Pei Gonggui

The Mei family's half-filled cooking lacquer, gold carvings and jade, and the ingenious sheng and qin were well-known in Beijing. Because of the long-term banquets and banquets among officials and the ostentation of wealthy families, there are large and small private rooms and private rooms in the big building. Hundred.At this time, the place that Pei Jun decided to welcome Prince Jin is not considered the widest, but because the flower-painted wall panels separating it from the adjacent room were removed, it was combined with the hatchback, and the side length increased a lot. , the four walls in the middle are painted with beautiful begonias with gold silk, and the leaves are inlaid with colorful langs from outside the pass, and against the blue and red silk paintings in the carved corner window lattices, the room is full of plain beauty and complements each other.

In the room, there are three zhang-long plain huanghuali chuck-tenoned square tables assembled end to end. On both sides and in the south seat not far away, people from six departments and several people from Dali Temple and Honglu Temple are sitting around them. Officials, and even courtiers with awkward faces were caught in the tail seat or sat sideways with their heads down, Jiang Yue couldn't name them at the first sight.

At this moment, the western chime bell standing opposite the door just rang, and the agate tassel lamps on both sides of the door were hung with high-quality white candles. Pei Jun noticed that the habitual smile of Prince Jin who was standing outside the door had long since froze on his face. Looking at him, the eyes that looked at him showed a slight chill under the flickering candlelight beside him, and this chill obviously came towards him as the host.

"... Mr. Pei is very interested." Jiang Yue looked at him, and slowly raised his fingers to untie the sable fur, and handed it to Mei Linyu behind him: "It turns out that today is Mr. Pei's promotion banquet, so it's strange that I forgot."

"No, no, the lord is really flattering you. The Holy Majesty's blessings and meritorious deeds from the court, how can a mere minister expect that?" Pei Jun raised his hand sideways to invite him in, with a warm and gentle smile on his face, Let Jiang Yue feel that he is a chicken in front of a weasel, "Today, all the adults in the court invited you suddenly, and you didn't inform the prince in advance, which shocked the prince. I hope the prince will forgive Haihan. The prince please take a seat first, and Rong Chen will take his time." Explain explain."

Seeing that Prince Jin was finally coaxed into the house by Pei Jun, Mei Linyu outside the door held the sable fur and left with a smile. At this time, she stretched out her hand and pulled the red thread of the bell at the door of the private room, and after a while, there were a fish of waiters serving all kinds of delicacies Go upstairs and place them on the long table in the room one by one.

Pei Jun followed Jiang Yue to the carved screen-backed chair in the north seat, and went around to pull out the chair for him. When he looked up and saw Jiang Yue looking back at him suspiciously, he smiled more attentively: "My lord thinks this chair is too hard. Already? Then the minister asked Mei Shao to add a cushion." As he said that, he really wanted to call for someone outside the door.

"..." Jiang Yue hurriedly raised his hand and grabbed his sleeve, struggling to maintain a smile and said: "No need, Mr. Pei should just sit down."

Naturally, Pei Jun thanked Jiang Yue repeatedly, and after Jiang Yue pulled back his robe and brushed his sleeves, he sat down respectfully on the first chair near Jiang Yue's right, and after he sat down, all the officials present silently and tacitly Entering the table, this strange feast finally begins.

The good wine had been placed in a row, Pei Jun poured himself a cup and brought it up, stood up and smiled coyly at Jiang Yue, "I will punish myself with a cup first. The prince was surprised by suddenly inviting all the adults to accompany the table." After finishing speaking, he raised his hand and looked up. He finished drinking the wine in his hand, put down the cup and poured another cup for Jiang Yue, and filled it up for himself while saying: "Second, I want to thank the prince for the honor to come to the banquet. It is a great honor for me."

Jiang Yue took the wine he handed over, and replied in a warm voice: "Your Excellency Pei is polite, and you are welcome to wish him a high promotion." Down.

