My country, you can pinch it

The banquet at Prince Ning's Mansion ended shortly after the emperor left, but even so, it was already late at night.

After drinking, tomorrow will be the New Year's Eve banquet, it would be a disgrace in front of the palace, they should go back to rest earlier.However, these nobles who stepped out of Ning Wang's mansion had no intention of returning to the mansion, and looked at each other with complicated and embarrassed expressions.

"This is because they refused to give us any time to think about it. His Highness King Ning is too anxious!" Someone said with a wry smile.

Duke Ding said lightly: "This is how you can see your sincerity. Sure enough, the threshold of Prince Ning's Mansion is not easy to enter."

"What should I do?"

"What else can we do? Even the emperor came here just now, and he can see clearly. Now who doesn't know that we have voted for King Ning. At this time, we are going against King Ning's will. Isn't it human inside and out?" Yue Tinghou said coldly. One sentence, paired with the howling north wind at the door, quite fit their mood at the moment.

"Since there is no second way to go, everyone should go back and think about how to write this booklet. There will be more trouble tomorrow." After Ding Guogong finished speaking, he bowed his hands to his colleagues and stepped into the carriage.

Under the moonlight, everyone looked at each other, and finally sighed one by one: "That's the only way to go."

On the evening of the second day, Liu Ke straightened her clothes, turned her head and said to Shang Jinling, "I'm going."

"First of all, I wish His Royal Highness the crown prince a victory." Shang Jinling held the stove and smiled softly.

Liu Ke was a little reluctant to leave, and couldn't help but said: "Today's New Year's Eve, Mrs. Shang is not here, and Miss Shang is not here. Ling Ling, I have to leave you alone in the house." The sisters of the Shang family will come with Gao Xueli after the Spring Festival.

Shang Jinling bent her lips, "It's okay, I'll wait for you to come back, let's watch the New Year together."

Liu Ke scratched his head, "I think so too, but there will be a lot of trouble in the palace, and I'm afraid it will be very late when I come back, so you'd better go to bed early."

"Very late?" Shang Jinling raised his eyebrows, pointing out, "I'm afraid the emperor is not that interested in seeing you."

Having said that, Liu Ke was instantly happy, "Okay, then you wait for brother."

On New Year's Eve, every family reunites behind closed doors, only the palace gate is full of traffic, and all the officials get off their sedan chairs and enter the palace on foot.

Liu Ke arrived not too early or too late, and when the civil and military ministers saw him, they all respectfully saluted and greeted him. Some ministers hesitated to come to the door yesterday, and they were still apprehensive. After taking power, give them small shoes to wear.

It's ridiculous to think that the Seventh Prince, who was hated by everyone and regarded as unlucky by everyone six years ago, is now so popular.

Liu Ke has lost interest in teasing people now, so he just waved his hand, "How about making up an apology?"

When the official heard this, he immediately said happily: "His Royal Highness King Ning is really magnanimous, I will keep this in mind."

The minister heard from the side, seeing that Liu Ke was willing to accept the compensation, he also explained: "Yesterday I really had a headache and I was sick, and I didn't dare to disturb His Highness's dinner, so I didn't go to the door. "

Liu Ke didn't care, "If you plead guilty, you will be forgiven, and you will just make up for it later."

"Your Majesty understands."

These days, one has to be afraid that someone will not accept a gift, and one has to find a weird excuse, which makes people laugh and cry.

"Lao Qi is in trouble now." At this time, a sarcastic voice came from behind, "In the past, these people wanted to avoid you, but now they are afraid that they will not be able to catch your eyes, King Ning, it is really..."

"It's enviable." Before King Duan finished speaking, Liu Ke added it, and poked his sore foot with a smile, "Did you overturn the table in anger yesterday?"

"It's just that the father came in person to give you face. I have already received a lot of this kind of grace for my brother. It's the first time for you, Seventh, you are too excited." Brother Duan said lightly, with disdain in his eyes.

Now in the capital, these two are most likely to be there. The officials around have stopped, listened, and watched the fun by the way.

"One time is enough, too much is annoying." Liu Ke raised his hand to brush off the snowflakes on his shoulders, and said with a smile, "Brother Duan, I can still spend New Year's Eve with you again, my brother should cherish it, the weather is cold , stop talking nonsense, old man." He turned his body sideways, "Please."

Over half a hundred years old, isn't he an old man?

The surroundings burst into laughter when they heard it.

When Duan Wang heard this, his whole face darkened, "Lao Qi, are you too arrogant? You haven't become a prince yet, and you dare to talk to your elder brother like this. If you become a prince, wouldn't you not even put your father on the throne?" In eyes?"

"Whether I should be the crown prince or not, I have such virtues, and it's not the first day you know me." Liu Ke said indifferently, "I kindly let you be the first, since I don't appreciate it, then I will leave." Taking a step forward, he sighed with emotion as he walked, "It's rare that this king respects the old and loves the young, but he doesn't appreciate it, tsk, the world is going down."

