After the enthronement ceremony, Zhao Xian presented a generous thank-you gift as usual, and the young eunuchs grinned with joy. No wonder they all wanted to come here, the Zhao family was so generous, one trip here was equivalent to ten trips to other places, no wonder the ancestors remembered the good things about Master Zhao.

It's like the second ancestor. Eunuch Feng always had a gloomy face, when did he smile like he does now?

Zhao Hao smiled at Feng Bao and said, "The family has prepared a banquet. Please have a drink with me and the eunuchs before leaving."

According to the rules, the eunuchs in the palace only accept gifts and do not drink wine after delivering the imperial edict. However, today, Eunuch Feng was in a good mood, and nodded with a smile, "Then I'll ask for a glass of wedding wine for you, and I'll ask on behalf of the prince, can this year's New Year's film... the Green Snake and the White Snake, be released as scheduled?"

"Of course you can." Zhao Hao nodded with a smile and said, "The finished film is already available, but there are some issues with the scale. I still need you to check it."

"Yes, yes." Feng Bao nodded vigorously and said, "Your Majesty is very sensitive now. You can't show your body or hug each other, so that no one will gossip about you."

"Okay, then I'll let them make the snake demon wear long sleeves. Come on, let's eat and talk." Zhao Hao invited him to sit in the flower hall.

As for the young eunuch who came with him, Zhao Xian took him to the front yard to drink.

~~

Of course Feng Bao didn't stay for the drink or to watch the movie. He stayed because he had something to say to Zhao Hao.

Mr. Zhao is getting married tomorrow, and there are a lot of things to do today, so Feng Bao just gets straight to the point and makes it short.

"Sir, Gao Huzi wants to attack you, and he wants to kill you!"

"Yeah, I heard about it from my eldest brother-in-law." Zhao Hao thought to himself, Gao Gong really never plots anything. If he wants to harm himself, he would do it in such a grand manner that everyone knows about it.

"Is it the young Lord or..." Young Master Zhao had as many wives as brothers-in-law, so Eunuch Feng had to ask one more question to determine his location.

"It's Master Zhang." Zhao Hao smiled proudly. In this kind of situation, as long as you are not embarrassed, others will be embarrassed.

"Hmm." Feng Bao nodded and said in a sinister voice, "Did Mr. Zhang ask him to tell you that someone has reported you?"

"Who is it?" Zhao Hao's expression was stern.

"Who else could it be? It could be Gao Huzi's group of good students." Feng Bao sneered and said, "For example, Wang Zhen, the Southern Li Ke's Censor, and Chen Yujiao, the Southern Hu Ke's Censor. They impeached the Jiangnan Group for competing with the people for profits, illegally running schools, and monopolizing people's livelihood. They frantically fabricated charges against the young master."

"Yeah." Zhao Hao nodded. He knew this a long time ago.

Gao Gong was the chief examiner in the 44th year of Jiajing. His disciples had been in the officialdom for five or six years, which was just enough for them to be promoted to the censors. Moreover, the censors were selected by the Ministry of Personnel, without the need for imperial recommendation. The decision-making power was entirely in Gao Gong's hands. He learned from previous lessons and fully realized the necessity of keeping the censors in his hands. He appointed suitable disciples as censors on a large scale.

However, because he had promised before his comeback that he would not retaliate, it was inconvenient to immediately purge the Beijing Kedao and make room for his own people. So he arranged most of his disciples in Nanjing first, raised their ranks, and then found an opportunity to slowly transfer them to Beijing.

After Zhao Zhenji fell from power, a large number of Beijing censors were expelled. This group of Gao Gong's disciples were very excited and tried their best to be selected by their teacher so that they could be transferred to Beijing. With Gao Gong's almost explicit instructions, the Jiangnan Group and the Jiangnan Gang became their concentrated targets. Uncle Wu's dismissal and Hai Rui's transfer were all their masterpieces...

"In addition to those old tunes, they also impeached you for keeping assassins and plotting a rebellion." Feng Bao added sinisterly, "They said that you hired a large number of retired officers and soldiers to join the Jiangnan Group's security team and trained them to be more elite than the official army."

"You can always find a pretext to accuse someone." Zhao Hao's pupils shrank, and he gave Feng Bao a chance to pour wine, hiding his panic. "That only shows that the government troops are too weak, not as good as the civilian guards."

"They also said that you have countless sailors, strong ships and powerful guns, and you are invincible on the sea..." Feng Bao continued quietly.

Zhao Hao felt like his scalp was about to explode, but he still managed to not spill a drop of wine. This shows that people are constantly improving.

"At first, it was the Ministry of War that granted special permission. In order to protect the safety of the imperial grain, the Royal Shipping was allowed to have a certain number of muskets and cannons. This was signed in writing with the Ministry of War. Those guns and cannons were also allocated by the local garrisons. They were all strictly managed and registered, and they had to be sealed before arriving at the port. They were never taken off the ship." Young Master Zhao suppressed the turmoil in his heart and cried out for justice: "Besides, this is not a privilege of the Royal Shipping. The ships sailing to the sea in Fujian are also all equipped with cannons. Otherwise, the pirates at sea are fierce and have no ability to defend themselves. We are just delivering food to others..."

"But they impeached that your fleet had driven away the red-haired devils, eliminated Zeng Yiben, and dominated the seas of the Ming Dynasty." Feng Bao said coldly: "This has far exceeded the scope of self-defense!"

"Ah? You've put the wrong person at the head!" Zhao Hao laughed dumbly, "The one who drove away the red-haired devils and eliminated Zeng Yiben and other sea lords was Guangdong Coast Guard Commander Lin Daoqian. What does it have to do with my Jiangnan Group? I can't attribute his achievements to me just because he was under my father's command!"

