Chapter 563: Undercover, undercover, all undercover
Su Mingzhe held his first small court meeting and divided the top positions among his subordinates.
All the ministers basically benefited from it and felt very satisfied.
When the Umrah for distributing benefits disperses, most people leave with satisfaction.
But there are also a small number of people who have not gained any benefits, and have even had their powers reduced, so naturally they are not very happy.
In this small court meeting, Lin Ruofu was the one who did not get any benefits and had his power reduced.
As the first person to persuade the emperor to join, Lin Ruofu considered himself to be a meritorious minister. However, when the new emperor ascended the throne, not only did he not receive any reward, but his authority was greatly weakened.
Lin Ruofu naturally felt unhappy.
After going down to court and paying homage to Emperor Qing's tomb, Lin Ruofu returned to his Prime Minister's Mansion and found his counselor Yuan Hongdao. He told him about the matter and asked him to analyze it for himself. The new emperor had ascended the throne and was targeting himself in this way.
What are the meanings and how should I deal with them?
After hearing Lin Ruofu's question, Yuan Hongdao frowned and remained silent for a while.
Lin Ruofu didn't know that although this Yuan Hongdao was poorer than him, before the two met, this Yuan Hongdao was the person of Chen Pingping, the director of the Procuratorate.
Now that Emperor Qing has passed away, a new emperor has ascended the throne.
Yuan Hongdao hadn't received Chen Pingping's mission notice yet, so he naturally didn't dare to speculate on his intentions. He could only use some comforting words to fool Lin Ruofu and tell him not to worry.
"Prime Minister, you are now the chief minister of the cabinet. When you are the prime minister, you are inferior to one person and superior to ten thousand people. I guess your majesty is also worried about how to reward you..."
Not to mention how Yuan Hongdao, one of the four top undercover agents in "Celebrating More Than Years", deceived Lin Ruofu.
On Su Mingzhe's side, after paying homage to Emperor Qing, he first went to the Yanshou Palace where the Queen Mother lived, and visited his grieving 'grandma'.
This old lady is a lucky person, but she is also a miserable person.
When she was born, her family was the most powerful in Nanqing. However, when she was young, her father, the head of the family, passed away unexpectedly. Seeing the family begin to decline, she, as the eldest daughter of the family, was forced by her clan members to marry the least promising man at the time.
The third prince, Prince Cheng.
Fortunately, her husband, King Cheng, ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, and she became the queen.
But within a few years, my husband also passed away.
After losing her husband in middle age, the old lady entered the Yanshou Palace and managed the harem for her son, Emperor Qing.
Twenty years passed by in a flash.
The old lady, who is nearly seventy years old, now feels what it is like to lose a son in old age.
There are three major pains for a woman: losing her father in youth, losing her husband in middle age, and losing her son in old age.
This old lady has tasted it over and over again.
As the initiator, Su Mingzhe could only say as many words of relief as possible after he came to her.
After the grandfather and grandson chatted for a while, Su Mingzhe said goodbye and left, arriving at Yaohua Palace.
By this time, the other concubines had already returned to their respective palaces.
The queen doesn't need to hide anything in front of her son.
I saw that she finally took off the phoenix crown and harem that symbolized the queen's status, put on a plain long dress, lightly applied pink and white, had curvy eyebrows, a sweet face, and a pleasant smile. After seeing Su Mingzhe, she cordially pulled her in, filled with joy.
smiled and said:
"Gan'er, my mother heard that you just summoned the ministers to discuss state affairs. Those ministers didn't make things difficult for you, right?"
"Queen Mother, I just ascended the throne today. Even if they have any ideas, they will talk about it later. It is impossible to resist me today."
After all, Su Mingzhe was not her biological son Li Chengqian. He was held by her with her white and slender jade hands. The smoothness of the skin contact made her heart flutter.
Fortunately, Su Mingzhe restrained his thoughts in time, with a trace of sadness on his face.
When the queen saw the change in her son's face, she remembered that although Li Chengqian was her son, he was also the son of Emperor Qing, the great enemy of her family and genocide.
Therefore, I can be excited about the death of Emperor Qing, but my son cannot be happy with me.
Thinking of this, the queen's mood became a little lower:
"Qian'er, why don't you have lunch with your mother today? Since you moved to the East Palace, you have never had lunch with your mother."
Although Su Mingzhe didn't want to stay with the queen for a long time, he couldn't refuse, so in the end the queen pulled him to sit down and have a meal at the same table.
After dinner, Su Mingzhe chatted with the queen for a while before saying goodbye and leaving.
The queen reluctantly sent Su Mingzhe out of the palace.
Seeing that he was about to leave, Su Mingzhe suddenly turned his head and said to the queen:
"Mother, I think the eunuch Hong Zhu in charge of your palace is quite good. Why don't you lend him to me for a few days?"
"You kid, you are so polite to your mother. If you like this person from Yaohua Palace, just take him away."
The Queen's natal family were all wiped out by Emperor Qing's men, and now she regards Su Mingzhe as her 'son' as her only concern.
Su Mingzhe just wanted a eunuch in charge, so naturally she wouldn't refuse.
"Thank you very much, Queen Mother."
When Su Mingzhe heard that the queen agreed, he immediately thanked her, as if he valued Hong Zhu very much.
Hong Zhu, who was standing by, was at a loss. He knew his own abilities, but he didn't know when he had fallen into the eyes of the new king.
No matter how Hong Zhu muttered in his heart, now that the new master valued him, he naturally had to quickly thank him and finally bid farewell to his old master.
Su Mingzhe took Hong Zhu back to Weiyang Palace, which had been cleaned up by Eunuch Hou.
