Chapter 165: The Young Minister of Rites’ Enthusiasm

Emperor Zhengde stood up, raised the secret report in his hand, and said, "A mere Li An dares to deceive his superiors and subordinates. Is it possible that I can't find a minister I can trust except Ou Qing?!"

The slaves all kowtowed to the ground, trembling with fear and not daring to say a word of complaint.

"This dog slave, if you don't want to be a human being, then don't be one!"

Emperor Zhengde said coldly: "Pass on my decree to dismiss Li An from his post as eunuch guarding Jiangxi. After Ou Qing confiscates his property, he will be taken back to the capital to await punishment!"

Zhang Yong hurriedly ground ink and quickly wrote an imperial edict, which he handed to Emperor Zhengde for inspection. After confirming that it was correct, he stamped it with the square seal of the Imperial Edict.

Then Zhang Yong walked out with the imperial edict in both hands and handed it to a eunuch.

Emperor Zhengde looked at Zuo Lengchan and asked, "You have been following Ou Qing all the time. Tell me, what has Ou Qing been doing recently? Why haven't you left for Beijing in November?"

Zuo Lengchan was stunned. It seemed that His Majesty was very fond of Junior Brother Ou!

Zuo Lengchan was also a man whose words were highly respected in the Songshan Sect, and he considered himself to be very important to his fellow junior brothers and disciples.

But I will definitely not be like Your Majesty, who cares about when my junior brother will come back from his travels, and even asks about the situation if he cannot come back on time.

Fortunately, Zuo Lengchan followed everything Ou Zanghua did, so when Emperor Zhengde asked him about it, he was able to answer: "Your Majesty, after Lord Ou subdued the Yaoyuan rebels with benevolence and righteousness, he governed Yaoyuan County first because the Yaoyuan County Magistrate had not arrived yet."

"The Poyang Lake navy is seriously lacking in pay. The two thousand navy soldiers have no fighting power and are extremely weak-willed. Lord Ou originally planned to disband them, but after a round of investigation, he found that in the surrounding counties, only these two thousand navy soldiers could operate warships and patrol boats, knew how to observe water conservancy, and were familiar with the waterways of Poyang Lake. He had no choice but to retrain the original navy."

Emperor Zhengde listened very carefully. After knowing that Ou Zanghua ruled the army by distinguishing rewards and punishments and combining kindness and severity, he nodded slightly and said, "Military law is the strict implementation of rewards and punishments. However, simply following the law is not enough to win the battle. We need to combine kindness and severity. Lord Ou did a good job. You are worthy of being the talent I trained! Hahaha."

Zuo Lengchan was a little confused. It turned out that Junior Brother Ou was trained by His Majesty?

As expected of an emperor, he could create a talented person with both civil and military talents with just a single move.

For people like them in the underworld, it is extremely difficult to meet such a genius.

He went on to talk about how after Ou Zanghua discovered that the navy was drawing empty salaries, he decisively chose to spare Jiang Qi's life, thus uncovering the clue of Li An.

After listening to what Ou Zanghua had done, Emperor Zhengde said with some emotion: "Mr. Ou was still too cautious. If he found anything wrong, he should have arrested him immediately. Why should he be so timid about a mere servant? He is a fourth-rank civil servant after all. Can I still punish him?"

Zuo Lengchan lowered his head and dared not say a word. He now understood what it meant to be a close minister to the emperor. He could even deal with the family servants at will.

If it were him, he would first destroy Shaolin, then Wudang and Songshan Sword Sect, and unify the martial arts world.

As the saying goes, execute first and report later, this is a special permission granted by the emperor!

Who can resist?

Unfortunately, this person is Ou Zanghua, and he doesn't care about the affairs of the martial arts world.

Otherwise, it would be difficult to deal with both good and evil.

Emperor Zhengde returned to his seat and said calmly, "You helped Ou Qing to persuade Yao Yuan's rebellious army, and Ou Qing recommended you for merit. I will not treat you unfairly, and I will give you the Embroidered Spring Sword. Do your job well in the future."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Zuo Lengchan immediately knelt down and kowtowed to express his gratitude.

"You stay in the capital and don't leave. Wait until Ou Qing comes back." Emperor Zhengde smiled and gave another order before waving his hand, signaling them to go down.

Zuo Lengchan and Zhang Huan slowly stepped back several steps before turning around and leaving.

