After the emperor said these two words, he suddenly stopped talking. Shen Yi immediately looked at the servants waiting in the main hall and said in a deep voice: "Get out, no one is allowed in."
Several maids and servants of the Shen family immediately retreated, and not long after, only the three of them were left in the entire main hall. The emperor took another sip of tea and said with a smile: "The tea is good."
He looked at Shen Yi and asked, "Did Xu Fu get it for you?"
Xu Fu opened a tea shop in Fujian and was indeed able to get a lot of good tea. He would occasionally send some tea leaves to the palace.
Shen Yi shook his head and said, "This is some tea that I brought back from my father-in-law in my hometown in Jiangdu. I don't know where it was produced. If Your Majesty likes it, I can write to my father-in-law and ask for the source, and bring some to the palace."
"That's not necessary."
The emperor chuckled: "It tastes good if you get it once in a while, but if you get it too much, it loses its taste."
His words seemed to mean something.
Shen Yi's mind was spinning rapidly, and he thought of Gu Hengbo in the harem...
When Gu Hengbo was outside the palace, the emperor thought about her day and night, and went out to do some hard work when he had time. Could it be that he was a little tired of her now that he was in the palace?
However, Shen Yi didn't have much interest in the harem. Thinking of this, he didn't continue to think about it. He just subconsciously flattered her and said with a smile.
"Your Majesty is transparent."
The emperor coughed.
"Okay, let's get down to business."
He put down the tea cup, pondered for a moment, and said: "Since the defeat in the seventh year of Hongde, Zhao Clan has become much more peaceful on the surface in recent years, but he has never stopped making small moves behind the scenes."
"For example..."
The emperor slowly looked at Shen Yi: "For example, Shen Qing, when you were running the shipping department in the southeast, someone tried to sabotage it secretly, and even now..."
"Many smuggling merchant ships have appeared in the southeastern provinces. I suspect that the Zhao family is behind this."
Mr. Shen was stunned: "Your Majesty, when I was in the southeast, I didn't feel it..."
"That's because all the internal guards who can handle it have been dealt with. Those internal defenders are unable to deal with it, and due to various reasons, they have not confronted you head-on."
The emperor continued: "For example, the commander-in-chief of the Fujian Dusi has been dismissed from his post."
"This person..."
"At the beginning, I was planning to have a head-on confrontation with Cheng Tingzhi in Fujian."
"Although my southeast area has just been cleaned up, there are always people who are secretly making trouble. Now, only half a year has passed, and there are some delays again."
Shen Yi thought for a while and said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, a ruthless person must be sent down to take charge of the southeast."
"Although Eunuch Sun is a good person, sometimes he can be a little too soft-hearted."
When the emperor heard this, he looked at Shen Yi.
"Do you have someone to choose?"
Shen Yi shook his head: "This person... must come out of the inner court, and after he is used up..."
After use, it must be disposed of.
Because this person is used to attract hatred, and after attracting hatred, it is natural to use him to resolve conflicts.
Then he told the outside world that the wise and mighty Emperor was deceived by a traitor, and now the traitor has been dealt with.
Thereby quelling the so-called "public grievances".
In fact, this is not public grievance, but the resentment of vested interests whose interests have been harmed.
This is one of the most commonly used methods by emperors. His Majesty the current emperor has thought about asking Shen Yi to do similar things before, so he is very familiar with this method. After hearing this, he nodded silently and smiled at Shen Yi: "Not bad
, the inner court needs a powerful figure."
As he said this, the emperor glanced at Gao Ming with a hint of direction and said nothing.
Eunuch Gao lowered his head slightly and said nothing.
The emperor didn't say much. After a pause, he said, "After arriving at the Huaihe Navy, let's see if Zhao Lu is willing to talk to you."
"If he wants to talk to you, just have a good talk with him."
The emperor paused and said slowly: "If you don't want to talk to you, then you don't have to talk to him. Come back when you need to and start working on the next step."
Shen Yi nodded silently and asked: "Your Majesty, if we talk about it, how should we talk about it?"
"Look at you."
The emperor smiled and said: "You are doing things in a measured way, I can rest assured."
Shen Yi also smiled and reminded: "Your Majesty, I have a grudge against the Zhao family."
"That's why I asked you to talk to them."
The emperor said calmly: "If he is sincere in persuading you, I will give his family a good end, if not..."
"Then let's do what we do."
Shen Yi nodded silently.
