West Garden, Wuyi Palace.

As the Holy Lords no longer go to the early court, it is difficult for the officials to see the Holy Lord, let alone perform in front of the Saints, resulting in the gradual rise of the status of the Cabinet. The current cabinet has surpassed the six ministries, and it has resolutely become the highest authority of the civil ministers.

A young messenger walked on the blue brick road with a beautiful box in his hand, hurried to the front of the palace, and happened to meet Yuan Wei at the door. He flashed to the side respectfully, and after Yuan Wei passed by suspiciously, he then walked quickly into the innermost duty room in the hall.

This duty room is owned by the current Shousuke, but the familiar sandalwood in the duty room is gone, and some information is already revealed.

"What's the matter?"

Yan Hong was staying in this duty room, watching this messenger come in, and immediately asked with a straight face.

Since he escaped the catastrophe last time, he has resolutely grown a lot, and his whole person has less arrogance and more stability.

Because he is Yan Shifan's adopted son, he does not have to be as strict as Yan Shaoqing to keep filial piety for his grandmother, and he often goes to the cabinet to serve his grandfather as a scholar.

This messenger naturally recognized his eldest son, Yan Hong, and explained the matter seriously, and then solemnly handed the exquisite box to Yan Hong.

After Yan Hong took the box, he watched the messenger leave, and walked towards Yan Song.

Yan Song, who was wearing a python robe, had long since lost the majesty of a powerful minister, although this python robe was worn on Yan Song's body, but seeing his old face and thin palms gave people a feeling of being crowned by a monkey.

The years are ruthless, even if he is the first assistant who has been in the prime minister for more than 20 years, he can't escape the fate of aging.

He didn't seem to notice the arrival of the messenger, and was lying in front of the case, conscientiously dealing with the music and dealing with the current government affairs of the Ming Dynasty. Just after watching the strings, his slender and snow-white eyebrows frowned tightly.

During his more than 20 years in power, in order to satisfy the grand wish of the Holy Lord to build the outer city of Beijing, the three major palaces, and the countless Taoist buildings, he also gritted his teeth and squeezed silver from all over the place, making it his first priority to please the Holy Lord.

It's just that he doesn't have the ability to turn stones into gold, Daming's treasury has long been squandered, and the annual financial revenue is just that little. If you spend more here, you will naturally spend less there.

One of the most important of these is the reduction in the amount of funding for the construction of the embankment.

The embankment is undoubtedly very important, which is related to the water conservancy of the country, the harvest of the people of the Ming Dynasty, and the most important tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty. But there is a problem here, the embankment is flooding.

Anyone has a fluke mentality, naturally including him, the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty. If the flood does not occur, and the weather is good every year, then the money will not need to be spent at all, or it will be spent a few years later.

That's it, in recent years, the imperial court has hardly pulled out huge sums of money to build new dams, and more has been repairing the seams for another year. Only a small amount of money is allocated to repair the dam, which is a fluke.

Last year's floods in Hangzhou, Songjiang and other seven prefectures sounded a wake-up call for the imperial court. If this continues, there may be another major flood this year, more people will be displaced, and even the foundation of the Ming Dynasty will be shaken.

In the same way, since the end of last year, he has advocated "tightening clothing and food". We should strive to build fewer projects, save money and money to maintain the embankment projects in various localities, and strive to do a good job in flood prevention work.

However, his political ideas were not effectively implemented, and the greatest resistance was still in the Holy Lord. In addition to him, there are still Xu Jie, Yuan Wei and others around the saint, and these people are also good at figuring out the heart of the saint.

Like the fire in Wanshou Palace last year, he intended to persuade the saint to return to Ouchi, or move to Nangong. In this case, you can save a lot of money. It's just that Xu Jie, who saw the intention of the saint clearly, turned to support the saint to rebuild the Wanshou Palace.

From that time on, Xu Jie's simplicity intensified. After forming an alliance with Gao Yao, Xu Jie supported the saint to build another Sanqing Taoist temple in the north of the city and expand the altar in the outer city, so as to please the Sacred Heart.

Maybe it's because he's getting old, he really wants to do something practical for Daming. He wanted to put the silver taels on the dam to make up for the mistakes he had made in the past ten years, but things were no longer under his control.

"Power hurts people!"

Jiajing gently put the music in his hand on the case, and sighed heavily.

In the past, he also wanted to gain power by unscrupulous means, and in order to regain the position of first assistant, he even put Xia Yan to death. At the moment, Xu Jie and Gao Yao are doing everything possible to please the saint, and he is not qualified to blame others.

"Grandpa, this is something Daddy sent you!" Yan Hong came to Yan Song and presented the delicate box.

Yan Song's eyes lit up slightly, and he immediately ordered, "Open it!" ”

Since the end of last year, after the saint moved to Yuxi Palace, there has been a rift in the relationship between the monarch and the minister. He originally thought that this was because the two lived far away, but the saint moved back to Wanshou Palace, but the relationship between the two still did not improve.

At this moment, he was already feeling alienated from the Holy One.

In the same way, he asked Yan Shifan to spend more effort to collect treasures, and strive to get rare treasures that can satisfy the saint, so as to repair the relationship between the monarch and the minister.

If in the past, Wu Peng was still the secretary of the ministry, he would undoubtedly be able to obtain a lot of treasures. It was only during this inspection that his voice was curtailed, which reduced the enthusiasm of the local officials.

The reason why the magistrates had done everything they could to please him was not because of his noble character, but because he held the power to promote them. It's just that now that this power has been weakened, it is inevitable that these magistrates will not work so hard.

But I don't know if these local officials have been searchable, or they have seen that his old chief assistant is gradually losing power, and there are no too eye-catching treasures to be presented to the Yan Mansion this year.

At the moment, he finally got the long-awaited treasure, but Yan Song was looking forward to it.

"Yes!" Yan Hong nodded excitedly, put the exquisite box on the table, and then slowly opened the box.

Yan Song looked at it for a while, then carefully took the object out of the box, and then asked with a confused look: "What is the magic of this white lingzhi?" ”

"Grandpa, this is Bai Lingzhi!" Yan Hong was stunned for a moment, and then seriously emphasized the name of this treasure.

After Yan Song heard this, he turned his gaze to Bai Lingzhi again, and his face showed disappointment.

"Grandpa, what's wrong?" Although Yan Hong was not Yan Song's own grandson, he asked with great concern.