Wife, you didn't really drug me, did you?

Chapter 435 What? Can Chen Jiusi command the King of Qi?
The Eight Kings’ Travels!

When Prince Lu saw Wang Baobao taking out the Records of the Eight Princes, he was shocked. You know, the Records of the Eight Princes were not from a very prominent background. When Daqian was founded, the Han people in the country were very rebellious and the people were full of resentment.

Rebellions by the Han people were common, and Taizu, the founder of Daqian, Tian Khan, was very worried about the situation in various places.

Although he adopted many Han slaves and granted them official titles, thus stabilizing the local situation, he was still faced with internal and external troubles. Under such circumstances, Taizu Daqian did not dare to delegate real power to the Han people, especially local power, such as county magistrates, county governors, and local ministers.

In order to balance power and prevent the Han people from rebelling, they came up with the idea of ​​enfeoffing local princes and using the Mulan people to suppress the world.

This bite divided out the eight princes, who were the original eight kings.

Later, Tian Khan suffered many injuries from the Han masters of the time due to overwork and years of fighting. As a result, his old injuries recurred and he died within a few years of establishing the country.

At this time, the new emperor was young and the power of the foreign relatives was very strong. Tian Khan was afraid that after his death, the harem would interfere in politics and the foreign relatives would monopolize power, so he delegated power to outsiders and promoted a prime minister in the court who could compete with the foreign relatives, in order to balance the power of the foreign relatives.

But after this was done, another problem arose: if the foreign relatives fell, and the powerful minister did something that endangered the imperial power, how could they be checked and controlled?

Finally, they came up with a solution, the Eight Kings' Travels.

This is a form of memorial. Normally, memorials from princes and other ministers need to go through the cabinet and be reviewed by the prime minister first. After the prime minister gives his opinion, the memorials are then passed on to the emperor.

If the prime minister feels that the matter is too small and not worth alarming the emperor, he can keep it secret and not issue it.

The power to decide the size of the matter lies in the hands of the prime minister. What is a big deal? Maybe a minister is impeached for taking a concubine, and the prime minister thinks it is a big deal, so the emperor can see the memorial impeaching the concubine.

But if the prime minister thinks the matter is small, for example, there is a flood in Henan and Shandong, which leads to starving people everywhere and the people are living in misery, there will be rebel armies everywhere, killing officials and rebelling.

Then he could keep the small matter secret and not report it, and the emperor would naturally not know about it.

This is the power of the prime minister, and also the power of Tuotuo, the prime minister who controls half of the national destiny of Daqian.

So even if Prince Ruyang was arrested, if Tuotuo did not report it, the emperor would not know that his uncle Prince Ruyang was under house arrest by the prime minister.

So how can we bypass the prime minister and present the memorial directly to the emperor?

That is the Records of the Eight Kings.

This was a right granted by Emperor Taizu. In order to check and balance the power of the prime minister, Emperor Taizu gave foreign princes the right to bypass the prime minister's institution. Of course, Emperor Taizu also imposed constraints on this right in order to prevent these princes from deliberately disrupting the court.

That is, this matter must be jointly submitted by the six princes, so that it can be heard directly by the emperor and seen directly.

Go straight by the Prime Minister.

At that time it was called the "Six Kings' Records", but later with development, there were more and more emperors, and the emperors were selfish, so they would confer the title of prince on their sons to help their fathers guard the world.

In addition, some people had such great military achievements that they had nowhere to be placed, so they could only be made kings.

As a result, the number of local princes increased, and at one point reached more than 20. With one prince per king, they could basically divide the world up.

At this time, we need to find ways to raise the threshold for memorials.

At this time, the local princes group and the court prime minister group began to fight. Starting from the original six princes, the prime minister said that at least twenty princes must come together to participate.

The two sides argued endlessly and finally the fight ended with the emperor.

Following the advice of his counselors, the emperor made a rule that at least eight princes had to jointly write a petition, and among these eight princes, there had to be a prince with real power leading the group.

What is a powerful prince? For example, Prince Ruyang suppressed the five routes and eighty-one prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River. He was the main prince, because there were other princes in his territory, and he also had a main army corps of the empire, such as the White Deer Army.

Another main prince is Li Siqi, the King of Qi in the northwest.

As well as Bolo Timur, who was in charge of the Baoxiang Corps in the capital, although he did not surrender as a prince, his status was treated as that of a local vassal king, so this kind of record of the Eight Kings was included.