Duan Wang's face immediately looked like a color palette, but luckily it was dark and the lights were dim, so he couldn't see clearly, he only knew that it would be as dark as the bottom of a pot in the end.

The palace banquet was full, and dance music was an indispensable program. This year was different from the past, King Jing did not attend, but Liu Ke sat in his place.

The emperor sat high on the dragon chair, looking back and forth between Duan Wang, who was drinking coldly below, and Liu Ke, who was picking out the side dishes on the table, and then hooked his lips almost invisibly, showing that he was clear about what happened at the gate of the palace .

Emperor Shun took a sip of the wine in Zhu Yuanfeng's hand, and then said to Liu Ke: "Lao Qi, why are you hungry? It's up to you to keep eating."

"No, but the banquet in this palace is really not tasty, but fortunately it's warmer." Liu Ke finally stuffed two mouthfuls indiscriminately and put down his chopsticks.

The banquet in the palace had to be prepared early, except that the dishes in front of the emperor and prince had just been served, and the other ministers could only watch but not eat, especially those who didn't even have a seat in the palace, it would be even more pitiful.

"It can't be compared with the banquet at Prince Ning's Mansion yesterday. I heard that there are delicacies from mountains and seas, fine nectar and jade dew. No one who goes to the banquet can say a word about King Ning's generosity. It can be seen that in the six years of business in Yongliang, the pockets of the seventh brother are not the slightest bit." After Duan Wang said something pointedly, he looked at Emperor Shun, and said jokingly, "Seventh brother is still crying with his father, and he was exempted from Yongliang's tax. My son can make up for it."

"Exemption from taxes is for road construction, two different things. Father is kind enough to give me such a large fief, how can he be worthy of the emperor's kindness if he doesn't manage it well?" Liu Ke hooked his fingers at the maid next to him, who hurriedly came over with a wine pot and gave it to him. He poured the wine, and during this interval, he grinned at King Duan, "The rule is peaceful, the people live in peace, the business is prosperous, there is grain in the warehouse, and silver in the treasury. Every day is getting better and better. I am the lord." Is it normal to be rich? It’s not like Brother Huang, who, in the name of the New Deal, shouted slogans for the country and the people, but what he did was bandits and robbers. He even had to dig out people’s winter food. Shame, Brother Duan, you were reincarnated from a poor ghost in your previous life, right?"

If King Jing was here, even though they would be eccentric and try to tear each other down, they would both save face and not even take off their underpants in full view of the crowd.

But Liu Ke obviously didn't pay that much attention.Everyone knows that the Seventh Prince is an unscrupulous bastard. What he likes to do most is to make people unable to step down. After six years away, even if his status changes a little, do you expect him to change his temper?

Duan Wang was so anxious that he couldn't help shouting, "Liu Ke!"

"Why, did my brother make a mistake?" Liu Ke took a sip of his wine and clicked his tongue twice, "I haven't read the files and accounts of the Three Divisions, but it doesn't matter whether I read them or not. Isn't it just a bad debt? Thinking that I'm going to take over these things, I'm not in a good mood, Brother Duan Wang, please be considerate, who asked my younger brother to clean up the mess for you?"

Duan Wang fought with Jing Wang for more than ten years, and after the latter was imprisoned by his mother, he was secretly happy for a long time, thinking that he had stepped on his lifelong enemy.

Unexpectedly, a ferocious wolf went away, and a fierce tiger was attracted, and it was eyeing it covetously.

"Father..." Prince Duan looked at Emperor Shun angrily, "Even if my son did something wrong, he is still his elder brother, and he blamed me like this!"

Emperor Shun and the latter said to Liu Ke indifferently: "Ke'er, don't be unruly and disrespectful to your elder brother."

"That must be worthy of respect. Today's New Year's Eve, we are here to eat, drink, and look good, but those people are looking for grass roots to gnaw on the bark, selling their sons and daughters to make their homes broken. As long as you think about it, my son When you see the culprit, there is nothing to listen to. What's more, the person who did the wrong thing looks like he has nothing to do with me. He has a thick skin and is more than enough to keep the Huns in the northwest. What kind of Northwest army do you want? In my opinion, Duan Wangyi A face is worth a thousand troops!"

At the end, the sound was already loud, and when the sound fell, the dancers who were dancing in the pool forgot to move, the silk and bamboo symphony stagnated, and an awkward atmosphere permeated the hall.

Emperor Shun narrowed his eyes and breathed lightly. Standing beside him, Zhu Yuanfeng knew that the emperor had become angry, so he couldn't help sweating for King Ning.

After a short silence, King Duan immediately stood up from his seat, walked to the middle, knelt down, and said in shame and anger: "Father, the new policy has reached this point, so you have to ask your brother to travel thousands of miles to help , It is my incompetence! I am willing to take any punishment, but in the end, I am just assisting the Third Department of Regulations and checking the gates. I don’t care about how to do things. Father, after all these years, my son Even if there is no credit, there is hard work, and the seventh brother was not angry, so he put the shit basin on the son's head, but the son would not recognize it! Please, father, look into it!"

