Zhenguo Mansion.

When the situation in the court was changing, the minister's words were fierce, and the emperor was crying sadly, Zhao Ning was playing chess with Yang Jiani in the pavilion of the mansion.

After two years of tempering, the level of hand talk is not what it used to be, and Hu Honglian, who is standing on the side, is now unable to start even if he wants to open his mouth to give instructions.

Many times she can't even understand the chess path of the two, and often has to follow the development of the chess game to suddenly realize that the secret path is subtle.

After a game of chess, the hour was not early, and Zhao Ning asked people to remove the chessboard. The maids served tea and snacks, Hu Honglian also sat down, and the three of them chatted while eating afternoon tea.

"At this hour, things in the court should almost come to an end, right?"

Hu Honglian looked at the direction of the palace, although the pavilion was quite high and had a broad field of vision, it was destined not to see the palace scene here, Hu Honglian retracted his gaze and turned to Zhao Ning, "Is it possible for Xu Minglang's old horseman to survive?"

Zhao Ning, who chewed slowly, swallowed the osmanthus cake in his mouth, drank a sip of tea to clear his mouth, and then replied unhurriedly Hu Honglian, "The emperor has made up his mind to abandon him, how can he have any life at all?"

Hu Honglian sighed, "I still can't understand why the emperor would abandon such a loyal and useful old dog. ”

"Will the emperor be short of loyal dogs?" Zhao Ning chuckled, "For our emperor, letting every dog make the best use is the choice that should be made, not that every loyal dog has a good end." ”

Seeing that Hu Honglian still wanted to ask, Zhao Ning took the initiative to continue to explain: "Xu Minglang has become the target of the family, this is where he deserves to die.

"Now more than 20 families have united to impeach Xu Minglang, if the emperor still refuses to make concessions and throws Xu Minglang to the family to vent his anger, then the family will not impeach Xu Minglang next.

"In recent years, the emperor has single-handedly promoted the situation of civil and military rivalry between the family, the division within the family, and the rise of the poor family, and the family really has no complaints against the emperor?

"The generals and scholars who were impossible to unite before, now they are also standing together under the leadership of the Zhao family, and the unity of the family that was destroyed by Xu Minglang has now been reshaped.

At this time, the families did not blatantly oppose the emperor, but only asked to dispose of Xu Minglang, the biting dog, but the emperor did not agree, which forced the families to direct their anger at him. Only by abandoning Xu Minglang can the relationship between the family and the emperor be eased to a certain extent. ”

Speaking of this, Zhao Ning took another sip of the tea bowl, "The Magistrate's Court and Xu Minglang are both the minions of the emperor to fight against the family, and now that their role has been achieved, the task has been completed, and it is time to abandon them and avoid the family from making a big mess." ”

Hearing this, Hu Honglian suddenly realized again.

Yang Jiani suddenly said: "Although Xu Minglang is destined to be abandoned by the emperor, as the prime minister of the dynasty and the head of the Xu family, he must have been planning to consolidate his power over the years.

"Today's court meeting, in just one or two hours, Xu Minglang fell from the clouds to the dust, and he had no power to resist, is it too fast?

Zhao Ning pondered for a moment: "Even if Xu Minglang has the means to guarantee the bottom, I'm afraid it won't be too late." If the emperor decides to abandon him, he will not give him the opportunity to see that the situation is wrong and bite himself. So before today's court meeting, Xu Minglang should have thought that the emperor would protect him, so he didn't think about using the means of guaranteeing the bottom. ”

"How could Xu Minglang believe in the emperor so much?"

Zhao Ning sighed, got up and came to the pavilion, stood on the high pavilion with his hands in his hands, facing the direction of the palace, and said in a low voice: "After the case of the Pang family, the Zheng family, and the Lu family two years ago, Xu Minglang may not fully trust the emperor. What really convinced him that the emperor would protect him was that there was someone else. ”

Yang Jiani sat at the stone table and didn't move, looked at Zhao Ning's back and said, "Zhao Yujie?"

Zhao Ning did not answer.

It's the default.

