Eagle-eyed and wolf-watching

Chapter 1480 Concubine Rou!

royal palace, royal study
Ye Mingsheng looked at the two files in his hands, his brows revealing a trace of confusion. Ever since he got the two suitable candidates to succeed the Shangshu from Gu Sansi, Ye Mingsheng looked through the information of Shen Changhong and Ye Hao again.

Ye Mingsheng was not unfamiliar with Shen Changhong and Ye Hao. After all, one was the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and the other was the Governor of Yunbing. They were both high-ranking officials in Daqian, and were promoted and appointed by Ye Mingsheng himself!

But if you ask how familiar Ye Mingsheng is with these two people, then in fact he is not that familiar. After all, these two people are still a little bit inferior to the core of power in Daqian. They don’t have much contact with Ye Mingsheng on weekdays, and they don’t have many opportunities to report directly to Ye Mingsheng throughout the year. So to be fair, Ye Mingsheng doesn’t know much about these two people!

Before asking Gu Sansi that day, Ye Mingsheng had considered some candidates. However, when he first thought about the two names Gu Sansi mentioned, Ye Mingsheng was a little surprised. But after thinking about it carefully, it seemed that they were not impossible.
So in order to make a more careful choice, Ye Mingsheng also retrieved the files of these two people and gained a deeper understanding of them.

Shen Changhong, 46 years old, is from Qilu. At that time, Ye Mingsheng's territory expanded to Yunbing, Qilu, Jiyu, but the core figures of the center were still those from the Liaoyang Gang. This also led to some discordant voices under Ye Mingsheng at that time...

There are many versions of these discordant voices, but there is only one central idea, that is, the Fengwu Army is the Fengwu Army of the Liaoyang people. Ye Mingsheng only believes in the people of Liaoyang. People from other places are raised by stepmothers and cannot enter the core layer of the Fengwu Army. They can only be stepping stones and work like slaves for the Liaoyang people all their lives!

This voice, fueled by the Supervisory Office at the time, spread widely and had a significant impact on the unity within the Fengwu Army.

Therefore, in order to eliminate this discordant voice and prevent people from other places from becoming disloyal to the Fengwu Army, Ye Mingsheng was determined to use practical actions to demonstrate his attitude of being open to all and sincerely inviting talents from all sides to work together to create a prosperous era. For this purpose, Ye Mingsheng transferred many members from Qi, Lu, Hebei and Henan to serve in the central government!

It was in such a background that Shen Changhong, who had worked at the grassroots level in Qilu for many years and had a good reputation and performance, was appointed as the deputy director of the Personnel Bureau at that time. Since then, Shen Changhong has been working in the central government. Later, after Ye Mingsheng established the Yijing court, he naturally became the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel!
Since the affairs of the Ministry of Personnel were mainly reported to Ye Mingsheng by Gu Sansi, Shen Changhong, as the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, did not report to Ye Mingsheng very often.

However, just these few reports, not to mention how amazing the impression they left on Ye Mingsheng, also made Ye Mingsheng feel that this person was very good. When reporting, his logic was clear, he got to the point in just a few words, and his attitude was relatively sincere.

In addition to the direct influence on Ye Mingsheng, people like Cui Shao, the Minister of Revenue, Xiao Lingyu, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, and Gu Sansi, the Minister of Personnel, all praised Shen Changhong in front of Ye Mingsheng, saying that he was honest and loyal, young and strong, meticulous in work and worthy of trust...
Because of these, after Xiao Lingyu retired and the post of Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate became vacant, Ye Mingsheng had considered letting Shen Changhong take over this position!
However, the reason why Ye Mingsheng did not let Shen Changhong take over as the Left Censor-in-Chief, but let Chu Zhiyi take over this position, is that although Shen Changhong is capable, serious and has a good attitude towards work, he is not a perfect person!

Shen Changhong's shortcoming is that he is sometimes too smooth-talking. He seems to have good relations with all the people in the court and gives face to everyone who greets him. This is what Ye Mingsheng doesn't like!

As the saying goes, a journey of a hundred steps begins with ninety steps. Although Daqian's reform has achieved some results, it is still not enough for Ye Mingsheng. Ye Mingsheng will continue to promote reform, so Ye Mingsheng hopes that the new Shangshu will be a staunch reformer rather than a smooth-talking good guy!
The second candidate recommended by Gu Sansi, Ye Hao, has a closer relationship with Ye Mingsheng than Shen Changhong. He is considered a distant relative of Ye Mingsheng, a cousin within the fifth degree of mourning, and is also the current representative of the royal family in the Daqian G field!

