In the Golden Dragon Palace, just as Wei Zhijun was still pondering, the female official in the palace sang in a coquettish voice: "His Royal Highness the King of the West and the Queen of the West have arrived, and the officials are in charge!" The Golden Dragon Hall gradually fell silent, and the civil and military officials returned to their positions and stood up.

After a while, the Xiwang couple turned out of the inner hall, the Xiwang took the hand of the Xiwang Niang, and both walked up the jade steps, Xiao Yungui sat on the golden dragon chair, and Hong Yun'er sat on the side. Wei Zhijun was very curious why the King of the West was not yet the emperor, after he arrived in Tianjing last year, just in time for the tide of persuasion to enter the throne, the whole kingdom of heaven expected that the King of the West could ascend the throne and become the emperor, continue the orthodoxy of the Han Dynasty, and unify the domestic and foreign worlds.

Speaking of the fact that there is no emperor in the kingdom of heaven, in fact, Wei Zhijun has always felt that it is a pity, since Qin Shi Huang, in fact, the people of the country have been accustomed to having an emperor on their heads, and the imperial power is an extraordinary existence in the minds of the people, the emperor represents the true son of heaven, and represents the destiny of heaven that rules the world, but Hong Xiuquan refuses to be called the emperor, only the king of heaven, undoubtedly this makes people have an illusion that the kingdom of heaven does not represent the true son of heaven who is Zhengshuo.

When he encountered that trend, Wei Zhijun did not resist in the slightest, but planned to pat the king of the West on the back, so he contacted some generals in the north hall to write a letter to follow the trend and persuade him. But then the king of the west did not approve the seal, nor did he leave the seal, but issued an edict, only saying that if today's national chaos is initially decided, the Qing demon has not yet been pacified, and it is not appropriate to ascend the throne and call the emperor Yunyun. At the same time, the king of Zhongxi also said that after the expulsion of the Manchus, he would discuss the matter of ascending the throne.

Wei Zhijun believes that this is the strategy of the king of the west to delay his claim to the king, although the kingdom of heaven has established a national name. But now he only occupies the land of the four provinces, and the king of the west is right, his foundation in Tianjing and the rest of Jiangxi and other places is still shallow. Forcibly claiming the title of emperor will only bring harm. But when the Golden Dragon Hall was deliberating, the King of the West always sat on the throne without permission. If the king and the king of the east are gone today, it seems that no one in the kingdom of heaven dares to sit in that position except for the king of the west.

After the West King and his wife sat down, Zuo Zongtang stood at the top of the hundred officials, as the old prime minister of the West Palace, Zuo Zongtang's prestige in the kingdom of heaven is also increasing day by day. Especially after some old courtiers in Tianjing, such as Hu Yihuang, Meng Deen, Chen Chengying and others died in the Tianjing Rebellion, there was no one to compare. I saw Zuo Zongtang's solemn face. Lang Sheng said: "Today's court meeting, the main discussion of the main policies of the various ministries at the beginning of the year and the payment of money and food to the various ministries and armies at the beginning of the year, let's start with the household department. ”

The head of the household is now served by Xu Naizhao, who was the county warden in Suzhou. There is a lot of discipline in handling things. Moreover, under his management, Suzhou's industrial and commercial agriculture developed very rapidly, especially when the Suzhou-Shanghai Railway was built, Xu Naizhao also contributed a lot, and Xiao Yungui promoted him to be the head of the household. Generally speaking, this kind of national budget and grain revenue and expenditure is led by the household department, and Xu Naizhao is also prepared, and immediately took a step forward and spread out the lengthy scrolls. Ready to start telling.

The King of the West raised his hand and interjected: "Xu Shangshu is slow." Before I begin today, I would like to introduce you to a man. With a wave of his hand, the female official in the hall sang in a crisp voice: "Summoning Hong Renji to the palace!" ”

As soon as this remark came out, all the civil and military officials in the palace were surprised, because for several months, rumors and rumors gradually spread in Tianjing City that the young king did not die, but turned to the south to join the uncle of the Hong clan, Hong Renji. As soon as these rumors came out, the old people around Hong Xiuquan in Tianjing City immediately saw hope, or they were ready to move, or they contacted them privately, and so on. Unexpectedly, this Hong Renji was now swaggeringly invited to Tianjing by the King of the West and went to the Golden Dragon Palace.

