lady, please calm down

3:30 pm in the afternoon.

At this time in the past, the officials on duty in the Dali Temple would have already left.

But today, people kept rushing here from all over the city. Some had red faces and smelled of alcohol, while some had already changed into casual clothes. It was obvious that these lower-level officials had rushed here from the restaurant or their homes after hearing the news.

Lord Zhou, the Minister of the Temple, is ill, and the position of Junior Minister is vacant, so Lord Ximen has become the highest-ranking official in the Dali Temple. Normally, everyone should take the initiative to step forward and pay their respects.

But everyone stayed in their respective duty rooms, occasionally glancing towards the duty room where Ximen Fa and others were, but no one came over to get close to them.

It is understandable that everyone has resistance to the airborne officials. Besides, it seems that the officials in Dali Temple are not optimistic that Ximen Fa can stay in Dali Temple safely.

really
At 5 p.m., although the sick Lord Zhou did not arrive, he saw the Imperial Counselor Mei Rupin and a group of censors rushing to the Dali Temple in anger.

"Where did you take Lord Zuo Shaozuo, the Right Assistant Minister of the Court of Remonstrance?"

As soon as the imperial censor Zheng Hongzu, who had come here with Mei Rupin, saw him, he started to ask questions.

Ximen Fa, who was sitting behind the desk, put down the file in his hand and replied indifferently: "Zuo Shao was secretly in contact with Zhou Ni! He has been handed over to the Secretariat for a joint trial by the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple."

The crime of "secretly colluding with Zhou rebels" is fundamentally different from "improper conduct in front of the king".

Although Zuo Shao behaved inappropriately in front of the king, he could still be said to be a loyal and honest minister.

However, any regime that secretly communicates with the imperial court and is identified as an enemy will never be tolerated by any dynasty.

For some reason, Zheng Hongzu's face changed immediately and he kept silent when he heard Zuo Shao's accusation.

Mei Rupin frowned and said, "What a joke! When did the Secretariat have the authority to try officials?"

"Hey, Lord Mei, speaking of authority and responsibility, I have to ask you, since you are a doctor of the Court of Remonstrance, when did you have the authority and responsibility to come to my Dali Temple to ask for help?"

Ximen Fa glanced at him with his triangular eyes and said sarcastically, "Besides, Master Mei is Master Zuo's father-in-law. He is really a son-in-law and a half-son to interfere in the judiciary so blatantly!"

The reason why Cai Yuan dared to place Ximen Fa and Gou Sheng in the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice was not only because the two had been in the criminal litigation department when they were in Huaibei, but also because of the ruffian spirit in them.
Both of them are technocrats who rose from low-level clerks after working hard for more than ten years.

He is not lacking in professional theories, but is also good at making nonsense and is stubborn.

If relatively "well-behaved" kids like Chen Yinglang and Peng Yuyan were asked to do this job, they would definitely not be able to compare to Ximen Fa and Gou Sheng.

Mei Rupin was irritated by Ximen Fa's words, but he suppressed his anger and said, "Zuo Shao is just a small seventh-rank right assistant. He doesn't manage confidential matters or command soldiers. How can he have the ability to 'collaborate with the rebels'?"

All the censors nodded in agreement.

At first hearing this statement, it seems to be analyzing the possibility that Zuo Shao has no connection with the enemy, but there is a slight problem in its logic.

Ximen Fa was not at all troubled. He just looked around at everyone, chuckled, and said in a teasing tone: "As long as one has the heart to be a rebel, it doesn't matter what position he holds or what ability he has. He was able to abandon Zhou and return to Chu two months ago, so who knows if he will change his ways again?"

"Who are you scolding?"

"You're talking nonsense!"

There was chaos and shouting all around.

It is true that Ximen Fa's words were a bit venomous. It sounded like he was talking about Zuo Shao, but in fact he was scolding all the old ministers of the Zhou Kingdom.

After all, they, like Zuo Shao, had 'abandoned Zhou and returned to Chu a few months ago'.

