Daming: I can’t kill such a greedy prince-in-law?

Chapter 534: The First Court Meeting of the New Year (Subscribe please!!)
"enough!"

Following a roar, the entire Tai Chi Hall suddenly became quiet.

Swish--

Everyone's eyes subconsciously turned to Zhu Yuanzhang who was sitting on the dragon throne with fear in their eyes.

But Zhu Yuanzhang looked confused and innocent at the moment, as if to say, "Why are you looking at me? I didn't shout at you."

"It was the old man who shouted."

At this moment, Li Shanchang, who had been silent, stood up.

In fact, Li Shanchang felt very uncomfortable about Zhu Yuanzhang's intention to reduce the military power of generals and private soldiers. The main reason why he did not speak up was because of Ouyang Lun.

Ouyang Lun didn't speak, and he felt unsure. After all, he was working under Ouyang Lun now. As for others saying that he had surrendered to Ouyang Lun, Li Shanchang totally disagreed. In his opinion, he was like Goujian, who slept on straw and tasted gall to infiltrate the enemy!
Therefore, it is not convenient to have any direct conflict with Ouyang Lun at this time.

However, the Huaixi Party had more people than the Prince Consort Party and they could not win the argument. They saw that Lan Yu and others were about to start beating people. If Lan Yu and others did so, the matter would escalate.

By then, no matter what the reason was, it would be impossible to stop Zhu Yuanzhang from wanting to reduce military power and get rid of his private army.

Because of this, Li Shanchang had no choice but to stand up and loudly stop it.

Swish--

Everyone's attention shifted from Zhu Yuanzhang to Li Shanchang.

Facing so many pairs of eyes, Li Shanchang, worthy of being a figure who had stood firm in the court for decades, behaved quite calmly, slowly walked out of the queue, and stood side by side with the Minister of War Tang Duo.

"Your Majesty, I am guilty! I shouldn't have spoken so loudly in the court."

"Li Shanchang, what crime have you committed? I think you have made great contributions. If it weren't for you, these people would have demolished my Taiji Hall!" Zhu Yuanzhang said indifferently.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang hoped that the officials of the Huaixi Party and the Prince Consort Party would fight in front of him. In this way, he could get angry with a legitimate reason and solve the issues of military power and private army, and no one would dare to say anything.

This is also the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang signaled Ouyang Lun to take action. Since someone strongly resisted and the contradiction could not be reconciled, he might as well intensify the contradiction. After the contradiction broke out completely, it would be time to completely solve the problem. Of course, the premise of doing this was that he, the emperor, could not be involved.

Zhu Yuanzhang's plan was quite good. Almost everyone in the Taiji Hall became his pawns. But unfortunately, Ouyang Lun did not take action personally and Li Shanchang was not fooled, which led to the failure of his plan.

Therefore, at this time Zhu Yuanzhang had opinions about Li Shanchang and Ouyang Lun.

Li Shanchang was also keenly aware of Zhu Yuanzhang's dissatisfaction at this moment, but he could no longer care about these things at this time. If the conflict between the Huaixi Party and the Prince Consort Party continued to erupt, the Huaixi Party would suffer the greatest loss.

"Your Majesty, you are joking. As a minister, I naturally have the responsibility to maintain the order of the Taiji Palace. Even if I don't speak up, Prince Consort Ouyang will speak up to stop it." After Li Shanchang finished speaking, he looked at Ouyang Lun with a smile, "Prince Consort Ouyang, am I right?"

Swipe!

Li Shanchang's words directly turned everyone's attention to Ouyang Lun.

I rely on!

Li Shanchang, you stinky old man, why are you mentioning me for no reason? Are you sick?

Ouyang Lun cursed in his heart, but he soon understood the purpose of Li Shanchang's words.

It is not about diverting trouble, but a drama of "allying with Wu to fight against Cao"!

Forehead.
This has turned into a court version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

In the past, the Huaixi Party was the dominant force in the court, and even Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang found it difficult to deal with the Huaixi Party. Although Zhu Yuanzhang had absolute authority in the Ming Dynasty, he always handled things arbitrarily, which inevitably made people criticize him as a dictator.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang thought of Ouyang Lun, a rising star in the Ming Dynasty's political arena. Through Zhu Yuanzhang's intentional or unintentional support and Ouyang Lun's demonstrated strength, Ouyang Lun eventually became the third largest force in the Ming Dynasty court and successfully played a role in restraining the Huaixi Party.

On the surface, the Huaixi Party suppressed and targeted the emerging force Ouyang Lun and his party. Ouyang Lun and his party fought back hard, while Zhu Yuanzhang was secretly taking care of Ouyang Lun. As a result, the Huaixi Party was defeated step by step. The rebellion in the four southern provinces, the Confucianism incident, the power struggle in the Ministry of Revenue, etc., the Huaixi Party lost everything without any thought.

