On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, powdery snowflakes flew down one after another, the majestic palace was once again dressed in white plain clothing, the willow trees turned into bloated silver bars, and the palace walls stretched out into the gray mist in the distance like a giant snake with a white back.

Daming Palace Zichen Palace, here is the closest palace from the inner palace, the emperor's imperial study is usually arranged here, the imperial study of the current emperor Li Department is located in the side hall of the Zichen Palace, composed of five or six rooms of all sizes, in addition to the normal books and classics, for the emperor to consult the Hanlin bachelor, the errand and waiter of the small eunuch, the personal guard of high martial arts, etc., these are the personnel who are resident in the imperial study.

The owner of the imperial study, Li Xian, is the supreme ruler of the Tang Empire today, and he has everything that a normal emperor should have, palaces, queens, concubines, dragon robes, pomp, etc., except for power, yes! Since he ascended the throne, he has not tasted power, and the Tang Dynasty politics are controlled by the seven great families, especially the right minister Cui Yuan, under his burly and fat figure, the Li family is like a candle that will be extinguished.

Therefore, for the Li family, the imperial study is purely an ornament, and he rarely comes here to deal with court affairs, but today is the first day of the first month of the sixteenth year of Qingzhi, and he unexpectedly appeared in the imperial study.

The imperial study had been warmed by the carbon basin, the air was a little dry, and a sickly blush appeared on Li Shi's pale face, he was about forty years old, the second son of the first emperor Suzong, his body was weak, and his long-term indulgence always made him seem tired.

Scattered on the large rosewood table are dozens of books that have just been delivered today, most of them are folded by various places for this year's warm winter, and the abnormal weather will inevitably affect the harvest of the coming year.

Li Department sighed, these excerpts are just for him to see, there have been the review of Pei Jun, the subordinate of the door, and the final approval of Cui Yuan, the middle book, and they have been approved by various departments for implementation, and what was shown to him was just a copy.

At this time, the confidant eunuch Ma Yingjun walked in quickly, and he reported in a low voice: "Your Majesty! Choi Sang-kook has arrived, see you outside. ”

Ma Yingjun is the third most powerful eunuch around the first emperor Suzong, second only to Yu Chaoen and Li Fuguo, was the confidant of Empress Zhang, sixteen years ago, Tang Suzong Li Heng was critically ill, Empress Zhang pseudo-edict ordered the prince to enter the palace, and took the opportunity to launch a palace coup, it was Ma Yingjun who contacted the support of Li Baoyu, the general of the Yulin Army, and killed Li Fuguo and the crown prince Li Yu in one fell swoop, and supported the Li line of the Yue King Li to ascend the throne with the support of Cui Yuan and Pei Zunqing and other important ministers.

It's a pity that people are not as good as heaven, and the treachery of the Hui people has shattered the ambition of the Li family, and also made Ma Yingjun's support come to naught, and now he is just a head of the chamberlain.

"Let him in!" Li Department waved his hand tiredly, and the place he came to the imperial study today was exactly what Cui Yuan requested.

After a while, Cui Yuan walked into the imperial study with a smile, knelt down and kowtowed heavily to Li Xian, "The old minister Cui Yuan gives His Majesty a New Year's greeting, and wishes Your Majesty all the best, and make my Tang Dynasty stronger and stronger." ”

Li stood up suddenly, but slowly sat down again.

Cui Yuan's New Year's message Li didn't take it to heart, but he knelt down and kowtowed but swept away the fatigue of Li Yuan, in his memory, Cui Yuan never knelt, what's going on today?

He raised his hand lightly and smiled: "Xiangguo is free from courtesy, sit down!" ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Cui Yuan sat down slowly, he glanced at the folds on the table, since Li entered the imperial study, it has been almost an hour now, he has only flipped through less than one book, Cui Yuan couldn't help but sneer secretly, an emperor who doesn't even care about farming, what else can he do?

"Your Majesty, the old minister came on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and there are two main things I want to discuss with Your Majesty."

"Xiangguo, but it doesn't hurt to say it."

Cui Yuan sighed and said: "First, the climate in the north is abnormal this year, and locust plagues and waterlogging are very likely to occur next spring. ”

Li Department yawned and said lazily: "Xiangguo will look at this matter!" There is no need to report it, what is the other thing? ”

Cui Yuan smiled slightly, "The second thing is that the battle of Longyou has been completed, but the soldiers in the army have not yet been rewarded, seeing that it is the New Year, the old minister heard that there are complaints in the army, saying that there is no rice at home, the minister is very uneasy, although Dengli Khan retreated north, but still in the Yinshan area, once the morale is low, I am afraid that the future will be endless, so the old minister drafted a list of rewards, please Your Majesty to see, if there is no objection, please Your Majesty will issue an edict today. ”

As he spoke, he took out a fold book from his arms and handed it to Li with both hands.

