As Ma Shiying, Sun Chuanting, and Song Shixiang, as well as scholars such as Fang Zhenru, Song Tongyin, and Ye Tinggui, gradually joined Feng Ziying, the camp of Feng's family or Feng's party gradually took shape.

  Feng Ziying does not like to use the title of Feng Family or Feng Dang, he prefers to use the name of Renaissance Society or Revival Society to refer to this group.

  However, if it is necessary to use the name of the Revival Society or the Revival Society at this time, it is more likely to attract external hostility, so this concept is simply blurred, and everyone tacitly understands it.

   "Brother Zishu." Feng Ziying personally went to the doorstep to greet him, and Chai Ke was also a little touched, and repeatedly bowed his hands, but Feng Ziying didn't take it seriously, "Please."

  Feng Ziying has always had a good impression of Chai Ke.

  In addition to the original friendship, the more important thing is that Chai Ke has few selfish distractions, and he does not have as strong a desire for power as Guan Yingzhen.

  The other party has been working as the Minister of the Ministry of Households for several years. After replacing Huang Ruliang, he has sorted out the entire Dazhou finances in an orderly manner. In the past few years, Dazhou's finances have also entered a stable period.

  He could roughly guess the purpose of Chai Ke's visit, and he must have been entrusted by the official Ying Zhen.

According to the original agreement reached between Gu Bingqian and Guan Yingzhen, or the deal between the two when Huang Ruliang was expelled, next spring, which is March of the third year of Xuanshun, should be the resignation of the current cabinet or the change of the chief assistant. It's time.

Gu Bingqian should resign and Guan Yingzhen is about to take over as chief assistant, but judging from the current situation, Gu Bingqian has no intention of retiring at all, and is still making adjustments in personnel to consolidate his position, which makes Guan Yingzhen very anxious .

   Although the official Yingzhen is in charge of the Ministry of Officials, Cui Jingrong, the Minister of the Ministry of Officials, is not his person.

  Cui Jingrong is a scholar in the north, and like an important minister above the third rank, it is not as simple as being nominated by the Ministry of Officials, and it needs to be decided by the cabinet.

  The current structure of the cabinet is like this. Gu Bingqian, Guan Yingzhen, Qiao Yingjia, Feng Keng, Xu Guangqi, Qiao Yingjia and Feng Keng are all the leaders of the northern scholars. Gu Bingqian and Xu Guangqi represent the Jiangnan scholars, and Guan Yingzhen is the leader of the Huguang scholars.

  Official Ying Zhen wants to be the chief assistant, but he is born with shortcomings.

  Although Xu Guangqi, the leader of the scholars in the south of the Yangtze River, is somewhat reluctant, after Gu Bingqian made a decision, he will basically not violate Gu Bingqian's intention.

  So if Guan Yingzhen wants to overthrow Gu Bingqian, unless the scholars in the North fully support him.

According to the regulations established at the beginning, the first assistant is selected by the important ministers and appointed by the emperor, but the number of terms of the first assistant is not mentioned, which means that you can be re-elected, as long as you can get the support of the important ministers, and according to the usual practice, the second assistant is also It cannot be a scholar in the same line as the first assistant, in order to prevent the emergence of dictatorship.

   Of course, many things here are also conventional and not customized, so many problems arise in this way.

   Chai Ke had no choice but to come to Feng Ziying's place.

  In his opinion, the situation is no longer what it was when Gu Bingqian asked the officials to respond to the earthquake.

  At the beginning, Gu Bingqian faced Huang Ruliang's aggressive aura, and if he was dissatisfied with Huang Ruliang for one term, he might be kicked out by Huang Ruliang, so he had to turn to Guan Yingzhen and Feng Keng for help.

With Guan Yingzhen's side constraints, Huang Ruliang was unable to attack Gu Bingqian with all his strength, and Gu Bingqian could still get the full support of Huguang scholars. In addition, Feng Keng waved the flag for him and persuaded some important officials to support Gu Bingqian, and some important officials abstained from power. Gu Bingqian regained his position as chief assistant.

   Now Gu Bingqian has not only recruited Xu Guangqi under his command, but also Zhu Guozhen. The scholars in the south of the Yangtze River among the important ministers are basically integrated under Gu Bingqian's command. Why does Guan Yingzhen think that Gu Bingqian should step down?

   Gu Bingqian is only in his early fifties, and he is in good health. Last year, he took a concubine and is very energetic. How could he give up his position according to the original private agreement?

  That’s right, in theory, if Guan Yingzhen can get the full support of the scholars in the north, he will indeed be able to win the votes against Gu Bingqian at the important ministers’ meeting next spring and become the chief assistant.

   It is important to know that the original agreement that Gu Bingqian would abdicate for the first term was a private agreement, which was not legally binding, and Feng Keng was not a guarantor.

  Even if Feng Keng is the guarantor, so what?

  Feng Keng alone has the final say on the group of northern scholars, and Qiao Yingjia among the important ministers in front of him will listen to Feng Keng?

   Counting with fingers, among the eight ministers and the two capital censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, except for the Minister of Agriculture who is regarded as Feng Ziying's hard-core allies, the others are not Feng Ziying's people.

  Who are Feng Ziying's servants among the assistant minister, the deputy capital imperial envoy, and the five temple ministers?

  The left deputy Du Yushi of the Metropolitan Procuratorate tried to count one, Pan Ruzhen, the right servant of the Ministry of Industry, and Geng Ruqi, the right servant of the Ministry of Agriculture, counted one. Besides these three, who else?

  Combining the ministers of the Ministry of Agriculture Lian Guoshi, there are only four people, plus Feng Ziying himself, who is eligible to vote, and Feng Ziying's party members are only five.

  Huguang scholars, Guan Yingzhen, himself, Yang Lian, the right governor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Xiong Tingbi, the left servant of the Ministry of War, Yang He, the right servant of the Ministry of Officials, and Guo Zhengyu, the right servant of the Household Department.

That is to say, even with Feng Ziying's full support, the two sides add up to 11 votes, and you must still need 10 votes to be the chief assistant. Even if you get nine votes, 20 votes may be replaced by Gu Bingqian as the current chief assistant Nominal veto.

   But where can I get the ten votes?

   Either dig from the Jiangnan scholars, or pull from other northern scholars.

The situation of other northern scholars is also more complicated. In theory, they are all Qiao Yingjia's basic board. People such as Cui Jingrong, Han Yu, Sun Juxiang, Sun Dingxiang, Sun Juxiang, and Wang Yongguang are all veteran northern scholars. Even Feng Ziying, they They may not buy it. It is too difficult to get them to support the official Ying Zhen.

But there are still some third-rank important officials whose situation is unknown, such as Bi Ziyan, the right minister of the Ministry of Commerce, and Cao Yubian, the minister of Dali Temple. These people are relatively independent, and they seem to have a normal relationship with Qiao Yingjia. It's hard to say.

  For the scholars in the south of the Yangtze River, Chai Ke thought that if he worked well, he might be able to get a few votes. Gu Bingqian's control power is not so strong yet, but it is almost impossible to get ten votes.

But Guan Yingzhen refused to give up, and always felt that there was still a chance. Chai Ke also knew that Guan Yingzhen must still have some backup players. I got a plane ticket, but the official Ying Zhen didn't say anything about the specific situation, and he couldn't ask further.

For example, on the side of Jiangnan scholars, it is estimated that Guan Yingzhen is also going to make some deals to see if he can get one or two votes. It is usually not of much use, and not many people value it, but in the meeting of important ministers, every vote is very important. (end of this chapter)