According to the ancestral system of the Wei Dynasty, the prince is the crown prince and his status is higher than that of the other princes. What's more, the prince Hongli is also the eldest prince. Therefore, when meeting him in the corridor of the palace at this time, whether it is Yong Wang Hongyu or Zhao Hongrun, they must take the initiative.
Go forward and salute, otherwise it will be a breach of etiquette.
Don't think that the breach of etiquette is trivial. In fact, it can be a big or small matter. If Zhao Hongrun commits this mistake and the prince Hongli is dissatisfied with him, the latter can directly report it to the emperor and ask Zhao Hongrun to return to the palace.
Officials go there to learn court etiquette.
This is frame-up within the rules, commonly known as wearing small shoes.
"The emperor's younger brother Hongyu (Hongrun), pays homage to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"
Zhao Hongrun and Yong Wang Hongyu stepped forward and bowed to Prince Hongli.
It can be seen that as competitors for the emperor, the relationship between the East Palace Prince Hongli and Yong Wang Hongyu seems to have reached its limit. Although there is nothing visible from Yong Wang's side, the way the prince looks at Yong Wang is obviously full of emotion.
A bit cold.
"Second brother, it has been more than two months since my father summoned my brothers and us at the Wende Palace last time, right?...What are you doing at the house, second brother?"
"It's nothing." Yong Wang Hongyu replied with a smile: "On weekdays, the emperor just reads scriptures and practices bow and arrow... The emperor is thinking about showing off his skills in this year's autumn hunting."
"Oh?" Prince Hongli had a strange smile on his face and said lightly: "But why did I hear that you have been running the household department very frequently recently?"
As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere suddenly became tense, and even Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but glance at Yong Wang Hongyu.
"The target of the Second Emperor Brother...is the Hubu?"
Zhao Hongrun was not surprised by this.
After all, among the six official departments of Shangshu Province, the Ministry of Personnel once had the most transcendent status. It held the power of recommending, appointing, promoting, and demoting officials of the Wei Dynasty, and was the head of the six departments.
After the Ministry of Personnel, the most important department is the Ministry of Husbandry. After all, the Ministry of Husbandry is in charge of the revenue and expenditure of the entire Wei Dynasty. Sometimes many government offices have to look at the faces of the officials of the Ministry of Husbandry.
Therefore, it is not surprising that Yongwang Hongyu, who was determined to win the Ninth Five-Year Plan, would try his best to use his brains in the Ministry of Household Affairs.
"Hehehe."
After a brief silence, Yong Wang Hongyu broke the deadlock with a few chuckles: "The prince misunderstood... wasn't it that last year's local taxes had been submitted to the Ministry of Revenue? The emperor's brother also heard that these days
big
People were so busy that they wondered if the emperor's younger brother could be of any help, so they went over to take a look... After all, the Wei Dynasty is the ancestral foundation of my Ji family and the Zhao family. As a prince, Hongyu should contribute a share.
A meager strength."
It is obviously a set of high-sounding words of excuse, but strangely, coming from the mouth of Yong Wang Hongyu, it does not lack some credibility.
At least the Crown Prince Hongli had nothing to hold on to, so he could only say sadly: "Even so, you are not justified in going in and out of the Household Department... Go to the Household Department less often in the future, lest the adults in the DPRK interfere with your trespassing.
Pass."
Yongwang Hongyu heard this and said with a smile: "Yes...the prince's teachings will be kept in mind by the emperor's younger brother."
At this time, Prince Hongli turned his attention to Zhao Hongrun.
It can be seen that the Crown Prince is somewhat resentful towards Zhao Hongrun. After all, more than half a month ago, during the scientific examination hosted by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Crown Prince had clearly sent Zong Wei to signal him.
This eighth brother told him not to interfere in the internal affairs of the official department anymore, but Zhao Hongrun did not expect that Zhao Hongrun did not take his words to heart at all and followed them.
Well, now, on the third day of Confucius Temple's examination, a major fraud case involving hundreds of identical papers was discovered. Seventeen examiners, including the examiner Luo Wenzhong, were all imprisoned. To this day, the emperor's new censor
The prison is still investigating this matter.
Of course, Luo Wenzhong, the newly elected official of the Civil Service Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, could not escape the crime of dereliction of duty because he was the chief examiner. If such a shocking fraud occurred in the examination hall, even if Zhao Hongrun stopped adding insult to injury, Luo Wenzhong would not be able to escape the fate of being demoted.
.
No, the punishment for the examiner Luo Wenzhong has already been issued by the Yushi Supervisor. He was demoted and demoted to a low-level official, which was not much different from what Zhao Hongrun had estimated before.
His son Luo Rong was also expelled from the Ministry of Rites, which was responsible for re-taking the imperial examinations, because his father had committed a crime of dereliction of duty. He was even exempted from re-examination, and three years of his time were wasted in vain.
Of course, this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that the official of the official department, Fan Su, who was in charge of the official examination and paid tribute to the prince, could not be saved by the prince.
Under the strict investigation of the Censor, Fan Su was accused of accepting bribes, cheating in the examination room, knowing the law and perverting the law, etc.
Prisoner Army.
And without Fan Su, who would act as a broker to win over the officials of the Fourth Department of Civil Affairs on behalf of the Crown Prince? Is it possible that the Crown Prince Hongli would personally take action?
Prince Hongli became very angry when he thought about this.
Now that things have happened, Prince Hongli has some regrets. If he had known this, he might as well have listened to Zongwei Feng Shu's advice and abandoned Luo Wenzhong.
