Chapter 725

Bai Lang's official life was very relaxed. Besides regularly inspecting the treasury to ensure the silver wasn't embezzled by others for him to take the blame, there was nothing else to do—the tribute silver from below was still collected, and his position was indeed a fat job. "It's a pity that I can't attack my own father-in-law. This is a very regrettable thing—I even wanted to raid the Xu family." He didn't say this to Bai Xu Shi, so as not to make the girl cry.

Is Cabinet Minister Yan Song better, or is Cabinet Minister Xu Jie better? This is a question only a child would ask. Bai Lang would say that both are equally rotten people, and in terms of viciousness, Xu Jie is far worse than Yan Song—just look at the last edict he drafted for the Jiajing Emperor to know what kind of person he is. If a guy like Bai Lang really became the Prefect of Songjiang, he would really take action against the Xu family—before in Datong, it wasn't just his military merit, but also the reason why local officials and gentry joined forces to spend money to send him silver and ask him to be promoted.

Because his actions of confiscating official land and military land to distribute to military households, and requiring tax payments on donated land, were too ruthless. He himself was an Innate Expert and a peerless fierce general who suppressed Xuan-Da. No one dared to play hardball, and as Bai Lang himself said, his power in Datong Prefecture was "unlimited." He could even raid homes directly—he could just make up a crime. As for the person being caught and suddenly dying in prison or on the way to be escorted, the former was called "dying in custody," and the latter was said to be a regret in the governance of the place, that the mountain bandits were too fierce, so the prefect would go to kill them himself and bring back a few heads.

If such a fierce person were a martial general, those civil officials would have a way to deal with him, but unfortunately, Bai Lang was also a genuine Jinshi degree holder. When he did such crude soldier-like things, his colleagues couldn't manage him. The local gentry were completely helpless and could only watch Bai Lang act recklessly. That's right, there was indeed a Governor of Xuan-Da and a Surveillance Commissioner of Datong above him, but the Governor couldn't manage this matter, and as for the Surveillance Commissioner... Bai Lang, this prefect, really treated the Surveillance Commissioner's orders as farts. What could this Surveillance Commissioner do to him?

An Innate Expert and a peerless fierce general—this was Bai Lang's confidence.

He didn't care about impeachment memorials either. What could they impeach him for? Disturbing the people? Or impeaching him for killing the innocent? If the court sent him to prison for this reason, that would be a joke. Writing stories to curse Bai Lang? That would require the local scholars and Juren to have the guts. So sending him to another place for promotion was the best choice—Zhejiang had already confirmed this. So Bai Lang came to Nanjing, and the Nanjing officials also put him on a pedestal—this place was similar to the Capital, and there were groups of high officials and nobles. Bai Lang's Minister of the Court of Imperial Stud was actually an idle official.

Being an official in the Ming Dynasty, as long as you don't want to do things, you can always do it, especially since Bai Lang's official position neither manages the army nor is close to the people. Bai Lang practiced martial arts in Nanjing City, and everyone was quite at ease—this person now had no reason to "do evil," and the Japanese pirates were almost pacified, at least they couldn't come to the gates of Nanjing City again. Then everyone would share the peace. As for the Emperor in the north pursuing the Dao and immortality, let him go. Anyway, there were the cabinet ministers and the six ministers in the Capital to worry about it.

Jiangnan is still a place to enjoy the boundless wind and moon. Nanjing is a place for retirement. Once you reach this position, half of your future is gone—there are also people who come to gild themselves to raise their rank, but such people are few. Most are old officials waiting to retire, just waiting to raise their treatment and retire. So in most cases, the officialdom here is quite harmonious. Bai Lang spent his days practicing martial arts and holding banquets, but unfortunately, his poetic talent was zero, and he really couldn't organize a literary gathering.

But he could go to mix in literary gatherings. Although Bai Lang was a martial man, he was a civil official, so he could enter such poetry gatherings and have the opportunity to see those reading young ladies. At worst, the famous courtesans on the Qinhuai River, one by one, probably had a higher cultural level than most scholars, and they were also beautiful. Only this figure made Bai Lang not very fond of them. The aesthetic of this era was white, young, and thin, but Bai Lang liked the kind with a protruding front and back and long legs.

This poetry gathering was also a place for everyone to communicate. Listening to sour scholars chanting sour poems was also a very interesting entertainment. Bai Lang was sometimes amused by these sour scholars, "Sure enough, it's a headscarf full of sour air. No seasoning is needed to eat crab." If such words were said, it was impossible for Bai Lang to be beaten.

Could Bai Lang stay in this place for a long time? It seems unlikely. The pressure in the northern Xuan-Da is not small. After Qi Jiguang went to Xuan-Da, he had to select soldiers for training and build a complete Great Wall-fortress defense line. There was a window period in this. If Altan Khan attacked at this time, it would not be a good thing. A fierce official was needed to guard this place so that Altan Khan would not dare to move, or even take the initiative to attack—although he was enfeoffed as the Prince of Shunyi, Altan Khan was not honest at all.

So Bai Lang first obtained the status of a Censor—now he was also an official of the wind and constitution, and could be said to be a member of the "clear stream." Later, he was granted the right to wear a flying fish robe and was promoted to the third-rank Surveillance Commissioner of Datong, officially possessing a legitimate patrol camp. "It's just letting me go outside the pass to suppress Altan Khan's light troops, right? Understood!" Bai Lang was quite satisfied with this appointment. He went back to the Capital as before and then took office.

As usual, whether he could see the Jiajing Emperor depended on the Emperor's mood for cultivating the Dao, but there was no problem with Cabinet Minister Yan and Cabinet Minister Xu—Cabinet Minister Xu even wanted to invite him to a family banquet at home. The person accompanying him was also someone whose reputation Bai Lang had heard of—he was Cabinet Minister Xu's student, Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Taiyue. The great man who would later say "I am not a prime minister, but a regent!" was of course older than Bai Lang, handsome and scholarly, and had a beautiful long beard in the style of a literati.

Bai Lang's appearance was heroic, and his beard and eyebrows were completely different from the literati Zhang Juzheng's—a typical martial appearance. This time Bai Lang didn't bring Bai Xu Shi. Of course, it wasn't because of pregnancy or anything, but because of the long journey, Bai Lang felt it was better for Bai Xu Shi to return directly to the Xu family. Anyway, he was afraid he wouldn't stay long in the position of Datong Surveillance Commissioner—if she didn't return to the Songjiang Xu family, she could come to her grandfather's house in BJ City, but Bai Lang would go one step ahead.

The family banquet was all in the flavor of the Songjiang and Suzhou area. Bai Lang was very accustomed to this flavor. "Rare, rare, there is actually mud snail here. It's amazing that it was sent thousands of miles to the Capital without going bad." Bai Lang used his chopsticks to pick up a mud snail, put it in his mouth, sucked it, spat out the shell, and enjoyed the delicious and sweet mud snail. This made the cabinet minister very happy—that someone could share the hometown delicacies with him naturally made the cabinet minister very happy.

"Sigh, Shuda doesn't even know such delicacies." Cabinet Minister Xu also sighed about his student, and he himself picked up a mud snail and sucked it. "If there were porridge, it would be even better." Bai Lang said. This sentence made Cabinet Minister Xu laugh heartily and sigh repeatedly—in the Jiangnan area, eating porridge with side dishes was something everyone had, regardless of poverty or wealth.