Chapter 371 He Jian Resigns
In the Leopard House, Qian Ning knelt on the ground, waiting quietly.

Emperor Zhengde felt complicated as he held the evidence collected by the Embroidered Uniform Guards. There was nothing wrong with He Jian himself, but his housekeeper and servant did accept military pay from officers.

These people were with him day and night, so Emperor Zhengde would not believe that He Jian was unaware of the situation.

Emperor Zhengde thought for a while and said to Qian Ning, "Send a piece of information to He's mansion!"

"According to the order!"

The next day, He Jian submitted a petition requesting to retire.

In the cabinet, the three bigwigs fell silent after reading He Jian's memorial.

After a moment, Fei Hong sighed and said, "If you are disloyal to your king and unfilial to your parents, you will be ashamed of yourself. The young man in the past, with great ambitions, has changed beyond recognition and has become a stranger to himself."

"Come to think of it, the Grand Marshal is already seventy-two years old, and it's time for him to retire." Liang Chu stroked his beard and said slowly.

Yang Tinghe nodded, but felt a little melancholy that the retirement of this old minister was somewhat disgraceful.

"Who do you think can take on the position of Grand Marshal?" Liang Chu looked at Yang Tinghe and Fei Hong and asked calmly.

Fei Hong thought for a while and said, "In terms of military merit, the Crown Prince's Guardian and Right Censor-in-Chief Peng Ze should be nominated."

Although Peng Ze was born in Lanzhou Wei, Shaanxi, his ancestral home is Luling County, Ji'an Prefecture, Jiangxi Province, so he and Fei Hong are half fellow villagers.

Yang Tinghe lowered his head and said nothing. Liang Chu said calmly, "Shaobao Peng is still in Sichuan suppressing bandits. I don't know when he can return to Beijing. I'm afraid it will be inconvenient!"

"Then who does Mr. Liang think is suitable?" Fei Hong asked gently when he saw this.

Liang Chu smiled and said, "Lu Wan, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of War, also made contributions during the suppression of bandits!"

Fei Hong fell silent. His Majesty had used Lu Wan's failure to suppress the bandits as an example to refute them. Now Liang Chu was actually planning to let him take over. It was really a joke.

But then again, Lu Wan is more smooth than Peng Ze.
At the same time, in the Lu Mansion in Nanxunfang, Beijing, Lu Wan was feeding goldfish in the courtyard. Looking at the fish fighting for food in the pond, his eyes were very calm, and he said leisurely: "Competition is not only a strategy for survival, but also the nature of all things. If you win in the competition, you will advance. If you develop in the competition, you will prosper. This is the natural way of heaven, not my fault alone."

Ever since He Jian was exposed for having his servant take money from officers and soldiers, he has been paying close attention to the development of the matter. He even spent a large sum of money to befriend Qian Ning. Anyway, he had done this kind of thing before and was familiar with it.

When Qian Ning hinted that he would hand over the evidence to His Majesty today, he prepared four generous gifts in advance and sent them to the Chief Minister Yang Tinghe, the Second Chief Minister Fei Hong, the Cabinet Minister Liang Chu and Qian Ning's residence respectively.

But the servant who delivered the gift came back and told him that only Liang Chu knew that he had sent a gift. Yang Tinghe and Fei Hong had left early and did not know about it.

This made Lu Wan feel a little uneasy. When he thought about it carefully, there were not many people who could compete with him. Yang Yiqing was one, Peng Ze was one, and Chen Jin was one.

But Yang Yiqing is now the Minister of Justice, so it is unlikely that he will hold the position concurrently.

Chen Jin performed very poorly in suppressing bandits in Jiangxi. If Ou Zanghua and Li Chengxun had not emerged and fought a brilliant turnaround, Chen Jin estimated that he would not even have been able to get the position of Prince's Guardian.

On the contrary, Peng Ze posed too great a threat to him.

As for Ou Zanghua.
Lu Wan paused. His outstanding talent made him a leader among the younger generation in the court.

But he is too young. Unless Your Majesty makes an exception and supports him at all costs, according to past practices, he will probably need to go through ten years of trials and tribulations before he can sit firmly in the high position and hold power.

