My father is Jiajing

Chapter 122: General of the Western Expedition
Qiu Luan and his grandfather Qiu Yue are completely different people. Whether in character, ability, or other aspects, he is not as good as his grandfather Qiu Yue.

Originally, he would not have inherited the title directly without passing over his father, but his father was in poor health and was ill, unable to perform his duties normally, so this gave Qiu Luan the opportunity to inherit the title of Marquis of Xianning without passing over his father Qiu Chang.

Although the Qiu family was also a family of meritorious officials at that time, Qiu Yue, as a "first-generation founder", did not accumulate any property for the Qiu family due to his personality and background. He was always focused on training troops and fighting wars. Therefore, after Qiu Yue's death, the Qiu family did not have any decent property.

Therefore, although the young Qiu Luan was a marquis, his living conditions were ordinary. He lived in Suzhou Lane inside Chongwen Gate in the capital, and his house was as simple as the houses of ordinary officials in Beijing. When Peng Ze, the then Minister of War, saw Qiu's simple living environment, and thought of the achievements of Qiu Yue, the Marquis of Xianning, he could not help but feel good about Qiu.

Therefore, Peng Ze often interacted with his enemy, and renamed Qiu Luan, whose nickname at the time was Changsheng, to "Luan", and gave him a new courtesy name, Bo Xiang, and a new pseudonym, Zhi Zhai. This shows that Peng Ze really liked the young Qiu Luan, and Peng Ze often praised Qiu Luan in front of the ministers.

However, Qiu Luan did not rise to the top as Peng Ze had hoped. After he grew up, Qiu Luan seemed to have a distorted mentality. He did not like his hometown Pingliang Zhenyuan, which his grandfather often mentioned. Instead, he liked to refer to himself as his "ancestor" Qiu Li's native place of Yangzhou Prefecture, and also considered himself a Yangzhou native.

At that time, Zhao Shichun and his father Qiu Chang interacted with each other and exchanged ideas about the customs and culture of Pingliang. Due to his inferiority complex due to his identity, Qiu Luan was very disgusted with Zhao Shichun and thought that Zhao Shichun was mocking his family for being of "bastard" origin.

From this we can see how narrow-minded Qiu Luan is. Not only is his ability not as good as his grandfather, he even refuses to acknowledge his ancestral home.

But it was this person who stood in line at a very important historical juncture.

Although Qiu Luan did not want his own ancestors, he was very clear about the fact that the young Emperor Jiajing was fighting for his ancestors. In the third year of Jiajing, Qiu Luan clearly supported Emperor Jiajing in the "Great Ceremony Debate", thus gaining the favor and grace of Emperor Jiajing. In October, Qiu Luan was lucky enough to be ordered to lead the Xianwu Camp, one of the twelve camps in the capital.

In March of the eighth year of the Jiajing reign, Emperor Jiajing promoted Qiu Luan to the position of General of Guangdong and Guangxi, laying a solid foundation for his subsequent official career.

From this we can also see that Emperor Jiajing also wanted to cultivate his own team.

But unfortunately, Qiu Luan's ability was very limited. In the 17th year of Jiajing, because of the civil strife in Annan, which requested to submit, Emperor Jiajing took the opportunity to send troops and appointed Qiu Luan as the commander-in-chief to quell the rebellion.

As a result, Qiu Luan exposed his arrogant nature when he arrived at the local area, and tried to make Liu Xun, the Marquis of Anyuan, the general of Guangdong and Guangxi, kneel down and pay homage to him. Liu Xun, who was also a marquis, could not stand Qiu Luan's arrogance, so he naturally would not give Qiu Luan face.

When Qiu Luan saw that Liu Xun was so disrespectful to this "angel", his self-esteem suddenly exploded. He even ignored the overall ambition of Emperor Jiajing to conquer Annan and started infighting before the war even started.

Qiu Luan impeached Liu Xun for disobeying orders and wanted to use Emperor Jiajing to deal with Liu Xun, but how could Qiu Luan use Emperor Jiajing?

