Thief Emperor

Chapter 991 Fight for the future!
Prime Minister Zhuo pleaded guilty twice, but no one dared to convict him at this time except the emperor. After all, without the emperor's clear order, no one could touch a founding hero, a duke personally appointed by the emperor, at this time.

In the Zhongshuli, Du Qian pulled Zhuo Guangrui to sit down, poured him a cup of tea, and sighed, "Brother Zhuo has always been calm, how could he be careless about such a thing?"

Zhuo Guangrui took the tea from Du Qian with both hands. After a moment of silence, he smiled bitterly and said, "It was also pecked in the eye by a wild goose."

He lowered his head to drink a sip of tea, then looked around to make sure there was no third person in the study. After a long while, he spoke up, "Prime Minister Du, do you know about this?"

Du Qian was about to return to his seat, but when he heard this, he turned around and looked at Zhuo Guangrui, frowning: "I didn't participate in this at all, how could I know about it?"

Zhuo Guangrui stood up, walked to Du Xianggong, pulled his sleeve, and whispered: "Du Xianggong, you and I have known each other for nearly 20 years. I have always admired your talents and I respect you from the bottom of my heart."

He paused, lowered his voice and said, "During the imperial examination last year, someone came to see me in your name. Although he didn't say it explicitly, the general meaning was to let me be more relaxed. Later, the Minister of Rites invited me to dinner. I thought about it for a long time before I agreed to this matter."

Du Qian's face turned pale with anger.

He pulled Zhuo Guangrui's sleeve, asked him to sit down, then sat next to him, took a deep breath, and was about to speak, but suddenly remembered that this was the Government Affairs Hall, and he didn't know if someone was eavesdropping, so he stopped talking.

Zhuo Guangrui lowered his voice and said, "Prime Minister Du, this is the only place where we can talk. After today, I will leave the Political Affairs Hall and reflect on my mistakes at home. No one will see me. If you go to my house at that time, or if I go out to see you, it will attract attention."

"Jiu Si will also see it."

Du Qian took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and whispered, "Who went to see Brother Zhuo under my name?"

Zhuo Guangrui looked at him and said, "Who in the entire court can make me trust you without a token from Prime Minister Du?"

Du Qian understood and murmured, "My third brother..."

"Yes."

Zhuo Guangrui whispered, "At that time, I thought that since you, Prime Minister Du, had given the nod, even if I did you a favor, the court would not bring this up again..."

Du Qian's face turned pale, and he murmured, "I know nothing about this matter."

Zhuo Guangrui said silently: "I have also figured it out. It is impossible for Prime Minister Du to know about this matter."

He was silent for a while, and then continued, "That means there is a group of people in the court who do not approve of your Majesty's new policies, especially the new learning, from the bottom of their hearts. Therefore, they want to do something openly or secretly to accumulate some power for themselves, waiting for..."

"Waiting for the day when the world will change color."

When Mr. Zhuo reached this point, he was completely silent and whispered in the softest voice, "Your brother is in here."

The new learning of the Xin Dynasty, especially the content of the imperial examinations, was very different from that of the previous dynasty, and this was not just a difference in academic knowledge.

There are also differences in perception.

For example, the most direct change brought about by this kind of cognition is that it will directly bury the centuries-old and thousand-year-old families of the old Zhou Dynasty into the ground.

From now on, there will no longer be a system of recommendation, no more recommendations from high-ranking families, and no need to submit applications to aristocratic families in order to seek a career.

The aristocratic family that has lasted for a thousand years has come to an end.

Another thing is that the court has introduced new taxes, which are levied on the basis of land. In the future, the interests of the bureaucrats and landlords will be forcibly cut off.

In other words, even if those thousand-year-old families were willing to transform themselves into bureaucrats and landlords, a large piece of meat would be cut off by the imperial court. In addition, this change came too quickly, and was almost entirely driven by Emperor Li alone. There must have been a large number of people in the court and the public who were unwilling to accept it.

But Emperor Li was so powerful that they had no way to resist.

Therefore, they could only endure it and slowly accumulate strength in secret for the future.

What are you waiting for?

