Fanning's official cabinet is in the Privy Council, although he serves as the highest position of the Privy Council, but the daily affairs of the Privy Council are not under his control, but by the Privy Council or the same Privy Council, his highest position is more of a symbolic meaning, his current real position is Hebei Xuanfu Envoy, the generalissimo of the expedition to the north, but he often stays in the capital now.

Although he did not care about the actual affairs of the Privy Council, Fanning's official residence was very large and spacious, a single house, divided into two rooms inside and outside, and the various furnishings and arrangements were very magnificent.

Fan Ning was sitting at the table reading a book, and a guard outside the door said, "Ouyang Xianggong is here!" ”

It turned out to be his father-in-law who came, Fan Ning hurriedly got up and went out to greet him, Ouyang Xiu's eyesight was very bad, he was wearing deep glasses, and he walked cautiously.

"Virtuous son-in-law, I won't go in, you go to Ci'an Palace with me immediately, the Queen Mother summoned the Seven Phases, everyone went, let me inform you."

"Father-in-law, but for your resignation?"

"It should be, the official family has gone to see the Queen Mother, hey! We've gone a bit too far. ”

Fan Ning said lightly: "Although this matter is a little stronger in the Zhizheng Hall, the fundamental reason is in the Son of Heaven, even if it is a lesson!" ”

Ouyang Xiu nodded, "Don't talk about this, you hurry up and follow me, don't make everyone wait for a long time." ”

Fan Ning followed Ouyang Xiu out of the Privy Council, and the two of them each sat in an official sedan chair and quickly headed towards Ci'an Palace.

.......

In Ci'an Palace, the seven ministers have gathered together, and the Empress Dowager Cao is still sitting in her seat, with a bamboo curtain in front of her.

"The main reason for inviting the seven ministers here today is to apologize to everyone for the reckless behavior of the emperor and grandson of the mourning family."

Empress Dowager Cao got straight to the point, put her figure very low, and her style was set, it was the Son of Heaven who was wrong, and she came to apologize.

She continued: "When the first emperor established the emperor's grandson too late, the first emperor did not teach him enough, and when the first emperor died, he entrusted the mourning family to manage the official family, but the mourning family was not in good health, and he neglected to discipline the official family, so that he did not understand the reason and did today's ridiculous things. ”

Empress Dowager Cao took all the responsibilities in the past, but pushed the first emperor out to exert pressure, and also hinted at the important ministers, the official family is not enough to teach, and you are also responsible.

Everyone looked at each other, and Fu Bi bowed and said: "Empress Dowager Qiqi, we have no intention of putting pressure on the Son of Heaven, if there is room for negotiation, we will not take this step today." ”

After a while, Empress Dowager Cao asked: "Where has the matter come to this?" ”

"Queen Mother, this morning the Son of Heaven has issued a decree to restore the three-province system."

"And where is this will now?"

"At present, it is still in the Zhizheng Hall, this is the official will, the Zhizheng Hall has no right to refute it, and can only promulgate it, but we can't accept it, so we can only ask the Son of Heaven to reorganize the Zhizheng Hall to promulgate it."

Empress Dowager Cao nodded, "This will be transferred to the mourning family!" It is up to the mourners to abolish it, and in addition, the mourners can guarantee that the newly promulgated three-province system will not abolish the prefectural voting system. ”

"The Queen Mother is wise!"

Empress Dowager Cao glanced at the female official next to her, and the female official immediately returned everyone's resignation to everyone, and Empress Dowager Cao said: "The Son of Heaven has promised the mourning family that there will be no next time, you can take back your resignation!" ”

The words have come to this point, the Queen Mother gave a guarantee that the matter should be reconciled, and everyone no longer insisted, so they each withdrew their resignations.

Everyone immediately got up to say goodbye, and Empress Dowager Cao smiled and said, "Fan Xianggong, please stay for a while!" ”

Fan Ning sat down again, and when everyone had gone, Empress Dowager Cao said slowly: "The mourning family didn't expect you to resign, do you have to give up halfway to conquer the great cause of Liao?" ”

Fan Ning smiled slightly: "Weichen just resigned from the post of governor of political affairs, but Weichen is still a privy envoy and the commander of Zhengliao, so the queen mother doesn't have to worry." ”

Empress Dowager Cao showed a smile on her face, "It seems that the mourning family is thinking too seriously about things!" ”

Of course, this is a joke, the matter is not serious, they know it very well in their hearts.

Empress Dowager Cao pondered and said, "The mourning family has approved the first amount of silver today, two million taels, and I hope it can be properly used according to your plan." ”

Fan Ning was overjoyed and hurriedly said: "Empress Dowager Xie's care and love for the Southern Continent!" ”

Empress Dowager Cao smiled and said: "The mood of the official family is not expected to be too good, you go and comfort him, persuade him, don't be too eager to do things!" ”

"Wechen obeys!"

.........

