The Ming Dynasty's Spokesperson

Lin Tailai's trip to Huizhou in the 24th year of Wanli went smoothly. He was already an expert at writing epitaphs and funerals.

After all, according to the world's concept, epitaphs should be written by people who are as respected as possible and have a high status, and Lin Tailai is almost the most respected person in the world.

So Lin Tailai, who had just returned from Huizhou with the "Su-Hui Trade and Navigation Treaty", received another order to write an epitaph for Chen Yubei, the Minister of Justice.

When Lin Tailai first passed the imperial examination and entered the court, Chen Yubi was the president of the Hanlin Academy. They often dealt with each other and Chen Yubi was quite tolerant of Lin Tailai.

In the original history, Chen Yubi entered the cabinet as a Grand Secretary, but in this time and space, due to the butterfly effect, he only became the Minister of Justice.

As he was approaching thirty, Lin Tailai gradually became numb to the passing of his old friend. This was actually normal.

He was not very old when he started out, and he had already entered the upper echelons of the court in his twenties. Most of the people he dealt with at the same level were middle-aged or elderly.

Now, as time goes by, the elderly are naturally the first to disappear one by one.

For example, Zhao Yongxian, who became the Minister of Rites two years ago and then blew himself up in order to fight for the national foundation, also passed away, but his family did not ask Lin Tailai to write his epitaph.

By the end of the 24th year of the Wanli reign, Lelang Copper Mine and Suzhou and Hangzhou Weaving Bureau had presented a total of more than 300,000 taels of silver to the emperor's treasury.

This was not much more than in the 23rd year of Wanli's reign. Lin Tailai felt that Emperor Wanli should not be given the illusion that the numbers would continue to increase.

The 25th year of Wanli arrived, and Lin Tailai was 30 years old. The 25th year of Wanli in this time and space was more stable than the 24th year of Wanli.

It’s not even a big competition year, so nothing big is happening.

In the original history, the war to aid Korea in fighting against Japanese invaders was delayed and could not be ended, which brought a heavy burden to the imperial court.

Then there were endless arguments over issues like war and finance, and that led to some turmoil.

For example, Shen Weijing and Konishi Yukinaga teamed up to deceive the courts of both the Ming Dynasty and Japan, resulting in the failure of peace talks. As a result, Shi Xing, the Minister of War who advocated peace talks, was imprisoned and sentenced to death in that year.

But in this time and space, due to the quick end of the aid to Korea in the fight against Japanese pirates, the financial situation of the court also improved greatly, resulting in the court being much calmer in the past two or three years than in the original history.

Although there was no major incident in the court, Lin Tailai did not relax his deployment of the Lin Party's forces.

After working in Xuanfu Town Governor Wang Xianggan for eight years, he was unexpectedly transferred to Sichuan as governor.

Logically speaking, after serving as the governor of Xuanfu Town for a long time, the general path to promotion is to be promoted to the governor-general of Xuanda.

However, this time, Wang Xiangqian, who had a "strong background", was only transferred to the position of Governor of Sichuan, which was unexpected to most people. Some people speculated that it was to avoid suspicion.

Then came Wang Xiangmeng, who had served as a senior censor of the Great Perfection and twice as a doctor of the Ministry of Literature, and also went out as a governor, following the approach of Chen Younian, a core member of the Qingliu Party.

As a result, the strange phenomenon of three governors appeared in the Wang family of Xincheng, Shandong. However, the resumes of the three were very solid and no one could find fault with them.

The person who succeeded Wang Xiangmeng as Langzhong of the Wenxuan Division was Chen Yunjian, Langzhong of the Kaogong Division, and no one else could compete with him.

When the 25th year of Wanli passed, the total amount of silver that Lelang Copper Mine and Suzhou and Hangzhou Weaving Bureau presented to the emperor's treasury was still more than 300,000 taels.

By the 26th year of the Wanli reign, the court suddenly became lively again.

First of all, the imperial examination held every three years begins in the spring, and the court welcomes a group of new people.

In its original history, this exam was quite famous.

Because the palace examination paper of Zhao Bingzhong, the top scorer in the undergraduate exam, was preserved intact for more than 400 years and exhibited publicly, later generations were able to intuitively feel the comprehensive skills of the top scorer.

However, in this time and space, the chief examiner was replaced by Prime Minister Zhao Zhigao, who had already declined the exam twice, and the result was naturally completely different.

Wen Zhenmeng relied on his "ability" to get the third place in the imperial examination, which wiped out the Wen family's bad luck in the imperial examinations for decades. He and his teacher Lin Tailai formed a small "good story" of master and apprentice who all won the top three in the imperial examinations.

Another disciple of Lin Tailai, Feng Menglong, and Lin's retainer Zhou Daodeng also worked hard and finally got the honors.

As for the top scorer, it was very shocking. He was an examinee named Xiong Tingbi from Jiangxia, Huguang.

