The queen's last edict that day was to order the Imperial City Division, who was in charge of guarding the palace, to continue to search for the escaped Wang Sheng, and this time she emphasized: "You must be captured alive, and you must stay alive." ”

When I returned to Yifeng Pavilion to resume my life, I was inevitably surrounded and interrogated by everyone in the pavilion, asking me to talk about the night's affairs. When no one finally asked any more questions, it was almost noon, and because I was worried about Mr. Zhang's injury, I went to visit him at his residence without waiting for dinner.

His shoulders were bandaged, and instead of resting, he stood in front of the window and looked out, with a melancholy look between his brows. When he saw me come in, he sat down to talk to me, and when I asked him about his injury, he only said with a faint sentence of "It's okay", and he didn't talk about last night's events, and asked me about my current situation, but he still looked out from time to time, as if he was waiting.

After chatting for a while, a chamberlain Huang Men hurried in, and I vaguely recognized him as a eunuch serving in the court. He glanced at me, and then looked at Mr. Zhang inquiringly, and hesitated, knowing that he had something important to tell Mr. Zhang, so I retreated to a distance, and then he whispered something to Mr. Zhang.

Mr. Zhang listened silently, not showing joy or anger, and when the waiter finished speaking, he asked, "Who is the bachelor who has been in Hanyuan recently?" ”

Hanyuan is the Hallym Academy. The dynasty had a system of Hanlin bachelors, so that the bachelors were on duty at night in the Hanyuan, in order to be temporarily ordered to draft the system, and the continuous day duty was called "Zhizhi".

The chamberlain said the name of the person who had been upright recently: "Zhang Fangping." ”

Mr. Zhang nodded: "Got it." ”

Waiter don't retreat. Mr. Zhang pondered for a moment, looked up at me, and told me: "The official family burst into tears when he told the assistant minister about last night's incident. ”

I was startled, and a sense of foreboding swept by: "Is it because of the queen's holy will?" ”

"The official family didn't say much about it," Mr. Zhang said, "what he lamented was that he sent the lady to close the cabinet and not to come out, and Zhang Meiren stepped forward to escort him, and he praised Zhang Meiren a lot." ”

"What is the reaction of the auxiliary ministers?" I asked.

Most of the auxiliary ministers wept with him, but only Chen Zhizhong, who was the same as the peacemaker, resolutely did not change. The privy envoy Xia Zhu took advantage of the situation to propose to respect Zhang Meiren and move her position, while the privy deputy envoy Liang Shi said that the top priority was to quickly investigate the matter of Su Wei's rebellion, and the respect could be discussed later. Mr. Zhang calmly recounted to me what he had heard, "As for the affairs in the palace last night, Xia Zhu asked the official family to order the imperial history and the eunuchs to investigate in the forbidden place, and the governor Ding Du said that there was a change in the guard, and it was a matter of social affairs, and insisted on asking the imperial historian to be tried by the imperial history platform to thoroughly investigate all the party henchmen such as the mastermind and accomplices inside and outside the palace. The two fought from early morning to noon, and finally the official family accepted Xia Zhu's opinion. ”

Most of the cases committed by the imperial history and the eunuchs in the forbidden period were committed by the palace people, and the imperial history platform generally tried major and difficult cases that were difficult to judge in Dali Temple and major prisons that were tried by the edict. After Mr. Zhang finished speaking, he did not express his position on this matter for the time being, I thought he was waiting for me to express his opinion, so he said tentatively: "Xia Zhu seems to mean that the mastermind is from the palace, and Ding Du thinks that it is a matter of foreign ministers, so he ......"

Mr. Zhang was silent, looked at me quietly for a long time, and then said, "Huaiji, can you do something for me?" ”

"Absolutely." I replied without thinking.

"Do you have a little yellow door in your pavilion that will measure Moyi?" He asked me.

Moyi was originally a subject of the imperial examination, and scholars were required to write to answer the scriptures. The dynasty stipulates that when Xiao Huangmen is over 12 years old, if he wants to be promoted to the position of serving Huangmen or above, he should first test Moyi.

