Soon, on June 15 of the sixth year of Wude, the half-monthly court visit was also carried out again, and officials above the ninth rank in the court also participated. And this time, everyone began to prepare for a routine court visit, and this time the court staff will discuss and solve a number of important matters, and then let Li Yuan discuss and deal with them on the spot. Next, Zhang Chao will also perform a handover this time, and this time he will further improve the personnel system.

"If there is something to do, if there is nothing to do, please go back to your respective yamen to work!" Li Yuan said.

And Zhang Chao took the initiative to come out, and then said: "Your Majesty, the minister has a play!" ”

"Oh? Zhang Chao Aiqing, what do you want to play? Li Yuan asked.

Zhang Chao immediately replied: "Your Majesty, the former minister was working in the Ministry of Officials, and found that the King of Qin wanted to recruit Du Ruhui, a hermit from Songshan Mountain, to join the army for the Tiance Mansion, and the minister thought it was inappropriate!" ”

When the ministers of the imperial court heard Zhang Chao's words, they were also a little surprised, because this Gongcao of the Tiance Mansion was Li Shimin's own subordinate officer, and generally only Li Shimin decided by himself, and there was no need for the officials to interfere. And before that, Li Yuan also took the initiative to agree to Li Shimin to recruit his own subordinate officials within the Tiance Mansion, and only needed to report to the Ministry of Officials after the decision, and the Ministry of Officials generally has no power to stop it. This not only represents Li Shimin, the subordinate official system of the King of Qin, but also represents the staff of Li Shimin, the King of Qin, so the officials dare not interfere. But now Zhang Chao, an official of the Ministry of Officials, actually took the initiative to intervene, which is simply too surprising. Isn't Zhang Chao afraid of Li Shimin's revenge?

And Li Shimin, who was standing at the top of the civil service, also looked at Zhang Chao with a surprised face, obviously not expecting Zhang Chao to take the initiative to oppose it. And this time, Li Shimin didn't expect that there would be extraneous branches in this period. Because this Du Chuke is Du Ruhui's younger brother, Du Ruhui was already his subordinate official, and Li Shimin hoped that Du Chuke would also come to assist him. In this way, Du Ruhui will work harder for himself, and when the time comes, the people of the Du family will be tied to the chariot with him. Now the situation of the unification of the world is very obvious, the Tang Dynasty will be unified soon, and Li Yuan will burp if it doesn't take many years, so Li Shimin has also begun to step up the search for talents. At this time, even if it doesn't belong to you, you can't let the enemy snatch it away. This is a battle for talent, talent is the primary productive force, this is not only understood by later generations, but also deeply understood by ancient people. Therefore, Li Shimin hopes to "circle" Du Chuke to avoid being dragged away by others. But now there are extraneous branches here in the Ministry of Officials, and Zhang Chao, a person who Li Shimin is very optimistic about, actually went against Li Shimin at this time?

"Oh? Why not? Li Yuan asked.

Zhang Chao immediately said: "Your Majesty, Du Chuke's brother Du Ruhui has already served in the Tiance Mansion, so the minister thinks it is not suitable for the two brothers to serve in the same yamen at the same time, which is easy to cause collusion." Therefore, in order to avoid suspicion, he also asked the emperor to arrange Du Chuke in another yamen. ”

"......" Countless officials in the imperial court were speechless.

Zhang Chao is a broken reason, there is really no reason, and he can find a few reasons. You must know that this Tiance Mansion is not a simple yamen, if it is an ordinary department, then it is natural for brothers to avoid suspicion, and brothers are indeed not suitable to stay in one department at the same time. However, now the Yamen of Tiance Mansion is actually different in nature, this Tiance Mansion is purely Li Shimin's factional staff body, representing a certain faction of Li Shimin, and everyone who joins Tiance Mansion is a member of Li Shimin's faction. And this Tiance Mansion simply uses an institution that has always been seated to indicate factions, not a department used to govern. Therefore, this Tiance Mansion will naturally not be subject to the regular departmental discipline, so it is not unusual for two brothers to serve in this department at the same time.

However, Zhang Chao actually used this as an excuse to refuse Du Chuke to enter Tiance Mansion, and Zhang Chao also consciously forgot that Tiance Mansion was not a simple yamen, but Li Shimin's staff organization. And Zhang Chao "deliberately" forgot his staff attributes, and instead regarded him as a regular yamen, so that the brothers were really not suitable to stay in a yamen.

"Well, that's true, since Du Ruhui is already an official of Tiance Mansion, his younger brother is naturally not suitable to serve in Tiance Mansion." Li Yuan said.

Li Shimin almost vomited blood, he finally knew what was going on with Zhang Chao, it turned out that Li Yuan signaled Zhang Chao to do this. In fact, this is Li Yuan, the emperor, deliberately beating himself, so he let Zhang Chao, Li Yuan's lackey, come out and bite people. Now many people in the court know that Zhang Chao is Li Yuan's lackey, and he specializes in biting people for Li Yuan. Now that Li Yuan is going to beat Li Shimin, it is incumbent on Zhang to come out as a pioneer.

