Chapter 693 The wife’s struggle!
Yijing, Governor's Mansion

“When a person is born, his nature is good. Natures are close, but habits make them different. If there is no teaching, nature will change. The way of teaching is to be focused. In the past, Mencius’ mother chose neighbors carefully. When her son refused to learn, she broke her loom…”

The sound of a child reading in a baby voice could be heard from An Miaoyi's room. Little Jingren, who was only one and a half years old, was reading the Three Character Classic intermittently with his mother An Miaoyi. An Miaoyi was also a strong-willed person by nature, and she also wanted to be at the forefront when it came to educating children. Little Jingren was also very intelligent, and when he was about eight months old, he was able to call his parents.

Therefore, An Miaoyi quickly arranged the enlightenment education for little Jingren in advance. Originally, according to An Miaoyi's idea, she would directly hire a teacher for little Jingren, but Ye Mingsheng felt that it was too early to hire a teacher for a one-year-old child. It was totally unnecessary. He should let his child have a complete and comfortable childhood, so he rejected An Miaoyi's suggestion.

After Ye Mingsheng rejected her idea of ​​hiring a teacher, An Miaoyi did not give up the idea of ​​giving little Jingren an early enlightenment. Since Ye Mingsheng did not allow her to hire a teacher, she, as his mother, decided to do it herself and directly arranged for little Jingren to read enlightenment books such as Three Character Classic and Hundred Family Names.

Although An Miaoyi is a woman, she was born into a powerful family and received a complete private school education since childhood. Although her level may not be as good as those great scholars, she is more than qualified to be an enlightenment teacher for little Jingren.

Although Ye Mingsheng didn’t like An Miaoyi’s tiger mom approach, he was helpless. After all, he was busy with official duties and was usually busy with military and political affairs. He couldn’t be with his child all the time. On weekdays, it was An Miaoyi who accompanied the child. So after making several suggestions, seeing that An Miaoyi was determined to start enlightenment in advance, Ye Mingsheng could only helplessly cast a pitiful look at little Jingren·······························
Listening to little Jingren stuttering more and more as he read to the end, An Miaoyi patiently taught him:

"Jingren, follow your mother and read. One becomes ten, ten becomes a hundred, a hundred becomes a thousand, a thousand becomes ten thousand. The three talents are heaven, earth, and man. The three lights are the sun, the moon, and the stars. The three cardinal guides are the righteousness between ruler and subject. Father and son are close, and husband and wife are harmonious!"

Although An Miaoyi was very patient, it was obvious that such enlightenment reading materials were still a little difficult for the one and a half year old Jingren. Under An Miaoyi's gaze, he still couldn't read smoothly. The anxious little guy was in tears. Seeing this, An Miaoyi was also a little helpless. At this time, Qiqige also came over. Seeing this, An Miaoyi gently stroked her son's chubby little face, then took out a rattle, handed it to little Jingren, and said with a smile:

"Jingren, play by yourself for a while, mother will be back to accompany you soon!"

After saying this, An Miaoyi called over a nanny and instructed:

"Come and look after the young master!"

"Yes!"

After saying that, An Miaoyi stood up from her chair and walked to the side room with Qiqige. When they arrived at the side room, Qiqige whispered to An Miaoyi:
"Madam, news just came from the Attendant Department that the master signed the arrest warrant for Chen Huaiyu one incense stick ago..."

Upon hearing this news, An Miaoyi was shocked and asked without thinking:

"Is it because of the corruption case in Jiyu?"

Qiqige nodded and introduced:

"The Attendant Department said that Murong Hui sent an urgent report to the master from Ji Yu last night. The master was very angry when he saw it this morning and even smashed a teacup!"

"It is said that Chen Huaiyu secretly instructed his brother Chen Weiyu to privately intercept 50,000 dan of grain shipped from Yijing to Gucheng, and replaced it with a batch of moldy grain and shipped it to Gucheng. The disaster relief grain that he intercepted was resold to Jingchu at a high price!"

"Chen Weiyu earned more than 10,000 taels of silver from this batch of grain, but it is said that after the disaster victims ate the moldy grain, more than a thousand people showed symptoms of poisoning, and more than a hundred people have died now!"

"In addition to this, Chen Weiyu also used his brother Chen Huaiyu's connections to accept bribes and illegally obtain business licenses for Yujing Gambling House and brothels for others! Chen Weiyu did many other illegal things like this, and it is said that he collected more than 100,000 taels of silver in total!"