Although these did not completely defeat the Huaixi Party, they were a huge blow to the party's strength and influence. Many officials were demoted or killed, and the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War lost their authority.

If this continues, the Huaixi Party will soon be in name only.

So Li Shanchang thought of a solution. Although it was a bit of a gamble, it was indeed a solution. That was to join forces with Ouyang Lun! !
There are no absolute enemies or eternal friends in the officialdom. If the Huaixi Party is gone, is there any reason for Ouyang Lun and the Prince Consort Party to exist?

Besides, his cooperation with Ouyang Lun in the Ministry of Revenue has been relatively smooth during this period, so it is not impossible.

Li Shanchang did not tell anyone about this idea, including Ouyang Lun, or he himself had not thought it through yet, but Zhu Yuanzhang acted too quickly, and now he could only bet that Ouyang Lun could think of this!
Ouyang Lun naturally thought of this.

"Lord Li is right. We are all important officials of a great country. We should be magnanimous and use words instead of fists. How can we fight?"

Ouyang Lun nodded, "But Lord Li, we are discussing official business in Taiji Hall now. I am the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet and in charge of the Ministry of Revenue. In formal occasions, please address me by my official title, Ouyang Cabinet, Ouyang Grand Secretary, or Lord Ouyang! This will also set a good example for the people below."

Forehead.
Li Shanchang's face brightened when he heard this, but now he needed help from Ouyang Lun, so he could only pinch his nose and nod, "Lord Ouyang is right, I will learn from your teachings."

"Yeah." Ouyang Lun nodded slowly.

After saying this, he said nothing else, but turned around and gave Guo Zi a wink.

The latter naturally understood what Ouyang Lun meant and immediately agreed: "Lord Ouyang is polite. We are all important officials of the country. We should be magnanimous and not bother to waste time talking to you!"

"It's really hard to argue with a bunch of warriors like you!"

"Some plans are beyond the understanding of warriors like you."

"Forget it, I won't waste my breath on you guys."

The prince consort's party seemed to have received a signal, and they all gave up arguing and returned to their respective positions.

Although the people of the Huaixi Party were very dissatisfied, under the gaze of Li Shanchang, they had no choice but to stop and retreat.

What was originally a "full-scale fight" in the court ended just like that.

Li Shanchang couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he saw this. He wanted to continue talking to Ouyang Lun, but he found that Ouyang Lun had already fallen asleep with a fake eye on his eyelid. Treacherous!

Li Shanchang had no chance to think about it, because he had already felt the anger hidden in Zhu Yuanzhang's gloomy and calm eyes.

There was no other way. Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to glare at Ouyang Lun. This bastard actually cooperated with Li Shanchang. He was going to rebel! But at this time, Ouyang Lun was no different from a stone. He could not find any fault with Ouyang Lun for the time being, so he could only focus all his anger on Li Shanchang.

"Li Shanchang, you are also an old minister, so tell me what you think about military power and private armies?"

"Your Majesty, I think this matter is of great importance. No matter how much we say, it is not as good as your understanding. I would like to hear your Majesty's opinion on this matter so that we can fully understand it!"

Li Shanchang asked back.

After these words were spoken, the Taiji Hall fell silent again.

Swish--

All eyes returned to Zhu Yuanzhang.

Even Ouyang Lun quietly opened his eyes and looked at Zhu Yuanzhang, while praising Li Shanchang in his heart.

What the hell!

In today's morning court session, the MVP must definitely go to Li Shanchang!

My friends, there is really something in this hometown.

He almost single-handedly pulled the Huaixi Party back from the brink of "death"!

First he found his own cooperation to resolve the conflict between the Huaixi Party and the Prince Consort Party in the court, and then he kicked the ball to Zhu Yuanzhang. This was a completely extreme operation.

There was something interesting to watch next, but luckily I was smart and withdrew from the "battle" early.

Zhu Yuanzhang was also caught off guard by Li Shanchang's question. Judging from what Li Shanchang said, this was Li Shanchang expressing his submission to Zhu Yuanzhang, as if as long as Zhu Yuanzhang said he wanted to seize military power and recruit private soldiers, Li Shanchang would agree.

But in fact, Zhu Yuanzhang knew very well that in such a situation, if he directly said that he wanted to seize military power and recruit private soldiers, even if Li Shanchang agreed, it would be a false agreement, and Lan Yu and others would continue to oppose it with all their strength. In the end, this matter would not be implemented due to too much resistance, unless Zhu Yuanzhang took up the butcher's knife. But even if he wanted to take up the butcher's knife, he had to have a name, such as rebelling like Hu Weiyong.

