Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 569
At this time, Zhao Guangyi's confidant, the steward of Prince Jin's Mansion, walked into the study room, saluted Zhao Guangyi respectfully, and said, "My lord, the secret letter has been sent to Lord Yushi Zhongcheng Wang."

Zhao Guangyi took a sip of tea and said, "No one saw you, did you?"

The housekeeper immediately said: "My lord, don't worry, no one except Mr. Wang knows the existence of this secret letter."

Zhao Guangyi nodded slightly, expressing his satisfaction, and said, "Very good! You go down and get a reward of [-] guan, and then invite Mr. Wang to come over."

The housekeeper was delighted, said yes respectfully, then turned and left.

Not long after, Mr. Wang Zhutong, a new staff member from the Prince Jin's Mansion at the beginning of the year, who was actually the Fourth Elder of the Holy Church, came to Zhao Guangyi's study.

Wang Zhutong is the contemporary patriarch of the Taiyuan Wang family among the seven royal surnames of the holy hall. It is said that the Taiyuan Wang family was a nobleman in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.But now it is similar to the hidden family, which has always belonged to the powerful faction in the temple, but now it is the staunch confidant and ally of the elder Yufeng of the temple.

After Wang Zhutong came in, he gave a slight salute to Zhao Guangyi, and then sat at the tea table opposite Zhao Guangyi, and his maid served tea and dried fruit snacks.This scene fell in Zhao Guangyi's eyes, and he sneered in his heart, secretly said: "A little grassroots, every time I see this king is so entrusted, when I sit in that position, I will kill all the thieves in the temple."

Thinking this way in his heart, Zhao Guangyi didn't show anything on his face, and even smiled politely with the enthusiasm of a corporal.

After the servant girl went down, Zhao Guangyi said: "Based on my elder brother's personality and vigorous and resolute work habits, if there is no accident, I will issue an edict tomorrow to implement the policy of spreading the word. Suing Zhao Pu for all kinds of secret letters will get rid of Mr. Wang's single-handed plan." .”

Wang Zhutong said: "My lord, you are being polite. Such a trivial matter is just a trivial matter with the manpower and material resources of our church, and the old man promises that the emperor will not suspect the lord."

On the second day, Kaifeng Palace held a routine court meeting.

After Cao Bin of the Privy Council and Luo Gongming, the envoy of the Third Division, reported on the progress of the Southern Tang war, food and grass, etc., Wang Yuefeng, the prime minister of Yushi, suddenly came out of the shift and said: "Your Majesty, in order to let Your Majesty know more about your situation, understand the situation inside and outside the court and all over the country. All kinds of facts are no longer deceived by the villain and used by the villain. In order to listen to more suggestions from the ministers and understand the people's sentiments in more detail, the minister, after several months of deliberation, believes that His Majesty should issue an imperial edict to encourage the ministers or Cao Ze People write letters to discuss matters, open up their opinions, and define it as a relatively stable system. For example, every five days when living in the inner hall, hundreds of officials will turn to the right ones in turn, and must point out the current political gains and losses, urgent affairs of the court, or unjust prisons, and the suffering of the people. If you want to interview and hear about it, you still need to write about the matter directly, and it is no longer popular. For those who are in a hurry, Xu Feishi will not be able to read the chapter, so you don't have to wait for the next time."

In fact, for a long time, Zhao Kuangyin has always asked about the gains and losses of the government, the injustice of the prisons, and the suffering of the people, and he has to be familiar with it.In this regard, Zhao Kuangyin is worthy of being a wise king and a hero through the ages.Therefore, Wang Yuefeng's remark was very much in Zhao Kuangyin's mind, and after a little thought, he agreed with Wang Yuefeng's remark, and as Zhao Guangyi guessed, he resolutely and directly issued the imperial edict.Specifically, the establishment of a turn-to-right system is to open up the way of speaking and humbly accept advice. The ministers of the court must respond to each other in turn.

As soon as this edict is issued, people will speak and write about it within a few days, and signed and unsigned memorials and letters pour in. At most, hundreds of letters can be received in a day.

For these exposing letters, Zhao Kuangyin carefully read them.
Illegal acts, harsh taxation, and careless deeds of human life are all investigated and dealt with by the Supervision Department of Huaxia Weifu. Once the crime is proved to be true, they will be brought to justice without mercy.

However, some of the problems revealed by the playing pairs made Song Zhao Kuangyin feel very disturbed, and it was very difficult to deal with them.Although the words of these performances are flashy and not so explicit, it is not difficult to guess that they are all talking about the same person-Prime Minister Zhao Pu.

But not long after, there were many secret letters exposing Zhao's injustice.However, compared with the secret letter suing Zhao Pu, the secret letter exposing Zhao Guangyi is much less.Obviously, although Zhao Pu's family reacted quickly and made countermeasures, they were obviously at a disadvantage compared to Zhao Guangyi's family, which had been prepared and did it deliberately.

But this time, Zhao Kuangyin noticed a dangerous signal from it—in the city of Kaifeng, two huge factions were quietly rising, gradually impregnating and threatening his supreme imperial power.Of course, Zhao Kuangyin couldn't tolerate this anyway, but the representatives of these two forces were the people closest to him, so he had to be very careful when dealing with them.

