In Zhongshu Province, in the main hall, Hu Weiyong was discussing matters with Shen Liben, the newly appointed Minister of Household Affairs.
"Xiang Hu, the Chief Envoy of Jiangxi Province has reported that Uncle Cheng Yi's son is vigorously trying to clear out his father-in-law, which is causing a lot of trouble and the people are in dire straits. If he continues to mess around, I'm afraid the spring plowing will be delayed." Shen Liben said with a worried look on his face.
"Liu Lian went down with Shang Fang's sword. It's normal for there to be a lot of movement." Hu Weiyong said calmly: "The emperor is piloting the yellow book in Jiangxi and wants to promote it nationwide. There is no room for mistakes."
"Wouldn't that mean that every family's background would be revealed to the emperor?" Shen Liben was very uneasy. He was originally a poor scholar. He worked as an official for ten years and managed to save a little money through "personal efforts". But he couldn't Let the emperor know.
"It seems that you have a lot of land, Old Shen?" Hu Weiyong teased.
"Not too much, not too much. Just enough to peel the skin and pull the grass a hundred times." Shen Liben said with a bitter smile.
"Then you are such a damn honest official!" Hu Weiyong laughed loudly.
"Xiaguan is from a middle-class family," Shen Li said without changing his face. It's just that his family has thousands of hectares of fertile land...
"Even a middle-class family like yours is so anxious." Hu Weiyong smiled and said: "It seems that the emperor Qingzhang is going to make the world uneasy again."
"It's unpopular." Shen Liben sighed and said, "Prime Minister Hu, you really need to persuade the emperor."
"How to persuade? Your Majesty is just conducting a pilot project in Jiangxi. The results haven't come out yet, so you are so impatient to sing the opposite?" Hu Weiyong said with a helpless expression: "Aren't I looking for scolding?"
"Yes." Shen Liben nodded, suddenly understood, looked up at Hu Weiyong, and lowered his voice: "What Mr. Hu means is...as long as the Jiangxi pilot fails, Xie can persuade the emperor?"
"I didn't say that." Hu Weiyong rolled his eyes and said, "What you want to think is your own business. You won't recognize the truth anyway."
"I understand." Shen Liben nodded heavily, stood up and said with joy: "Xiaguan knows how to reply to Jiangxi. But what they do is their own business, and has nothing to do with Zhongshu, and of course it has nothing to do with Hu. It has nothing to do with the department.”
"Hmm." Hu Weiyong nodded and said, "Tell them not to go too far and be careful not to hit the younger ones and provoke the older ones."
"I understand, don't worry." Shen Liben nodded.
At this time, the family outside the door reported that Chen Ning, the imperial censor, had arrived.
"Please." Hu Weiyong ordered in a deep voice, and then said to Shen Liben: "You go back first."
"As ordered, I will resign." Shen Liben quickly stood up and bowed before resigning.
~~
After the ceremony, Hu Weiyong invited Chen Ning to have tea in the tea room in the east chamber.
While he was making tea smoothly, he asked slowly: "Didn't I agree not to run this way?"
"Isn't there an honest reason for this?" Chen Ning laughed dryly and said: "The emperor has decreed that starting tomorrow, the Zhongshu Province, the Governor's Office and the Chief of the Yushitai will all go to the Wenhua Hall to pay a pilgrimage. This is What should we do? We have never done this before. Why don’t we come to Zhongshu Province to ask about the regulations?”
"Well." Hu Weiyong nodded and accepted the reason. He slowly poured tea into the jianzhan in front of Chen Ning and said, "What's so difficult about this? Just go to the Wenhua Hall to go to the Fengtian Hall.
"
"Do you really treat the prince as the emperor?" Chen Ning said uncertainly: "As time goes by, the emperor will not be unhappy, right?"
"Other emperors might do it, but ours won't." Hu Weiyong shook his head and said: "Their father and son are the most special couple in history. If the prince can distract the emperor, the emperor will only think that he has
In terms of ability, I didn’t choose the wrong person.”