Pei Jun once again made a toast to return the gift, smiled at Jiang Yue, and then turned to the full audience of officials calmly and said: "I invite you all to come today, and invite the Prince of Jin to come. Contact, it should be a feast, and second, it is naturally also the policy of the new policy of the DPRK and China. With the presence of the prince today, Pei is not afraid to tell you the truth-in fact, Pei is still following the new policy. I absolutely oppose it from the bottom of my heart, but it is hard to violate the sacred intention of the DPRK, and the mentor is at the top, and Pei has to vote with everyone to protect himself. He is really ashamed of the world, ashamed of the people of our dynasty, so he dares to hold the vote against the Prince of Jin I really admire her sincerity without showing it."

Jiang Yue slowly turned his head to look at Pei Jun, and even raised his eyebrows when he heard this: "...Master Pei is too famous."

"Hey, it's my lord, you are being humble!" Pei Jun clasped his fists in a panic, leading all the officials in the audience to offer a round of wine to King Jin, and continued: "Your lord, don't look at us all voting, but we are Like you, we don't agree with Mr. Xue's political views—right, everyone?"

Fang Mingjue from the household department quickly took the lead: "Yes, yes, yes!" As he spoke, he bumped into several young officials and Yan Yuliang around him, and finally said that everyone in the room should agree with each other: "Master Pei is right, say That's right."

Only then did Pei Jun explain softly to the King of Jin in a low voice: "...But my lord, we are members of the royal class, we all have our duties, and we all have a family to support, and it's not the same as the idle clouds and wild cranes outside. I have no way to hide in the mountains and scold the court. What if I don’t agree? Is it possible to let the officials and their family drink the northwest wind? , the two sides have served the parents-in-law and treated the children badly, and they have given enough to the children and are ashamed of the parents-in-law. It is really helpless, so they have to make such a bad plan—"

"What policy?" Jiang Yue leaned on the chair handle in his spare time, gently smoothed a pleat on the sleeve of the black robe, and waited calmly for Pei Jun's fox tail to show.

So Pei Jun stopped playing bureaucratic talk, and after thinking for a while, he said solemnly and sincerely: "My lord, since the emperor insists on going his own way on the matter of the new policy, the cabinet must not speak to you, and we, as ministers, are not enough to make this policy turn around. Then we can only cast votes in order to dominate the situation, and look for opportunities to turn the tide in the future. However, along with this strategy is the cabinet Cai Taishi and his party, which have long been integrated with the court and the central government. The camp must be extremely difficult to deal with. I did not take the liberty to invite the prince to come here today, one is to thank the prince for his generous gift, and to open my eyes for the minister, and the other is to ask the prince for another favor."

Hearing this, Jiang Yue raised the corners of his lips slightly, smiled at him and said, "You want to help me alone."

"My lord Miao Si." Pei Jun lowered his head in shame, poured another glass of wine for him amidst the sound of picking up chopsticks and eating, and asked leisurely: "My lord Jin thinks that the New Deal between Mr. Xue and Mr. Zhang , why?"

The wine cup passed to Jiang Yue's hand shook slightly, causing the crimson wine in the cup to turbulent slightly, overflowing with a hint of sweet red plum fragrance.

Jiang Yue looked down at the cup, smiled, and said softly, "It's for money."

The eighth year of Yuanguang at this time was exactly half a year after the end of the war between the imperial court and Hezhe.The wear and tear of the war, and at the beginning of the year, it happened to catch up with the frequent natural disasters in Nanyu. The disaster relief and the filling of the military deficit greatly exposed the poverty and weakness of the imperial court. The decadence of the inner bones was concealed by the joy of the whole country after Pei Jun returned to the court with a huge amount of war profit. For a while, it seemed to blind the eyes of the world, preventing them from seeing the ant-eating rotten people living under the lofty building. Wood, many people think that the imperial court can send troops to expand the territory, but they don't know that the treasury of the nine prefectures has already been stretched and stretched.

But naturally there are keen people, just like Mr. Xue.In the second month after the end of the war, Taifu Xue saw from the bills received by the cabinet that the dynasty was turning from prosperity to decline, so after deliberating in the cabinet, he hurriedly raised his concerns about finances at the court meeting.

