The sudden dismissal of Bi Yutong, who had been the prime minister for many years, was undoubtedly a major event that shook the entire imperial political arena.

And the reason why Bi Yutong was dismissed, most of the military and political leaders of the empire can guess what the reason is.

Among them, the key words are just two words: Lichu!

Although Bi Yutong's dismissal was nominally to let him go home to recuperate, no matter how much he tried to cover it up, it could not hide the true meaning, that is, it was related to the Lichu trend in recent days.

Since the birth of the third prince Lin Ye a few days ago, there have been many people who have asked for the establishment of the prince, and the most powerful of them is Hong Bobei, the co-organizer of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and it is not a secret that Hong Bobei is the confidant of Bi Yutong's faction.

Hong Bo's northward fold is not much different from Bi Yutong's personal folding, which can be regarded as publicly announcing his attitude towards the affairs of the reserve to Emperor Lin Zhe.

But what many people didn't expect was that Lin Zhe still maintained a consistent tough attitude towards the matter of the prince, and did not allow the intervention of his subordinates at all, and any courtiers who dared to publicly express their opinions on the matter of the prince, and even formed some kind of political public opinion to force Lin Zhe to make a decision, were all suppressed by Lin Zhe.

On the 29th, Bi Yutong was dismissed, and even the political center of Nanjing could not stay, and he returned to his hometown in Shaoxing in the evening accompanied by officials from the personnel department of the Secretariat.

On the morning of the next day, Hong Bobei, the co-minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, was transferred to Gansu to serve as the political envoy of the country. If you want to be transferred to a locality, you have to be the governor of a province at the very least. But now he is a political envoy, and he is basically back to the position he was a few years ago. And it's even worse than before, because of the ordinary county, the position of the prefect is the same as the upper government, the middle government, and the lower government, and the provinces are also different according to the importance of each province, for example, the same provincial governor, but the political status of Xue Huan, the governor of Jiangsu, is higher than that of ordinary ministers, and Xue Huan still has the title of 'Cabinet Associate Minister'. His position as governor of Jiangsu can only be regarded as simple. As for the governor of Gansu, his political status is far inferior to that of a co-minister in the cabinet, let alone a political envoy of Gansu.

Hong Bobei's transfer this time is really demoted, and considering that he is nearly sixty years old, that is to say, if there is no miracle in this life, he does not have to expect to re-enter the cabinet or even serve as a minister, basically he can only be in the position of deputy provincial political envoy until Zhishi.

In addition to Hong Bobei, many other high-ranking officials who also wrote to meddle in the affairs of the Lichu were either dismissed or demoted, and most of them were directly dismissed. For example, Shi Shenlin, the assistant president of the Supreme Court who clearly designated the law of succession to the throne, was dismissed, and Ye Guangcheng, the director of the Jingshi Supervision Office, who requested the appointment of the third prince Lin Ye as the crown prince, was dismissed.

And some high-ranking officials who only suggested establishing a prince earlier and did not clearly express their support for a certain prince or a certain inheritance system were demoted, such as Zhao Gaoling, director of the Salt and Tea Department of the Ministry of Finance, who was quite unlucky. He just saw so many people writing to ask for a reserve, and he also followed the trend with a fold, but he didn't say anything about the reserve. Rather, he said that the empire could not be left without a foundation for a day, and respectfully asked the emperor to determine the foundation of the country as soon as possible. However, it was because of this excerpt that he was demoted to the prefect of a certain inferior prefecture in Guizhou.

When he left Jingshi and went to Guizhou, he regretted all his intestines. It's not that he didn't know that all the officials who dared to make suggestions on the affairs of the prince in the past few years had no good end, but at that time he felt that the reason why the emperor did not establish a prince a few years ago was because he was inclined to the eldest succession system, and now that the queen gave birth to a son, it was natural for the prince to become a prince.

Unfortunately, he guessed wrong!

And politics, once you take a wrong step, then there is only an abyss left ahead, and it belongs to the kind of thing that has to jump if you don't jump.

In the first half month of 1864, the imperial political arena set off drastic changes because of the turmoil of the establishment of the imperial reserve!

In less than 10 days, Prime Minister Bi Yutong was dismissed, Hong Bobei, assistant minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, was demoted, and a number of officials at or above the level of various ministries and bureaus were dismissed or demoted.

However, this is not the end of the matter, affected by the dismissal and demotion of colleagues and subordinates, and some other high-ranking officials are also affected.

The political struggle is never alone, but a dozen of the kind of large areas, this Bi Yutong was dismissed, Hong Bobei was belittled, and even the officials with this faction were unlucky, even if Lin Zhe didn't do it himself, but their political opponents, such as Guo Longyun and Jiang Daoquan, they would not let go of this opportunity to beat the water dogs.

In January 1864, the imperial political scene continued to fluctuate, and in a month, more than 50 percent of officials above the department level were affected, or transferred, demoted, dismissed, etc., and the top leaders in the local provinces of the empire, that is, the governors of the provinces, also changed, among which the most influential was none other than the entry of Xue Huan, the governor of Jiangsu, into the cabinet.

With the departure of Prime Minister Bi Yutong, the empire could not always be without a prime minister, so on January 6, Xue Huan, the governor of Jiangsu, was ordered to enter Beijing, and then he acted for cabinet affairs as the former 'assistant minister of the cabinet'.

