PS: The chapter name was supposed to be 684, but it was written as 685 by a clerical error, and it couldn't be modified, so it was wrong, but the content of the text was correct! ——

As the official who read the decree read it word by word, after skimming a few words of ornate rhetoric that were obscure and difficult to understand, the next sentence made everyone frightened: 'Counselor, I am my eldest son'.

As soon as these words came out, Lin Xuan below suddenly felt a feeling of tightness in his chest, and then all kinds of feelings suddenly came to his heart, and even the few words that connected him to canonize him as the 'King of Qinjun' were not heard clearly.

Now all that comes to his mind is all the careful study over the years, thinking about how to show himself to be a qualified prince in front of his father, in order to satisfy his father, he has almost dared not cross a single taboo since he was a child.

At that time, more than ten years of caution, day and night efforts have all come to naught.

It wasn't until the holy decree was read out that Lin Xuan took a deep breath, then stepped forward and knelt down to thank him, and glanced back at Lin Ye.

I'm afraid that the position of the prince is going to fall on my talented third brother, who is not only talented, but also a son-in-law.

Lin Xuan's defeat, although he himself was disappointed, but in the eyes of many military and political dignitaries in the hall at this moment, this is a normal thing, these people are not all fools, and they have long guessed that this Lin Xuan's chance of ascending to the crown prince is not great.

After Lin Xuan received the decree and retreated, everyone's eyes once again turned to the secretariat official holding the holy decree, and at this time he still had the sealed holy decree in his hand, one of which was the holy decree of the crown prince.

The official of the secretariat is the section chief of the Secretariat's Propaganda Section, and this kind of status is also considered a high-ranking official in the officialdom, and after two years of work and transfer to various cabinet departments, it is at least a director, and if it is an external place, it is basically a position at the level of a political envoy.

But today, being stared at by many military and political dignitaries in the main hall, he seemed to have returned to the time when he had just passed the national examination and met many superiors and colleagues for the first time.

It was as if they wanted to see from his face who the crown prince was.

God is pitiful, although he is the one who holds the holy decree, and even the main content of these four holy decrees was drafted by him, but he only drafted the basic sample, and three of the four documents to canonize the prince and one to canonize the prince are all left blank, and there is no name on them.

In the end, Lin Zhe personally wrote according to the sample, which was immediately sealed, and he guessed that the person who could know the candidate for the crown prince, in addition to His Majesty, I am afraid that the only person who assisted in sealing the holy decree was Ye Linqing, the director of the Secretariat.

However, Director Ye, who was standing beside Lin Zhe, was expressionless at this time, and did not reveal any trace of expression that could be guessed by others, this Director Ye was quite low-key, unlike the previous senior officials of the Secretariat who liked to interact with foreign officials such as the cabinet, this Director Ye rarely had any contact with the cabinet.

If you want to get any secret news from this person, the difficulty will not be much less than asking Lin Zhe directly.

The waiting and speculation of the crowd did not last long, because soon the third decree began to be read, and according to the beginning of the first three decrees, it was still the emperor who was carried by heaven.

The crowd had no interest in the ornate rhetoric of the decree, only the name in it.

But as soon as this name came out, it caused a surprise among the ministers in the palace, because this name was Lin Ye, and everyone thought that the most promising candidate for the crown prince's position, especially after the eldest prince Lin Xuan fell, the military and political dignitaries in the palace thought that the prince should be Lin Ye.

But they didn't expect that Lin Ye was not made the crown prince, but was named the 'King of Chu'.

When Lin Ye heard that he was named the king of Chujun, he couldn't help but show surprise, his young face instantly turned pale, just like others thought he was the best candidate for the crown prince, Lin Ye himself also thought that he was the best candidate.

It's not that he's proud, he is smart and naturally understands how to analyze the advantages and disadvantages between himself and his brothers, he originally thought that with his own performance, especially in the last two months in his father's assessment, his performance should be the best one.

