My father is Jiajing

Chapter 495 He is the adopted son of the elder

After hearing what Zhu Zaigui said, no matter how stupid Zhao Wenhua was, he understood which direction to put his efforts next.

Since Prince Yu is willing to keep Wang Zhi to promote stability in the southeast, Zhao Wenhua, as a newcomer, must actively show his loyalty.

Otherwise, when Zhu Zaigui becomes impatient and Yan Song and Yan Shifan no longer like him, then he will have only one way to go, which is death.

So after paying New Year's greetings to Zhu Zaigui, Zhao Wenhua did not take a holiday like other officials. He went straight back to the Ministry of Justice to start work.

Finally, with Zhao Wenhua's unremitting efforts, he finally found out that Wang Bengu's relatives were illegally occupying the village land in their hometown under the banner of Wang Bengu.

With this handle in hand, it would be easy to deal with Wang Bengu.

Because almost every official has committed a crime like this. After all, haven't they studied hard for more than ten or twenty years just to bring honor to their family?

The most direct way to bring honor to one's family is to become the leader among the villagers. To become such a leader, one cannot avoid encroaching on the wealth and land of fellow villagers.

Therefore, this kind of thing was commonplace in almost every place in the Ming Dynasty.

In order to be decent, some places even invented a new term called "dedication".

As the name suggests, it means donating one's wealth to officials in order to avoid taxes from the court.

Therefore, after these scholars finally accomplished the feat of leaping over the dragon gate through their diligence and hard work, they and their families inevitably became obstacles to the fundamental taxation of the Ming Dynasty.

As a result, a lot of land was either passively or actively accumulated in the hands of these officials and gentry, and according to the Ming Dynasty laws set by Zhu Yuanzhang, these officials and gentry were all exempt from taxes and levies.

Therefore, the amount of taxes that the Ming Dynasty’s treasury could receive was naturally just Wang Xiaoer’s New Year—each year was getting worse than the last.

Now Zhao Wenhua has found evidence of Wang Bengu’s family’s occupation of fellow villagers’ land in their hometown.

But is this a serious crime? How should it be judged? In fact, it is very subjective.

If Zhao Wenhua felt that this case could be judged as a typical case, then he could handle the case with great fanfare. If Zhao Wenhua felt that this case was just a business dispute between fellow villagers, then he would naturally not take it seriously and pretend that he did not see it.

But now Zhao Wenhua is also eager to demonstrate his ability and loyalty, otherwise how can he gain the trust and reuse of Prince Yu?
You know, there are quite a few officials in Prince Yu’s Mansion now. Take Zhang Jiacheng, who was just promoted to Governor of Shuntian last year. Doesn’t he want to make progress?
If Zhao Wenhua made a mistake and was about to be laid off, wouldn't Prince Yu push one of his own to a position in the Ministry of Justice?
Therefore, whether it was to keep his official position or to show his loyalty to Prince Yu.

He would make a big deal about the case of Wang Bengu's relatives occupying land in his hometown, so that everyone would know that Wang Bengu was a hypocritical villain!

He is a hypocrite who talks about benevolence, righteousness and morality, but at the same time indulges his family in amassing wealth and occupying land in the countryside.

With such evidence and public opinion, we can further deduce that Wang Bengu lured Wang Zhi into captivity in order to gain credit and fame, and that he disregarded the overall stability of the southeast and wanted to kill Wang Zhi.

In this way, it doesn't matter whether Wang Bengu really wanted to kill Wang Zhi for the so-called justice and morality in his heart, or because he wanted to gain credit or fame.

So Zhao Wenhua took advantage of the long New Year holiday to make an ironclad case that Wang Bengu's family had occupied the farmland and property of fellow villagers in his hometown.

At the same time, Chen Yiqun, who was in charge of Daming Bookstore, also wrote a very in-depth investigative article about the incident in which Wang Bengu's family occupied the land in his hometown and bullied the villagers. He submitted it to the latest issue of "Daming Fenghua" magazine and published it as the main argumentative political article in the first issue of the year.

As a result, before the New Year holiday was over, news that Wang Bengu's family was bullying the villagers and occupying the land in their hometown made headlines in the capital.

Officials and common people in the capital were all talking about Wang Bengu, and one could tell from their discussions that, in addition to talking about Wang Bengu's family bullying others, they were also discussing whether Wang Bengu himself had gained any benefit from it.

After all, the expenses of being an official are not small, and his salary cannot cover them at all.

Therefore, under such public opinion environment, Wang Bengu was almost equated with corrupt officials. He completely lost his previous upright image and became a hypocrite who said one thing and did another.

The residence of Yan Shifan.