Hu Hong laughed suddenly, and said sneeringly:

"Speaking of which, this traitor girl is really betrayal. betrayed the Zhao family in the early years, almost made Brother Ning suffer a catastrophe, and then betrayed Xiao Yan, causing the other party to fail to escape and be imprisoned, and this time he betrayed Xu Minglang, so that Xu Minglang couldn't even use the means of guaranteeing, so he fell into the abyss in a daze. ”

Speaking of this, Hu Honglian said thoughtfully: "I really don't know when this traitorous girl's traitorous behavior will be a head." ”

Zhao Ning did not answer.

Neither did Yang Jiani.

Hu Honglian stopped talking and found that the atmosphere was not quite right.

She couldn't see Zhao Ning's face, so she looked at Yang Jiani with a puzzled look.

Yang Jiani said in a low voice: "Zhao Yujie's status in the palace is no longer idle, and now she has helped the emperor deal with Xu Minglang, and her weight has reached a higher level." If the Magistrate and Xu Minglang have fallen, the emperor will inevitably support a minion to come out again, and it will be more useful than the Magistrate and Xu Minglang, otherwise it will be a regression. ”

Hu Honglian frowned and pondered for a moment, and suddenly his face changed, "You mean, the emperor's next minions to be put on the table will be Zhao Yujie?......!" It's just a harem concubine!"

"Although she is a harem concubine, she has been reviewing the recitals in Chongwen Hall for a long time!"

Yang Jiani's voice became very dangerous, "If it wasn't for the sake of 'reusing' her, why did the emperor let her do this? Moreover, the prime minister has fallen, and it is not easy to support a person who is more useful than the prime minister, how can ordinary people be competent?"

Hu Honglian couldn't speak for a while, and she was still in disbelief at the end, "Since ancient times, the harem has not been allowed to interfere in politics, all dynasties, except for the main and young mothers, the queen mother is hanging the curtain to listen to the government, there has never been an emperor in his prime, and the concubine is meddling in the affairs of the court!"

"Just because there wasn't one before doesn't mean that there isn't one now, and it doesn't mean that there won't be one in the future. Everything depends on whether the situation requires it. In the current turbulent situation within the Great Qi Dynasty, anything can happen. ”

Yang Jiani glanced at Zhao Ning's back, "It is unknown whether Zhao Yujie will interfere in the government and politics in a bright and bright way, but after Zhao Yujie's status is prominent, the queen's situation in the palace will not be too good." ”

Wake up the person in the dream with a word, Hu Honglian looked at Zhao Ning suddenly, and finally understood why Zhao Ning was suddenly depressed, looking at the direction of the palace without saying a word.

......

Half a decade later, Han Yuan Palace.

Song Zhi looked at the fold handed over by the third division, silently half a sound, and finally sighed, and said in a deep voice: "Since Xu Xiang has such a great responsibility, even if he has a teacher-student friendship with me, I can't bend the law for personal gain, so I will follow the performance of the third division and abolish the cultivation and exile to Lingnan." The Xu family, who should be an official of the tiger, was also dealt with in accordance with the law. ”

"Your Majesty is wise!" said the Imperial Doctor.

In this way, not only did Xu Minglang become a wasted person, but he could only suffer for the rest of his life, and the Xu family would also fall into the middle of the family and gradually be removed from the family.

This family, who briefly sat on the throne of the first family of the dynasty, will inevitably become a thing of the past.

Song Zhi picked up another notebook, "Tang Xing and others have reversed black and white, the crime cannot be punished, in order to calm the people's anger as soon as possible, there is no need to wait until the autumn queen, and they will be beheaded in three days." ”

"Your Majesty Mingjian!"

"The establishment of the Magistrate's Court was originally to clean up the atmosphere of officialdom and give the people a good place, but now it is like this, which is contrary to my original intention. At the request of the Secretaries, the Magistrate's House was abolished. Zhou Junchen and others were dismissed and investigated. ”

"Your Majesty is wise!"

After discussing these things, Song Zhi groaned for a while, looked at the Manchu Dynasty and said: "The court and the middle cannot be without a phase, I will worship Chen Xun as the minister, what do you think?"

Chen Xun, the head of the Chen family.

Hearing this, Zhao Xuanji and the others all looked at each other and were deeply surprised.

They originally thought that after Xu Minglang stepped down, the emperor would appoint a poor official as the prime minister, such as Kong Yanhua, the governor of the government. didn't expect that after this turmoil, the emperor would let the officials of the family be the prime minister.