But he didn't expect that the prince was not himself.

If not himself, then who would it be?

Lin Ye looked at his second brother Lin Lian, who was standing beside him, and saw that Lin Lian didn't seem to hear the content of the holy decree, or as if he didn't know that he was about to become the crown prince, he just stood there calmly, not sad or happy.

Lin Ye wanted to roar, he wanted to shout loudly: Why not himself? Why is it this second child who has been ignored by himself and the boss for many years.

Why did he snatch the crown prince that should belong to him!

It's a pity that he can't, it's not that he doesn't want to, but he knows that as long as he says a word nonsense at this juncture, what awaits him is the abyss from which he will never recover!

He kept telling himself, endure, must endure!

The father is still young, even if the second child becomes the prince, I am afraid that it will be hard for decades, who dares to say that there will be no changes in these decades, in the past dynasties, there are countless examples of the prince being deposed, too far not to say, just say that the nine sons of the Kangxi Dynasty in the former Qing Dynasty are very famous, when the crown prince Yinren of Kangxi was abolished twice, and finally was imprisoned and died, and finally Yinzhen won to become Emperor Yongzheng.

Leaving Qingshan without worrying about running out of firewood, Lin Ye cleaned up his unwillingness, and then stepped forward to kneel and thank him.

After Lin Ye was named the queen of Chu County, many people in the palace secretly looked at the third prince Lin Ye, and many people still had puzzlement and surprise in their eyes, they didn't understand it well.

It is natural for His Majesty not to choose the cowardly fourth prince Lin Xuan, and it is understandable not to choose the conservative and cautious eldest prince Lin Xuan, because Lin Xuan is too old, and it is normal for his personality not to be liked by the resolute and decisive His Majesty, but why did the third prince Lin Ye also lose the election? According to reason, the three princes Lin Ye are first-class in all aspects, whether it is decisive and resolute personality or talent, they are quite outstanding.

However, His Majesty did not choose Lin Ye, but chose the second prince Lin Yan.

Lin Xuan? They naturally know, according to their understanding, this Lin Lian should have nothing special, his personality seems to be very ordinary, there is no rumor that he is mature and old, or cowardly, or perseverance, etc., and there seems to be nothing special in talent, at least those princes in Pingren Hall do not have any special comments about him.

Such a person, if he were not a prince, it is estimated that no one would care about throwing people into the pile.

But is such a person, but he has won the favor of His Majesty? What exactly is the reason?

Because of his character? Because of his talent? Or is it because of his origins?

Just when many people were puzzled, Ye Linqing, director of the Secretariat, showed a smile that ordinary people could not see.

Outsiders don't know why His Majesty chose the second prince Lin Lian as the crown prince, but he Ye Linqing knows a little, as the director of the secretariat, Ye Linqing's work is actually similar to those of the Ming Dynasty, and they are all accompanied by Lin Zhe all the year round, and in the past two months, when Lin Zhe assessed these four princes, he also accompanied him throughout the process.

Now he still clearly remembers that during the first assessment, the four princes were asked to discuss Sino-US relations, and since the second prince wrote a policy on the future Sino-US relations, His Majesty has been quite concerned about the second son.

Ye Linqing also secretly glanced at Lin Zhe when he was reviewing the papers, the eldest prince said that China and the United States are thousands of miles away from the Pacific Ocean, and there are common strong enemies such as Britain and France, so China and the United States should put cooperation first, and if necessary, they can sign a treaty to make a century-old alliance to jointly challenge traditional colonial empires such as Britain and France, and carve up the colonies of the Americas and Asia.

What Lin Ye, the third prince, said was that because of the Alaska and Hawaii issues between China and the United States, the United States is really the great enemy of the empire, so it should strengthen its defense against the United States, expand the garrison of Alaska and Hawaii, and even force the United States to retreat and submit in the Pacific through war if necessary, and support Mexico to contain American strength if necessary.

