The eighteenth year of Hongwei is destined to be an eventful autumn, and just ten days after the Spring Festival, there was a major event in the court.

The cause of the incident was that at the end of last year, the Jiangxi political envoy Shangshuben Province was hit by a snowstorm and asked for exemption from money, grain, and taxes for the coming year.

Originally, this was just a trivial matter, and after the cabinet reviewed, the decision could be made directly through the household department, and even the Hongwei Emperor did not need to make a decision himself, but only reported to the emperor after drafting the edict and other government affairs.

But I don't know if it was the negligence of the cabinet, this letter was directly handed to the desk of Emperor Hongwei, just when the Longcheng horse returned from patrolling the border, and happened to pass through Jiangxi.

So when reporting on his work, Emperor Hongwei casually asked about the disaster in Jiangxi.

As a result, Longcheng was confused, and he didn't know how to answer, so he could only tell the truth he saw, saying that there was no blizzard on the road when he came, and there was indeed snow in Jiangxi Province, but it was not much different from the capital.

As soon as these words came out, Emperor Hongwei was immediately furious, and immediately convened the cabinet and the imperial history platform to investigate the matter in detail.

It's good not to check, but after a check, I found that Jiangxi has been in good weather in recent years, but in the name of locust plagues, droughts, and snow disasters, it has been exempted from taxes for three years.

In Jiangxi Province, from the political envoys to the county officials, all the documents to the imperial court said that Jiangxi was seriously affected by the disaster and the people's strength was weak, so please be exempted from paying taxes.

This is not counting, before the East Window incident, the cabinet had sent two waves of inspection envoys to Jiangxi to inspect the disaster, and the replies were all seriously affected, and they should be exempted from money and grain taxes.

What is even more terrifying is that the imperial court has obviously exempted the two provinces of Jiangxi from paying taxes on money and grain, but in the past three years, the people of Jiangxi have handed over a lot of money and grain, and the amount is as high as 7 million taels, and this huge amount of money has obviously gone into the pockets of the corrupt officials.

As a result, a vigorous Jiangxi money and grain case broke out, shocking the government and the opposition.

Since the three successive political envoys of Jiangxi Province were all from the prince's party, and even the last one was personally appointed by the prince when he was in charge of the country, the Liaowang group immediately seized this handle and began to attack the prince.

Of course, the princelings would not sit idly by, and under the personal intervention of Prince Bao, they quickly severed ties with Jiangxi officials, and the three political envoys who had been imprisoned did not dare to bite and pleaded guilty one after another, only saying that they and Jiangxi officials collectively embezzled the money.

Prince Bao's means are not high, but how could the party of King Liao be easily exposed?

After verification by the Ministry of Households, there was a huge discrepancy between the amount of money and silver provided by the three political envoys and the actual amount, and the civil official group immediately sent a letter requesting that Qi Ge Lao be sent to continue the investigation in person.

This Qi Ge Lao is a big general of the civil official group, although he is nearly eighty years old, he is old and strong, and in his early years, he presided over many yamen such as the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Criminal Department, and the Imperial History Tower.

But just when Qi Ge Lao was just pushed out, the case of his servant in the capital who committed murder on the street and killed his beloved was immediately exposed.

The deceased was the brother-in-law of a down-and-out nobleman in the court, and the bitter lord carried the coffin around the Changxing Mansion, making the matter a lot of trouble, and the whole city knew about it.

Before Qi Ge Lao could react, the Metropolitan Procuratorate went into battle again, impeaching him for not being strict and misbehaving.

At this point, the court has become a pot of porridge, the princelings and the Liaowang clique have attacked each other, and a number of major cases have been pulled out one after another, and as many as 100 people have been imprisoned or returned home to be involved in the trial within 10 days.

Seeing that the situation was getting more and more erosive, and there were faint signs of losing control, Emperor Hongwei finally couldn't bear it anymore, attacked with hatred, and fired thirty-six people involved in the incident in one fell swoop.

Immediately afterwards, all the officials in Jiangxi were strictly dealt with, all the three political envoys were Lingchi, and their families were exiled to the northwest.

This is not counting, because of this turmoil, the prince not only lost his post as a prisoner, but also was ordered to be grounded for half a year, the King of Liao, Prince Bao, and Huang Tingzhi, the first assistant of the cabinet, were all reprimanded, and the Jiangxi Nest case finally came to an end.

Although this turmoil was ostensibly a wrestling between the two forces over a province in Jiangxi, in fact it was the first decisive confrontation in the struggle for succession.

Since then, there has been no possibility of reconciliation between the crown prince and the king of Liao, and the competition for the succession of the throne between the two sides is no longer hidden, which can be regarded as a major turning point and completely opened the prelude to the battle for succession.

