I am a temporary worker in Jinyiwei, how did I become a powerful official?

Chapter 167: The End of the Story of the Barbarian Fish (-character chapter)
Lin Shisan, Zheng and Yan Shifan were watching the sea from the watchtower. Chun Ge, the servant of the Lin family, quickly climbed up the watchtower.

Lin Shisan asked: "Why did you come to Tianjin?"

Chun Ge smiled and said, "Master, my aunt has given birth! It's a big fat boy! Congratulations, Master! Congratulations, Master!"

Yun'er was already ten months pregnant. Lin Shisan had been busy with things at Tanggukou for the past ten days and had forgotten his wife's due date.

Lin Shisan was delighted when he heard this: "She gave birth? When was she born?"

Chun Ge replied: "I was born at 2:15 am today."

Yan Shifan patted Lin Shisan on the shoulder and said, "Hey, congratulations, Third Brother. How about I name my nephew?"

Yan Shifan had a hobby of naming newborn babies.

Lin Shisan smiled and said, "Brother Yi is a famous talent in the court. Even the emperor praised your writing skills."

"The name you gave my son is like the Lin family's ancestral grave first emitting smoke, then emitting fire, and finally being struck by lightning."

Lin Shisan told the truth - the Jiajing Emperor actually knew that Yan Song's lyric poems were all written by Yan Shifan. But the Jiajing Emperor never broke the news.

Yan Shifan didn't care about this. He was indeed a great talent of the time. He came up with a good name after a little thought.

Yan Shifan smiled and said, "You are a famous lucky general in the court. I hope your luck can be passed on to your son. Let's call him Lin Chuanfu."

"His nickname is Fu'er. I want to adopt this child as my adopted son."

Lin Shisan nodded hurriedly: "Hey, thank you for the name, brother. It's a good name! With your name, this child will surely be blessed with great fortune."

Yan Shifan smiled and said, "The business in Tianjin is almost done. You should go home to see your son!"

Lin Shisan rode a fast horse and hurried back to the new house on Fushou Street with Zhang Bo and Chun Ge.

That evening, Lin Youniu paced back and forth excitedly outside Yun'er's bedroom. A baby's loud cry could be heard from the bedroom.

Lin Youniu said to himself cheerfully, "She cries so loudly. She will definitely be successful when she grows up."

At this moment, Lin Shisan almost trotted to the bedroom and said, "Dad. Hey, congratulations on becoming a grandfather again."

Lin Youniu smiled and said, "I also want to congratulate you on becoming a father again. Come in and take a look."

Lin Shisan entered Yun'er's bedroom and saw Yun'er with a red scarf on her head, lying on the bed with a weak face.

Biyun stood aside holding the child in her arms: "Thirteen, you're here? Come and see your son."

Lin Shisan went over to take a look and saw his son was fat and white as sheep fat: "Hey, good son. Daddy is here!"

Biyun said: "Hurry up and give him a name."

Lin Shisan said, "The young cabinet minister gave me a name. My full name is Lin Chuanfu, which means to pass on the blessings. My nickname is Fu'er."

"Xiao Fuer, you have a name now!"

Fuer stopped crying and looked at his father curiously with his big eyes.

Biyun said, "I opened our gold cabinet, took out one or two taels of gold, and asked Jiao's gold shop to make a longevity lock for Fu'er."

Lin Shisan said, "No hurry. The young minister said he would personally give our Fu'er a longevity lock. He would ask Minister Yan to write the words 'Long Live a Hundred Years' on the lock."

Biyun smiled and said, "Master Yan's calligraphy is the best in the world, and each character is worth a thousand gold coins. The characters on the longevity lock are probably worth more than the lock itself."

Lin Shisan walked up to Yun'er again and said, "Good Yun'er, you have suffered."

Yun'er was an informant sent to the Lin family by Luo Longwen when Lin Shisan was just starting to make a fortune. She entered the Lin family when she was only fifteen, and is only eighteen now.

Three years later, she has gone from being Luo Longwen's eyes and ears to a complete member of the Lin family.

Yun'er said weakly, "Master, I'm sleepy."

