Chapter 161: The Prince's Memories (continued)

(Xie: Drifting a fish, left and right are not north and south, and light smoke around the three rewards.) Xie: Tickets for the magical golden beetle, sailor deity, yptse and other brothers. )

Since that storm, Guo Bing and Lu Zhongtian have fallen into a cycle of stabbing in the back with a smile on the surface. Ordinary small frictions are not enough, two years after that turmoil, when the former emperor proposed to appoint the crown prince, Lu Zhongtian finally showed his ruthlessness.

The whole court knew that the crown prince's position was not disputed, that was Guo Bing's brother Guo Chong, and the court didn't think there would be any waves in this matter. Once the saint decided to make a prince, that person was Guo Chong. However, under such circumstances, a rumor unfavorable to Guo Bing was still rampant, and rumors about his desire to be the crown prince, and secretly contacted the officials of the DPRK and China to lobby the saint, and even secretly searched for the indiscretions of the eldest prince. It actually made many officials in the court and the central government confused, and some even believed it because of this and ran to tell the emperor about these things.

During that time, Guo Bing was very embarrassed. It was the first crisis he had encountered as an adult, and he really felt a great threat. Because this kind of behavior of seeking the crown prince without authorization was strictly forbidden by the ancestors of the Great Zhou Dynasty, it was to prevent the tragedy of fratricidal brothers in order to compete for the throne. There were too many such things happening in the Li Tang Dynasty in the previous dynasty, and the Great Zhou Dynasty learned the lessons of the demise of the Tang Dynasty from the beginning of the founding of the country, and made the greatest changes in the rules and policies of the imperial court.

To give a simple example, the Great Zhou Dynasty ruled the world with literature and never allowed the military attachés of the border towns to sit on the throne, which was to learn the lesson that the Tang Dynasty's feudal towns were strong, and the imperial court was unable to control the feudal towns due to the external importance and internal lightness. In fact, the Great Zhou Dynasty itself took advantage of this mistake in the late Tang Dynasty, and the Great Zhou Dynasty established by the first Taizu Guo Wei was born out of the feudal town. In such a situation, how can we not take strict precautions?

Therefore, this incident made Guo Bing very passive. In the end, it was his father who was wise, and he didn't believe in such rumors. In addition, Guo Bing took the initiative to enter the palace to hurt Chen's heart, and he wanted to commit suicide to prove his innocence, so this matter finally disappeared. But since then, Guo Bing has felt the suspicion from the imperial brother Guo Chong, and for the first time between the brothers there is a feeling of being far away from the mountains. This is different from the small conflict when I was a child, this time the conflict is destroying the trust between the two.

Afterwards, Guo Bing secretly investigated for a long time, although he did not clearly find out the source of the news and the manipulator behind the scenes, but all kinds of signs showed that it was the first fierce medicine that Lu Zhongtian gave himself. From this incident on, Guo Bing decided not to share the sky with Lu Zhongtian.

However, Lu Zhongtian was just like his name, and he was just like the sun at that time. was promoted from vice minister to prime minister, and he did several major things one after another, and Guo Bing knew that he was not his opponent, so he had to swallow his anger for the time being.

Three years later, Guo Bing found an opportunity. A corruption case involving a local official caught Guo Bing's attention. It was a small case of a small sentence of embezzlement of a few hundred taels of silver, which was originally just an ordinary case that could no longer be ordinary, but Guo Bing still seized this opportunity. Who called that the general judge Lu Zhongtian's nephew and son-in-law? Naturally, such things cannot be easily let go. So the case escalated layer by layer, from a corruption case to a case of official governance, going back several years, tracing back to how this general judge got into the office, how he got the official, and how he was promoted. In the end, the irregularities of the general judge's promotion were found.

The fact that this person was promoted by He Yuanqing, the servant of the Ministry of Officials, and was promoted to the top of the water also surfaced. Although this has nothing to do with Lu Zhongtian, Lu Zhongtian can't get rid of it. He Yuanqing personally confessed for the sake of Lu Zhongtian's face, and promoted his nephew and son-in-law in order to flatter Lu Zhongtian. A group of officials in the Imperial Observatory have never been afraid of heaven and earth, and they can't wait to bring down a big man every day to show that they are not idle, and when they learn about this, they immediately swarmed like bloodthirsty mosquitoes and flies. Guo Bing didn't even go out in person, and Lu Zhongtian resigned because he couldn't withstand the impeachment of these people every day.

It was also Guo Bing's first victory over Lu Zhongtian, and the first political victory in his life. Guo Bing also really realized that it was really fun to fight with others, especially the feeling of letting his enemies fall, which was simply refreshing.

That was also the first time in Lu Zhongtian's life that he fell from power, of course, his political determination was not enough, he failed to resist the bite of the officials psychologically, and he was not sophisticated and calm enough. In fact, the saint had no intention of blaming him at all, nor did he have any idea of punishment. After all, this matter was not instructed by Lu Zhongtian, but the people below just made their own decisions in order to pat themselves on the back. Even the crown prince Guo Chong openly supported Lu Zhongtian at that time, but Lu Zhongtian still chose to resign to settle the matter.

Guo Bing actually knew in his heart that Lu Zhongtian must know that he was behind the scenes, but it was actually not difficult to find out. But Guo Bing didn't care about this, he was immersed in the joy of victory and enjoyed this victory.

