Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 459 Who is so brave?
Zuodu Yushi Li Shishi really gave up his path to the cabinet.

Faced with the position of Grand Secretary of the Cabinet which was within his reach, the Minister of War He Jian not only did not take another step forward, but he also unexpectedly retired!

The two highly respected ministers of the Seven Great Officials were like puppets controlled by Pei Yuan, whose future and fate were decided by Pei Yuan's words.

Wei Ne even felt that he had left too early that day, so the events he witnessed were not complete.

Judging from the subsequent developments, Captain Pei might have said something to Xiao Zhao later.

After all, this series of events happened very suddenly, and it is difficult for ordinary people to seize the fleeting opportunity without any preparation.

After reasoning to this point, Wei Ne couldn't help but shudder. Could it be that the emperor was also Captain Pei's insider?

After He Jian retired, Wei Ne went to Zhihua Temple frequently.

No matter how big or small the affairs of the court were, as long as they could make his presence felt in front of Pei Yuan, Wei Ne would report in time.

Jiao Huangzhong also came to see Pei Yuan several times, and repeatedly tried to ask Pei Yuan to let Jiao Fang return to the court.

But now is definitely not a good time. Yang Yiqing and Yang Tinghe haven't started pulling each other's hair yet. Jiao Fang's old arms and legs are entering the scene now just to be beaten up in order to gain reputation.

Pei Yuan didn't want Jiao Huang to be an unstable factor, but he found that he couldn't cover it up.

Instead of doing that, it would be better to keep him under control for a while longer.

On this day, Wei Ne came to punch in again after finishing his work.

It is said that the emperor made a big fuss again this time, and adopted a hundred people as his adopted sons at one go, and gave them all the surname of the emperor, and called them the emperor's illegitimate sons to the outside world.

Moreover, many titles were awarded, including several governors, more than ten commanders-in-chief, and dozens of commanders-in-chief.

All these military officers were registered in the Jinyi Guards and Tengxiang Guards.

Moreover, among Zhu Houzhao's adopted sons, there were actually some escaped Darus. These Darus were given names such as Zhu Cai, Zhu Jing, Zhu Man, Zhu En, and Zhu Kui, and each was given the title of a thousand households.

The whole court was in an uproar, and many people wrote letters to the emperor.

After hearing what Zhu Houzhao did, Pei Yuan was dumbfounded and speechless for a long time.

He knew that Zhu Houzhao had adopted hundreds of sons.

He also knew that Zhu Houzhao had hundreds of sons, and a bunch of governors, chief commanders and commanders were crowded in the Jinyi Guard and Tengxiang Guard.

However, he could never imagine that Zhu Houzhao had adopted several sons of the Darú.

The illegitimate son of the Ming Dynasty actually had a Daru who fled to the Han area. Isn't this more weird than the "eunuch" or "Confucian supervisor"?

Pei Yuan's day was dominated by the true absurdity of history.

When Chen Xinjian occasionally strolled in the lobby, he would see Pei Yuan sitting in the hall from time to time, looking a little crazy and serious, saying something to the air, "The emperor of the Ming Dynasty cannot, or at least should not...

Towards evening, Left Censor-in-Chief Li Shishi came to see him.

Pei Yuan blocked Li Shishi's path to the cabinet last time, and he never gave him an explanation afterwards.

Now that they have come to his door, Pei Yuan thinks that it is time to explain the pros and cons to his elder brother.

Unexpectedly, after Li Shishi entered the room, he exchanged a few words with Pei Yuan nonchalantly, mentioned the interesting things he encountered on the road, and started chatting and laughing.

Pei Yuan thought he should take the initiative to bring it up, so he said, "I haven't given an explanation to the Grand Secretary about my last time in the cabinet."

Li Shishi waved his hand and smiled, "As soon as He Jian left, I figured it out. After all, we are close."

Li Shishi said this with a bit of pride, which made Pei Yuan a little confused. What on earth did this old guy figure out?

But it doesn't matter.

BUGs are not scary, as long as it runs normally, who cares.

Pei Yuan simply did not clarify, but asked Li Shishi why he came.

Speaking of business, Li Shishi also became more serious. He sighed, "It's still the things that the emperor has caused again."

As he spoke, Li Shishi told Pei Yuan about today's court meeting.

The general content is still about what Wei Ne said today when he came to deliver the letter.

It’s just that Li Shishi was at the scene and knew more. The details of many issues were beyond the ability of Wei Ne, a small-time Left Senator, to find out.

According to Li Shishi.

Ever since the Ministry of War Incident, the ministers had been on guard against Zhu Houzhao, fearing that he would cause trouble again.

result……

I'm really fucking on guard.

Zhu Houzhao, who tasted the sweetness of the "adopted son policy", directly put forward his plan of having a hundred sons when he went to court today.