Although Ye Hao is Ye Mingsheng's cousin, he was not very prominent in the Fengwu Army a few years ago. He was just a county magistrate in Youyan. At that time, the representatives of the royal family in the Fengwu Army were Ye Dong, Ye Tie, Ye Kui, Ye Hongsheng, Ye Baode and others!
At that time, the Fengwu Army had just captured Jinzhong not long ago. Because Yunbing had experienced war and the situation was very bad, and it was also the front line of the war with the Luoan court, so many people in the Fengwu Army were unwilling to go to Jinzhong to take over as prefect...
When Ye Mingsheng led the Fengwu Army into the Pass, although he achieved good results through a series of wars and accumulated some strength, Shangguan Hongyuan had accumulated too much prestige over the past twenty years, and he also led the imperial army to capture Sichuan and defeated the imperial court on its southern tour. So everyone with a discerning eye knew that Shangguan Hongyuan's next step was to deal with Ye Mingsheng!
To be honest, in that situation back then, although Ye Mingsheng himself was very confident that he could give Shangguan Hongyuan a fight, many people, including some people within the Fengwu Army, were not optimistic about the battle between the Fengwu Army and the Luoan Court. Some of them were very pessimistic and advised Ye Mingsheng to surrender and become a rich man!
Jinzhong was the front line facing the Luoan court, which led to the two prefectural candidates that Ye Mingsheng intended to send to Jinzhong at the time pretending to be sick after hearing the news!

Ye Mingsheng was not stupid, so he naturally knew that they were not really sick, but they were afraid of Shangguan Hongyuan and the Luoan Imperial Guards to the core. Although Ye Mingsheng was very angry at the time, he was also helpless in his heart!

After all, they were all pretending to be sick, and Ye Mingsheng couldn't put a knife on their necks and force them to take up the post!
So when Ye Mingsheng, who was angry at his lack of fighting spirit, was considering whether to arrange a local person from Jinzhong to take over, Ye Cui found Ye Mingsheng and recommended Ye Hao, who was still the county magistrate at that time. The old woman hoped that Ye Mingsheng would give this opportunity to Ye Hao...
To be honest, Ye Mingsheng still hates it when my mother directly asks him to send people. If it is at other times, Ye Mingsheng usually uses perfunctory and evasive tactics to get away with it!

However, due to the special situation of Jinzhong and the fact that the two men pretended to be sick and refused to take up their posts, Ye Mingsheng was also concerned about this.
Ye Hao, who volunteered, showed a hint of interest!
So Ye Mingsheng called his distant cousin over at that time. Ye Mingsheng was also very curious about him. Others were afraid of the Luoan Imperial Guards and Shangguan Hongyuan. They were so afraid that they wanted to pee their pants. Why weren't you afraid and dared to volunteer?

During that meeting, Ye Hao showed Ye Mingsheng his determination and courage. He assured Ye Mingsheng that if Ye Mingsheng appointed him as the prefect of Jinzhong, he would lead the people of Jinzhong to resist the Luoan court to the death!
He told Ye Mingsheng very frankly that he was not 100% sure of defending Jinzhong, but he was determined to die. He would live and die with Jinzhong. If the city was captured, he, Ye Hao, would never live in this world!
Ye Mingsheng was also moved by him at the time, so he made an exception and promoted him to the position of prefect of Jinzhong. On the first day Ye Hao arrived in Jinzhong, he directly ordered a coffin for himself from the coffin shop to demonstrate his determination to live and die with the city!

In the subsequent Battle of Jinzhong, Ye Hao also organized the people in the city to support the soldiers of Fengwu Army and fully guaranteed the logistics of Fengwu Army. This also laid a solid foundation for Fengwu Army to defend Jinzhong and later win in Yunbing area.
Therefore, when rewarding people for their merits after the war, Ye Mingsheng appointed Ye Hao as the governor of Yunbing. During this period, Ye Hao also actively led the people of Yunbing to carry out post-war reconstruction work and made great contributions to the economic recovery of Yunbing!
These are Ye Hao’s merits, but like Shen Changhong, Ye Hao also has shortcomings in Ye Mingsheng’s heart!
First, although Ye Hao encouraged the development of industry and commerce and actively led the people to build agricultural and water conservancy infrastructure, he did not agree with Ye Mingsheng's request for government layoffs. The chaos caused by layoffs in various places before was most serious in Yunbing!
Although Ye Hao is the governor and not the censor, as the main person in charge of Yunbing, Ye Hao cannot escape blame for the situation. He just did nothing and allowed the situation to continue to deteriorate, which did not give Ye Mingsheng a good impression!
Secondly, although Ye Hao is very good at hiding things, the Coordination Office recently discovered that although Ye Hao appears to be clean and honest on the surface, and even deceived Chu Zhiyi, in fact, Ye Hao has a lot of wealth through the help of agents, of which the value is conservatively estimated to be 60,000 taels of silver.

