It was not until the tenth year of the Wanli reign that Zhang Siwei recovered from his mental illness. After receiving the assurance from Prime Minister Zhang that he would definitely be promoted to the cabinet this time, he finally mustered up the courage to go to Beijing again.

This time everything went smoothly and he was successfully admitted to the cabinet. However, just when he was ready to show his strength and squeeze out Shen Shixing and Zhao Shouzheng who were in the front, his father, Lord Meichuan, died in the eleventh year of Wanli...

Zhang Siwei was in such a state of mind that he went to the funeral on his knees, working day and night, forgetting to eat and sleep, and almost dying of illness. Just as he got home, his stepmother, Mrs. Hu, also died, and his two younger brothers also died. Xiao Wei was overwhelmed with grief and could only mourn while sick.

On October 16, the 13th year of the Wanli reign, Zhang Siwei was about to complete his service when he died of illness at home...

Zhang Fengpan's experience of being too frustrated and unlucky made the jealous party deeply shocked and unable to let go for a long time. Therefore, when teaching the younger generation, they always use him as a negative example to teach them to be cautious in their words and deeds and never make mistakes to ruin their official career.

The jealous second generation was useless, so the old guys could only push the third generation Wang Jiaping to the top.

In the eleventh year of Wanli, Wang Jiaping entered the Zhanshi Mansion and served concurrently as a Hanlin academician.

At the end of the 12th year of the Wanli reign, he was promoted to Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites. Only one month later, in the first month of the 13th year of the Wanli reign, he was promoted to Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel and concurrently Dongge Grand Secretary, becoming a member of the Cabinet. This speed of promotion was indeed a bit outrageous, but with the precedent of his classmate Zhao Shouzheng, it did not cause much criticism.

After Wang Jiaping entered the cabinet, he worked diligently and kept a low profile. But he still couldn't stand the bad luck of being jealous of his parents - in the 14th year of Wanli, Wang Jiaping's stepmother passed away, and he had no choice but to go home to mourn...

Therefore, there was no Grand Secretary from Shanxi in the cabinet again.

Originally, it would not be a problem. With Wang Guoguang, an old official who was on good terms with Yuan Fu, here, it would not matter whether there was a bottle of vinegar or not.

But the situation changed suddenly when Grand Tutor Zhang passed away. The Empress Dowager's previous imperial edict, "ordering Mr. Zhang to assist in government affairs until he is thirty years old," had been cancelled with the death of Zhang Juzheng.

The 25-year-old Emperor Wanli was determined to take back the power that had been lost for a long time, and no one could stop him!

By then, the court officials would have to undergo a major reshuffle. Wang Guoguang was Zhang Juzheng's top horse, and he was approaching his 100th birthday, yet he was still occupying the position of dealer. There was no way he could escape the path of glorious retirement.

So quickly getting the fourth generation of the jealous party on the throne became his top priority before retirement.

He has controlled the Ministry of Personnel for too long, and it is too difficult for him to continue to be promoted to the position of the Heavenly Official. So he can add a jealous Grand Secretary and wait until the Wang family surrenders. By then, there will be two old men in the cabinet, and at least he will not be alone under the siege of the Jiangnan Gang.

The one that the jealous party is preparing to take action is Liu Dongxing.

Liu Dongxing, with the courtesy name Ziming and the pseudonym Jinchuan, was admitted as a Jinshi in the second year of Longqing and was selected as a Shujishi. However, he did not stay in Zhanhan after the academy was disbanded, but served successively as the Director of the Ministry of Justice, Yuanwailang, Deputy Envoy of Zhejiang Education, Right Governor of Huguang, Right Deputy Censor-in-Chief and Governor of Huguang.

From seniority to background, he was qualified to enter the cabinet. Moreover, he was the parent official of Grand Tutor Zhang and the same age as Prime Minister Zhao, so his path to entering the cabinet must have been extremely smooth.

So, when Grand Tutor Zhang was ill, the jealous party arranged for Liu Dongxing to serve as the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, paving the way for him to enter the cabinet. After Zhang Juzheng's death, the emperor issued an order to add cabinet ministers.

