Chapter 18: The Wind and Clouds Have Risen and the Mountains and Rains Are Approaching (3)
In fact, Chu Yunxi had indeed planned to go to the Chu Mansion secretly to investigate. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
She understood what Shi Jiaheng meant, and to bring down political opponents, she had to plan carefully, and lay out carefully. But this often takes a long time, and some people even do not hesitate to lie dormant for more than ten years, just for the last fatal blow. However, she couldn't, not because she was impatient, not because she was vengeful, but because recently she had clearly felt that her body was declining.
She often stayed all night with her eyes open until dawn, and the amount of food was pitiful. In order to maintain his energy, he had to take tonic medicine for a long time, and he had to hide it from his relatives and friends, and his heart was miserable. In addition, after entering the Hanlin Painting Academy, the workload increased sharply, and it was necessary to carefully deal with all kinds of dangers inside and outside the palace at all times, and to carefully verify in this dangerous environment. She had worked so hard and spent a lot of effort that she knew that sooner or later she would run out of oil and die of anxiety.
But she doesn't regret it, how short a person's life is, especially for a person like her who has a short life, it is even more precious, rather than finding an old forest in the mountains to survive and live this life, it is better to do something beneficial to herself and others in the world, and it is better to walk in the world in vain. In life, we must always do some righteous things, and even if we can't do it, we can let our hearts temporarily detach ourselves from the trivial things of firewood, rice, oil, and salt, so that people will naturally become enlightened, tolerant, generous, and selfless. In this way, she can temporarily forget the misfortune and misery of herself and her relatives, and will not fall into self-pity for life.
She thought about it carefully, and the fastest and most effective way to find out what could crack down on the prime minister's criminal evidence was to sneak into the Chu family's new mansion to find out. It was the prime minister's home, and it was also the place where the prime minister privately dealt with dirty affairs that could not be made public in the hall, no matter how meticulous his mind was and how clean the evidence was. But just like Shangguan Xueyu said, everything that exists must leave traces. Instead of attacking from the outside, it is better to break through from the inside. It must be very dangerous to fight the tiger, but since she wants to risk her life instead of saving herself, why not take a risk as long as she can achieve her goal.
Every inch of the old mansion in Chu Mansion has been carefully searched by her, and it is three feet away from digging the ground. Aside from the inexplicable dry bone, she found nothing unusual. Since it can't be found in the deserted mansion of Chu Mansion, the only shortcut is only this one.
The new mansion of the Xiangfu has long been moved from Suzaku Street to the west of the city, just on the north and south sides of the same street as the Northwest General's Mansion of the Shi family. And Shangguan Xueyu unintentionally helped her a big favor, she earlier borrowed the name of painting for her, came to visit, but coincidentally Miss Shangguan liked Danqing very much, collected many famous works, not only often invited her to play, but also asked her a lot of framing and maintenance problems.
She had carefully inquired about the prime minister's schedule and avoided meeting him in the palace, because her caution did not attract the attention of the prime minister, after all, in the eyes of the high-ranking prime minister, a court painter was just a high-level minion. And he seems to be extremely relieved about Shangguan Xueyu, he never asks or interferes with who she makes friends with and what she does, and he only keeps gold and silver jewelry and silk every day.
During this period, she dealt with all walks of life in the Chu Mansion wittily, although she met the eldest lady Lu in the mansion twice, but she answered calmly and calmly, and her faster speech speed made her look like a polite junior, so she easily fooled the test, and the Lu family even joked to let her draw a small portrait of herself.
In addition, the biggest gain is that she made a general map of the Chu Mansion based on what she saw and the abstract images of her brain, and repeatedly verified the important confidential places such as the hall where the prime minister meets guests on weekdays and the study where she handles government affairs, so as to ensure that she can quickly distinguish it when no one is in the dark and avoid making some low-level mistakes such as making mistakes.
Secondly, she also assumed various unexpected situations, focusing on various escape routes, including how to escape from the Chu Mansion, how to avoid the officers and soldiers patrolling the city, and so on. For this reason, she also specially observed the arrangement of the guards in the Chu Mansion, and asked Shi Jiaheng a series of related questions about the deployment of troops in the city. and instructed Lu Yan and Qingxu in advance that once she went out to visit and did not return home according to the calculated time, she would have to find a way to go to the Northwest General's Mansion to hide.
When she's confident that everything is ready and secure, she'll be able to act decisively. However, this timing is difficult to grasp, so the news of the prime minister's return to his hometown to guard filial piety is great news for her, which not only increases her chances of success but also reduces the potential danger. The prime minister's energy is limited and it is difficult to take care of both, and there are no men in the house, only a group of female dependents who are easy to deal with.
The guards of the Prime Minister's Mansion were also divided into two, half with him to protect his personal safety, and the other half stayed. Although the guards of the Prime Minister's Mansion may be stricter than usual, the number of guards has decreased, coupled with the absence of the master, it is inevitable that they will not be able to cope with it after a long time, and the hostile forces in the court will definitely be ready to move, as long as she can find conclusive clues and evidence that can shake the prime minister's status, everyone will attack her. She is willing to be the first person to take the lead.
The period when the prime minister returned to his hometown to guard his filial piety was delayed again and again. The first to be angered was not his political enemies, but a group of defenders. And it was these people who almost destroyed the political status of the prime minister who could even trample on the law at will from a moral and ethical point of view.