Lin Shisan said with a smile, "Go to sleep. They say giving birth is like being stabbed in the stomach with thousands of knives. Take good care of yourself."

In the next few days, the gifts Lin Shisan received for the birth of his child piled up into a mountain.

Who in the officialdom doesn't know that although Lin Shisan, the deputy captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, has a low rank, he is a popular figure around the Emperor?
Even Lord Yan personally wrote the words "Long Live a Hundred Years" on the longevity lock for the young master of the Lin family.

I don't know how many officials want to curry favor with Shanglin Shisan. If not take this opportunity to give more gifts, when will they?

In just five days, the Lin family received more than 30,000 taels of silver as congratulatory gifts. In addition, there were two large rooms full of gifts. Any one of these gifts was worth hundreds of taels of silver.

Lin Shisan was busy entertaining people who came to congratulate him at home.

At the imperial court, all new Portuguese firearms had been transported to the arsenal of the Ministry of War.

Fighting against the Japanese in the southeast was an urgent matter, so Yang Bo made a concession and shipped 70% of the firearms to the southeast and 30% to the nine borders.

At the same time, skilled craftsmen from the Ministry of Works and the Imperial Uniform Guard also began to step up imitation efforts.

In the southeast, Hu Zongxian received an imperial edict to open Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Fuzhou as trading ports, and he immediately began to work on trade matters.

A foreign fish actually became the key to the trial of trade.

Hu Zongxian knew very well that the imperial edict to open the ports was far from enough. Without suppressing the Japanese pirates, trade would be just empty talk.

It seemed that someone was trying to undermine the Jiajing Emperor's policy of trying to open up trade. In the spring of the 37th year of Jiajing's reign, Japanese pirates landed more frequently on the southeast coast.

Fortunately, with the help of the Portuguese's sophisticated firearms, the situation in the southeast was not out of control.

Hu Zongxian felt more and more that the nearly 200,000 garrison troops under his command were useless. Only one or two out of ten were able to fight, and only one out of a hundred was willing to fight.

It is necessary to build a new army that can fight, dare to fight and is good at fighting.

Since taking office in Zhejiang, Lao Hu has been avoiding the issue of establishing a new army, which is extremely sensitive.

Now is the time to do what we know is impossible.

The spring of the thirty-seventh year of Jiajing's reign gradually faded away, spring went and summer came, summer went and autumn came.

In the autumn of the thirty-seventh year of the Jiajing reign, there was a training ground for elephant training.

Lin Shisan had been exiled to the elephant training school for nearly a year. At this moment, his comrades on the training ground formed a circle.

In the center of the circle, two long-necked fighting cocks were fighting.

Of the two fighting cocks, one is a native Chinese fighting cock with thick and tall legs, an eagle-like beak, and a large and strong body.

One is a South Asian fighting cock presented as tribute from Luzon, with big, bright eyes and extremely ferocious.

Lin Shisan placed a large bet on the Nanyang cockfight. He shouted, “Go for it, go for it!”

Sun Yue waved his flag and shouted, "Fly up and peck its eyes!"

Sure enough, the Nanyang fighting cocks gradually gained the upper hand, and eventually the local fighting cocks were defeated.

Lin Shisan used a piece of cloth to hold the thirty-odd taels of silver he won and said with a smile, "I knew it. The fighting cock that the Luzon people offered as tribute is small in size but very fierce."

"Cockfighting is not about who is bigger. It's about who is more ruthless." A flagman complained, "My Captain Lin, please stop being so gullible."

At this moment, a captain from the Northern Pacification Division came over quickly and asked, "Where is Captain Lin? There is a transfer order."

Lin Shisan was stunned: Transfer order? It's over. The comfortable days at the elephant training center are probably coming to an end.

The centurion handed the transfer order to Lin Shisan. As expected, the transfer order said, "Deputy Captain Lin Shisan is ordered to end his secondment and return to the Northern Pacification Division for official business."

Looking at the signature and official seal on the transfer order again, Lin Shisan was a little surprised.

The signature is Zhu Xixiao, and the official seal is Jinyiwei Commander.

