Chapter 349: Not much room to fall

It was already 3 p.m. when I came out of Zang Xian's mansion.

Sitting in the carriage, Yang Qing couldn't help rubbing his brows, then he took out a list from the secret compartment.

Cabinet Minister Fei Hong, Minister of War He Jian, Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard Qian Ning, and Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites and Secretary of the Imperial Household Department Ou Zanghua, whom he had met before.

These four people are the targets he needs to take down next.

Among them, Qian Ning was the easiest. The two parties had cooperated before, and Yang Qing knew that this person was greedy and would do things as long as he was paid.

The remaining three people, Fei Hong, He Jian and Ou Zanghua, are the trouble.

But on the other hand, if I can deal with these three people, I won't need to look for Qian Ning anymore.
Yang Qing slowly exhaled, tapped the table with his fingertips, and had made a decision in his heart.

He planned to visit Ou Zanghua first. After all, the two had met several times in Jiangxi in the past, so they could be considered acquaintances.

Ou Zanghua didn't know that he had been targeted. After he arrived at the Honglu Temple, he called over the Left Shaoqing Cao Yu, the Right Shaoqing Meng Zhao, the Left Temple Secretary Chen Mengji, and the Right Temple Secretary Gu Jing.

"Your subordinate greets Lord Dong." Four people walked in and greeted him together.

"No courtesy, sit down!"

Ou Zanghua smiled, looked at the four people and said, "Your Majesty is kind and intends to hand over the management of Renshou Palace and Qingning Palace to our Honglu Temple. However, I have been busy with many things recently and I am too busy to go there in person to investigate. You are all experienced people. After you finish your work, each of you will lead a group to go to these two imperial farms and investigate."

"Yes!" The four people agreed immediately. Ou Zanghua gave them some precautions and asked them to leave. He then invited Cheng Zhirou in and informed her of his arrangements.

The current eunuch guarding Hangzhou is named Liu Jing, which happens to be the same name as the former Minister of Justice, but the two are not related.

Liu Jing was a normal person among the eunuchs. In the fourth year of Zhengde, he donated his salary to repair Yue Fei's tomb and built a new stone archway outside the temple gate with the inscription "Jingzhong Temple".

It was precisely because this person was more reliable that Ou Zanghua dared to make such a request in front of Emperor Zhengde.

Cheng Zhirou had lived in Hangzhou for a long time and had heard of Liu Jing's name. She smiled gently and said, "Thank you, Lord Ou. With this, no one in Hangzhou Prefecture or the entire Zhejiang Province would dare to open a store."

Ou Zanghua nodded and said, "That's good. According to the time, Eunuch Liu should be receiving His Majesty's oral instructions soon. If Miss Cheng has any ideas, please tell your people to report to Eunuch Liu."

"I'm still a little worried about leaving this matter to the people below, so I'll go back myself!"

Cheng Zhirou thought for a moment, looked at Ou Zanghua and said, "This time when I return to the south, I plan to go to Fuzhou, Guangzhou, and Wuchang to open specialty stores. I may not be able to come to Beijing until the end of the year."

Upon hearing this, Ou Zanghua immediately said, "Then Miss Cheng, please leave later. It just so happens that we have recently taken over two more imperial estates. Miss Cheng can go and take a look."

Cheng Zhirou was stunned, and agreed to this matter with some amusement.

Spring in the north comes later, so its duration is shorter.

After the northwest wind stopped, the snow gradually disappeared.

The most memorable trace of this early spring is the layer of new green inside and outside the city, which is like a flood.

Liu Qing looked at the little bit of green trembling in the sunlight and felt that it was just like the duck leg she had eaten a few days ago, shiny and glossy. "Mom, I want to eat that."

"You're dreaming!"

When Qu Feiyan came in from the outer courtyard, she saw Madam Ouyang scolding Sister Qingqing again. When she got closer, Shuyan told her that it was because Madam wanted to eat the tender grass that had just sprouted.

"Grandma, Sister Qingqing, Huaan just reported that someone claiming to be an old friend from Jiangxi sent a visiting card and will visit tomorrow." Qu Feiyan walked over and handed the visiting card to Liu Qing.

When Madam Ouyang heard this, she immediately restrained her words.

This is her daughter's home, and the ones who can make the decision are her son-in-law and daughter, not her mother-in-law.

Liu Qing flipped it open and her eyes froze when they saw the words "Chief Historian of Prince Ning's Palace". She remembered that her husband once mentioned that he had accidentally offended Prince Ning, and she said at that time that she would live in seclusion with him in Hengshan.

After a moment of hesitation, Liu Qing closed the visiting card and said softly, "Fei Yan, go tell Hua An that your husband is not at home right now. If it is for urgent official business, you may ask him to go to the Honglu Temple, the Ministry of Rites, or the Zhanshi Mansion to deliver the visiting card."

Qu Feiyan nodded and immediately turned to the front yard.

At this moment, Ou Zanghua was sitting in a hall of the Five Military Protectorate. Sitting on the left and right of the main seat were Xianning Marquis Qiu Yue and Minister of War He Jian. Pingjiang Earl Chen Gui, Right Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate Zhang Tai, Chancellor of the Chancellery Ou Zanghua, and Gongshun Marquis Wu Shixing sat below in that order.

Ou Zanghua held a memorial in his hand, and every word on it frightened him:
Since the reign of Emperor Zhengde, people without registered residence have been allowed to pretend to be registered as soldiers. The number of people who paid monthly wages and occupied private labor was no less than 80,000 or 90,000, and the annual expenditure of money and grain was more than one million dan. There were more than 380,000 soldiers registered, but less than 140,000 survived, and only more than 20,000 were selected.

It can be said that except for the 3,000 troops controlled by Qiu Yue, the rest of the Beijing Camp do not have much room for decline.

Qiu Yue knocked on the table, looked at Pingjiang Bo Chen Gui and Gongshun Hou Wu Shixing and asked coldly: "Do you still think that the Beijing camp does not need to be rectified?"

The two men looked at each other. They were hereditary nobles and knew something about the Beijing Army, but not much.

Pingjiang Earl Chen Gui laughed awkwardly and said, "Is this a mistake in the registration?"

"Humph," Minister of War He Jian said coldly, "My Lord, do you have doubts about the management of the military registration of the Ministry of War?"

"Haha, Minister He, you are too kind."

Pingjiang Earl Chen Gui hastily smiled and glanced at Wu Shixing standing beside him. Seeing that the other party had no intention of interrupting him, he immediately admitted his mistake and apologized: "I was just in a good mood and mentioned it casually. I have no other intention. I hope Minister He will not mind it."

"Now that we understand, let's get started right away and fix it from the root!"

Qiu Yue saw that the topic was going off track, so he intervened decisively and said with a firm look, "Today, I will appeal to Your Majesty and ask for your permission to remove those military officers in the Beijing camp who are just filling in the numbers and claiming merits. At the same time, thoroughly investigate and remove those old and weak soldiers who are unable to perform their duties, so as to rectify military discipline."

Ou Zanghua put down the memorial, sighed and said, "I will write the memorial."

"Very good!" Qiu Yue nodded.

Zhang Tai, the Right Censor of the Metropolitan Censorate, who had been sitting aside in deep thought, glanced at Ou Zanghua and seemed to be awakened. He stood up and said, "Let me write the memorial! Supervising all civil and military officials is the duty of the Metropolitan Censorate."

(End of this chapter)