Hearing this news, An Miaoyi's heart sank and she continued to ask:
"Did Murong Hui find out all this?"

Qiqige nodded and said affirmatively:

"Yes!"

“It is said that Murong Hui captured Chen Weiyu when he was accepting bribes. The evidence is complete and the matter is settled. Later, he withstood Chen Huaiyu’s pressure and refused to call for help. For this reason, Chen Huaiyu even hired a killer to assassinate Murong Hui secretly, but Murong Hui luckily escaped. Currently, Gu Shouting’s Sixth Division has ordered martial law in the entire city of Yujing…”

An Miaoyi was silent for a while after hearing this, and sighed slightly. She did not feel sorry for the brothers Chen Huaiyu and Chen Weiyu. The two brothers and the Chen family they led belonged to the local faction of Jiyu, and basically had no interest exchange with An Miaoyi and the Liaoyang faction that supported An Miaoyi. An Miaoyi did not know the two brothers. However, when the Fengwu Army took over Jiyu, Chen Huaiyu gave An Miaoyi a jade cabbage worth ten thousand taels of silver and several sets of exquisite jewelry in order to be able to get promoted. Although An Miaoyi liked it very much, she finally did not accept the gift considering Ye Mingsheng's attitude and returned it intact.

As for the unscrupulous actions of Chen Huaiyu and Chen Weiyu, An Miaoyi also felt that the two brothers deserved to die and did not deserve any sympathy!

The real reason why An Miaoyi sighed was - Murong Hui!

Although she disliked Murong Qingwu's cousin very much, An Miaoyi had to admit that Murong Jiaozi, who had become famous in Luoan, was undoubtedly first-class in both character and ability. After joining the Fengwu Army, he was arranged by Ye Mingsheng to serve as an experience in the Provincial Government. He quickly promoted the land reform in Hebei and Henan, and clearly accounted for the land and farmland that had been secretly occupied by the landlords in Hebei and Henan.

Actually, the person Ye Mingsheng sent to Hebei and Henan as the deputy provincial governor in the beginning was not Murong Hui, but Wang Hao, a student of Cui Shao and a member of the Liaoyang local faction. However, although Wang Hao was very loyal to Ye Mingsheng, he was a incompetent person. Although he also saw that some people of the Hebei and Henan local faction were taking advantage of Ye Mingsheng’s disaster relief and blood transfusion to Hebei and Henan to make huge profits, he could not find any evidence at all, and was played around by the Hebei and Henan faction who took advantage of their home field...

Finally, when the two sides fell out, Wang Hao was framed and accused of sending people to assassinate his colleagues. Seeing that Wang Hao was so incompetent, making him the deputy governor of Hebei and Henan had no effect. Ye Ming was furious at him for not fighting for it, so he withdrew him and let Murong Hui take his place.

Compared to Wang Hao, Murong Hui is much more powerful. He investigated the Chen brothers and others thoroughly without making a fuss, and now he has captured them in one fell swoop, and caught this parasite who was sucking the blood of the people of Ji Yu. An Miaoyi had already anticipated this result when Murong Hui went to Ji Yu.

Although she thinks Murong Hui will win in the end, after all, his predecessor Wang Hao was defeated in Ji-Yu. So An Miaoyi also thinks that the local faction in Ji-Yu is still capable. They are also fighting at home against Murong Hui, an outsider. As the saying goes, a strong dragon cannot defeat a local snake. It will not be so easy for Murong Hui to deal with them. It is even possible that Murong Hui will be defeated in Ji-Yu like Wang Hao.

But now it seems that Murong Hui has dealt with this group of people in just two months. I don’t know whether people underestimated Murong Hui or overestimated the local faction of Ji and Yu. Now that Chen Huaiyu has fallen, the position of Ji and Yu Anchashi has naturally become vacant. There is no doubt that this position will be taken over by Murong Hui...

Realizing this, An Miaoyi was undoubtedly in a very bad mood. Currently in the civil service system of Fengwu Army, Cui Shao, who is the governor of Youyan, the leader of the Liaoyang faction and a relative of Ye Mingsheng, is naturally considered to be the leader. After him, there are Murong Yuliang and Gu Sansi. Although Ye Mingsheng trusts Gu Sansi very much and entrusts the most important reform matters to Gu Sansi.