Li Shanchang understood Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhu Yuanzhang also understood Li Shanchang. What Li Shanchang was best at was not strategy, but prudence and stability!

Therefore, Li Shanchang would never make the same mistake as Hu Weiyong, otherwise the reform of the Ministry of War to "seize military power and recruit private soldiers" would remain deadlocked. What made Zhu Yuanzhang even more worried was Ouyang Lun!
This kid has really grown powerful now, and now he dares to cooperate with Li Shanchang.

If he really fought to the death with Li Shanchang and the Huaixi Party, wouldn't that be equivalent to giving Ouyang Lun a chance? Although Zhu Yuanzhang didn't believe that Ouyang Lun would do anything excessive, as an emperor, he was going to fight with Li Shanchang and others, while Ouyang Lun stood on the sidelines and watched the fun. Just thinking about this situation made Zhu Yuanzhang uncomfortable!
so.
Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes flashed with seriousness, and he had already made up his mind about this matter.

"I have thought about it carefully and feel that what Lan Yu and the others said is right. Generals still need some military power when they lead troops outside. As for the private army, it is just a few personal guards. There is no need to make it so serious." Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the Minister of War Tang Duo, "Tang Duo, I understand that you have just taken office as the Minister of War and want to make some achievements, but some things cannot be rushed. The issue of military system reform will be put on hold for the time being. Aren't there a lot of new weapons to be given to the army recently? You should pay more attention to this matter next time."

"Your Majesty has taught me that I will definitely take care of the new weapons."

Tang Duo agreed without any hesitation.

Then Tang Duo bowed to Lan Yu and other generals and said, "Please forgive me, generals. I was careless in this matter!"

Although Lan Yu and others were very unhappy, it was already not easy for them to hold on to the military power and private soldiers in their hands. In addition, Li Shanchang kept winking at them, so they could only respond by bowing.

This is what I understand now.

"Li Shanchang, what do you think of my handling of this matter?"

Zhu Yuanzhang specifically asked Li Shanchang's name.

"Your Majesty is naturally the most wise, and I fully agree with you!"

After saying this, Li Shanchang finally felt relieved.

He was also worried that Zhu Yuanzhang would forcibly deprive the Huaixi generals of their military power and private soldiers. If this were true, either the Huaixi Party would completely fall apart, or these generals would fight to the death. In either case, he, Li Shanchang, would no longer be able to suppress them.

Ok!

Li Shanchang glanced at Ouyang Lun secretly again.

This was the second time he felt that Ouyang Lun was pleasing to his eye. The first time was when he followed Zhu Yuanzhang to Northern Zhili. At that time, he was very optimistic about Ouyang Lun. Originally, the relationship between him and Ouyang Lun could have been very good, but unfortunately, due to their positions, the two gradually became antagonistic.

If Ouyang Lun had not existed today, Zhu Yuanzhang might have really had to use tough measures.

At this moment, Li Shanchang had to believe in his heart that Ouyang Lun had grown into a powerful figure in the Ming Dynasty court and had the power to change the political situation.

Then Li Shanchang glanced at Zhu Yuanzhang secretly again.

Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang's behavior today was a little different from the Zhu Yuanzhang he had in mind. He changed too quickly. Although he was afraid that he would join forces with Ouyang Lun, or worried that if he handled the matter forcefully, Ouyang Lun would gain the upper hand, this was still not in line with Zhu Yuanzhang's character.

If it was the Zhu Yuanzhang in his impression, even if he made the same decision, he would definitely severely punish one or two people, such as Lan Yu and Guo Zi who just took the lead in causing trouble, or even "giving fifty lashes each" to him and Ouyang Lun.

But Zhu Yuanzhang did not do any of it.

Although the process from Tang Duo proposing military reform to Zhu Yuanzhang calling it off seemed cumbersome, it actually took a very short time.

It felt like Zhu Yuanzhang just made a simple test move and then quickly withdrew, as if he didn't want to waste too much time on this. If this was the case, it meant that Zhu Yuanzhang had other more important things to do next!
Something more important than the military reform of the Ministry of War!!

Li Shanchang was shocked and looked quickly towards Ouyang Lun who was not far away. The latter's face was calm but with a hint of expectation, which made Li Shanchang more determined in his thoughts.

Is it
Li Shanchang quickly held his breath and looked at Zhu Yuanzhang with a serious face.

Li Shanchang's behavior naturally affected other officials, and they all became serious. For a moment, the atmosphere in the entire Taiji Hall became extremely solemn.

"We have discussed this matter here. Next, I will make an important announcement!!"

(End of this chapter)