The reward in the Tang Dynasty should be evaluated by the Ministry of War according to the military performance list reported by the Sima of each army, and then reported to the province for pre-examination, and then discussed in the province of Zhongshu, and then transferred the opinions to the emperor for final approval, once the emperor approved, it should be drafted by the people of Zhongshu She, but the final seal is in the hands of Fu Baolang of Menxia Province, that is to say, in the end, it will be reviewed by Menxia Province, which is to prevent the dictatorship of Zhongshu Province.

This system of checks and balances of power is very strict, which is originally good, but after Zhang Jiuling dismissed the prime minister in the 25th year of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, Li Longji used Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong to gradually destroy this system of checks and balances in order to strengthen the imperial power, and the left minister became an ornament.

After the Anshi Rebellion and the Hui Rebellion, the family gradually grasped the power, and the seven families each held part of the power, and emptied the imperial power, especially the right minister Cui Yuan, who controlled the core power institutions such as Zhongshu Province, the Ministry of Officials, and the Criminal Department, as well as the supervision institutions such as the Yushi Observatory, and there were more than 200,000 troops in their hands, which can be described as monstrous, and the emperor Li was just a puppet, and his orders could not even come out of the Daming Palace.

So today, Cui Yuan bypassed the military department and Menxia Province, and directly handed the booklet of rewarding military merits to the Li department, just to use the emperor's intention to block the mouths of Pei Jun and Wei Ge.

Li took the booklet and flipped through it slightly, "Allocate 500,000 guan to reward military merits, including 400,000 guan for the Fengxiang army, and 100,000 for the Longyou and Shuofang armies," and most of the places for honors and other promotions were also given to the Fengxiang army.

Li Department quietly turned another page, but was stunned, this was actually a reward for meritorious ministers, and Wei Ge, the secretary of the military department, was crowned as the prince and the prince, and the three divisions of the Kaifu Yitong; promoted Cui Qinggong, the general of Jin Wuwei, to be the generalissimo of the expedition to the west, the left servant of Shangshu, and the Pingzhang of Tongzhongshumen......

Looking down further, Li Xian's heart jumped suddenly, and it was written below: Duan Xiushi, the assassin of Shengfengxiang County, is the envoy of Taiyuan Yin and Hedong Jiedu.

Duan Xiushi is a well-known royalist, in Suzong he had served as the envoy of Hexi Jiedu Shi and Anxi Four Towns Jiedu, and later due to the lack of troops, the imperial court decided to give up Anxi, Duan Xiushi was transferred back to the imperial court as a Zhongshu waiter, but was repeatedly squeezed out by Cui Yuan, and was demoted to Fengxiang County Assassin History.

At this time, Li had already understood Cui Yuan's true intentions, 'Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi', he wanted to use this Longyou campaign to stuff his younger brother Cui Qinggong into the cabinet, that is to say, Cui Yuan wanted to add another phase on the basis of the seven prime ministers of the cabinet, so that among the eight phases, two Cui, Yang, Wang, Cui Yuan has occupied four seats, as long as one of the other four supports him or remains neutral, Cui Yuan will have an advantage in the cabinet, so that he can be re-elected smoothly.

According to the agreement reached by the seven great families fifteen years ago, adding another cabinet member must be unanimously approved by seven people before it can be nominated, if Cui Yuan operates in a regular way step by step, it will not be passed at the joint cabinet meeting first, so Cui Yuan pushed himself out and issued an edict in the name of the emperor to forcibly add a cabinet member.

But what shocked Li was not this, but Cui Yuan had already seen through his unwilling to be lonely, but he couldn't trigger it, and it wasn't until this most critical moment that he suddenly pointed out Duan Xiushi, whose real purpose was to warn himself.

After being silent for a moment, Li Ji smiled faintly and said: "Xiangguo is still working for state affairs on the first day of the Lunar New Year, I am ashamed!" "After that, he picked up the Zhu pen, approved the word 'quasi' on the fold, and returned it to Cui Yuan.

"The Queen Mother was ill the day before yesterday, and I still have to rush to visit, so I won't stay in Xiangguo."

Cui Yuan took over the fold and bypassed the cabinet nomination, Cui Qinggong passed the first hurdle of entering the cabinet, and the other hurdle was that it had to be passed by the third reading at the New Year's court, which was also the only way for others to obstruct it, but it was easier than the joint cabinet meeting, and only more than half of the cabinet members needed to agree to pass the bill.

"The minister still has to deal with the matter of rice transfer, so I won't disturb Your Majesty."

Cui Yuan gave a deep salute and slowly exited the room under Ma Yingjun's greeting.

It wasn't until his figure disappeared that Li Xiang coldly said, 'Hmph!' After a while, he pondered for a moment, and immediately wrote a short message, handed it to another confidant eunuch, Chen Xianfu, and whispered: "You quickly send someone to send this letter to Zhang Ruohao, don't delay!" ”

Chen Xianfu took the letter and nodded, "The old slave understands, let's do it!" ”

Li Ji rubbed his hands, stood up and ordered: "Swing and go back to the palace!" ”

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