Corresponding to the turbulent dark tide centered on Chengdu Mansion is the fierce dispute in the Qiantian Temple day after day.

According to the latest five-level administrative division, Chongqing Road, which has just been renamed, has a total of 11 prefectures, 42 counties, and more than 100 counties, adding up to more than 170 official hats.

These official positions are scattered, and each one is not too important, but if they are gathered, it will be a decisive force, so Bai Qiuyu, Duan Shaojie, Guo Fengjie and others are all using their own means to strive for every place.

In the fierce disputes between the major factions, the more than 100 county orders were the first to be discussed, and basically seventy percent fell into the hands of each faction, and only the last thirty percent were the former Chongqing Fulu officials and non-faction officials.

However, the candidates for the 42 county wardens and the 11 state pastors were not discussed until the end of May.

Yao Ruoyu, who was dragged by Xu Xuanrong to stay in the Qiantian Palace every day to listen to the quarrel, finally couldn't hold back his temper, and he got angry, ordering them to determine the candidate before June, otherwise by June, everything that has not yet been determined will be designated by him.

Under the pressure of Yao Ruoyu, everyone had to make compromises and adjustments in many aspects, so the candidates for the county guards were determined one after another, but when it came to discussing the candidates for the state pastor, the parties inevitably had fierce conflicts.

Now there are eleven state pastors, and there are already ten of them, in order, Yuzhou state pastor Bai Junru, Fuzhou state pastor Yang Yuan, Qianzhou state pastor Zheng Banshui, Wanzhou state pastor Mu Jing, Kuizhou state pastor Sheng Cheng, Zhongzhou state pastor Chen Tu, Sizhou state pastor Qu Feng, Kaizhou state pastor Cai Zhao, Gongzhou state pastor Zhang Shanshui, Changzhou state pastor Ni Ding, and there is also a candidate for Banzhou state pastor has not been decided.

Around this last state pastor, the major factions barely tore their faces.

However, everyone is still sober, and at this stage, only the deputy minister level is involved in the debate, and the six ministers Bai Qiuyu, Xu Xuanrong, Song Kai, Guo Fengjie, Wen Yuancai, and Duan Shaojie have never spoken.

"This Shi Mingzhou has been famous in Xuzhou since he was a child, he was literate at the age of three, and he wrote poems at the age of seven.

Fan Hua, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Rites, glared angrily at Duan Jia, who was born from the Dali bereaved clan on the other side, relying on the fact that the other party was just the director of the Water Conservancy Department of the Ministry of Industry, one grade lower than his official position, and the saliva foam was almost sprayed on the other party's face.

Seeing that Duan Jia was sprayed in embarrassment, Duan Shaojie frowned slightly, glanced at Wen Yuancai, and the latter looked back at the person behind him, and the official immediately stepped out and said: "Shi Mingzhou is a talent, but this official is not weak in his eyes that Jiang Chuanxing! When he served as the commander of Xichong County, he was cautious and professional, and turned the originally barren and desolate small county town into a well-known county that was not inferior to Nanchong County, Shunzhou Prefecture, and there was no problem in being promoted to the governor of Naban Prefecture. ”

Seeing Yang Feng, deputy minister of the Criminal Department, come forward to support the Dali relics, Bai Qiuyu's face sank slightly, and he turned his head to look at Wen Yuancai, who was pale and unaware.

"The minister agreed that Shi Mingzhou should serve as the governor of Banzhou. ”

At this time, Han Derang slowly stepped out of the ranks, and said loudly: "Although the minister has not been in Wenbang for a long time, he has already heard that Shi Mingzhou is talented. ”

Duan Shaojie glanced at him and sneered: "So what Lord Han means is that my state destroyed Dajin, all thanks to Shi Mingzhou's dozens of poems?

Yang Feng smiled, and said: "That is to say, all the credit for pouring heaven was given to Shi Mingzhou, what I know is that the prince of my family has meritorious command, and the generals have led the troops in a good way, I don't know, I really think that my Dawen is all relying on this Shi Mingzhou's pen to lay down the land of Sichuan and Chongqing." ”

Han Derang's face sank when he heard this, and he said coldly: "This official has never meant to erase the merits of the literary and artistic army, but the position of the state pastor is very important, if you take care of a county seat, you are eligible to be promoted to the state pastor, so I have so many county orders, how many people can be promoted?"