I replied yes, so Mr. Zhang got up, walked to the bookshelf, took out a volume of the Book of Han, turned to one of the pages and handed it to me: "You find a sensible little yellow door, let him bring a few scriptures and this volume of the Book of Han to the Hanyuan in the evening to find Master Zhang Fangping, first ask him a few questions in the scriptures, and then turn to this page, find a random word and sentence to ask him." ”

I took a look and saw that the page was a chapter in the "Book of Han: The Biography of Foreign Relatives", which talked about Feng Jieyu of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty who was a bear as a king: Emperor Yuan took all the concubines to watch the tiger circle to watch the fighting beasts, among which a bear jumped out of the tiger circle, climbed the threshold to go to the palace, and pounced on the throne. The nobles on the left and right, Fu Zhaoyi and others, all exclaimed in surprise, but Feng Jieyu stepped forward and stood as a bear. After the warriors approached and killed Xiong Ge, Emperor Yuan asked Jieyu: "When the beast comes, everyone is frightened, why do you reverse and act as a bear?" Feng Jieyu replied: "If the beast grabs people, it will stop when they win people." The concubine feared the bear to the throne and violated His Majesty, so she was willing to be a bear. Emperor Yuan sighed, and from then on he respected Jieyu very much.

At first, I didn't understand why Mr. Zhang wanted someone to turn this page for Mr. Zhang, staring at the chapter for a long time, and then noticed the last sentence: "Next summer, Feng Jieyu will be the king of Xindu, and Jieyu will be Zhaoyi." Only then did it dawn on me that although Feng Jieyu sacrificed herself to protect the monarch, the emperor did not respect her afterwards, and she was later respected as Zhaoyi because of her son's title of king.

So, I boldly asked Mr. Zhang: "Is Mr. worried about the sudden promotion of Zhang Meiren from the official family?" ”

Mr. Zhang smiled faintly: "If that's all, it's not too bad, I'm afraid that someone will take advantage of the topic to play...... But the rest of the situation is still unclear, so let's do it for now, and wait and see. ”

I bowed my head and agreed. I was a little apprehensive in my heart, but I was faintly happy, because Mr. Zhang entrusted me with this matter, and he should have trusted me quite a lot. At last I couldn't help but ask him, "Why did your husband tell me these things?" ”

He said: "That day, when I saw you hurriedly running to tell me about Miss Fan, I knew that you cared about the queen very much. ”

I bowed my head, a little embarrassed, put the book away, and took his leave. Before leaving, he accidentally found that his blood-stained robe had been washed clean, and was drying in the courtyard at the moment, and recognized that it was an old robe that he had worn many times, which was pierced by thieves last night and stained with blood, and he still did not abandon it, so he asked him curiously: "Sir, I saw you wear this robe when I first entered the palace, and you have kept it until now, have you been many years?" ”

"Thirteen years, five months, two days." He replied with extraordinary precision.

I was stunned to remember this exact number. After going back, he checked the chronology of the palace and calculated that the time when he first obtained this robe was September 17 in the first year of Jing You, which was the day when the Empress Cao was established today.

Two days later, the Imperial City Division Guards captured Wang Sheng in the northwest corner tower of the inner city, and Yang Huaimin, who was the Imperial City Division and the deputy capital of the Imperial City, ignored the queen's will not to kill the thief, and ordered the guards to dismantle Wang Sheng on the spot.

Several imperial historians and eunuchs were ordered to investigate the case in the forbidden area, because the four thieves had all died, there was no evidence of death, and the mastermind was not found, so they convicted several eunuchs in charge of the Imperial City Division who were in charge of the forbidden guards. There are two Siben of the Imperial City, one is Yang Huaimin, and the other is named Yang Jingzong. On the night of the thief, Yang Huaimin was on duty overnight, and he should have been guilty of one more degree, but the strange thing is that Yang Jingzong, like the imperial city envoy and Deng Baoji, the deputy governor of the city, was demoted and released from Beijing, and although Yang Huaimin was demoted, he was left in the palace and still served as an internal envoy.

The ladies discussed this matter privately, and attributed the reason to the fact that the masters they were doing were different, Yang Huaimin usually served Zhang Meiren before and after the saddle every day, while Yang Jingzong and Deng Baoji were pro-Zhonggong. Once I also heard Wang Wuzi tell Miao Niangzi the news that Yang Huaimin had a very close relationship with Xia Zhu, and Xia Zhu had already arranged it for him and taught him how to deal with it, so when the imperial history interrogated, there was no evidence against it at all. Xia Zhu also said that Yang Huaimin discovered the incident in advance that night and should be dealt with leniently. As a result, it seems that Yang Huaimin's sin is lighter than everyone else.