There was no permanent precedent for the highest military officer of the Jinyiwei. Sometimes it was a governor, sometimes a commander, sometimes a deputy commander, and sometimes even a deputy commander in chief.

These official positions are collectively called Tangshangguan.

The current Jinyiwei commander-in-chief Lu Bing is a tough guy. Since he took over the power of the guard, the commanders and assistant commanders below him have all been idle nobles, who only have the title and receive the salary, but do not take care of the affairs.

Lin Shisan murmured, "Zhu Xixiao from Prince Yu's Mansion has been appointed as the deputy commander?"

Although Zhu Xixiao is a nobleman, he is by no means idle.

He was a descendant of Zhu Neng, King of Dongping, and the younger brother of Zhu Xizhong, Duke of Chengguo.

Zhu Xixiao had an eldest brother who inherited the title, and his eldest brother had two sons. He would never be able to obtain the title of Duke of Chengguo in this lifetime.

He was a very ambitious man. He passed the military examination and was ranked 86th in the second class of the palace examination.

This ranking is not high. What is rare is his background.

Most of the descendants of the Ming dynasty's nobles were hedonists. Taking the military examination? What kind of military examination? Is the hardship of the military examination something that we nobles should endure?
My ancestor followed Long to the south to quell the rebellion. Both my grandfather and my father have shed blood and fought for the Ming Dynasty!
They have already suffered all my pain for me.

Zhu Xixiao was an outlier among the children of the nobles. He was able to endure the hardships of martial arts training and studying, and passed the imperial examination. This impressed Emperor Jiajing.

Emperor Jiajing personally issued an edict, ordering Zhu Xixiao to serve as the chief of the ceremonial guard at Prince Yu's palace.

Zhu Xixiao worked diligently in Prince Yu's mansion and won the prince's trust. Gradually, he was responsible for secret tasks in the mansion.

Lin Shisan stared at the transfer order and thought to himself: Who doesn't know that Zhu Xixiao is Prince Yu's man? Why was he suddenly transferred to Jinyiwei as a commander?

Could it be that the Emperor did not want the Jinyiwei to be passed down from father to son? Instead, he wanted to hand the Jinyiwei over to Prince Yu's people?
That's right, Prince Yu is the emperor's biological son. Lu Bing is just the emperor's confidant and best friend.

Lin Shisan led Sun Yue, Li Gao and more than thirty comrades back to the Jinyiwei headquarters.

That afternoon, Lu Bing summoned all the flying fish from the southern and northern divisions.

Lu Bing pointed to a skinny, short man in his thirties beside him and said, "This is the new deputy commander, Zhu Xixiao."

"Zhu Chenshi comes from a famous family, and is the descendant of Zhu Neng, a famous general in the Jingnan Rebellion."

"The emperor has orally ordered that from now on, Zhu Chenshi will also be in charge of the Northern Pacification Division. Zhu Chenshi will be in charge of all matters of the Northern Pacification Division, big or small."

Lin Shisan heard a clue from the voice: Young Manager Lu Yi had just been promoted to Northern Pacification Envoy for less than a year, and he was already being sidelined?

Zhu Xixiao stood up and bowed to everyone: "Everyone, please stick with me in the same boat and share the joys and sorrows with me from now on."

In the afternoon, Zhu Xixiao went to the Northern Pacification Office and had individual conversations with officials of the rank of centurion and above.

When it was Lin Shisan's turn, Zhu Xixiao was particularly enthusiastic: "Shisan, I've heard from Feng Bao, the Junior Supervisor of the Palace, that you are smart and capable."

"Princess Li's brother is under your command and has received a lot of care from you."

Zhu Xixiao is trying to build relationships and gain favors.

Lu Fang had long warned Lin Shisan: Whether it was the Yan family or Lu Bing, they were all doing dirty work for the emperor. Prince Yu was the emperor's biological son and the future emperor. Nephew, those who don't plan for eternity are not worthy of planning for the moment.
Lin Shisan had long wanted to curry favor with Prince Yu's Mansion and find a way out for himself. Otherwise, he wouldn't have treated Li Gao like his own father.