Yan Shifan was reading the latest issue of "Da Ming Feng Hua" magazine. He was completely numb when he read the argumentative political article about how Wang Bengu's family bullied the villagers in his hometown and occupied the local land.

"What the hell! Who wrote this bullshit article? According to this article, 99% of the officials in my Ming Dynasty have problems!"

Yan Shifan was so angry that he cursed. His family had already enclosed tens of thousands of acres of land in his hometown in Jiangxi, and these tens of thousands of acres did not include the land that had been donated. If those lands were counted, his family would have at least hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Jiangxi.

But can these be the fault of their Yan family?

You know, that shameless Xu Jie bought tens of thousands of acres of land around Yan Song's hometown Fenyi in order to get close to his father Yan Song. Is Xu Jie also the kind of person described in the article?

Obviously, the complexity of these issues cannot be explained in just a few words.

But now the problem is concentrated on Wang Bengu alone, and no one dares to lift the lid again.

Because the lid cannot be lifted, even if Zhu Yuanzhang were alive, he could not afford the consequences of lifting the lid.

So at this time, Yan Maoqing, who was standing next to Yan Shifan, quickly comforted him: "Young Lord, don't be angry. This matter is not that serious. The article said that it was Wang Bengu's fault for not being able to discipline his family, and it cannot be said to others."

Yan Shifan snorted in anger, and his one eye turned to stare at Yan Maoqing and said, "What do you do for a living? That bastard Zhao Wenhua did such a big thing behind your back, and you didn't believe it at all. Are you a paper minister?"

After being scolded by Yan Shifan, Yan Maoqing felt very aggrieved. How could he, a minister, ask about the affairs of the Shangshu?
Moreover, not everyone is as lucky as Yan Shifan, who has a father who is the chief minister in the cabinet. He can suppress the minister of his own department as the head of the cabinet.

So Yan Maoqing's mood was not only aggrieved, but also indescribable.

Yan Maoqing still advised: "Young Lord, now is not the time to be angry, but to find Zhao Wenhua and ask him what is going on? He is the Lord's adopted son!"

Yan Shifan said angrily again: "My father doesn't have such a rebellious son! On the first day of the new year, he didn't even come to my father to pay New Year's greetings, but turned around and went to Prince Yu's Mansion. Our Yan family doesn't have such an adopted son!"

Yan Maoqing couldn't help complaining in his heart when listening to Yan Shifan's angry words. Was it Zhao Wenhua who didn't come? It was you who blocked the door and didn't let him in. And you scolded him in the mansion before, how could he give you a good face?
However, Yan Maoqing could not say these words openly to Yan Shifan.

Because he knew Yan Shifan's personality very well. As long as he thought someone was wrong or bad, even the Lord would not plead for him.

So now Zhao Wenhua changed his allegiance and joined Prince Yu's camp. He was forced to do so.

After all, sitting back and waiting for death is not a good idea.

If possible, Yan Maoqing now wants to join Prince Yu's side.

But unfortunately, he and Yan Shifan were too deeply bound together. The interests between them could not be explained in a few words. And because of these interests, Yan Maoqing had no choice but to follow Yan Shifan to the end.

It is impossible for him to turn around just like Zhao Wenhua did. After all, although Zhao Wenhua said he was afraid of God, he was just Yan Song's adopted son and had nothing to do with the bad things Yan Shifan had done over the years.

Moreover, with Yan Shifan's mentality of wanting to have everything to himself, he was also unhappy with his father's act of adopting him as his son.

Therefore, even though Yan Song had intentionally wanted Yan Shifan and Zhao Wenhua to get closer so that they could help each other like brothers, the reality was that Zhao Wenhua always got rejected by Yan Shifan.

You have to know that no matter how bad Zhao Wenhua is, he is still a legitimate Jinshi who passed the imperial examinations twice and is also a legitimate minister of six ministries. He is definitely better than Yan Shifan, a student who got famous because of his father, right?
But Yan Shifan likes to rely on his intelligence and his father's power to boss Zhao Wenhua around and treat him like a slave. Who the hell can stand this?
So now that Zhao Wenhua has stabbed Yan Shifan in the back, it is entirely Yan Shifan's own fault.

But Yan Maoqing still couldn't say such words.

Yan Maoqing said, "Young Minister, calm down. It's not easy for us to come forward to find Zhao Wenhua now, but the Minister can. You can find a Minister and ask him to summon Zhao Wenhua to his house for questioning. Wouldn't these things have a result?"

When Yan Shifan heard Yan Maoqing's words, he couldn't help but breathe heavily, and then said with some lack of confidence: "My father is old and confused now. Even if he meets Zhao Wenhua, what will happen?"

