Chapter 48 Second, there are people in the court who are good at being officials!Zhang Zhidong sent Yang Rui into Beijing

One afternoon, Yang Rui walked into Zhang Zhidong's signing room with a mansion newspaper: "Master Xiang, someone is saying bad things about gambling in the forbidden house." Zhang Zhidong was reviewing official documents, he put down the pen in his hand, and asked indifferently, "What bad words are you talking about?" "Someone gave the empress dowager and the emperor a discount." Yang Rui handed over the residence newspaper. "The Dibao has published this notebook." "Oh, it's up to you?" Zhang Zhidong's expression was obviously more concerned than before. "show me."

Zhang Zhidong brought the residence newspaper and read it carefully.This is an excerpt from a censor named Gao Hongjian.According to the booklet, it has been recently heard that Guangdong has opened up the ban on gambling, and ignorant Cantonese people actively participated in it, and profiteers manipulated it and made huge profits.In view of the harm of gambling, the imperial court banned it as early as the early years of Tongzhi.Existing people ignore court orders, contact and clamor, and revive.Please ask the court to strictly order the governor of Guangdong to stop it, and those who lead it should be severely punished.

Zhang Zhidong smiled lightly: "I don't know who Gao Hongjian is. He probably doesn't know much about the inside story, and he speaks softly, so don't worry about it for now. Please pay attention to the recent newspapers, there may be serious criticisms." come out." As expected.In the next few days, Yang Rui saw articles about gambling in Guangdong almost every day in the residence newspaper.On this day, the residence newspaper actually published two acrimonious memorials side by side, both of which named Zhang Zhidong, and both said that Zhang Zhidong was responsible for this matter.It is suggested that the imperial court immediately dismiss Zhang Zhidong and stop this unhealthy trend, so as to maintain the dignity of the imperial court's grand ceremony of using talents, and put an end to the greed and shameless delusions of traitors.

Zhang Zhidong looked at the person who turned up, one was Mo Jiwen, the right concubine of Zhan Shifu.Zhang Zhidong is very familiar with this person.He is the same year as Zhang Zhidong, and the two got along very well before.When Zhang Zhidong was washing horses, he was already a student. Mo Jiwen studied politics for Zhang Zhidong for many years, but he was still a low-ranking official.Later, Zhang Zhidong was promoted to the second rank, but he became dissatisfied with Zhang, saying that he got promoted by relying on the power of his cousin through the door of Prince Chun's residence.After Zhang Zhidong arrived in Taiyuan, he learned from Zhang Peilun's letter that Mo Jiwen had joined Li Hongzhang's sect, and he had been promoted very quickly in the past two years.Zhang Zhidong saw the background from Mo Jiwen's participation: this was undoubtedly Li Hongzhang's trouble, and he vented his recent anger by avenging his distant revenge.Another one who went up was Yi Guoxin from the Metropolitan Procuratorate.Who is this person, Zhang Zhidong thought for a long time but couldn't remember, it seems that he is a newcomer in the past few years since he left Beijing.Yi Guoxin listed four major harms to Wei Gambling: fraud in the imperial court, involvement of merchants, unbridled traitors, and rampant gambling bandits.

"These people are despicable. They didn't even come to Guangdong to conduct field investigations, so they made such a case. They didn't accomplish enough, and they failed." Yang Rui said angrily. Zhang Zhidong thought that if he was still working as a speech official in the capital, he might be sued when he heard about this, so he smiled and said: "Judging from the words on the memorial, there are not many people who sued." Wrong, it is rumored that Juzhuo is originally the job of the speech officer, and there is no need to go to Guangdong to investigate."

Zhang Zhidong picked up his teacup and pondered. "Where is the key point?" Yang Rui asked softly after adding water to the teacher. "The key lies outside the memorial." Zhang Zhidong pointed to the word "Mo Jiwen", "This person is from Li Shaoquan." "The point is that Li Hongzhang is embarrassing you?" Yang Rui seemed to understand. "Is this Yi Guoxin also his?" "I don't know about this person." Zhang Zhidong took a sip of tea and remained silent. "I don't know if this person surnamed Yi has any background." Yang Rui seemed to be talking to himself.

"Uncle Qiao, go and prepare a few things for me." Zhang Zhidong looked at the former student who was a copywriter in the supervisor's office, and said while thinking, "One is a report, which is a document for the ex-student who had to open the forbidden room to gamble. Write clearly before and after, and the wording should be euphemistic and clear. One is a list, detailing and clearly describing the money collected by Wei Gambling and the various destinations of the money. " "Yes." Yang Rui already understood the teacher's intention. "Students will arrange for the copywriters to come out quickly."

