My father is Jiajing

Chapter 501: Solid Giant Tree

The next day.

The news of the birth of Prince Jing's son spread throughout the city. On the first day, they all resisted the urge to come and congratulate him. But on the second day, Yan Shifan brought Yan Maoqing and other die-hard Yan party members to congratulate him with generous gifts.

At the same time, Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng also brought proper gifts to congratulate Prince Jing on his new birthday.

Zhu Zaizhen was extremely happy when he saw the palace filled with guests. It had been many years since the Prince Jing's palace had been so lively.

Now the house is full of guests and friends, all here to celebrate the birth of the prince of the royal palace, which is truly exciting.

"Congratulations, Your Majesty! Congratulations, Your Majesty!"

The chubby Yan Shifan came up to Zhu Zaizhen and bowed to him enthusiastically, as if they were real brothers.

Zhu Zaizhen accepted Yan Shifan's enthusiasm calmly. Of course, there was no other meaning in this. It was just because Zhu Zaizhen's status was high enough to deserve anyone's congratulations.

Therefore, Zhu Zaizhen would not be as cunning as Zhu Zaigui, thinking about what Yan Shifan would do.

Moreover, Zhu Zaigui had also instructed before that as long as benefits were offered by outsiders, they should be accepted, and as for what happened next, it would depend on the situation.

As long as no guarantees or promises are given, none of this will be a problem.

Therefore, Zhu Zaizhen now deeply understands Zhu Zaigui's truth. He will not deliberately please or make friends with any ministers. Anyway, as long as he does not hang out with them, there will be no problems in the future.

Moreover, it was with the help of his third brother that the Prince of Jing became Crown Prince. No matter what happens in the future, the affairs of the Prince of Jing's Mansion will definitely be taken care of by his third brother.

So now Zhu Zaizhen is not panicked at all. He even thinks that in the future, he will do whatever his third brother tells him to do!
"Hurry, hurry, hurry, please come in."

Zhu Zaizhen exchanged greetings with the people who came to congratulate him, and then invited them to enter the front hall of the palace.

Yan Shifan also said happily: "Okay, okay, thank you, Your Majesty."

Then Yan Shifan humbly followed Zhu Zaizhen and went into the front hall with Zhu Zaizhen.

Yan Shifan went to the front hall and took a look, and also saw Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng and others.

However, these people were sitting in inconspicuous corners and were not conspicuous in the palace.

Yan Shifan smiled and asked, "Has the name of the prince's son been decided?"

Zhu Zaizhen also smiled and replied: "It was decided yesterday. Third brother and father chose the character 'Zhong' as the name for the young master. From now on, the young master of Prince Jing's mansion will be called Zhu Yi Zhong."

When Yan Shifan heard the name, he also applauded, "What a good name for the young prince! Your Majesty picked it brilliantly. Zhong means ritual and music, and has the ancient meaning of elegance."

Zhu Zaizhen was also very satisfied with this name. When he received another imperial decree from Huang Jin yesterday, he was extremely excited.

He knew that this was all thanks to the help from his third brother, otherwise the child's name might not have been specially chosen by the Emperor Jiajing.

Now that such a good thing has happened, Zhu Zaizhen is naturally in a very good mood.

And at this moment, when Zhu Zaizhen and Yan Shifan were greeting each other, Xu Jie's son Xu Fan also arrived.

Xu Fan also brought rich gifts, and as soon as he entered the palace, he bowed deeply to Zhu Zaigui, "Your Highness, I, Xu Fan, congratulate you on your great happiness, and the young master. This is a small gift from your father to you and the young master."

When Zhu Zaizhen heard that it was Xu Fan who came, and also heard Xu Fan say that the gift he brought was from Xu Jie, the smile on his face became even brighter.

Zhu Zaizhen said happily: "Please stand up quickly. I am really bothering Lord Xu."

Xu Fan said, "Your Highness, what are you talking about? The young master is a descendant of the royal family. My father and I are both subordinates. We should congratulate the prince and the young master on their great happiness."

Yan Shifan looked at Xu Fan from the side. He snorted twice with a forced smile. It was obvious that Xu Fan's appearance made his originally happy mood very unhappy.

At the same time, the attention of Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng and others also turned over.

Gao Gong felt relieved when he saw Yan Shifan's appearance at this moment.

Now Xu Jie's son was also promoted by Emperor Jiajing to be the Minister of Works, which puts him on par with Yan Shifan's current position. The political signal here is self-evident.

It is obvious that His Majesty really wants Xu Jie to replace Yan Song, otherwise how could Xu Fan be promoted so quickly like riding a rocket?