Ten years later, Ou Zanghua was only in his thirties, still in his prime.

Moreover, the situation in the Ministry of War is complicated and he cannot control it, so it would be more comfortable for him to stay in the Ministry of Rites.

Thinking back to His Majesty's undisguised love for Ou Zanghua, Lu Wan felt that it was not a bad idea to show his goodwill in advance.
Unconsciously, he had thrown away all the fish food in his hand. Lu Wan said, "Butler, send Wang Dongting's 'March Post' to Ou Keqing's residence and ask Ou Keqing to evaluate it." The butler standing behind him was shocked. Wang Dongting's real name was Wang Xun, with the courtesy name Yuanlin. He was a minister and calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, grandson of Prime Minister Wang Dao and son of General Wang Qia.

This man is good at calligraphy, especially running script, and his family has been famous for calligraphy for three generations. His calligraphy is elegant, unrestrained and ancient, with broad structure and elegant style, and has the reputation of "the elegance of the Eastern Jin Dynasty is still before our eyes".

This is because Lu Wan could not find Wang Dongting's regular script, but accidentally obtained the cursive script "March Post", which can be said to be the only one in the world.

In the evening, when Ou Zanghua returned to the Ou Mansion, a steward told him what had happened during the day.

After hearing this, Ou Zanghua took the letter from the steward, opened it and found out that it was written by Lu Wan, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War.

In the letter, Lu Wan expressed his joy at having recently come across a fine piece of calligraphy. He also mentioned that he was not good at calligraphy and it was difficult for him to appreciate it alone, so he gave it to Ou Zanghua, a great calligrapher, so that they could appreciate this rare treasure together.

Afterwards, Ou Zanghua saw the "March Post".

A puzzled look flashed across his brows, and he had no idea what the meaning of Lu Wan's actions were.

After all, he was the Left Vice Minister, one level higher than him, the Right Vice Minister.

The next day, the news that Lord He Jian requested to retire spread quickly. Everyone had prepared themselves mentally, waiting for the emperor to follow past practice and request and decline three times, thus showing the deep affection between the monarch and his subjects.

Unexpectedly, Emperor Zhengde broke his usual behavior and immediately approved Lord He Jian's resignation.

Everyone is a smart person and they all realized that He Jian must have made some mistake, which is why he was treated like this by His Majesty.

The next choice was for the Minister of War. The cabinet nominated Lu Wan, and Emperor Zhengde did not hesitate too much. After just two days, he agreed to the proposal.

Lu Wan thus successfully entered the power center of the Ming Dynasty, and if he worked harder, it would not be a problem for him to enter the cabinet.

Now that Qiu Yue was no longer under any restriction, he could train the Beijing troops with full freedom.

He improved the training subjects of the Beijing Camp, ensured their food and rest, and no longer arranged engineering projects for the soldiers of the Beijing Camp.

Thanks to Qiu Yue's efforts, the Beijing camp finally showed some differences, at least their spirits were improved.

Ou Zanghua watched all this silently, then took Yue Lingshan to the Weiyang Palace Imperial Farm to continue studying his imperial farm economy.

The total number of days since he left was less than ten, but Liu Qing felt as if she had missed him for a long time. As soon as she saw him, she stuck to him tightly.

Ou Zanghua patted Liu Qing's back gently and said softly, "It's okay, I'm back. Don't worry."

"I know. I just miss my husband."

Liu Qing leaned in Ou Zanghua's arms, and suddenly seemed to remember something, and said quickly: "Some time ago, someone came here to look for you, saying that he was an old friend from Xiangyang."

"Old friend from Xiangyang?" Ou Zanghua was stunned and immediately remembered the person who took him and Zuo Lengchan to the sword tomb. His name seemed to be Lu Tiancheng.

"Yeah," Liu Qing nodded and continued, "It seems that he was going to Changbai Mountain to look for a rare medicinal herb, so he set off again without waiting for you to come back."

"I see," Ou Zanghua nodded and asked casually, "Did he say what medicinal herbs he was looking for?"

Liu Qing thought for a moment and said, "It seems to be Hidden Spring Grass."

"This is a tonic, what is he looking for it for?" Ou Zanghua was slightly stunned, but did not delve into it.
(End of this chapter)