Eagle-eyed and wolf-watching

Chapter 1493 Untitled!

In the prison of the Coordination Office, a middle-aged scholar in a grey robe was sitting cross-legged on a pile of hay. In the dark, damp and smelly environment of the cell, the middle-aged scholar seemed somewhat out of place.

This person was none other than Li Jian, who had held the position of Minister of Justice not long ago. During the conversation with Ye Mingsheng in the imperial study, after understanding Ye Mingsheng's thoughts, Li Jian was extremely disappointed and had the idea of ​​proving his innocence by dying!

Especially after being escorted to the prison of the Coordination Office, he had the idea that life is just like this and it's all over. For this reason, he also thought about putting it into practice, but because of his important status, there were always people watching over him to prevent any accidents from happening to him, so Li Jian's idea of ​​committing suicide could only be aborted!
Of course, the reason why Li Jian knew that he was going to be escorted to the prison of the Coordination Office was not only because he was disappointed with Ye Mingsheng for not trusting him and even wrongly accusing him, but also because he understood that the grudge between him and the Coordination Office was too deep, so he would definitely not end up well if he fell into the hands of the Coordination Office!

As an important official of Daqian, Li Jian had some understanding of the methods of the General Coordination Office, so it was better to die quickly than to live a life worse than death!

But unfortunately, under strict supervision, Li Jian did not get this opportunity. To be honest, coming to the Coordination Office as a prisoner and being humiliated by Zeng Dalei was completely within Li Jian’s expectations. He knew that the Coordination Office would definitely take advantage of his misfortune to retaliate against him...

But what he didn't expect was that the attitude of the Coordination Office changed so quickly. After humiliating him and arranging a smelly cell for him, they turned around and put him in the cell he is in now!
Although this cell was not that great, it was very clean and tidy compared to the first cell. The most important thing was that humiliation like that faced by Zeng Dalei had never happened again. It was as if he was not the Minister of Justice who had been against them before, but an ordinary official!

This change surprised Li Jian, and he also felt that there must be some mystery behind it!
But what this mystery is, Li Jian still doesn't know!

Since he couldn't figure out the matter, Li Jian simply put it aside and started thinking about another thing that was very important to him in the cell!
This matter was the death of Wang Xuecheng. During the days in the cell, whenever Li Jian was not sleeping, he would think about this matter carefully!

To be honest, if Li Jian had not heard about this from Ye Mingsheng in the imperial study that day, he really would not have known that Zhao Zibo was ordered to kill Wang Xuecheng, and that this matter was related to Zhuang Shanhe, and that he was also implicated!

Before Ye Mingsheng spoke, Li Jian really thought that Zhuang Shanhe committed suicide out of fear of punishment because of the Yide Trading Company incident!

At that time, Li Jian felt that he was wronged by Ye Mingsheng, and he was very upset. He had neither the mood nor the time to think about the matter carefully. However, during the few days in the cell, Li Jian thought over and over again about all the interactions between himself and Zhuang Shanhe in recent times, and finally found some things that he felt were not right...
As one of the six ministries of Daqian, the Ministry of Justice is mainly responsible for criminal work, which means upholding the law and arresting criminals. The Coordination Office, as a secret agency of Daqian, has a main function that is highly overlapping with that of the Ministry of Justice!

At present, the position of Prime Minister in the Daqian court is vacant, but everyone understands that this position actually belongs to Cui Shao. However, Cui Shao is old after all. Even if he is in good health now and has no major problems, he will not be able to continue to work for too long in the future.

Therefore, since the establishment of Daqian, speculation about the future Prime Minister has never stopped. Gu Sansi, Murong Yuliang, and Zhao Wanxian are all possible candidates, but among these speculations, Li Jian has never been the first choice for the position of Prime Minister, and may not even be the second or third choice!
But you have to know that Li Jian is also a cabinet elder, and the Ministry of Justice he leads is also a powerful department in the court, so logically speaking, Li Jian should be a strong contender for the position of prime minister in the future!
Even so, all the officials in the court still did not look favorably upon him. The reason was that Ye Mingsheng had always conveyed a message to all the officials: he would only employ capable and loyal people!
Loyalty goes without saying. Everyone who can hold a high position basically has a clear political stance and is loyal to the Daqian GL Group led by Ye Mingsheng, so ability is the most important thing!
Although there has always been a saying in the officialdom, that is, if the superiors say you can do it, then you can do it, and if the superiors say you can’t do it, then you can’t do it! It doesn’t matter if you can do it!

