In that room, Zhao Zhen returned to the inner palace and invited Li Wei to ask in detail about the reason at that time. Li Wei refused to reveal the affair between the princess and Liang Huaiji, nor about his mother. He only said that the couple had a quarrel and he was impulsively beaten.
Princess.
But Zhao Zhen not only questioned him, but also called everyone present that day to question one by one. Under the majesty of the emperor, not everyone could hide from each other, so the truth of the matter was almost revealed.
in front of the emperor.
However, Zhao Zhen never believed that his proud daughter would fool around with a eunuch. Liang Huaiji said that he was just drinking with the princess to relieve her boredom, which should be the truth. But this kind of relationship between men and women has always been a matter of yellow mud falling into the crotch.
"I don't want to pursue the matter now. I just hope that this matter can be settled as soon as possible and not cause more trouble." Zhao Zhen rubbed his temples and whispered: "Tell everyone that they must all speak in a unified way. Use what the prince-in-law said today."
As a rule, just say that the princess and the consort are having an quarrel. Don't bring up Liang Huaiji, nor the uncle's wife! Don't reveal the slightest bit of information to let others take advantage of it!"
"Yes." Concubine Miao Xian nodded in response.
"Also, go to Mrs. Guo's house..." Zhao Zhen ordered again: "It's better to ask the queen to accompany you to comfort her and don't let the news about her leak out."
"Probably not. If this kind of thing spreads, her Li family will be embarrassed."
"How can my aunt be treated like an ordinary person?" Zhao Zhen smiled bitterly and said, "Tell her that the princess made a mistake. I will punish her, and the palace people around her will not be able to escape. And that Liang Huaiji will never happen again.
Appeared at the princess's house."
"This..." Concubine Miao Xian said unhappily: "Why is it all Huirou's fault?" Huirou was the princess's title when she was born, so her parents would naturally not change their words.
"This is punishing a small mistake to cover up a big mistake!" Zhao Zhen lowered his face and said: "If the matter is exposed, will she have the nerve to step out of this palace again?!"
"Then..." Concubine Miao Xian asked, "What will Huirou do in the future?"
"Let her live in the palace for a while first." Zhao Zhen said: "When both parties calm down, you can take her to make amends to the uncle and his wife. Just live a good life from now on..."
"It's better..." Concubine Miao Xian couldn't help complaining: "It's been three years. If we could live together, we would have lived together long ago. As a couple, it's better to just forget about it!"
"Absurd!" Zhao Zhen said angrily: "It is Huirou's fault. Even if we want to divorce, we can only divorce!" A husband abandoning his wife is called divorce.
"It was Yang who was at fault first..."
"Go and argue about this," Zhao Zhen said angrily: "Let's see if they will tell you about your daughter not sleeping with the consort for three years and beating her husband and mother-in-law!"
"..." Concubine Miao Xian was frightened.
In the afternoon, Empress Cao accompanied Concubine Miao Xian to the princess's residence to visit the uncle's wife. Naturally, Yang cried to the empress about being beaten by the princess. Empress Cao persuaded her with gentle words, and Concubine Miao Xian begged softly. After all the good things she said, Yang reluctantly gave in.
She promised not to publicize this matter.
The Queen and Concubine Miao Xian were relieved to return to the palace for business. Zhao Zhen was really angry this time. After hearing the letter, he just nodded slightly and said: "Invite those prison messengers, I have something to discuss with them.
"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next day, a decree came from the palace. The three prison messengers who opened the door the day before were all sent to various places in Xijing and Nanjing to be demoted and used... In fact, Zhao Zhen had privately promised the three of them that within one to two years, they would be released.
Will bring them back.
At the same time, Li Wei also impeached himself under the instruction of Zhao Zhen. He listed some examples, saying that he was immoral after drinking and served his master without any form. He begged the officials to punish him for this... For this reason, Zhao Zhen promised not to pursue him for beatings.
Regarding the princess's sin, I also promised to deal with all the people around the princess, especially Liang Huaiji. After a while, let the princess go and apologize to his mother, and then live a good life.
Ginger is still old and spicy, and Zhao Zhen's methods are not unskilled. One move is 'avoiding the important and taking advantage of the light', and the other is 'Li Daitao is stiff'. It is said that he can basically pick out the princess.
However, he is still eager to protect his daughter, completely forgetting that this is a patriarchal society - no matter how noble a princess is, her gender cannot be changed.
As the saying goes, "The husband is the guide for his wife," scholar-officials must uphold the dignity of husband's rights.
So when they saw Li Wei taking the initiative to write a letter to take responsibility, they quit immediately. The person who took the initiative was Sima Guang, who had just been appointed as the director of daily life for fellow practitioners...
Fellow practitioners note that the official position is not high, but it is very valuable. Because this is a job that is closer to the emperor than the bachelors in the palace. The daily job is to write a diary for the emperor... Except for his private life in the harem, the emperor goes everywhere
You have to take him with you. According to the principle that the closer you are to the leader, the easier it is to make progress. "There is no better way to become an official." It is definitely a good job that many officials dream of.