Although Ye Mingsheng did not take Ye Hao down at this time, he was also considering how to deal with Ye Hao.
Therefore, considering all these circumstances, Ye Mingsheng believes that Ye Hao is not a suitable candidate to take over the position of Shangshu!
But if Shen Changhong and Ye Hao are both not capable, then who will take over?

Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng felt a little helpless. If he didn't find a suitable candidate, it would be difficult for Ye Mingsheng to take the next step. After all, Ye Mingsheng couldn't act recklessly according to his own temper. He had to consider the stable operation of the court...

Just when Ye Mingsheng was considering whether Yijing prefect Liu Ning was a suitable candidate, Ye Cheng walked into Ye Mingsheng's study and reported to Ye Mingsheng: "Your Majesty! The Queen is going to severely punish Concubine Rou!"

After hearing these words, Ye Mingsheng's heart moved:

"Because of what happened in Yu Garden before?"

"Yes! The Queen said that Concubine Rou was shameless and deliberately seduced Your Majesty!"

Hearing Ye Cheng's words, Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but think of Chen Rouer's teasing that night a few days ago. Although Ye Mingsheng rejected Chen Rouer at that time, Ye Mingsheng was still shocked by Chen Rouer's passion and boldness. He didn't expect Chen Rouer to say such words!
To be honest, compared to those women who were reluctant to accept, Chen Rouer's initiative and boldness gave Ye Mingsheng a very good experience.

Although Ye Mingsheng rejected Chen Rouer at that time and asked Chen Rouer to go back to have a good sleep and take a hot bath, after he left, Ye Mingsheng, who was a little distracted, felt a little uneasy in his heart. He felt it was a pity that he didn't experience what other tricks Chen Rouer had!
Out of curiosity, Ye Mingsheng decided at that time that when he had time in the next few days, he would go to see Chen Rouer and feel the youthful passion of the girl.

However, Ye Mingsheng was busy with official duties these days, so he forgot about this matter. Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng pondered for a moment and asked Ye Cheng:

"Did the Queen say how she would punish Concubine Rou?"

"It is said that Concubine Rou is going to be beaten with a stick..."

"Beat him with a stick?" Ye Mingsheng frowned and asked back:
"It seems so. It seems like he's going to be spanked twenty times!"

Ye Mingsheng's heart sank when he heard Ye Cheng's words. He didn't expect An Miaoyi to be so cruel that she wanted to beat Chen Rouer with twenty boards.

Although these twenty strokes of the board may not seem like a lot, the maids in charge of carrying out the executions in the Inner Court were all servants who had learned from the prefect of Yijing. This made the beatings very particular. They could make your external injuries invisible, but they could actually kill you.

At the same time, it can also make you look bloody, but in fact it is not a big deal!

And what approach would An Miaoyi take towards Chen Rouer?
Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng's expression became very solemn. Seeing this, Ye Cheng was a little hesitant, not knowing whether he should do anything. At this time, Ye Mingsheng made up his mind and told Ye Cheng:
"Ye Cheng, go to the Queen's place!"

After hearing this, Ye Cheng's heart tightened, and he also asked:
"Should I do anything, Your Majesty?"

Ye Mingsheng shook his head and said:

"You don't need to say anything or do anything, just go to the Queen. If she asks you, just say I asked you to go!"

Hearing this, Ye Cheng also understood Ye Mingsheng's idea, and immediately nodded and said:

"I understand! I'm going now!"

Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly when he heard that. Ye Cheng did not hesitate at all and walked out of the imperial study quickly.

After Ye Cheng left, Ye Mingsheng rubbed his Qingming acupoint a little tiredly. Normally, Ye Mingsheng respected An Miaoyi very much and would not interfere with her decision to manage the harem, but this time it was different!
An Miaoyi, if you punish Chen Rouer in the same way as you punished Murong Xinyun, and let her have a public conversation with you, and then deduct her salary or make her reflect on her mistakes behind closed doors, Ye Mingsheng would not say anything. However, beating a little girl with twenty strokes of the cane, Ye Mingsheng felt that An Miaoyi was really going too far...
(End of this chapter)