In the capital in September of the sixteenth year of Liyang, there were constant turmoil everywhere, and the situation in the entire court was treacherous, and the atmosphere was very depressing.

Since the case of maritime tax evasion broke out in Yushitai two days ago, the focus of the imperial court was originally on being loyal to the king and making up taxes and fines, but it didn't take long for King Jing and Duanwang to come to an end, and the limelight changed instantly.

On the second day of the ninth month, the seventh rank of the Imperial Historical Observatory served the Imperial Shi Jiadong, and the above table impeached the Tobu Langzhong Sun Wenxuan.

Shen Qi was implicated too much in the maritime business case, and even the Zhongwang fleet was able to evade taxes and hide it from the imperial court, behind which Sun Wenxuan helped cover up.

Jia Yushi's impeachment this time was obviously prepared, and he not only listed the details of Sun Tong's involvement in this matter, but also directly disclosed some of Sun Wenxuan's criminal evidence, and Sun Wenxuan was directly convicted without the investigation of the judicial department.

On the evening of the second day of the first month of September, Emperor Liyang issued an order, Sun Wenxuan, the head of the household department, was dismissed from his post and taken into custody, his family property was confiscated, and all the subordinate officials under his command were held accountable and interrogated by the criminal department.

You must know that the position of Lang Zhong of the six ministries is second only to Shangshu and the left and right servants of the six departments, and he is the chief official of the first department, and the household department is the second highest ranking of the six departments to the government office of the Ministry of Officials, and the grade of Lang Zhong in it is also half a level higher than that of the Ministry of Punishment and the Ministry of Rites, and he is a four-grade official.

Among the four products of the household department, it is much more valuable than the Fu Yin that Qi Weiqing has in mind, and if the luck is proper in the future, it is not necessary that a squire will not be able to rise.

That's a three-rank heavy minister, not an ordinary civil official can serve, if you can't imagine it, you can understand it by comparing it with a three-rank military general.

Although it is difficult for civil officials above the third rank to be promoted as military generals, and the number is relatively large, it is not a single bridge crossed by thousands of troops, and there is no one in ten thousand.........

…………

Yes, like Sun Wenxuan, a Langzhong who is expected to be promoted to the third grade, he still has a two-point name in the court, and he is not a high-ranking official, but he is barely enough to be an important person.

However, less than three days after the outbreak of the Hubu maritime business case, a figure like Sun Wenxuan was easily imprisoned, ruining his future, but he didn't even make a wave to the outside world.

Some people in the capital have noticed that something is wrong, and something big is going to happen.

Sure enough, Sun Wenxuan was just an appetizer, and the people behind him didn't take him seriously at all.

On the fifth day of the ninth month, Sun Wenxuan was sentenced to death by the Criminal Department, and after the autumn, the servant Yushi named Jia Dong of the Yushitai shot again, and the three letters were folded, pointing directly at the three bigwig-level figures in the court.

General Zuo Han Jing!

Tobe Shangshu money class!

The right waiter of the household department, Kong Gongbo!

One stone stirred up a thousand waves, and everyone was frightened by the bold Jia Dong.

Look at who he impeached these three.

Han Jing, when Chaozuo general, one of the military giants, the old man of Emperor Liyang's Qiandi back then, when he was not the crown prince, Han Jing followed him, the two have been friends for decades, and the friendship is deep, only the former general Cai Hua can win.

is the current general Di Yi, although he is also the original general of the East Palace, but his qualifications are two points inferior to Han Jing, if it weren't for the great achievements of the Jin and Zhou Kingdoms, I can't tell who will sit in the position of general.

And the Hubu Shangshu Qian class is not a small role, although he is from a poor family, but he has been the champion in the first emperor's dynasty, and the first emperor has praised his talent.

Later, Qian Shangshu entered Hanlin as the champion, successively served in Dali Temple, Taichang Temple, and the Ministry of Industry, during which he was also transferred to two terms of Fu Yin, and later transferred from the Ministry of Industry to the left of the Ministry of Households, and then promoted to Shangshu, one of the six departments, and now it is almost five years.

Qian Ban has been in Beijing for many years, has a deep resume, has a wide range of contacts, and because of his good management of the household department, he is quite trusted by Emperor Liyang, and is the longest time in the household department of Kanghua and Liyang.

Like such an old fritter in officialdom, the left and right ministers and the general did not dare to offend easily, Jia Dong ate the bear's heart and leopard gall and dared to take him under the knife.

However, compared with Han and Qian, although the last Kong Gongbo has the lowest official position, he is not at all easier to bully than the first two.

Because he has a good aunt, the current Empress Dowager Kong, and two good cousins, Emperor Liyang and King Zhong.

With these three mountains to lean on, to a certain extent, Kong Gongbo is not easy to provoke than Han Jing.

