In the huge vertical arch hall, the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty were listening to the sound of Cai Jing and Tong Guan criticizing each other, and the emperor Zhao Ji who was sitting on the dragon chair rarely made a sound, if it was usual, he would have been angry and shouted, and walked away, but today he just squinted his eyes and watched quietly, not knowing what he was thinking.

But at this time, Tong Guan and Cai Jing, who were still arguing, were unaware, and the ministers were also attracted to them, and no one paid attention to the emperor's face.

"Taishi Cai, as the imperial master of the dynasty, you hold the power in your hands, but today you can't act impartially, defend Zhao Bufan in every possible way, and protect his mistakes, is it a little confusing?"

"Lord Tong is such a great official, if you follow your wishes, you will act impartially, and if you do not follow your wishes, you will shelter your faults? Zhao Bufan used Liangshan thief Kou Enwei at the same time, and used only 5,000 soldiers and horses to quell the tens of thousands of bandits that could not be exterminated for a long time, it can be said that there are famous generals, and Master Tong does not encourage awards, but indiscriminately places charges, I want to ask you what is the intention of Lord Tong?"

"It's a bunch of nonsense, how can Zhao Bufan be virtuous? It's just that he uses His Majesty's prestige and high-ranking officials to lure the bandits to surrender, how can he talk about being a famous general?"

The two of them spoke in a hurry, and the speed of their words became faster and faster, and a faint cold light flashed in Cai Jing's eyes: "Tong Guan, you have targeted Zhao Bufan five times, which is really confusing, could it be that you are jealous and jealous? Is this a bit of a loss of identity?"

"Joke! Where was Zhao Bufan still when I was galloping on the battlefield? He just relied on the prestige of the Son of Heaven and the high-ranking officials to lure the bandits, and he played just some treacherous means, who couldn't go there? The bandits could be pacified with just a raise of their hands, how could I be jealous of his little effort?"

"Oh, such a big breath?" Cai Jing smiled, he constantly provoked Tong Guan in the quarrel, and always revolved around Zhao Bufan to win the battle, which can be regarded as bringing Tong Guan into the trap, and then smiled unhurriedly and continued: "Today, there are three major Kou in the Great Song Dynasty, each of them is a disaster, Liangshan and Song Jiang are the scourge of Shandong, Qinyuan Tianhu is the scourge of Hebei West Road, and Huaixi Wang Qing is the scourge of Xiangfan. At present, Wang Qing of Huaixi is burning and looting everywhere, recruiting troops and horses, and tens of thousands of people have gathered near Fangshan, and it seems that he already has the idea of attacking the prefectures and counties, and the surrounding prefectures are all panicked, so why don't you let Master Tong go to quell the rebellion?"

Oops!

Tong Guan reacted and felt very bad.

Just as he was about to open his mouth, Cai Jing was already the first to laugh again: "Master Tong, you originally proposed to let Zhao Bufan lead the eight capital eunuchs of the prefectures around the capital to go to the conquest, but Zhao Bufan didn't appreciate it, and only brought 5,000 people from the northern Xinjiang to go, which betrayed your kindness." Now that the rebellion has been put down, Lord Tong thinks that he is relying on high-ranking officials to tempt thieves, opportunistic, without any merit, and it is just an easy matter to suppress the bandits, so why not let Lord Tong command the eight major eunuchs to exterminate Wang Qing of Huaixi?

"You ......" Tong Guan's eyes widened instantly, and he was so angry that he couldn't speak.

"What? Lord Tong is unwilling? Your Excellency is in charge of the Privy Council, in charge of important military affairs, and it is naturally your responsibility to pacify the bandits, since it is easy for Your Excellency to pacify the bandits, why don't you show your ability, share your worries for Your Majesty, and be loyal to the Great Song Dynasty, do you have the intention to let the bandits sit on the big side?" Cai Jing said more and more harshly, and in the end he was full of questioning.

Tong Guan was speechless, his face was blue and purple, it can be said that he was the same as Cai Jing and Zhao Bufan at the beginning, and it was difficult to say that there was suffering.

If you talk about the problem of the Badu Prison now, it is equivalent to clearly admitting that he is going to conspire to kill Zhao Bufan.

Now in front of the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty, if he takes the initiative to admit to murdering the court officials, then he really can't eat and walk around, and instantly becomes the target of the public, even if the emperor Zhao Ji doesn't want to kill him, he will be forced to kill by the situation, otherwise it is equivalent to explicitly allowing the courtiers to harm each other, and the consequences are simply unbearable!

At this time, Emperor Zhao Ji had already seen a lot of problems, and seemed to have made a trade-off in his heart, and suddenly said loudly: "Tong Guogong, I think what Taishi Cai said is reasonable, since you think that Zhao Bufan's battle to pacify Liangshan is not only fruitless, but has been, pointing out three major crimes, and also thinking that it is easy to fight bandits, then you naturally have to come up with evidence to convince everyone, not to mention that it is your responsibility to pacify the bandits, it is better for you to command the soldiers and horses of the Badu Prison to conquer Huaixi Wang Qing and eliminate the bandits!"

