After seeing off Wang Ziteng, Feng Tang fell into deep thought.

At this time, he learned that Wang Ziteng's niece, the ex-wife of Jia Lian of Rongguo Mansion, um, the woman after the divorce actually gave birth to a son to Ziying.

And in terms of age, he should be the eldest among his many grandchildren.

  In other words, the children this woman gave birth to were her eldest grandson.

Of course, it is impossible for this woman to join the Feng family, so the identity of this child is a bit embarrassing.

However, this was not the focus of the conversation when Wang Ziteng came to talk to him. He just mentioned it casually. Feng Tang was very surprised by such a mention.

This little brat is really careless in this regard. He dares to touch any woman and touch any woman.

Let's just go to sleep, and I have given birth to children. If the censors catch me, I'm afraid there will be a lot of noise again.

But it seems that with Ziying's current status, sleeping with a woman outside seems to be regarded as an anecdote.

The romantic and suave Xiao Feng Xiuzuan would be ashamed of his reputation as a suave person if he didn't have any scandals outside.

It is of no concern to the Jia family. The only thing that may be a little embarrassing is that if several daughters-in-law know about it, it will inevitably cause unrest in the family.

The married woman with two and three wives is actually a cousin to her niece, Wang Ziteng. However, Ziying somehow gave birth to a child with this woman, and she felt uncomfortable no matter what.

Feng Tang actually didn't care much about his son's affairs with women. In his opinion, as long as he could give birth to a few heirs and continue his family career, nothing else mattered.

He was a little worried before, but as the three wives and concubines came through one after another, and the flowers continued to bear fruit, he finally felt at ease.

He also knew that the Haixi Jurchen gave birth to a pair of twins, a dragon and a phoenix, for Ziying. He even heard about Ziying's entanglement with the Zhen family girls when she was in Jinling.

 Ziying didn't hide many things from him deliberately, so he didn't care about these things.

However, Feng Tang felt that he still had to remind Ziying about things like Wang Ziying's niece.

Don’t be too indulgent and unbridled. After all, your status is different now, and there are more people watching, so you need to be more cautious about things that endanger your future.

Even if such trivial matters cannot bring you down, they may damage your reputation in the cabinet. Maybe you will be brought up to make a fuss the next time you are appointed as a second-in-command or even as a first-in-command.

Thinking of this, Feng Tang was thinking about the deep meaning hidden in Wang Ziteng's words.

 The Governor's Palace, or the Privy Council.

This group of people are obsessed with restoring the original Grand Governor's Palace or Privy Council.

This Metropolitan Governor's Office (Privy Council) is different from the Privy Council of the former Song Dynasty. It is an institution where real warriors control military power.

When the Great Zhou Dynasty was founded, it was initially named the Governor's Palace, and later it was changed to the Privy Council, but finally it was changed to the Governor's Palace of the Five Armies. However, the powers and responsibilities were completely changed. Almost all the powers were taken away by the Ministry of War. The Military Governor's Mansion has completely become a nursing home, even inferior to Qingshui Yamen such as Honglu Temple and Taichang Temple.

They believe that the current status of military personnel has been suppressed by scholars and civil servants and has been reduced to second class, which has directly led to the low status of the entire army in the country. They hope to reform the current model and re-establish the Metropolitan Governor's Office or the Privy Council, with military personnel serving as Privy Envoys and Deputy Privy Councilors. The envoys and privy ministers were in charge of the entire imperial army.

 The question is, is such a proposal likely to have support in the current cabinet?

Wizi Teng even proposed that the Privy Councilor should have the power to veto the cabinet's votes on military affairs, which Feng Tang found impossible.

How could the scholars compromise this power? Even Ziying would find it difficult to agree.

Wang Ziteng and Niu Jizong both believed that the current power of scholars and civil servants was too great, which seriously squeezed the living space of warriors. The warriors were reduced to vassals, and even in military matters where the warriors should have the voice to make decisions, they could only listen to those who had never been on top. Civil servants who have been in battle and have never interacted with officers and soldiers, and who do not know what war is, will seriously miss the chance of fighting, leading to unsatisfactory war or even failure.

 Ziying's entry into the cabinet gave them hope, so they hoped that Ziying could speak out on behalf of the warriors and fight for their rights.

Wang Ziteng's obscure attitude also allowed Feng Tang to see that these people regarded Ziying as a representative of the martial arts group and were willing to support and support Ziying in her fight for power in the cabinet.

 Is this a curse or a blessing?

Feng Tang also knew that as a cabinet minister in charge of military affairs, getting the full support of the military people would definitely lead to success, but this also meant that you might be ostracized by the civil servants, and Ziying was also a civil servant.

