Chapter 1341 A power beast!
Hu Family Manor in the Suburbs of Lin'an, Jiangnan
In a spacious and exquisite room, several musicians are playing Jiangnan tunes, while three young and beautiful dancers are twisting their graceful bodies to the moving music, showing their youthful vitality.

This was supposed to be a beautiful picture, but unfortunately the middle-aged man with disheveled hair and untidy clothes sitting in the main seat had no intention of appreciating the scene in front of him. He just numbly poured glass of wine into his mouth one after another.

Although he looked like he was drinking, he was not tasting the unique flavor of Chunxiangquan, a fine wine from the south of the Yangtze River, which was worth fifteen taels of silver and was enough for two dock workers to drink for a year without eating or drinking. He was just using the wine to numb his nerves and make himself forget those infuriating, unwilling, and helpless things!

This middle-aged man is none other than the current Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue of Daqian—Hu Ming!
Although Hu Ming came from the Hu family, a wealthy family in Jiangnan, he was not a rich young man who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. On the contrary, his childhood life was rather miserable.

Hu Ming's father, Hu Zheng, is a direct descendant of the Hu family and has certain power within the family, but his mother is just a maid of the Hu family. Hu Ming is also the product of his father Hu Zheng's drunken recklessness. Therefore, the illegitimate Hu Ming is not only not valued by his father, but is also severely criticized by his father's legal wife, Liu, who often beats and punishes him...
The hardships in his childhood did not make Hu Ming fall into depravity. He soon stood out among the younger generations of the Hu family with his extraordinary talent for studying.

Although the Hu family was rich at that time, they had no strong backing in the court, so everyone wanted to get some money from the Hu family!
In order to get rid of this predicament and at the same time allow the family to develop better in such a G-oriented environment, the top management of the Hu family also thought bitterly and decided to train the younger generation of the family to abandon S and follow Z. They hope that the Hu family can also produce a big G and become the real support of the family!

Therefore, in this context, although Hu Ming was a concubine's son, he was still given the focus of training by his family due to his extraordinary talent for studying. As a result, Hu Ming successfully became a tongsheng, a scholar, and a jinshi, and thus entered the Great Zhou G-field!
The hardships he experienced in his childhood fully tempered Hu Ming, making him both meticulous and ruthless. With the protection of the Hu family's gold and silver, he was also lucky. However, he soon realized that in the Luoan court at that time, where aristocratic families and nobles were rampant, silver alone was far from enough. Silver could not support you to reach the pinnacle of power!

If you want to be promoted to a high position and stand at the top of the power pyramid of the Great Zhou, you need a strong background. You need to become a member of a powerful family or noble family. Otherwise, you will always be an outsider and cannot integrate into the core circle of power!

After realizing this, Hu Ming made a painful and cruel decision!
He divorced his pregnant wife, with whom he loved her very much, and married a widow from the aristocratic Wang family who had returned to her parents' home because her husband had died and she had no children...
Although this incident caused his ex-wife to commit suicide out of grief, resulting in two deaths, and Hu Ming himself was pointed at and secretly ridiculed behind his back, Hu Ming still does not regret it!

As long as he can become the powerful self in his dream, Hu Ming is willing to do anything to achieve his goals!
Hu Ming's efforts were rewarded. With the identity of Wang family's son-in-law and the help of Wang family, Hu Ming became the Minister of Rites of Luoan court. Although he still did not enter the core circle of Luoan court, the rank of third grade still made Hu Ming deeply gratified, and he also became the representative of Jiangnan business community in Luoan.

Unfortunately, Hu Ming, the Minister of Rites of the Luoan court, had not had time to enjoy the glory and power of a third-rank official before the Luoan court was defeated by the Fengwu Army group led by Ye Mingsheng, and Hu Ming and a number of high-ranking officials of the Luoan court became prisoners of the Fengwu Army.

Just when Hu Ming was worried about his future and fate, God favored him again. Because Ye Mingsheng attached great importance to trade and wanted to show goodwill to Jiangnan, Ye Mingsheng not only did not punish Hu Ming, the Minister of Rites of the Luoan court, but on the contrary, Ye Mingsheng promoted him to the Minister of Revenue of the Yijing court!