"Fuck..." Chen Ning was speechless for a while, feeling that he had read all the history books in vain.
"However, the prince will not do that." Hu Weiyong said calmly: "Our prince is very measured. Of course, in the eyes of the emperor, he is just not domineering enough, so he is asked to come to court in advance just to train him.
…”
"Is it really just to train the prince?" Chen Ning suddenly asked quietly. This was the main purpose of his coming. "Is there no other meaning?"
"What else can it mean?" Hu Weiyong twisted the tea cup and lowered his eyes.
"Prime Minister Hu, stop pretending. Since we have surrendered to Prime Minister Hu, we should do our best to show our sincerity. We only hope that Prime Minister Hu will also be honest with us!" Chen Ning picked up the tea cup and raised it to Hu Weiyong.
"Uh, okay." Hu Weiyong touched him lightly, drank a toast and said: "It's true that the emperor is training the prince, but there is a deeper meaning... In fact, it is also obvious that it weakens Zhongshu."
"Weaken Zhongshu?"
"Isn't this what the emperor has done consistently since the empty seal case?" Hu Weiyong said with a bitter smile:
“First, the Pingzhang, Political Council and other officials of the Zhongshu Province were abolished, and then the various Zhongshu Provinces were downgraded to the Provincial Envoys’ Department, which greatly weakened the power of the Zhongshu Province.
"In addition to directly weakening it, it has also greatly strengthened the power of your Yushitai, so that Lantai can check and balance Zhongshu." Hu Weiyong continued: "This time, the emperor asked Zhongshu, the Governor's Office and the Yushitai to make advance notice.
Prince, after His Highness the Prince has dealt with it, the Emperor will take care of it... The difference here is obvious, right?"
"Yeah." Chen Ning nodded and said: "Originally, if we have something to report to the Emperor, we can issue it as long as the Emperor agrees. But now we have to go through the Crown Prince first... If the Crown Prince doesn't agree, can we really go to the Emperor again? Then
Aren’t you going to slap the prince in the face?”
"Yeah." Hu Weiyong nodded and said: "You are one of them, and there is another one - in the past, the emperor had to eat and drink at night, and he had to take care of everything, but after all, he was only one person, and he could read three or four hundred memorials a day."
"That's scary enough..." Chen Ning secretly exclaimed that he was not a human being. The entire Yushitai could not finish reading so many articles in one day.
"That is, but after all, there is still more than half of it. The emperor does not have the energy to read it. And it cannot be backlogged, because there will be memorials delivered the next day." Hu Weiyong said calmly:
"So the emperor can only read the important ones, and send the unimportant ones back to Zhongshu for self-determination. But in fact, who dares to mess with important military and state affairs? The real highlights are actually in those memorials that don't seem to be that important.
"
"It's true." Chen Ning suddenly realized that he had also worked in Zhongshu Province and knew that any memorial handed down from below would involve the interests of thousands of families. No matter how unimportant the memorial was, it would determine whether the people of a state or county would escape from the sea of misery.
, or continue to struggle in dire straits.
In fact, the power of the Zhongshu Province is mostly realized in these "less important" places.
Now that a prince and the emperor are added together, the daily government affairs handled will not be doubled, but they will definitely be much more than before.
The power that the Zhongshu Province can fulfill will naturally be greatly reduced...
"Then what should we do?" Chen Ning asked with a frown.
"Don't panic, what should we do?" Hu Weiyong had already made up his mind and said: "Since the emperor wants the prince to practice government affairs, we should let His Highness understand the difficulties of state affairs and the difficulty of making decisions."
As he spoke, he took a sip of tea and said quietly: "The emperor loves the prince so much that he cannot bear to see him suffer too much."
"Understood." Chen Ning understood Hu Weiyong's subtext - as long as he only messes up a few more times, the emperor will not let him continue to govern in order to protect the reputation of the prince...