Moreover, all state affairs are clearly understood, as well as the emperor's psychology and the attitude of the ministers. The weight of this official position can also be imagined.
The energy of the New School Party members was absolutely impressive. When the decree came down, they actually appointed fellow practitioners Wang Anshi and Sima Guang to live as daily care assistants. Moreover, because they were worried that these two moral gentlemen would be unhappy, Wang Yu and the others did not even inform them in advance.
The result was a trap - Wang Anshi thought this job was too boring, and he followed the emperor like a tail every day. He had to remember all the trivial things, which was really trivial. But now he was in charge of the judge, and he was enjoying it and wanted to make a big difference.
After a lot of hard work, Jing refused to accept the order.
In that room, Sima Guang had been sitting on the bench for two years, and he finally moved his place. It was such a good golden place, so naturally he was absolutely willing to do it. However, when he heard that Wang Anshi refused, if he agreed, he would be compared to an official by Lao Wang.
I was confused. This was going to be a laughing stock, so the two of them jointly staged a resignation drama that was rare in history.
The princes of the political affairs hall at first thought that the two were just being polite... This was also due to the official atmosphere at that time. Everyone liked to resign, whether it was true or false, but most of them wanted to be something and be something.
.
But Wang Anshi was serious about it, so he issued edicts five times, and he issued five edicts.
Sima Guang looked at Wang Anshi closely and saw that this guy resigned repeatedly, so he followed suit with his five-word edict.
But by the sixth time, Sima Guang calculated with his wise brain that he had resigned five times and had gained a lot of face, so he should just give it up. If he did it again, it would be self-defeating, so he had to "do it with difficulty"
Accepted the appointment.
Everyone thought that once Sima Guang accepted the appointment, Wang Anshi would not insist on it.
But he didn't expect that this old man would resign his appointment and still refuse to do it!
Now the ministers were very angry, and they wanted to cure this guy's stubbornness. They actually issued a death order and had people go to the Third Division and hand the edict directly to Wang Anshi, and they could not get it back no matter what.
Wang Anshi was also a great man. When he saw someone coming to deliver the edict, he actually put down the account book in his hand and ran away.
Who knew that the other party was also a fool, so he put the edict on the book, turned around and left.
Wang Anshi was squatting in the hut. When he saw the other party leaving so quickly, he immediately realized something was wrong and rushed back to the duty room. Sure enough, he saw the edict lying on the table. Without thinking, he picked up the edict and chased him out.
As soon as the man saw him catching up, he quickly ran away.
But he forgot whose territory this was, and only heard Wang Anshi shout: "Stop him!"
Sansi is a place where money and food are important, so naturally there are layers of guards. When the guards saw the judge's order, they stopped the man without thinking.
Wang Anshi caught up with him in big strides, stuffed the edict back into his arms, and then pushed him out and said, "Let him go!" He forced him to take the edict back.
The great sage Wang resigned this time with unprecedented force, but the people of the Song Dynasty fell in love with him. They thought that he had noble aspirations and was not living up to his reputation. But the more this happened, the more the court wanted to use him more...
A few months later, Mr. Fu had a special conversation with Wang Anshi, and then issued an edict to appoint him as the Zhizhigao...
This time, Wang Anshi accepted the appointment with only slight hesitation to avoid "interfering with the imperial court."
Decades later, when recalling the incident, Sima Guang still regretted it and only regretted that he was not a man enough and could not persist to the end.
Of course, this is all for later.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At this moment, Sima Guang had just taken office. According to the nature of his job, he should not talk too much, especially if it might offend the emperor.
But he is a principled person, and he still has to hold back his displeasure when encountering things that go against his own ideas. He published "On the Princess's Inner House" and "Zhao Zi" one after another, pointing the finger at the princess, saying that she has always been unfilial to her family. Grandma, she has no respect for the prince-in-law, and her reputation for arrogance is known both inside and outside the court! I heard that before entering the palace this time, the princess had beaten the Yang family. Not only did she have no intention of feeling guilty, but she locked the palace door at night and was banned from prosecution. , the emperor will ignore the palace ban and Zhou Wei, the safety of the king and father is in danger!
He also pointed the finger at Liang Huaiji and others, saying, "The princess locked the palace door at night, and outsiders made a lot of noise and had some objections. They all said that there were many ministers in the princess's house, and some of them were not self-respecting. The princess was not in harmony with her husband's family, or she was It was caused by the estrangement between the internal ministers.' He defended Li Wei and said that the prince's consort was a sincere princess and it was not a big mistake. At present, right and wrong are clearly defined. If Li Wei is punished while protecting the princess, it would be unfair both emotionally and rationally. The emperor is so partial. How will you set an example for the world?"
Everything was just as Chen Ke expected. Scandals always spread at an alarming speed, and the fire could not be contained in the paper. Rumors about the princess and Liang Huaiji spread quickly in Bianjing City, and fermented into an uproar...
The scholar-bureaucrats who had previously expressed their disapproval of Zhongye Koulan's impression of the Princess of Gun Kingdom suddenly dropped to a freezing point. The daughter-in-law of a government official was supposed to set an example for the world, but now it's good that she has committed all the seven sins of being a daughter-in-law. !