Queen Jiang looked at the woman in front of her, nodded, thinking in her heart that her younger brother didn't know where to find such a rare beauty, but she said, "Father sent you over, but what is the request?"

Hu Yumei's lips opened slightly: "Back to the queen's mother, the lord asked me to bring a message to the mother, saying that the position of Shangrong's prime minister must not be lost." ”

When Queen Jiang heard this, she sighed slightly, and said helplessly: "Wen Huan also sent someone to tell me, but now that old guy Shangrong doesn't know what medicine he has taken, he has to go to the door in person to invite him to be reinstated." Now the king is also annoyed, and he refuses to let Shang Rong reinstate. I have also talked to the king a few times these days, but the king just refuses to say anything to me, for fear that he has already decided to change his appearance. By the way, what does this Shang Rong have to do with my Jiang family? Why did my father personally ask about it?"

Hu Yumei said: "Such a confidential matter, how could the master tell me an outsider." The lord just said that the position of prime minister of Shangrong is related to the fate of the Jiang family. ”

Queen Jiang exclaimed, "What is the secret, that there is such a big stake? That's it, you go and rest first, this palace already knows about this, so naturally I will do my best. By the way, my father's letter with the palace mentioned that the palace sees that you are also very clever, and it just so happens that there is no one available in the palace, so you can stay in the palace to help the palace. ”

Hu Yumei was overjoyed and said: "Thank you for your grace." ”

After the early dynasty, the king of Shang was planning to have lunch, and suddenly Yang Rong, the steward of the East Palace, came to report that Queen Jiang invited the king of Shang to go to the East Palace for lunch.

King Shang felt a headache again, and Queen Jiang invited him to go, presumably still like that. This matter of business, the minister of the court, and the queen of the court, really made him a little annoyed.

Queen Jiang's father is Dong Bohou, who was the founding father of the Great Shang and holds great power, so although she and the Shang King have been married since childhood, it is difficult to say how much affection there is in this marriage. But in any case, Jiang Zitong was the queen of the dynasty and the mother of the crown prince and the second prince, so even if she sometimes made mistakes, the king of Shang rarely blamed her. But this time, she was so entangled in the matter of Shang Rong, but it really made the Shang King a little unbearable.

Thinking of this, King Shang waved his hand and said to Yang Rong: "There are still many pieces to see today, so I will eat two bites in the upper study and not go to the East Palace." ”

Yang Rong said: "The king, the queen said that someone from her hometown brought some special products today, please go and taste it." ”

Seeing that the queen was so resolute, the king of Shang couldn't bear to brush her mind, so he had to say: "Okay, you go and report to the queen first, I will deal with some things first, and I will go over later." ”

After Yang Rong left, the king of Shang asked Jiao Fangdao, "Have Uncle Wang and a few princes left?" Let them come back to see me, I have something to discuss with them." ”

Jiao Fang answered, and hurriedly turned around and left.

The king of Shang returned to the Nine Palaces and waited for a while, and then there were five people, including Uncle Wang, Brother Jizi, Wang Weiziqi of Anping, Wang Weiziyan of Chengping, and Huang Feihu, King of Wucheng, who hurriedly walked in.

The ministers saw the ceremony, and when they saw that everyone had arrived, the king of Shang said: "Uncle Wang, have you found out, what is the relationship between Shang Rong and the Jiang family?"

Zi Gan said: "Back to the king, in the past few days, the minister has sent many people to investigate, and only found that Shang Rong is Jiang Jia's teacher. Jiang Wenhuan has great respect for Shang Rong and often exchanges letters. There are also some official positions that the queen has sold, which are also installed through merchants. There are only these three things, and there are no major things worth mentioning. ”

King Shang frowned and said, "But the queen is so concerned about Shang Rong's affairs that it is hard for me to believe that it is just these relationships. By the way, what kind of dealings does Shang Rong have with Jiang Huan Chuke?"

Wei Ziyan stepped forward and said: "Back to the king, a few days ago, the princes entered Beijing, and the ministers sent people to monitor the four princes according to the king's orders, and they did not find that Shang Rong had any dealings with Jiang Huan Chu. ”

Shang Wang said: "Ladies and gentlemen, what other news do you have?"

Jizi said: "Your lord, my younger brother was ordered to investigate the queen's betrayal of the official position a few days ago, but he found some problems, and he couldn't figure it out. ”

King Shang perked up and said, "What have you discovered? ”

Jizi said: "According to the knowledge of the ministers, the queen has sold a total of 11 large and small official positions in the past two years, and a total of 3.2 million yuan has been sold, and the official positions are all arranged by the prime minister Shang Rong. ”

King Shang snorted coldly and said: "Three million and two hundred thousand yuan, it is really a lot, she is a queen, she has never lacked food and clothing, but what do you want this money for?"

Jizi continued: "Of the 3.2 million yuan, 600,000 yuan was left to You Hun and these introducers, and the remaining 2.6 million yuan was all sent out from the east gate. ”

Shang Wang said: "Dongmen? must have been sent to Donglu to subsidize Dongbohou's mansion." ”

Jizi said: "Brother Chen thinks the same way. ”

Zigan suddenly said: "No, why isn't there a share of Shang Rong in all this money?"

Jizi said: "This is also the strange place of the younger brother, selling official positions privately, violating the law of the country, even You Hun and others can get one to two percent of the profit, how can the most important business in this is not a penny?"