This person seemed to have no connections at all, and had no relationship with the ministers. He was not within the range of people's predictions before, but somehow he got the top spot.

This candidate named Xiong Tingbi is tall, has a strong aura and a loud voice. He had previously taken the military examination and then switched from military to civil. He is strong and skilled in martial arts. He also won the first place in the Huguang liberal arts provincial examination last year.

Then there were reliable rumors in the capital that Xiong Tingbi was similar to Daifang Hou in every aspect, and that the Prime Minister Zhao Zhigao, out of love for him, ranked him first in the palace examination paper.

Later, the emperor also loved Xiong Tingbi and appointed him as the first place in the first class according to the recommendation of the prime minister.

So the people in the capital gave Xiong Tingbi a nickname, "Xiao Lin Jiu Yuan", which made Xiong the top scholar extremely depressed.

After the competition, the court was still bustling because the first evil book case broke out.

Originally, Lin Tailai thought that the current time and space were becoming more and more unrecognizable, and the evil book case might not break out.

But human nature really has the most powerful inertia, and the evil book case still broke out.

Regardless of whether Lin Tailai is there or not, these people are determined to fight. It seems that everything can be changed, and only the struggle over personnel is eternal.

To put it simply, the source of the first evil book case was that a minister named Lu Kun compiled a book called "Illustrated Book of Guifan", the main content of which was the deeds of virtuous women in history.

Then, after Concubine Zheng saw this book, she asked the Zheng family to reprint it and inserted some personal ideas into it, opening the chapter with Empress Mingde of the Eastern Han Dynasty and ending with Concubine Zheng herself.

After Lü Kun submitted a memorial to the emperor this year, the Qingliu Party attacked Lü Kun for currying favor with Concubine Zheng and made a big fuss about it.

Originally, Emperor Wanli did not want to deal with this matter, but suddenly a storm arose and a big-character poster entitled "Worrying about the Dangers and Crisis" began to circulate in the capital.

The big-character poster gave a detailed "interpretation" of Lü Kun and "Illustrated Book of Concubine Zheng", saying that this was all propaganda conducted by Concubine Zheng in order to compete for the throne of the Empress of the Central Palace. At the same time, it accused Lü Kun, Zhang Yangmeng and nine others of being members of the Zheng Party.

Therefore, this inexplicable appearance of "Yu Wei Hong Yi" caused the fury of Emperor Wanli, who secretly investigated the original author.

Many people in the court suspected that this was the work of certain people from the Qingliu forces, and the furious Emperor Wanli also exiled the "suspect" who had recently submitted a petition to impeach Concubine Zheng.

Later, another censor revealed that Zhang Wei, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, was the mastermind behind the evil book case, and that Zhang Wei's followers had all conspired together.

Its purpose was to provoke a mutual defeat between the Qingliu forces and the Zheng party, and take the opportunity to expand the power of its party.

Under the suspicion of Emperor Wanli, Grand Secretary Zhang Wei was forced to submit a letter of resignation and stay at home.

The case of the evil book was shrouded in mystery. When Emperor Wanli was still undecided, something happened in Guizhou, which completely ruined the political career of Grand Secretary Zhang Wei.

Yang Yinglong, the chieftain of Bozhou who was suppressed by Lin Tailai with a large army two years ago, became more and more rampant. He began to invade neighboring provinces such as Sichuan and Huguang, and successively killed chieftains and military officers appointed by the Ming Dynasty in Guizhou.

This situation was already a large-scale rebellion, and the Ming court could no longer pretend to be blind. The appeasement strategy had completely failed.

Grand Secretary Zhang Wei, who had strongly opposed Lin Tailai's "encirclement and suppression proposal" two years ago, was now being brought out for questioning.

Out of consideration for his status as prime minister, Emperor Wanli did not put Zhang Wei in jail for interrogation. Instead, he dismissed him from office and deprived him of all his honors and rewards.

Then Emperor Wanli asked the Prime Minister Zhao Zhigao whether Lin Tailai could be appointed?

Zhao Zhigao replied that the Communications Department reported that the Japanese regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi died this year, so Lin Tailai should be asked to keep an eye on the situation in Japan; Sichuan Governor Wang Xiangqian had been preparing for the Bozhou incident for a year and could be used.

Emperor Wanli then appointed Sichuan Governor Wang Xiangqian as governor-general, with full responsibility for pacifying the Yang family in Bozhou.

In the original history, the Battle of Bozhou was the last of the three major expeditions of the Wanli period. It lasted for about a year and a half, and it was not until the 28th year of the Wanli period that the Yang family of Bozhou was wiped out.

This period was also a time when the situation in Japan was changing, and Lin Tailai felt that the direction of Japan was more important.

Therefore, he gave the credit for pacifying Bozhou to Wang Xianggan, laying a solid foundation for Wang Xianggan's future entry into the Ministry of War.