Zhao Zhen's mood today was really gloomy, he never dreamed that he would encounter the embarrassing scene of the resignation of all the people in the Zhizheng Hall, and he also specially consulted his master when he was in the East Palace, Han Zhen, a scholar of Longtu Pavilion, Han Zhen told him that he had to stick to what he was sure of.

Zhao Ji understood what Han Zhen said as a tough one, when the prefect handed him a joint statement against the three-province system yesterday, early this morning, he issued an edict in a tough attempt to make the prefect submit, but he didn't expect the prefect to be tougher and responded to him with a collective resignation, which immediately made him panic and had to ask the imperial grandmother for help, and was finally scolded by the imperial grandmother.

It's not that Zhao Ji has lost his courage, but he doesn't dare to continue to be tough, he knows very well in his heart that as long as he approves the resignation of Qixiang, it will inevitably lead to a tide of resignations from hundreds of officials in the imperial court, and it may not be far from him being deposed at that time.

Zhao finally realized that he had stabbed the hornet's nest, which made him feel depressed.

In the imperial study, Zhao Ji paced back and forth with his hands, he had just received news from the eunuch that the seven phases had withdrawn their resignation, which made him a little relieved, but the mood was not happy, although the seven phases retracted the resignation, but his edict was also abolished by the queen mother, this is at a special moment, the queen mother has special powers, the queen mother can not only abolish the edict, but also abolish the emperor.

At this time, there was a eunuch at the door, "Your Majesty, Prime Minister Fan asks to see you!" ”

"Nope!" Zhao Ji refused in annoyance.

The eunuch was stunned for a moment, turned around and was just about to leave, Zhao Ji sighed, "Let him come in!" ”

After all, he was a son of heaven, not a child, and if he could calm down quickly, he realized that now was not the time to be angry.

After a while, Fan Ning walked in, bowed and saluted, "Weichen see Your Majesty!" ”

"Humph!" Zhao Ji couldn't help but snort heavily, and when he saw Fan Ning, his stomach was churning again.

Fan Ning was amused in his heart and continued: "The Queen Mother has already approved two million taels of silver, and Weichen has come to hand over the specific implementation plan to Your Majesty. ”

Zhao Ji was stunned, he found Fu Bi's recital from the table, and asked, "Fu Xianggong has already submitted a report, are you two still different." ”

"The principles are all the same, except that Fu Xianggong's performance is the draft implementation of the five-year plan, which is slightly deficient in the details, while Wei Chen's report is for the specific use of these two million taels of silver, which is much more detailed than Fu Xianggong's draft."

After speaking, Fan Ning put a copy of the recital on Zhao Yu's case.

Zhao Ji returned to his seat and sat down, and said to Fan Ning: "Sit down!" ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Fan Ning sat down, and Zhao Ji picked up Fan Ning's plan to read it carefully.

In fact, this proposal is a detailed dismantling of two million taels of silver, as well as the chronological order of use, from now until August next year.

Although Zhao Ji was very interested, the real effect of this report was to make Zhao Ji slowly calm down.

After reading the report, a trace of gloom on Zhao Ji's face also disappeared.

Zhao Ji pondered for a while, and said frankly: "Back then, I also called you uncle, and it was you who pushed me to the position of the emperor's grandson, and the queen mother also told me to listen to you before she died. ”

Fan Ning smiled faintly: "Although I and the other Xiangguo have submitted their resignations, my motives are different from theirs, my resignation is a stick that will wake you up hard!" ”

Zhao Ji was stunned for a moment, the softest place in his heart was touched, and his nose was inexplicably sour.

Zhao Ji hurriedly got up, walked to the window and looked at the sky, to hide the excitement in his heart, and after a while, Zhao Ji asked, "Can Xianggong tell me, what is wrong?" ”

Fan Ning said slowly: "The struggle between the monarchy and the power of the prime minister has been going on for a long time, take the Tang system to be restored, Wu Zetian increased the power of the emperor in order to attack the imperial power, and Tang Xuanzong established the Jixian Palace Academy in order to seize the power of the edict, and used jute to write edicts to compete with the white hemp edicts of Zhongshu Province, and reused Li Linfu, Yang Guozhong and others to obey the king's Xiangguo.

Tang Suzong did not hesitate to reuse eunuchs in order to resist the power, and finally led to the disaster of eunuchs in the late Tang Dynasty, from these three examples, what did Your Majesty see? ”

Zhao Ji pondered for a moment and said, "Xianggong is talking about checks and balances? ”

"That's right! Checks and balances, no king doesn't want to increase his power and suppress the power of the Xiangguo, but as long as it is not too much, it is generally the Xiangguo to give power, and the specific methods are all by means of checks and balances, but what means did His Majesty use to directly deprive the Xiangguo of the right to vote, there is simply no imperial art, where is the principle of checks and balances? ”

Zhao Ji's face was hot, he finally understood where he was wrong? His own ideas were right, but the means were wrong, which led to a strong backlash from the prefect.

After a moment of silence, Zhao Ji asked, "Then what should I do?" ”