Although this official position is awarded by grace, it is also a kind of attitude.

So now, both inside and outside the government, as long as one is not blind or confused, one can more or less taste some different flavors.

Yan Shifan looked at Xu Fan and said with a fake smile, "Is Minister Xu here?"

Xu Fan also looked at Yan Shifan at this time and bowed respectfully, "Your subordinate greets Minister Yan."

Xu Fan's calling of "Minister Yan" almost made Yan Shifan explode with anger!

You should know that many people usually respectfully call him "Little Cabinet Minister", and even Emperor Jiajing has never denied this title.

As a result, in front of the guests and officials who came to congratulate Prince Jing's palace, Xu Fan called him "Minister Yan", which was really disrespectful.

When Yan Shifan was about to explode, Zhang Juzheng also hurriedly stood up and came over, and said to Xu Fan first, "Brother Yunyan, sit here."

Xu Fan looked at Zhang Juzheng who suddenly appeared, and knew that Zhang Juzheng was there to help him out.

But now Xu Fan also felt that he had the leverage over Yan Shifan, and did not take Zhang Juzheng's help too seriously.

He even imagined how powerful he would be as a junior cabinet minister after his father became the prime minister of the cabinet.

But unfortunately, Xu Fan is not Yan Shifan.

Yan Shifan had a bandit-like and tyrannical air, while Xu Fan was taught by Xu Jie to be a well-behaved boy.

This kind of person may be quite capable at home, but once he meets a truly powerful enemy, he will instantly become weak and helpless.

So before Xu Fan could continue to show off in front of Yan Shifan, Yan Shifan glared at him fiercely with one eye, and he felt guilty. He quickly followed Zhang Juzheng's steps and replied, "Okay, okay, thank you Taiyue."

Zhang Juzheng looked at the complex changes on Xu Fan's face and sighed in his heart.

You have to know that his teacher Xu Jie was a ruthless man who never showed his emotions. The fact that he was willing to stay under Yan Song for so many years shows that Xu Jie's scheming and patience were both top-notch.

But why didn’t his son follow suit at all?
But Zhang Juzheng soon felt relieved.

After all, Yan Shifan did not have the cunning and means of his father Yan Song, and was just a second-generation rich man who took advantage of the power of others to bully others.

So when Zhang Juzheng saw these two second-generations in such a miserable state, he felt inexplicably relieved.

Xu Fan followed Zhang Juzheng to the table where Gao Gong and the others were sitting. Xu Fan couldn't help but gasp when he saw that all the people sitting at the table were officials from Prince Yu's faction.

No one had ever seriously counted before, but now these people suddenly sat at a table, and the scene was really scary.

So when he saw Gao Gong, Chen Yiqin, Hai Rui and others, Xu Fan did not dare to be arrogant and quickly bowed and saluted.

When everyone saw Xu Fan saluting, they all saluted in return.

Then Xu Fan sat down with Zhang Juzheng, but after he sat down, he realized his embarrassment.

Compared to Yan Shifan who was surrounded by stars on the other side, he was sitting next to Zhang Juzheng, Gao Gong, Chen Yiqin, Hai Rui and others, but no one took the initiative to pay attention to him.

From this we can see that in the eyes of these officials from Prince Yu's faction, he, the son of the Second Prime Minister and Vice Minister of Works, does not seem to be so popular.

However, Xu Fan soon adjusted his mentality, because he also knew that this group of people usually did not take Yan Shifan seriously, especially Hai Rui, which made Yan Shifan hate him to the core, but he could do nothing about it.

Moreover, if the officials had not come to congratulate Prince Jing on the birth of his son, given Hai Rui's personality, he would not have come at all.

However, being an official is sometimes beyond one's control. On ordinary days, other people's face may not be taken seriously, but when it comes to matters concerning the emperor and the prince, even Hai Rui is no exception.

After all, even if this kind of communication is exposed, Prince Jing occupies the position of "king", and Hai Rui is an official, so how can a minister not congratulate the king when he is happy?

Moreover, it was Zhu Zaigui who asked Gao Gong to specially greet them when they came to congratulate the Prince of Jing's mansion, and the purpose was also to let people see the harmony between the two brothers, Prince Yu and Prince Jing. Of course, what people will think of this harmony is what the people who see it think. Anyway, Zhu Zaigui will be impeccable in terms of face.

After all, this is the face of the royal family! Therefore, no matter whether it is true or false, no matter what the people who see it think, the Jingwang Mansion and the Yuwang Mansion must maintain a certain close interaction, which is in line with the brotherly character of being friendly and respectful to each other.

Therefore, even a minister as mischievous as Hai Rui had to remain humble when faced with such a major issue.

