Back to half a month ago, in mid-April when the Wei State was basically certain of victory in this war, Wei Emperor Zhao Yuanxi, who was still recuperating in Ganlu Hall, summoned Du You, the Minister of Rites, who had just returned to Daliang, to the palace.
Although he didn't know the reason, the Holy Might could not be violated. After Du You received the summons, he immediately went to the palace and went to the Ganlu Hall to meet the Holy Spirit.
When Du You arrived at Ganlu Hall, Emperor Wei Zhao Yuanxi was sitting on his couch, watching the news about the "great victory in the war against Chu" sent by King Yu Zhao Yuandai.
In fact, the good news from King Yu Zhao Yuanji had been delivered to Daliang a few days ago, that is, on the eighth day of April.
But even after two or three days, and after reading the victory report dozens of times, Zhao Yuanci still couldn't put it down. After all, the situation of the Wei State in this war was too difficult. Even he did not expect that the situation of the war would be so different.
With such a turning point, the Wei State was able to achieve such an outstanding victory under the siege of the three great powers of Qin, Han, and Chu.
"His Majesty."
Du You, the Minister of Rites, walked into the palace under the leadership of Yan Shun, the commander of the Zuo of the Archguard Division. Seeing that the Emperor of Wei was looking at a battle report intently, he softly handed over his hands in greeting, so as not to disturb the sick man.
His Majesty.
"Ai Qing is here."
Emperor Wei put away the battle report in his hand and explained with a smile: "I have watched the battle report sent by King Yu over and over again in the past two days. I am so happy every time that I can't put it down."
Du You said with a smile: "I heard that Prince Yu won a great victory in Yongqiu. I have been in high spirits these past few days and my appetite has increased greatly."
"Haha." Emperor Wei laughed, and then said to Du You: "Du Qing, I sent you here today for a "reward". It is really difficult for Wei to win this war. We must not neglect those people."
A loyal and meritorious man.”
"Huh?"
Du You was stunned for a moment, then calmly probed: "Your Majesty, according to etiquette, this matter should be decided by the Ministry of War... If my Ministry of Rites comes forward, it will not be consistent with the ancestral rules."
Emperor Wei smiled and waved his hand, explaining: "In the past, the Ministry of War should indeed have handled this matter, but this time, the King of Qin sent 200,000 reinforcements to support our great Wei. These Qin soldiers are under the command of my son Hongrun.
They fought bravely, we, the Wei Dynasty, can't forget them, right?... Therefore, it is most appropriate for your Ministry of Rites to come forward and hold a banquet to reward them. What do you think?"
The Emperor of Wei had already mentioned this, so how could Du You, the Minister of Rites, dare to have any objections? He could only bow his hands and say, "I accept my order."
After leaving the palace and returning to the main office of the Ministry of Rites, Du You, the Minister of Rites, invited Zhu Jin, the left minister, and He Yu, the right minister, and said to them: "Just now, your majesty summoned me to the palace and appointed me, the Ministry of Rites, to reward the meritorious generals."
After hearing this, Zhu Jin, the left minister, and He Yu, the right minister, both felt very puzzled like Du You before: This is a matter of the Ministry of War, how come the Ministry of Rites is responsible for it? It's impossible to fight with eight poles.
So Du You explained Emperor Wei's explanation at that time to Zhu Jin and He Yu, but the latter two were still hesitant to believe it.
After a long time, Zhu Jin, the left minister, guessed: "Could it be that His Majesty is worried that His Highness Prince Qing is showing favoritism?"
Du You and He Yu thought about it and both felt that this explanation was the most reliable.
You must know that because the Emperor of Wei ordered all the princes to participate in political affairs a few years ago, the six departments of the Wei Dynasty have successively formed their own political stances: except for the Ministry of Personnel, due to the loss of power of the former prince Zhao Hongli, some officials secretly defected to Yongwang Hongyu and
Except for King Qing Hongxin, among the other government offices, the Ministry of Justice supported King Yong Hongyu, the Ministry of War supported King Qing Hongxin, and although Li Liang, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, remained neutral, the Ministry of Revenue generally favored King Xiang Hongjing and King Qing Hongxin. As for the Ministry of Works,
It is best to have a personal relationship with Su Wang Hongrun.