…………

Gee~

Many officials who watched the excitement had mixed tastes in their hearts, this Jia Dong had no reputation before, and he shrank in the Yushitai all day long, except for the people of the Yushitai himself, looking at the muffled voice, he held back so much thunder as soon as he made a move.

Real people don't show their faces, they don't show real people.

Jia Dong is on fire, and even the people in the capital know that there is a Jia Yushi, who is not afraid of the powerful, and his bones are very hard, and he dares to confront the two big officials and the queen mother's younger brother.

However, outsiders don't know, but it is not difficult for some people who know the inside story to see who this Jia Dong is.

Maritime tax evasion, involving the household department and coastal garrisons, Han Jing and Qian Ban are inevitably suspected of negligence, and Jia Dong impeached these two Although they are bold, they are famous.

But Kong Gongbo is different, he has very little to do with the maritime tax evasion case, the only thing that is related is that Sun Wenxuan, who was previously imprisoned, was brought up by Kong Gongbo, but this does not mean that Kong participated in the case.

Jia Dong participated in him, a bit deliberately biting.

At this point, it's easy to guess.

Who is Kong Gongbo?

Empress Dowager Kong's younger brother, and Empress Dowager Kong is a hardcore Duanwang party, Jia Dong impeached Kong Gongbo, on the surface, to eliminate traitors for the country, but the intention behind it is to deal with Duanwang.

And now, who will make such a big effort to compete with Duanwang, the prince who is a hot prince?

The answer is self-evident, Jia Dong is King Jing's person!

Han Jing and Qian Ban don't say that Sun Wenxuan and Kong Gongbo are officials of Duanwang's party, and King Jing asked Jia Dong to impeach the two of them, so as to wipe out Duanwang's power in the household department.

…………

Others could see the Tao behind this matter, and King Duan's subordinates were innumerable, so they naturally understood what was going on, so they immediately fought back.

On the eighth day of the ninth month, the son of Wen Heng, the teacher of Duanwang and the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and the imperial Shi Wen Ziming, the servant of the Imperial History Terrace, appeared on the Liyang Emperor, saying that the case of Haishang was related to the royal family of the clan, and the impact was bad, so the law department should be ordered to investigate it strictly.

Duanwang means very clearly, this is to make this case bigger, don't you King Jing want to make trouble, Duanwang Party will accompany you to the end.

The Duanwang Party had a tough attitude, and the Jingwang Party was not afraid, and they wrote letters to strictly investigate the maritime case.

For a while, the two parties shouted at each other, but it hurt King Zhong and the royal relatives involved in the case.

King Duan and King Jing are powerful, and one of them may enter the East Palace in the future, as long as they pay the full fine, no one dares to embarrass the two of them.

But King Zhong is different, King Zhong is the owner of the fleet and can't escape, while the others don't have the power of King Jing and King Duan, and they can't deter the Criminal Department and Long Xiaoxiao.

The more Duanwang and the others made trouble, the more attention the case received, and the more and more things were stabbed, and King Zhong and others were made anxious and embarrassed.

In the end, there was no way, King Zhong found a restaurant in the capital, and held a banquet for his two nephews, wanting them to raise their noble hands and put the case down, otherwise if it continues like this, the whole country will know that even if he is the younger brother of Emperor Liyang, he will not be able to eat good fruits.

King Zhong is the younger brother of Emperor Liyang, the first prince of the Northern Jin Dynasty, the head of the clan, his face, if in normal times, King Duan and King Jing will definitely be sold.

But now it is different, the two kings are determined to make a big fuss about the maritime case and hit the other party, not to mention the preparation and hard work that they have poured into before, just to not let go of this opportunity in vain, and they can't deal with the matter of the loyal king.

Duan Wang smiled and refused, and King Jing even had some attitude and asked King Zhong not to abolish Zhou Zhang again.

Yes, the status of the loyal king is very transcendent, and they will definitely not be offended in the past, but now it is a matter of great power, not to mention the loyal king, even if Emperor Liyang is in the way, it is also a broken face.

King Zhong returned disappointed from the two Duanwangs, turned his head and went to ask Emperor Liyang again, but he didn't even enter the door, and was blocked back by the eunuch.

Obviously, Emperor Liyang did not plan to interfere too much in this matter, but only explained to King Zhong, and asked him to think about it behind closed doors at home and wait for the court to deal with it.

King Zhong knew that this disposition would not be too serious, at most it would be a fine and reprimand, as well as a demotion to the lord, and this derogation would not be too low, it was estimated that he would change from a prince to a county king.

In the future, when this limelight passes, Emperor Liyang will give him a few easy errands at will, save some credit, and almost rise back again, except for losing some face, he is still the emperor's own brother, the head of the clan.

…………

But King Zhong is unwilling, he is different from King Shun, he just wants to be an idle prince, King Zhong is ambitious, he wants his brother to die, and his two nephews to fight for the throne.