First of all, the two Hanlin editors and the attendants of the Ministry of Rites openly opposed the prime minister's attempt to seize affection, which was contrary to human ethics, and as a result, they were impeached and reprimanded in public. This incident caused a sensation in the court and caused the anger of a large number of officials. The prime minister's accumulation of evil deeds over the years finally led to an overwhelming amount of revenge, and the excuse for revenge was so high-sounding and above board - unfilial piety.
And so a new round of attacks began. A group of ministers headed by the Imperial Historian suddenly ran to the emperor's sickbed, and pointed out bitterly that the prime minister is the head of a hundred officials, and should lead by example, when our dynasty was founded, the world was governed by benevolence and filial piety, if even the children of their parents died and did not keep filial piety for them, would they not shake the country's foundation, and if the hundred officials rose up and followed suit, would they not leave a disaster to future generations, so that the people of the world would still believe in loyalty, filial piety, and righteousness, and the people of the world would abide by the code of ethics? This is not an example.
As a result, the court set off a big discussion on whether the prime minister should return to his hometown to guard the system, and everyone insisted on their own words and made a lot of noise. It's a pity that most of the people who support the prime minister have to surrender to the prime minister because of some tendencies to inflammatory power or greed for life and death, and those who openly oppose the prime minister obviously have two hard bones, especially the officials.
As soon as they go out, they are bound to make an earth-shattering scene. They took a professional attitude of giving advice to the dead, from political issues such as coercing the monarch and forming parties for personal gain, to economic issues such as corruption and encroachment on land, and so on, and carried out personal attacks in various ways, and finally "sublimated" unfilial piety to disloyalty. In the end, even a few protégés under the prime minister's door were infected by this powerful justice, and they did not hesitate to carry the infamy of betraying the teacher and crossed the torrent from the neutral faction to the opposition.
Such a massive denunciation blinded many people, and even the occasional conviction of a few of them did not shake their faith. Everyone was blindly optimistic that victory was in sight, and even Chu Yunxi, who had always prepared for the worst, couldn't help but feel hopeful. But the unfathomable Shi Jiaheng has always indifferently withdrawn away from the absurd farce of the previous dynasty, he looked at the excited expressions of those passionate opponents from afar, shook his head at her and said: "They are happy too early." ”
Because he saw the essential law behind the complicated court struggles - power. Although the gathering of the power of the people is terrifying on the surface, the final decision is still in the hands of the most powerful emperor.
In order to temporarily avoid the limelight, the prime minister made the first compromise - closed the door to the guests, hid at home, and called Gong and other holy judges.
Just when everyone felt that victory was in sight and were ready to hold a feast to celebrate the victory, the emperor who had been ill for a long time and the prime minister who had been closed for many days appeared. The two of them cooperate so well that it is like a rehearsed double reed that has been rehearsed for a long time. The prime minister played in front of hundreds of officials that his mother died and asked to return to his hometown to worry. The emperor opened his eyes slightly, swept the fold, and said "quasi-play". Then, the whole world celebrated, everyone was happy, and the prime minister returned to his hometown to keep filial piety. Then, the crowd shut up. And then there was no follow-up.
Three days later, the overall situation was set, and the prime minister was ordered to return to his hometown to keep filial piety for three years.
When the news came, Chu Yunxi had to admire Shi Jiaheng's foresight and wisdom that could see the coming situation clearly in the fog. At the same time, I also felt that it was unbelievable that the prime minister could stand tall in such a grand crusade against hundreds of officials, and he could still retreat with his whole body, which could be regarded as unprecedented.
The whole incident was in an uproar but ended in this almost funny way, and when everyone was annoyed, Chu Yunxi seriously began to reflect:
First, the fortress of the prime minister's rule seems to be impregnable, but it has long been riddled with holes by termites. Except for those who are staunch supporters of the prime minister and some people who are on the sidelines, most of the forces opposing the prime minister are still firmly determined; And those who have lost their ways are helpless, if one day the prime minister loses power and becomes the trend of the times and the desire of the people, then those intermediate forces will be easily co-opted.
Second, the most difficult to shake among the prime minister's supporters is actually the emperor. That's the essence of the problem.
Second, third, and among the reasons for the attack of the officials of the DPRK and China, the most important thing that caused the prime minister to lose was the matter of seizing affection. Other charges are either insufficient evidence or difficult to verify, and some are even put together in order to conform to the trend of "overthrowing the prime minister". In short, there is a lack of organization, a lack of evidence, a lack of organization, a lack of leadership, and most importantly, a lack of convincing.
Fourth, the power of morality is enormous, sometimes even more political. Political oppression comes from external political enemies, while moral oppression comes from the moral beliefs and ethical bottom lines of the whole people, and from the hearts of the people.
This cruel reality made Chu Yunxi even more convinced that her judgment was correct, and everyone's efforts had proved that the external attack was ineffective at all. The emperor's trust in the prime minister has reached the point of blindness. The only way to destroy the Prime Minister is to break the strong chain of trust between him and the Emperor, and the best way to do that is to cut open the ugly heart of the Prime Minister and let him see how your favorite courtiers are using your trust behind your back to play with you between applause. And all this requires evidence, evidence, evidence!