After the female officials of the palace sang, all the generals looked curiously at the entrance of the palace, only to see the counselor leading a man in his thirties up to the hall, the man was of medium stature, slightly fat, with a calm and warm smile on his face, and looked like a gentle and honest person.

When he arrived at the palace, the man said loudly: "Hong Renji, an overseas relict of the Heavenly Kingdom, meet His Royal Highness the King of the West." So saying, he knelt down and bowed.

In this Golden Dragon Palace, the King of the West had already issued an edict at the first court meeting, and in the future, the ritual of kowtowing and bowing between the upper and lower levels of the heavenly kingdom would be abolished, and the ceremony of bowing and giving up could be done at the time of the court meeting. And this Hong Renji obviously didn't know this, and still performed the old ritual, and he didn't know if it was intentional or intentional by him.

King Xi smiled and calmly accepted his salute before saying: "Ren Ji has recently returned to the court, I don't know the new gift of the Kingdom of Heaven, in the future, I don't have to kowtow and kneel when I enter the court and see my boss on the road, Ren Ji will get up and speak." ”

Hong Renji still did the thanksgiving before getting up, Xiao Yungui said loudly: "Renji is the younger brother of the Heavenly King, but also a lineage of the Hong family, in the early years of the Jintian Uprising in Qingyuan mission, because of the Qing demon blockade failed to go to the alliance in time, and then lived in Hong Kong, in Hong Kong for the Kingdom of Heaven to promote the doctrine, Renji has repeatedly wanted to go north to return to the Kingdom of Heaven, but has been blocked by the Qing Demon, has not been able to make the trip, to the year of the Heavenly Army to conquer Fujian, then with our trade fleet with Hong Kong, this is to return to the Kingdom of Heaven. ”

Xiao Yungui's words are half-true and half-false, Hong Renji's first half of his experience is indeed true, but when he lived in Hong Kong later, he was not prevented by the Qing Demon and could not return to heaven, he had been to Shanghai on a British merchant ship, but at that time he was very politely invited by Xiao Yungui to go back to Hong Kong, and the West Hall controlled the passage to the mainland, so Xiao Yungui naturally would not send Hong Renji to Hong Xiuquan at that time.

After all, he has lived in Hong Kong for many years, and has had a lot of contact with missionaries and Western science, and his horizons are much broader than those in Tianjing. But in history, although this person was able to write a new chapter in capital politics, he did not have the talent and means to promote it. He also wavered in his doctrinal understanding, and when he was in Hong Kong, the worship of God he preached was orthodox Christianity. In history, he claimed that he returned to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to promote orthodox Christianity, but after arriving in Tianjing, he was assimilated by Hong Xiuquan and preached Hong Xiuquan's style. It shows that this person belongs to a person who is ambitious and talented, has different knowledge and action, and has no opinions.

Since being blocked back to Hong Kong by the King of the West, Hong Renji was very depressed for a while, so he continued to study Western knowledge behind closed doors, but he was more talented than in history. Last year, Hong Renfa and Hong Tianguifu went to Hong Kong to join him after a lot of hardships, and Hong Renji immediately said that he would do his best to assist the young master, contact the old department of the kingdom of heaven, set things right, and welcome the young master back to Beijing.

Hong Renji's boasting is true, but he has no wealth or power in Hong Kong, so he can't act at all. Then Tong Qiangsheng came to Hong Kong with a group of Bai Zetang spies, and almost didn't take much effort to "invite" the three of them back to Tianjing. In Shanghai, after Hong Renji was interrogated several times, he had seen Bai Zetang's ruthlessness, and he also saw the general trend of the Western King, so he didn't dare to have any illusions.