There must be a main prince, plus seven powerful princes with some rights, plus some minor princes, such as Prince Lu, who is a minor prince with no more than 10,000 soldiers. He was able to enter only by relying on the protection of his ancestors.

Of course, the princes still have certain rights in the court, especially with the emperor. After all, these princes are descendants of Taizu.

And now, the leader of Baoxiang Army, Bolo Temur, is hiding in the capital, and even in the same boat with Tuotuo. He will definitely not take the initiative to carry out the Eight Kings' Acts.

However, Prince Ruyang himself was imprisoned in the capital and had no way of using the Records of the Eight Princes.

Then the only person qualified to initiate the Eight Kings' Travels was the King of Qi in the Northwest, Li Siqi.

But everyone in the world knows what the relationship between Li Siqi and Prince Ruyang is. They are competitors and enemies, so how could Li Siqi help Prince Ruyang exercise the power of the Eight Kings?

So in short, in short, King Lu never expected that Wang Baobao would actually take out the "Biography of the Eight Kings" at this time.

Wang Baobao naturally saw Prince Lu's expression and said calmly, "Uncle Prince Lu looks very shocked."

Upon hearing this, the King of Lu said, "Yes, I didn't expect that my nephew Kuokuo could come up with something like this."

Wang Baobao shook his head and said, "It's impossible not to take it out. Everyone knows Uncle Lu. He won't release the eagle until he sees the rabbit."

Prince Lu's face changed, but Wang Baobao still smiled and said, "Uncle Lu, do you think what I said is wrong?"

Prince Lu was a little embarrassed, but he didn't dare to do anything to Wang Baobao.

Wang Baobao just made a sarcastic remark and did not dare to do anything to Prince Lu. At this time, Wang Baobao said, "Uncle Prince Lu, let's not beat around the bush. The culprit of this incident is Prime Minister Tuotuo. It's not the first or second time that he has wanted to reduce the power of the princes."

"The last time he proposed to reduce the power of the feudal lords, he was rejected by the old prince and was banished from the capital. Later, the old prince died, and his remaining followers pulled him up again."

"He was also patient enough to remain silent for ten years. When all of us had forgotten about his danger, he came out again. This time, his plan was even more thorough. He even used Zoroastrianism to weaken the power of our vassal king. My foster father was deceived by them."

"It can be seen that he has not given up his evil intentions and has been plotting evil for a long time."

After hearing this, Prince Lu looked at Wang Baobao and said, "Kuokuoqi does seem to have bad intentions, but he is now the prime minister of our Daqian. He is second only to the emperor and is above everyone else. He has also been approved by the Living Buddha. Half of the country's destiny depends on him. The civil officials in the court are on his side, and even the military officials are on his side. Even the elephant lord is on his side."

"It's not easy to take him down."

Prince Lu told Wang Baobao about his thoughts, and Wang Baobao admitted that Prince Lu was right and that Tuotuo was really well prepared this time.

When he was at the peak of his power, he launched this sudden charge, leaving the entire vassal group unable to react.

but.

"Uncle Lu said a lot, but the emperor doesn't know about this. Even if he has great power, the world still belongs to our Borjigin clan. Why would Tuotuo take action against the descendants of the Borjigin clan?"

"Your Majesty would definitely not agree to this, but Your Majesty has been deceived for the time being."

King Lu said: "But your majesty has not been concerned with the affairs of the world for a long time, and all the real things have been entrusted to Tuotuo. Even if we have thousands of ideas, it is difficult for your majesty to accept them."

Wang Baobao then raised the Eight Kings' Records in his hand and said, "Otherwise, why would I take this thing?"

Prince Lu's eyes lit up and he said, "The Eighth Prince's deeds can indeed reach the ears of the emperor, but Tuotuo has the support of the Living Buddha. As long as the Living Buddha supports him, Your Majesty will not dare to disobey the Living Buddha's wishes."

Upon hearing this, Wang Baobao said, "The Living Buddha is the Living Buddha of Daqian, not Tuotuo's Living Buddha."

"He values ​​Tuotuo's ability to govern, but that doesn't mean Tuotuo's ability to govern is irreplaceable. You know, there are many people in the court who can't stand Tuotuo!"

Upon hearing this, Prince Lu was silent for a moment, looked at Wang Baobao and said, "You mean Right Prime Minister Hama!"