"Wei Chen... thank you for your trust, Your Majesty."
On this day, the emperor stayed at Shen's house for most of an hour, and finally hugged Shen Yuan for a while before getting on the sedan and leaving.
The three members of the Shen family walked all the way out of the alley. They waited until the sedan chair was far away before turning around and going home. After turning around, Lu Ruoxi breathed a long sigh of relief and said, "So His Majesty looks like this."
She looked at Shen Yi and said with a smile: "Although I know that His Majesty is young, when I heard people talking about him before, I always thought he was a big man with a long beard."
Portraits of emperors are usually drawn in a majestic direction. For example, they will deliberately make the emperor fatter to show his majesty.
If you are a skinny monkey, you will not be able to control the situation.
Therefore, in the past dynasties, except for the emperor who was indeed very thin, most of the portraits of other emperors were somewhat fat.
Shen Yi chuckled softly: "He is the same age as you and me, only two or three months older than me."
"I'm only half a year older than you, madam."
Lu Ruoxi sighed: "At such a young age, he is presiding over the country. It's really amazing."
"The current His Majesty is indeed powerful."
Having said this, Mr. Shen smiled and said, "But your husband, I am also very powerful."
Lu Ruoxi glanced at Shen Yi angrily: "Listen, you are secretly at odds with the emperor, so I have to write a letter to you."
Shen Yi smiled dumbly and didn't take it seriously.
However, he still remembered the business. After coughing, he said, "By the way, madam, I may have to go out in a few days."
Lu Ruoxi blinked her eyes.
"Isn't your husband already the commander of the Ministry of War? Why do you want to go out again?"
"I have to go out and do some things."
Master Shen thought for a while and warned: "When I am not at home, you should not go out to Jiankang, let alone go back to Jiangdu."
"I will write a letter to Jiangdu later and ask my father and Zichang to return to Jiankang first."
"Especially Zichang."
Mentioning his younger brother, Mr. Shen was a little unhappy. He frowned and said, "It's too shameful. After returning to Jiangdu, he didn't want to come back. He also had errands for the Hanlin Academy. Now that he's gone,
If you don’t come back, what will the officials in the Hanlin Academy think?”
"When he comes back later, I will take him to invite the chief official of the Hanlin Academy to dinner."
Seeing that Shen Yi was a little angry, Lu Ruoxi stepped forward and said with a smile: "Jiulang is still young, so it's not surprising that he wants to have personal relationships with his children. He just needs to find a way to welcome the young lady through the gate of the Shen family and bring them to Jiankang together."
"Um."
Mr. Shen nodded silently and sighed: "I hope my father will be more open-minded sooner, otherwise the two of us may have a bad feeling."
…………
Because of the incident of streaking in the Qinhuai River, the entire Northern Qi envoy was very embarrassed. However, Mr. Shen provoked it, causing Zhu Man, the Northern Qi envoy, to harbor a grudge against Pei Yuan. When the two met again, Zhu Man even almost
Fighting Pei Yuan with fists and kicks.
Unfortunately, both sides had subordinates present, so there was no real fight.
However, there was definitely no need to talk. Zhu Man made a noise in the Ministry of Rites all afternoon, yelling and cursing loudly. He kept talking about horses trampling the Huaihe River, and later said things like horses trampling the Qinhuai River.
In the end, the officials of the Ministry of Rites couldn't stand listening anymore, and the two sides almost started to quarrel.
As for Minister Pei, after meeting with Zhu Man, he did not come forward again. He simply handed over the matter to the doctor of the Host and Guest Department and went into hiding himself.
In other words, in the summer of the eleventh year of Hongde, a new round of conflicts began between Chen and Qi.
This also means that the peaceful state that started in the eighth year of Hongde and lasted for three years is likely to come to an end.
The day after the streaking incident occurred, Mr. Shen, the person involved, was sitting leisurely in his public room at the Ministry of War.
In front of him stood Zheng Ling, the head of the Ministry of War.
Chief Zheng looked respectful, lowered his head and said, "Why do you call me, sir?"
Mr. Shen took a sip of tea and said with a smile: "In the past few months, Chief Zheng has done a good job in the affairs of the Martial Arts Department."
"I have a future for you. I wonder if Chief Zheng is willing to take it?"
Zheng Ling was stunned for a moment, then without hesitation, he bowed deeply to Shen Yi.
"I'm the official...Thank you for your support, sir!"