Although these people kept their voices low, and there was no one outside, they would never have imagined that in a small room not far from them, a man was holding a brass pipe to his ear, and writing down what he was listening to in a notebook in one hand, and the more he listened, the more frightened he became.

After a long time, he looked at the records in his hand, and for a while he didn't know what to do.

As a sleeper agent of the palace intelligence department, he has already eavesdropped on the secrets of many important ministers of the court when he lurked in the four seas, there are big things and small things, such as those conspiracies above the court, but he doesn't pay much attention to these, he only needs to record them, and then pass them on, and usually, most of the information he records will be stored in the archives and put on the shelf.

The task of the Imperial Intelligence Department is to monitor, and as long as these ministers do not conspire to play a coup d'état, then the Imperial Intelligence Service basically does not care much.

But today, this matter is second only to rebellion.

These people actually planned to establish the prince, and what shocked him the most was that there were a lot of people involved, not only related to Li Pingtong, the director of the secretariat, but also the queen mother.

The Yiluan Palace in their mouths is the Queen Mother, because the Queen Mother Lin and Mrs. Lin live in the Yiluan Palace, so many ministers refer to the Queen Mother with the Yiluan Palace.

Just like many people will refer to Queen Chen Jing with Kunning Palace.

The matters involved in these people are already related to the national capital, and the importance of such matters is far from being comparable to the struggles of the cabinets.

Even if it was just an agent, he knew that Lichu had been the most sensitive political topic in the empire over the years, and basically whoever touched it would die. There was not a single accident.

However, as many princes grew older, the problem of establishing a prince became more and more urgent. Although many ministers dare not say it, they don't think about it without ghostwriting.

And this way of delaying the establishment of the crown prince. It is also what makes many careerists want to move, and many of them want to bet in advance so as to reap rich political resources.

After the palace intelligence department got the information from Sihaiju, even Lin Ermao was stunned, he didn't dare to report it immediately, this is not that he wants to meddle in this matter, but on the contrary, he wants to keep himself and the palace intelligence department as independent from this matter as possible. It's best to stay out of it.

Therefore, the first thing he had to do was to make sure that the information was correct, and if he talked nonsense in this kind of thing, he would die a miserable death.

As for concealing and not reporting, he does not have the courage to do so, although this matter is secret, there are still a few people in the palace intelligence department who know, and the other few people are important deputy directors, if Lin Ermao chooses to hide and not report. They will happily run to Lin Zhe to complain, but take over the palace intelligence department instead of Lin Ermao.

Serving in the Imperial Intelligence Department, there was only one rule from beginning to end, and that was to be loyal to the emperor.

Others. Whether it is the cabinet or the nobles of the harem, or even those princes, it is not the palace intelligence department that needs to pay attention.

They only need to be loyal to the emperor. and could only be loyal to the emperor.

Once there is no such allegiance, there is no trust of the emperor. Then he is not far from death.

There is no way back from serving in a private organization like the Imperial Intelligence Department. And the higher you climb, the more difficult it is to get out, and the agents of the ordinary palace intelligence department can still retire, but these directors, deputy directors, and section chiefs of important departments, it is basically impossible for them to leave the palace intelligence department in their lives, they can only work all the way until they die, and if something goes wrong halfway, they will die or die.

These people also know that the secrets they have come into contact with will scare half of the ministers of the cabinet to death, and His Majesty obviously will not let the people who hold these secrets play with things like that.

The reason why Lin Ermao didn't report it as soon as possible, but wanted to confirm the facts so as to avoid any oolongs.

After waiting for three days, Lin Ermao went to see Lin Zhe.

After seeing Lin Zhe, he didn't dare to say a word, but waited with his head hanging after handing over the report that had been repeatedly considered.

Although the inside of the house was as warm as ever, Lin Ermao felt that the room was colder than the cold wind outside and the Gongmen Square.

The house was quiet, and in addition to hearing his own breathing, Lin Ermao could hear the sound of Lin Zhe constantly flipping through the report.

He occasionally raised his gaze slightly, but what he saw was Lin Zhe, whose face had not changed, and saw him looking at the report page after page, reading it very carefully.

The current Lin Ermao didn't dare to take a breath, because he could guess that His Majesty was already on the verge of rage.

Because Your Majesty has never looked at a document so seriously!

This report, which was only more than ten pages before and after, Lin Zhe read it for nearly half an hour.

In the past half hour, Lin Zhe didn't say a word, and even his face didn't change much, but behind this calmness, Lin Ermao felt the chill that made his heart tremble.

After a long time, Lin Zhecai put down the report in his hand, then looked up and asked, "Has the information been confirmed?" ”

Lin Ermao immediately nodded and said, "Back to Your Majesty, Weichen has repeatedly confirmed!" ”

Lin Zhe let out a light 'oh', the report in his hand, in addition to the first few pages of briefings, the back is the first-hand records of the front-line agents, and these documents are all covered with the conspicuous words 'A secret', first-class confidential information, and only the section chief, the director and the associated deputy director of the department are authorized to know. In the entire palace intelligence department, there were no more than five people who knew about it.