The Daqian court was divided into left and right prime ministers. The left prime minister had a higher position, equivalent to the prime minister, and currently it was Tuotuo.

The other right prime minister was slightly weaker in ability and was considered a deputy prime minister. He exercised the prime minister's power when the prime minister was absent. This deputy prime minister was the old prime minister Hama.

Hama is a generation older than Tuotuo, twelve years older. He is sixty this year and belongs to the older generation.

Originally, if it weren't for the faction of young people like Tuotuo growing too big, the old Prime Minister Hama's conservative forces would have become too passive and he would have lost his position as the left prime minister in the end!
It is precisely because of these reasons that the old-fashioned forces such as Hama look down upon the radicalism of Tuotuo’s faction.

Moreover, since Hama had good relations with the feudal lords in various places, he had always been a conservative and the main force against the reduction of feudal lords.

So when Wang Baobao mentioned the old Prime Minister Hama, Prince Lu was shocked. This old guy was quite good and a very sensible person.

Moreover, Hama is your Majesty's teacher and has a say. If the old prime minister were to speak out, your Majesty might oppose the reduction of the power of the feudal lords.

Prince Lu expressed his thoughts, and Wang Baobao couldn't help laughing: "Hahaha, Uncle Prince Lu, you are too conservative. His Majesty has always disagreed with reducing the power of the princes!"

Prince Lu asked, "Then your majesty uses Tuotuo?"

Wang Baobao asked, "Do you still remember who the old prime minister belongs to?"

Prince Lu thought for a moment and said, "She is the Queen Mother's cousin and a relative by marriage, hiss..."

The King of Lu took a deep breath. It must be said that the King of Lu had very poor political sensitivity. This was the reason why he had occupied such a fertile land, Qi and Lu, but had not achieved anything. Of course, if it had not been for his incompetence, perhaps such a fertile land, Lu, would not have been possible for him.

If the land of Qi and Lu had really been given to the King of Qi, with the fertility of Qi and Lu, it would have become a prosperous place long ago. This is why King Qi Li Siqi, although called the King of Qi, had his fief in the northwest.

The old Prime Minister Hama was originally the cousin of the empress dowager, which means he was a legitimate relative by marriage, and also the emperor's teacher. After the emperor came to the throne, the empress dowager controlled the government, and there were relatives by marriage to help in the court. In this situation, what should the emperor do if he wanted to rule the country himself?
There is only one way, which is to rely on the civil officials, just like Taizu did in the past, and use the prime minister to balance the external relatives.

So he reused Tuotuo, who was excluded by the court, and used Tuotuo to gain the right to speak in the court. Tuotuo did live up to his expectations and won repeatedly in political struggles. Finally, he became the current Left Prime Minister.

But now the left prime minister has become too powerful to be controlled. He has his own ideas and even takes action against the vassal kings. So the question is, what is the role of the vassal kings?
In addition to suppressing local forces, another key function is to balance the power of powerful officials.

Taizu’s design was very good back then, but what was the emperor trying to do?
The emperor plays the art of being an emperor. What is the art of being an emperor? To put it simply, it is the way of balance. He has to artificially set up mutually hostile political enemies in the court, and then the emperor acts like moving the beads on an abacus.

If the left side was unbalanced, he would push it to the left. If the right side was unbalanced, he would push it to the right. In this way, he could ensure stability in the court.

This is the emperor's art of balance.

Tuotuo was a check and balance for the old prime minister Hama, but now Hama has completely lost his role, one of the reasons is that the old queen mother passed away. Hama has lost his main identity as a relative, so he has no way to maintain a balance with Tuotuo.

If the emperor wanted to prevent Tuotuo’s family from becoming the only powerful one, he had to rely on the vassal kings.

As for Tuotuo, he wanted to break free from the shackles of the princes and gain more power. This process included reducing the power of the princes and then sending his capable men to take over the local areas.

In fact, Tuotuo did this for power, but it was also beneficial to the development of the entire court.

After all, unified management by the imperial court is definitely better than local princes governing themselves independently, but good policies are not necessarily the policies that the emperor needs.

What the emperor needs is balance, not Tuotuo’s dominance.

Therefore, if Tuotuo had directly proposed the idea of ​​reducing the power of the princes, it would most likely have been rejected by the emperor. Fortunately, the emperor had decentralized power for many years.