Then the king of the west went to Shanghai and met with the three of them. Hong Renfa and Hong Tianguifu originally thought that the King of the West was going to destroy their mouths, but they didn't expect the King of the West to be kind-hearted and let Hong Renfa and Hong Tianguifu follow Hu Xueyan's fleet to settle in the United States, and explained that Hu Xueyan was optimistic about these two people, which meant exile to the United States.

After seeing Hong Renji, Xiao Yungui talked about the arrangements for Hong Renfa and the Young Heavenly King, and slightly revealed the intention of solicitation, Hong Renji dispelled the doubts of the most reluctant, and followed the King of the West with all his heart.

Xiao Yungui doesn't value Hong Renji's talent, if you really talk about talent, Hu Xueyan met Rong Hong in the United States is stronger than him, and even Xu Naizhao, a Qing court official, is better than him, but Xiao Yungui values Hong Renji's identity more as a brother of the Heavenly King. For the King of the West, reusing a brother of the Heavenly King who is not a threat and has great ambitions and talents can not only block the mouths of those old generals in the Heavenly Kingdom, but also show the broad-mindedness of the King of the West, in Xiao Yungui's opinion, there is no more suitable candidate than Hong Renji. So, Hong Renji appeared on the Golden Dragon Palace.

Sure enough, his appearance made the old Heavenly King in the palace feel nostalgic, it seems that the rumors in the market are all false, Hong Renji is already here, if he has the news of the Young Heavenly King, he has already said it early in the morning, but looking at his surrender to the West King, the last trace of hope and flame in the hearts of these old departments has also been extinguished.

Then Xiao Yungui said slowly: "Ren Ji has made a lot of efforts to preach the doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven in Hong Kong, and now he has returned to the Kingdom of Heaven and first given the post of Deputy Director of the Information Department, and the title of Autumn Official is the Prime Minister. ”

As soon as these words came out, the old department of the Heavenly King, the east hall, the old department of the north hall and others didn't feel anything, but some people in the west hall were very dissatisfied. The deputy director of the Information Department is also a newly established department, in charge of the censorship of the Heavenly Kingdom News Newspaper, encouraging non-governmental newspapers, grasping the trend of public opinion, and other duties, not a key department, and there is also the director Wang Libin in town, and there is no trouble, but the Qiu Guancheng is a little too favorable.

Ji Wenyuan, the hot-tempered Shangshu of the Criminal Department, was the first to jump out and said: "His Royal Highness the King of the West, Hong Guozong has recently returned to the Kingdom of Heaven, and he has not made an inch, so he has to be matched with the Qiu Guancheng phase, but I am afraid that it will be inappropriate." ”

King Xi smiled and waved his hand and said: "It's okay, Renji has a deep friendship with many missionaries in Hong Kong, and he also has contacts with reporters from news newspapers in Britain and France, and this time he also brought back cameras and other Western objects, plus he is a Heavenly Kingdom Sect, so he deserves it!" ”

The word "King of the West" is quite heavy, Ji Wenyuan is still waiting to say more, but he was lightly stepped on by Li Kaifang on the side, although Ji Wenyuan is hot-tempered, but he also knows the importance of the road, especially the change in the tone of the king of the west, and when he gets along for a long time, he also knows that the king of the west has set the meaning, and he will no longer make a sound at the moment.

Xiao Yungui also knew that there would be people from the West Hall who would not accept it, but there was no way, if he wanted to appease the old department of the Heavenly King and extinguish their last hope, he could only treat this national emperor well. It is very simple to make the Hong clan disappear completely, but it is not so easy to eliminate the imprint they left on the Heavenly Kingdom, and the appearance of a person like Hong Renji who is neither a threat nor a person who shows up to say anything will bring about a different change. As for those who can't figure it out in the West Temple, let them think slowly, the people in the temple are all important ministers in the West Temple, if they don't have this bit of political wisdom and can't figure out the key, they don't deserve to appear in this palace again. (To be continued......)