Since Lin Ermao dared to show him the information today, it was naturally after repeated research, and he would not joke with his own life, if this kind of thing was mistaken, the relevant person in charge of the palace intelligence department would have to eat all the guns.

"You go back first!" Lin Zhe waved his hand, and then let Lin Ermao go out.

At this time, Lin Ermao bowed down and took three steps back, and then turned around and went out, until he left the Xinhua Palace, he was relieved, the pressure brought to him by this kind of thing was too great, and it was more stressful than asking him to directly arrest all the ministers of the cabinet.

"This time. I don't know how many people have been ruined! Lin Ermao is well aware of the power of the report he handed over, which is undoubtedly a nuclear bomb for the imperial political arena. And it's a nuclear bomb that has already pressed the timer and is about to detonate.

Officials in the imperial political arena know that His Majesty's attitude on the issue of the establishment of the reserve has always been very tough. Whoever meddles dies.

And this is still talking about ordinary problems of establishing a prince, such as a request for a prince, an early determination of the national capital, etc., or a request for the title of a certain prince's relatives, etc., are all temptations, and these temptations will generally lead to demotion and dismissal.

But now those people are doing much more than that!

Lin Zhe was in his office, not as angry as Lin Ermao imagined, but he sighed deeply when he sat in the chair, and his face was not angry. It's a kind of helplessness.

Now he has a very similar feeling of Kangxi back then, and he is full of disgust and rejection for the competition for the throne of many inferior princes, but he is also full of helplessness.

These are all their own sons, and the palms and backs of their hands are full of meat!

At the same time, in addition to the prince himself, this old lady Lin was also involved, and it was to be expected. Empress Chen Jing and several other concubines with princes will not stay out of the way.

This is not only a national political issue, but also a family conflict within the royal family.

Lin Zhe determined the policy of establishing a prince many years ago, that is, from his many princes. Choose the best one to ensure the interests of the empire into the twentieth century, and even to ensure that the empire continues to survive. Instead of dying in just two lifetimes like the ancient Qin State or the Sui Dynasty.

But this kind of policy. It will take many years to determine the most suitable prince to succeed to the throne, and this is a long process. Let every prince who has a peek at the throne struggle hard.

If this continues, it will be simple for brothers to kill each other, and for the empire, I am afraid that it will cause great turmoil and even civil war, and then the huge imperial foundation may be ruined.

Lin Zhe had considered this kind of thing before, but he thought that he was the founding emperor, and his control over the empire was extremely strong, and he was confident that he could suppress the opinions of the people below on the issue of establishing a prince.

But now he had something else in mind.

Now that he is still alive, he is fighting so hard, the Queen Mother and Li Pingtong, the director of the palace secretariat, actually formed an alliance under their noses, and then set off a large-scale political storm in the cabinet, and then together the cabinet turmoil that began in October and ended in December.

And their purpose is just to oust Jiang Daoquan from power!

Why did they let Jiang Daoquan step down?

Because Jiang Daoquan is a representative of the conservative faction in the empire, and the vast majority of conservative officials in the empire have a very clear attitude on the issue of establishing a prince, that is, the elder system!

Although many of them didn't say it, it was because Lin Zhe didn't let them say it now, if they could be allowed to fold up, they would 100% support the third prince Lin Ye.

The reason why they support Lin Ye is not how good Lin Ye is, how suitable he is to be the second emperor of this empire, they have only one reason, and they only need one: the third prince Lin Ye is the eldest son of Empress Chen Jing, the eldest son of Lin Zhe, and the most legitimate prince of this empire.

In their hearts, there is no one else in the position of the crown prince except for the third prince Lin Ye.

Now it is Lin Zhe who is forcibly suppressing not to establish the crown prince, but this matter cannot be dragged on forever, if it takes a few more years, when Lin Zhe decides to establish the crown prince, these conservatives will definitely support the third prince Lin Ye.

Even if it is to fight the official hat, you have to persevere.

For conservatives, this struggle for national capital is not just a matter of choosing to support the prince, but sticking to their long-standing political philosophy, and the Confucian tradition is their foundation.

In this case, those who support the eldest prince Lin Xuan naturally do not want Jiang Daoquan, the representative of these conservatives, to continue to be in power in the cabinet, especially as the princes have gradually increased in age in recent years, they hope that the eldest prince can determine the position of the crown prince at the age of fifteen or sixteen by virtue of his relatively old age.

Therefore, for them, Jiang Daoquan must step down!

To this end, they did not hesitate to set off a storm that affected the entire cabinet and even Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces, resulting in the largest cabinet personnel change since the founding of the empire.

Now that they are still in the prime of life, they dare to set off such a big storm, if they are seventy or eighty, they must not make a fuss, if they die, they must not start a civil war.

With this concern, Lin Zhe re-examined his policy for the first time in more than ten years, but before determining the policy, he had to deal with the matter in front of him.

Li Pingtong, director of the palace secretariat, this 'internal minister' whose power is almost the same as Xue Huan, no matter what reason he joined forces with the queen mother, and whether Lin Zhe wants to make the eldest prince Lin Xuan the crown prince in the future.

But he must die! (To be continued.) )