In the blink of an eye, the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth month of May, the Song Mansion can be regarded as a complete festival together, get up early to take a mugwort bath, change into a spring shirt to see the dragon boat race on the Yongding River, and return home, the kitchen has prepared all kinds of zongzi and cinnabar, realgar, calamus wine, in the afternoon there are dry boats and dragon lanterns to see, Song Nan is like an ordinary Beijing people, enjoying this rare leisure, not thinking about the affairs of the court at all.

However, in the evening, when Song Nan returned to the mansion, there was a person sitting in the front hall waiting for him, that was Zhang Yong, who had been promoted to the eunuch of the master of ceremonies; Seeing Song Nan coming into the mansion with a red face, Zhang Yongshi said with jealousy: "Master Hou is living a very leisurely life, is this a big hidden in the city?" Don't you care about the affairs of the court? ”

Song Nan said with a smile: "Father-in-law Zhang, I have been working hard in the past few years, and it is easy to be in a better mood and live a quiet life, but you came to tell me these words, you can't see me happy, right?" ”

Zhang Yongdao: "It's a mess outside, it's good for you to leave it alone, hey, our family really admires your style of being able to afford to put it down, but it's not a way to go on like this." ”

Song Nan motioned for Zhang Yong to sit down, ordered someone to make tea and serve it, and said with a smile: "Don't beat around the bush, what's wrong?" Otherwise, you wouldn't have come to me out of nowhere. ”

Zhang Yong smiled and said: "I can't hide anything from you, even if Master Hou is asleep, he is a hundred times smarter than our family." ”

Song Nan chirped: "Don't come to pour me ecstasy soup, say something quickly, let it go quickly, I will take my wife to the river to put wind lanterns at night, don't delay my efforts." ”

Zhang Yong sighed: "Master Hou, I'm afraid you won't be able to go, the emperor ordered me to invite Lord Song into the palace to meet you." ”

Song Nan's heart moved: "The emperor invited me into the palace?" No kidding, didn't the emperor refuse me two visits? How could this son come to invite me into the palace? ”

Zhang Yong rolled his eyes and said, "Does the Hou Ye still remember the emperor's hatred?" It's not that you don't know the emperor's temper, after all, Liu Jin has been with him for more than ten years, and he is obedient to everything, and he never disobeys the emperor's wishes; This time it happened too suddenly, on the one hand, the emperor hated Liu Jin for failing the grace of God, but on the other hand, he never forgot it, which is also human nature. ”

Song Nan shook his head and said: "It's not that simple, the emperor is suspicious, has the emperor said anything in private during this time?" ”

Zhang Yong shook his head and said: "That's not true, the emperor is already much better, when the Dragon Boat Festival gave the ministers today, the emperor didn't seem to be very unhappy to see you, and after returning to the palace, he asked Song Hou Ye how many days of vacation was over, and said that he missed Song Hou Ye very much." No, I also ordered our family to bring these many zongzi drinks to reward Song Houye. You see, how many ministers didn't go to the banquet but were remembered by the emperor and specially ordered someone to send a reward? The government and the opposition are afraid that only Hou Ye has this honor. ”

Song Nan stared at Zhang Yong and said, "Zhang Yong, if you beat around the bush with me again, I will send off the guests, what happened?" ”

Zhang Yong was dumbfounded for a while, and said helplessly: "Okay, originally the emperor only wanted our family to invite Marquis Song into the palace, but since Marquis Song insisted on asking, it would be okay for our family to tell Marquis to hear it." The Hou Ye closed the door during this time, and Yang Tinghe of the outer court was tossing and turning, and the adults must have heard of it. ”

Song Nan said: "Of course, I am not deaf or blind, there are some things I don't want to know, and naturally someone will come to report them." ”

Zhang Yong nodded and said: "Although our family doesn't know the intention of Hou Ye's sudden leave, we also know that Hou Ye will never give up on himself because he was rejected by the emperor twice. I think Hou Ye must have some deep meaning. ”

Song Nan nodded and said, "Your guess is not too outrageous." ”

"After the fall of Liu Jin and his henchmen, everyone in the court and the central government knew that it was the credit of the Hou Ye, but they were talking behind their backs, the biggest beneficiary this time was the outer court, especially Yang Tinghe, after the great change of blood in the outer court, it has become an iron plate, Yang Tinghe has also become the first assistant of the cabinet, and many people are not worth it for the Hou Ye."

