There are no eternal friends in the world, there are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests, this sentence is applicable everywhere, especially in the court, where there are people, there is fighting!

Wang Xijue has been in officialdom for many years, so he is naturally clear about this point.

Especially in the cabinet, the road of struggle is simply murderous without blood, and his statement can be regarded as offending the emperor.

Glancing at the three ministers behind him, Wang Xijue's face couldn't help but be gloomy.

Today's cabinet is basically divided into four parts.

Needless to say, Wang Xijue is the first assistant of the cabinet, the most relied on confidant minister of the first emperor, and he has the merit of strongly advising the throne, and he is also the minister of the first emperor, the elder of the four dynasties, alone in the cabinet, he does not need to form an alliance with anyone at all, and he can subdue other ministers in the cabinet by his own strength alone.

Since the previous assistant Shen has always gone, Shen Li and Zhu Geng have tended to form an alliance for various reasons, which can be regarded as a faction.

The power of this faction in the cabinet is large, and then it is the second assistant Zhen Zhen Ji has his own faction, but Zhen Zhen Ji is different from Wang Xijue, although he is a second assistant, but his influence and prestige are not as good as Wang Xijue, and the new promotion to the cabinet is to win over a few cabinet ministers anyway.

However, the situation of Zhen Zhenji is different, his predecessor is the Zuodu Imperial History, and he has a very large influence among the officials of the Kedao Dynasty, so in fact, if you just want to gain a foothold, you don't need to put too much effort into it.

Among the remaining courtiers in the cabinet, Zhu Geng and Shen Li have already formed an alliance, and it is difficult for him to win them over, and Li Tingji, as the leader of the Imperial Party, although he is now only the last ranked scholar of the East Pavilion, but he is absolutely unwilling to let him be subordinate.

Therefore, Zhenzhenji simply formed his own faction, although in this way, the right to speak in the cabinet has been greatly reduced, but it is not without benefits.

Because the biggest advantage of not having a position is that you can change your position at any time!

Just like the current situation, Wang Xijue could see that Shen Li was actually unwilling to fight the emperor with Zhu Geng, but the two of them were in the same boat, so he had to come forward.

On the other hand, he can join any faction at any time according to his own interests, and obtain the best political capital by virtue of the strong influence of the second assistant.

To some extent, he is a loose force in the cabinet.

When the emperor had not yet succeeded to the throne, he often stood with Li Tingji and spoke together, which could be regarded as a cooperative help, so as to win the favor of the imperial party.

And when he entered the palace to admonish the mining tax, he kept pace with Wang Xijue.

Now, he can still stand with Shen Zhu and the others, this is the advantage of not having a position, he can temporarily join any faction at any time, and he will not be regarded as a ruthless and unrighteous person who has defected, but will be regarded as dedicated to the country.

But how can the dispute in the cabinet be so simple?

In other words, Zhen Zhenji wants to pick peaches, why are Shen Zhu and the others so cooperative and not resisting at all?

Even if it was to convince the emperor, this reason was not enough.

They must have come together for a common reason.

This reason is not only the mining tax, but more importantly, Shousuke-sama who stands at the forefront!

Who is Wang Xijue, but in an instant, he understands why they want to form an alliance temporarily.

To put it bluntly, his voice in the cabinet is too heavy!

Take the matter of today's court meeting as an example, if you change a cabinet minister, or even a weaker first assistant, it is impossible to hide the content of the new emperor's first edict between the enthronement ceremony.

It is the duty of the entire cabinet to send an edict, not to a single minister, and it is the right of the cabinet minister to hear about secrets.

Only an authoritative Shoufu like Wang Xijue can block all the news.

Although he has only one person, no faction in the cabinet can compete with him alone, and although the various factions in the cabinet can temporarily form an alliance in limited interests, such an alliance is extremely easy to break, take today's events as an example.

If it were placed in ordinary times, Shen Zhu and the others would never swallow their anger, you know, this is a great achievement in the removal of the mine tax!

They have been painstakingly arranging for so long, how can they be willing to give it to Zhen Zhenji.

In such a situation, more often than not, both sides are unwilling to compromise, and it is a big deal to break up, anyway, the mining tax is not a day or two, and then find an opportunity in the future.

