Cai Que, the miscellaneous official of the imperial censor, was returning to the government office. All the officials who met Cai Que along the way stepped aside and stood respectfully with their slips.
Cai Que has had a notorious reputation since he became the censor.
He impeached more than 20 officials in total, including Prime Minister Wang Anshi and Han Jiang's younger brother Han Zhen.
There are also Guo Kui, Li Ding, Wang Shao and others.
These people are all famous people.
The most famous one is the incident last year when Wang Anshi entered the palace gate on horseback and was injured by the guards while riding the horse.
At that time, Cai Que criticized Wang Anshi. It should be noted that Cai Que was recommended by Wang Anshi for the post of censor, but he still criticized the appointer.
Cai Que's intention in impeaching Wang Anshi was also very clear, which was to protect the people's sovereignty.
Cai did meet Zhang Zhi, but saw that he clearly saw him but avoided him as if he hadn't seen him.
Cai Que frowned when he saw this scene and immediately called out to Zhang Zhi.
"Zizheng!"
Zhang Zhi reluctantly stopped and saluted Cai Que and said, "Uncle Chi Zheng."
Cai Quedao: "You still recognize me."
After a pause, Cai Que said: "You are not happy with me because of Jing Yanshang?"
Zhang Zhi was helpless.
One day when the imperial edict was delayed, Zhang Zhi advised the emperor to open his mouth and allow ministers to speak out like Wei Zheng did to Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty.
But Cai Que stood up to criticize Zhang Zhi, saying that when His Majesty first came to the throne, ministers treated the Emperor like friends. If they disagreed, they would blame the emperor in person. He repeatedly challenged the emperor, and he had to make the emperor submissive. There is really no distinction between emperor and minister.
.
Cai Que suggested that the emperor must correct the rules and regulations and divide the court into senior officials and ministers.
Cai Que's words were praised by the officials and made Zhang Zhi avoid Cai Que when he saw him.
Cai Que met Zhang Zhi and gave him another lecture. Zhang Zhi could only curse in his stomach.
Seeing that Zhang Zhi was silent, Cai Que lowered his voice and said: "Your uncle is going back to Beijing soon, so don't talk about delegating power to subordinates again. Now that Wang Jiefu has resigned, which minister do you want the emperor to delegate power to? Is it Mr. Han or Mr. Han?"
Your uncle is going back to court soon?"
Zhang Zhi said with sweat on his forehead: "I was wrong."
Cai Quedao said: "In the past when Mr. Wang was in power, he was a virtuous gentleman. As long as you didn't break the rules, you didn't have to worry about being criticized. But now that Lu Jifu is in power, you have to worry about everything you say. Don't be criticized.
Seize the handle."
Zhang Zhi was sweating and said immediately: "Uncle Chizheng, this capital is too dangerous. I'd better ask for help."
Cai Que scolded: "You are not promising at all. I have already told you that wealth lies in skills rather than in hard work, and profit lies in the situation rather than hard work. You have been close to the official family since childhood, and this kindness is unparalleled.
Who can have a better future than you in the future? Having said that, defending the master like me is the only way out for officials from our humble family."
"But you said that you should open up your voice and speak out to your Majesty. Isn't this a joke?"
Zhang Zhi said: "I can't learn this. If you have anything to say, can't we just rebuke the officials if they are wrong?"
When Cai Que heard this, he said angrily: "You are really a piece of rotten wood, you can't be cured!"
Zhang Zhi said angrily: "I'll just treat it as my own rotten wood, and Uncle Chi Zheng won't bother to carve it."
After Zhang Zhi walked away, Cai Que looked at Zhang Zhi's back and shook his head and thought, Zizheng is too naive. With Wang Anshi's resignation as prime minister, the factional disputes in the court will become more and more intense.
If you don't obey one side as soon as possible, you will be pushed out sooner or later.
…
Hezhou City.
Facing Lu Shengqing's inquiry, Zhang Yue said: "Xihe still has some trivial matters. Mingfu doesn't need to wait for me. He just goes to Beijing first."