When Yan Maoqing heard what Yan Shifan said, he immediately felt that there was a turning point. He quickly struck while the iron was hot and said, "Young Lord, you can't say that. The Lord and Zhao Wenhua have been father and son for more than 20 years. Now that this matter has become so popular, the Lord will definitely not be able to hide it. Why don't we kick Zhao Wenhua directly in front of the Lord and see how he can argue in front of him?"

"When the time comes and the cabinet minister has spoken, I don't believe that Zhao Wenhua will dare to defy the will of the world and go against the cabinet minister!"

Yan Shifan thought about it and nodded, "You are right. No matter what, he is still my father's adopted son. If he dares not listen to my father, I can immediately charge him with the crime of being unfilial. Let's see how he can still sit in the position of Minister of Justice!"

Yan Maoqing quickly continued, "What the young minister said is absolutely right! If Zhao Wenhua doesn't obey, he will be ruined just by this charge of being unfilial!"

The more Yan Shifan listened to this, the more he thought about it.

At the critical moment, we still have to use the old man to deal with the traitor Zhao Wenhua.

Yan Shifan immediately ordered Yan Maoqing: "You take care of this matter. Go find Zhao Wenhua and ask him to come to my father's house to apologize. It's New Year's Day, and he didn't come to my father's house to pay New Year's greetings. Is this reasonable?"

Yan Maoqing said: "Yes, yes, I will go find Zhao Wenhua now."

After saying that, Yan Maoqing left Yan Shifan's mansion in a hurry. He didn't want to stay with Yan Shifan for a moment. In the past two years, Yan Maoqing had clearly felt Yan Shifan's impatience and greed.

Not only were many things not done as meticulously as before, but he was also greedy and insisted on doing business with the Japanese pirates at sea. In Yan Maoqing's opinion, this was not reliable no matter how he looked at it.

After all, the Yan family has its roots in the Ming Dynasty, but with Lord Yan, Yan Shifan suddenly believed Luo Longwen's lies and thought that the wealth on the sea was also something he could get his hands on. Isn't this typical greed?
And now that Lu Bing is dead, the Jinyiwei will definitely not listen to the Yan family in the future. Under such circumstances, Yan Shifan still does not know how to restrain himself. How can Yan Maoqing not be afraid?

After Yan Maoqing left Yan Shifan's mansion, he immediately went to Zhao Wenhua's mansion.

When Zhao Wenhua heard that Yan Maoqing came to his house, he was also stunned, but then he understood why Yan Maoqing came.

So Zhao Wenhua didn't think much about it and directly had someone take him to his study.

When Yan Maoqing saw Zhao Wenhua reading in the study, he immediately bowed respectfully and said, "Your subordinate greets the minister."

Zhao Wenhua looked at Yan Maoqing and said with a chuckle, "How come Jingqing has time to come to my place today?"

Yan Maoqing said respectfully: "In fact, I have wanted to come to the Ministry to wish you a happy new year for a long time, but the young minister always asked me to go over to accompany him, so I was delayed. I hope you will forgive me."

Zhao Wenhua said: "It's okay, it's okay, as long as you have the intention. I won't be dissatisfied with Jing Qing because of such a small matter."

Yan Maoqing was immediately excited and said: "I admire the heart of the minister!"

Then Yan Maoqing sighed again: "This time I came here because I actually have something to talk to the minister about, but I can't bring myself to say it!"

Zhao Wenhua exclaimed in surprise, "Why is it so hard to say? Jing Qing, just go ahead and say it!"

Yan Maoqing sighed and said, "It's not worth it for me to be a minister! I know that the minister has always had the elder in his heart, but the young elder always thinks that the minister has other intentions. Not only did he make things difficult for the minister when he was in the Ministry of Works, but now that the minister has arrived at the Ministry of Justice, he is still like this."

"For example, on the first day of the new year, the Minister arrived at the old man's house, but was still stopped by the young old man's people. Now that the new year is almost over, I really can't bear that the Minister has not yet greeted the old man. So this time I came here to invite the Minister to go to the old man's house to make up for the new year's blessings and greetings for the old man."

When Zhao Wenhua heard what Yan Maoqing said, he certainly would not refuse, because this matter really involved the "filial piety" that everyone in the world values ​​very much. If someone used this to make trouble, it would indeed not be an easy thing to explain.

So since Yan Maoqing has come to provide this opportunity, no matter what Yan Song's intention is, Zhao Wenhua must go.

Zhao Wenhua said: "What Jing Qing said is right. I have been feeling depressed these days. I can't go to the elder to greet him personally. It's not good for me to be his adopted son. So if I can meet the elder smoothly this time, I will definitely thank Jing Qing with a big gift!"

Yan Maoqing immediately said: "You are too kind, Minister. This is what I should do."

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Asking for a monthly ticket~
(End of this chapter)