After counting, only his Ministry of Rites can remain neutral.
Under such circumstances, Emperor Wei Zhao Yuancai handed over the task of assessing meritorious deeds to the Ministry of Rites, not wanting to let the Ministry of Rites "handle official business" so that the princes could not interfere in this matter.
With this thought, Du You knew what to do: just deal with it impartially!
On that day, the news that Emperor Wei summoned Du You and ordered the Ministry of Rites to come forward to "evaluate meritorious persons" spread throughout the court.
In this regard, Qing Wang Hongxin felt regretful and also couldn't help but feel a little depressed.
To be fair, the Emperor of Wei finally handed over the task of "evaluating meritorious persons" to the Ministry of War. Qing Wang Hongxin did not have the guts to deduct the merits of people such as Su Wang Zhao Hongrun and Yu Wang Zhao Yuandai, but he could take care of his own people in private, such as
Although his uncle's family, the Sun family of Jiyang, led a private army to defend the country to provide support, to be honest, he did not receive any merit.
However, as long as King Qing Hongxin strokes his pen, will this feat come soon?
For example, he can say that with the help of the Sun family of Jiyang and others, Weiguo forced back the Han general Sima Shang. Anyway, the Sun family of Jiyang led troops to support Weiguo. This is something that the entire Liang Dynasty knows.
But it is a pity that his father handed over the "evaluation of meritorious persons" to the Ministry of Rites, which eliminated the possibility of Zhao Hongxin showing favoritism.
Of course, Qing Wang Hongxin did not have the courage to argue with his father, so he could only acquiesce in the matter, send people to contact the officials of the Ministry of Rites, and try to gain some benefits from his own people.
Five days later, Du You, the Minister of Rites, took the draft of the merit list of "the meritorious men in this battle" to the palace to meet Emperor Wei and asked what the latter meant - since the Emperor Wei had entrusted him with the matter of "assessing the meritorious men"
The Ministry of Rites, this means that it does not want any prince to interfere. The implication is that Emperor Wei is the only person to decide this matter.
Du You thought about this very clearly.
After receiving the draft of the merit review book prepared by the Ministry of Rites, Emperor Wei glanced at it twice and said with a half-smile: "Oh, Sima An will serve as the governor of Hexi. Oh, my tiger can be said to be a grinding machine for Lin Hu in Hetao."
The knife is so sharp."
Du You smiled slightly when he heard this. Of course he knew that the "Hu'er" mentioned by Emperor Wei was referring to King Su Zhao Hongrun.
It is not a secret in the court that King Su Zhao Hongrun strongly recommends Sima An, the general of the Dangshan Army, to be the Hexi Governor. Even those who covet the position of Hexi Governor, such as the Yongwang Party, the Qingwang Party, and the King of Xiang
The party, after seeing the nomination of "Sima An", gave up its intention to compete with him.
It's not that they are afraid of Su Wang Zhao Hongrun or Sima An, but they can see the intention of a certain Su Wang Highness - to let Sima An, who slaughtered several tribes in Sanchuan, be appointed as the governor of Hexi. This is obviously to attack Wei in the future.
Prepare for the Loop area.
Rather than compete with Sima An for the position of "Hexi Guard" and arouse the hostility of Su Wang Zhao Hongrun and Sima An, it is better to acquiesce in this matter and follow these two people in the future to do military exploits in the Hetao area and gain some advantages.
After all, the area around Suchuan Hetao is rumored to be full of cattle and sheep.
Later, when Emperor Wei saw the line "Wei Ji, Lord of Lintao, will serve as the governor of Hedong", he was slightly startled.