"One more thing." Zhang Zhidong stroked his beard slowly. "Send someone to Macau immediately to find out the taxes paid by the gambling houses in Macau over the years. Foreigners are strict in their work. The Macau Taxation Bureau must have this kind of deposit slip, and record all the deposit slips related to this matter. .” "Students arrange for someone who can do things." "Make an official letter and stamp it with the seal of the governor's office, otherwise, the Macau Taxation Bureau will not let you check it." "Students understand."

After Yang Rui left the house, Zhang Zhidong carefully read the references published in the mansion newspaper and thought a lot about it. When the ban on gambling was lifted, some people would gossip, criticize, and even use bullets. Zhang Zhidong had thought of all these before the ban was lifted, and he had made full preparations.However, it was published in the Di Bao in this way, made public to the whole country, and continued for several days, the tone was getting higher and higher, and Li Hongzhang was the main envoy behind it. Zhang Zhidong had not estimated these things in advance.What countermeasures should be taken?What exactly does this mean?How will things develop?Zhang Zhidong thought deeply about these issues.

It was difficult to see the background and trend of the incident for a while, and after thinking of several countermeasures, Zhang Zhidong made a determined decision: one is not to be afraid.Since you dare to do this, you dare to assume the responsibilities arising from it.The second is that no matter who is manipulating behind the scenes, we must deal with him to the end, and the selfishness of doing things for the country must be confessed to the world. After a few days, Yang Rui finished all the things that should be done.After careful review, Zhang Zhidong said to him: "You arrange for someone to transcribe four copies of each item, and bring these things to Beijing tomorrow."

