After hearing Zhao Hongrun's words, there was an uproar in the palace.
Even though they did not expect that Zhao Hongrun would dare to overturn their boat with a pole, could it be that His Highness King Su really didn't know what a huge force was behind the many nobles sitting in this banquet hall at this moment?
?
"This Zhao Run is as arrogant as ever!"
At this moment, many people in the palace were thinking viciously in their hearts.
At this time, after hearing about Zhao Hongrun, Uncle Feng, Marquis of Yuanling, the original anger on his face gradually dissipated, replaced by a look of disbelief: "Ha? Xiaohou is not qualified? Most of you here are not qualified either? Then who is qualified?
…His Royal Highness Prince Su, wouldn’t you say that it’s just you?”
"That's what I mean." Zhao Hongrun had no intention of backing down. He looked directly at Yuanling Marquis Feng Shu and said calmly: "Outside, if I lead the army to attack Chu, Shouying will fall. If I attack Han, Handan will be conquered. If I attack Qin, Qin will be conquered."
Two hundred thousand troops were destroyed in Sanchuan, so that all the countries in the Central Plains no longer dare to underestimate our great Wei Dynasty; inside, I am in charge of the smelting bureau, building Bolang Port, and repairing the Lianglu Canal... Looking at today's great Wei Dynasty, except for my father,
Whose achievements can be said to be greater than mine? If even I am not qualified to recommend candidates for the Four Orders of Hedong, who are you, Marquis of Yuanling?"
Uncle Feng, the Marquis of Yuanling, frowned when he heard this and said, "His Royal Highness, King Su, takes credit and is arrogant. This is not a good thing!"
Hearing this, Zhao Hongrun laughed, curled his lips and said mockingly: "To take credit and be arrogant...you have to have merit first, right? I think, Marquis Yuanling, even if you want to take credit and be arrogant, you don't have the qualifications, right?"
"You..." Uncle Feng, Marquis of Yuanling, turned red with anger.
But even though he was furious with Zhao Hongrun, he couldn't say anything to refute.
After all, Zhao Hongrun's achievements are unmatched even in more than a hundred years, let alone recent decades.
Looking at the entire Wei State, the only one who can outdo Zhao Hongrun in terms of meritorious deeds is probably the Wei Emperor Zhao Yuancai, because the Wei Emperor Zhao Yuancai once united with Chu Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo to destroy the Song State and occupy all the Song State's territory.
In addition, not even Zhao Yuanzuo, King of Southern Liang, Zhao Yuanke, King of Yu, or other wise and famous ministers of the Wei Kingdom in the past hundred years can be said to be able to surpass His Highness King Su in terms of meritorious service.
Of course, even if he could not refute the ironclad facts, it was hard for Yuanling Hou Feng Shu to swallow his words. He looked at Zhao Hongrun and said in an indignant tone: "Xiao Hou is just following the wishes of His Highness Prince Su.
I told you the candidate in my heart, but I don’t want to be humiliated like this by His Highness Prince Su..." After that, he stood up, left the table angrily, raised his hands towards Prince Qing Hongxin and said: "Your Highness Prince Qing, Xiaohou has suffered this for no reason.
It’s humiliating. I have no face to stay here any longer. Please forgive me, Xiaohou, and leave first!”
"this……"
Prince Qing Hongxin had a look of embarrassment on his face, but he was secretly laughing in his heart.
Even he didn't expect that the old man next to him would be so irritable and offend most of the powerful nobles present.
He didn't need to think about it to guess that after Yuanling Hou Feng Shu left today, he would definitely side with his Qing Wang Hongxin, and even pull a large number of people to his side.
But just when he was snickering secretly, he saw Zhao Hongrun raising his hand and shouting: "Marquis Yuanling, wait a minute."
After hearing this, Uncle Feng, the Marquis of Yuanling, immediately stopped and was about to leave. He turned around and looked at Zhao Hongrun with an expression that seemed a little surprised, a little confused, and a little proud.
