can love

Chen Bingzhang was awarded a small editor after the palace examination, and he didn't do much, so he felt that he was born at the wrong time, and his heart of serving the country and inspiration was slowly worn away, and he was depressed.

Later, Xie Kun returned to Beijing with Mr. Xie Laohou to report on his work. When the two met again, they inevitably drank and reminisced about the old days. Chen Bingzhang revealed the kind of sigh that he could not be ambitious. Xie Kun has always maintained that kind of admiration and trust for him, thinking that he is a He is a rare person, so he mentioned Chen Bingzhang to his father. Mr. Xie Lao Hou met him several times, and after talking deeply, he also felt that Chen Bingzhang was talented and well-informed, so he was transferred to the household department However, as a small principal, he did not expect to be appreciated by Lu Zhen, then Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs. Not only was he promoted, but he was also recruited as a quick son-in-law.

After Lu Zhen became prime minister, Chen Bingzhang has become the left servant of the household department, second only to the household secretary. Apart from the help of his old father-in-law, his promotion is because he has better personnel and seems to be sincere to everyone, but It made people unable to really get close, never had a deep friendship with anyone, and even the connection with Xie's family gradually faded.

Ever since he became the servant of the left, Chen Bingzhang felt that the power in his hands was easy to use, and he began to use his power and his flexible mind to distribute money in a more subtle manner, such as using the turnover of money to deceive the upper and lower. It was a small amount of money, and later the amount was a bit large, so he took advantage of the opportunity of making accounts to spread it among different payments, even if he checked the accounts, he would not find it out.

However, there is no impenetrable wall in the world. His actions were discovered by Pan Xun, a member of the household department. The report did not threaten Chen Bingzhang, but made the accounts more seamless and helped Chen Bingzhang cover it up. Slowly, Chen Bingzhang discovered what Pan Xun had done. Seeing that Pan Xun had no intention of exposing himself, he tacitly revealed that he would be corrupted. Pan Xun quietly distributed part of his money to Pan Xun, and Pan Xun accepted it without hesitation.However, they often give him some things. These things seem to be of little value, but they are from overseas. Chen Bingzhang has no doubts, because Pan Xun’s family started with overseas goods. It is not uncommon to have these overseas things at home. In this way, the two covered each other, sheltered each other in the household department, and were handy in the court until Duan Wang Li Mingtang became an adult and began to manage the court affairs.

When Li Mingtang started to set foot in the imperial court, Chen Bingzhang was already the minister of the household department, and Pan Xun was also the right servant. As soon as Li Mingtang set foot in the imperial court, he began to take turns in the six departments. Each department was about two years old. He did not take advantage of his prince To intervene in the operation of the six ministries by identity is just to start from scratch, familiarize yourself with its operating procedures, familiarize yourself with relevant knowledge and find problems, or management problems or official problems.

However, he also understands the truth that there is no fish in water, so he didn't take drastic purges, and he didn't report to his father. Instead, he secretly told his officials to make corrections with a soft and silent mentality, so Received the shameful gratitude of these officials, and quietly corrected their own shortcomings. For example, the Ministry of Punishment and the Ministry of Industry can operate in a good direction under such circumstances.

The Ministry of War is Princess Duan's mother's family, and her grandfather, Sun Mingbo, is in charge of the government. He is even more cautious, not daring to cause trouble for his grandson-in-law. tie down.

The Ministry of Rites let Li Mingtang find out about Li Zaishi's embezzlement of tributes and money, so he still handled it as usual, and his younger brother and his wife were involved. I am very lonely, and I often contact my mother's family, but I still hope that Li Zaishi can rein in the precipice and slowly return what he was greedy for.

By the time Li Mingtang arrived at the household department, Chen Bingzhang had been promoted to minister, and the secretary of the household department was Pan Xun, and the fourth prince had already started to set foot in the court. Because he had a close relationship with Li Mingtang and followed Li Mingtang all the time, so he had a relationship with Li Mingtang. Li Mingtang often went in and out of the household department, and because of this, he married the Pan family.