Interestingly, in this great turmoil in which officials all over the world have chosen sides to stand in line, there are a handful of people who are alone, first of all, the first person in the military circles of the Northern Kingdom, the Governor of the Five Armies, the Zuo Metropolitan Governor, Wusheng Hong Guangli, has been closing his door to thank customers, and his attitude is unknown.

Secondly, before the beginning of the year, Xiao Jinwu went out to patrol the border, which happened to avoid this turmoil.

When the Jiangxi Wo case just broke out, Liu Yi suddenly fell ill and was almost dying, Xu Rui immediately put everything aside and took a long vacation to Emperor Hongwei, day and night, accompanying him on the couch.

In addition, Wang Shun did not say a word in this matter, whether it was the imperial horse supervisor or the celebrant eunuch, they were all like sheep, and they always acted according to the rules and regulations, and there was no trespassing.

Therefore, after the situation calmed down, everyone was shocked to find that the influential new military generals and eunuch groups in the Great Wei Dynasty were actually silent and did not make a sound.

After this hard-fought competition, both the crown prince and the king of Liao found that they overestimated their own strength, so that in the end, they were deadlocked, and if they wanted to make a breakthrough, they had to pull the silent forces into their camp.

"In this political dispute, on the surface, the prince lost the deer, and the prince won a big victory, but in fact, we did not finish our work in one battle, although the prince's authority was damaged, but it is still as stable as Mount Tai, and we did not bargain much."

In the study of the King of Liao, Tang Huaixin, the secretary of the ministry, talked eloquently, with a red face and red ears.

Du Ruo, the head of the household department, took over the conversation and said: "Huaixin's words are straight to the heart, I didn't expect that the prince's party has been weakened for several years, and it can still have such a powerful counterattack force. ”

King Liao nodded: "The two adults don't have to be so pessimistic, this time we suddenly attacked, although it is a little urgent, but the Jiangxi nest case is not waiting for me, and a competition is not completely fruitless, at least after the prince loses his post as a prisoner, the constraints on us will be much smaller." ”

Du Ruo sighed and said: "What the prince said is good, but what the lower officials are worried about is not this, as the saying goes, if you don't die if you fight a snake, you will suffer from it, this time we have endured for many years, and we have defeated the enemy with one move, but in the end it is a failure."

Now that all our forbearance and schemes have been exposed, the prince's party is bound to be more cautious in the future, and it is even more difficult for us to find a good opportunity.

What's more, the prince suffered this time, and the Xungui Group will definitely be eager to find the field and re-establish the prestige of the prince.

I can't say that for a long time in the future, we will all have to be overwhelmed by the Xungui Group. ”

As soon as these words came out, the faces of the people present changed, and the atmosphere gradually became solemn.

At this moment, a hearty laugh suddenly reached everyone's ears, and everyone turned their heads to look, only to see a young man in his twenties beside King Liao holding a teacup, with a smile on his face, without concealing it at all.

"Ninth brother, why are you laughing?"

The King of Liao looked at this person and asked puzzledly.

This person is the half-brother of the King of Liao, Zhao Wei, the ninth king of Han.

King Han has just turned twenty this year, he is in his prime, and his sharpness is unstoppable, seeing that everyone is looking at him, he has no stage fright, and said with a faint smile: "The initiative is thrown in the hands of the seventh brother, I don't know why you are so depressed?" ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone looked at each other and couldn't help but be stunned.

King Liao said: "Ninth brother, you like to travel the world, you just came back this time, and you don't know the situation in Beijing, this time you used the Jiangxi Nest case to take the opportunity to force the prince of the palace, but it cost us several years of hard work."

Originally, the king wanted to pull the crown prince off the throne, and at the worst it would make his status suffer greatly, but the result was far from expectations.

In contrast, the Xungui group that supports the prince is more powerful, and we are going to play all the cards this time, and I am afraid that the situation will be unfavorable if it drags on for a long time, so you are so worried. ”

When King Han heard this, his face did not change, and he smiled faintly: "I understand what Brother Qi said, but as long as you grasp a point, you can recover all the disadvantages!" ”

"Oh?"

Everyone was shocked when they heard this.

King Liao asked happily: "I don't know what the point that the ninth brother is talking about, is there anything else that is enough to bring down the prince?" ”

Han Wang shook his head with a smile: "It's not a big case, it's a person, he is Xu Rui!" ”

"Xu Rui?!"

King Liao frowned when he heard this.

Han Wang smiled: "To be exact, it should be Xu Rui's position!" ”

Speaking of this, Du Ruo seemed to understand something, and his eyes widened: "The prince is talking ......"

Han Wang nodded: "You guessed right, Xu Rui is the key to breaking the game, whoever he supports, whoever wins!" ”

Hearing this, everyone was in an uproar.

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