The ministers withdrew from the Qianqing Palace one after another, and everyone was really tired after playing the crying scene for so long.

Empress Zhang, who was really crying, was also tired.

As the crown prince, Zhu Houzhao naturally wanted to guard the spirit of Emperor Hongzhi, so he went to bed in the Qianqing Palace.

At lunch, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but ask Liu Jin: "What about Wang Yue?" ”

The power of the Ming Empire is composed of the celebrant and the cabinet, the master of ceremonies is the prime minister of the inner court, and the head of the cabinet is the prime minister of the outer court.

Now that Zhu Houzhao has met Liu Jian, the first assistant of the cabinet of the outer court, he naturally cannot ignore the number one person in the inner court, that is, Wang Yue, the eunuch who holds the seal of the celebrant eunuch.

"Back to the emperor, ancestor, no, the prince fainted because he heard that the emperor of Daxing had died, and he hasn't woken up yet, so he will see you in the future", Liu Jin replied.

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but smile, thinking that this Wang Yue was more dizzy than his own son, he had been awake for so long after hearing that Emperor Hongzhi had died and fainted, why was he still dizzy.

Although Zhu Houzhao did not see Wang Yue, he could also guess that Wang Yue was definitely not a good bird, otherwise he would not be able to prevent the death of Emperor Hongzhi as a prime minister of the inner court.

Zhu Houzhao didn't say much, but only called Liu Jin over: "In the name of your Liu Jin, go find ten or eight beauties to make the momentum bigger, just say that His Royal Highness the crown prince is too sad, find a few beauties to relieve the crown prince and drink." ”

"Emperor, although the ministers are gone, they are not blind and deaf, and they are in a hurry to find the beauty now, and they will let them know," Liu Jin said.

"I just want them to know that the ministers who have placed eyeliner around me will definitely know, but the ministers who have not placed eyeliner naturally don't know, I just want to make them look like they want to see, and let them know that my father has died, and I, the crown prince, am just sad for a while, but my nature is still playful and unintentional to intervene in the government."

Zhu Houzhao smiled and said.

Liu Jin is not a stupid person, and after listening to Zhu Houzhao's words, he also understood, and hurriedly began to personally take the other Seven Tigers to the major palaces to search for beauties.

Soon, Liu Jin and the Eight Tigers took a dozen or so delicate palace ladies to the Xinuan Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace.

Seeing this, Zhu Houzhao hurriedly said: "Light all the candles in Xinuan Pavilion, let them all dance by the door, you come in with me!" ”

Thereupon.

The whole Qianqing Palace Xinuan Pavilion suddenly brightened as day, more than a dozen palace ladies stood by the door and twisted their waists, their dancing figures were reflected on the window screen, and Rao was a hundred steps away and could be seen like a fairy swaying figure.

But in the Xinuan Pavilion, Zhu Houzhao didn't look at the dozen or so palace ladies at this time, and even asked people to directly block the dozen or so palace ladies with a screen.

Zhu Houzhao looked at the "Eight Tigers" standing in front of him with a serious face: "Do you think that I am about to become the emperor, you have been by my side for so long, you will definitely be promoted and knighted, and in the future, you will have the final say in this inner court, and any celebrant and imperial horse supervisor will become yours?" ”

After speaking, Zhu Houzhao picked up the tea: "I can't help but think too early, it's not that I don't want to promote you, you must have seen it today, the celebrant has been controlled by Wang Yue, Zhang Yu and other old eunuchs, and they and the cabinet people wear a pair of pants, do you think they will let you take the position?" ”

After Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, he glanced at Liu Jin and the others, and he found that Liu Jin and the others did not show surprise because they suddenly became serious, and he couldn't help but secretly think in his heart, it seems that Zhu Houzhao in history is not really so simple, at least the few eunuchs around him know that their masters are simply pretending in front of people, otherwise these eunuchs would not look so plain.

Liu Jin was the first to stand up at this time: "What the emperor said is that Zhang Yute, the master of ceremonies, is not a thing, he didn't help the emperor first, but went to help the three pavilion elders first, I really don't know whose slave he is!" ”

Zhu Houzhao smiled slightly, he didn't expect Liu Jin to also see the clues from Zhang Yu's behavior, and thought in his heart, this Liu Jin can also be regarded as a person who knows the subtleties, no wonder he can achieve great things in the future, and he has to use him if he wants to control the power of the court now.

"Liu Jin is right, this Zhang Yu doesn't know where his knees are bent, and I won't spare him in the future! But I don't think it's that simple! You are all my closest people, you are nothing without me, if I sit on the throne, you will be one person under ten thousand people, so now you have to follow me to pull down those who sit on top of us, understand? ”

Zhu Houzhao asked again after speaking.