And the reason why they formed an alliance was actually to fight against Wang Xijue.

In other words, it is to curb the continued expansion of this Motosuke-sama's power!

In fact, before today, no one had thought of doing this, because a person at the level of Wang Xijue had almost reached the pinnacle of the human courtiers, and it was impossible to continue to go up.

He can suppress the discordant voices of the cabinet on his own, but he cannot stand up to the entire cabinet on his own.

This is the maximum limit that an emperor can tolerate.

Once this limit is exceeded, it will become a threat to the imperial power, and there can only be one person in the entire imperial court, and if any courtier goes to this point, he will inevitably be wiped out by the emperor.

Therefore, it should be said that the situation in the cabinet has been maintained in a delicate balance.

But today, everything that happened at the court meeting made several ministers keenly feel that the balance was broken!

Yuansuke's already huge power is showing signs of expansion again......

And this sign comes from the new monarch who has just ascended the throne!

Motosuke and Shin-kun have formed an alliance!

This is a very dangerous signal for the courtiers of the cabinet.

At the very least, this means that their power will be infinitely weakened, and Wang Xijue is already strong in the cabinet, if he can get the emperor's unreserved support.

Then he will be in the cabinet in the future, I am afraid that he will become a man of his word.

At that time, don't say that there are three ministers, even if all the ministers are combined, they may not be able to compete with him.

These people didn't know what kind of agreement had been reached between Wang Xijue and Xinjun, but they knew that they must not let the two come together.

Otherwise, their right to speak from now on will be suppressed to the extreme!

It is on this basis that Shen Zhu and Zhen Zhenji will come together, regardless of past suspicions, or even about being robbed of credit, in order to maintain their status and power.

In this way, there are only two ways in front of Wang Xijue, the first is to agree to the deposition of the mining tax, but it is obvious that the emperor does not want to deal with the mining tax at this time, so in this way, the short-term alliance between him and the emperor will inevitably fall apart, which is what these cabinet ministers want to see the most.

The second way, to be consistent with the emperor, is to delay the mining tax, but there are two disadvantages to doing so.

First, the scourge of the mining tax was the unanimous perception of the courtiers, and if he expressed a different opinion on this matter, it would inevitably shake his prestige among the courtiers.

Second, there are more people who can see the situation above the court, at least now in the palace, the cabinet assistants, and the six Shangshu are definitely clear about the Tao in it.

The alliance between the Emperor and the First Auxiliary brought a threat not only to the cabinet, but also to the civil and military officials, especially the Six Shangshu, who would never want to see such a situation.

So it is conceivable that if Wang Xijue really expresses a different opinion on the matter of mining tax, then he will face the impeachment of the entire court.

Which is more important is a dilemma!

It should be said that Wang Xijue's guess was right, and the reason why Zhen Zhenji stood up was because he saw this, but he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he heard Wang Xijue bow his head and approve of the mine tax.

If this old Shoufu really resisted and did not let go, with his prestige and the support of the emperor, it is really unknown who will kill the deer......

After all, these Shangshu lords behind them may not really risk turning against the new emperor to impeach Wang Xijue.

As long as the old head is soft, everything will be easy.

In this way, there will inevitably be a rift between the emperor and the old chief, and as long as the two do not unite, they can retain the power in their hands.

By now, the situation has basically settled, and Zhen Zhenji's face couldn't help but show a smile, Shousuke has said so, presumably the emperor will not continue to insist.

This move kills two birds with one stone, not only interrupting the alliance between the emperor and the first assistant, but also taking advantage of the situation to take advantage of the deposition of the mining tax, which is really a stroke of genius.

But he forgot that his plan was old-fashioned, but Wang Xijue, as the first assistant, was really so calculating?

"Your Majesty, the disaster of the mining tax, all because of the economic prosperity of our dynasty, the law of enslavement is not complete, the mining tax is stopped, in order to enrich the treasury, the old minister asks Your Majesty, re-implement the whip law of the former first assistant Zhang Gongjuzheng, please Your Majesty's permission!"

Lao Shoufu took a deep breath, and out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the stunned look of a heavy minister, but his voice became more and more full of anger!