Just when Ji Qingchen deployed his backhand, the princes in King's Landing City were not idle, they were also gathering their henchmen to discuss and plan the cake that Emperor Yan gave them.

In King Lu's Mansion, in the study of the fourth prince Ji Wen, there were already more than ten people, who were bowing their heads to discuss something, they were Prime Minister Pei Wenju and his students in the court, as well as Tang Jian, the head of the household, and Fan Hua, the strategist of Ji Qian.

"What do you think of Lao Jiu handing over the governor of Northern Liao to this king?" Ji Wen told everyone about his deal with Ji Qingchen, and asked Pei Wenju.

Pei Wenju didn't answer, but thought quietly for a moment before he spoke, "Judging from our current strength, the Nine Emperors' move is only beneficial to us and not harmful, but I'm afraid that we will become the target of public criticism because of the Northern Liao Metropolitan Governor's Mansion!" ”

"Now the second prince has the support of the Xizhou Governor's Mansion and Xue Ju, not to mention the third prince's support from the Liuping Plains and Ningzhou armies, the eighth prince has Li Muzhi and Yulin Cavalry, as well as his personal guard Xiao Cavalry, we want to fight with them in the past three years, we can't do it without military power, and the Northern Liao Metropolitan Governor's Mansion is our reliance on the military, so it has become the target of the public, and we can't give up this deal." Tang Jian opened his mouth and said, as the head of the household department, he is second only to the existence of Wang You, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, because in Dayan, the Ministry of Officials is the head of the six departments, and the power is the greatest, and then his Ministry of Household is in charge of money, and the power is second only to the Ministry of Officials, and the power of the Ministry of War is also very large, but because of the Privy Council and the lack of separation of power, the power of the Ministry of War is much smaller, and the same is true of the Criminal Department, because of the Dali Temple and their power, their strength is also much smaller than that of the Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of Households.

"Tang Shangshu is right, the old man also thinks so, to trade with the Nine Emperor Princes, we have to go more than we get." Fan Hua also said, "But this time, His Majesty summoned the two princes back to the capital, and asked His Royal Highness to handle government affairs with the other three princes, which is equivalent to letting the four parties go their own way and hinder each other, which is indeed a clever plan!" ”

"This can not only prevent the dominance of the queen's line, prevent the dictatorship of foreign relatives, but also prevent the eighth prince Ji Qian from supervising the country alone, delaying the situation of the government." Fan Hua agreed with Emperor Yan's approach and said with admiration.

"Well, since you say so, the old man doesn't have any opinion." Pei Wenju said, "Before, because we didn't have the support of the military, Lao Chen still wanted to put a little more power in his hands and hand it over to the three of them at that time, but now with the support of the Northern Liao Metropolitan Governor's Office, it seems that Lao Chen doesn't need to do this." ”

"But His Royal Highness can't be careless, the third prince can still say, stronger than military affairs and weaker than government affairs, and then Li Muzhi restrains him, the threat to us is not great, but the second prince Ji Ping is not simple, not the eighth prince Ji Qian can compare, he is a real hero, and now there are Xue Ju and the governor of Xizhou to rely on, he is our great enemy in the next three years." Pei Wenju said.

"Well, please rest assured that the prime minister will know this!" Ji Wen said, "But don't be too cautious, now we have the support of the Northern Liao Metropolitan Governor's Office, and the Prime Minister you are strategizing in the court, I am deeply respected by the scholars in the country, and my reputation in the Shilin is very high, we are not inferior to the second brother and the eighth brother in all aspects, and we can't be too low-key at this time." ”

"That's right, Your Majesty let the four princes supervise the country, just to test your ability to deal with politics, and then select a person with both land and talent from among you to live in the East Palace, at this time we really can't keep a low profile!" Prime Minister Pei Wenju also nodded in agreement and said.

Also in Ji Qian's Pingnan Palace, there were already one of Ji Qian's henchmen who were discussing how to deal with the other three princes and share power with them in the future. Among these people, in addition to the Taishi and Cui Jingsheng, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, there are also Li Muzhi, the privy envoy of the Privy Council, Wang Shihan, the Taifu, Cha Shenxing, the imperial envoy of the right capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and Cui Fang, the deputy general of the Xiaocai Guard.

"What do you think of His Majesty's punishment of the Nine Emperor Princes?" Cui Jingsheng opened his mouth and said, when there is Cui Jingsheng, Ji Qian generally does not speak, just listen, this is Cui Jingsheng's strength, that is, a fierce person like Ji Qian also does not dare to disobey him.

"It doesn't seem to be serious, but in fact, it has reached the point of breaking our muscles and bones, and we will not be a threat in the future!" Li Muzhi said slowly.

"What does the privy envoy mean?" Cha Shenxing asked.

"What the Nine Emperor Princes rely on is nothing more than the 400,000 elite soldiers of the Northern Liao Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, but now he is imprisoned in the palace and can't leave half a step, His Majesty has handed over the government affairs to the four highnesses, and the old man is in charge of the Privy Council, as long as we unite with Liu Pingyuan, in the name of the Ministry of War and the Privy Council, order the Northern Liao Metropolitan Governor's Mansion to remove the soldiers, reduce the number of troops in the Northern Liao Metropolitan Governor's Mansion to between 100,000 and 150,000, and then send people to infiltrate the Northern Liao Metropolitan Governor's Mansion in three years, as long as we can control half of the people, You said that when the time comes, the Nine Emperor Princes will be released from the confinement and come out, what else can he rely on? Li Muzhi said.