Of course, this result is not acceptable to all ministers. In the imperial history, Chengyu Zhou Xun, Zhang Yu, the governor of the imperial history, and He Tan, the imperial history, played the impeachment of Yang Huaimin, demanding that he be given a derogatory punishment today, and directly accused Yang Huaimin of allowing his subordinates to kill thieves in an attempt to kill the thief, and wanted to derelict his duties. He also pointed out that Yang Huaimin was staying in the house at the time of the incident, and he was guilty of absenteeism, but now Deng Baoji and others have been appointed to foreign posts, but Yang Huaimin has stayed alone in Beijing, "the punishment is heavy and light, quite inverted, and China and foreign countries have heard of it, and they are especially unfair."

He Tan even hinted to Jinshang that Xia Zhu sheltered Yang Huaimin: "I am afraid that I have befriended people and secretly rescued them, and vainly claimed that Huaimin was meritorious and could not be deposed equally." Fu Wangte expelled heresy and dismissed evil opinions, and a case of responsibility was assigned to foreign appointments to assist the public. ”

In the end, Jinshang adopted his advice, demoted Yang Huaimin to the envoy of Wen Si, the assassin of Hezhou, and demoted from Beijing.

As promised that day, the queen rewarded the eunuchs who participated in the capture of the thieves for meritorious deeds, or gave them money or moved officials, and even I was moved to the rank of a chamberlain, which was a rare favor for the seventeen-year-old chamberlain. However, Mr. Zhang first entered the house to capture the thief, and the results of his reward have not been reported for a long time. I inquired intently, and the answer I got was that the queen did not dare to make her own decisions, and asked Jinshang what he meant, and Jinshang said indifferently: "Those who move eunuchs to serve the position of official or above must consult with Zaizhi." ”

Presumably, there was a lack of interest in discussing this matter with the deacon, so he delayed all the way. But that's not what Mr. Zhang is concerned about now.

Ever since he was wounded, I have visited him every day, and I have seen that he often has the imperial chamberlain in his residence, and I think that I have informed him of information related to the queen.

I have already done the matter of the "Book of Han" entrusted by him. According to the little yellow door I sent, Zhang Fangping really stared at Feng Jieyu's page for a long time. When I told Mr. Zhang about the result, he only bowed his head and asked me to do nothing more in the past few days.

One afternoon, I went to see Mr. Zhang again, and saw that he was coming out of his house, not knowing where he was going, walking in a hurry, looking anxious, very different from the past.

I called out to him, and he nodded, but didn't mean to stop. At this time, a eunuch came from the forbidden and stopped him to spread the message that the official family invited him to enter and recount the details of the capture of the thief with the imperial history of the investigation of the case, so as to reward him for his merits.

Mr. Zhang stopped and said to the eunuch: "The will of the official family, Mao does not dare to disobey it." But now in civilian clothes, it is rude to meet Yu Shi in this regard, please go back first, let me go in and change my clothes, and I will go there in a few years. ”

The eunuch looked at him with a smile, as if he was prepared: "The imperial history has been waiting for a long time, if you don't see me bring back Mr. Zhang, I'm afraid you will complain about my dereliction of duty." Sir, go and change your clothes, I'll wait here. I hope that Mr. will be considerate and don't let Yushi wait for a long time. ”

Mr. Zhang reluctantly agreed, turned his eyes to me for a moment, motioned for me to follow him, and I went in with him. When he got inside, he told me in a low voice, "It's not good. Wang Zhen of the Tongzhi Yuan said that the thief had an affair with the people of the Queen's Pavilion, and the palace chaos was in it at all. He asked Jinshang to investigate this matter, and he was afraid that he would instigate Jinshang to go to prison for training in order to shake the middle palace. ”

I was so shocked that I didn't know what to say, so I only asked, "Who is Wang Zhen?" ”

"Xia Zhu's lackey, Granny Jia also has dealings with him." Mr. Zhang replied and asked me again: "Can you recognize Prime Minister Chen Zhizhong and Yu Shi He Tan?" ”

I nodded and said, "I've seen it from afar during the celebration in the palace." ”

Mr. Zhang quickly found a volume of documents and handed it to me, and instructed: "Today, Xia Zhu and Wang Zhen have been secretly summoned, and they are now discussing in the Ying Pavilion. This is the edict of the abolition of the queen that I transcribed when the queen of Guo was abolished, you take it, go to the door of the book and wait, today He Yushi is there to discuss with Chen Xianggong about the imperial city guards, when it is almost dusk, they will come out, you run over, pretend to fall, drop the edict on the ground and unfold it, so that they can see it. If they ask, you say that Prime Minister Xia asked you to find it for him. ”

The first time I was confronted with fabricating lies about politics, I was dumbfounded. Mr. Zhang seemed apologetic, patted me on the shoulder and said, "I'm sorry, please do such a thing...... But if you tell them about the queen openly, it will not be good for you or the queen. ”

"Then, why do you say that, Xia Shu ......," I stammered.

