bookrandom Chapter 405
Chapter 405
Upon hearing this, Zhu Xianrong and the others laughed and stopped teasing Yan Shifan, then entered Zhangjia Village.
As far as Zhou Chu was concerned, it was good that these princes and princesses could come to Zhangjia Village for a period of time, which might make the people in their territory better in the future.
Therefore, Zhou Chu did not ask anyone to give Zhu Xianrong and the others any special treatment. Their food and lodging were no different from those of Hu Zongxian and the other villagers.
The mountain environment was most suitable for Mu Yunping, because Lijiang, where the Mu Prince's Mansion is located, has an average altitude of more than 2,000 meters, while the mountain in front of her is only a few hundred meters high. The air in Shaoxing City was too humid, which Mu Yunping was not used to. On the contrary, here, because of the higher altitude, it was much drier than in the city.
Now, the Jiangnan region is about to enter the plum rain season. Many princes in the northwest region are not used to this humid weather. After arriving in Zhangjia Village, they felt the same way as Mu Yunping, finding the climate much more comfortable than that in Shaoxing City.
At this time in Suzhou Prefecture, Yan Song, who was imprisoned, was greeted by a eunuch from the capital who came to deliver an imperial edict.
"Yan Song accepts the imperial decree."
The eunuch held the imperial edict high in his right hand and said in a shrill voice.
Upon hearing this, Yan Song immediately knelt down.
"Your guilty subject Yan Song receives the imperial decree."
"The Emperor decreed: I appointed you to govern Jiangnan Province, but your actions have greatly disappointed me. The emergence of thousands of rebels in Jiangnan Province is outrageous, and you cannot escape your guilt. However, Zhou Hengqi, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, pleaded for you. After much deliberation, I have decided to grant you leniency and reinstate you to your original post. Yan Weizhong is hereby appointed to oversee all affairs of Jiangnan Province and to implement the performance evaluation system, following the example of Southern Zhili."
After the eunuch finished reading the imperial edict, he looked at Yan Song with a smile.
"Lord Yan, congratulations on your reinstatement."
The eunuch then handed the imperial edict to Yan Song.
Yan Song respectfully accepted the imperial edict with both hands.
"Thanks to your great fortune, sir, please come with me to my residence for a short while. My attire is rather filthy, please forgive me."
Yan Song laughed.
"You flatter me, Lord Yan. We will accompany you on this journey."
The eunuch laughed along.
The eunuchs knew very well that Yan Song would naturally receive a share of the kickbacks. Yan Song's reinstatement was already a cause for celebration, and this trip was a lucrative one for them.
In the capital, Jiajing's imperial edicts were always drafted by the Grand Secretariat before being issued. The Grand Secretariat had many functions, one of which was to draft and issue imperial edicts on behalf of the emperor.
The cabinet could even veto the emperor's edicts, which is the fundamental reason why so many emperors in the past could not defeat the cabinet.
However, the cabinet is not monolithic. The entire cabinet has long been divided into three factions by Jiajing: Yang Yiqing's faction, Yang Shen's faction, and Mao Jixie Qian's faction.
Fei Hong, on the other hand, didn't take sides with anyone, just did what he was supposed to do, and didn't offend anyone.
Yang Yiqing, Mao Ji, and others were not surprised by Yan Song's reinstatement, since they already knew that Zhou Chu was safe and sound. Yan Song had been imprisoned because of Zhou Chu, and now that Zhou Chu was safe, it was only natural for Yan Song to be reinstated.
They just didn't expect that the emperor's order to reinstate Yan Song to his original post would be to implement the performance evaluation system in Jiangnan Province.
Yang Yiqing didn't care about this at all. He had completely given up and was indifferent to whatever the emperor did. Yang Shen was even more supportive, since the performance evaluation system had begun to show results in Southern Zhili, and the discussion about the performance evaluation system in Southern Zhili had been held in court more than once.
Yang Shen naturally had no reason to oppose such a reform that benefited the country and its people.
Xie Qian didn't really care. At his age, he had long since become indifferent to these things. However, he knew that while he himself didn't care, the people of the Jiangnan faction did. As the representative of the Jiangnan faction, he naturally had to fight for them.
The one who cared the most was Mao Ji. When Mao Ji saw that the emperor was going to implement the performance evaluation system in Jiangnan, he immediately raised his objections and even drafted a proposal to try to block Jiajing's imperial edict.
However, with Yang Yiqing and Yang Shen around, this draft was destined to come to nothing, and the imperial edict eventually arrived in Suzhou Prefecture intact.
But Mao Ji couldn't sit still. He knew very well that once the performance evaluation system was fully implemented in Jiangnan, the officials of his Jiangnan faction would be completely scattered. All the officials would inevitably clash with the gentry of Jiangnan in order to get things done. Not to mention anything else, there would naturally be conflicts of interest when it came to collecting taxes.
By then, the Jiangnan faction will have collapsed without a fight.
This is neither what Mao Ji nor Xia Yan wanted to see.
"Thank you, Your Excellency. Let's send a letter together to the officials in Jiangnan, telling them that they must not implement the performance evaluation system. As the saying goes, the law does not punish the masses. If no one implements it, the performance evaluation system will come to nothing."
After finishing their business, Xia Yan and Mao Ji arrived at the Xie residence and said to Xie Qian.