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

Chapter 461

The wedding of the second young master of the Lu family was a major event, even in the capital. After all, the Lu family was no longer what it used to be. The eldest son of the Lu family was a close minister to the emperor and had been granted a marquisate for his military achievements. There was a fundamental difference between being granted a marquisate for military achievements and being granted a marquisate arbitrarily by royal relatives.

Lu Bing could easily establish his own household now, which would be a marquis's mansion at the very least. Countless noble ladies would be eager to marry the eldest son of the Lu family and hope to become the matriarch of the marquis's family.

As the second young master of the Lu family, Lu Wei was inferior to his elder brother Lu Bing in terms of status and other aspects. However, because of Lu Wei's relationship with Zhou Chu, many people in the capital knew that Zhou Chu, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, was originally a pageboy and was the pageboy of this second young master Lu. The two had a relationship like that of brothers.

Lu Song was also a commander of the Imperial Guard, and with such a status, no one in the capital could ignore this wedding.

Even though the Lu family tried their best to keep the wedding low-key and not extravagant, the number of people attending the wedding on the day of the wedding was still endless, almost breaking down the threshold of the Lu family's house.

Officials of all ranks in the capital, even those who didn't come themselves, would send their families to deliver gifts. Those who didn't want to come were mostly concerned about saving face. After all, whether it was Lu Song, Lu Bing, or Zhou Chu, they were all members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. It wouldn't sound good for civil officials to curry favor with the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

But if they don't give gifts, they're afraid of incurring the wrath of the Lu family or Zhou Chu. In officialdom, it's often not who comes that matters, but who doesn't.

Among the officials in the capital, apart from the censors of the Six Ministries who were truly fearless, the other officials, though they wished they could kill Zhou Chu, still had to send their family members to present congratulatory gifts.

That's the officialdom for you. On the surface, everyone's on good terms, but secretly everyone's plotting to kill each other. But before killing each other, you can't let the other person know your intentions.

Even those officials who curry favor with Mao and Ji, who speak with the most ruthless words when they are together, would tremble with fear if they were to face the Embroidered Uniform Guard or Zhou Chu alone. These people only dare to plot these things when they are together.

They were terrified of Zhou Chu and of the position of Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, because Zhou Chu's Northern Garrison could arrest them without any reason or evidence. Zhou Chu had done this before, and he had gone to extremes.

It was precisely because they feared Zhou Chu, and this fear was mixed with anger, that they felt they had no desire to have a sharp blade hanging over their heads, ready to fall at any moment. Unfortunately, this blade hovered over the heads of countless officials, making them restless and unable to eat or sleep.

The civil service group and the Embroidered Uniform Guard were naturally opposed to the imperial power. The reason why these civil officials chose to curry favor with Mao and Ji was not only for career considerations, but also for a more important reason: they shared a common demand, which was to suppress the Embroidered Uniform Guard, which was currently at its peak, and let it return to its previous position, so that it would not pose a strong threat to them.

Or to put it another way, it means bringing down Zhou Chu, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Over the course of more than a year, the power of the Embroidered Uniform Guard grew stronger, causing officials of all ranks in the capital to turn pale at the mere mention of their name.

Power can change a person, and even more so an organization or institution. The unprecedented expansion of the power of the Embroidered Uniform Guard often resulted in lower-ranking officers, such as centurions, commanders, and even captains, abusing their power for personal gain and even framing some officials.

These things were unavoidable. After all, the Embroidered Uniform Guard was too large and had too many people. Any action taken by the Embroidered Uniform Guard would eventually be attributed to Zhou Chu, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Therefore, Zhou Chu specially enhanced some of the powers of the Southern Garrison Command so that it could better monitor the Embroidered Uniform Guard.