Naturally, they were waiting for the end of the Zhangwu Dynasty and for Emperor Zhangwu to go to his grave, and then they would "correct" the world that had been "distorted" by Emperor Zhangwu bit by bit.

The reason why this situation occurs is actually not surprising at all. Under drastic social changes, there will naturally be a force that wants to make corrections and try to correct the world back to its original track.

To put it bluntly, the imperial examination in the seventh year of Zhangwu was to accumulate strength for the arrival of that day in the future.

I just did it a little hastily.

In fact, they not only used cheating methods to get people into the court, they also used their own people to learn new knowledge and use it to pass the examination to enter the court. However, it is hard to say whether they have learned the new knowledge in their hearts after entering the court.

The more than 20 people who were shoved in this fraud case were, in their opinion, people who had to enter the court, that is, children from aristocratic families.

Behind the whole thing is a huge force hidden in the dark.

Hearing the words "the world changes color", Du Xianggong couldn't help but change his expression again. He sat in his seat for a long time before he looked up at Zhuo Guangrui. He couldn't help but tremble as he held the cup of tea in his hand: "Brother Zhuo, this matter..."

Zhuo Guangrui looked at Du Qian and shook his head slightly, saying, "I know that Prime Minister Du cannot be involved in this matter. I will take the responsibility for His Majesty alone."

He lowered his head and sighed, "From last year until this year, I thought Mr. Du knew about this."

Zhuo Xianggong said softly: "Among those people behind this matter, there must be a middle-class family."

"And quite a few."

Mr. Du stood up, bowed deeply to Zhuo Guangrui, and kowtowed to the ground, but did not say a word.

There are eyes and ears everywhere in Luoyang City, especially in this government hall. Maybe there is someone outside the door listening attentively.

Therefore, don’t say anything if you can avoid it.

However, Mr. Du's bow clearly expressed his sincere gratitude.

Zhuo Guangrui stood up, helped him up, and then said, "Prime Minister Du, now that things have come to this, I will go back home to wait for punishment. Don't think too much. His Majesty is not in Luoyang, and the court still needs you to preside over the situation."

Du Qian was in a very complicated mood at this time.

Before this, he had not expected that the situation within the Luoyang court would become so complicated.

It just so happens that this matter may have a lot to do with him. After all, all the Guanzhong nobles in the court now openly lead him.

In secret, his third brother had used his name countless times.

Thinking of this, and hearing Zhuo Guangrui's words, Du Qian felt a headache. He stretched out his hand to rub his temple and sighed: "The human heart is complicated, the human heart is complicated."

Zhuo Guangrui whispered, "Don't worry, Prime Minister Du. With His Majesty here, no one can make any waves."

Minister Du also lowered his voice and said slowly: "I don't know if they have contacted the prince, or to what extent they have contacted the prince...or to what extent?"

Originally, the two prime ministers were a little confused about this matter, but when they got together to review the accounts, after just a few words, many things became clear.

There are undercurrents within the civil service group.

Perhaps these people already constitute the majority, but they remain silent only because the current emperor is unshakable.

If the current emperor was not the founding emperor, and was not the emperor who held the military power of the entire country, I am afraid that as soon as His Majesty left the capital, these people would probably escort the prince to ascend the throne!
Thinking of this, and recalling what the emperor had told him before leaving the capital, that he would slowly eliminate the old officials of the previous dynasty, Prime Minister Du suddenly understood.

Perhaps, His Majesty the Emperor was also aware of this, at least vaguely aware of it.

Prime Minister Zhuo lowered his voice and said, "I believe Your Majesty can handle everything."

At this point, he looked at Prime Minister Du and asked, "Prime Minister Du, which side do you lean towards in your heart?"

This sentence made Du Qian freeze in place. After a long while, he came back to his senses and said, "Your Majesty promised me that we would work together and make a good start and a good end."

He took a deep breath and became more determined, his voice a little hoarse: "I didn't fully understand what Your Majesty meant before, but now, I have understood a little."

"No matter how powerful they are or how many people they have."

There was no expression on Mr. Du's face.

"It will never be more than the common people in the world."

(End of this chapter)