At this moment, many princes and nobles present in the palace were also a little strange. They were wondering why His Highness King Su wanted to call out Uncle Feng, Marquis of Yuanling, who left the table angrily.
"Is it possible that this Zhao Run is actually a soft persimmon with a fierce appearance and a weak heart?"
Many nobles were quite surprised.
"What other orders does His Highness Prince Su have?" Uncle Feng, Marquis of Yuanling, asked with an air of indignation on his face.
However, to everyone's surprise, Zhao Hongrun had no intention of apologizing to Yuanling Marquis Feng Shu. In fact, he did not speak to Yuanling Marquis Feng Shu at all. Instead, he said to Wei Jiao, the chief of the imperial clan next to him: "Wei Jiao, immediately
Send out your manpower and go to Yuanling to stare at the Yuanlinghou family, and find out for me how many houses, fields, wealth, servants, and daily expenses the Yuanlinghou family has.
The expenditure of his family property, even if it is just one copper coin, must be clearly investigated by me and recorded in detail."
"..." Uncle Feng, Marquis of Yuanling, looked slightly changed.
It's no wonder, after all, most of the nobles in the Wei Kingdom have many legitimate or illegitimate sources of wealth. The reason why they have not been exposed before is not because these do not exist, but because no one has seriously investigated them, or simply
To put it bluntly, no one dared to pursue it—even the imperial court had always turned a blind eye to the profit-making channels of the domestic nobles.
But now that Zhao Hongrun has put forward a serious investigation, it is inevitable that the Yuanlinghou family will be able to find evidence of corruption, perverting the law, and harming public and private interests.
"Don't be stingy with manpower." Looking at Yuanling Hou Feng Shu intently, Zhao Hongrun chuckled and said: "You have to know, Wei Jiao, I have many people under my command. Let's just send a thousand merchant navy troops to Yuanling Hou's mansion.
We are waiting in the fields, shops and other places. Give me twelve hours a day to keep an eye on everyone who comes in and out!... You must check carefully. I don’t want to make a fool of myself in the Ministry of Punishment in the future."
Zongwei Chief Wei Jiao understood and said with a smile: "Your Highness, it is not in line with the rules to directly send merchant navy troops. It is better to send reserve soldiers in the name of training soldiers. As for the number of soldiers, let's send two thousand people... A humble position
I feel that 2,000 people are enough to completely target the entire Yuan Linghou family, and there will never be any omissions."
"Very good, let's arrange it like this." Zhao Hongrun looked at Yuanling Marquis Feng Shu whose expression changed greatly, and said calmly: "Check carefully, check slowly, it won't be a problem to check for a year and a half... I, the king, have many people!"
"As ordered." Wei Jiao responded, cupping his fists.
Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun looked at Uncle Feng, Marquis of Yuanling, as if nothing had happened, and said with a smile: "Marquis Yuanling, don't you want to say goodbye? There is no need to stay here to say goodbye to this king."
"..." Uncle Feng, Marquis of Yuanling, subconsciously raised his head and pointed at Zhao Hongrun, but then he thought of something and hurriedly put his hand down again, his face turning green and white.
It has to be said that compared to the aristocrats of Chu State, the aristocrats of Wei State rarely exposed scandals such as exploiting civilians and harming the public and enriching private interests. However, this does not mean that the aristocrats of Wei State have a noble personality. It is just that few people in Wei State are serious.
to pursue this kind of thing.
Otherwise, it seems that some noble families have occupied the country's mines and mined ores illegally. Is it really true that no one knows about it?
Of course not, in fact the court was more or less aware of it.
However, these nobles are usually quite obedient and have never opposed the court. Therefore, unless there is a scandal that cannot be concealed - such as the collapse of a noble's illegal private mine, causing the death of hundreds of civilians and causing public resentment to boil,
Otherwise, the court would turn a blind eye to such matters.
