After Marcian's words fell, Empress Pulkaria suddenly said in a loud voice: "Emperor, since you want to send someone to investigate, then you should determine who to send to investigate now, and take advantage of the opportunity that General Zeno is here and has no time to notify that side to immediately send someone to investigate, and only in this way can you clear his suspicion!"

The queen is obviously chasing and beating, Marcian was so angry that he almost vomited blood, but he couldn't have a seizure, the queen is the queen after all, although the queen is not responsible for handling specific political affairs, but when he was supported on the throne, everyone reached an agreement, the two ruled the empire together, and the queen had the right to supervise the country, this matter was agreed by all the senators, and all officials knew.

Marcian was forced into a corner, and now he can only hope that Zeno is not so bold, his actions are not very big, and the problem found out is not big, otherwise he, the emperor who promoted Zeno, will lose face, and the emperor's loss of face is a big deal, and it can also be seen that the emperor's ability will be a big blow to the morale of the officials on his side.

Marcian took a deep look at Zeno, and could only send officials to Isolia to investigate evidence of Zeno's rebellion.

Determining the candidates to investigate the officials is a big deal, the officials of the emperor's faction and the queen's faction do not give in to each other, and neither of them is satisfied with letting the officials of the other party's faction investigate, and later the queen asked the prime minister to recommend the candidate, and the emperor Marcian has long known that Alpas and the two have colluded together, how can he agree to let the prime minister Alpas recommend officials? At Marcian's suggestion, officials of his faction immediately stood up and expressed doubts about the competence of the officials recommended by Alpas.

The specific candidate must be determined, and it is impossible for everyone to argue endlessly. Seeing that the time had dragged on and that it was almost noon, Marcian announced that the matter would be postponed. In short, the candidate will be determined within today.

Then the questioning process continued, and the officials of Emperor Marcian's platoon immediately began to fight back, and one of the officers questioned Leo: "Governor Leo, you have been the governor of Thrace for eight years, haven't you?" ”

"Yes, exactly eight years!"

The official had a sinister smile on his face, "Governor Leo, I remember a year after you became Governor of Thrace. The Huns came over, and if the Huns were able to hit outside Constantinople at that time, your responsibility was not too great. After all, you've only been in office for a year, but it's been seven years, what have you done in the Thracian province? Did you build walls and fortifications against the Huns? Has people's livelihood improved? As far as I know, the province of Thrace is now devastated. Poor transportation. Bandits are rampant everywhere, and caravans would rather take the sea route than the land route, take the case of the robbery of the army escorting tax money more than a month ago, not only the officer in charge of the escort Pedro deserves death, but you Governor Leo is also to blame, the province of Thrace is full of bandits under your rule, how did you become the governor of the province? You have the responsibility to rectify the local security situation strictly, and you are not able to govern Thrace at all. The Huns have been gone for seven years, seven years. How many seven years can we wait in our lives? So far, the situation in the Thracian province has not only not improved, but has become worse and worse, I really don't know how you still have the face to sit in the position of governor, how can you still have the face to resign without taking the blame? Are you worthy of the appreciation of your Emperor Xià? Are you worthy of your conscience? Are you worthy of the good salary you get? I'm afraid you don't care about your salary anymore, because you've made enough money over the years, haven't you? ”

This official's mouth is really powerful enough, poisonous enough, scolding people without a dirty word, and it is a slap in the face of Chi Guoguo, saying that officialdom generally does not say anything to death, this guy actually offended Leo to death, obviously ready to go into battle shirtless.

Leo was scolded by this official and his face was blue for a while, purple for a while, constantly changing colors, if Qin Dong was here, he would definitely be surprised that officials from Western countries also had the ability to change their faces.