Li Mingtang stayed in the household department for two years and did not find any problems, but he found that the general ledger of the household department was different from the account books of the other six departments. Although the amount was not large, it was discovered later There are discrepancies in the general accounts given to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He doesn't know how to read the accounts, but he knows that there must be tricks in it, but now his identity is only a prince, and even the prince can't check the accounts thoroughly, so as not to cause turmoil in the court. The situation in the court was unstable, so he let this matter go, but sometimes when dealing with Pan Xun, he could not help but bring out his doubts inside and outside the words, which surprised Pan Xun, so he hurriedly discussed the matter with Chen Bingzhang thing.

Because the position of crown prince had not been determined at that time, as long as Li Mingtang was not the future crown prince, it would not be a big problem for Chen Bingzhang. Fortunately, Li Yaoxuan was born, and Li Mingtang, who was still on duty in the official department, was also promoted from Prince Duan to crown prince. Xun couldn't help but find out, and Pan Xun had selfish intentions, hoping that his son-in-law Prince Hui would be in power, but Chen Bingzhang didn't care which prince was in power, so the two agreed to assassinate Li Mingtang, and then found Li Zaishi and talked about it. He also promised that once Li Mingtang died, he would recommend the third prince Ying County King to the emperor. At that time, Li Zaishi knew that Li Mingtang had something to do with him, so they hit it off.

However, Chen Bingzhang wanted to hide behind the scenes and not show up. If the incident failed, he could play around and help Pan Xun get rid of the crime. Lu.

But Chen Bingzhang and Pan Xun are both civil servants. Although there are gatekeepers at home, their kung fu is incomparable to that of the princes' guards. That's why Chen Bingzhang thought of Xie Kun, and took advantage of Xie Kun's trust to escort his personal belongings back home. For reasons, he borrowed those battle-tested guards from Xie Kun, and these guards didn't know what they were really going to do until the last moment. Although they raised objections, but Chen Bingzhang said that his master agreed, so he had no choice but to do so.

Then Pan Xun threw out physical evidence against King Ying at the scene, coupled with Li Zaishi's corruption of ink, he pointed the blame at King Ying.

"So Xie Kun doesn't know what you are doing?" the emperor asked.

"I don't know, Xie Kun has lived in the border for a long time, and he doesn't know much about court affairs and official affairs. His strategy can be used on the battlefield, but it is not suitable for court courts, so we didn't tell him. If you ask, I will threaten him with some of his mistakes and prohibited actions back then, but we have never had any intersection or contact since then."

"Then did Royal Father know about this back then?"

"The first emperor knew some things. Duan Heping of the Ministry of Criminal Justice found some but not exhaustively. What's more, I presided over the investigation, so I covered up some things. The first emperor only knew that Prince Hui and King Baojun might be involved. The late emperor was saddened by the sudden death of the two princes, and couldn't bear to lose the prince, so he just issued a will to bestow the death of the two concubines, and sent the two county kings back to the fief."

"You are Zaifu, you should know why the last emperor's last edict was not fully implemented?"

"When Your Majesty first boarded the Great Treasure, Duke Ding also lived in the southwest for a long time. He mainly focused on military affairs, and he didn't know much about government affairs. Therefore, I discussed with the Queen Mother to let King Ying County guard the spirit of the late emperor first, and then enter the court. The role of king can hold Ding Guogong hostage to form a balance of auxiliary government."

"Then where did the investigation file go?"

"As soon as the first emperor passed away, I secretly sent a servant to steal the file and burn it."

"Is Li Mingtuo involved in these things?"

"I don't know about this. To be honest, I only had more contact with Pan Xun, and I didn't have much contact with Prince Hui, but judging from the performance of Prince Hui later, even if I didn't know it before, I knew it later. .”

"Did you do the assassination of Prince Xuan?"

"This criminal doesn't know about it, but Pan Xun mentioned to me that Prince Xuan's identity is confirmed and he will investigate the case thoroughly. This matter was done by Pan Xun."

"You bastards killed my two imperial brothers and affected my father. It is an unforgivable crime. Come and delay."

At this time, a servant came in to report: "The king of Hui County committed suicide at home."