"To the capital?" Yang Rui was quite surprised. "When you go to the capital, you mainly do three things." Zhang Zhidong explained slowly, "One is to send a copy of these texts to my cousin Zhang Zhiwan Zhongtang, and let him have a look first. Ask If he wants to send another copy to Yan Jingming Zhongtang, if he says yes, you can send it, and you can talk more in front of Yan Zhongtang. You can ask Zhang Zhongtang again if you should send another copy to King Chun. If you should send it, you can give another copy to Zhang Zhongtang, and he will submit it. You will live in my original courtyard in Beijing, where the Renquan family has lived for the past two years." Zhang Zhidong's eldest son, Renquan, is now studying in the Imperial College. Five years ago, when Yang Rui lived in the capital for Dongxiang affairs, he met Yang Rui, and they were about the same age, and they got along well.It is of course a very pleasant thing to be able to live with Renquan and talk about the past and the present.It's just that he's married and has a child. Can his wife welcome a strange guest? "The eldest son has a large family, is it convenient for me to live there?" "You only live in the capital for a short time, a month or two at most, what's the inconvenience!" Zhang Zhidong put down his teacup and said slowly, "I still have a letter from home here, two small ones for Hou Kun. The writing brush, you give it to him together." Hou Kun is the eldest grandson of Zhang Zhidong, who was born the year he went to Shanxi. He is already over four years old. "When you go to the capital this time, in addition to sending these documents, you have to find out for me the opinions of all aspects of the capital on Guangdong and Guangxi, especially on gambling. I also mentioned it in my letter to Zhang Zhongtang. About these things , he will take the initiative to tell you." Yang Rui nodded, keeping these explanations in mind. "Tomorrow night, I will arrange a small steamer to take you out of Guangzhou and all the way to Xiamen. After you arrive in Xiamen, you will change to the sea ship to Tianjin. From Tianjin to the capital, you can arrive in about ten days. During your stay in the capital, if you If there is an emergency, Renquan will tell you how to contact me by telegram." Zhang Zhidong's arrangement made Yang Rui suddenly feel the importance of this trip and the heavy burden on his shoulders. One evening in the midsummer season, Yang Rui came to Beijing City in a hurry. When he appeared in the dark at Zhang's house in Xusi Hutong, Renquan, the eldest son of the Zhang family who opened the door, hugged him excitedly and said, "I have been looking forward to it every day for the past two days. You are finally here!" "You know I'm coming?" Yang Rui asked in surprise. "A few days earlier, Yan Zhongtang sent someone to tell me that my father sent a telegram to the household department's telegraph office, saying that you will come to the capital around fifteen days and live with me." It turns out that the Ministry of Households has set up a telegraph room!Thinking in his heart, Yang Rui followed Zhang Renquan into the living room. "You've worked hard all this way, you haven't had dinner yet, I'll arrange it for you." "No, no, I've already eaten." Yang Rui hurriedly stopped Renquan. "You read the letter first!" Yang Rui hurriedly took out Zhang Zhidong's letter from his bag, and handed it to Renquan together with two small brushes.Renquan picked up the brush and said, "Houkun will start writing with the brush given by grandpa next month!" Yang Rui said with a smile: "You are three years younger than me, and your son is four years old. I only got married last year. I don't know when I will hold my son!" "Don't worry." Renquan said with a smile, "Next year, your wife will definitely give birth to a fat son for you!" Although Renquan is the son of everyone, perhaps because of the loss of his mother since childhood, he does not have the habit of being spoiled and spoiled, and has always treated others with courtesy. Because Yang Rui is his father's favorite disciple, he is more affectionate to him than others.This sentence was well said, and Yang Rui laughed happily. After Renquan read the letter, the two young students talked about the Vietnam War and the customs of Guangdong and Guangxi. They talked with great interest for most of the night.Seeing that it was almost three o'clock, Renquan said: "Tomorrow, you take a day off first, and I will also make some preparations. The day after tomorrow, I will accompany you to see your uncle. I haven't been there for two or three months. I don't know how the old man is doing. .” Renquan is willing to go to Zhang Zhiwan's house with him, which is really a great thing.It is true that we are tired and sleepy after traveling by boat all the way, and we have to take a rest tomorrow.Yang Rui thanked Renquan for his kindness, in the guest room where he stayed before, he soon fell into his first peaceful dreamland since leaving Guangzhou. Accompanied by Renquan on the third day, Yang Rui visited Zhang Zhiwan, handed Zhang Zhidong's letter and the documents he had prepared in Guangzhou to the elderly Minister of Civil Aviation who co-organized the university, and detailed Zhang Zhiwan's Zhidong had to narrate the difficulties of gambling. Zhang Zhiwan didn't talk much, when Yang Rui asked if he wanted to submit a document to King Chun, he thought for a while and said, "Leave a copy!" After leaving Zhang Zhiwan's house, Renquan accompanied Yang Rui to visit Yan Jingming.After Yan Jingming listened carefully to Yang Rui's report, he said to Renquan: "Your father has the spirit of Duke Hu Wenzhong to handle affairs, and Duke Hu Wenzhong Jiuquan knows it. You should be relieved to have someone succeed you. You can tell your father, and I will try my best to think about it." There is a way." Thank you again and again. Yang Rui stayed at Renquan's house.He wanted to wait for Zhang Zhiwan to bring him an answer on this matter.He will also use this time to visit his fellow countrymen and acquaintances, and learn as much as possible about state affairs.And in Zhang Zhiwan's house in Xinghua Hutong, the seventy-year-old Jun Ji has been thinking about the aftermath of the trouble caused by his cousin for the past few days. Gao Hongjian was Li Hongzhang's