After the official finished speaking, Leo knelt on the ground and cried: "Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness the Queen, this guy is completely slanderous and blatant slander, the old minister has been conscientious all his life, and he has never done anything corrupt and bribery, he insisted that the old minister made a lot of money in the governor's office, what is this not slander and slander?" The old minister is also the governor of a province of the empire, if he can't produce evidence, please ask His Majesty and His Royal Highness the Empress to punish him for slandering and slandering the important ministers of the empire! ”

"Ahem!" The queen spoke, she couldn't help but speak, Leo was her person, "Sals, Leo is the Minister of the Empire, you said that he made money, can you show evidence?" If you can't produce evidence, then you will have to ask the emperor and the senate to punish you for the crime of slandering and slandering the important ministers of the empire! ”

Who knew that Sals took out a book made of parchment from his bosom and held it above his head and said: "Your Majesty, this is a piece of evidence of Leo's corruption and bribery that someone secretly handed to the minister, the purpose is to figure out that the minister passed it on to His Majesty, because the person who reported it no longer trusts others!" ”

As soon as this evidence came out, not only did many of the officials below change their faces, even the queen was no exception, once this evidence was valid, then Leo would definitely not be able to escape the charge of corruption and dereliction of duty.

The chief eunuch came over and took the small parchment book and handed it to the emperor Marcian, who opened the small book with a blank face and looked at it, while the officials and empress below looked at Marcian very nervously.

It took a few minutes to read the small book, Marcian closed the small book, but did not speak, he was weighing the pros and cons, at this time Prime Minister Alpas came out of the class and said: "Your Majesty, since it is evidence, then it is better to let all your colleagues see what is recorded in this little book!" ”

Marcian turned his head to glance at Queen Pulkaria, and at this moment he understood Alpas's intentions, this old ghost wanted him to fight with Queen Pulkaria, while he sat on the mountain and watched the tiger fight, and then sat on the fisherman's profit.

The previous situation was that the officialdom of the entire empire was divided into three factions, the emperor faction, the prime minister Alpas faction, and the empress Pulkaria faction. Emperor Marcian was a puppet when he was first put on the throne, but after several years of secret arrangement, he already has some power. The three factions have basically reached a balanced situation.

Marcian knew that if he fought with Queen Pulkaria now, the strength of both sides would be greatly damaged, and the prime minister Alpas, who did not participate, would greatly benefit. The inevitable fall of imperial power was an outcome he did not want to see, so he and the Empress had to take a step back and reach a compromise to prevent Alpas's plot from succeeding.

Will Queen Pulkaria back down? You must know that she started the war first, is it possible to let her seek peace first? She had to be asked to make peace, and Marcian made a decision in an instant, he had to put some pressure on Queen Pulkaria. forced her to commit it, so he let the big eunuch take the small notebook and give it to the officials to take turns to read.

This trick really worked, and the queen's face instantly turned the color of pig liver. She didn't have to guess to know that what was recorded in this little book was absolutely true, otherwise it would be impossible for that official to be brought to the court in front of the emperor and so many ministers.

When Alpas stood up and asked the emperor to show the officials the little book, the queen understood Alpas's sinister intentions, this old ghost was too cunning. I told her well the night before. wants to suppress the emperor together, but now this old ghost suddenly turned back, wanting her to fight with the emperor, but he hid behind to watch the excitement and pick up the cheap.

Queen Pulkaria stared at Alpas fiercely with a gloomy face, it was useless now, she knew that it was useless, and since Alpas had already stood up and said that, the alliance between the two was broken. She just wanted to vent some anger.

The little notebook was being passed down in the hands of the officials, and Empress Pulkaria was fighting fiercely in her heart. Suddenly, I saw a pair of eyes staring at me next to me, and when I turned my head, it was the emperor, her nominal husband.

The look in those eyes was conveying a message, she understood, admit defeat, make peace, if you don't admit defeat and don't make peace, everyone will die and let the old ghost of Alpas wake up laughing from his sleep.