The personalities of these two princes can be seen very clearly from this strategy, one advocates the joint division of the world between China and the United States, the other advocates the elimination of the United States, monopolizes the Pacific Ocean, and even wants to infiltrate forces into the Americas.

However, the second prince's statement is somewhat different, he said that China and the United States are both backward countries, facing Britain and France and other countries have many common interests, and should deepen cooperation to jointly confront Britain, France, Spain and other old colonial empires, and even join hands to intervene in the situation in Europe.

On the other hand, however, he believes that the United States' geographical and resource superiority is too great, and that if the United States is allowed to develop, it will inevitably become a serious problem for the empire in the light of time, and that China and the United States may be as powerful as fire and water in order to compete for the Pacific Ocean.

Moreover, he also put forward a specific strategic concept, initially to strengthen the control of Alaska, pull the United States to jointly challenge the British control of Canada, if the empire controls Alaska, infiltrating the United States into the Americas to make the United States vigilant, then Canada is completely controlled by the British, which is very unbearable for the Americans, since the independence of the United States, the Americans have always wanted to completely drive the British out of North America.

Using Canada as a point of convergence of interests can alleviate the contradictions between the empire and the United States in North America, and even reach a limited alliance.

On the other hand, he believes that Hawaii must be completely controlled as soon as possible, and that a single Hawaiian port is not enough to support the empire's strategic threat in the Central Pacific, and the entire Hawaiian Islands must be controlled by sending immigrants to change the proportion of the local population structure, so as to completely control Hawaii in the hands of the empire in the next hundred or even hundreds of years, and build Hawaii into an unsinkable battleship of the empire in the Central Pacific!

This discussion of Sino-US relations made Ye Linqing quite surprised, and thought that this was just a clever trick of the second prince Lin Lu.

But then Lin Zhe successively took the questions of international relations such as Asian relations, Sino-British relations, as well as many domestic problems and even some core strategic directions related to the development of the next 50 years, and let these four princes answer.

The second prince's answer was always surprising to Ye Linqing!

Because he used to feel that he couldn't understand some of His Majesty's strategic choices, but now after seeing Lin Luan's answer, he has a feeling of sudden enlightenment.

Vaguely, he seemed to feel that this second prince was like another copy of His Majesty, and the choices made by this second prince on many issues were surprisingly consistent with His Majesty.

For example, when discussing the European Three Emperors Alliance, the two princes are very sure that it will not be long before the Three Emperors Alliance will completely disintegrate, and even finally embark on the road of mutual hostility.

And Ye Linqing also occasionally heard His Majesty's private judgment on the Three Emperors Alliance at the beginning of the year, and His Majesty also thought that the relationship between the Three Emperors Alliance would not last for many years, at least ten years, and at most fifteen years would completely disintegrate.

However, His Majesty at that time also said a few more words, that is, in the near future after the dissolution of the Three Emperors Alliance, Europe will usher in a great war that will affect the whole of Europe.

On the issue of the biggest threat in the country, Lin Yan believes that the biggest problem facing the contemporary empire is not the slowdown in the development of industrialization, nor the threat of Britain, France, the United States, Russia and other countries, but the corruption of domestic officials and the further expansion of the gap between the rich and the poor of the people, especially with the deepening of industrialization, the number of worker groups is expanding rapidly, and these worker groups who live in big cities because of the lack of necessary living security, once they cannot maintain the minimum living standard, then they will become the source of ****, It even specifically proposes that the minimum interests of workers should be protected through judicial means, including the limitation of maximum working hours and minimum wage standards.

In the assessment of these two months, the answers of these four princes were carried out separately and independently, the other ministers did not know, and even the princes themselves did not know, the only one who knew the details was Lin Zhe, and Ye Linqing's words were because he knew a little as an auxiliary person, but Ye Linqing kept a strict secret, Guo Longyun personally knocked on the side of him, and he did not disclose even half a sentence of the assessment.