Even though they could privately console themselves by saying "We didn't want the people of Lin'an to suffer from war and chaos, for the sake of the people of the world", it could not cover up the fact that they smoothly changed their allegiance when the Chu army arrived.

Don't hit people in the face, and don't expose their weaknesses when scolding them. Ximen Fa bluntly emphasized the fact that "you are traitors" in public, and the self-proclaimed upright officials were immediately defeated.

But Zheng Hongzu was particularly excited, and he waved his sleeves to sweep away the pile of documents on Ximen Fa's desk.

Perhaps, there were a few light documents that hit Ximen Fa. But the old man seemed to have been hit hard. He jumped up two feet high with a roar and shouted angrily: "Fuck your mother, I have been in Huaibei for more than ten years, and His Majesty has never beaten or scolded me. How dare you hit me!"

"???"

Zheng Hongzu was a little stunned. Just now, the official document might have really hit you. You Huaibei people call this "beating and scolding"? ? ?
"Brothers, come on!"

But before Zheng Hongzu could react, he heard Ximen Fa shout again, and the duty room immediately became chaotic.

The people brought by Ximen Fa were like gangsters. They rolled up their sleeves, tied their collars around their waists, and started to attack without caring who was who. They grabbed the nearest censor and started beating him.

In less than ten breaths, more than a dozen censors including Mei Rupin were beaten back into the courtyard.

Outside, countless officials from the Dali Temple who were watching the excitement came running out, shouting, "Stop hitting! Stop hitting! This is disgraceful! Stop it now."

But they would either take the opportunity to secretly punch Ximen Fa and his men, or take sides.

Ximen Faming knew that he had the support of the Prime Minister and His Majesty, so he would not tolerate such humiliation. He immediately shouted to his subordinates, "Fuck their mothers, beat them up, let them know today who will be the boss of the Dali Temple in the future!"

The officials of the Dali Temple and the censors clearly had the upper hand in numbers.

But there was not a single weak scholar among Ximenfa's men, and they fought in a methodical manner, banding together to form a frontal formation and pushing forward.
The once solemn and majestic Dali Temple suddenly became a street full of hooligans fighting.

Outside the door, a jailer was eager to help, but was stopped by his colleagues, "Don't you want to die? They are all officials. Even if they beat their brains out, they will only receive a few reprimands from the emperor! You, a clerk, dare to attack an official, so you can only wait for death!"

The jailers calmed down immediately.
Ximen Fa's courage also comes from this. You are officials, but I am still a sixth-rank temple official! I will beat you, at most I will be reprimanded by His Majesty, but I can't suffer a loss in front of me!

The Secretariat and the Three Departments were both located in the front court of the imperial city. In the afternoon, Chen Bokang, who was on duty at the Three Departments, heard that Zuo Shao had been taken into the Secretariat. After much deliberation, he took the initiative to visit Cai Yuan in the Secretariat.

In any case, there is no precedent for the Secretariat to directly try guilty officials. Not only would it be an overstepping of authority, it would also easily make the already bad situation even more tense.

But just as the two of them sat down, before they had finished their greetings or taken a sip of tea, someone reported urgently, "Master Ximen is fighting with someone in the Dali Temple!"

Both of them were stunned. Although Cai Yuan was mentally prepared, his expression was still right.

However, Chen Bokang was truly confused because Cai Yuan's personnel arrangements were too rapid. He did not know who Ximen Fa was at that time, but after hearing the man's surname, he guessed that the other party must be the son of Ximen Gong, a nobleman in Huaibei and the governor of Liaodong.

At this point, Chen Bokang naturally had no more suitable opportunity to talk about Zuo Shao, and the two of them hurried to the Dali Temple together.

As soon as they left, Chen Yinglang became the person in charge of the Secretariat.

In the side room, Zuo Shao's confession was quickly handed here from the back.