As soon as the two of them walked out of the racecourse, Zhang Yong chased out and slapped Zhang Huan in the face, stunning Zuo Lengchan who was standing beside them.

What is this for? !

After realizing what was happening, he immediately performed the Yin-Yang Reappearance Form from the Songshan Liangyi Fist to prevent himself from getting slapped in the ear. "Do you know why I hit you?" Zhang Yong stared at Zhang Huan and asked coldly.

"Got it." Zhang Huan lowered his head and didn't dare to talk back.

"I'm glad to know!" Zhang Yong said and turned to leave, without even glancing at Zuo Lengchan who was standing beside him.

Zuo Lengchan put down his hands somewhat awkwardly, glanced at the five bright red finger marks on Zhang Huan's face, and for a moment he didn't know where to look.

"This is what I call a favor. You must tell Lord Ou, otherwise I will get hit in vain." Zhang Huan smiled, but ended up pulling his face, and he couldn't help but gasp in pain.

Zuo Lengchan felt that his mind had come to a head, so he asked directly, "What do you mean by that, Excellency?"

"The one just now was Zhang Yong, the eunuch of the Imperial Household Department, and also my second brother."

Zhang Huan sighed and said in a more serious tone: "Dear second brother!"

Seeing that Zuo Lengchan was still confused, Zhang Huan patted him on the shoulder and said, "You just need to tell Lord Ou, he will understand."

"Okay!" Zuo Lengchan nodded and walked out with Zhang Huan.

After getting on the carriage, Zhang Huan sent Zuo Lengchan to the Ou residence on Dongzhimen Street and said to him, "This is Lord Ou's residence. Remember the location."

"Thank you!" Zuo Lengchan thanked him and then got off the carriage.

On the second morning, Emperor Zhengde adjourned the court on the grounds of feeling unwell, which confused the Minister of Public Administration Wang Xian who was ready to make a big move.

He walked towards the Qianqing Palace with the memorial, but before he reached the place, he saw two cabinet ministers, Yang Tinghe and Liu Zhong, walking out.

"Wei Gang,"

When Yang Tinghe saw Wang Xian, he stopped him and said, "You don't have to go to the Qianqing Palace. His Majesty is not here."

"Mr. Yang,"

After Wang Xian bowed, he frowned slightly and asked, "Your Majesty is not here, could it be that he is in the Leopard Room again?"

The two cabinet ministers smiled awkwardly and said that it was enough for everyone to just know about this matter in their hearts and not to speak it out!
Liu Zhong immediately changed the subject and asked, "Why is Wei Gang so anxious? Is there something important?"

Wang Xian took out Ou Zanghua's memorial and said, "This is an urgent memorial sent by Ou Jingyu, the Minister of the Honglu Temple, yesterday. I think it should be presented to the palace immediately."

"Oh?"

Yang Tinghe looked a little surprised that Wang Xian actually called Ou Zanghua like this. They should have no intersection.

He took the memorial and read it, and said with great satisfaction: "Our young Minister of the Honglu Temple has the enthusiasm of a young man!"

Liu Zhong also took it and looked at it, then said with a smile: "It is well-reasoned and convincing. In this case, let's wait for the draft to be sent to the inner court!"

After the three separated, Wang Xian returned to the Tongzhengshisi, while Yang Tinghe and Liu Zhong walked slowly back to Wenyuan Pavilion.

Along the way, Yang Tinghe did not speak a word, and he felt inexplicably sighing in his heart that Ou Zanghua seemed to be easily loved by the elders!
First there was Li Dongyang, then Fei Hong, Chen Jin also praised him highly, and now even Wang Xian has a good impression of him.

On the contrary, his son Yang Shen was deeply loved by literary giants before he entered officialdom.

After entering the officialdom, although my admiration for him did not diminish, it did not increase either.
Could it be that distance creates beauty?

Yang Tinghe thought about it. At present, there are monks rebelling in Chuoling Temple in Songpan, Sichuan, Li Hua and others in Shanxi are rebelling, and Fang Si, a peasant in Renshou, Sichuan, is leading an uprising. Should he let Yang Shen go out to accumulate some military merits?

But soon, Yang Tinghe suppressed this idea. If it was so easy to accumulate military merit, Chen Jin would not have stayed in Jiangxi for more than a year without returning.
(End of this chapter)