"So Lord Han is saying that you don't have to work hard as an official, anyway, you can make a county order with peace of mind?" Chen Jinbo, another deputy minister of the Criminal Department, sneered.

Seeing that Han Derang was besieged by several people from the other side, Bai Qiuyu frowned, and Fan Hua and Cao Jun, another deputy minister of the household department, also came forward to speak out one after another, arguing with several people on the other side.

"This official believes that if you want to do a good job in the county order, you need to focus on one place, to do a good job in the county, you must look at the whole county, you must be a good state pastor, how to care about the overall situation in our state, then Shi Mingzhou can already care about foreign wars when he was serving as a county order, and call on the people to actively participate in the war, this is the style of a state governor. ”

Hearing Han Derang's rebuttal, Song Kai and Xu Xuanrong both nodded their heads, and Fan Hua and Cao Jun also agreed one after another.

Seeing the two sides chattering and arguing below, Yao Ruoyu was quite bored, and wanted to lie on the table, but when he caught a glimpse of Xu Xuanrong's warning gaze, he had to sit upright.

Suddenly, Song Kai coughed lightly.

The voice was not loud, but it sounded clearly in everyone's ears, and suddenly everyone subconsciously stopped arguing and turned their heads to look at the Minister of War, who had been watching coldly since the beginning of the court meeting.

"What exactly does the so-called merit refer to?"

Nor did he look at others, Song Kai looked straight ahead and said indifferently.

Everyone was stunned, Bai Qiuyu thought about it a little, and muttered: "Naturally, do you care about my great cause of Wenbang." ”

The corners of Song Kai's lips twitched slightly, and he said indifferently: "According to this official's point of view, what really depends on the merits of an official is whether it has benefited the people. ”

"There is poetry and calligraphy in the belly, this is true, a person with a full stomach is always more suitable for the official side than Bai Ding, who is illiterate," swept everyone with cold eyes, Song Kai said lightly, "But ......"

Hearing this "but", everyone's hearts tightened, and they listened to Song Kai continue to say slowly: "Blindly advocating poetry as a chapter, thinking that if poetry is good or bad, if it is good or bad, it is a stupid thing. ”

Ignoring Bai Qiuyu and the others' suddenly blue faces, Song Kai said coldly: "If all the people in my Dawen city-state, from the ministers to the grass people in the market, accept such arguments, wouldn't my Dawen be reduced to a place of literati in the future?

"If a good poem manuscript can become a stepping stone to enter the officialdom, in a few years, I will inevitably be an old master who only knows how to study articles," his eyes suddenly turned cold, and Song Kai asked sharply, "But there are still fierce generals who can lift swords and get on horses and cross the battlefield?"

Xu Xuanrong, who was always standing in front of the officials in front of the officials, smiled lightly and said slowly: "But if you are an official, you must pay attention to the word 'practice', it doesn't matter if you can't write a good poem, just write a report, in the final analysis, being an official is whether you can take care of the local area." ”

For a while, there was silence in the Qiantian Palace, and the officials muttered the words of Song Kai and Xu Xuanrong, and their hearts were different, while Bai Qiuyu, Han Derang, Duan Shaojie and others had different expressions, but they did not speak.

Coming to their current position, Song Kai's impassioned words couldn't affect their emotions, and the reason why they were silent was because they were thinking about whether these words were Song Kai and Xu Xuanrong's own meaning, or Yao Ruoyu's meaning?

Song Kai didn't mention it, this person has always been cold and arrogant, sometimes even Yao Ruoyu dares to refute, it is very likely that it is his personal opinion.

But Xu Xuanrong is different, she has already made it clear that she is about to become a princess, and her words and deeds will bear the imprint of King Wen, so since the court meeting, not only her, but even the people in the ministry have rarely spoken, just worried about affecting the situation.

But at this moment, Xu Xuanrong suddenly agreed, does it mean that Yao Ruoyu is actually agreeing with Song Kai's opinion?

This is naturally everyone's own thoughts, and no one will be stupid enough to ask, but because Song Kai and Xu Xuanrong spoke out one after another, the dispute between the state pastor of Banzhou has finally settled, and Jiang Chuanxing, who is more practical, will take over.

At this moment, the eleven state ministers all agreed, and in the end, what remained was the candidate for the commander of the Chongqing Road.