Wu Yanzu leaned against the door frame, looking at the backs of Cai Yuan and Chen Bokang, and said excitedly: "Third Brother Ximen has such a bad temper. He had a big fight with his colleagues on the first day of taking office. Haha!"

"We Huaibei people are the most reasonable. It must be someone else who provoked Master Ximen first!"

Even though he was not at the scene, Chen Yinglang made an arbitrary judgment, and the four words "we are from Huaibei" were justified.

After saying that, he turned around and saw that several boys including Wu Yanzu and Peng Yuyan were still looking outside, while girls including Zhao Xiangyi and Si Lan were busy copying files.

Chen Yinglang immediately coughed twice and said to Wu, Peng and the others in a brotherly and senior manner, "Stop looking! Quickly organize the confessions coming from behind! This time, we must make this case of treason a solid one!"

Wu Yanzu sat back at his desk with a smile on his face. "Hey, Commander He is the one who has a solution! Zuo Shao has said so much in just half an hour!"

Let’s go back to Dali Temple.
As the civil officials were unable to fight, Ximen Fa and his men had already split up into small groups and attacked everywhere, pulling out the defeated officials one by one from under the desks and behind the rockery and beating them up.

When Cai Yuan and Chen Bokang arrived, they saw a group of policemen standing outside the second gate of the yamen, watching the battlefield inside with great interest.

Before Chen Bokang could open his mouth to disperse the police, a dishevelled official with disheveled hair suddenly jumped out from the second gate.

Because the other person was wearing the robes of a fourth-rank official, Chen Bokang could not help but take a closer look at him, and then exclaimed, "Lord Mei!" This person was the Imperial Counselor Mei Rupin.

Mei Rupin, whose lips were purple, saw Chen Bokang appear in front of him. He immediately pointed to the courtyard and said angrily, "Master Chen! Look at how the northerners bully our officials from the south!"

When he heard the word "northerner", Cai Yuan's face turned grim.

But at this time, the two of them did not care about much and walked in quickly, only to see that the censors and officials from the Dali Temple had fallen down and were wailing.

Today, Ximen Fa, who had been in office for less than two hours, grabbed the hair of the censor Zheng Hongzu with one hand and punched Zheng Hongzu's abdomen with the other hand.

"."

"Stop! This is disgraceful!"

Chen Bokang was the first to shout. Ximen Fa looked up and saw Chen Bokang coming. He was in high spirits and almost cursed back. But he suddenly caught a glimpse of Cai Yuan next to him.
Ximen Fa couldn't help but pause for a moment, then suddenly he uttered an 'ouch' and sat down on the ground, slapping his thigh and howling like a village woman, "Prime Minister, look, today I brought my colleagues to take up the new post, but they were hated by the colleagues in the Dali Temple and wanted to kick us out of the Dali Temple, Prime Minister, they bullied me because I'm a foreigner, Prime Minister, you have to help us."

Damn, isn’t this the bad guy complaining first?

Mei Rupin was furious. His hand, which was pointing at Ximen Fa, was shaking with anger. He cursed loudly, "Rogue, scoundrel! How could such a person become an official in our Great Chu! Who on earth recommended this boy to be an official? Is he blind?"

Anyway, the relationship has been broken up today, and Mei Rupin secretly cursed Cai Yuan for bringing a scum like Ximen Fa into the ranks of officials of the Great Chu!

But Cai Yuan was not anxious at all. Instead, he stroked his beard and said calmly, "Master Mei, be careful with your words. Master Ximen is an outstanding official personally selected by His Majesty. Who are you calling blind?"

"."

Mei Rupin's face, which was already red from being insulted, suddenly turned purple. But under Cai Yuan's kind gaze, Mei Rupin had to quickly straighten his face and clothes, and bowed in the direction of the imperial city, "I was so anxious that I lost my mind and spoke nonsense, which offended Your Majesty."

On August 17, the first day that Cai Yuan officially appeared in the public eye, the city of Lin'an was in chaos.

That night, Mei Rupin, who had suffered a great humiliation, went to Xie Kuo's mansion for the second time.