"Your Majesty, the minister still has something to do. Recently, the prince recruited Wei Zheng to wash the horse for the prince, and the prince washed the horse is the official position in charge of the classics in the Tai**, and Wei Zheng once served as a Taoist priest and belongs to the Taoist people. Therefore, the minister thinks that a Taoist person is not suitable for the official position of managing the Confucian classics, so what do the Confucian sages think? Therefore, the minister asked the emperor to cancel Wei Zheng's expedition and appoint him separately. Zhang Chao said.

"Grass, crazy, aren't you?" Many officials scolded in their hearts.

Everyone felt that Zhang Chao was crazy, he had just "bitten" Li Shimin, the king of Qin, and now he actually "bitten" the prince Li Jiancheng again, specifically targeting the subordinate officials around Li Jiancheng. Just cleaned up a Du Chuke, and the other side immediately came to the crown prince with a knife, didn't this offend both the prince Li Jiancheng and the king of Qin, Li Shimin? When the time comes, either of them may become emperors, then you two will be offended, and then no matter who becomes the emperor, they will not be able to clean you up!

However, a small number of officials were amazed, obviously surprised by Zhang Chao's behavior.

"I just took a bite of Li Shimin, and now I have to bite Li Jiancheng to maintain balance." Zhang Chao thought in his heart.

If ordinary officials naturally think that Zhang Chao has offended Li Shimin and offended Li Jiancheng again, it is an act of seeking death. But only really smart people will know that Zhang Chao is actually maintaining balance. Zhang Chao hit Li Shimin, which is equivalent to making many people think that he is biased towards the crown prince Li Jiancheng. And in case Li Shimin becomes the emperor in the future, Zhang Chao will inevitably be excluded. But if Zhang Chao strikes Li Jiancheng again after hitting Li Shimin, it is tantamount to maintaining a balance, so that both Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng can see how "helpless" Zhang Chao is. Because Zhang Chao is not a person from Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng, he is just a simple "imperial party", he will just obey the emperor's will, he is just the emperor's lackey, and he will bite whoever the emperor asks him to bite.

Now many people in the court know that Li Yuan is going to start weakening the power of his two sons. And after Zhang Chao helped Li Yuan weaken Li Shimin's power, he then took a bite on Li Jiancheng's side again, which made both sides suffer certain losses. In this way, both parties can also "psychological balance" and not be unhappy in their hearts. If it is just a blow to one side, on the other hand, it will definitely hate Zhang Chao very much. But now that both sides are fighting, Zhang Chao has no intention of favoring either side.

And Zhang Chao's approach is mainly to show that he is an "imperial party", to show that he is only loyal to the reigning emperor, and he is not kind to others. So this is the safest, and now Zhang Chao has bitten the crown prince Li Jiancheng and the king of Qin Li Shimin in order to safeguard the interests of Emperor Li Yuandu, so that as the prince and the king of Qin, not only will he not have an opinion, but he will feel at ease about this behavior. Because they will work towards the emperor's throne in the future, although they will not be happy about this kind of thing to protect the interests of the incumbent emperor, they will definitely not be disgusted. Comparing their hearts to their hearts, they all want to target the emperor in the future, so safeguarding the interests of the incumbent emperor is naturally safeguarding their future interests, and they will not object.

So even if they knew that Zhang Chao was the dog that Li Yuan released to bite them, they would not have an opinion. After all, behind Zhang Chao is the emperor Li Yuan, so they want to hate and hate the emperor, instead of thinking about using Zhang Chao as a lackey to vent their anger. Anyway, no matter which of them becomes the emperor at that time, Zhang Chao will continue to serve the new emperor, and Zhang Chao will not be involved in the battle for the throne between them.

Zhang Chao was also a person who had mixed with officialdom in his previous life, and of course he knew the cruelty of political struggle, especially the struggle to seize the heir. In the later republican era, the struggle for the successor to the head of state was also very fierce, and all the factions fought desperately for that position. But fortunately, the political struggle of later generations has been much more "civilized", and even if it fails, it will not lose its head. But ancient times are different, the political struggle in ancient times was very cruel, and the failure to win the heir is likely to follow the loss of his head, in this case, Zhang Chao will not play with them.

Anyway, Zhang Chao is confident, and with his own ability, no matter who becomes the emperor at that time, he will appoint himself. Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng are actually both handsome for a while, and Li Jiancheng is not as bad as in the history books of the Tang Dynasty in later generations, so Zhang Chao will not completely think that Li Shimin is the true son of heaven according to the original history. In the original history, Li Shimin was able to launch the Xuanwumen coup, which was very accidental. So Zhang Chao will not take risks with Li Shimin, as long as he can become the emperor on either side, he can do things honestly, and don't take risks to get anything from the dragon.