"You think this is too shameless?" Yang Bo saw through Zhang Siwei's thoughts, and took out a silver ingot from his sleeve without caring, and asked the long-time attendant outside for another one, then put the two silver ingots in his palm and said: "Ziwei, tell me, which of these two silver ingots is noble and which one is cheap?"

Zhang Siwei frowned and was speechless.

"Actually, there is no difference. They can both buy rice and noodles to fill their stomachs, and they can both go to Fenzi Hutong to have fun." Yang Bo laughed and said, "If that's the case, why do you care how it came?"

"Yes..." Zhang Siwei nodded, feeling that it made sense.

"So, as long as it can bring benefits to the people of Shanxi, what does face matter? What business can't be done?" Yang Bo said with a sigh: "Your body and name will be destroyed. The rivers and streams will flow forever. Ziwei, don't be too rigid."

Zhang Siwei looked at the two silver ingots in his hand and fell into deep thought.

It was not until the carriage stopped and the door opened that he came to his senses and asked Yang Bo: "Uncle, what should I do next?"

"No hurry, let's calm down first. The guy is going to Henan, so you can think about it carefully when you have time." Yang Bo smiled, looked at Xiao Wei expectantly and said, "I believe you can choose the right way this time."

After saying that, Lao Yang patted Xiao Wei's thin shoulders with his broad palms, then got off the carriage with a smile.

~~

Forbidden City, Palace of Heavenly Purity.

Like court recommendations, the voting results of court discussions are, at least in name only, for the emperor's reference.

It’s just that if the emperor doesn’t issue an edict according to this result, the ministers will not obey it... This false respect of the emperor by the ministers of the Ming Dynasty almost reached its peak during the Longqing Dynasty.

So when the cabinet presented the results of the court discussion to Emperor Longqing, Weng Weng could not directly judge that sea transportation won, and could only ask Li Chunfang helplessly: "Yuan Weng, what do you think? Half support sea transportation, and half support opening the Jiaolai River. What should we do?"

"Your Majesty, the results of the court discussion show how big the controversy is." Li Chunfang said slowly and calmly, "It's also the cabinet's fault. They didn't do enough work before, so there is such a big disagreement. I have failed your grace, and I am guilty."

Chen Yiqin quickly followed suit and apologized.

"Stand up, stand up, stop asking for punishment all the time, solving the problem is the right thing to do!" Longqing felt annoyed, knowing that he would not punish them, so they kept asking for punishment. If his father was still alive, he would have let them get what they wanted.

"Your Majesty, the ancients said, 'Hearing is not as good as seeing, and seeing is not as good as experiencing.'" Chen Yiqin said seriously, "I think the best way to resolve the differences is to have the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works send personnel to conduct a joint investigation to see whether the Jiaolai River is suitable for use and what the risks of sea transportation are. It won't be too late to discuss it after they come back."

"That's what I meant." Li Chunfang nodded in agreement.

"All right then." Emperor Longqing could only nod dejectedly and let the cabinet do as it wished.

~~

After the two men left, Longqing stood up angrily and paced back and forth with his hands behind his back.

How could he not be angry? He had personally approved the shipping, but in the end, it was tampered by such a minister and turned into such a miserable state!

You really don’t take Buzz Buzz as a wasp!

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He grabbed his tea bowl and was about to throw it to the ground!

"Your Majesty, calm down!" Chen Hong, who was on duty today, quickly reminded him, "If you smash this again, it will be completely useless!"

"Alas..." Long Qing put down the tea bowl in frustration, and said with a bitter face: "If the sea trade was opened smoothly, would I not dare to throw a tea bowl?"

"Yes, that's 10% of the sea trade share, there must be hundreds of thousands of taels, right?" Chen Hong also said covetously. He is the eunuch of the Imperial Household Department, who is responsible for spending money for the emperor. Only when the emperor has money to spend, he can get kickbacks...

Cutting off someone's source of income is like killing their parents. Chen Hong even wanted to kill Li Chunfang.

He suddenly remembered that when he came home from work the day before yesterday, his good friend Shao Fang came to him and told him that the time he had been waiting for had come. He asked him to make a debut in front of the emperor as soon as possible after the court's recommendation, so as to take the lead in reinstating Gao Xinzheng and lay a solid foundation for becoming the eunuch in charge of the seal.

Anyway, it was always right to speak well of Gao Gong and speak ill of other ministers in front of the emperor. Chen Hong mustered up his courage, covered his face and sobbed.

"Why are you crying?" Seeing this, Long Qing was naturally stunned.

"I deserve to die. I can't help myself." Chen Hong quickly knelt down to apologize, but cried even more sadly, "But I just can't help myself. I feel bad for your Majesty."

"Alas..." Upon hearing this, Longqing thought to himself, even a servant like me feels pity for me.

Hum Hum's mood became more and more gloomy, and he sighed, "Yes, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there has never been an emperor as cowardly as me."

"Although Your Majesty is kind, he is definitely not a coward, otherwise the late emperor would not have chosen you to succeed him." Chen Hong said with tears streaming down his face, "It's just that those ministers who eat the emperor's salary are ungrateful and have nothing to lose. Since Master Gao passed away, Your Majesty has been alone and helpless, and a good tiger cannot fight against a pack of wolves!"