Of course, he didn't dare to let outsiders know about this wish, otherwise in order to get rid of future troubles, King Duan and King Jing would have to join forces to kill him.

But don't say it, King Zhong has been secretly prepared, in case Emperor Liyang suddenly dies in the future, without leaving a clear decree and the prince is undecided, according to the Northern Jin Dynasty succession regulations.

Although King Duan and King Jing are the best candidates to succeed to the throne, King Zhong, as the son of the first emperor, the younger brother of Emperor Liyang, and the prince of the royal family, is not unable to succeed to the throne, and the probability is not low, only after the son of Emperor Liyang.

This is worth playing, if the sons of Emperor Liyang die or are deposed, King Zhong will naturally become the first heir, completing the "good story" of the death of the brother and the younger brother.

Of course, it should be noted that the key condition for King Chung's succession to the throne is that he is a royal prince, and if he is demoted to a knighthood and becomes the king of the county, it will be a matter of thought.

King Shun is more qualified than him to succeed to the throne, after all, he is also the son of the first emperor and the respect of the prince.

What's more, King Zhong was demoted, and there has been a stain on his body since then, and it is difficult for a person with a stain to succeed in inheriting the throne, unless the surname Yan is dead, but this possibility is also known how difficult it is.

Therefore, in order to preserve the rare hope of succession, King Zhong was not willing to fail, and ran to the harem to ask Empress Dowager Kong for help.

Empress Dowager Kong has only two sons in her life, and King Zhong, as the youngest son, is more favored than Emperor Liyang in the Queen Mother.

But this time, King Chung miscalculated.

He never thought that his parents loved his son, but he couldn't compare to his eldest grandson.

The Empress Dowager Kong raised Duanwang as an adult, and she wanted to succeed to the throne after being cut off from the Internet, and she became the Empress Dowager herself, and raised her for the rest of her life, even with the Kong family with wealth and glory.

As the previous champion of palace fighting, Empress Dowager Kong is very smart, she knows who she will rely on in the future, so for the sake of King Duan, the youngest son of King Zhong can also be sacrificed.

What's more, in her opinion, King Zhong will not suffer much loss at all, and in the future, when the matter passes, she will come forward to talk to Emperor Liyang or King Duan, and let them give King Zhong some rewards and compensation.

King Zhong was almost mad at what Empress Dowager Kong was thinking, but he also knew that he couldn't make trouble anymore, unless he said that he wanted to ascend the throne, but Empress Dowager Kong would definitely let him dispel this idea.

There is no other reason, it is too dangerous, a bad one will offend the father and son of Emperor Liyang, the battle for the throne is the most cruel, if the loyal king commits a taboo, the Empress Dowager Kong will not be able to save him.

In the end, King Zhong still had no way to stop the continuous rise in the popularity of the maritime case, and could only watch his reputation get worse and worse in the country, and his crimes became more and more serious.

The demotion of the knight is almost a foregone conclusion, and even some punishments will be increased............

…………

King Chung was depressed and hid in the palace to drink, but the others couldn't care about him anymore.

The battle between Duanwang and King Jing over the maritime business case has completely entered a white-hot stage since mid-to-late September.

Since September 18, several officials of various grades have been dismissed every day, but all of them are supporters of both parties.

At the end of September, after a fierce battle, the two sides suffered heavy losses to each other, and a temporary truce was made, and by this time, as many as 100 officials had been dismissed due to the maritime case.

Among them, Beijing officials accounted for 60 percent, local officials accounted for 3 percent, and military attachés accounted for about 10 percent.

Among these hundreds of officials, most of them are low-level officials of the sixth or seventh grade, and there are only seventeen of them above the fifth grade, six from the fifth grade, three from the fifth grade, four from the fourth grade, and four from the fourth grade, including the previous Sun Wenxuan.

In addition to these seventeen fourth- and fifth-grade officials, there is also a third-grade official who was also implicated, that is, Kong Gongbo, the right attendant of the household department.

However, he was lucky, he was not dismissed like those people, but he was demoted, from the third rank to the fifth grade, and he was also brought to Beiling Mansion in the capital to be a fellow governor.

Because of this, Empress Dowager Kong's face was lost, and she specially called Queen Jing's mother and concubine Yu Guifei to her bedroom to clean up, and gave six or seven palace maids to King Jing, sincerely adding fire to the backyard of King Jing's mansion.

However, King Jing was not angry, this time he was able to get Kong Gongbo down, almost cutting off Duanwang's arm, and Duanwang's power in the household department lost as much as seventy or eighty percent, and almost all the army was wiped out.

Of course, the Duanwang Party did not make King Jing feel better, but on the whole, the current King Jingwang Party has the upper hand.