In the assessment of the past two months, Ye Linqing almost saw a brand-new, completely different second prince, as if this second prince was like a roundworm in His Majesty's stomach, and the policies that His Majesty was implementing in the past and now suddenly thought of the situation more than ten years later.

This son's understanding of His Majesty's governance is so profound that I am afraid that Guo Longyun, the prime minister of the cabinet, is not as good as him.

Because they stand from different angles, Guo Longyun is thinking about problems from the position of prime minister, while Lin Lu is thinking about problems from the perspective of a prince or even a future emperor.

This second prince is really deep enough to hide on weekdays!

This character deserves the word forbearance, if he just blindly forbears and hides, I am afraid that he will not be able to make His Majesty favor, but he can seize the only and most important opportunity to take advantage of the assessment, and he immediately attracted all His Majesty's attention to himself.

The deliberate forbearance on weekdays, when it comes to the assessment, the talent is fully displayed, and the gap caused by this will make people even more amazing, and it is best to attract His Majesty's attention.

Hiding and hiding on weekdays, and then when he sees an opportunity, he does not hesitate to pounce on the enemy to give a fatal blow, this kind of forbearance and decisiveness is more surprising than the tenacity of the third prince Lin Ye.

Think about it again, when His Majesty dealt with relations with Russia, didn't he endure it for the first 20 years, and only made a small fuss, but after seeing the outbreak of the Tenth Russian-Turkish War, after feeling that the opportunity had come, His Majesty did not hesitate to launch the Siberian War, not only seizing a large territory east of Lake Belga, but also taking the opportunity to sign a border demarcation treaty with Russia, and all the fruits of the previous victories were justifiably included in the bag.

Now the empire can proudly claim that the provinces of Kokand in Central Asia, east of Lake Balkhash, east of Lake Belga in Siberia, and east of the Lena River are all territories of the Great Chinese Empire, and other countries have recognized them.

Rather than being a unilateral claim by the Empire, as was the case before, the other nations only considered these areas to be under the Empire's military control.

From the perspective of Ye Linqing, the second prince Lin Lian should deliberately learn to emulate His Majesty, whether it is his personality or his views on affairs, there is a great similarity.

In this way, it is not surprising that His Majesty chose the second prince.

His Majesty is the ruler of an empire, and as a ruler, the best heir is the one who inherits his own will.

Ye Linqing thought about this, and then looked at the many colleagues below who were still in a state of confusion, and couldn't help but secretly feel proud, there is a huge empire, and the people who can deeply understand the affairs of the reserve this time are only themselves when they look at the empire.

This shows His Majesty's trust in himself.

Ye Linqing is different from many ministers, he has no experience as a local official or cabinet official, he has worked in the secretariat all his life, starting from the third-class secretary in the early years, then to the second-class secretary, the first-class secretary, then the deputy section chief, the section chief, then the deputy director, the deputy director of general affairs, and finally to the powerful position of the director of the palace secretariat.

To be able to get to this day, he only relies on three things, one is to work hard, the second is loyalty to His Majesty, and the third is to stay away from political struggle.

As an official of the Secretariat, he knows better than others the importance that His Majesty attaches to the loyalty of Secretariat officials, because the work of the Secretariat is relatively special, and many times it will directly affect His Majesty's choices, so it is very necessary for you to maintain your independence in addition to your talent and loyalty.

If you have too much interaction with outside officials, you will inevitably be influenced by outsiders, and in the end, you will have selfishness and prejudice when handling affairs, and this prejudice may eventually affect Lin Zhe's choice.

Lin Zhe strictly forbade this kind of thing, and if any official in the secretariat has too close contacts with cabinet ministries or local officials, he will basically be released soon, and it is impossible to continue to be promoted within the secretariat.

Ye Linqing also knows these very well, so he has always ignored the ministers of the cabinet, not to mention the interaction of eating and drinking together, even if he saw it in the Xinhua Palace, he didn't speak, at most he just nodded.