The Shang King groaned, "Why do you think so?"

Jizi said: "Brother Chen thinks that there are only two possibilities for this matter. The Jiang family completely controls Shang Rong, or the relationship between the Jiang family and Shang Rong has reached the point where they don't care about hundreds of thousands of dollars. ”

When King Wu Cheng heard this, he stepped forward and said, "Great King, it is impossible for the Jiang family to control Shang Rong. Shang Rong is a veteran of the Three Dynasties, although the background may not be comparable to the Jiang family, but the current power is especially above the Jiang family. Weichen thought that the Jiang family had a more secret relationship with Shang Rong. ”

King Shang nodded and said, "I think so too. What do you think is the relationship between them? Uncle Wang, what do you think?"

Zigan, who had been listening attentively, heard the words and said: "King, there is still too little news at this time, and their relationship is really difficult to speculate. The minister thought that the investigation should be continued, on the one hand, to find out how much wealth Shang Rong's family had and whether he had more interests with the Jiang family, and on the other hand, it was best to obtain the correspondence between Shang Rong and Jiang Wenhuan, so as to find out the ins and outs of this matter. ”

King Shang nodded and said, "Okay, then you can investigate along this route." I didn't want Shang Rong's angry resignation to lead to so many things. It's okay, since you don't want to leave the court alive, then you don't have to go. As he spoke, there was a hint of coldness in his words.

Leaving the Nine Palaces, the Shang King took Jiao Fang straight to the East Palace.

When he came to the East Palace, not only Queen Jiang was there, but the crown prince Yin Jiao and the second prince Yin Hong were also waiting for him. When King Shang saw his two sons, his somewhat gloomy mood instantly improved a lot.

When everyone had seen the ceremony, it was not too early, so they did not say any more, and had lunch first.

Sure enough, most of the dishes for lunch were some seafood brought from Donglu, including sea fish, sea crabs, and shellfish, many of which even the Shang King had never tasted.

The queen smiled and said, "My father knows that I have loved to eat these seafood since I was a child, so he specially brought a lot of them, and specially invited the king to come and taste them together." The king Mo underestimated these small dishes, but it took a lot of effort. ”

When the king of Shang heard this, he became a little interested, and said strangely: "Oh, Zitong, tell me, what is the reputation of these dishes?"

The queen said: "The king doesn't know, the things in this sea can only be put into the pot alive, and when they die, they stink and can't be eaten." In order to bring these seafood to Chaoge alive, my father purchased hundreds of catties of fresh seafood, put them into hundreds of leather bags, poured them into seawater, and transported them by 500 fast horses. Each person needs to carry more than 100 catties of seawater, and the seawater in the leather bag needs to be replaced every day to ensure that the seafood does not die. Even so, hundreds of catties of seafood were transported to Chaoge, and only a dozen catties could be lived. ”

When the king of Shang heard this, he picked up a piece of crab meat and sighed: "I don't want to spend so much effort on these dishes, I guess Dong Bohou has spent a lot of money for these dishes." ”

The queen covered her mouth and smiled: "The king is rich in the world, and there are only a few dishes, how can you ask more? The king should eat it quickly, don't wait for it to be cold, the taste will not be as good as now." ”

Shang Wang nodded, said no more, and the family of four had a seafood feast.

After lunch, the maid brought fragrant tea, and while tasting tea, the king of Shang said to the two princes: "Jiao'er, Hong'er, you two have been able to study recently?"

Yin Jiao looked at the queen when he heard this, and when he saw the queen nodding, he said respectfully: "Back to my father, the child has been learning some ways to govern the country recently, and he has some experience. ”

King Shang nodded and said, "As the crown prince, it is good for you to learn more about governing the country, but as for martial arts, it is not so important." However, to learn how to govern the country, you need to find a good teacher, which teacher are you studying with now?"

Yin Jiao replied: "Back to my father, the child is studying with the prime minister. ”

When King Shang heard this, he frowned, and his heart was pulled to Shang Rong again. He squinted at Queen Jiang, and saw that the queen was looking at the two princes with a kind face, and seemed to be unaware of the eyes he looked at.

After a moment of silence, King Shang said: "The way of government affairs, the Yaxiang Zigan in the clan and several of your uncles are quite proficient, why do you want to learn from Shang Rong? But did your mother order it?"

Yin Jiao said: "Father, this is not the order of the queen mother, but the child's idea." The child felt that the prime minister was an old minister of the three dynasties, and his ability and experience in handling government affairs were the strongest. If children want to learn, they naturally want to worship the best teachers. ”

The old minister of the Three Dynasties, and the old minister of the Three Dynasties, as everyone knows, this is the word that the King of Shang is most annoying to hear at this time. He snorted coldly and said, "Jiao'er, you remember, the most taboo thing for a monarch is to be a cloud. The ability to merge may not be much stronger than that of Yaxiangzi. After saying that, he turned his head to Queen Jiang, whose smile was already a little stiff, and said, "Zitong, I will make an order in the afternoon to choose a teacher for the prince in the clan, and in the future, I am not allowed to study with Shang Rong." ”

Queen Jiang was slightly stunned when she heard this, and then smiled again: "King, don't be angry. The concubine thought that the matter of business was ......"

"Shut up!" King Shang interrupted her with a loud shout: "Zitong, from today onwards, I don't want to hear the name Shang Rong in this palace again, can you write it down?"

Queen Jiang said helplessly: "The concubine obeys the order." ”