Of course, the Chen family is at odds with the Xu family, and they have long become vassals of the emperor, everyone knows about it. But in today's situation, it is better to make the head of a family the prime minister than to make a poor official the prime minister.

As a result, Chen Xun became the new prime minister.

......

Miyagi, Wind Snow Pavilion.

In the past, when Song Zhi came here, he was basically alone, and occasionally asked Xu Minglang and Zhao Xuanji to come over.

Now that Xu Minglang is gone, and Zhao Xuanji, the relationship between the two, with the change of the situation of An Siming, Xinjun and the queen, has fallen to the freezing point, and it is almost impossible to tear his face in person, and Song Zhi has no need to let the other party come over to meet in private and envelop the other party.

At the moment, it is Zhao Yujie who is qualified to sit here with Song Zhi.

"In the past two years, your level of handling of twists and turns and state affairs has been not much different from mine. I've been feeling unwell lately, especially my eye disease is getting worse, and I'm going to concentrate on recuperating and let you share some of the burden, would you like to?"

Song Zhi's words made Zhao Yujie happy.

However, she did not show it, she only cared about the emperor's condition.

At the end, Song Zhi said: "I plan to set up a cabinet, mainly to let several important officials from the cold sect accompany them in the Chongwen Hall for consultation. In the future, if there is any military and political affairs, the cabinet members will discuss it first, come up with ideas, and after they have a final conclusion, they will be put to the court for discussion - of course, it is more just to announce it.

"The cabinet members will be led by Kong Yanhua, and the officials of the family will also arrange two - that is, to take care of the face of the family. I will give you the official title of a scholar of the Chongwen Palace, so that you can participate in the daily affairs of the cabinet in a righteous and bright manner, and from now on, you will be my eyes and ears in the cabinet.

"When I am recuperating, I will stay in the Heart Cultivation Palace, and if there is any major matter in the cabinet, it will be up to you to inform me, and if I have any decisions, I will generally let you pass it on to the Chongwen Palace. ”

Speaking of this, Song Zhi looked at Zhao Yujie squarely: "What I mean, do you understand?"

Of course Zhao Yujie understands.

With the cabinet, the three provinces are destined to be emptied, and the prime minister will gradually become an echo worm, and the actual affairs of the court will be decided by the cabinet! And she, the so-called scholar of the Chongwen Palace, will become the de facto head of the cabinet because she is solely responsible for communicating with the emperor and the cabinet on a daily basis.

If Chen Xun, the prime minister, is just the external minister, then she is the internal minister!

The establishment of the cabinet was a big step for the Song Dynasty to strengthen the imperial power, which meant that the emperor was not only asking for power from the big families, but also from the three provinces and six ministries in the center! At this point, the centralization of power has come to the road of truly strengthening the imperial power.

This move will undoubtedly cause great dissatisfaction among the courtiers and make Song Zhi resentful of the officials.

So Song Zhi pushed Zhao Yujie out and made Zhao Yujie the internal minister, and with her daily contact with the courtiers, she would attract the attention and resentment of hundreds of officials. And Song Zhi was able to take advantage of his physical discomfort to concentrate on recuperating from his illness and get out of this whirlpool.

In the end, the dissatisfaction of the hundred officials with the emperor and the cabinet will be concentrated into dissatisfaction with Zhao Yujie.

This is just like Xu Minglang before.

But it's just like.

Zhao Yujie, who has a high internal phase and great power, has a great relationship, and is almost the second emperor of the dynasty when Song Zhiming is not a big director, which is extremely important to Song Zhi and will not be easily abandoned.

The reason why Song Zhi used Zhao Yujie instead of other officials was because he trusted her extraordinarily, and because compared with the poor officials, Zhao Yujie was even more rootless, and all the power was given by Song Zhi.

Of course, Zhao Yujie knows the danger of the position of the internal minister.

That's more dangerous than Xu Minglang.

But the power will also be greater than Xu Minglang.

Because at this time, the emperor went to recuperate after all.

So Zhao Yujie will definitely not refuse.

In this position, she will make great progress, continue to promote the process of Song Zhi suppressing the family, supporting the Hanmen forces, strengthening the imperial power, and planning for herself.

"As long as it can make His Majesty happy, the concubine is willing to go to the soup. Zhao Yujie bowed in front of the emperor.

The emperor smiled, his face soft, his eyes full of warmth, "Mei Niang, don't let me down." ”