Zhang Yue cannot express his anxiety or unwillingness to go to Beijing. If he goes to Beijing eagerly, he will be jealous of Lu Huiqing. If he is unwilling to go to Beijing, the emperor will think that Zhang Yue is unwilling, which is even worse.
Lu Shengqing said: "Lu is bold enough to ask the commander-in-chief whether he supports the reform or opposes the reform when he comes to Beijing?"
Zhang Yue said: "When Mr. Wang resigned as prime minister, my brother wrote to me and asked me to retain Mr. Wang. I did as he was told. Does Mingfu know about this?"
Lu Shengqing did not give up and continued to ask: "As for the market change law... I wonder if the commander has any advice?"
It is obvious that Zhang Yue does not agree with the Market Change Law. Now Zeng Bu and Lu Huiqing are arguing about this. Lu Shengqing throws this out just to see which side Zhang Yue supports.
Zhang Yue, of course, disagrees with the Market Change Law from the bottom of his heart and believes that the Market Change Law must be withdrawn!
But Zhang Yue knew that if he said this, there would be no room for change between him and Lu Huiqing. In terms of Lu Huiqing's means of punishing people, none of the ten Wang Anshi could be as good as him.
Zhang Yue said: "When I wrote to the emperor, I had clearly analyzed the pros and cons of the market change law. Why should I say more about this matter?"
Lu Shengqing immediately said: "Commander, this is happening at one time and the other is happening at the same time. Now the market change law has been implemented for several years and it has brought more than one million yuan of money and food to the court every year. It has been said to be effective."
"Besides, the Market Change Law and the Reform are one. Opposing the Market Change Law means opposing the Reform. Since the Commander-in-Chief has already written a letter to retain Mr. Wang, why not also express support for the Market Change Law? In this way, my brother will definitely repay the Commander-in-Chief generously.
.”
Everyone knows whether this market change law is a good law, and Zhang Yue does not want to argue with Lu Shengqing.
Zhang Yue said to Lu Shengqing: "I have a deep friendship with Jifu, and I support him in everything else except this matter."
If we talk about the first month of the seventh year of Xining, Zhang Yue and Lu Huiqing were still on equal footing.
But what happened next? Lu Huiqing was first promoted to a Hanlin bachelor's degree in February, and then to the political affairs minister in April. Now he is the second-ranking official in Zhongshu and the leader of the new party.
This speed of promotion...
Lu Huiqing now has a considerable advantage over Zhang Yue in official position.
In addition, Lu Huiqing has another great advantage, which is space and distance.
Zhang Yue is now in the northwest, thousands of miles away from Bianjing, and has no time to know what is happening in Bianjing. But what about Lu Huiqing? But he is by the emperor's side, making and changing the court's decisions.
Once Lu Huiqing knew that Zhang Yue was against him, he could ask the emperor to issue an edict so that Zhang Yue would not have to return to Beijing and directly go to serve as an official elsewhere.
This is not difficult to do, as long as a very simple excuse is used, such as the Khitan and Jiaozhi armies approaching the border, Zhang Yue immediately changes to Hebei and Guangxi to supervise the army.
Zhang Yue suddenly received an imperial edict on his way back to Beijing, telling him not to return to Beijing and to take office in another place. When Lu Huiqing's advantage in the court became unshakable three to five years later, it would not matter whether Zhang Yue came back or not.
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That's why Lu Huiqing instructed Lu Shengqing to negotiate with Zhang Yue at this critical point. This was a blackmail on the premise that he had an advantage.
Zhang Yue directly showed his cards with Lu Shengqing.
Lu Shengqing thought for a long time. He had a good relationship with Zhang Yue. He had been taking care of him over the years, and he also knew Zhang Yue's talents. Therefore, he did not want his brother to fall out with Zhang Yue.
Lu Shengqing hesitated for a moment and then said: "Commander, don't you think about it anymore?"
