Mr. Song is still junior in the cabinet and has little influence. In addition, he offended too many people by re-creating the account books. Since he entered the cabinet, he has started to keep a low profile, following the principle of listening more and speaking less, and he has not been questioned.

In his head, he usually pretends to be mute, neither speaking nor taking a stand.

But soon, the emperor called his name: "What do you think of Song Aiqing?"

Mr. Song pretended to think for a while, and then said slowly: "I think that King Su's proposal is very reasonable. Over the years that Prince Jing has been stationed in the northwest, he has rarely asked for an increase in military pay, and Wala has repeatedly invaded, and there has never been any trouble.

"

This sentence woke up the dreamer. It just so happened that not long ago, the generals stationed in Northeast China and Liaodong came to ask for an increase in military pay. Song Jianming was the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, so he was naturally the most sensitive to matters of money and food.

Thinking of this, the emperor suddenly felt that his fourth son, who had been neglected for a long time, had indeed worked hard and achieved great results!

Song Jianming added: "Unlike us sitting in the capital, His Highness Prince Su has also been stationed in the military camp for many years. He sent this memorial, maybe it was just out of sympathy for his siblings."

Having said that, in fact, the military expenditure in Lingnan has never increased in more than 20 years, and as long as the Tatars and Oara move in the north, the budget in the south will be cut. Although King Su is poor every year, Fujian and Guangdong seem to be

There hasn't been any trouble for many years.

The emperor was silent for a moment, and then said with a final hum, "Let's do this then. Let's ask the Qin Tian Supervisor to choose a date to promote the fourth son to a noble title."

That afternoon, the cabinet sent the selected papers to the imperial study. The emperor flipped through them and became a little angry. Many of them suggested that the fifth prince, Prince Xin, should be made the crown prince.

The mother of the fifth prince, Prince Xin, is Concubine Chen, the legitimate daughter of the Duke of Jing. Although she is not as beautiful as Concubine Meng Shu when she was young, she is better in character, gentle and polite, knowledgeable and knowledgeable, and is the most favored one besides Empress Xu.

The concubine gave birth to a total of five children to the emperor, two of whom died in infancy, and three of them grew up: Princess Ping'an, the fifth prince Xin Wang, and the ninth prince Prince Yu.

After the queen left, the harem was led by Concubine Chen.

"The Chen family is really good." The emperor threw away the memorial and snorted with great dissatisfaction.

He asked the officials to propose who should be appointed as the new crown prince, just to find out the current distribution of power in the court.

He wouldn't know unless he tried, but he would be shocked if he tried. He didn't know that the Jingguo Duke's Palace had been silent all these years and had actually gathered such a large force!

The next day, before the fourth prince was awarded the title of Prince, the palaces in the harem first received the news that Cui Jieyu was promoted to Concubine Hui.

Cui Jieyu was originally Empress Xu's maid. After she gave birth to Prince Jing and was named Jieyu, the emperor never visited her again.

The Zhongcui Palace where she lives is right next to the Weiyang Palace. The courtyard is very small, but Cui Wanyi has never cared about this. She was originally a maidservant.

When the emperor was still a prince, she was chosen by Empress Xu as her husband's mistress because of her good looks and docile personality.

When everyone got older, and the emperor seldom came to sleep at Queen Xu's place except on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month, Cui became the indispensable companion and comfort of Queen Xu in her later years.

Therefore, the emperor also wrote in the canonization edict that Cui had served the empress for many years and was the only one who granted her the title of Jin.

Mrs. Cui was quietly staying in her small courtyard, reciting sutras and worshiping Buddha. Suddenly, she received the imperial edict to be promoted to the throne. She was completely confused and completely confused about the situation. She didn't even see the emperor's face, so why did she become so inexplicable?

Concubine Hui.

"Father-in-law, this...couldn't it be a mistake?"

Eunuch Yin smiled, showed the imperial edict to her, pointed to the word "Cui" on it and said: "Mother, you are right, it is for you!"

"Then I can invite Prince Jing to the palace to meet him at any time from now on?" Ms. Cui's eyes suddenly started to shine.

"That's natural." Eunuch Yin smiled very respectfully, "Congratulations, empress!"

"Thank you, father-in-law. How about you sit down and have a cup of tea?"

"No, we still have things to do at home, so let's take the first step."

Later, people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs came to give Concubine Hui a larger courtyard, moved it to Jingren Palace, and gave her four more Huangmen and eight palace ladies.

Concubine Meng Shu was very popular in the Chengqian Palace. She really couldn't understand why someone who had been silent for so many years suddenly became a concubine. When Prince Jing was promoted to a prince, the eldest son Li Hu also had an official in the Ministry of Punishment.

After completing her errand, Concubine Meng Shu couldn't sit still at all and immediately wanted to recruit King Su into the palace.

But no one was invited, and they said they were going to Sanqing Temple with the prince to perform rituals for his late first wife, the princess.

Concubine Meng Shu slapped the table hard: "Faith? Is it time to do the ritual now? How many days will it take to do it in total?"

Xiao Huangmen, who was kneeling on the ground, trembled and said with great fear: "When I return to my wife, the family leader said that we will perform rituals for a total of seven, seven and forty-nine days."

"It's not the whole year, so why do we do something so grand?"

Mei Zhaoyi advised from the side: "Don't be anxious, Madam. Why don't you invite the second young master into the palace to ask?"

Concubine Meng Shu waved her hands with a headache: "It's no use looking for him. His father didn't say anything to him." After thinking about it, she had to say to Xiao Huangmen: "Go to Sanqing Temple to find someone! I must see you within three days and answer him!"

"

It was impossible to reply. King Su just muddied the water and went up the mountain to hide in peace.
Chapter completed!