The two discussed secretly for a while, but they felt that they had no idea where to start. Cai Yuan, in the name of the Secretariat, appointed low-level officials such as the Chief of the Dali Temple and the Chief of the Ministry of Justice, who happened to have the power to try cases.

Moreover, they all brought their own teams and could carry out their work without even the cooperation of the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice.

Although Mei Rupin repeatedly assured that Zuo Shao was not in serious trouble, Xie Kuo decided to write a letter personally to persuade Zhou Wei to go to court tomorrow and take back the Dali Temple from Ximen Fa first in order to avoid any further trouble.

Needless to say, with Prime Minister Cai endorsing Ximen Fa, the handling of today's fight will be much ado about nothing.

After this incident, no one dared to provoke Ximen Fa in the Dali Temple. If Zhou Wei continued to claim to be sick, it would not be long before everyone in the Dali Temple would succumb to Ximen Sanlang's tyranny.

They had made a plan, but such a big scene today really scared one person, and that was the Censor Zheng Hongzu.

After the Zhou emperor fled south in early June, Lin'an City fell into a power vacuum for a time, which was also the most chaotic period.

At that time, a member of the Zeng Qian family took the initiative to find Zheng Hongzu and gave him a large sum of silver.

The other party did this because they wanted to wait until the situation stabilized a little, and then use Zheng Hongzu's mouth to say a few good words in front of the King of Chu to resolve the "misunderstanding" of the assassination attempt at Xiangguo Temple in Tokyo.

This kind of thing is very common. Although several major families headed by the Qian family fled south with Emperor Zhou, they could not be completely unprepared for the new dynasty. Being able to use money to resolve misunderstandings is what they most want to see.

Of course Zheng Hongzu would not refuse the money that was delivered to his door. This matter did not have to be done. If there was a chance in the future, he would say a few good words for them. If there was no chance, he would not say anything.

Anyway, the Qian, Luo and Cui families are not relying on him alone. As far as Zheng Hongzu knows, at the beginning of June, at least 30% of the officials who received silver gifts from the three families had received silver.

The little money he received was nothing at all.

Originally, Zheng Hongzu didn't take this matter seriously, but today, he suddenly learned that Zuo Shao was taken away from the Dali Temple prison because of "secretly communicating with Zhou traitor", and Zheng Hongzu couldn't help feeling guilty.

Those people from Huaibei are domineering and have no regard for the friendship of their colleagues. Since they dare to arrest Zuo Shao, Zheng Hongzu will not be safe!
Besides, he had made enemies with Ximen Fa today. Even if Zheng Hongzu had confiscated the silver, he might have been used as an opportunity for revenge, not to mention that he actually accepted it!

If we really want to, the charge of treason can also be pinned on him!
After figuring this out, Zheng Hongzu instinctively felt that he was in great danger. After returning home from the Dali Temple, regardless of his wife's anxious questions about why his face was bruised and swollen, he hurriedly called his two sons, dug two feet into the ground in the corner of the back house, and dug out a box.

When they opened it, the two thousand taels of silver made the whole family dizzy.

Zheng Hongzu's eldest son grabbed a fifty-liang ingot, bit it, and asked in confusion, "Father, when did our family get so much silver?"

Zheng Hongzu also took an ingot, but looked at the bird-shaped "Shou" character on the bottom of the ingot in silence. "Shou" cast on silver is a mark of the Qian family's treasury silver in eastern Zhejiang, which is known to everyone.

Without caring about his son, Zheng Hongzu quickly ordered, "Go, find a few bags, put the silver in them, and we'll leave the city overnight."

"Ah? Where are you going? Master, aren't you on duty tomorrow?"

Zheng's wife was puzzled as to why Zheng Hongzu suddenly lost his temper for no reason. "Whatever I tell you to do, why are you making such a fuss?"

When Zheng Hongzu, who was a man of great patriarchal authority, got angry, his family members dared not ask any more questions. They followed Zheng Hongzu's instructions, packed up their valuables, discarded the heavy wooden boxes, and only loaded the silver onto the carriage.