Zhang Yueze said: "I have been friends with Jifu for more than ten years. It is precisely because of this that I spoke out and tried my best to persuade him. Of course, I can answer perfunctorily today, but this would be an apology for our years of friendship.
Friendship."
Lu Shengqing sighed and said, "I understand."
A few days later, Zhang Yue set off from Hezhou and returned to Beijing. It was already May of the seventh year of Xining.
Before setting off, some aides suggested that Zhang Yue return to Beijing quickly without giving Lu Huiqing time to react, or send someone to intercept him halfway. Lu Shengqing wrote a letter to Lu Huiqing.
Some people even suggested that Zhang Yue send a substitute dressed as a sheep to walk slowly on the road to attract people's attention as a means of paralyzing Lu Huiqing, while Zhang Yue himself secretly entered Beijing overnight wearing civilian clothes.
These suggestions were ridiculous in Zhang Yue's eyes.
He dared to tell Lu Shengqing his plan, but he thought Lu Huiqing was just threatening and really didn't dare to do anything to him.
Even if you join politics now, can you dominate the world with one hand?
You, Lu Huiqing, have just ascended to the throne and your position is unstable, so you will definitely be able to deal with me?
Zhang Yue didn't walk very fast on the way back to Beijing, even a little slowly.
Under Chengzhou City.
An old man was squatting at the base of the wall next to the city gate. He took a rice stalk and planted an ant nest at the base of the wall, playing with it.
"One, two, three... five, ten, oh, your ten can be made into a dozen, I will let you make it any number you want!"
The old man smiled and used the rice stalk to push the ten ants aside and forcibly divided them into ten pieces. Then he picked up the rice stalk and counted the other ten ants to make ten pieces, and then divided them according to law.
The old man smiled and rubbed the old mud around his neck, and said with a smile: "You two will practice together. If you do well, I will reward you!"
This old man had a smile on his face and was wearing an old coat. He was squatting in the corner and having a great time.
Several children laughed when they saw this scene.
At this time, a group of people came forward. The leader got off his horse and passed by others, pointed at them, and immediately walked towards the old man.
The man stood beside the old man for a moment, and then asked: "Zichun?"
The old man didn't seem to hear.
After the other party shouted a few more times, the old man turned back thoughtfully.
The old man and the other party looked at each other, and they were both stunned.
The corner of the old man's mouth moved. At first he didn't want to recognize him, but finally he said: "I have met the handsome man."
The old man was Wang Shao, and the other party was Zhang Yue who had rushed back to Bianjing to visit him.
Zhang Yue looked at the other party and almost couldn't believe it. The other party was Wang Shao, but after not seeing him for two years, the other party turned out to be so old. He was completely different from the decisive and decisive Wang Shao.
Zhang Yue found a stone pier and sat down and said to Wang Shao: "Zichun, let's sit down and talk."
"There is no place for me to sit in front of the commander-in-chief."
"We are old acquaintances, so we don't stick to this etiquette."
After Wang Shao sat down, the two talked about old times. Zhang Yue talked to Wang Shao about how he attacked, captured and forced Mu Zheng to surrender, personally captured the border servant Bo Jie, defeated Dong Xiang, and how he finally captured the army.
To Taozhou, Huangzhou, Hezhou.
Wang Shao was very happy to hear this. He took off the wine gourd on the tip of his spear and took a sip of wine when he heard that the Song army had won a great victory.
When Wang Shao heard the news that he had captured the enemy chief alive, he clapped his hands and laughed, as if he had personally gone into battle to kill the enemy.
At the end, Wang Shao said bluntly: "Although the general is a mediocre general, he has clear rewards and punishments, so he can win the hearts of the army. With the technique of combining vertical and horizontal lines, and attacking the enemy with ten times the force, how can he not be defeated?"
"
Zhang Yue smiled and said, "What if it's General Zichun?"
Wang Shao said arrogantly: "If you are a general named Wang, you only need 30% of the troops to be a commander, that's fine!"
Having said this, Wang Shao sighed, clasped his fists and asked Zhang Yue: "Commander, does Wang still have a chance in this life?"