"Don't talk nonsense." Long Qing reprimanded him with deep conviction, and emphasized: "At least I still have Master Chen and Master Zhang..."

"But they are useless! I am risking my life to say one thing today, Your Majesty, if Master Gao doesn't come out, you will have no peace!" Chen Hong kowtowed, choking with blood, and said, "Because I found that Your Majesty has not been happy in the past two years since Master Gao left. I am really worried about your health!"

"Okay, get up quickly." Longqing stretched out his foot and gently kicked Chen Hong, sighing: "I am looking forward to Master Gao's return, but there are too many people in the court who are afraid of him. He always fails to pass the imperial recommendation, and he refuses to be specially appointed. As a result, he is stuck there..."

"Your Majesty is right, but right now, there seems to be a good opportunity." Chen Hong glanced at Longqing and said bravely.

"Oh?" Hum Hum's expression brightened and he asked, "What good opportunity?"

"The reason why the imperial nomination failed in the past was mainly because Lord Xu had too much influence in the court. Those people had offended Master Gao with him, so they would naturally unite to cause trouble in the imperial nomination." Chen Hong followed Shao Fang's instructions and said slowly:

"But things are different now. Xu Jie has fallen and is infamous. The so-called Xu Party can no longer unite. The result of this court meeting is proof of this. Long live him!"

"Hmm." Long Qing stroked his neatly trimmed beard and thought seriously for a moment... but he still couldn't think clearly, so he said in a muffled voice: "You continue."

"Yes. Why do you say that?" Chen Hong said quietly, "Because I looked at the list of votes in the court discussion and found that of the sixteen officials in Nanzhili, ten from Jiangnan voted for sea transportation, while six from Jiangbei voted for grain transport. Although Nanzhili was originally a scattered group, it was so clearly divided on such an important issue. It can only mean one thing, they are divided!"

"Really?" Longqing stretched out his hand and asked Chen Hong to bring him the results of the court discussion. Then he checked the officials' hometowns one by one and found that it was indeed correct. Xu Ge Lao's base camp, Nanzhili, had indeed been divided into two factions!

"It seems that Mr. Li is also from Nanzhi?" Longqing suddenly asked.

"Yangzhou." Chen Hong nodded and said, "Yangzhou is in the north of the Yangtze River and is an important town on the Grand Canal."

"Hmm." Longqing stretched out his finger and scratched on the memorial and said, "He brought six officials from Jiangbei to support the grain transport. This completely offended the officials from Jiangnan."

"I heard that even officials from Zhejiang are determined to obtain maritime transport, and all of them have expressed their support for it." Chen Hong added fuel to the fire.

"Hmm..." Long Qing understood what this meant.

The biggest obstacle to Gao Gong's reinstatement is the current Prime Minister Li Chunfang. Now that Li Chunfang and the officials of Jiangsu and Zhejiang have parted ways over the grain transport issue, it does seem that there is an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.

"However, these officials are very fickle." But Longqing was always cautious. After thinking it over, he said, "I'm afraid that when it's Master Gao's turn, they will be wearing the same pants again."

"It's not impossible." Chen Hong said softly, "If you want to know how much conflict they have, it's best to ask someone you can trust." He quickly distanced himself from the matter, "But I don't have any dealings with foreign officials. I wonder if there is anyone who is trustworthy and knows the inside story."

"Yeah, it's not easy to find such a person..." Long Qing also started to worry.

Chen Hong almost fell to the ground, thinking to himself, "It's easy to find someone like that! The person who best meets these conditions comes to the palace every now and then, and you still want me to learn how to make a short film from him..."

Fortunately, Emperor Longqing was just slow to react. After a while, he finally slapped his forehead and said, "How could I forget about that guy? He is the one who arranged the shipping, so he must know everything! Quick, summon Zhao Hao to the palace!"

"Your Majesty, please be patient. There are so many eyes watching you right now." Chen Hong smiled bitterly and advised, "Anyway, Mr. Zhao will go to the palace tomorrow to play for the Crown Prince. It won't be too late to ask him then."

"Well, that's true." Long Qing nodded in agreement and looked at Chen Hong with admiration, "Old Chen, why are you so smart today?"

"This..." Chen Hong's forehead was immediately covered with sweat, thinking that it was bad, the performance was over.

Fortunately, this hero also had a lesson. He quickly leaned over and cried, "Although I have been favored by the emperor and appointed as the secretary of the Imperial Household Department, I have always kept in mind the ancestral precepts of the Emperor Taizu, 'eunuchs are not allowed to interfere in politics', so I have kept my mouth shut in the past. Today I can't help it anymore. I deserve to die, please punish me, Your Majesty!"

"Alas, why should I punish you? I can't even reward you yet." Longqing was not so suspicious. He smiled and patted his shoulder and said, "It seems that Teng Xiang is not as good as you. He said what he said today. If everyone in the Imperial Household Department was like you, how could I be bullied by those ministers?"

Chen Hong's face immediately turned red, and he kowtowed excitedly, saying, "As long as it can be of use to His Majesty, I will be willing to die!"

ps. Sorry, this chapter has been overhauled. There is another update, which will be sent to you later...