When the little book was finished being read and was being taken back by the chief eunuch, Queen Pulkaria finally decided to compromise, and she spoke: "Your Majesty, your humble servant Pulkaria thinks it's not too early, why don't we continue after lunch?" ”

Finally relented, finally willing to compromise, the invincible queen Pulkaria actually used honorifics to the emperor, the corners of Marcian's mouth showed a smile, he knew what the queen meant, she wanted to make an agreement between the two of them alone at lunch, so that the plot of the old ghost of Alpas went bankrupt, but in this way, the two returned to the original point, Marcian decided to let the queen have some blood at lunch, the battle was provoked by her first, she wanted to fight, she wanted to make peace, how could there be such a cheap thing in the world? She had to pay some interest.

Marcian immediately agreed: "Okay, since the queen is hungry, then we will eat lunch first, and then continue after lunch!" ”

The Prime Minister below Alpas is not happy, it's not lunchtime yet, okay? He immediately stood up and said, "Your Majesty, your humble servant Alpas thinks that it is not yet time for lunch, so let's continue, and it is not too late to eat when the time comes!" ”

Before these words were finished, I saw that the faces of Emperor Marcian and Empress Pulkaria changed at the same time, but someone took action for them, and the chief eunuch reprimanded loudly: "Presumptuous, Alpas, the emperor and the empress are hungry, how can you, as a vassal, let the emperor and empress deal with political affairs with a hungry stomach, this important matter will be spread out so that all the people in the world will think that we vassals are disrespectful to the emperor and empress!" ”

"That's it, Your Excellency, you're too wrong, not only the emperor and empress are hungry, but we are all hungry, you can't let all of us be hungry and accompany you here, right?"

The officials of the Emperor and Empress factions began to take charge of Alpas's duties one by one, and the spit almost drowned Alpas.

Alpas's hatred, he didn't expect that Queen Pulkaria would suddenly have lunch at this time, which made his carefully prepared punch empty, and at this point, he could only give up for the time being, otherwise, tomorrow he would not let the emperor dine The notorious will spread, and he will only wait until lunch is over.

Alpas had no choice but to bow and salute: "Your Majesty, your humble servant Alpas is guilty, please forgive Alpas for his sins, since His Majesty is hungry, then eat first according to His Majesty's will!" ”

Both Marcian and Pulkaria breathed a sigh of relief at the same time, and Marcian said, "Spread my will, let the court cook prepare a meal for the courtiers, and all the courtiers will stay here for lunch today, and we will continue after lunch!" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty! A qiē as you will! The chief eunuch agreed loudly, and then announced that the meeting was temporarily over, and the ministers went to the palace restaurant to eat, and the ministers and senators left the hall one after another.

On the way back to the dormitory, Queen Pulkaria caught up with Marcian and said, "Your Majesty, we haven't had lunch together for a long time, I wonder if your humble servant Pulkaria will have the honor to have lunch with you?" ”

"Of course, my Majesty, please!" Marcian smiled and stretched out his hand, and the empress's small hand came up, and with the support of the emperor, the two went to the small dining room together.

When they arrived at the dining room, the two sat down at a table under the service of the court attendants, the floor of the dining room was all made of marble and paved, smooth as a mirror, and the dining table was made of precious wood and covered with a white tablecloth.

Before the food was served, the waiter poured a glass of beer for each of them, and almost a third of the beer brought by Qin Dong was collected by the royal family, in such a hot weather, drinking some cold beer was indeed very thirst-quenching, and both Marcian and Pulkaria were a little obsessed with this thing.

After touching a glass with Pulkaria, Marcian finished his cup in one gulp, put down the glass, and said, "Queen, we haven't eaten together for a long time, haven't we?" ”

Pulkaria took only one sip, put down the cup and said, "If I remember correctly, it seems like we've never eaten together!" You were unhappy when you were asked to sit in this position, why do you care so much now? ”

Marcian smiled bitterly: "I don't want thousands of years later, when people read history books, they see such a paragraph: Emperor Marcian is an incompetent person, who was jointly promoted to the throne by the queen and the prime minister, but he has been a puppet, without the slightest right, without any contribution to the country, this is the saddest and most incompetent emperor in history!" If you were me, what would you do? (To be continued......)