"But the problem is that they said that the whole of Jiangnan was celebrating because their fleet had won the victory." Feng Bao emphasized.

"This..." Zhao Hao had no choice but to change his words: "Those bastards actually brought the fabricated military exploits from the army to the group. In fact, they are just playing supporting roles. They have only been in the sea for a few days? How can they deal with the red-haired devils and the sea master? They are so shameless, bragging without paying taxes!"

"Oh, really?" Feng Bao smiled sinisterly again.

But Zhao Hao had completely calmed down from his shock and realized that Feng Bao was trying to scare him. Who was his enemy? Who was blocking his way forward? If he couldn't tell friend from foe at this moment, then he wouldn't be Feng Bao.

"Yeah, isn't it?" Zhao Hao smiled and said, "I finally heard that the Lord is dissatisfied with me. He feels that the knife is on my neck, why am I shrinking back, right?"

"Hahaha, no wonder Prime Minister Zhang regards you as a genius in the world. You can't find many people in the world who are so calm." Feng Bao gave a thumbs up, which was considered as tacit agreement. Then he sighed and said, "But I am not just trying to scare you. What I said just now is all true. Gao Huzi's group of students really want to kill you. The reason why the court is still calm is because those impeachments have been kept in the court and not sent out. And the reason why His Majesty doesn't believe them is that I am covering for you."

As he said this, he glanced at Zhao Hao and said dimly, "To be honest, you and the Jiangnan Group have long been on the key monitoring list of the factory guards. This was the order when Eunuch Teng was in office. Later, he was gone, and I asked the emperor whether to take you and the Jiangnan Group off the list."

"What does your majesty say?" Zhao Hao asked anxiously.

"Your Majesty didn't say anything." Feng Bao said calmly, "Not saying anything means maintaining the status quo. So until now, there are still thick intelligence reports sent to the East Factory every month, including your attack on Ryukyu, which were reported immediately. It was my order that they should remove all the content that was not suitable for the emperor to see, and even make up a small matter if it couldn't be concealed..."

"Oh, so that's how it is." Zhao Hao stood up with a grateful look on his face, bowed to Feng Bao and thanked him, "I can't thank you enough, you are our greatest supporter!"

"Sir, you are too kind. Let's not talk about our close friendship. Just our relationship is close enough to be that of bosom friends." Feng Bao smiled and helped him up, saying, "If we don't help our own people, who can we help?"

In fact, the Jiangnan Group and the Xishan Group together paid nearly a million taels of silver to the Jinyiwei of the East Factory every year. Feng Bao even bought shares in both the Xishan Group and the Lugouqiao Company, and this year's dividend alone was 200,000 taels.

Of course, mentioning money hurts feelings...

"Yes, yes, your Excellency is so kind and righteous. It is my great honor to be able to make friends with you." Zhao Hao nodded repeatedly.

"But I have to remind you, young master, that the truth will eventually come out." Feng Bao suppressed his smile and warned in a deep voice: "There is no need to say more about the truth that three people can make a tiger. If you let Gao Huzi and his gang continue to smear us, we will be in trouble. It will be too late to regret it then!"

"Yes." Zhao Hao nodded heavily and said, "Your Excellency has given me a wake-up call. I really can't give in any further."

"Yes, that's what I mean!" Eunuch Feng's expression brightened, and he finally told the truth: "My family is also very anxious, otherwise we wouldn't have upset you on your happy day. It's true that you have been avoiding Gao Huzi, and your father-in-law has also lowered his posture and looked submissive - you said that day there would be a bow, why did he hug Lord Yin? How nice it would be to let Yin Shidan beat Gao up?"

"My father-in-law may be worried that Lord Gao will be angry with him in the future," Zhao Hao guessed.

"You are indeed worthy of being the father-in-law and son-in-law. That's what my uncle said." Feng Bao said, then changed the subject: "But if you keep showing weakness like this, it will only encourage that guy's arrogance. Not only will he not be grateful to you, but he will even more aggressively kill you all!"

"Yes." Zhao Hao nodded and said to Feng Bao in a serious tone, "In fact, my father-in-law asked my eldest brother-in-law to go to Dagukou to welcome me, which is also to remind me to make a decision early. But this matter is serious, and we must plan carefully before taking action. When the bride returns, I will discuss it with my father-in-law!"

"Well, of course we have to discuss it." Feng Bao breathed a sigh of relief. This was the purpose of his visit.

He was more anxious than Zhao Hao and Zhang Juzheng because he did not tell Zhao Hao that he had offended Emperor Longqing because of Huahua Nuer's death... Meng Chong insisted that someone in the palace was dissatisfied with the fact that Hu Ji was the only one favored by the emperor, so he set up a trap to kill Chen Fei through him.

Feng Bao had no words to say, because that was basically what happened...

Emperor Longqing could do nothing about Concubine Li, the mother of the Crown Prince, Prince Lu, and his three daughters, so she naturally transferred her anger to him and had not been kind to him for a long time.

It was just that there was no way to investigate the case, so he was not punished for the time being. But Feng Bao was very worried that one day the emperor might have him beaten to death just because he entered the door with his left foot first...

So although the three of them were under great pressure, Feng Bao was the type that could be killed if he didn't handle it properly. Seeing the father-in-law and son-in-law he had bet on so heavily were so bad, it would be strange for him to sit still.

"Don't worry, sir. We have reached the end of our patience this time and cannot tolerate it any longer." Zhao Hao said, patting his chest.

"Okay, then we'll wait for good news." Feng Bao picked up the wine glass and was about to drink, but then he remembered what day it was, so he stopped and clinked glasses with him, saying, "Come on, I wish you a happy wedding and a son soon!"

p.s. Write another chapter.