Especially in the officialdom of the Great Zhou Dynasty, it was very common for promotions to be based entirely on the preferences of the higher-ups...

However, under the leadership of Ye Mingsheng, this kind of atmosphere in the Daqian officialdom has not been completely eliminated, but it has at least been greatly improved. One of the reasons is that compared with recommendations, Ye Mingsheng attaches more importance to actual Z performance!
If you don't have Z achievements, Ye Mingsheng will not promote you even if everyone says you are good. If you have Z achievements, even if everyone says you are not good, as long as they can't produce evidence, Ye Mingsheng will still promote and reuse you!
If you want to achieve good results, you must first have power. If you do not have the power to implement your ideas and plans, there is basically no way to talk about good results.

Therefore, if you want to compete for the position of Prime Minister, according to Ye Mingsheng's consistent thinking, you need to have good performance to support it!
To be honest, Li Jian has achieved some good results in the years he has been in the Ministry of Justice, otherwise he would not have been so stable in the position of Minister of the Ministry of Justice. However, these achievements are not competitive compared to other competitors, which is why all officials are not optimistic about Li Jian!

The main reason why Li Jian did not achieve particularly good results was that the functions of the Coordination Office overlapped greatly with those of the Ministry of Justice. Compared with the Ministry of Justice, Ye Mingsheng trusted the Coordination Office more. This led to some powers of the Ministry of Justice and Li Jian being taken away by the Coordination Office. This also made it impossible to implement some of Li Jian's ideas, and also added a lot of constraints!
Li Jian naturally did not want to be a lame Shangshu who was controlled by others. Coupled with the Censorate who also disliked the Coordination Office, the open and covert struggles among the three parties had been going on for a long time...

Based on these grievances and his desire to become the prime minister of Daqian, Li Jian admitted that he had thought about bringing down the Coordination Office, and he had discussed this with his confidant Zhuang Shanhe, and even designed a plan to make the Coordination Office suffer! Wang Xuecheng from the Coordination Office also fought back against the Ministry of Justice and the Censorate. It can be said that all three of them suffered losses, but they also gained advantages. However, from the current situation, none of the three departments can do anything to each other!
Li Jian was somewhat unwilling to this. He knew that if he could not take back the power belonging to the Ministry of Justice from the Coordination Office, he would be doomed to find it difficult to become the Prime Minister of Daqian in the future. It was even possible that as the Coordination Office continued to grow, the power in his hands would gradually shrink, and in the end the Coordination Office might directly replace the Ministry of Justice!

This was something Li Jian could not accept, and it was also something that Li Jian had always been worried about. As Li Jian's confidant, Zhuang Shanhe knew Li Jian's thoughts very well, and he felt the same way!
After all, for Zhuang Shanhe, he was promoted by Li Jian. He and Li Jian were in the same boat. They would prosper together and suffer together. Under such circumstances, if he wanted to make a breakthrough in his career as the Censor of Youyan, he needed his own achievements to support him on the one hand, and he also needed Li Jian's help on the other!

Therefore, if Li Jiancheng became the chief minister of the cabinet, Zhuang Shanhe would have the opportunity to join the cabinet and become a cabinet elder of Daqian, respected by the world...
Although Li Jian and Zhuang Shanhe were very anxious about this situation, unfortunately, being anxious could not solve the problem!
And if Li Jian remembered correctly, when Lu Zhongxian was arrested by the Coordination Office, Zhuang Shanhe was quite emotional, and even complained that Li Jian was not decisive enough and left Lu Zhongxian behind as a scourge!
Although Li Jian heard the complaint in Zhuang Shanhe's voice at that time, he did not say anything. After all, he felt in his heart that he was too soft-hearted in dealing with Lu Zhongxian. He had already repaid Lu Zhongxian for taking care of him before!
Now this Lu Zhongxian not only drinks while working in the government office, but also accepts money from others to illegally reduce the sentences of others. This is a serious violation of the laws of Daqian. Therefore, as the Minister of Justice of Daqian, what I should do is to put justice above my own and bring him to justice!
However, faced with the crying of Lu Zhongxian's wife and children, Li Jian finally softened his heart and chose to let Lu Zhongxian go. After Lu Zhongxian was reconciled, Li Jian originally thought that he had done a good job and the Coordination Office would not be able to find any handle!
But Wang Xuecheng still ordered the arrest of Lu Zhongxian. Li Jian knew that if Wang Xuecheng really got something out of Lu Zhongxian, it would be very embarrassing for him as the Minister of Justice. In serious cases, he might even be dismissed by the emperor. So Li Jian actually felt a little regretful at that time!
So when he met with Zhuang Shanhe, the two of them discussed solutions to see if there were any remedial measures.

