The maple leaves dye the mountains red, warm and empty, and in the late autumn season, it is warm and inspiring.

In a grassland in the Royal West Garden, on the slightly yellowish grass, Ye Zhao is playing with several ministers, similar to a ball game of golf, with endless grasslands and blue lake waves, which is really open-minded.

The ministers present were Zhou Jingshan, the right minister of the State Council, and the vice premiers Zheng Zhen and Li Hongzhang.

Accompanying Ye Zhao, dressed in a slim outfit, was Rong'er, who had just given birth to a prince.

When the matchmaker came with the good news, Sava gave birth to a princess first, a month later, Rong'er gave birth to the first baby boy for the royal family, and a few days later, Zhu Sisi gave birth to a second prince.

The royal people are prosperous, and the whole country celebrates. With the current conservation conditions of the Imperial Medical Bureau and the living habits of the royal family, the princes and princesses will certainly not die as easily as the previous dynasty.

At a time when good news is frequent, the news of Li Xiaocun's illness inevitably casts a trace of uncertainty on the imperial political scene.

This minister, who has followed Ye Zhao since the incident in Guangzhou, has become ill from fatigue, and he has passed the age of sixties, so it is difficult to see the improvement of this bedridden illness.

The three ministers who are playing with Ye Zhao today are the three imperial political bigwigs who are most likely to succeed Li Xiaocun as the prime minister of the Imperial Government.

It has long been rumored that the emperor intends to abolish the distinction between the left and right, and the Imperial Government Council has set up a prime minister and three prime ministers and vice ministers, which have since become customized and written into the imperial charter.

On the fifth anniversary of the founding of the empire, the emperor also intended to revise and improve the charter and further promote the plan of elected political envoys throughout the country.

While playing the ball, the emperor told the three of them that Jinling would be designated as a pilot, and all the councilors of the Jinling Council would be elected by citizens with the right to vote, and the people of Jinling, citizens with an annual income of more than 100 silver dollars would have the right to vote, including female surnames.

Zhou Jingshan, Li Hongzhang, and Zheng Zhen were all a little surprised and looked at each other.

Zhou Jingshan is upright, but he is a banner of the old school or the conservatives; Zheng Zhen was a great Confucian in the world, and many of his bibliography were selected as new textbooks; Although Li Hongzhang followed Ye Zhao for a long time, he was naturally much more conservative than Li Xiaocun.

Speaking of which, the three ministers are all from Confucianism, and their ideas are far less radical than Li Xiaocun's former compradors, and many times, Li Xiaocun's desire to change the country is more intense than Ye Zhaolai's.

And now, suddenly without Li Xiaocun, who was charging in front, Ye Zhao knew that if he didn't intervene, the empire's policy would become more and more conservative.

Descending the slope and walking in the thick sea of grass, Zhou Jingshan and the three of them followed closely beside Ye Zhao.

Coming to the rubber ball, Ye Zhao lowered his club, and while aiming at it, he said lightly: "Not only Nanjing will carry out a pilot, but in the future, it will be promoted to a province and the whole country." ”

Zhou Jingshan and the three of them looked at each other a few more times, and Zhou Jingshan said: "Your Majesty, the ministers understand that the officials are clear, and the government officials need to be supervised by the people, and the elected political envoys can make the public opinion reach the heavens, but is it easy to mess up the law?" Moreover, the delimitation of electoral authority on the basis of income is contrary to the principle of equality of citizens in the Imperial Charter. ”

Ye Zhao slowly withdrew his cue and looked back at Zhou Jingshan, who hung his head and didn't dare to look at Ye Zhao.

If Li Xiaocun is here, he will inevitably speak out against it at this time, and even Li Xiaocun is eager to immediately promote the election of a political envoy by the people. But Zheng Zhen and Li Hongzhang just hung their heads and didn't speak.

Ye Zhao looked into the distance, and after a while, he said: "Limiting the right to vote with income is just an expedient measure, one day, everyone in this dynasty must have the right to participate in elections, as long as I don't die for a day, I will go down this road." ”

Zhou Jingshan and the three of them were stunned, and they hurriedly knelt down, and said in a loud voice: "Ten thousand ministers are dead, ten thousand ministers are dead." ”

Zhou Jingshan said even more tremblingly: "Your Majesty, the criminal said the wrong thing, please punish the emperor!" ”

Ye Zhao smiled and said, "You didn't say anything wrong. ”

Zhou Jingshan kowtowed again and again, and said: "The minister doesn't dare, the minister doesn't dare, how can he convict the minister, he was imprisoned for offending the cool officials, if it wasn't for the emperor's rescue, the minister would already be a piece of loess, and he would not be ashamed to say anything here?" The emperor's martial arts, the emperor of eternity, the meteorology of this dynasty, is really the unprecedented prosperity of China, this is the emperor's work! ”

"The minister is talking nonsense, if the emperor is not smooth, it will be difficult to escape the blame, the minister will die, ...... will die!" Zhou Jingshan was in tears and kowtowed again and again. Listening to the emperor's words, he was quite excited, which made him uncomfortable than scolding him hard.

"Get up, all of you." Ye Zhao said lightly, turned around and hit the ball slowly with the club, and the rubber ball flew down the slope.

Ye Zhao looked at the rubber ball that flew down the mountain and said: "After the game, there are rules, you and I are in the game, who can get a glimpse of the way of the saint?" Educate all the people, and the country will be rich and the people strong. If the people are strong, they will inevitably want to participate in political affairs, and if they are properly guided, there will be no risk of change. ”

Zhou Jingshan and the three of them listened silently and were silent.

Ye Zhao asked again: "Has the French made any changes recently?" ”

Foreign trade has always been the responsibility of Li Hongzhang, the vice premier, and he hurriedly said: "I can't see anything in the telegram from Paris. ”

At this time, at the foot of the hillside in the distance, a guard led an official in a hurry, the official was in his fifties, with a square face and thick eyebrows, it was Shen Bingying, the governor of Zhili.

Ye Zhao pointed at him from afar and said, "Shen Bingying's grass ball is quite methodical, and she can also play the field." ”

Shen Bingying, born as a political officer in the Regent Palace, like Li Xiaocun, was one of the radical reformers, successively served as the governor of Shuntian Mansion and the governor of Zhili, and was a rising star in the imperial political circles.

Obviously, among the four prime ministers and vice premiers, there is a radical faction that Ye Zhao is happy to see, so that all kinds of resistance to promoting innovation will not be passed on to Ye Zhao, so that Ye Zhao has the greatest room for maneuver to arbitrate the struggle of the imperial line, so that the direction of the empire's development will develop according to the track he envisioned.

Zhou Jingshan saw Shen Bingying, a wry smile appeared on his face, and he left Li Xiaocun, but there was a character he didn't like the most, and he really didn't know when he would be able to defeat this group of people.

Soon after the Royal Xiyuan Grass Ball Club, the emperor issued an edict appointing Zhou Jingshan as the prime minister of the Government Council, Li Hongzhang as the chief vice minister of the premier, and Zheng Zhen and Shen Bingying as the vice ministers of the prime minister. Chen Baozhen, who was also a government official in the palace, served as the governor of Zhili, and Chen Baozhen, who was not yet forty years old, became the youngest provincial magistrate in the empire.

At about the same time, the Wuchang Bridge project was blocked, probably because of problems with the reinforced concrete, and the No. 6 and 7 piers that were ready to erect the arched steel girders were biased, which made the bridge expert group very troubled.

(To be continued)