spokesperson, and Zhang Zhidong's letter said it was right.Yi Guoxin, after some inquiries, has already found out that he is Weng Tonghe's student; it seems that Weng Tonghe is also against the gambling. Li Hongzhang had a grudge with Qingliu, which is a fact known to all the world.It is also expected that he signaled others to criticize Zhang Zhidong.And Weng Tonghe also came to oppose Zhang Zhidong, which was unexpected, and this Weng Tonghe was indeed someone not to be offended.Thinking of this level, the gray-haired elder brother really sweated for his cousin. Weng Tonghe was an extraordinary figure in the court.His unusual, first of all, he has a prominent family background. Weng Tonghe's father, Weng Xincun, was a naturalized citizen in the second year of Daoguang.The descendants worked in the study as the masters of Emperor Xianfeng, King Gong, Wang Wang and others.Being an emperor, teacher and prime minister, this is the highest pursuit of scholars in the world, and Weng Xincun has done it, which can be described as extremely honorable.Weng Tonghe's eldest brother, Weng Tongshu, was promoted to governor of Anhui, but was dismissed due to the fall of the provincial capital.The second brother, Weng Tongjue, also served as a governor.What's more interesting is that shortly after Weng Tongshu's resignation, his son Weng Zengyuan was also the number one scholar in Tongzhi's Guihai department in high school, and Zhang Zhidong was the candidate for this department.Weng Tonghe's unusualness lies in his own extraordinary official experience.When Weng Tonghe was twenty-seven years old, he won the first prize of Xianfeng Bingchen Division. He has been an official in Beijing.In the eighth year of Guangxu, he entered the aircraft industry.In the tenth year of Guangxu, he withdrew from the Military Aircraft Department following the fall of Yiyi.From the sixth year of Tongzhi, Weng Tonghe served as the tutor of Emperor Tongzhi.Until the reign of Emperor Tongzhi.Because of his meritorious service in teaching and reading, he was rewarded with a top rank.When Emperor Guangxu came to the throne, Cixi ordered him to go to Yuqing Palace to teach Emperor Guangxu.Over the past ten years, Weng Tonghe and Emperor Guangxu have forged a close friendship. Everyone in the government and the public said that Weng Tongshuo and the emperor are called monarchs and ministers, and they love each other like father and son.Therefore, even though he withdrew from the military plane last year, he still walked in Yuqing Palace.Cixi also trusted him very much. Both civil and military officials of the Qing Dynasty valued the friendship between Weng Tonghe and the emperor.Once the emperor is in charge, his status is unmatched by anyone. Who can ignore such an important person! Then, why did Weng Tonghe dislike Zhang Zhidong so much?More than 20 years ago, Zhang Zhidong and Weng Zengyuan ascended to the top of the throne together. Because of this fate, the relationship between the two has always been very good.When Weng Tongshu was imprisoned in imperial prison, Zhang Zhidong visited him twice, for which Weng Tonghe was very grateful.Later Weng Tongshu was sentenced to border guards, and Weng Zengyuan accompanied his father out of Beijing. Zhang Zhidong bought wine for the farewell party and wrote an ancient style gift, in which he strongly praised Weng's family for their knowledge, filial piety and fraternity. What offended this current champion emperor?Zhang Zhiwan paced back and forth in the study room, thinking deeply: it is because the re-opening of gambling is not only hurting the dignity, but also opening the chance for the world to seek profit and fortune. Weng Tonghe, who was born in Tsinghua University, cannot tolerate this kind of extravagance Things?There are thousands of people in the capital who were born in Tsinghua University. Why don't others see it that way?It is a famous lesson from the old sages to follow the power in a hurry, not to mention that Zhang Zhidong has recently made great contributions to the country. Can't we give him more authority?Perhaps Weng Tonghe had another reason for his move. Suddenly, he understood the reason behind this: the day Weng quit the military plane last year was the time when I entered the military plane. Although it was the queen mother's idea to dismiss Prince Gong's military affairs office, it was inevitable that Weng would not arouse Weng's jealousy every time he went in and out. .What's more, within a few days, Zhang Zhidong released the gap between Guangdong and Guangxi, and Weng would definitely think that I was doing something wrong in the middle, and his hatred would only deepen.From this point of view, Weng Tonghe ordered his disciples to criticize Zhang Zhidong, and his original intention was to embarrass the new class of military planes, and the purpose of scolding his younger brother was to impeach his elder brother! After Zhang Zhiwan realized this reason, he felt that it was his duty to resolve this matter and tide over the difficulties for Zhang Zhidong. He thought, the only way to resolve this matter is to join forces with Yan Jingming to persuade King Chun to intercede with the Queen Mother.As long as the Empress Dowager forgives, the cloudy sky will turn into a clear sky! Thinking of this, Zhang Zhiwan picked up a pen and wrote a letter to Yan Jingming, asking Yan to try to solve the matter for his cousin, and see King Chun together in a few days.He sealed the letter and sent his family to the Mansion of Hell. Yan Jingming, who lives in a simple courtyard in Toutiao Hutong, has also been thinking about Guangdong and Guangxi these two days.The number one financial manager in the Hunan Army at that time, and now a veteran of the three dynasties who is now the Minister of the Ministry of Family Affairs and the Minister of Military Affairs, who is the co-organizer of the official residence, is not contaminated by the vulgar habits of the officialdom because of his precious status.After more than ten years of military career, he realized that wars are actually fought with food and wages: if the food and wages are sufficient, the battle will be won;The reason why the Hunan Army surpassed all the regiment training green camps at that time and became a major event was that the final foothold was to find