In fact, Emperor Wei had already seen the signs of the appointment of Lintao Lord Wei Ji as Hedong Governor. After all, his son Zhao Hongrun, on the one hand, strengthened the status of "Fenyin" in Hedong, and on the other hand, he recommended Lintao Lord Wei Ji to be the Fenyin General.
How could this slow and deliberate trick be hidden from the eyes of Emperor Wei?
But having said that, Emperor Wei had always heard about the talents of Lintao Lord Wei Ji, but it was just that he was a member of the Longxi Wei family, and at that time the Longxi Wei family had to form an alliance in order to survive in the Wei state.
Therefore, Emperor Wei did not reuse Wei Ji, but also wanted Wei Ji, Zhao Sheng and other Longxi people to understand the truth: Wei is the Wei of the Ji Zhao family!
But as time went by, the Wei family in Longxi split internally. Zhao Sheng, the king of Yao, merged into the family tree of Ji Zhao, Wei Ji, the king of Lintao, turned to Zhao Hongrun, the king of Su, and the rest turned to Hongxin, the king of Qing.
Gradually integrated into the Wei State, therefore, it became unnecessary to suppress the Wei family in Longxi previously.
"Hongrun has not yet returned to Daliang. Who recommended Wei Ji?" Emperor Wei asked in confusion.
Du You didn't dare to hide it and said truthfully: "It's Mr. Zhao Yu."
Zhao Yu, also known as Zhao Laiyu, was the third uncle of Wei Emperor Zhao Yuancai and the third uncle of Su Wang Zhao Hongrun.
"Oh." Emperor Wei was stunned when he heard this and said nothing more.
Zhao Yuanxi is also clear about Zhao Laiyu's purpose. In a sense, sometimes Zhao Yuanxi's secret push is similar to Zhao Laiyu's, all for the sake of better conflict... No, to hone someone's
A lazy bad boy.
Suddenly, Emperor Wei frowned slightly because he saw the clause "Jiang Bi will be appointed as Shangdang Shou".
Of course, after this article, the Ministry of Rites deliberately added the note "temporary", probably to test Zhao Yuanci's attitude towards this.
"Has Prince Qing been to the Ministry of Rites?" Emperor Wei asked calmly.
Of course Du You understood what Emperor Wei meant and did not dare to hide it. He said truthfully: "Yes, Your Majesty."
When he said these words, Du You was also a little depressed. Although he understood what Emperor Wei meant and did not want any prince to interfere in the merit evaluation, the problem was that he couldn't resist Qing Wang Hongxin.
However, to Du You's surprise, Emperor Wei simply said "Oh" after hearing his answer, and then said with a smile: "I have no objection to the merit review book drafted by Aiqing, but now King Yong
Supervisor of the country, I love you and please give this merit review book to King Yong for review... If there is no problem, just evaluate the merit according to this book."
When Du You heard this, he was deeply surprised and resigned respectfully.
About an hour later, Du You left and returned, returning to Ganlu Hall to report back to Emperor Wei: "His Royal Highness King Yong has no objections."
"There is no objection? Oh, is Hongyu trying to drag Hongli into trouble? But Hongyu, Hongli is not the only one who will be dragged into trouble because of this matter... Oh, this is interesting."
Wei Tianzi's eyes flashed with some unfathomable strangeness, and he said with a smile: "In this case, my dear, please reward the meritorious people according to this merit review book... By the way, all meritorious people must be invited,
Let our allies in the Wei Dynasty see the many heroes and heroes of our Wei Dynasty!"
"...Yes." Although Du You felt a little strange in his heart, he did not dare to go into details.
…
…
"King Su! King Su!"
"King Su! King Su!"
Seeing Su Wang Zhao Hongrun walking to the center of the hall to accept the award, and nearly half of the meritorious people in the seats on the east side of the hall raised their arms and cheered, Emperor Wei glanced at the sons of Yong Wang Hongyu, Xiang Wang Hongjing, and Qing Wang Hongxin. Seeing them
His expression was strange and his smile was stiff, so he raised the wine cup and took a sip of wine.
This was used to cover up the inexplicable smile on the corner of his mouth.