Just when Ye Linqing boasted that he was the first person trusted by His Majesty in the empire, the person who read it even began to read the fourth holy decree.

This holy decree can be said to have no accidents until now, and a brief edict is to officially canonize the second prince Lin Shu as the crown prince.

In the process of receiving the order, Lin Yan did not have the kind of surprise that others imagined, although there was a smile on the corner of his mouth, but he always remained calm and calm.

Because he had been called by Lin Zhe last night, the two fathers and sons didn't talk too much, Lin Zhe just said: Tomorrow he will be canonized as the crown prince and let him get ready!

If it was a different person, after knowing about it yesterday, it is estimated that he would have been ecstatic, and then spread the news all over Nanjing, but no one said it to anyone, even his biological mother Concubine Zhuang Guifei came to the side to knock on the side and ask, he did not reveal the slightest tone.

After the official edict was issued, there was naturally a series of ceremonies!

In addition to sealing Lin Lu as the crown prince, he also named Lin Luan's wife Li as the crown princess, and named Lin Lu's biological mother Zhuang Guifei as the imperial concubine.

Other concubines can't get the title of imperial concubine, at most they are the title of concubine who gave birth to the prince.

At the same time as the crown prince's canonization ceremony, the edict of the crown prince was also transmitted to the whole country and even the world through telegrams, and then published in full in newspapers or official documents, so that everyone in the world knew that the empire had an official prince and the emperor had an heir.

Lin Lu was canonized as the crown prince, naturally some people are happy and some are worried!

Lin Ye, who had already been named the king of the county, looked at Pingrentang in the distance, he couldn't help but sigh deeply, he was unwilling, he was not convinced.

He is recognized as the most talented prince, he is the only prince of this empire, and the position of the crown prince originally belonged to him, and it can only belong to him.

But now, the second child is sitting on the throne of the crown prince, and he can only be reduced to a spectator with the other two brothers.

Take your eyes back from Pingren Hall, and then look at an empty prince's house not far from the left front, which is the small building where Lin Lian originally lived, but now after Lin Lian was named the prince, Lin Lian and his wife have moved to the new residence on the east side of the Xinhua Palace, and the small building in the prince's house has no official name, only Building No. 1, Building No. 2 is different, the new residence is much larger in terms of size and pattern, and has an official name, called Dongren Palace.

Just by looking at the name, you know that it is a residence specially prepared for the crown prince.

Dongren Hall is the place where the prince lives and studies, and in order to strengthen the prince's actual government ability, Lin Zhe is also preparing to arrange an office for Lin Lu in the Xinhua Palace.

However, although Lin Zhe is now more satisfied with Lin Zhe's ability, there is still a certain distance from Lin Zhe's requirements, if nothing else, Lin Zhe's study will continue until he is twenty-seven or eighteen years old, studying and working at the same time.

Lin Xuan moved away, and he Lin Ye and the fourth prince Lin Xuan were left in the prince's office, as for the emperor's eldest son Lin Xuan, he was officially married when he was eighteen years old, and he was given a mansion at that time, but it needed to be repaired, so he continued to live in the first building of the prince's office for a year, and moved out of the first building last year to live in his own mansion.

Originally, before Lin Yan was not crowned prince, he was also given a mansion because he just got married at the end of last year, but before he could move in, he had already become a prince.

And his own Lin Ye and fourth brother Lin Xuan are still young and have not been married for the time being, so they have to continue to stay in the prince's house and live until they get married at the age of eighteen.

It's just that the prince's house, which used to feel very comfortable, now feels like a cage, and he desperately wants to leave here and live alone outside like the boss Lin Xuan, so that he can build up his own power, so that he can regain the position of prince when the opportunity comes in the future.

"Don't think it's over now, it's just the beginning!" Lin Ye looked at the empty No. 2 building in the distance, and muttered to himself unwillingly. (To be continued.) )