The traces of the assassin's assassination and fight last night have basically been cleaned away.
Su Mingzhe brought Hong Zhu to the royal study, sat down on the kang, and said directly without talking nonsense:
"Hong Zhu, I have something I need you to do. I wonder if I can trust you?"
"Please give me your Majesty's instructions."
Seeing Su Mingzhe's solemn tone, Hong Zhu knew that he must have something important to say. He immediately calmed down and kowtowed:
"I am loyal to the Queen and Your Majesty. If you rebel, I am willing to be quartered on five horses."
After hearing this, Su Mingzhe almost couldn't help but curl up his lips.
In "Celebrating More Than Years", because there are many forces involved, there are naturally many undercover spies.
Among so many undercover agents, the four top undercover agents were rated by busybodies:
Number one should be Yan Ruohai, the 'King of Infernal Affairs'. Following Chen Pingping's instructions, he first went undercover to Qin Ye, the number one man in the army, and was later sent to the Procuratorate by Qin Ye. His son Yan Bingyun succeeded him.
His undercover talent.
Second, Ye Liuyun, Ye Liuyun pretended to be at odds with Emperor Qing and prepared to rebel against Emperor Qing. As a result, the entire Ye family followed undercover, and finally gave the second prince and the other two great masters a wrong guide, helping Emperor Qing to establish a great empire.
War exploits.
Third, Yuan Hongdao was also an undercover agent sent by Chen Pingping. He was first undercover Lin Ruofu, but when he saw that Lin Ruofu and Li Yunrui Lang were in love and wanted to have a concubine, he immediately became a matchmaker.
When Li Yunrui was pregnant with Lin Ruofu's child, he almost made Emperor Qing angry to death.
Fourth, it's almost Hong Zhu's turn.
In the novel, this Hong Zhu was originally an orphan of the Chen family in Yingzhou, but later he killed himself and went to the palace to make a living.
After entering the palace, because of his good eyesight, he worshiped Hong Sixiang as his adoptive father and changed his surname to Hong.
Because of his ability to serve Hong Sixiang, he was recommended to Emperor Qing by Hong Sixiang. Later, Emperor Qing arranged for him to work as an "undercover agent" beside the queen.
As a result, this Hong Zhu didn't know what happened, but he became the confidant of the emperor, empress and prince, and he couldn't think of any way to avenge his family.
Unfortunately, the actor Fan Xian learned about his hidden family background.
In the end, Fan Xian helped him take revenge.
This Hong Zhu became Fan Xian's best friend.
Later, the affair between Prince Li Chengqian and the eldest princess Li Yunrui was passed on to Fan Xian by Hong Zhu.
Su Mingzhe knew the details of Hong Zhu, so he naturally knew how to deal with him.
At the moment, Su Mingzhe did not go into details and just asked him to go to Changling first to supervise the burial of Emperor Qing.
After Hong Zhu left, Su Mingzhe waved to Eunuch Hou and ordered:
"Eunuch Hou, Hong Zhu is young and has only been in the palace for a short time. There may be someone in the family. You can ask him. If there is anything in the family that needs help, let the Internal Prison Office help with it. In addition, the accounts from the East Palace will be taken care of.
Give him the first 10,000 taels of silver."
"Here."
After Eunuch Hou responded, he complimented with envy: "People in the palace used to say that Your Majesty is kind and generous. Today, the old servant knows that what he said is true..."
"Okay, we are all our own people, don't say these words in front of me."
Su Mingzhe had a good impression of this Eunuch Hou and chuckled:
"The same goes for you, you also get ten thousand taels. Those one level below you in this palace get one thousand taels, those two levels below you get one hundred taels, and everyone else in the palace gets ten taels."
"I thank your Majesty for your kindness."
Eunuch Hou also didn't expect that Su Mingzhe would be so generous after becoming the emperor. He was overjoyed and thanked him repeatedly.
"Tell them that as long as it's a good job, I won't hesitate to reward them."
Su Mingzhe knew that almost all of these eunuchs and maidens had to stay in the palace their entire lives, and their obsession with gold and silver was far beyond that of ordinary people.
I reward them with gold and silver, which is worth more than 10,000 words of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism.
Eunuch Hou quickly agreed again.
Su Mingzhe saw that he only agreed but did not leave. After thinking for a moment, he asked:
"Eunuch Hou, do you have something to tell me?"
"Well, oh, yes, I have something I want to report to Your Majesty."
Eunuch Hou suddenly knelt on the ground, trembling, and replied:
"Your Majesty, that Hong Zhu was originally sent by the late emperor to stay with the empress."
"Huh? Really?"
The corners of Su Mingzhe's mouth raised slightly, and there seemed to be a little surprise in the corners of his eyes, feeling that things were a bit unbelievable.
"It's absolutely true. At that time, it was the slaves who conveyed the orders. On weekdays, it was the slaves who communicated with him."
Eunuch Hou was also willing to go all out. He directly reported all the undercover agents he had been assigned by Emperor Qing. He even told the informants in the East Palace. Finally, he said in a pitiful voice:
"Your Majesty, these are all tasks given by the late emperor to his slaves. Please forgive me."
Su Mingzhe did not expect that Eunuch Hou would surrender to him so quickly.
Thinking back to the novel, this Eunuch Hou was shot to death by thousands of arrows in order to protect the Queen Mother. He can be regarded as the most loyal among the many confidants of Emperor Qing.
Thinking of this, Su Mingzhe got off the kang himself and helped him up:
"Eunuch Hou, don't kneel down all the time in the future. Everything you did before was your responsibility. How could I blame you? Get up quickly. I still have something to send you to do..."