an effective way to raise food and pay.During his tenure, he did everything he could to raise money and pay, only seeking goals, regardless of means.Even if it caused dissatisfaction among the prefectures and counties and the resentment of the people, he would not hesitate.In the end, he exchanged for the success of the former enemy on the battlefield by guaranteeing the supply of various sources, and won the reputation of being a competent officer, and all grievances were automatically extinguished.From this, he understood the profound connotation of the four words "poverty and weakness" that have been said since ancient times: Weakness arises from poverty, people are poor when people are poor, families are weak when families are poor, countries are weak if they are poor, and if they want to be strong, they will be weak. Get rich first.Wealthy and strong, only after being rich can we be strong.Because of this, he deeply admired Zhang Zhidong's strategy of revitalizing Guangdong and Guangxi starting from financial management. As for opening up gambling, although it will attract criticism, it can be adopted for the sake of strengthening Guangdong.He believed that he could convince the empress dowager with this.As a shrewd official, Yan Jingming saw that the biggest difficulty in this matter was that the imperial court had banned gambling in the past, and there was a precedent of Yinghan being dismissed after lifting the ban.This is the strongest sword in the arsenal that the critic can wield.Everything would be much easier without these.Zhang Zhiwan's letter reminded Yan Jingming that Zhang Zhidong was already on the same boat as Xin Junji. "Together in the same boat" is the measure that the new military aircraft should take.Yan Jingming further realized the relationship between this matter and himself.However, how to bypass the huge obstacle on the road to resolve this matter?He decided to transfer Yinghan's archives from the National History Museum to study in detail. In the affairs of the world, there is a big difference in the results of hearing rumors and studying them in detail.The dismissal of Yinghan for gambling in the forbidden area is another example.After checking Yinghan's old files carefully, Yan Jingming not only figured out the process of Yinghan's dismissal, but also figured out the ins and outs of the gambling incident in Guangdong. It turns out that the imperial court did not prohibit gambling with the surname of Wei in Guangdong Province. The basis for the prohibition of gambling can be found in a memorial written by Lao Chongguang, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi in the eleventh year of Xianfeng: "Guangdong Province Wei Gambling with surnames disturbs the order of the people and promotes the wind of seeking profit by chance, and should be prohibited." The time of Zhu Zhu's criticism is the ninth day of August in the eleventh year of Xianfeng. Seeing this day, Yan Jingming suddenly felt uncomfortable, because it was on this day that he received a fierce question from Emperor Xianfeng Bintian in Wuchang City.The Zhu Zhu on the ninth day of August was obviously not written by Emperor Xianfeng.Today, more than twenty years later, the soul-stirring battle in the Rehe Palace has long since become an open secret. Yan Jingming knows in his heart that this commentary was neither written by the six-year-old emperor, nor was it drawn up by the Queen Mothers of the Eastern and Western Palaces. At that time, Sushun, who was in charge of the supreme sovereignty of the imperial court, was in charge of the order.After sorting out this relationship, the rock in Yan Jingming's heart was probably dropped by 80%. Sushun's order to prohibit gambling was actually only seriously implemented when Lao Chongguang was the governor of Guangdong.After Lao Chongguang was transferred away, the trend revived again.To use the vernacular of the people in Guangdong Province, the imperial court turned a blind eye to gambling. In fact, Yinghan's dismissal was not because of the lifting of the ban, but because of a big disturbance that year. A gambling organizer surnamed Chen in Hua County abducted gamblers five million silver and fled abroad on the eve of the opening.After finding no trace of him everywhere, the gambler decided to sell his real estate and fields for compensation.It turned out that his beautiful house in the fertile land had already been sold to others, and all the remaining property added up to less than 300,000 taels.The gamblers were furious, and they investigated the behavior of the surnamed Chen.It was found out that he had a close relationship with the government, and it was suspected that he had given the governor more than one million taels of silver in private, so several Cantonese and Beijing officials who had suffered huge losses in their families jointly impeached Ying Han. People abducted huge sums of money.Gamblers also hate Yinghan to death.Some even posted anonymous posts to the Supervisory Office, claiming to kill him to vent their anger.Yinghan was too scared to go out easily.He himself went to the imperial court, saying that he did not do enough to prohibit the gambling, so that such a big event happened, and asked the imperial court to punish him and transfer him from Guangdong and Guangxi. Seeing that the incident was so big, the imperial court had to send two officials to Guangzhou to investigate.I don't know if it was the imperial envoy who took the bribe, or Yinghan's hands and feet were clean. In short, after many investigations, there is no real evidence that Yinghan took huge bribes privately.In the end, the two imperial envoys submitted a letter to the court, suggesting that gambling should be banned and Yinghan should be dismissed and transferred.The court agreed to this proposal.Because of this, Yinghan lost the governor of Guangdong and returned to Beijing, but within three months, he found a beautiful post as the governor of Urumqi, and went to the northwest to take office.Two years later, he died in Renbu, with a grand finale, and the royal sacrificial article was full of praise, and there was no mention of the gambling case. After finding out Yinghan's experience, Yan Jingming felt more at ease. This morning, Zhang Zhiwan invited Yan Jingming to Taiping Lake Chunwang Mansion together.