Tuotuo wanted to take a risk and launch a sudden attack, just like this time, to prevent the plan to wipe out Zoroastrianism and attack Guangmingding.

This plan can be said to be very successful. After the capture of the young Ming King, the court's reputation soared, and the Prince of Ruyang was also brought into the capital.

The incorporation of King Ruyang in Jiangnan was successfully completed. The next step is to stabilize Jiangnan and then deal with the small vassal kings around Jiangnan. Without the backbone of King Ruyang, these small vassal kings are like a pile of loose sand.

By the time they reacted, Tuotuo had already completed the encirclement. By that time, Jiangnan and the surrounding vassal kings had all been captured, leaving only Li Siqi in the northwest.

If Li Siqi resists stubbornly, let the leader of the Baoxiang Army, Bolod Timur, deal with him.

If he is sensible and comes to surrender, then Tuotuo can take him in as a dog and have an extra powerful person on the Heavenly Ranking in his hands.

And by then, even if the emperor knew that he had already won the upper hand, it would be fine if the emperor kept quiet. If not, Tuotuo could still shout, "Your Majesty, why are you rebelling!"

The emperor was placed under house arrest, and from then on the world was no longer under the control of Tuotuo.

If things had gone better, Tutu would have asked: "If the emperor has to be the Borjigin clan, then my Gumerji clan might not be unable to take the throne."

It can be said that this is a big game of chess. It is a bit reckless to advance, but if it succeeds, the rewards will be quite huge. How could Tuotuo bear it!
And because Tuotuo attacked suddenly, everyone was caught off guard.

Tuotuo even contacted the Living Buddha, and in the name of the Living Buddha, gave the emperor a book on Happy Buddha Zen, and presented one hundred stunning beauties to His Majesty, allowing His Majesty to practice for a month.

You can't leave until your majesty's birthday.

All government affairs during this period were handled by Tuotuo, and the emperor was devoted to cultivation. Moreover, he did not expect that Tuotuo was holding back something big, so he was not prepared. In fact, as long as the emperor knew about this matter,

Then this matter would definitely fail, but how could the emperor be made aware of it?

If you submit a normal memorial, you will be stopped by Tuotuo directly. If you want to see His Majesty, you will also be stopped by court officials. There is only one way to bypass everyone, and that is to use the Eight Kings' Travels.

Taizu ordered that no one could stop anyone holding the Eight Kings' Biography and they could go directly to the imperial court to meet the emperor.

No matter what happens, the emperor must let it go, resolve the issues raised by the eight kings, and restore peace to the world!

This is the function of the Eight Kings' Travels.

Wang Baobao explained the situation to Prince Lu, and Prince Lu also knew that it was a matter of life and death. At this time, Wang Baobao looked at Prince Lu and said, "Uncle Lu, do you have any questions?"

Prince Lu shook his head and said, "No, no, but my dear nephew, your uncle has a little..."

"Oh, Uncle Wang, is there anything else you don't understand?"

King Lu said: "It has nothing to do with the court, it's the Eight Princes' Records. The Eight Princes' Records must be written by the main prince."

"It is impossible for the commander of the Baoxiang Army to take the lead, and the Prince of Ruyang is under house arrest by Tuotuo. Now only the Prince of Qi can take the lead."

"But you know that the King of Qi has always been at odds with the King of Ruyang. How can he take the lead in signing the Eight Kings' Records?"

"If there is no main prince, the court will not take a small prince like uncle seriously."

After hearing what Prince Lu said, Wang Baobao laughed and said, "Uncle Wang, what you said is very true, but Uncle Wang, please look at this first page!"

As he spoke, Wang Baobao opened the book and saw a line of words written on the first page.

[I, the Prince of Qi, concurrently serving as the Grand Marshal of the Shaanxi and Shanxi Armies, and the Lord of the Canglang Army, Li Siqi, come to see Your Majesty! 】

[I have received the grace of the late emperor and have been granted the title of king. I have been granted the nine gifts and am stationed in the northwest. Since I took up my post, I have often reflected on myself, fearing that I have done something wrong and failed to live up to the emperor's grace.]

[I have been working diligently and cautiously, but today I suddenly heard the bad news that Ruyang King Chahan Temur has not returned to his fiefdom for a long time. I was shocked and started to investigate more.]