The representative of a force is Zhao Pu, Prime Minister of Power.Zhao Pu has been prime minister for nearly nine years since the second year of Qiande.As time went by, his desire for power and materialism became more and more inflated, and his authoritarian power became more and more powerful.Many memorials exposed his love for money, corruption, bribery, selfishness, and family slaves.Zhao Kuangyin was too aware of these things. He himself had seen ten cans of melon seed gold with his own eyes. He didn't want to deal with these illegal acts too hastily, but could tolerate them temporarily.

However, another type of problem revealed by the memorial could not but arouse his great attention.Some people say that now the Prime Minister Zhao Puquan is in power, his power is smoldering, his disciples and old officials are all over the world, and the ministers of the court and the central government will try their best to get out of his sect whenever they encounter important events.Zhao Kuangyin cannot turn a blind eye to this behavior of authorizing self-respect and establishing a separate center, or take it lightly.But how to deal with the founding father, so as not to get the notoriety of "a rabbit dead dog cooking", but also not to cause a shock in the government and the public, Song Zhao Kuangyin hesitated for this.After much deliberation, it is better not to move for the time being, he has to wait for the best opportunity.

What made him feel even more distressed was his younger brother, Zhao Guangyi, governor of Kaifeng.Some memorials have revealed that Zhao Guangyi took advantage of the unique and special position of being in charge of the Kaifeng mansion alone, recruited heroes from all over the world in the mansion, deliberately made friends with a large number of civil and military officials, and actively managed his own faction.

Prime Minister's Mansion.

With a bang, Zhao Guangyi smashed the cup in his hand to the ground, his face was livid and ugly, he had just heard from his inner court's eyes and ears, that His Majesty revealed the most of his secret letters.

"Zhao Guangyi, since you are so vicious, don't blame the old man for being cruel." He muttered to himself, but he had already picked up the brush on the table and wrote two secret letters, sealed them, and then called two A clever and capable confidant handed the two secret letters to his confidantes respectively, and said solemnly: "San Lang handed the secret letter in his hands to the leader of the Kaifeng City Defense Army, Dang Jin. Shi Lang handed the official letter to Liu Yonggang, the general of the Forbidden Army. "

The two carefully put the secret letter into their arms, and then solemnly took the order and left.

After Cao Wei was sent to the south to follow Pan Mei to attack the Southern Tang Dynasty, the defense of the palace was temporarily handed over to a general named Liu Yonggang.This General of the Forbidden Army has a straightforward personality. He used to be a soldier of Zhao Kuangyin, and he was the most loyal to him.However, when Zhao Kuangyin called him to play the right role today, Liu Yonggang openly accused Zhao Guangyi of acting recklessly in Kaifeng Mansion, gathering party members, not using officials and servants, and making friends with heroes.He said that the status of Kaifeng Mansion is now comparable to that of the emperor, and he asked Zhao Kuangyin to pay attention to it and take appropriate precautions to avoid accidents.

Hearing these situations, Zhao Kuangyin's heart was beating wildly.He had also noticed Zhao Guangyi's intention to develop his own power. This kind of power is naturally a kind of political power that is centrifugal within the highest power of the Zhao family, so it cannot be taken lightly.However, Zhao Kuangyin attaches great importance to the brotherly relationship, and the subtle conflicts between the brothers are sprouting. He does not allow outsiders to peep, and he does not want to cause an uproar, so as to avoid the subordinates making irresponsible remarks.Therefore, after listening to Liu Yonggang's report, Zhao Kuangyin immediately changed his face, and scolded: "My brother Guangyi and I set up the country and reconciled with each other. In the future, I want him to manage the affairs of the world. Liu Yonggang, how dare you divorce my brotherhood?" .If you dare to speak nonsense outside, be careful to cut off your head."

After repelling Liu Yonggang, Zhao Kuangyin fell into painful thinking.In the past dynasties, there have been countless cases of flesh and blood, brother killings, and father and son turning against each other in the royal family. They are all fighting for the throne. My brothers can't repeat this tragedy no matter what.

In Zhao Kuangyin's view, it is very easy to defeat Zhao Guangyi's burgeoning circle of influence. As long as he says a word or takes a few decisive measures, this influence will immediately collapse and scatter like birds and beasts.But if he did that, why would his younger brother raise his head and be a human being?
It's still better to be gentle, find an opportunity to remind him, knock the mountain to shake the tiger, let him understand it by himself, and slowly restrain himself.

Over the years, this emperor's younger brother is too outrageous, and the memorandums and secret letters this time alone have exposed many illegal things.

Since Gao Huaide was sent to the northwest to serve as the commander of the Northwest Frontier Army camp, Dangjin took over Gao Huaide's position, commanding the inner city defense force of Kaifeng City and responsible for Kaifeng's defense.

Since the war against the Southern Tang Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin asked Dangjin to strengthen military supervision in Kaifeng City to prevent enemy spies and assassins from entering the city to cause trouble. , It is strictly forbidden for any common people to raise hawks, harriers, pigeons and other birds.

Dang Jin has a straightforward personality, is serious and hardworking, and likes to do things by himself, leading the guards to patrol the city day and night.Whenever someone raises a hawk, no matter who it is, they must take it and let it fly, and every time they let it fly, they must curse: "If you have money to buy meat, you don't take it home to honor your parents, but you use it to feed your parents." It's really unreasonable to come to raise animals!"

(End of this chapter)