When Duan Wang said this, his eyes were red, and a 50-year-old man, whether he wanted to cry or not, looked aggrieved and pitiful, but it was even more funny.

His evasion made the courtiers look at the other side. Yang Shenxing, who has been ill for a long time and has not improved, is actually sitting here tonight. Listen, as if wandering out of the sky, indifferent.

Emperor Shun ignored him, his menacing eyes fell on Liu Ke, and he said in a calm but rather cold tone: "Ke'er, what are you talking about, do you mean that you don't want me to have a good year?" ?”

The dancers and musicians had already retreated, and everyone held their breaths and listened quietly. The honorable ministers below Liu Ke couldn't help but sweat in their hearts, and the folds hidden in their sleeves seemed to be burning hot. They knew that it had begun. .

Liu Ke raised his hand, pleaded guilty and said: "Father, my son has always had such a bad temper. He said what he said, and never hid it. So if there is any offense, please forgive Father and Brother Duan Wang Haihan." "He acted like a dog, made a bow insincerely at all, and then said, "It is said that this year's event will be completed this year, and it will be very disadvantageous if it is postponed to the next year. Today is the last day of this year. , why don't you break it down."

"Joke, who do you think, are you making decisions for the emperor?" Duan Wang stood up and accused.

"Emperor Father said yesterday that the imperial court can do whatever they want. It sounds good, but things are difficult. First of all, the people of Dashun are agitated and have no trust in the imperial court. If there is no explanation, how can we appease the world?" Liu Ke was unmoved, his handsome brows revealed a resolute attitude, "Although it has been four years since the Yunzhou Rebellion, as the first turmoil against the new law, I think you all have experienced it." Now, especially Master Yang, you know how to appease the scholars and let the people of Yunzhou accept the new law, right? This is the first step..."

The haggard Yang Shenxing said in a hoarse voice under the eyes of everyone: "Behead Liang Chengye, the prefect of Yunzhou, and show it to the public to complain to the common people."

As soon as the words fell, King Duan's pupils shrank suddenly.

Emperor Shun's face finally lost the smile.

At this time, it is no longer obvious what Liu Ke wants to do, so the gang of courtiers should stop messing around.

The officials of King Duan's faction immediately stood up and criticized, "His Royal Highness Ning Wang, are you crazy? Do you want King Duan to apologize to the world?"

Liu Ke didn't speak, the corner of his mouth twitched, and he glanced behind him. Duke Ding stood up and said, "For the affairs of a state, the magistrate apologizes, but for the affairs of a country, the person in charge is naturally responsible, which makes sense."

Now that the scriptures are all written, they can only go to the dark one by one. The nobles behind Liu Ke got up one by one, and took out the scriptures that had been prepared one after another.

Although these nobles were neither loyal nor sincere, they couldn't stand up to their powerful influence. King Jing had been able to fight King Duan for so many years. Thanks to them, there were naturally many reasons to hold King Duan.

It's one of you, one of mine, it's heinous to bring out the evidence one by one, especially the three divisions, who are ugly and make a fortune by themselves, but block their way of making money, don't they stare at them like a vicious dog, Wait until today Qiqi pounces on to take a bite of meat.

Duan Wang's face became paler and paler as he heard it, and he finally understood why Liu Ke hurriedly held a banquet last night just to deal with him today!

He looked at Emperor Shun over and over again, hoping to save him once.

Emperor Shun had obviously thought of this, and he actually kindly went to create momentum for Liu Ke in person, feeling very annoyed in his heart, looking at his son with gloomy eyes.He suddenly regretted calling Liu Ke back to Beijing, and he was rebellious in the back of his head, and he was not a natural thing.

"enough."

Emperor Shun said a word, and the following silenced immediately.

However, at this moment, if he does not give an explanation, he will not be able to calm down the matter. In the end, he said: "The new law has been implemented so far, resulting in the current situation. The Third Department of Regulations should indeed give the world an explanation, and I should give an explanation! As for King Duan, urge If he is not strict and lacks ability, he will go to the corresponding position, think about his mistakes behind closed doors, and punish his salary..."

This is to push all the blame on Yang Shenxing's head, but Wang Duan is lightly let go.

Seeing the dissatisfaction on Liu Ke's face, as if he wanted to refute, Emperor Shun's forehead twitched, knowing that this son would not let it go, so he finally let go: "King Ning, the one born in the middle palace, the one who is born in the palace is the noble one, and the virtuous one is outstanding. , can be a great responsibility, so he canonized him as the crown prince, so as to secure the world and secure the country and the country."

As soon as this remark came out, the corner of Liu Ke's mouth twitched, and the first thing was done.