【However, it was discovered that the Left Prime Minister Tuotuo had detained the Prince of Ruyang and sent people to take over the Prince of Ruyang's mansion. I wonder if this was the intention of the court to reduce the power of the vassal states.】

[I am deeply terrified. We are the hereditary rulers granted by our great grandfather. We are dedicated to the country and share your worries. If your majesty thinks that we are harming the country, please forgive me.]

[Please grant us your grace. We are willing to return to our hometown to retire and no longer be concerned with the affairs of the empire.]

[However, if it is not your majesty's intention, but the work of a traitor, please punish him severely to reassure us. ]

That’s all the King of Qi’s memorial contained. Below it was his signature and stamped with his seal, completing the first page.

Then the second page contains the signatures of the kings.

【Zhejiang King Borjigin clan. Qiyan Temur】

[Bato Timur, the Borjigin clan of Xiang]

……

There were more than ten pages of names of princes and the seal of the palace. I didn't expect there were actually more than ten pages.

Seeing this, the King of Lu looked at Wang Baobao in surprise and asked, "How did you persuade the King of Qi?"

Wang Baobao remained silent after hearing this. He was not trying to persuade anyone. There were mainly two reasons why the King of Qi was able to write the Biography of the Eight Kings.

The First King of Qi himself felt the danger. For example, when they were at the foot of Guangmingding Mountain, Tuotuo wanted to trick him into the capital, but Li Siqi was smarter and ran away early.

Another reason was the sentence that Chen Jiusi wrote to him.

【The lips and teeth are cold, the intention is to reduce the power of the vassal. 】

The King of Qi was a great hero, so how could he not know the principle of "the lips and teeth are cold when one is gone"? If the King of Ruyang fell, he would be the next one to suffer.

So the King of Qi took the initiative to write the Records of the Eight Kings, and then sent it to the King of Zhejiang as quickly as possible. When Wang Baobao arrived, the Records of the Eight Kings was already waiting for him.

Then Wang Baobao just had to take the Records of the Eight Kings and ask people to sign and stamp them one by one, just like Tang Monk went to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures.

With the King of Qi taking the lead, few princes dared not to sign. After all, they all shared a common interest, and not signing would be tantamount to cutting off one's own vassal team.

No vassal king dared not to sign at this time.

King Lu took a deep breath and signed his name with a pen.

【The King of Lu, the Borjigin clan. Timur.】

After stamping the seal of Prince Lu, Wang Baobao got Prince Lu's signature, then the signatures of all the princes in the South were complete, and then he stood up.

Watching Wang Baobao leave, Prince Lu said, "My dear nephew, are you leaving before you eat?"

Wang Baobao said, "Thank you, Uncle Lu. As for the meal, I will go to Uncle Lu to reminisce about the past when my father and I come back together."

King Lu said: "Well, I will welcome my nephew back victoriously..."

Wang Baobao didn't care what the old fox thought. He walked out of the mansion and rode his horse straight towards Hebei Road.

He and Chen Jiusi and others had agreed to meet in Cangzhou Prefecture.

At this time, he was somewhat impatient to meet Chen Jiusi. After all, a word Chen Jiusi said to King Qi actually played such a big role. It made him look at Chen Jiusi differently for the first time.

Anyway, he felt that it was impossible for him to do all this in such a short time.

In this way, Wang Baobao traveled day and night to Cangzhou, and finally arrived at Cangzhou Prefecture after a day and a night.

After entering the city, he found the place they had agreed to meet in Cangzhou Prefecture and met Chen Jie.

"Third Brother!"

When the princess saw Wang Baobao coming in exhausted, she immediately went to greet him. She had felt quite comfortable these past two days, having had good food and drinks in Cangzhou Prefecture, which relieved her fatigue.

Chen Jie was even more dedicated to self-cultivation, and he comprehended the heaven and earth every day in an effort to merge his body and mind with the heaven and earth, to reach a state of forgetting both himself and himself, and thus to elevate his realm.

Wang Baobao saw that Zhao Ya was also very happy and said a few words. Wang Baobao asked, "Where is Chen Jiusi?"

Zhao Ya said: "I am practicing martial arts in seclusion."

"It's time to retreat."

Wang Baobao frowned.

Zhao Ya said, "By the way, before he went into seclusion, he said that he would wait for you to come and ask you if you have obtained the Records of the Eight Kings!"

(End of this chapter)