However, Murong Yuliang was generally regarded as the second-in-command of the Fengwu Army's civil service system because of his prominent family background, his seniority having followed the Fengwu Army in Fengzhou, and his status as the Governor of Liaoyang. Gu Sansi followed closely behind him, and after them were Gu Zhongshi, the Deputy Governor of Ji and Henan, Zhang Juning, the Director of the Finance Department of the Fengwu Army, Ji Heng, the Censor of Youyan, and others. These people constituted the core of the Fengwu Army's civil service system and executed Ye Mingsheng's will.

And from today on, a new name will appear among these people, and that name will be Murong Hui, the Censor of Hebei and Henan!

In addition, although Hebei and Henan are in chaos now, they have a population of millions, and in terms of arable land area, Youyan and Liaoyang combined are only more than 10% more than Hebei and Henan. In today's chaotic world, this is undoubtedly an incomparable wealth·····························
If not for this, why would Ye Mingsheng grit his teeth and provide blood transfusions to Hebei and Henan to relieve the disaster and restore stability and order in Hebei and Henan!

As the reform deepens in Hebei and Henan, it won't be long before Hebei and Henan, with their large population and huge arable land area, will become a new huge growth point for the Fengwu Army's strength, and even become the most important province of the Fengwu Army, providing the Fengwu Army with a large amount of financial resources and manpower. As Hebei and Henan become more and more important in the Fengwu Army system, Murong Hui, who serves as the Censor in Hebei and Henan, will naturally rise in status in the Fengwu Army and become an indispensable important official in the Fengwu Army!

This will also mean the strengthening of the Murong family's power in the Fengwu Army. It also means that with the support of her father and brother, Murong Qingwu's position will be more stable, her voice in the Ye Mansion will be strengthened, and the challenges she, An Miaoyi, will face will become more severe and acute!

Thinking of this, An Miaoyi couldn't help but get a little impatient. Now that Murong Hui's influence in Jiyu is established, she can no longer stop him. However, she can't just watch the Murong family grow stronger in the Fengwu Army. She must think of a good way to deal with Murong Hui's impact...
After pondering for a moment, An Miaoyi seemed to have thought of something, her beautiful eyes suddenly lit up and she asked Qiqige:
"Did the arrest of Chen Huaiyu also implicate other people in Jiyu? I remember saying last time that the county magistrate of Gucheng was someone's brother-in-law, and Chen Weiyu gave him a share of the silver so that he didn't reveal the substitution of the disaster relief grain?"

Qiqige thought for a while, nodded and said:
"It seems to be true. I remember it was the brother-in-law of Wang Ke, the governor of Hebei and Henan. His name was Yang Zhengwen!"

After hearing what Qiqige said, An Miaoyi nodded and said:
"In this case, Wang Ke is probably not clean either. I don't believe he didn't get any benefits. Go to Madam Liu and ask her to contact my uncle. If possible, use this incident to bring Wang Ke down, and then help Zhang Zhiwen take over. My husband really appreciates his talent and ability!"

Listening to what An Miaoyi said, Qiqige blinked and reminded carefully:
"Madam, although Zhang Zhiwen was born in Liaoyang, he has always been a loner. Mr. Cui wanted to recruit him before, but he declined. Why do you have to go to the trouble of helping him get promoted this time?"

An Miaoyi smiled and said:

"Do you know why my husband transferred Zhang Zhiwen to be the deputy governor of Hebei and Henan?"

Qiqige shook her head when she heard that. After the Fengwu Army captured Hebei and Henan, Ye Mingsheng made it clear that in order to appease the emotions of the local factions in Hebei and Henan, the two positions of governor and provincial judge of Hebei and Henan would be reserved for the local factions. Therefore, various forces in the Fengwu Army launched a fierce competition for the positions of deputy governor and deputy provincial judge.

Although Zhang Zhiwen is also in the competition, to be honest, he lacks a backer, so he is not favored by others in the competition. He is widely regarded as a runner-up and will not be the last one to laugh!
However, what surprised everyone was that Ye Mingsheng finally chose him, making Zhang Zhiwen the winner of the competition and the deputy governor of Hebei and Henan, in charge of the all-round reforms implemented by the Fengwu Army in Hebei and Henan!
Seeing Qiqige shaking her head, An Miaoyi didn't keep her in suspense and said directly:
"Actually, I thought about this question for a long time before I figured out what my husband was thinking. Although Zhang Zhiwen's personal ethics are flawed, he is still very capable. The key to Zhang Zhiwen's victory in the position of Deputy Governor of Hebei and Henan is that he is a loner and has no backing in the Fengwu Army..."

(End of this chapter)