In particular, the son of Dalu also appeared.

This made the court officials, who were accustomed to learning from history, suddenly think of An Lushan.

And including the ten godsons in the first wave, that makes a total of 110 godsons, which is two more than the evil stars in "Water Margin".

When the ministers' three views were collapsing, suddenly one of them realized a major problem.

——By the way, Azhao, you are having so much fun, where is your own son?
This light question petrified Zhu Houzhao, who was beaming with pride.

In the past, Pei Yuan would have certainly laughed heartily and laughed at A Zhao together with Brother Li.

But at this moment, Captain Pei was so angry that he felt cold.

He really didn't know which vicious and heartbreaking person could say such cold words with a 37-degree mouth.

Pei Yuan then asked, "Who is so brave?"

Li Shishi replied, "It was Mao Ji, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites. Mao Ji even bluntly said that since the heir has not yet been established, he begged Your Majesty to make a plan as soon as possible."

Goodbye, Mao Ji.

See you again!

Pei Yuanzheng was filled with emotion. Li Shishi glanced at Chen Xinjian and said to him, "Please ask General Chen to dismiss his attendants. I have something to discuss with Brother Pei."

Seeing that Pei Yuan did not object, Chen Xinjian ordered the nearby Jinyiwei soldiers to retreat far away.

When there were only three people left in the hall, Li Shishi sat down and leaned forward slightly to ask Pei Yuan, "My dear brother, what do you think of this 'early plan'?"

Pei Yuan then understood Li Shishi's intention.

Zhu Houzhao is now nineteen years old and still has no son. Mao Ji advised him to make plans early. It was definitely not just to ask him to return to the palace and work hard, but to tactfully ask him to make other preparations.

Considering what Zhu Houzhao had just done in terms of adopting a large number of godsons, what else can we prepare for?

They must select a smart child from among the royal family members as a spare tire and raise him in the palace first!

This is what the Song Dynasty did.

If Zhu Houzhao had his own son in the future, then naturally all else would be fine. If Zhu Houzhao did not have a son, then having such a spare child in the palace would at least reassure the people of the world.

Even if Zhu Houzhao, the only son, really died one day, there would be no political turmoil.

Pei Yuan bluntly said to Li Shishi, "So, you are planning to choose one of the descendants of Prince Ning to be adopted by the emperor?"

Li Shishi asked nervously, "What does Qianhu think?"

If this method could really be used to successfully inherit the orthodox Ming Dynasty, why would Prince Ning rebel?

Pei Yuan said bluntly, "Not appropriate!"

Li Shishi could not hide his disappointment, but still asked unwillingly, "Why?"

Pei Yuan was a little angry.

I'm working overtime to give birth to a son for Zhu Houzhao. What does it have to do with you?
Pei Yuan interrupted Li Shishi's fantasy without any hesitation, "Prince Ning is the elder of the Zhu family, the fifth-generation grandson of Emperor Taizu. And the current emperor is the ninth-generation grandson of Taizu. Where does Prince Ning plan to find a tenth-generation grandson of Taizu to be the son of the current emperor?"

"The youngest grandson of Prince Ning is Zhu Houzhao's grandfather. Even if the emperor unfortunately dies, what do you think the Queen Mother will think?"

Li Shishi was speechless after hearing this.

Precisely because they were of the same clan and the orthodox order of family relationship was there, it made things difficult for Prince Ning.

If Zhu Houzhao really died, the empress dowager could not find a child of higher seniority than her to be the emperor.

After Li Shishi figured this out, he could only sigh, "Forget it, it seems there is no chance."

Pei Yuan reminded, "This is not only not an opportunity, but also a hidden danger. The reason why so many people are showing goodwill to King Ning is because they see the possibility that the emperor will be without an heir. If such a child is really sent to the palace to be raised, I am afraid people will change their minds."

Li Shishi was startled when he heard this, and then he realized that he had thought the opposite of what he thought.

This is taking a bad thing as a good thing.

Li Shishi patted his head, and bowed deeply in fear, "Fortunately I came to ask you today, otherwise I'm afraid that the Ning Wang's several generations of planning would be ruined in my hands."

Pei Yuan was, of course, afraid that the presence of a royal family member would cause changes to his son's legitimate inheritance.

He felt somewhat unworthy of Li Shishi's gratitude, so he did not take it too seriously and just said lightly, "Be careful next time."

Li Shishi pondered for a moment and then asked, "If that's the case, should I try to write a letter to refute Mao Ji and protect the emperor, so that the ministers will not be deceived by him and make suggestions to the emperor?"

Pei Yuan thought about it, then suddenly smiled and praised, "This is a good idea."

After that, he dictated, "You can ask your trusted censor to submit a petition saying that your majesty and the queen are both in their prime and can still give birth to a legitimate son. The queen has never done anything immoral, so isn't it too rude to rashly discuss the issue of the heir?"