What Hu Ming has always wanted is power!
As for whether the source of power is the Luoan court led by the Shangguan family, or the Yijing court led by Ye Mingsheng, it is not important to him················

Therefore, Hu Ming, who had transformed himself into a member of the Yijing court, on the one hand lamented his luck, and on the other hand, he was also actively preparing to start his struggle in the Yijing court!
He was also keenly aware of Ye Mingsheng's emphasis on Jiangnan commerce and his determination to develop trade. He believed that this was the key factor in his rise to prominence in the Yijing court!
At first, Hu Ming thought that those who survived a great disaster would be blessed in the future, so he was very positive about his work in the Yijing court and wanted to make a difference, but he soon faced the reality!

At that time, the Yijing court was firmly controlled by the Liaoyang Gang. Cui Shao, Gu Sansi, Li Jian, Xiao Lingyu, and Zhang Juning were all from Liaoyang.

Although there were some disagreements and contradictions within the Liaoyang Gang, it still displayed some xenophobic attitudes when dealing with external parties. This resulted in the fact that even though Hu Ming was appointed as the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue by Ye Mingsheng, he did not have much power as a Minister of the Ministry of Revenue!

The Ministry of Revenue was still completely controlled by Cui Shao and Zhang Juning. Hu Ming had nothing to do in the Ministry of Revenue. Every day when he came to the office, he just drank tea and read newspapers. Apart from that, he could only deal with some trivial matters of General Wu.

Such an experience also dealt a blow to Hu Ming, but he did not give up his dream of rising to the pinnacle of power!
Hu Ming's experience of successfully rising to power in the Luoan court made him realize that it is not enough to have Ye Mingsheng's favor if you want to rise to power. You must integrate into the core circle of the Yijing court and be regarded as one of their own. Only then can you make progress...
If possible, Hu Ming is willing to repeat the same trick and divorce the woman from Guanzhong Wang's family, so that he can become the son-in-law of Cui Shao, the leader of Liaoyang Gang. Anyway, the couple have no feelings for each other and are just using each other. Secondly, Guanzhong Wang's family has completely lost its power in this round of power struggle and can no longer provide him with any help!
But it is a pity that Cui Shao's daughters have already married, and he has no intention of marrying a woman from the Cui family to a greedy bastard like Hu Ming!

Therefore, Hu Ming, who failed in his old trick, could only settle for the second best and choose to curry favor with Cui Zibo, Cui Shao's successor!
Hu Ming believed that although Cui Zibo's ability was mediocre, he was able to become the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice at a young age and was only one step away from being promoted to the Grand Councilor. It was obvious that Cui Shao was training him as his successor. Therefore, when Cui Shao retired, Cui Zibo would most likely become a cabinet minister and an important figure among the Liaoyang nobles in the court.

Therefore, as long as he has a good relationship with Cui Zibo, it is equivalent to having a good relationship with the Liaoyang Gang, which will be of great benefit to him in entering the core circle of power in the Yijing court.

At this time, the merchants in Jiangnan also realized the fact that the Great Zhou Dynasty would belong to Ye Mingsheng. And because Ye Mingsheng attached great importance to the development of commerce and the rectification of the administration of officials, these Jiangnan merchants had a very good impression of Ye Mingsheng!

Therefore, for the sake of their own better development, these businesses in Jiangnan also want to integrate into the new power system of the Yijing Court. In order to improve their own political status and avoid being arbitrarily treated as prey by the Communist Party members, they hope that someone will become their representative in the Yijing Court!

There is no doubt that Hu Ming, who came from the Hu family and served as the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue of the Yijing court, was the best candidate. In this way, Hu Ming became a popular figure in Yijing at that time. He was very keen to help with various tasks and build "resource cooperation" and take this opportunity to expand his network.

At the same time, after learning that Ye Mingsheng wanted to tour the south, Hu Ming also actively paved the way for Ye Mingsheng's tour, actively lobbying for the purchase of Dadongsheng bonds and various donations for these Jiangnan businesses. His efforts eventually allowed Ye Mingsheng to bring back more than one million taels of silver from Jiangnan, greatly alleviating the financial difficulties of the Yijing court!