Tong Guan panicked and responded urgently: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the eight major capital eunuchs are stationed in the surrounding area of Kaifeng Mansion, and it is not appropriate to act rashly, it is better to send the elite of the Western Army to beg for thieves, and the minister will definitely defeat the bandits and boost the prestige of the court!"

"Okay, you can bring 5,000 people, not more than one, the Western Army bears the heavy responsibility of guarding against Western Xia, and can't act rashly!" Emperor Zhao Ji responded coldly, and only returned to him the original words that Tong Guan had coerced Zhao Bufan.

"Huh!" Tong Guan's face instantly turned terrifyingly white.

He knew that the Emperor had seen everything and was in a state of anger!

Tong Guan didn't dare to say more, and hurriedly knelt down and agreed: "Your Majesty is angry, and the minister will definitely take the Badu Eunuch to quell the rebellion as soon as possible!"

Zhao Ji didn't look at it, he stood up and walked away, leaving only an angry voice echoing in the silent hall.

"You're really getting less and less interested in me!"

............

The court dissipated, and Emperor Zhao Ji, accompanied by Liang Shicheng, slowly walked into the Wende Palace, at this time Zhao Ji was obviously in a bad mood, and sat on the dragon couch with a gloomy face.

Liang Shicheng has followed Zhao Ji for many years, so he naturally knows him very well, and knows that he is angry now, so he didn't say a word, and when the palace maid came over with tea, he also took the initiative to take it in his hand, and personally took the tea and carefully put it on the table.

After Zhao Ji picked up the tea bowl and rinsed his mouth, he motioned to the palace maid to take the tea bowl away, and then took a deep breath and asked: "Liang Shicheng, when did Tong Guan and Zhao Bufan have a grudge? Why did they make such a big fuss? Don't you tell me that you don't know anything?"

Liang Shicheng hurriedly bowed down and responded: "Your Majesty, the old slave has indeed heard about the evil relationship between the two, but he really doesn't know much, I only know that when Zhao Bufan first rose in Northern Xinjiang, he received a lot of care from Cai Jing, maybe he offended Master Tong too much in private!"

"In this way, the contradiction between Zhao Bufan and Tong Guan is still caused by me?" Emperor Zhao Ji thought thoughtfully.

Liang Shicheng didn't say anything, but he knew very well what Emperor Zhao Ji was talking about.

As early as when Zhao Ji first ascended the throne, the old and new party struggles were extremely fierce, and many members of the royal family and civil and military ministers who opposed his accession to the throne secretly controlled the government, and the forces of foreign relatives were also ready to move, and the situation could be said to be extremely complicated.

After that, Zhao Ji first used the old and new party struggles to squeeze all the ministers who opposed his accession to the throne out of the core of power, and then turned back to deal with the most difficult dispute between the old and new parties.

didn't think that after solving this historical problem, Cai Jing's party became a little out of control, and their power became bigger and bigger, becoming a great threat, so Zhao Ji secretly supported many civil and military generals, including Zhang Shuye and Zhang Kegong, and finally weakened Cai Jing's power and demoted him to Hangzhou to live idle.

Although Zhang Shuye and Zhang Kegong and a large number of civil and military officers who were supported were loyal ministers and good generals, they lacked the ability to control the court and could not achieve the task of balancing the court.

As the emperor, he is not afraid of the struggle of his subordinates, but is most afraid of fighting in chaos, and the same is true of Zhao Ji, he gradually cannot control the complex court situation, and as a last resort, he can only re-enable Cai Jing as the prime minister, and Cai Jing, who is in power again, also quickly sorted out the chaotic court, forming a situation in which the five major forces check and balance each other, namely the eunuch forces, the Tong Guan forces, the Cai Jing forces, the neutral forces and a small number of Qingliu officials.

Cai Jing, who has been in the officialdom for decades, also has very means, he tries his best to make the people of the latter two forces in a critical place, as long as these people don't mess with him Cai Jing, then he will try his best to keep them from being persecuted easily, and use these people to ensure the stability of the Great Song Dynasty. The eunuch forces let them be on top, as long as they did not directly interfere in the government affairs, they adopted the method of co-opting and making friends to make them content with wealth and pleasure, so that the main power struggle was concentrated on both him and Tong Guan.

In this way, the imperial court has entered a period of stability, which is also the situation that Emperor Zhao Ji wants to see, it can be said that the relationship between Cai Jing and Tong Guan is broken, and the contradiction is aggravated, not only that the two of them have the heart to fight for power, and the more they fight, the more they can't hold back, but also the reason why Emperor Zhao Ji secretly controls it, and Zhao Bufan also emerged in Northern Xinjiang at that time.

At present, Liang Shicheng speculated that the conflict between Zhao Bufan and Tong Guan was because Zhao Bufan initially chose to rely on Cai Jing, and Emperor Zhao Ji naturally thought that it was because he intended to let Cai Jing regain power at that time, which made Zhao Bufan involved in the struggle and slowly grudge with Tong Guan.

Thinking of this, Zhao Ji was bored for a long time and sighed leisurely.