I believe that if he had been willing to give up on Luo Wenzhong and signal Fan Su to cooperate with Lao Ba's thorough investigation, Lao Ba would not have ruined the entire scientific examination.
But regrets are regrets, and Prince Hongli's resentment towards his eighth emperor brother has not diminished at all. After all, the latter uncovered the examination fraud case even after he made his attitude clear.
Prince Hongli even suspected that the hundreds of identical articles in the examination room were created by his young eighth emperor brother. After all, Fan Su and others would never be stupid enough to do such a thing.
"Hongrun, as far as I know, you were punished by the clan for something last month... What exactly were your mistakes at that time?"
The prince asked calmly.
In fact, because the clan wanted to protect the prince's secrets and the emperor deliberately suppressed the matter, the palace only knew that Zhao Hongrun had committed a crime and was caught and imprisoned in the clan for seven days, but they did not know what the reason was.
What's up.
Although Zhao Hongrun was only framed by others at that time, but now that Prince Hongli has exposed the scars in front of his face, Zhao Hongrun is inevitably a little unhappy.
"Why does His Highness ask this?"
Crown Prince Hongli had a cold expression on his face, and said in a deep voice: "I am just wondering that you were punished by the clan last month for something, but you still don't want to repent, you are tired of learning and having fun, and you are ignorant and incompetent... As a member of the Ji Zhao clan
Direct descendants, don’t you know how to be ashamed?”
"Made, are you being too lenient?"
Zhao Hongrun's face looked a little ugly.
After all, there are not only the three brothers and their confidant clan guards here, but also the prince Hongli is followed by a group of young masters, lecturers, ministers from the East Palace, and some accompanying young eunuchs.
Although the eldest brother does have the responsibility and obligation to discipline the younger brother, it is in private. Now the prince Hongli scolded Zhao Hongrun in front of these people. This meaning is obvious.
Simply seeing Zhao Hongrun and Yong Wang Hongyu walking together made me feel indignant, with old and new hatreds piled up together, and I couldn't help but feel unhappy.
Zhao Hongrun's expression suddenly dropped, but at this moment, Yong Wang Hongyu secretly gave him a hand, and then said to the prince Hongli with a smile: "The prince said it is true, but the emperor believes that Hongrun will do something."
Changed. Right, Hongrun?"
"..."
Zhao Hongrun frowned and glanced at Yong Wang Hongyu, with a cold face and no comment.
"Huh!" Prince Hongli felt even more unhappy when he saw this. He snorted coldly and went straight to Chui Gong Hall with a large group of people.
Looking at the backs of the group of people as they left with an expressionless expression, Zhao Hongrun waved away Yong Wang Hongyu's hand that was secretly holding his sleeve, and said unhappily: "Your Highness Yong Wang's move is not very kind!"
"Huh? Aren't you the second emperor brother?" King Yong replied with a smile.
After hearing this joke, Zhao Hongrun's face became even more ugly, and he was about to have a fit when he saw Yong Wang Hongyu actually raised his hand and bowed to him, apologizing and saying: "Okay, I have done something for my brother, and I want to accompany you for my brother's sake."
no."
Seeing that the second emperor brother actually apologized to him, Zhao Hongrun was surprised and looked much better: "His Royal Highness King Yong just said that he was waiting for me. Is it because of the matter just now?"
"Hehehe." King Yong smiled, looked back at Zhao Hongrun and said, "If Brother Wei said this is just a coincidence, Hongrun, do you believe it or not?"
"Coincidence? This is too much of a coincidence, isn't it? But..."
Zhao Hongrun analyzed in his mind, and reason told him that it was impossible for King Yong to make such a coincidence between his appearance and the appearance of Prince Hongli of the East Palace. After all, he had no intention of coming to Chui Gong Hall to pay his respects to his father. To say the least, he
, even if King Yong guessed when he would appear, could he still guess when the Prince of the East Palace would appear? The chance is too small!
But if it is a pure coincidence, it is indeed too coincidental. It is so coincidental that even though it is impossible, people still suspect that it was deliberately arranged by King Yong.
"Brother Wei's luck has always been good. Sometimes I even feel surprised that God is on my side." Yong Wang Hongyu glanced at Zhao Hongrun and said with a smile: "To be honest, Hongrun,
Brother Wei was not waiting for you. At that time, Brother Wei just had a whim and wanted to know if he would meet you here, but he did... After meeting you, Brother Wei was thinking again, if the Prince of the East Palace meets you and me at this time
, that scene might be beneficial to my brother, but in the end, the Prince of the East Palace also appeared...that's what happened."
Listening to King Yong's plain words, Zhao Hongrun felt his scalp numb, thinking that this luck was too mysterious.
At this time, Yong Wang Hongyu's self-deprecating sigh made him stunned.
"My brother has always been very lucky. There is only one thing... that is that he was born a moment before me, so he naturally became the prince."
Standing in the corridor with his hands behind his back, Yong Wang Hongyu sighed quietly.
"..."
Zhao Hongrun raised his head and glanced at the second emperor brother.
He has heard about this.
According to rumors in the palace, although the biological mothers of Crown Prince Hongli and Second Prince Yong Wang Hongyu were Empress Wang and Concubine Shi respectively, they were brothers born at different times in the same year, the same month and the same day.
Hongli was born early and became the crown prince, while Hongyu was born later and became an ordinary prince.
Their bad relationship has been entangled since the day they were born.