However, just last night, Zhang Jing, the manager of the Qianqing Palace, secretly visited the Tianguan Mansion and told him that His Majesty agreed to replace Liu Dongxing with Pan Sheng, but he had to see his loyalty first...

Wang Guoguang called the jealous party to eat noodles for three consecutive days just to discuss this matter.

"Tell me, how did you guys search for it?" Wang Guoguang said as he puffed on his foot-long jade-mouthed pipe.

"What else is there to look for?" Chu Yu said while peeling garlic, "When did it become a rule that only one Grand Secretary can be selected in a court recommendation? It has never happened before. They are all recommended by Prime Minister Zhang. They all joined the cabinet hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder. What's the problem? What's the reason for saying 'agreeing to replace Ziming with Lao Pan'? I think it's like a shitty cow kicking its legs - revealing its black legs!"

"Didn't the boss say it clearly? He wants to see how loyal we are. What is loyalty? If we get rid of Old Pan, we are loyal. If we don't get rid of Old Pan, we are not loyal." Section Chief Zhang inherited Section Chief Han's excellent quality of daring to fight and fight.

"Yes. That's what happened." The old men nodded. Someone asked, "Why would His Majesty want to deal with Pan Butang? In terms of seniority and character, he is first-rate."

Pan Sheng was the runner-up in the imperial examination in the 20th year of Jiajing, one year earlier than Gao Gong. In the 4th year of Longqing, he became the Minister of Rites and was about to enter the cabinet. However, he became a victim of Zhang Gaodou and was forced to resign and return home.

In the sixth year of Wanli, he was appointed as the Minister of Rites again, but he soon resigned because of his illness. This third time he came out of retirement was highly anticipated. Unexpectedly, he became a thorn in the emperor's side.

"The reason is very simple. Eunuch Feng asked Grand Tutor Zhang to recommend him to the emperor." Wang Guoguang cleared up everyone's doubts and said, "Pan Butang was Eunuch Feng's teacher when he was studying in the inner school. Because of this relationship, he asked Eunuch Feng for help in joining the cabinet, but he was implicated by Eunuch Feng and the plan fell through. Eunuch Feng brought up the old matter this time, not only to make up for it, but also to prove that his words are still effective and to intimidate those guys in the palace."

"So the emperor wants to deal with Pan Bu Tang in order to deal with Eunuch Feng?" The old men suddenly realized, "It's not enough to just deal with Old Pan, we have to give Eunuch Feng a brick as well."

"That's right." Wang Guoguang nodded with a gloomy face, and hesitated: "Now the question is, should we follow or not?"

"Of course I have to follow him, otherwise not only will Brother Ziming's position as Grand Secretary be blown, but it will also be a problem for Brother Nan to be reinstated!" As the head of the six departments, Zhang Yangmeng had long been angry at Zhang Juzheng for "reducing opinions" and suppressing speech, and treating the censors as nothing. He was eager to quickly settle accounts with Zhang's party.

"Well, this is a big problem." Wang Guoguang nodded again, but still frowned, "But after doing this, we have already surrendered. From now on, we can only follow the emperor and go down this path forever."

"Is there something wrong?" Zhang Yangmeng casually took out a Luzon brand thin cigar from the silver cigarette case, lit it with a lighter and took a puff, saying, "Now the country has a long-term ruler, and the guardian is dying. At least there won't be another Grand Tutor Zhang in the Wanli Dynasty."

As he spoke, he exhaled a long stream of white smoke and said, "The imperial power will never fall into the hands of others again. I have the power of life and death, I am supreme, I can sweep across the world, I am unrivaled!"

"Hmm..." Many old men nodded, feeling sympathetic. The good days when the emperor stood aside were gone forever...

"It's hard to say." Chu Yu shook his head and disagreed: "Times have changed, Taehyung, you can't always take it for granted."