 Who is Ziying’s base?

Well, the term "basic plate" came from Ziying's mouth, and it probably means the foundation.

Wang Ziteng also mentioned that now Ziying not only has the support of the armies in the border towns, but the armies in the capital are also under Ziying's control. What is even more rare is that merchants from Shanxi, Shaanxi and Jiangnan also have great respect for Ziying. Support and optimism, it is precisely because of this that Ziying has the capital to talk and compete with other cabinet ministers.

 With the support of merchants and warriors, can we compete with scholars? Feng Tang was very suspicious.

What's more important is that he has talked with his son several times, and he still hasn't figured out what his son's ultimate goal is. It seems that he has been striving for cabinet ministers and even chief ministers, but the relationship with Wu Ren is not clear. Close relations and close attitude towards business groups but not like.

 There is no chief minister who does not protect his base among scholars but instead tries to please warriors and businessmen. This seems more like digging his own grave.

This is what Feng Tang is most confused about and difficult to understand.

Perhaps his son was not born a mortal, and was destined to have his own way, and he might even subvert everything that existed.

Feng Ziying didn't know that her father was thinking about her. At this time, as a new cabinet minister, he was also considering what to do next.

 The new cabinet faces numerous problems and difficulties.

The first thing to do is to deal with Emperor Wan Tong, who played a disgraceful role in this incident, but the difficulty is that it is difficult to deal with it satisfactorily.

In addition, the incident and the formation of the new cabinet will inevitably clear out some of the remaining parties brought by Emperor Wan Tong from the south of the Yangtze River, such as Miao Changqi, Zhu Guozhen, Gu Tiancheng and others, and the vacant positions of important ministers will also need to be filled one by one. .

 This also involves the balance of Jiangnan, Beidi, Huguang and even other scholar groups.

To be honest, Feng Ziying has not yet adapted to her current status, or has a clear and proactive understanding of where she will go in the future.

 In other words, I am still full of doubts and uncertainties about the things I seem to have mastered now, including various resources such as power, connections, and fans.

Taking military power as an example, will warriors like Ma Jinbao, He Zhisheng, Wang Chenghu or Tu Wenxiu definitely defeat themselves? And can they firmly control the soldiers under their command?

 Maybe under normal circumstances, they will fully support themselves, but what about under abnormal circumstances? Will they still support themselves and obey their orders without hesitation or reservation?

For example, Li Sancai promoted Xiao Ruxun, Liu Wei and Ma Chengxun, but only Xiao Ruxun, who did not have much military power in his hands, was really on Li Sancai's side. Liu Wei and Ma Chengxun saw that the situation was not right, so they quickly changed It’s okay not to have such support and loyalty.

  Another example is businessmen.

Businessmen from Shanxi and Shaanxi and Jiangnan are now very close to me. For large-scale actions like the development of Liaodong, I proposed it myself, and they joined in without much hesitation, and the funds involved were often in the millions. Money, no hesitation.

It seems that they are absolutely loyal and supportive of me, but I know very well that it is a community based on interests.

 This is all based on their own good reputation, and these businessmen have such a firm attitude.

 But what about matters where the stakes are not so closely related? Will they also be so determined?

For example, if you ask them to give without asking for anything in return for a long period of time, or if you directly require them to support a huge amount of money on a certain matter without telling them the purpose and purpose, will they support it without hesitation?

 It’s not enough, far from enough.

It is far from enough to grasp the hearts of warriors, and it is far from enough to be tied to the interests of business groups. Only when they believe that only they can represent their interests, only they can control the court on their behalf and strive for greater interests for them. , only the path set by themselves is the most correct, and they will stand unswervingly on their side without hesitation, and will not be bribed or influenced by other interests.

 Interest groups, or classes, must understand this: who are their friends and who are their enemies.

 When foreign enemies fade away, domestic enemies and opponents need to be clearly distinguished.

According to class theory, scholars are not a class, but a group attached to a certain class. Originally, they should mainly represent the landlord and gentry class, but now they are dividing, and industrial and commercial forces are quietly rising, but the vast majority of scholars Not realizing this, they still followed the habit of siding with the landlords and gentry.

The military group that has also solved the external border troubles should also take a new step, expand to land and sea, and seize benefits instead of being limited to internal fighting. This is the right way for the military aristocrats (Wu Xun) to grow and grow, but they want to To expand, they need the support of industrial and commercial forces in industry and capital. Similarly, the industrial and commercial forces need military aristocrats to use force to help them open up overseas raw material origins and markets.

Perhaps this is a natural match, and you should be the one who shares the interests of these two slowly forming class groups?

 And this requires a grand narrative plan. (End of chapter)