Song Nan smiled and said, "It's not worth it?" Shall I go to the cabinet as a first assistant? How do I qualify for this status? The outer court is the world of civil officials, at this time Yang Tinghe's actions are actually not out of the cabinet, and the six cabinets are going to change blood after eliminating Liu Jin's henchmen, Yang Tinghe is responsible for this matter, what is there to blame? ”

Zhang Yongdao: "Having said that, the problem is that you don't know the virtues of the civil officials in the foreign court, these people are not good birds, those appointments in April are often recommended by dozens of people, and the emperor can't oppose it if he wants to, so he simply approved it." The emperor also knew that some people's qualifications were really not enough to hold important positions in the six cabinet departments, but Yang Tinghe said yes, and a group of civil officials followed and said yes, and the emperor couldn't help it. ”

Song Nan said: "The emperor can veto it firmly, but in the end, these things are not too important, no matter who holds an important position, I am afraid they will have to unite around Yang Ting and the surroundings." ”

Zhang Yong sighed and said: "That's fine, this time our family also has the power of Song Hou Ye to take charge of the inner court, our family understands in our hearts that this qiē is because of Song Hou Ye's support, otherwise I Zhang Yong would never have today." Our family can swear that our family will only be loyal to the emperor and the Marquis of Song in this life, and I don't care about anyone else. But Master Hou knows that the outer court has to make inches, and at today's Dragon Boat Banquet, what the university scholar Fei Hong said made our family tremble. ”

Song Nan was surprised: "What did he say?" ”

He said that the root cause of Liu Jin's disaster began with the unreasonable system of the inner court, especially the right of the celebrant to wear red, which is the biggest drawback of eunuchs interfering in politics, and I hope that the emperor can consider removing the right to wear red to avoid the possibility of officials in the inner court interfering in politics.

Song Nan waved his hand and slapped the table, and the tea cup shook with a snap, Zhang Yong was startled, and hurriedly said: "Master Hou, don't be angry, don't be angry." ”

Song Nan suppressed his anger and asked, "What is the reaction of the others?" ”

Zhang Yongdao: "Several other members of the cabinet agreed, but Yang Tinghe didn't speak, and the emperor didn't say anything at the time, but the emperor was obviously angry." ”

Song Nan got up and paced, and said coldly: "Yang Tinghe wants to take power alone, but he is too impatient, and after only a month, he can't bear it?" ”

Zhang Yongdao: "Yes, Yang Tinghe deliberately didn't speak, which was to create the illusion that this was not his idea, in fact, our family guessed that Yang Tinghe must have instructed them to mention this matter at today's banquet to test the emperor's tone." ”

Song Nan nodded and said: "You are very right, Yang Tinghe is not small, if he is allowed to succeed, the outer court will have monopolity; However, since they are a temptation and there is no formal performance, there is no need to take his words, and the emperor is right to ignore them. ”

Zhang Yongdao: "Our family thinks that this move is also unfavorable to the Hou Ye, obviously Yang Tinghe knows that our family and the Hou Ye are friendly, the Hou Ye is now in the imperial court has a lot of prestige, he is afraid that the Hou Ye and our family will join forces, if our family loses the right to wear red, then it will not be able to restrain all the actions of the outer court, and can only hope for the emperor's toughness." ”

Song Nan said: "Did the emperor ask you to invite me into the palace to discuss this matter?" After all, it's just casual talk at the banquet, and it's not time to think about countermeasures. ”

"Yes, the emperor didn't say that he wanted to talk about this matter, the emperor wanted to ask the marquis to discuss two other things, the first is that Yang Tinghe and others asked to demolish the leopard house, and all the beasts and rare birds raised in Xiyuan were removed from the palace, and the women in the leopard room were also dismissed, saying that these things were in vain to consume the court's property and consume the emperor's energy, which was a conspiracy by Liu Jin and could not be kept."

Song Nan smiled and said: "Sure enough, I started to take care of things, have Yang Tinghe forgotten the lessons of Li Dongyang and Liu Jian?" ”

"Also, they want to restore the early and late court deliberation system of the first emperor, and ask the emperor to restore the system of daily preaching, saying that the emperor needs to work hard, learn more strategies for governing the country, follow the example of the emperor to govern the country diligently, and the emperor of Zhongxing Daming is duty-bound."

Song Nan laughed: "Isn't this asking for the emperor's life?" ”

"Also, the emperor is eighteen years old, Yang Tinghe went to see the queen mother and said that the emperor is not too old, and if he doesn't get married, it will make the people of the world uneasy, so the queen mother issued a decree to find a candidate for the queen for the emperor to marry as soon as possible."

Song Nan smiled: "This is a good thing, there is nothing to say." ”

Zhang Yong hurriedly said: "The problem is that the cabinet has made a big deal to find a candidate for the queen for the emperor, but the emperor doesn't like the woman at all, the two sides are deadlocked. The emperor has been in a bad mood these days, thinking about it, and now only Hou Ye Song can make ideas for him, so he ordered me to come and invite Hou Ye into the palace to discuss countermeasures. ”

Song Nan nodded slowly, Zhengde can only rely on himself at a critical time, there was Liu Jin before, and now there is no Liu Jin; What the outer court did was not out of his expectations, and it was a bit surprising that Yang Tinghe acted so radically so quickly.