The position of Censor is indeed a position with no benefits. Zheng Hongzu has been an official in the capital for two years, but he still does not have the financial resources to buy a house in Lin'an. He still rents his residence, so he does not need to worry about the real estate that cannot be converted into cash in a short time.

At the beginning of the Xu hour, a family of four, plus a pair of old servants, drove an ox cart directly to the south gate of Lin'an.

At this moment, there were still two hours before the city was closed, and people were queuing up in front of the city gate.

Zheng Hongzu, who was sitting in the car, was visibly nervous.

Fortunately, the soldiers who were maintaining order did not come forward to question them, and Zheng Hongzu and his family left the city smoothly.

After walking nearly ten miles and gradually getting away from the prosperous area outside Lin'an, Zheng Hongzu's wife asked carefully: "Master, what happened? Why did you leave Lin'an in such a hurry? Will we come back?"

Seeing that the whole family was looking at him eagerly, Zheng Hongzu, who felt that he had escaped death, breathed a sigh of relief and said, "We can't stay in Lin'an any longer. Let's go to your brother's place in Lizhou Road to stay for a while, and see how things turn out before we plan a way out."

The road to Lizhou was thousands of miles away, and Zheng Hongzu's eldest son couldn't help but ask in astonishment: "Father, what happened?"

Zheng Hongzu thought about it and decided to tell his family, so as to avoid exposing their whereabouts on the road. He said, "I have a feeling that the emperor will let Cai Yuan start a shocking case in Lin'an. I can't say whether those officials can have a good end, but I think that a lowly official like me will be crushed into dust."

"." The eldest son's eyes widened, and he said in disbelief: "Father is loyal to the emperor and the country, what is there to be afraid of?"

The phrase "loyalty to the emperor and the country" made Zheng Hongzu's face slightly hot. But then he secretly explained: There are many colleagues who accepted the silver from the Qian family and even secretly maintained contact with the Zhou emperor. He is not the only one. Accepting the silver from the Qian family does not mean that he is disloyal to the new emperor, it just leaves another way!

Thinking of this, Zheng Hongzu gradually straightened his chest again, and he explained to his family: "It is true that my father is loyal to the emperor, but Your Majesty... Alas! Your Majesty has been deceived by Concubine Cai, and regards loyal and upright ministers as enemies. He has repeatedly made suggestions to protect the country and offended Concubine Cai. Now that Prime Minister Cai has come to Lin'an, how can she tolerate my father?"

When the two sons heard this, their faces were immediately filled with anger. The youngest son punched the wall of the car and cursed: "The evil concubine is a disaster to the country, everyone has the right to kill her!"

The eldest son looked at Zheng Hongzu and said with grievance for his father: "Father is upright and studied hard for more than 20 years to get an official position, but was harmed by a woman. My classmates said that Your Majesty is a benevolent ruler, but now it seems that it is not entirely true."

"Don't criticize your father!"

Zheng Hongzu's face darkened, but he felt very happy because of the moral superiority he had gained. He couldn't help but reveal a little pride in his words, "Anyway, I saw that the situation was not right, so it was best to leave first. Even if that evil concubine wanted to harm me, it's too late."

As if to provide a footnote to his words, as soon as Zheng Hongzu finished speaking, the ox cart suddenly stopped.

"Why don't you leave?"

Zheng Hongzu frowned and asked, but heard a familiar voice outside the car, "Hey, Lord Zheng, you are rushing on the road all night, where are you going?"

Zheng Hongzu was startled when he heard this and lifted the curtain to look outside.

Under the moonlight, he saw Ximen Fa, who had just beaten him up in the afternoon, and more than a dozen of his personal soldiers in royal uniforms, smiling and blocking the way in front of the car.

Zheng Hongzu fell back into the carriage and heard someone outside jokingly say, "Prime Minister Cai invites Lord Zheng to go back for tea." (End of this chapter)