"Chen Xianggong and He Yushi both despise Xia Zhu as a person." Before changing clothes and going out, Mr. Zhang only replied with this sentence.

I acted according to my words, and waited for Chen Zhizhong and He Tan under the Zhongshu Gate, but I didn't expect that there was also the privy deputy envoy Liang Shi who came out with them, so I hesitated slightly, but then remembered that Mr. Zhang had said that Liang Shi suggested that the matter of respecting Zhang Meiren should be postponed, not to mention that according to the tradition of the national dynasty, the privy envoy and the privy deputy envoy are usually at odds with each other, so I ran as planned, so I fell down, and the edict in my hand slipped out and unfolded, which really attracted their attention.

They slowly gathered around the edict, and when they looked down, they were all a little surprised. Chen Zhizhong immediately asked me, "What are you doing with this paperwork?" Where are you going? ”

I bowed my head and replied: "It was Prime Minister Xia who wanted to check it, and ordered me to find it out from the History Museum, and I had to send it to him later." ”

The three of them looked at each other, and for a moment they didn't speak, and the glances they exchanged in this moment made me feel worthy of my mission.

"Where is Prime Minister Xia now?" Later, Chen Zhizhong asked.

I told him, "Face the saint in the Pavilion." ”

I thought that this sentence was enough, so I quickly stood up, picked up the paperwork, and hurried away from their sight.

Later, I hid near the Ying Pavilion, watched Xia Zhu and Wang Zhen come out, and then saw Chen Zhizhong, He Tan and Liang Shi come to ask for help, and went in one after another.

I returned to Yifeng Pavilion, but after all, I couldn't sleep well, so I found another excuse to go out. When I passed by the Rouyi Palace, I suddenly heard Qiuhe call me from behind: "Huaiji, where are you going so late?" ”

I stopped to look back at her, but she was startled: "What's wrong?" Your face is so ugly. ”

I hesitated, but finally told her briefly about today's events, and told her that if something big happened, she must be close to the queen.

Qiu He was stunned, and it took a long time to react, and he burst into tears: "How can this be ......?"

I wanted to comfort her, but I felt that I couldn't talk about it, so I said after a long time: "Don't cry, it's not good for the queen to see." Go back, and I'll inquire again. With the advice of the public, things should not be left without room for turnaround. ”

When I went to the Ying Pavilion again, I saw that it was still brightly lit, and presumably the monarchs and ministers were still discussing the queen's affairs. Then go to Mr. Zhang, and wait for him to come back after a long time.

As soon as he saw me, he asked, "Did you show them?" ”

I nodded, and recounted what had happened. Hearing that the three of them had entered the Ying Pavilion, he seemed to be slightly relieved, and took me inside to sit down and wait for the news.

We first sat silently, and after a moment, I tentatively asked Mr. Zhang, "Why did Xia Zhu try to shake the Middle Palace?" ”

"Have you heard about Xia Zhu before?" He asked.

I replied truthfully: "I've only heard of his head worth two sentences." ”

Hearing this, Mr. Zhang couldn't help but sigh, and I laughed too, and the atmosphere was slightly better.

It turned out that Xia Zhu had commanded the Western Expedition, and when he first arrived at the border, he was full of ambition and wanted to quickly kill Yuan Hao to destroy the Xia Kingdom, so he unveiled the list and put a reward: "Those who have won Yuan Hao's head will be rewarded with five million yuan, and the king of Xiping will be king." When Yuan Hao heard about this, he sent people into the border city to sell the foil, pretending to lose it, and one end of the foil was tied to Yuan Hao's list. The Song people in the city picked it up and looked at it, but saw that it was written: "Those who have Xia Zhu's head will be rewarded with two texts." Xia Zhu learned that he urgently ordered to hide Yuan Hao's list text, but this matter had already spread and became the laughing stock of the countrymen, and some people in the palace often said it.