Lin Shisan bowed and said, "Zhu Weitang, you are too kind. I was just luckier. As for taking care of Master Li, I got along with him from the first sight, just like a half-brother."

"It's only natural to take care of your brothers."

In the Jinyiwei, subordinates respectfully addressed the commander as "someone's guard hall" because the commander was the "highest official" in the guard.

Zhu Xixiao said: "I just arrived at the Jinyiwei and was in charge of the Northern Division. I was completely in the dark."

"Fortunately, before I took office, Concubine Li taught me that 'there is a man named Lin Shisan in the Northern Pacification Office who can be trusted.'"

"I transferred you from the elephant training center back to the Northern Division so that you would have a solid and reliable arm in the future."

Lin Shisan bowed his head and said, "I, Lin Shisan, would like to thank Zhu Weitang for his trust. I am willing to sacrifice my life for you in the future!"

"You can tell me to go east, but I won't go west! You can tell me to climb a mountain of swords or plunge into a cauldron of oil, all you need is one word."

Zhu Xixiao took a sip of tea and said meaningfully, "I heard that you are not on good terms with the chief and deputy chief managers."

Lin Shisan understood: It seems that Zhu Xixiao regards the Lu family father and son as enemies. On the surface, I am the enemy of the Lu family father and son. The enemy of my enemy is naturally my friend.

Lin Shisan's answer was very tactful: "Ah, there are just some misunderstandings between the chief and junior shopkeepers and their subordinates. It can't be said to be unfriendly."

Zhu Xixiao said: "Well, I see. Anyway, I will use you as my arm from now on. You will be in charge of the Northern Pacification Office sooner or later."

This pie is a bit big.

Two days later, a memorial from the southeast was sent to the Ministry of Public Administration.

The memorial was submitted by Hu Zongxian, who suggested that Emperor Jiajing recruit new soldiers in Yiwu to form a new army of 10,000 people.

The reason for recruiting soldiers in Yiwu was that Qi Jiguang had visited Yiwu to investigate the local customs.
This memorial caused an uproar in the court and the country.

Impeachment memorials from the upright officials flew to Yongshou Palace like snowflakes. They accused Hu Zongxian of recruiting new troops in the name of recruiting new troops, but in fact recruiting private troops. They accused him of having rebellious intentions and plotting against the will of the emperor.

Xiang Zhuang's sword dance is aimed at Pei Gong, and the Qingliu are ostensibly criticizing Hu Zongxian, but are actually targeting Yan Song and his son.

In fact, even Yan Song and his son did not support Hu Zongxian's memorial.

Yan Song and his son thought: Wouldn't it be better for you, Hu Zongxian, to maintain the current situation and hold power in the southeast for a long time? Proposing the establishment of a new army could easily backfire! It would also give Xu Jie and his group an excuse to criticize you.

Therefore, Yan Song and his son pretended to be dead, neither expressing support for Hu Zongxian nor opposing him.

The person who supported Hu Zongxian the most was Yang Bo, the Minister of War. Yang Bo's idea was: if the coastal defense could change the military system of the garrison to the recruitment system and establish a new recruitment system, then the border defense could also recruit soldiers.

The military system of the guards was rotten to the core. If the nine frontiers wanted to keep the enemy out of the country for a long time, they had to recruit soldiers to form a fierce army.

This turmoil in the court seemed to have nothing to do with Lin Shisan, who had just been transferred back to the Northern Pacification Office.

That evening, Lin Shisan was in the yard holding seven-month-old Fuer, watching Huer and Wang Xiaochuan playing hopscotch.

A servant from the Yan residence came into the courtyard and said, "Third Master, the young minister asked you to come to the residence for a drink."

Others respectfully call Lin Shisan "Master Thirteen", while people in the Yan family respectfully call him "Master Third" because he is Yan Shifan's third brother.

Lin Shisan handed Fu'er to Biyun and told Zhang Bo, "Bring me the jar of sugarcane wine you got from the Portuguese."

(The end of "The Story of the Barbarian Fish". Tomorrow we will start the next volume "The Story of the Pheasant")
(End of this chapter)