your Majesty, you remain calm even when Mount Tai is collapsing in front of you..." Lu Diaoyang said helplessly.

"Your Majesty, please stop practicing calligraphy for now. Mr. Zhang's father is gone..." Feng Bao said sadly.

"Ah?" Wanli opened his mouth wide after hearing this, and after a while he said, "So, I can finally be free? Oh no, no, I mean, what should I do?"

"Your Majesty, please report this to the Empress Dowager first." Feng Bao knew that the person who was most reluctant to let Zhang Juzheng go was definitely the Emperor's mother. "This matter should be decided by the Empress Dowager."

"Okay, let's go for a walk." Wanli said nothing and walked out.

"Your Majesty, please slow down and be careful with your step. Don't trip..." Feng Bao didn't care about Lao Lu and followed him out quickly.

In a blink of an eye, Lu Diaoyang was the only one left in the huge Wenhua Palace. He knew that no one took him seriously, so he said self-deprecatingly: "get out of class dismissed, respectfully send off the emperor."

When he returned to Wenyuan Pavilion, he entered his duty room and sat down tiredly. His confidant, Zhongshu Shibin, brought him a cup of strong tea and could not help but whispered:

"Congratulations, Prime Minister!"

Lu Diaoyang was stunned for a moment, then he scolded: "Don't talk nonsense! When the Prime Minister is in great grief, if you say this, how can I still be a human being?"

"Prime Minister Zhang is going to be in mourning, and Prime Minister Lu is the only one left in the cabinet. If you are not the prime minister, who will be?" Shi Bin said with a shameless smile.

"Anyway, stop talking nonsense!" Lu Diaoyang glared at him and said, "Go out and tell them that no one is allowed to gossip about others. If I hear them, I will kick them out of the cabinet!"

Even so, his words already had the aura of a cabinet minister...

(End of this chapter)