On the 25th of January, he was given the title of earl, a mansion, a special carriage and other rewards, and the next day, on the 26th, he was appointed Chancellor of the Empire.

Xue Huan was finally awarded the post of Imperial Prime Minister, which means that the vigorous political turmoil has come to an end!

In this political turmoil that lasted for a month, the political factional forces accumulated by Bi Yutong for many years in the past were almost swept away, and most of the subordinates who were friends with Bi Yutong and Bi Yutong in previous years were kicked out of the political center, and this group of people was actually not a lot, just the director, there were more than 20 officials above the political envoy, including only the governor.

After Bi Yutong's political faction was completely wiped out, the political factions of Jiang Daoquan, Guo Longyun, Xue Huan and others swallowed all the vacated political interests.

Among them, the biggest profit is naturally Xue Huan, who has lived in the place for a long time.

But when it comes to competing for the position of Prime Minister. He also secretly had serious conflicts with Guo Longyun and Jiang Daoquan, especially Guo Longyun.

He and Guo Longyun used to be political allies. But with Bi Yutong being dismissed by Lin Zhe because of the turmoil in Lichu, the vacated position of prime minister is what they are determined to get.

Although it is said that it is Lin Zhe's decision to make who is the prime minister of this cabinet. But in fact, the battle between the two in the secret is still very fierce.

Now Xue Huan has won and become the prime minister, but he and Guo Longyun are no longer allies in the past, but have become political rivals.

To a certain extent, their antagonism was still Lin Zhe's single-handed, and he didn't want to see Guo Longyun and Xue Huan continue to maintain an alliance.

Just like in the past, he deliberately divided and created contradictions between Bi Yutong, Guo Longyun, Jiang Daoquan, Xue Huan and others. Now he has also created conflicts and contradictions between Guo Longyun and Xue Huan.

As a ruler, it doesn't matter whether your courtiers are talented and capable, the most important thing is that you have to firmly control the political situation.

Because you are the object of allegiance of all your courtiers, not a minister or leader, and when your men are united and around a leader, then your throne is in danger.

Before the dismissal of Bi Yutong. In addition to Bi Yutong's standing up in the affairs of the reserve and causing a bad impact, it is also related to Bi Yutong's increasing prestige.

The first is the affairs of the Lichu, Lin Zhe has already determined his own Lichu phalanx in his early years, that is, 'selecting talents'. And to see whether a certain prince is qualified enough to inherit the throne, then it takes time to observe, so Lin Zhe wants to delay the time of the prince. At least wait until several of my sons are in their teens and can make a preliminary observation of their personality and ability.

Now. Too early!

Whoever wants to force Lin Zhe to establish a reserve at this time, then it is the object that Lin Zhe needs to suppress!

Meantime. It is also related to Bi Yu being the uncle of Queen Chen Jing!

Among the many concubines in the harem, only Queen Chen Jing is a person with a huge background, although the rest of the concubines are also scholarly and from official families, but they do not have an uncle of the prime minister, let alone the prime minister, even if they are relatives of bureau-level officials.

However, Chen Jing is different, her uncle Bi Yu is also the prime minister.

If Bi Yutong is allowed to continue to hold a high position, and wait for Chen Jing's son to grow up in a few years, then it will cause some trouble in the succession to the throne.

For the sake of the future succession to the throne, Bi Yutong must step down!

In addition, it is also related to the growing prestige and power of Bi Yutong, who has been in power for many years, and has been the head of the civil service in this system since the time of Yu Shengjun, and has been the post of Imperial Prime Minister since 1857.

It's been more than six years now!

During this time, the political forces led by Bi Yutong have developed too much, and they need to be suppressed and suppressed.

In addition, the issue of succession between the old and the new has been taken into account.

The empire has been established for many years, and those officials also want to continue to rise, for example, Xue Huan has been the governor of Jiangsu for many years, and other officials also need to be promoted.

And there are so many positions in the officialdom, which makes Bi Yu and others always occupy the position, what do you let other officials do?

Sometimes a political storm is created not because the officials have committed a crime, but because they have occupied the position for too long, and it is time to free up for someone else to sit down.

Many reasons led Lin Zhe to decide to take down Bi Yutong, not only to take Bi Yutong down, but also to take down many officials from Bi Yutong's faction.

At the same time, in order to solve the problem of subsequent official retirement, Lin Zhe also deliberately asked the Organization Department to formulate a system of officials, stipulating the age of officials and the age of promotion.

For example, the age limit for ordinary officials is 60 years old, while the age limit for senior officials such as governors, ministers, co-organizers, assistant cabinet ministers, and prime ministers is 65 years old.

If an ordinary official has reached the age of Zhishi and is in good health, he can apply to work for another three years, and if he is a high-ranking official above the governor level, it is decided by the emperor himself.

This is to prevent a large number of old men in the officialdom from occupying positions and refusing to leave.

At the beginning of 1864, imperial officialdom continued to fluctuate, but this situation changed after Xue Huan officially became prime minister, and the imperial political scene soon returned to calm.

In February of that year, just after the Spring Festival, a large group of officials in Nanjing were busy again, not only them, but also those generals of the military, and the reason why they were so busy was because Lin Zhe would go to some provinces and cities to inspect after the Spring Festival.

On the 18th day of the first lunar month, Lin Zhe appeared at the dock of the Nanjing Navy Port with Fang Defei, and they were about to board the ship and then go to Shanghai under the escort of the navy to inspect it. (To be continued.) )