In the eyes of Emperor Jiajing, his behavior showed that he was intolerant and he couldn't even control his own subordinates, who still came to him to complain. How could he shoulder the important task of pacifying Annan?
Therefore, Emperor Jiajing was disappointed and blamed Qiu Luan for his arrogance and summoned him back to Beijing to take over the important task of suppressing the rebellion in Annan.

It can be said that Qiu Luan was originally going to rise to fame with the help of the pacification of Annan, but due to his ignorance and stupidity, he missed the opportunity to be trained by Emperor Jiajing.

But Emperor Jiajing was also a man who cherished old friendships, and he did not directly hide Qiu Luan, but gave him many opportunities.

Later, he appointed Qiu Luan as the Ningxia General, and accompanied Emperor Shizong on his southern tour to Chengtian as a deputy general. Later, he appointed him as the Gansu General and conferred him the title of Palace Guardian. It can be seen how much Emperor Jiajing loved Qiu Luan, and he did not forget to give Qiu Luan opportunities and favors even in such a situation.

However, Qiu Luan seemed to have never truly understood the expectations of Emperor Jiajing for him. He always thought he was very awesome and would confront anyone he disliked, acting like a completely stupid second-generation rich kid. Later, because he and Zeng Xin attacked each other, Emperor Jiajing was extremely disappointed with him and had him imprisoned.

But Qiu Luan was lucky, Zeng Xin himself was not clean, and soon he was imprisoned. So Qiu Luan seized the opportunity again and impeached Zeng Xin's illegal activities in prison. At this time, Emperor Jiajing showed leniency to Qiu Luan and let him go out of prison.

After being released from prison, Qiu Luan naturally no longer had the same favor as before, so in order to restore his former glory, Qiu Luan was also a person who was good at seizing opportunities.

Taking advantage of the fact that Datong had just been defeated and the court had no suitable candidate to take charge of Xuan Da, Qiu Luan became more creative.

This position seemed like a pitfall to others, but Qiu Luan saw it as an opportunity.

For this reason, Qiu Luan began to bribe Yan Shifan and became a candidate for the general of Xuanda.

Yan Shifan was also a traitor to his father. He didn't even know that his father looked down on trash like Qiu Luan, but he still sent Qiu Luan to Emperor Jiajing behind Yan Song's back.

Emperor Jiajing looked at Qiu Luan, whom he had wanted to cultivate in the past, and his heart softened. He thought that after experiencing the ups and downs of life, Qiu Luan should have been able to get rid of all the worldly things and he could be given a chance.

Therefore, Emperor Jiajing did not hesitate much. On the third day of the sixth lunar month, Emperor Jiajing issued an edict to appoint Qiu Luan to guard Datong, give him the seal of General Zhengxi, command the troops in Xuanda, and at the same time restore his title of "Gong Bao".

For a time, Qiu Luan was considered to be in great glory. Carrying with him the expectations of Emperor Jiajing and the glory of the General of the Western Expedition, he went from the capital to Datong to take up his post in an extraordinary manner.

After hearing the news, Zhu Zaigui, like Gao Gong, sighed.

Zhu Zaigui sighed, "Marquis Xianning is good in every way except that he lacks self-awareness. Your Majesty may have made a mistake this time."

After hearing Zhu Zaigui's sigh, Gao Gong also said: "There is no one available in the court now. Xianning Hou was favored by the emperor in his early years. It is not surprising that he was appointed as the general of Xuanda and given the seal of the General of the Western Expedition. Your Majesty does not need to be sad."

Zhu Zaigui said, "I am not lamenting this. I am lamenting whether he is worthy of the title of General of the Western Expedition. Back then, Wei Wu's ambition was to be the General of the Western Expedition. Now that this seal is hanging on the waist of Marquis Xianning, I really don't see that he has the courage to bear the weight of this seal."

"If the court could send another imperial censor who understands military tactics to inspect Xuanda, perhaps things would be better."

(End of this chapter)