After Lu Zhongtian came to power, a group of cutting-edge officials quickly occupied important positions, including Fang Dunru, who is now the head of Songshan Academy. At that time, Fang Dunru was originally a speech official of the Yushitai, and he had a great reputation because he dared to speak out and dare to admonish, and he was admonished into the political affairs hall to serve as the governor. However, only a year has passed, and Prime Minister Feng Ziyue passed away due to illness, and when many people thought that Fang Dunru was expected to pay homage to the prime minister, the former emperor reactivated Lu Zhongtian as the prime minister.

This is really lively, many people in the political hall were the ones who impeached Lu Zhongtian in the first place, and Lu Zhongtian's return was destined to be unpeaceful in the court. This time, Lu Zhongtian seems to have experienced a lot more after a year of precipitation, and he ruthlessly purged the dissidents in the political hall. A number of policies were immediately repealed when he came to power. For this reason, Fang Dunru argued with reason, but Lu Zhongtian was unmoved.

Although Fang Dunru still had the right to speak in front of the Holy Lord, it was obvious that the Holy Lord was more inclined to Lu Zhongtian. Under these circumstances, Fang Dunru chose to resign and go into hiding. Although many people in the court retained, and even the emperor himself retained Fang Dunru, Fang Dunru's temper could not bend, he still left the capital and returned to Hangzhou, founded Songshan Academy, and never asked about the affairs of the imperial court again.

This also objectively consolidated Lu Zhongtian's power, and Lu Zhongtian regained control of the political hall and quickly took control of the situation.

For Guo Bing, this is naturally a huge blow. What's more, later, his brother, who was the crown prince, married Lu Zhongtian's daughter as a side concubine, Guo Bing understood that Lu Zhongtian was no longer something he could shake.

Twenty years ago, taking advantage of the opportunity of the bandits in Hangzhou, Guo Bing finally persuaded the emperor to leave the capital and come to Hangzhou to exterminate the bandits and stabilize the situation. Guo Bing left the capital by retreating, not only to avoid conflict with Lu Zhongtian, but also to leave a way back for himself. And Lu Zhongtian obviously didn't want to let go of Guo Bing, he bluntly said in front of the former emperor that the vassal king left Beijing all kinds of inappropriateness, but the former emperor obviously understood the contradiction between the two, and did not want the two to become fire and water, so he was unmoved. At the same time, Guo Bing also fought for strength, successfully suppressed bandits in Hangzhou, and drove a group of bandits out of the sea. And on the grounds of preventing the comeback of the bandits, he asked to sit in Hangzhou, and the emperor also agreed to the matter.

At this time, the rise of Yang Jun, the privy envoy of the central government, became a strong opponent of Lu Zhongtian, and Lu Zhongtian had to put aside the matter for the time being and transfer his energy to Yang Jun. And in the battle between the two, Guo Bing wisely chose neutrality, because he couldn't join forces with Yang Jun, and he knew that doing so would bury him. The vassal king and the privy envoy stand on the united front, which will force the saint to take action, and he can only watch and must not get involved. But Guo Bing knew that Lu Zhongtian had never forgotten him.

Lu Zhongtian's last two short resignations were also due to Yang Jun, and the two sides actually won and lost each other, so it can only be said that Lu Zhongtian had a slight advantage. Those two brief resignations were also just retreats into advances.

In view of this kind of entanglement with Lu Zhongtian, Guo Bing could not be silent when he was established as the crown prince. Anyone can be the prince, but Guo Xu, the king of Huai, cannot. Even if it is not the eldest prince Guo Mian, it is definitely not Guo Xu, otherwise once Guo Xu ascends the throne, the Liang Wangfu will be destroyed. In any case, Guo Bing couldn't let this happen.

This is also the reason why Guo Bing is depressed and restless.

In fact, if he also privy envoy Yang Jun joins forces, he may not be able to send King Jin to the throne of the crown prince, after all, in terms of reason and ancestral system, his own side occupies the commanding heights, and there will be a large number of people to follow. But the problem is that it's not that simple.

One of the biggest problems is that if you stand in line with King Jin and support King Jin, you are likely to disagree with your brother's opinion. Although it is a rule to establish a chief, it is obvious that the imperial brother is interested in King Huai. These attitudes are more or less revealed. Coupled with Lu Zhongtian's lobbying on the side, things will be tricky. openly going against the imperial brother not only destroys the relationship that Guo Bing has carefully maintained over the years, but also provokes unwarranted disasters.

But if he doesn't stand with the privy envoy Yang Jun, I'm afraid that Yang Jun will be difficult to support alone. Although Yang Jun is not easy to mess with, he is a well-known iron-blooded privy envoy, who made great achievements in the battle to completely exterminate the Western Xia more than 20 years ago, and leveled the northwest in one fell swoop, and is the mainstay of the court. But in the face of the imperial brother and Lu Zhongtian, he may still be difficult to deal with. He was born as a military general, and he did not have enough appeal to Wenchen, which would affect the decisions of others in the court and could not form sufficient power.

Guo Bing was very anxious and difficult to decide. But fortunately, the matter of establishing the crown prince is still just a rumor, and the saint obviously understands that this matter will cause a storm, and he does not seem to have decided to do it immediately. So it's a tricky matter, but there's still time. Maybe it may not be able to really be put on the table in two or three years, which is exactly the consistent style of the saint.

When the royal brother acts, he likes to let out the wind first, observe the movement secretly, and then act in a targeted manner. Guo Bing thinks that he should not jump out for the time being, do not expose his thoughts, and act when the time comes. Even if the royal brother asks in person, he has to be sloppy.