"Xia Zhu writes lyrics and talks about Liangzhou songs, but he is not talented in the world, and he is jealous of his ability." Mr. Zhang elaborated on the reason from the beginning, "A few years ago, Fan Zhongyan Fan Xianggong led a group of virtuous ministers and celebrities to carry out a new policy, Xia Zhu had been appointed as a privy envoy at that time, but he was impeached by Taiwan, saying that he was insidious and cunning, and he was cowardly in the war against Xia. Most of those officials belonged to the New Deal faction, and Xia Zhu held a grudge and instigated his minister Lan Yuanzhen to slander the present, pointing out that Fan Zhongyan, Ouyang Xiu, Yu Jing, Yin Zhu and others were friends and supported each other. But he didn't pay much attention to it, so he devised another plan to frame the New Minister. At that time, Guozijian directly said that Shi Jie wrote a widely circulated "Ode to the Holy Virtues of Qingli", calling the new minister "the advance of all sages", and saying that Xia Zhu and the privy envoy did not have a chance to "go to the great traitor". Xia Zhu naturally hated Shi Jie because of this, and his framing of the new minister was involved in Shi Jie. ”

"Shisuke?" I've heard the name, and I know a little bit, "Does it mean that he corresponded with Fu Bi and invalidated the edict?" ”

Mr. Zhang sighed: "That's naturally fake. In the fourth year of Qingli, Xia Zhu instigated a maid in the family to imitate Shi Jie's handwriting, tampered with Shi Jie's letter, and changed the 'Xingyi and Zhou's affairs' in the letter to 'Xingyi and Huo's affairs'. Yi refers to Yi Yin, and Zhou refers to Zhou Gong, who was originally a virtuous minister who assisted the Son of Heaven, but as soon as he changed it, Zhou Gong was changed to Huo Guang, who was a powerful minister who had abolished the monarch. Then, he also forged a draft of the edict to abolish the emperor, saying that it was written by Shi Jie for Fu Bi, deliberately circulated it, and ordered someone to report it to the present day. ”

This is naturally the most taboo thing for a monarch. I began to understand why I didn't defend the New Deal as I did at first.

"Actually, I don't believe that Fu Bi will do this, but it is inevitable that there will be a little shadow in my heart." Mr. Zhang continued, "In this way, not only Fubi, but even Fan Zhongyan did not dare to settle down in the court when he saw this, and asked to leave Beijing to take up his post. Shi Jie was demoted to Puzhou General Judge and died before he could take office. Soon after, Wang Gongchen and others took advantage of the Su Shunqin Jinyuan incident to train in prison, and demoted all the virtuous and virtuous people who supported the new policy, and also used this to influence Su Shunqin's father-in-law and prime minister Du Yan, causing him to resign. Han Qi spoke for Fu Bi and was also removed from the post of deputy privy envoy. Later, even Ouyang Xiu, Cai Xiang, Sun Fu and other counselors were also found with their own excuses, and they were released one after another, and the new policy was over. Last year, Xia Zhu finally got his long-cherished wish and came back to become a privy envoy. ”

Listening to Mr. Zhang's narration of the old things, I came up with a context for the new policy of Qingli. Before, I only felt that the ministers of the New Deal were outstanding in writing and talented, even if they sighed for the ups and downs of their careers, it was just a little simple sentimentality after reading their poems, but I didn't expect that behind the wonderful words of those talented people, there were so many stories of party struggle.

But I still didn't realize this joint immediately: "However, Xia Zhu's spearhead is pointed at the Middle Palace, what does it have to do with these things?" ”

"Don't you see?" Mr. Zhang pointed out in one sentence, "The Central Palace is quite sympathetic to the new minister. ”

I immediately thought of Ouyang Xiu's matter, and I had an epiphany in my heart, but I still had questions: "But the queen doesn't discuss political affairs on weekdays, how can Xia Zhu know when she is outside?" ”

"You have to talk about politics to see her attitude?" Mr. Zhang said, "Her every move is eye-catching, and if she looks at anyone's spring post a few more times on weekdays, it will quickly be spread outside the palace." ”

After thinking about it for a while, Mr. Zhang told me again: "She read Su Shunqin's poems, tasted Ouyang Xiu's words, and appreciated Cai Xiang's words...... What's more, the son-in-law of Du Yan's Du Xiang family, later Mrs. Su Shunqin, was originally her close friend when she was not married. ”