Otherwise, what's the point of him being an official?

After Xu Fan sat down awkwardly, he suddenly remembered the teachings of his father Xu Jie.

Xu Jie asked him to interact more with Zhang Juzheng or Gao Gong, the ministers close to Prince Yu's Mansion, so Xu Fan was quite sensible at this moment.

Xu Fan hesitated for a moment, then said to Zhang Juzheng, Gao Gong and others, "My father often talks about the achievements of several of you virtuous brothers, which makes me very envious. In the future, we will all serve in the same court in the capital. I hope that Taiyue, Suqing, Yifu and Gangfeng will teach me more."

Zhang Juzheng was not surprised to hear Xu Fan's confession, because in addition to knowing his teacher Xu Jie, he also knew his teacher's son very well. He understood that Xu Fan was a person who was easy to compromise and give in.

If such a person is placed in a position behind the scenes, he may be able to achieve some good results. However, if such a person is placed in a key position, things will be easy to handle if they are simple, but if they become complicated, chaos will arise.

Gao Gong, Chen Yiqin, Hai Rui and others only knew that Xu Fan was the son of Xu Jie, and they didn't know much else.

Therefore, they did not have much psychological change in response to Xu Fan's greetings and words of goodwill. They just responded politely without much enthusiasm.

Seeing this situation, Zhang Juzheng naturally did not want to let the occasion be neglected. After all, this was his teacher's son, and he had to take care of him more or less when he was outside.

Otherwise, if word gets out that Zhang Juzheng does not appreciate the relationship between master and disciple and is indifferent to his teacher's son, it will be a big trouble.

You have to know that in their time, some words can kill people like a knife.

Therefore, no matter whether Zhang Juzheng thinks highly of Xu Fan or not, he must protect him.

Zhang Juzheng took the initiative to find a topic and said, "Yunyan, you are now also the Minister of Works, in charge of the expansion of the new palace of His Majesty, do you have any experience?"

When Xu Fan heard Zhang Juzheng's words, he immediately became alert. "Your Majesty, the new palace is of great importance. Since I took office, I have been working diligently and have not dared to be negligent in the slightest. Now I am sending people to Yunnan and Guizhou to requisition large timber. Only when these large timbers arrive in the capital can we officially start the construction of Your Majesty's new palace."

Zhang Juzheng said, "It's not easy to collect large trees from Yunnan and Guizhou, right? The chieftains there and the Burmese bandits have been causing trouble. Although the court can still suppress them, it is probably not easy to allocate civilian manpower and corvée labor to cut down large trees."

Xu Fan said, "Yes, at the beginning I didn't know what was going on there either, so I followed the Ministry of Industry's previous procedures and sent a letter to them, asking them to assist the Ministry of Industry in felling large trees. But until now, Yunnan and Guizhou have not responded, and I am very anxious."

Zhang Juzheng laughed and said, "Since the southern wood doesn't work, why not consider the northern wood?"

When Xu Fan heard Bei Mu's words, he was also stunned. If he used Bei Mu's words, wouldn't he be guilty of deceiving the emperor, just like Yan Shifan?
You should know that there are no golden nanmu trees growing in the north, and the most common large trees are the pine trees in the northeast.

But can pine wood be used as the main wood for Jiajing’s new palace?

If we use northern wood, won’t something serious happen?

Xu Fan said: "The texture of northern wood is average and it is not very useful. Moreover, northern wood is far away in Liaodong. It is difficult to bring it back to the capital from Liaodong, whether it is felled or transported. Although southern wood is far away in Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong and Guangxi, as long as we can push these huge trees into the mountains and rivers, we can find a way to transport them north along the canal."

"So comparing the two, Nanmu is more reliable."

But Zhang Juzheng did not say these words without reason, but had his reasons.

He is now the governor of Shuntian and the head of the Beijing Special District, responsible for the overall planning and administrative management of the entire Dashuntianfu area, so sometimes the issues he wants to discuss with Zhu Zaigui are mostly focused on things in the north.

So Zhu Zaigui also chatted with him about many things that he had not noticed before.

Zhang Juzheng said, "According to ancient records, although northern wood is not as precious as southern wood, this does not mean that northern wood is ordinary. I heard that in the land north of Liaodong, there is a mysterious big wood called iron birch. The hardness of this big wood can be comparable to steel, and this wood also emits a natural fragrance, which is very similar to vanilla orchid. If Brother Yunyan can find this wood as the main material for your majesty's new palace, you will definitely be rewarded by your majesty."

Xu Fan became excited when he heard this, "Is there really such a strong and hard tree?"

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