"Zhao Bufan is the personal disciple of that person, and I and the queen are also very fond of him, and now he has a grudge with Tong Guan, and I do have some responsibilities, but I want to protect the Zhao family, so I have to compensate him more in the future!"

Liang Shicheng didn't say much about this matter, and quickly changed the topic: "Your Majesty is benevolent and considerate of your subordinates, it is a generation of Ming Jun, how can you be responsible, today you punished Tong Guan, let him also taste the taste of being coerced, and he has already given Zhao Bufan enough kindness!"

Listening to Liang Shicheng talk about today's incident, Zhao Ji's anger in his heart was not in one place.

"I'm not only angry at Zhao Bufan, but also angry at Cai Jing for deceiving me, I know that he originally recommended the eight major capital eunuchs to balance the garrison garrison near the Beijing division and avoid too much concentration of military power, but from today's situation, the eight capital eunuchs he recommended are obviously problematic, I'm afraid they are just some wine bags and rice bags. But before Zhao Bufan set out on the expedition, I also bitterly persuaded Zhao Bufan to take the eight capital eunuchs to beg for thieves, and said in front of the Manchu Dynasty that they were both civil and military, where do you let me put this face?

What's even more hateful is Tong Guan, he already knew that I had the intention to cultivate Zhao Bufan, but he didn't have the slightest intention of stopping, and even though he knew that there was a problem with the Eight Great Prisons, he tried his best to recommend me and set up a bureau to coerce Zhao Bufan, isn't this clearly teasing Yu Me? Have you ever put me in your eyes? I feel that I was too good and too tolerant to them in the past, which led to me not saying anything now, and playing tricks to openly tease Yu Me.

These words made Liang Shicheng a little puzzled when he heard this: "If Your Majesty wants to punish Tong Guan, why not expose it directly, wouldn't it save a lot of trouble?"

Zhao Ji's eyes widened, and he said angrily: "If I really expose him, he still has a way to live? Conspiracy to persecute important officials of the court and the crime of bullying the king, if it is open in front of the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty, how can I serve the people if I don't kill him, and how can I control the ministers? Then tomorrow Cai Jing will send people to kill Tong Guan Mansion directly, can I only watch and follow them?"

Saying that, Zhao Ji sighed, turned his head to look at Liang Shicheng, who had followed him for many years, and said helplessly: "Tong Guan and Cai Jing have merit after all, if there was no them back then, I would not be able to sit steadily, and I have intersected with each other for so many years, I will not do the thing of crossing the river and demolishing the bridge, unless it is absolutely necessary, how can I kill them, and Tong Guan is also loyal to me.

Since I ascended the throne, first the powerful ministers were dissatisfied with my accession to the throne as the emperor, and the fight with me was turned upside down, and then the party struggle left over by the first emperor was exhausted, and now the court has finally stabilized, the situation is clear, and several forces check and balance each other, which can be regarded as making me live a stable life, I really don't want to toss, recently supporting Cai You and others to restrict Cai Jing, but I just want Cai You to replace the elderly Cai Jing, Cai Jing is old after all, and someone must replace him!"

Liang Shicheng sighed lightly.

"Didn't Your Majesty want to support Zhao Bufan to succeed Cai Jing recently?

Zhao Ji shook his head: "Zhao Bufan is very smart, but he is too young, and it is indeed possible to lead the army to fight, but are you sure that he can sit firmly in Cai Jing's position? That Uncle Zhang can also fight well, I also supported him at the beginning, but what did he do to me after he came up? He did see a lot of problems, rapid innovation, why didn't I support him at first, even he said that you Liang Shicheng drafted the holy decree on behalf of me, and there could be no holy decree or official document that was stamped with a big seal and then filled in the text, didn't I also promise?"

Not only was I so busy that I didn't even have time to take a breath all day long, but on the contrary, I caused a great turmoil, and officials from all over the country jointly played a concert, and the ministers of the DPRK and China complained all day long, and they all killed their heads softly, and what changed in the end? He wants to rectify the rule of officials, and I have no opinion, and he also ordered you to stop, and you are not allowed to quietly collect money, but he Zhang Shuye must at least solve the follow-up problems, and punishment is a good thing, but how can he make the affairs of the court unable to operate normally?

At that time, the tax revenue had dropped by as much as five layers, and it was difficult to even spend military spending, and the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty were in chaos, so how could I end up? If it weren't for the urgent recall of Cai Jing as the prime minister, I'm afraid the world would have been chaotic a long time ago. Later, Cai Jing stabilized the political situation, and I gave him another opportunity, hoping that he could play a role in checks and balances, but he was caught by Cai Jing and made himself unable to go up or down, I knew that he was a loyal minister and a good general, and I was afraid that he would die in the battle, so I asked him to be the governor of Haizhou.

Today's Zhao Bufan is so similar to Uncle Zhang, although he is younger, he has the talent to lead the army to fight, and he is even more smart, but he still needs to hone after all, and Cai You is the best transitional candidate, this person has no other skills, but he can please me, and he also knows what I want, he has a way to balance the forces of all parties, make the country stable, so that I can recite poetry and paint with peace of mind, and live a comfortable life for a few days, this is enough!"