"Understood!" The Eight Tigers replied in unison.

Among them, Zhang Yong stood up first: "Emperor, just speak, what do you want us to do?" ”

"Time is urgent, a little more delay will be a little more accident, I make a long story short, now, Emperor Daxing has just died, after a twenty-seven days of mourning, I can choose a day to ascend the throne, and during this time, the government will definitely enter a period of stagnation, all forces have not yet been launched, we have to take advantage of this to strike first!

Fortunately, you are not in an important position now, and your actions are not easy to be noticed, Liu Jin, you have always been good at making friends with literati, and now I want you to take advantage of the great mourning period when hundreds of officials come and go to the palace ban to contact Wenchen more, and find a few people who are willing to form a party with you, these Jinshi masters are not fools, they know who is behind you, and they will naturally make friends with you if they are willing to help me, especially Jiao Fang, the left waiter of the Ministry of Officials, and Xu Jin, the left waiter of the Ministry of War, Xu Jin, Ma Wensheng does not have to go there, he is a veteran of the Four Dynasties, and he is a big man, and it is easy to be found when he goes to him. ”

"And Zhang Yong, you have always known a lot about military affairs, so you went to make friends with a few noble and military ministers, and the twelve regiments and battalions and fifty percent of the soldiers and horses all walked around;

Then, it is Gu Dayong, you are good at drinking and chivalrous, find some reliable people in the rivers and lakes, and sneak into a few big eunuchs in the inner court and the elders of the cabinet of the outer court to inquire about the news, I hope that when the time comes, I can know which room they sleep in every night and eat a few bowls of rice. ”

"Ma Yongcheng, you send someone to follow up with Zhang Yu, the celebrant and the celebrant Bingbi, the right Tongzheng Shi Qin of the Zhangtai Hospital, Liu Wentai, the imperial physician Gao Ting, and these people, these people will definitely escape from the capital in the future, I don't want to let them go easily!"

"Gao Feng, you go to the forbidden soldiers to walk around more, I hope that when I let you take charge of the forbidden soldiers, no forbidden soldiers will not listen to my transfer!"

"Qiu Ju, you immediately go to the West Garden to choose a good place and build a separate garden, I will live in it then!" This North Garden is named Leopard Room, and it is said to the outside world that I want to build a Hundred Beast Garden! ”

"Luo Xiang and Wei Bin will stay by my side for the time being, and they will be of great use to you when the time comes!"

As soon as Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, Luo Xiang stood up: "Emperor, these are all going to cost money, and we don't have much money we have accumulated over the years, so I'm afraid that we will have to use internal money when the time comes." ”

Zhu Houzhao knew that the inner treasury that Luo Xiang was referring to was the silver of the inner transport warehouse, but the inner transport warehouse belonged to the household department, so Zhu Houzhao had to go through the household department if he wanted to use the internal treasury, and even had to disturb the inner court, because the palm seal eunuch who was in charge of the inner transport warehouse was now also Wang Yue's person.

In order not to let these people in power in the inner court and the outer court know their purpose, Zhu Houzhao does not want to use the internal funds now, and as far as he knows, the internal funds do not have much silver.

The emperors of the Ming Dynasty were not poor, and a little money would be used by civil officials.

"As for the money, I will find a way, you use the money we have saved first, and I will earn the silver at that time." Zhu Houzhao said.

The only thing Zhu Houzhao can trust now is the "Eight Tigers", so he has arranged for these Eight Tigers one by one what he thinks is the most urgent task at present.

Zhu Houzhao knew that the main threats to his imperial power now were the three cabinet scholars and the eunuchs of the inner court, Wang Yue, Zhang Yue and other ceremonial eunuchs.

Originally, these two forces were used by the emperor to check and balance each other to protect the imperial power, but once these two forces colluded together, they would directly threaten the imperial power or even suppress the imperial power.

Therefore, after thinking about it carefully, Zhu Houzhao decided to eradicate all these ministers and cabinet ministers who were colluding together, and then re-establish the system of checks and balances.

But the power of Wang Yue and Liu Jian and others in the DPRK and China is also intertwined, and Zhu Houzhao knows that he will not be able to defeat them in a short period of time by relying on only a few eunuchs, and can only unite some internal and external officials who are dissatisfied with the inner court and the cabinet.

Today in the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Houzhao can already see that Liu Jian and other cabinet ministers are not single-handedly covering the sky in the entire civil official group, nor are they without political enemies, so this also gives him an opportunity.

As for the inner court, Zhu Houzhao can guess that no matter how Wang Yue and Zhang Yu cover the sky in the inner court, there must be people who oppose them.