"The Ming Dynasty will never change. The day it changes, it will fall!" Zhang Yangmeng said sternly, "Lord Aisuo, I know what you mean. You are just afraid of the father and son of Zhao Ge Lao! Yes, the Jiangnan Group is rich enough to rival a country. They have bought the Jiangnan Gang into an iron plate! Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong are run like an iron bucket by them. One out of four officials from a legitimate background is a disciple of the young minister. If we only talk about the Jinshi officials, one out of three is a disciple of the young minister. They look really invincible!"

"Isn't it?" Chu Yu and the old men sighed together, as if they were already traumatized.

If we were to say who in the Ming Dynasty had the deepest understanding of the Jiangnan Group, it would be the Jealous Party.

Because from the very beginning, they regarded each other as the object of pursuit!

Zhao Hao opened the Xishan Company to mine coal, and they also followed suit and set up a Shanxi Company to trade coal.

Zhao Hao opened the Jiangnan Bank to absorb deposits and issue banknotes, and they also opened the Shanxi Bank to absorb deposits and issue banknotes.

Zhao Hao runs a family farm in Jiangnan, and they also learn to recruit people to cultivate land in Hetao...

Zhao Hao established an administrative city overseas, and they set up Sanniangzi City in Bansheng to attract merchants, recruit craftsmen, and manage it for the Mongols.

In short, they followed Zhao Hao's example and made a lot of money and got many benefits. For example, running Sanniangzi City greatly strengthened their control over Tatar.

The reclamation of the Hetao region has alleviated the border storage dilemma that had existed since the destruction of the Sino-French Treaty.

In the past, the imperial court adopted the method of having merchants transport grain to the border and paying them with salt permits to solve the problem of supplying border troops. This method was called the Kaizhong Method.

However, the long-distance land transportation of grain costs a lot. In order to save costs, salt merchants hired farmers in various border areas to cultivate the land and store the salt locally in exchange for salt permits, which is the so-called "merchant settlement".

At the beginning of the country, commercial settlements were spread from Liaodong in the east to Xuanda in the north, from Gansu in the west to Jiaozhi in the south, making great contributions to stabilizing border defense and developing border areas.

However, as the dynasty decays, all systems will be destroyed.

During the Hongzhi reign, Ye Qi, the Minister of Revenue, reformed the salt law and ordered merchants to pay silver instead of rice to Taicang, which was then distributed to the border areas. This way, Taicang's income increased sharply, and the salt merchants in the border areas no longer had to find people to farm. Who would still suffer at the border?

As a result, all families moved inland, and the merchant settlements were quickly destroyed. As a result, the grain reserves of the border troops were greatly reduced, and they could not buy grain even if they had money. Soon, the grain price in the border areas soared to several times that of the inland areas. Ordinary soldiers could not afford it at all, so they fled. How could the army still have any fighting power?

The old men reclaimed wasteland in Hetao, which was equivalent to reopening the merchant settlements. The grain they harvested was sold to the border towns at high prices, which not only made money but also made the civil and military commanders grateful. This greatly increased the influence of the Vinegar Party on the three borders and Xuanda.

But most of the time, this kind of imitation always fails to achieve the desired result. Either the profit is too little, or the cost is lost.

In order to understand why this happened, the old men spared no expense to recruit some employees and technicians from Jiangnan Group. They also planted spies to join Jiangnan Group, and some of them were promoted to high positions many years later.

As they got to know Jiangnan Group better, they gradually understood the reasons.

For example, the Jiangnan Group Farm's astonishing per-acre yield relies on two crops of rice and various fertilizers... It is said that they can boil feces and ship shiploads of guano from overseas.

Moreover, from the breeding stage to the combination of various fertilizers and the use of various pesticides, the entire process is guided by agricultural technicians who graduated from agricultural colleges.

Where can Old Simon find guano stones and so many agricultural technicians when he has nothing to lack except feces?

This high-tech, high-input, high-output model is completely beyond the understanding of the old people. How can the land be cultivated like this?

Besides, it is impossible to grow two crops of rice in the north.