"The privy envoy's suggestion is good, but in addition to the Northern Liao Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, the Nine Emperor Princes also have the support of the Beirong Governor's Mansion, so we don't just want to focus on the Northern Liao Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, right?" Cui Fang said.

"You are right, the Nine Emperors do still have more than 100,000 soldiers and horses in the Beirong Governor's Palace, but we have to abolish the army of the two provinces at the beginning, this movement is a bit too much, obviously it will be rebounded by the soldiers of the two provinces, so that only we will compromise at that time, so we have to slowly figure it out, the first step is to solve the Northern Liao Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, which is the biggest threat to us, as long as this threat is solved, we control Yanmen Pass, that is, what is the change in the Beirong Governor's Palace, they can't enter the pass, what can we do? When the time comes, when we take control of the Northern Liao Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, wouldn't it be better to abolish the Beirong Governor's Mansion? Li Muzhi said.

"Yes!" Cui Jingsheng nodded slightly, agreeing with Li Muzhi's suggestion, he also felt that he had to deal with these two mansions slowly, and he couldn't rush for success, otherwise it would definitely backfire, and Emperor Yan's disposal before was a good list.

"Now Ji Qingchen is no longer our biggest threat, our biggest threat should be the second prince and the fourth prince." Cui Jingsheng continued, "The second prince has Xue Ju's Xizhou Governor's Mansion, and has the support of Wang You's father and son and other courtiers, if he returns to King's Landing to participate in government affairs, he will inevitably become our great enemy, because Wang You controls the right to appoint and dismiss personnel, and Wang Wenhe controls the power of Xingjiao in Dali Temple, we can't help but guard against these two people!" Of course, the fourth prince Ji Wen we can't help but be vigilant, although he is weaker than the military and political aspects, but Pei Wenju has been in the position of prime minister for 20 years, and his power in the court is very huge, we can't ignore his energy. ”

"Therefore, what we have to do now is to unite with the third prince Ji Hongchang to suppress the second prince and the fourth prince, and strive to expel them from the court one by one, and then compete with the third prince and Liu Pingyuan." Cui Jingsheng said, seeing that everyone was confused, he continued to explain, "Because the strength of the Three Princes and Liu Pingyuan is the weakest of our four forces, they don't dare to face any of our three parties alone, and only cooperating with us is the right way." ”

"However, in order to prevent them from cooperating with the second prince or the fourth prince, we still need to reach an agreement with Liu Pingyuan as soon as possible." Wang Shihan said.

"The old man has already thought of this, and he has already contacted Liu Pingyuan." Cui Jingsheng said, "But there is another point, which is to prevent us from irritating the second prince and the fourth prince after we form an alliance with the third prince, so that the two of them form an alliance, our alliance with the third prince still needs to be low-key, at least not for now, not to let outsiders know, because this power can only be released if we need his truth!" ”

"As for how the four of us should distribute the power of the government after the two princes arrive in the capital, this still needs to be discussed by the four parties, but we must not hand over the power that has been handed over now." Cui Jingsheng said.

Seeing him say this, everyone else nodded and agreed with him.

"Of course, in order to form an alliance with Liu Pingyuan, you still have to wronged Li Shu's envoy!" Cui Jingsheng said to Li Muzhi again.

"What does Uncle mean?" At this time, Ji Qian asked.

"The third prince is familiar with military affairs and weak in government affairs, if he returns to King's Landing, he will not be interested in government affairs, and the only purpose is the Privy Council, so let him be the deputy privy envoy of the Privy Council, and share the power of the Privy Council with Privy Envoy Li, which is the bargaining chip for our alliance with the Liu family." Cui Jingsheng said.

"It doesn't matter!" Li Muzhi said very boldly, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but show a faint smile, "Wouldn't it be better to let the third prince sit in the Privy Council and let him preside over the dismantling of the army of the Northern Liao Metropolitan Governor's Mansion?" ”

As soon as he said this, Cui Jingsheng on the side was stunned and showed a faint smile, obviously the two old foxes had the same idea.

Similarly, when Ji Wen and Ji Qian were discussing with their henchmen, Ji Hongchang, who was far away in Ningzhou, and Ji Ping, who was far away in Xizhou, were not idle. The two had already left Ningzhou and Xizhou when Emperor Yan said that they would recall the two, and hurried to King's Landing City. And compared to Ji Hongchang's marching speed, Ji Ping was more anxious, because he was farther away from King's Landing than Ji Hongchang, and he had to rush back to King's Landing as soon as possible to support the overall situation. Otherwise, with the strength of Wang You's father and son, it would be no problem to deal with Pei Wenchao and Cui Jingsheng, but when facing Ji Hongchang, Ji Wen and Ji Qian, it would be much weaker.

However, the two of them were also quite surprised by Emperor Yan's punishment of Ji Qingchen. imprisoned Ji Qingchen, and one captive is three years, which makes Ji Hongchang and Ji Ping very happy, because if Ji Qingchen is not imprisoned, he will become the most powerful party among everyone, and the threat to them will be great.