But once a reputable person appears and wants to investigate the matter, the court can no longer pretend to be deaf and dumb, and must give an explanation to its subjects.
If things get to this point, no matter how noble a noble's status is, it will be difficult for a corrupt noble to save his family. Unless he is a descendant of the Ji Zhao family, his family will be confiscated, exiled to the army, or even executed.
And Uncle Feng, Marquis of Yuanling, did not have a very clean family background - in fact, to put it simply, there were very few powerful nobles in Wei who had a clean family background.
Under such circumstances, Uncle Feng, Marquis of Yuanling, who had just been indignant and ready to leave, now seemed to have his legs rooted to the spot, unable to move them.
It's no wonder that he was feeling anxious and uneasy at the moment. After all, with Zhao Hongrun's method of revenge, not to mention that the family background of his uncle Feng, Marquis of Yuanling, was not very clean in the first place. Even a noble family with a clean family background would definitely suffer heavy losses from Zhao Hongrun.
For example, if there are some shops under the name of the Marquis of Yuanling, Uncle Feng, and whenever these shops are open for business, there are more than a dozen Yanling soldiers standing there with their arms folded. Who would dare to come to these shops?
?
If things go on like this, no matter how good the business was in the past, the stores will be ruined.
Some people may say that if Zhao Hongrun really dares to do this, Uncle Feng, the Marquis of Yuanling, can complain to the court.
But the question is, where is the evidence?
Do you really think that when the time comes, as Zhao Hongrun and Wei Jiao said, they will directly send the soldiers of the Yanling Army there? Will Zhao Hongrun be so stupid?
If Zhao Hongrun really planned to do this, he would just let some Yanling soldiers retire early and send them directly to Yuanling City. In this way, those soldiers would not be included in the Yanling Army's roster, and there would be no evidence at all.
As for arresting those veterans, that makes even less sense. They were just standing on the street in front of the store. They didn't hit anyone or hurt anyone. What reason was there to arrest them?
What's more, if such a thing really happens, it is obvious that Su Wang Zhao Hongrun wants to deal with the Yuanlinghou family. Who dares to interfere rashly in the local government? And the only court criminal department that has the ability to interfere is precisely Yong Wang Hongyu who takes over. As long as Yong Yong
If Wang Hongyu and Su Wang Hongrun don't fall out, the Ministry of Punishment will only turn a blind eye, or simply do something perfunctory - one is His Highness Su Wang, who has made great achievements for the country and the people, and the other is a place that has always secretly invaded the national interests.
Princes, which side do you think the officials of the Ministry of Justice will favor?
Because he knew these things, Uncle Feng, the Marquis of Yuanling, was in a dilemma at this moment.
His only chance of winning at this moment is for all the princes and nobles present to stand up with him and jointly fight against the domineering His Highness King Su in the palace.
At this time, the princes and princes present also vaguely had this thought and plan.
But at this moment, Zhao Hongrun suddenly said something to Chengling King Zhao Wenshen: "King Chengling, I heard that you formed a rebel army a while ago and deployed it in Suanzao to guard against the Korean army crossing the river. It happened that Pi's
The city's defense is empty, would you mind moving this rebel army to Pishi City?"
This sentence not only surprised Chengling King Zhao Wenshen, but also shocked the princes who had originally planned to stand up with Yuanling Hou Feng Shu, and showed different expressions.
I believe everyone present can understand the implication of Zhao Hongrun’s words.
Immediately, the alignment of the princes and nobles who originally had the same interests immediately collapsed. By the time Chengling King Zhao Wenshen came to his senses, he felt that the eyes of many princes and nobles present on him were no longer as friendly as before.
"..."
Chengling King Zhao Wenshen turned to look at the smiling Zhao Hongrun, with a very complicated mood.
How could he not see Zhao Hongrun’s intention?
But the problem is, His Highness Prince Su has thrown out a bait that he can't refuse.