However, because Lu Zhongxian was already in Wang Xuecheng’s hands at that time, and both Li Jian and Zhuang Shanhe felt that Lu Zhongxian was not a tough guy who could withstand the torture of the Central Mediation Office, so the two of them did not come up with a good solution for this matter at that time...

Just when both of them were very pessimistic, Zhuang Shanhe suddenly told Li Jian not to worry about it and he would handle the matter!

Li Jian was still very confused at the time, so he asked Zhuang Shanhe how he wanted to deal with this matter!

When facing Li Jian's question in the room, Zhuang Shanhe did not answer with words. Instead, under Li Jian's gaze, his right hand turned into a knife and chopped down.
Seeing Zhuang Shanhe's action, Li Jicheng immediately understood what he meant and felt that Zhuang Shanhe wanted to kill Lu Zhongxian!
Because at that time Li Jianzheng had been too lenient and failed to completely deal with Lu Zhongxian, so if Zhuang Shanhe could kill Lu Zhongxian, he would strongly support it!

But the problem is that Lu Zhongxian is already in the prison of the Coordination Office. How could Zhuang Shanhe kill him? Li Jian was very confused and curious about this. Just when Li Jian was about to ask, Zhuang Shanhe told him that he would handle the matter.

Seeing that Zhuang Shanhe was very confident about this matter and seemed unwilling to say too much, Li Jian hesitated for a moment and then nodded in agreement!
Not long after this incident, Wang Xuecheng was assassinated by Zhao Zibo, and there was no more news about Lu Zhongxian. Li Jian did not connect the two events. He just felt that he was lucky and that Zhuang Shanhe handled the matter very cleanly.

But now that I think about it, maybe that's what happened...

Li Jian closed his eyes at this moment, and recalled everything that happened in the room that day in his mind again.

After asking what he wanted to do, Zhuang Shanhe said nothing but turned his right hand into a knife and chopped downwards, with murderous intent on his face!
At that time, they were discussing how to deal with the issue of Lu Zhongxian, so when Li Jian saw Zhuang Shanhe's expression, he instinctively thought that he wanted to kill Lu Zhongxian to silence him!
But based on the current situation, a bold idea suddenly emerged in Li Jian's mind!

What if Zhuang Shanhe had killed Wang Xuecheng instead of Lu Zhongxian?

Thinking of this possibility, Li Jian lost his composure and opened his eyes!
After thinking about it carefully, he felt that this possibility was very high!

Although Zhuang Shanhe had never proposed the idea of ​​getting rid of Wang Xuecheng in the past, he had always believed that the reason why the Unified Coordination Office remained strong was mainly because Wang Xuecheng was deeply trusted by His Majesty and was a favorite of Ye Mingsheng!
For this reason, Zhuang Shanhe was very pessimistic and believed that as long as Wang Xuecheng continued to be favored by Ye Mingsheng, they would never be able to take back the power that belonged to the Ministry of Justice!
Li Jian himself did not agree with Zhuang Shanhe's idea. He believed that Ye Mingsheng was still very wise. Although they could not understand why His Majesty would reuse a villain like Wang Xuecheng, His Majesty must have his reasons for doing so!

Li Jian also criticized Zhuang Shanhe for this. Although Zhuang Shanhe did not refute at the time, Li Jian could see from his eyes that he did not agree with it!
Following this line of thought, Li Jian felt more and more depressed. The reason why he promoted Zhuang Shanhe in the first place, in addition to valuing his ability, was that he felt that Zhuang Shanhe, like him, had great ambitions and aspirations in his official career!
Such characteristics can help them resist many temptations in official circles, but at the same time they will also make them take some extreme actions...