Li Shishi also noticed the subtlety of this and couldn't help but praise, "That makes sense! If that's the case, then Mao Ji is still holding on to it, and he is suspected of accusing the queen."

"I will arrange for someone to submit a petition tomorrow to prevent the ministers from interfering and ruining the current good situation."

Pei Yuan said "hmm" calmly.

After Li Shishi finished talking about the adopted son, he did not leave in a hurry, but discussed other things with Pei Yuan.

These days, Li Daduxian has gradually developed a habit of laziness.

Many things can be solved by cheating, so you don’t have to think about them yourself.

Anyway, just input it to Pei Yuan and get the result.

Moreover, Pei Yuan's handling of many things was often beyond Li Shishi's imagination.

Pei Yuan also listened very carefully to what Li Shishi said.

Ever since the last unexpected incident of replacing the cabinet almost ruined Pei Yuan's plan, Pei Yuan no longer dared to underestimate any matter, big or small, in the court.

I am afraid that if I am not careful, a big bomb will occur with a chain reaction.

Although Wei Ne was in the Tongzhengsi, that office mainly handled documents submitted to the court by local governments and was a relatively low-dimensional political resource.

As one of the Seven Ministers and the chief supervisor of the Censorate, Li Shishi had to supervise many matters under his supervision, no matter how much other court officials disliked him.

The intelligence he possesses is not only more advanced, but also provides a lot of inside information and details.

Li Shishi talked for a while and suddenly mentioned something, "Maybe our plan for the Beijing inspection won't work?"

Pei Yuan immediately perked up, "Tell me about it."

Li Shishi said, "According to our original plan, we should push the imperial inspection to deal with Yang Tinghe's people this time. This way, we can not only make friends with Yang Yiqing, but also encourage those two guys to fight among themselves, thus reducing the pressure on me."

"But when I met with Yang Yiqing yesterday, he seemed very hesitant and didn't want to continue doing this."

Pei Yuan frowned when he heard this and asked, "Does Yang Yiqing not want to be investigated in Beijing? Or does he not want to target Yang Tinghe?"

Li Shishi said, "I don't want to target Yang Tinghe."

Pei Yuan said flatly, "This is impossible."

Yang Yiqing and Yang Tinghe had such a fierce quarrel later, and now is the time to intensify the conflict. How could they be reconciled now?
Li Shishi said helplessly, "It's true. I heard that it was the Minister of Justice Zhang Zilin who pulled the strings and acted as a peacemaker."

Minister of Justice Zhang Zilin?
Pei Yuan was confused. What did this have to do with him?
Li Shishi said, "The general idea is that the emperor today is stubborn and reckless, just like Emperor Yingzong back then. If the court cannot be united and used by the emperor, and something like Li Hao, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of War, happens again, the consequences will be disastrous."

Pei Yuan finally understood a little.

It turned out that Zhu Houzhao's recent extraordinary performance had made the ministers wary.

The divided Qingliu forces are now in a very unfavorable position facing a powerful emperor.

That's why, under the banner of sincere unity, we asked Yang Yiqing not to disrupt the major issues and not to deal with Yang Tinghe first.

Li Shishi was naturally not happy about this.

But in the face of justice, even Yang Yiqing hesitated, and Li Shishi couldn't jump too happily.

Now, in order to complete the lineup and defend the city, the new Minister of Rites Wang Hua is traveling day and night, pushing a cart twice as hard as an old man to rush to the capital. How can Li Shishi destroy this united situation?

Pei Yuan's eyes moved, and many thoughts flashed through his mind, but in the end he didn't bother to do anything.

The brief reconciliation between Yang Yiqing and Yang Tinghe was not a bad thing.

He said to Li Shishi, "What they think is their business. If you passively follow their lead, you may be sold out without even knowing it."

Li Shishi also considered this and said with embarrassment, "But if I push for the imperial examination alone, I will have to face Yang Tinghe alone. Without the support of the Ministry of Personnel, I am afraid that I will not even be able to command the censors of the Censorate."

Pei Yuan thought for a moment and said to Li Shishi, "How about dealing with Lu Wan?"

Li Shishi was shocked, "Deal with Lu Wan?"

Pei Yuan said calmly, "Yes, deal with Lu Wan. Right now Yang Yiqing and Yang Tinghe are suspicious of each other, and you are also suspicious of them. Even if such unity can be barely maintained, it will be vulnerable."

"The whole court needs a common enemy and a decent cause to unite everyone. You can't... say that you are doing this to deal with the emperor, right?"

"Lu Wan is a very good target."

"He is a remnant of Liu Jin's gang, and we have no use for him now. Wouldn't it be more harmonious if we all do some bad things together?"

(End of this chapter)