According to the previously agreed administrative division, Sichuan and Shu are designated as Sichuan Road, and Chongqing Fu Road is set as Chongqing Road, and each road has a commander, similar to the Song Dynasty's economic envoy, but the power of the commander is greater than that of the economic envoy, and almost dominates the local military and political powers.

After a short period of silence, Bai Qiuyu took a deep breath, slowly stepped forward half a step, and said, "Your Highness, Weichen recommended Shunzhou Prefecture Mu Huang Kuankuan to serve as the commander of Chongqing Road. ”

The minister seconded. Han Derang immediately seconded the proposal, and then Zhu Qing, Li De and others came out one after another to support it.

Duan Shaojie snorted coldly, shook his sleeves and walked out slowly, and said loudly: "Lord Wang, Weichen recommended Duan Li, the pastor of Dazhou Prefecture, to serve as the commander of Chongqing Road. ”

As soon as he spoke, everyone from the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Criminal Affairs also seconded the proposal, and Wen Yuancai also came out to support Duan Li after a short period of silence.

Seeing the balance of strength between the two sides, Bai Qiuyu frowned slightly, and was about to speak, when he saw Guo Fengjie suddenly take half a step forward and said slowly: "The minister seconded the proposal, Duan Li's qualifications and merits are the first candidates, and he can be qualified for the position of commander of Chongqing Road." ”

Guo Fengjie, who had never thought that he had always remained neutral, actually stood on the side of the Dali relics, Bai Qiuyu couldn't suppress his emotions for a while, and glared at the past with angry eyes.

Because of Guo Fengjie's statement, everyone in the Ministry of Rites also spoke out in support of Duan Li, and for a while, the voice of support for Duan Li in the hall suddenly overshadowed Bai Qiuyu and others.

Seeing that Guo Fengjie actually supported Duan Li, Yao Ruoyu couldn't help but be stunned, and looked over with some curiosity, the former looked at him calmly, and just smiled at himself.

Yao Ruoyu raised his eyebrows when he saw this, and when he saw the other party's smile, he suddenly guessed Guo Fengjie's thoughts, and he couldn't help but smile.

seemed to guess that Yao Ruoyu had already understood his thoughts, and Guo Fengjie also smiled slightly.

Seeing that everyone was getting more and more noisy, Yao Ruoyu knocked on the table, never thought that because it was too noisy below, no one would hear it, but fortunately, Chen Meng took half a step forward on the knife and shouted: "Quiet!"

Looking around at the people who had quieted down, Yao Ruoyu smiled and said: "Chongqing Road is close to the Song, Meng, and Barbarian Kingdoms, and it has been a battleground for soldiers since ancient times, which is extremely important. ”

Bai Qiuyu, Duan Shaojie and the others were nervous when they heard this, they knew that no matter how much effort they had made before and how many people they had united, it was the young man on the high platform who finally finalized this candidate.

Facing everyone's nervous or indifferent gazes, Yao Ruoyu smiled, looked at the figure outside the door who had been standing there at some point, and said with a smile: "Brother Xu, come in!"

Following his gaze, except for Xu Xuanrong and Song Kai, everyone in the hall looked back one after another, and when they saw that person, Qu Feng, Ni Ding and other former ministers of the Song Dynasty all exclaimed, Bai Qiuyu and others frowned, they already knew that Yao Ruoyu would appoint this person as the commander of Chongqing Road, and they all guessed the origin of this person's identity in their hearts.

Among the people, Guo Fengjie suddenly realized in his heart after seeing Qu Feng and the others lose their temper, and looked at Yao Ruoyu with some surprise.

Facing his gaze, Yao Ruoyu smiled slightly.

Completely ignoring the gaze of everyone around him, the figure crossed the threshold, slowly walked into the Qiantian Palace, and walked step by step along the central red carpet to the high platform where Yao Ruoyu was sitting.

This is a young man close to thirty years old, with sword eyebrows and starry eyes, a face like a crown of jade, wearing a purple robe, a pure white and flawless jade pendant tied around his waist, and a freehand style mixed with Confucianism and chivalry poured out from his body.

Staring at Yao Ruoyu, who was smiling gently, the young man also smiled faintly, slowly bowed his hand, and his voice resounded through the silent hall at this moment.

"Minister Xu Jingmiao, see Your Highness. ”