The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 445

“Your Majesty, I wish to impeach Zhou Chu, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. I entered the capital without prior notice, and my intentions are sinister and despicable.”

In the imperial court, an official from the Ministry of Rites spoke righteously.

“Your Majesty, I also want to impeach Zhou Chu, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, for secretly raising thousands of private soldiers and hoarding armor, intending to rebel. His intentions are despicable.”

An official from the Ministry of War stepped forward.

With these two taking the lead, other officials stepped forward and continued to impeach Zhou Chu.

The reasons these people gave for impeaching Zhou Chu were varied and numerous, including the various businesses behind him.

When Jiajing saw so many people below impeaching Zhou Chu, he raised an eyebrow and realized that things were not simple. Clearly, these people had planned it together, or were doing it at the behest of someone.

In the capital today, no matter how small the disturbance, it cannot escape the notice of Jiajing, nor can it escape the notice of the now all-powerful Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Emperor Jiajing knew perfectly well how many officials had visited Mao Ji's residence and how many had visited Xia Yan's residence during this period.

In reality, Xia Yan was extremely cautious and did not allow many people into the Xia residence. Most of the officials were people who curried favor with Mao Ji. However, Jiajing knew that this was just a plan the two of them had agreed upon.

Now that Mao Ji is over sixty, it would be extremely difficult for him to advance further and become the Grand Secretary. Moreover, the current situation is extremely unfavorable for Mao Ji and Xia Yan, as Zhou Chu has almost destroyed their base in Jiangnan.

It is almost foreseeable that if Zhou Chu is not overthrown and Yan Song continues to act in this way, the Jiangnan faction will not only become history, but will also be greatly diminished. At the very least, most of the officials in Jiangnan will no longer have any dealings with Mao and Ji.

Given the current commercial tax and performance evaluation system implemented by Yan Song in Jiangnan, although not all officials are interested in those rewards—after all, those officials used to reap greater benefits—if this continues, everyone will have to work hard, and if they continue to have no benefits in the Jiangnan faction, most will likely leave them.

The Jiangnan faction gathered for profit, and naturally, it will also disperse for profit.

If Mao wanted to advance further in the cabinet, he had to accept the sycophancy of the officials below him and become their advocate. Once a person reaches a certain position, what they say and do is often beyond their control.

Yang Tinghe back then was just like that.

In the officialdom, it's like rowing against the current; if you don't advance, you fall behind. It's either you die or I live. There's absolutely no possibility of reconciliation between Mao Jixia and others and Zhou Chu, because they have a fundamental conflict of interest.

If Yang Yiqing hadn't gotten so old, and if some of the officials who had originally fawned over him had been investigated and punished by Zhou Chu, and then some more by Jiajing through Chen Wanyan, causing Yang Yiqing to lose his foundation, he wouldn't be in such a state of stagnation now.

However, for Yang Yiqing, this may not be a bad thing. At least he no longer has to rack his brains to deal with the emperor and Zhou Chu as before. Since letting go of these thoughts, Yang Yiqing feels much more relaxed.

However, seeing so many people standing up to impeach Zhou Chu, Yang Yiqing felt a sense of unease. The sudden appearance of so many people must have been Mao Ji's idea.

He had heard rumors these days that many officials were currying favor with Mao and Ji, but he hadn't expected there to be so many.

There were at least a dozen or so officials in the court who stood up to impeach Zhou Chu, not to mention the others who didn't. Yang Yiqing knew very well that those officials below him couldn't curry favor with him, the Grand Secretary, or with Zhou Chu, the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, so they would naturally choose to curry favor with others.

This is the way of survival in officialdom: stick together for warmth and move forward together. As the saying goes, many hands make light work, and the strength of one person is naturally different from that of a group of people.