Starting from Panlong Town to the southeast, passing through the Daimyo Mansion, passing through the three provinces of Jiangbei, it is now Shengyang City, the capital of the Zhou Dynasty.

Shengyang, formerly known as Shouyang, was originally the capital of the former dynasty, located in the south of Shoushan, north of the east of Sui, and was named after it.

Zhou Taizu raised troops from Panlong Town, swept thousands of miles to destroy the Later Liang, established the Great Zhou, built the capital here, changed Shouyang to Shengyang, the Zhou people used to call it Shengjing, and then experienced several expansions on behalf of the British lord, and finally became the first male city in the Central Continent.

If you look at it from the sky, Shengjing is a standard straight square, with nine city gates, three in the east, west and three in the south, and the north side is the Shengci Palace, where the royal family lived.

Today is the first day of the first month of the twenty-fifth year of Hongxiu, and the first small court meeting of the New Year has just ended in the imperial study room of Shengci Palace, and all the officials have left, only the prime minister Pei Yuanhou was left alone by Emperor Renzong.

After taking the seat, Renzong did not pay attention to the Xiangguo lord, who had been in the court for fifteen years, but arranged the folds handed in by the ministers at the court meeting one by one on the imperial case and began to review them.

The head of the Internal Affairs Office, Mr. Dai, retreated to the corner carelessly, and looked at the two monarchs and ministers with some concern. After the Jiayuan Student Movement, Pei Xiangmen's students preached the so-called policy and concept of governing the country with civil rights all day long, and everything was more serious than the traditional imperial power, and it was impossible to have the acquiescence and connivance of the prime minister behind it.

Time passed with the rustle of the sunset hourglass on the imperial case, and the emperor was fully engaged in the recital, sometimes nodding, sometimes frowning, as if he had long forgotten that Pei Yuanhou was still in the room, Pei Yuanhou had been straightening his back, sitting with his head down, his expression was humble and calm, and he didn't care about being forgotten in the corner.

Finally, when the head of Dai had already stood on his feet, and the afterglow of the setting sun was cast over the pavilion and columns into the imperial study, the emperor rubbed his wrist, which had been holding the pen for a long time and was a little sore, picked up the tea that had already been cold, and asked while drinking: "Liu Benxi, the governor of the imperial history, embezzled and embezzled the buried water to control the public bank, resulting in a deficit of three million vehicles, and the completion of the embankment was delayed for one year, what do you think of this time?" ”

Pei Yuanhou pondered, and replied after a moment: " The minister has read the final accounts report of this year's buried river embankment management, and there is indeed a large deficit, but the main reason is that the floods have occurred frequently in the past two years, and the price of manpower has risen, and no one has profited from it. ”

Renzong nodded slightly, and ordered General Manager Dai to notify the household department to redraft this year's flood control budget, and General Manager Dai took the order and left.

It was getting late, the eunuchs and palace maids lit the lights in the imperial study, Renzong nodded and waved away, so there were only two of the most powerful people in the Great Zhou country left in the room.

In the flickering candlelight, after the two glanced at each other, they laughed together with a tacit understanding, there was no rumor of any discord between the monarch and the minister, if this scene was seen by some powerful ministers who had been using this place to make a fuss, I am afraid that they would not be able to sleep peacefully tonight.

After there was no one else in the imperial study, the state of the two of them was obviously relaxed a lot, and Renzong first asked, "Pei Qing, how is the student movement doing recently?"

The Jiayuan student movement was originally thought to be the biggest problem between the emperor and the prime minister. Over the years, no matter how much quarrel between the government and the opposition on this matter is, the real authorities in the center of the empire have never expressed any opinion on this, although Pei Yuanhou is recognized as a representative of the student movement, but he has never publicly discussed relevant issues with the emperor in the court, and today Renzong actually discussed this matter directly with Pei Xiang in private, subverting the outside world's thorough perception of this vigorous regime reform.

Pei Yuanhou stood up from his chair and replied with an extremely humble attitude: " Returning to Your Majesty, the momentum of the development of the student movement has been progressing smoothly in recent years with the intentional cooperation of all parties, Shilinzhong has a more tolerant attitude towards the new policy since the Panlong Town incident eleven years ago, and Guozijian even opened a separate course to study the possible governance of the civil rights government, and now the younger generation of scholars are mostly supporters of the student movement, the only thing to worry about is the attitude of the military, most of the children of the army are still finally the royal family, with a few very influential Confucians, are still trying their best to suppress the rise of the local student movement. ”

Renzong's eyelids jumped when he heard the words of Panlong Town's assassination, and then quickly returned to normal, thought for a while and continued: " The implementation of the new policy, enlighten the wisdom of the people, is my great wish when I boarded the plane, I have been in the country for more than 100 years, the people only know that the Great Zhou is becoming stronger and stronger, the soldiers are more generals, and all industries are prosperous, but they do not know that the Baihu tribes are only separated by a mountain, and the growth of the Baihu Dynasty in these years is more amazing, during the Taizu period, the four armies in the north of the town went out of the pass, and the white lake shore that was killed within four months was bleeding and drifting, and in the period of the first emperor, the strength of the whole country was only to block the group of barbarians outside the Miyun Pass。 ”

The two monarchs and ministers were silent for a long time, and they both shuddered when they sketched out the tragic situation of the Baihu tribes going south all the way.