If things had ended here, Hu Ming would most likely have been appreciated by Ye Mingsheng and become a popular figure in front of Ye Mingsheng because of his various achievements during the southern tour!
But unfortunately, things did not go as planned. Just when Hu Ming was looking forward to his bright future in the Yijing court, fate played a huge joke on him!

Cui Zibo, whom Hu Ming had always been trying to curry favor with, contracted syphilis and became very seriously ill. He was even dismissed from his post as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice by Ye Mingsheng.

After learning the news, Hu Ming was a little panicked!

In the past, although Cui Zibo had mediocre abilities, he was at least diligent and self-disciplined, and did not have any bad habits. However, in order to curry favor with Cui Zibo, Hu Ming not only led Cui Zibo to indulge in wine and women, but also gave Cui Zibo the Wu Shi San.

The purpose of Hu Ming doing all this was to curry favor with Cui Zibo and then enter the core of power of the Yijing court!

But he never expected that Cui Zibo would actually kill himself··············

Cui Zibo himself has no special abilities, but his father is Cui Shao, the leader of the Liaoyang Gang and the real boss of the Yijing court!
Hu Ming knew that once Cui Shao found out that he was the one who led Cui Zibo to indulge in alcohol and sex, and that he also gave Cui Zibo Wu Shi San!

Then forget about your future in the Yijing court!

By then, I’m afraid my life will be in danger!

So even though he was helpless and reluctant, Hu Ming had to temporarily give up everything he had in the Yijing court. He made up a few excuses and petitioned Ye Mingsheng to stay in Jiangnan for a while.

At that time, Ye Mingsheng didn't know Hu Ming's intention, so when faced with Hu Ming's request, he didn't think much about it and agreed to let Hu Ming stay in Jiangnan.

Although Hu Ming did not return to Yijing due to fear of Cui Shao, he was always paying attention to Yijing's developments. He hoped that Cui Shao would be able to retire after achieving success, so that he could return to Yijing, take back his post as the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and continue his dream of reaching the pinnacle of power!
But this time, fate did not favor Hu Ming. Instead of retiring as he had expected, Cui Shao continued to play a vital role in the Yijing court!
Hu Ming's situation within the Hu family also changed. After Hu Ming came to power, he used some means to kill his father's wife Liu, who had bullied him, and avenged his childhood. This incident also caused a lot of controversy in the Hu family, and many members of the Hu family accused Hu Ming of being cruel and ruthless.

However, because Hu Ming was in power at that time, the Hu family wanted to continue to develop and needed the help of Hu Ming, a high-ranking official in the court. So Hu Wenjie, the head of the Hu family at that time, suppressed the matter...

However, although the matter was suppressed, it was far from over!

At the same time, while Hu Ming was working for the family over the years, he also embezzled a lot of activity funds. The Hu family members had heard about these things, but because Hu Ming was a high-ranking official in the court, everyone endured it!
If Hu Ming has always been a high-ranking official in the court and can provide convenience for the Hu family, then even if there are some rifts between him and the Hu family, the Hu family would not dare to get angry because of the power in his hands.

However, now Hu Ming has returned to Jiangnan. Although Hu Ming has not been dismissed yet, the power in his hands has been affected. This has caused the rift between him and the Hu family to become increasingly acute. Some people who usually are submissive in front of Hu Ming now dare to say some sour, weird and sarcastic words in front of Hu Ming.

Faced with the change in attitude of some people within the family, Hu Ming was also very angry. He believed that he had made great contributions to the development of the family over the years. Without him, Hu Ming, who was good at maneuvering in the G-field and acting as a matchmaker, the Hu family would never have been able to achieve its current prosperous situation!
So what does it matter if he killed that bitch woman who bullied him and took a little hard-earned money?
Who are you to blame yourselves?
Without me, Hu Ming, would you be able to eat delicious food and drink spicy drinks and enjoy the current wealth and glory?
Hu Ming originally thought that Hu Wenjie, the head of the family, would stand up to protect him and punish those bastards who had harassed him!

But what disappointed him extremely was that Hu Wenjie chose to ignore the matter!
This made Hu Ming feel disheartened, and what frightened him the most was the news from Yi Jing that even though he was hiding in Jiangnan, Cui Shao did not let him go and started to investigate his dirty laundry...
(End of this chapter)