Thinking of this, King Jing was too late to be happy, how could he care about Empress Dowager Kong's little trick, not to mention that the ones sent were all beautiful young palace maids, that is, a group of old women, and he also accepted all the orders.

…………

Compared with the excited King Jing, Duanwang was uncomfortable, Kong Gongbo was demoted from Beijing, and the household forces were lost.

Such a painful price made Duanwang's good mood disappear since Yan Kui was promoted to the third-in-command of the border army, he looked at the proud King Jing and his party, and the roots of his teeth itched, first and then fought with King Jing, but he couldn't make up his mind.

To tell the truth, the maritime case has now brought down hundreds of officials, involving a wide range of officials, involving a large number of cumulative officials, and it can also be ranked in the more than 50 years since the founding of the Northern Jin Dynasty.

At this point, King Duan and King Jing can barely control the situation, if they stop here, the matter will be over, but if they continue to fight, I am afraid that it will affect the high-level officials of the imperial court, and at that time, they will not be able to stop even if they want to.

King Duan was very conflicted, he was not willing to win King Jing, but he didn't dare to make a desperate gamble to make a big deal about it.

And just as he hesitated, someone made a move!

In the sixteenth year of Liyang, the second day of October.

General Zuo Han Jing led tens of thousands of garrisons along the coast to thoroughly investigate the tax evasion and smuggling of the maritime merchant fleet, and gained a lot of money, and also learned a lot of secrets.

Afterwards, Han Shuai wrote a secret letter for people to send to Emperor Liyang, and that night, the angry Emperor Liyang summoned Long Xiaoxiao to command Linghu to win into the palace.

Two hours later, Linghu won out of the palace, summoned two thousand dragon Xiao schools, and transferred five thousand forbidden troops with military talismans, and arrested Xie Guang, the general of Zhengnan, Liu Nong, Weiyi Hou, and Zhao Ben, the Honglu Temple, and controlled their families and relatives together.

Recently, the capital, which has been rumored because of the maritime tax evasion case, has become even quieter.

It wasn't until the next day's court meeting, when Emperor Liyang took out Han Jing's secret letter, that the ministers understood that Xie Guang and they were so bold that they smuggled and colluded with pirates in the East China Sea, and even revealed the military information of some coastal garrisons to the pirates.

This is a collaborator and traitor!

The pirates of the East China Sea have been plagued for many years, repeatedly plundering and harassing the people along the coast, not to mention, but also attacking the merchant fleet of the Northern Jin Dynasty at sea, the behavior is extremely bad, and the Northern Jin Dynasty court has tried to solve this cancer many times.

But these pirates had no choice but to live on the island, come and go freely, and the Northern Jin Dynasty attacked on a large scale, but they often couldn't even catch their tails, so they had no choice but to defend the shore, not to mention passively, and also involved a large part of the troops.

The Northern Jin Dynasty court made an estimate that if the pirates in the East China Sea could be solved, then the current coastal garrison could liberate 200,000, and these 200,000 horses could greatly supplement the combat power of the border army regardless of whether they were placed in the surrounding frontier of Jin or in the Gyeongnam region, and even determine the outcome of a national war.

But just because of these unlucky pirates, these 200,000 soldiers and horses can't be moved, and the imperial court has to spend a lot of money and food to support them, so Emperor Liyang hated the pirates of the East China Sea.

Now that he heard that the important ministers of the court had colluded with this group of pirates, and even betrayed the military intelligence of the court to the other party, Emperor Liyang was almost mad.

The furious Emperor Liyang issued an order in public at the court meeting, and took into custody the general Xie Guang, the Marquis of Weiyi, and Zhao Ben, the Qing of Honglu Temple, and the three legal divisions of Dali Temple, the Criminal Department, and the Yushitai were immediately interrogated.

The Son of Heaven was furious, and millions of corpses were ambushed.

The three law divisions got busy quickly, and Duanwang's side also saw the key to turning defeat into victory.

Weiyi Marquis Liu Nong, who colluded with pirates, his wife is the younger brother of Yuguifei, that is, King Jing's sister-in-law, and Zhao Shan, the younger brother of Zhao Ben of Honglu Temple, is the new chief of King Jing's Mansion, Shi Pengzi's family.

Of course, the relatives of the officials in the capital are intertwined, and the relationship between Liu Zhao and King Jing is somewhat far-fetched, which does not mean that King Jing followed Liu and Zhao to collaborate with the enemy.

But how can King Duan care whether King Jing is far-fetched or not, grab and press it, and if you can't kill you, you will be splashed with dog blood.

In the sixteenth year of Liyang, the fourth day of October

Shi Wenming, the son of the Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites and the servant, went out again, and the king of Jing and Liu and Zhao had relatives, and they had a lot of contacts.

Emperor Liyang thought for a moment with the fold, glanced coldly at King Jing, whose face had changed greatly, and said.

"Quasi-play."