"Besides, the bloodline of Liancheng has been transmitted to my vein, and the probability of awakening is getting lower and lower, since Zhen'er died in Xifeng Mountain, the total number of people in the entire royal family who have awakened foreign blood is only six, and two are waste who only know pleasure!

Emperor Renzong got up and walked to the window, and stood with his hands in his hands.

"I have studied the history and living habits of barbarians since I was a child, and after many studies with Pei Qing and Mr. Yuanhao, I think I have found the reason why these races, which are barbaric and far away from civilization, are developing so fast. ”

Pei Yuanhou followed Renzong to the window and did not speak, because he knew that the emperor only needed an audience at this time, and he needed a person in the channel who agreed with his ideas.

"That's competition, free competition," Sure enough, Renzong paused and continued, " There are khans in the Baihu tribes, but there is no emperor, the seventy-two departments of the white lake, the khans only have the right to convene, but they have no right to issue orders, each tribe is relatively independent, the entire Baihai is the king, the position of the khan is not exclusive to a certain tribe, and the head of the tribe is not exclusive to a certain family, so everyone lives for themselves, and fights for themselves, in such a competition, although it is inevitable to have internal friction, but it is a strong many, the population of Baihu is less than the Great Zhou, but it can gradually move back to the disadvantage in more than 100 years of confrontation, it is because of the free competition, this is also where I need to learn from the Great Zhou。 ”

Pei Yuanhou received softly: "So over the years, Your Majesty has expanded the imperial examination, appointed meritocracy, restricted the rights of the royal family, and even ordered Weichen to secretly develop the civil rights student movement, in order to give the people an upward channel, and at the same time give them a reason to fight for themselves." ”

"Yes," the emperor turned around and nodded: "It's so good that the people of the Great Zhou Dynasty have been sheltered under the blood of Liancheng, and they have lost their determination and motivation to move forward, I want them to understand that the rise and fall of the world is the responsibility of the husband, this is not an empty word, the Zhou Dynasty is my country, and it is also a country of 30,000 people, even if you give up this royal power, what does it matter?"

Pei Yuanhou lowered his head and sighed: "Your Majesty is a saint." ”

"I can't talk about it, it's just a last resort," Renzong shook his head, and then said half-jokingly: "Next, I will bother Pei Xiang to make persistent efforts, and lead the students of the student movement to remove my corrupt emperor who is a corpse to block the reform, and within three years, realize the virtual monarchy, and within ten years, let me abdicate, realize the real civil rights discussion, and the people participate in politics, if there are really people with both ability and political integrity who can stand out and lead the Zhou State to sweep the northern frontier, I am not worthy of the ancestors of the Zhao family who single-handedly established the Great Zhou." ”

Pei Yuanhou smiled and saluted, and said: "The minister will do his best to help His Majesty abdicate, but there are often ministers from the dragon in this history book, this hidden dragon hero, the minister is the only one." ”

The monarch and the minister laughed loudly in the imperial study, and the two knew in their hearts that from now on, the status quo of the monarchy in the Central Continent will completely change, and the fire of reform has been sprinkled, and it can even be said that the emperor has personally ignited the eternal foundation of his surname.

After a while, Renzong said in a plain tone: "But in his position, he still has to seek his own government, I still have three things to deal with over the years, one of them, Miyun Pass is going to be expanded, Beichen is more determined than enough to defend it, let him come back to lead Jin Wuwei at the end of the year, and also sharpen his temperament, and change the father and son of the Mu family." ”

Pei Xiang nodded in response.

"Second, Mr. Chun over there of Tianqing Division intends to return to his old age, and I have summoned Zhou Zhe back to Beijing. ”

Pei Yuanhou raised his eyebrows suddenly: "Mr. Li is at the peak of his cultivation, and he has been in charge of the star map for many years, it is a pity to return to old age at this time, Zhou Zhe is indeed the most suitable candidate to take over the cabinet of Tianqing Division, but he is still young, I am afraid that he lacks experience and is not stable enough." ”

Emperor Renzong said with a smile: "It's not so urgent, Mr. Chun promised to accompany me, the last king, to complete the last journey and step down together, but this star map is the important weapon of the country, and this time Zhou Zhe was just a prophet to ask him, so that he could start studying in advance." ”

Sangkoku-sama nodded and said no more.

"This third," the emperor's face became gloomy, and he said slowly: "My most beloved daughter died in my hometown, this matter, whether it is those barbarians by the White Lake, or those who dare to communicate with foreign secretly in the Great Zhou, they will have to pay the price, Pei Xiang, eleven years ago at the Fengqing ceremony, Yu Kun was absent for no reason, and only returned to the capital within half a month, and was seriously injured, saying that he had gone to suppress the bandits, but a few days ago, the deputy director of the Supervision Department told the old man that there was another secret in this matter, and you should check it for me. ”

Pei Yuanqing lowered his head and promised, thinking about the secret old matter, and couldn't see the look on his face clearly.