However, among those who share the worries of the king in the court, apart from those who work hard and do practical things like him, naturally there are also those who work hard to whitewash the peace.Soon someone stood up and said: After Hezhe was defeated in the war, he also paid 35 taels of silver and goods every year. Isn't that supplementing the finances?Where does Grand Tutor Xue's words put Mr. Pei's credit?

This remark was undoubtedly intended to cause the Pei Party to remember Qingliu, and also to remind the King of Jin's lineage to recall the shame of Pei Jun's deception, but Taifu Xue did not accept this intrigue, and only raised angrily: "35 taels, Do you think it is enough? Do I still support thousands of officials? Do I still build maritime defenses? Do I still need to repair and repair the official roads in the north and south? Just throw them all over the world right now, all the people in the southwest are fighting together, and the army is full of voices Same Zhang, even if you don’t count the embankment reconstruction and all the waste waiting to be done, 35 taels is still a drop in the bucket! Kuang Hezhe is a very uncivilized place, and now he has turned his flag once, so it is unsurprising that he will not be able to withstand the heavy pressure of tribute and money. Once again - if you want to look forward to finding food to feed the world from the mouths of unfamiliar tigers and wolves, then I, the officials, are too relieved!"

The words were so convincing, without any falsehood, that those who still wanted to make troubles were speechless for a while-after all, if the court is gone, where will the officials and ministries go to fight?Isn't it a joke?

Under such circumstances, not only Qingliu's party, but even Pei Jun realized the need to change course, but before he could help Jiang Zhan to discuss the good and the bad, he would go up early in the next month to seize the opportunity However, Taifu Xue had asked Zhang Ling, a scholar of the Wenhua Palace, as an admonisher, and together with him, he proposed a set of strategies for changing course that had been prepared for a long time. Once this strategy was proposed, it was strongly supported by Cai's party.

Taifu Xue was born in the Ministry of Household Affairs, and most of his ideas were to split a penny into two halves to spend, so he had measures to save money such as delaying the construction period and clarifying the administration of officials. The Boling Zhang family has practiced law for generations, and it is the first legal family in this dynasty. They led the compilation of the current laws and regulations of this dynasty. Therefore, when Zhang Ling and Master Xue proposed the New Deal, they clarified: "The evils of the world can be traced back to the origin, and they lie in the evils of the law." Therefore, in the New Deal advice, most of Zhang Ling's political opinions are It is about strictly implementing the rule of law. People need to know the law and officials abide by the law. Therefore, it is necessary to strictly enforce the promotion and promotion of officials, limit the indiscriminate intrusion of favors, and even strengthen the assessment and dare to dethrone. Reading one by one is solemn and upright, which can almost be called cruel.

And Zhang Ling was even more fearless and said: "The chiefs of the localities and the inspectors shoulder heavy responsibilities, let alone tolerate traitors. If you look through the class books and find unprofessional or lawless ones, you need to strike them out. There will be no mercy."

That day after the court, Pei Jun once stood under the imperial steps and asked Zhang Ling: "Master only said that one stroke is enough, but after that one stroke, the whole family cried and the whole family was angry. Wouldn't this be chaotic? Does the master care if you get up?"

But Zhang Ling said: "It's better to cry as a family than to cry together."

Pei Jun smiled and said: "Master's plan is not unknown to the students. If Master implements this policy, in the past 20 years, the people who have been transferred to various places in the imperial court are just bookworms who respect the law. Progress? How do those who don’t know power use power? At that time, it’s just that your jurisprudence will have more disciples, and the Zhang family’s new strategy will be immortal for thousands of years. It can be used in the world and in the imperial power. Is it really a good thing?”

At that time, among the noisy voices of officials and laymen, Zhang Ling's cold face became even greener when he heard the words, and he turned to him coldly and angrily said: "Pei Ziyu, let me tell you one last time-for an official, for a government, isn't it? Take power!"

Pei Jun's smile deepened: "Master, if this strategy goes down, in the end all unresolved local policies will be handed back to the court officials for consideration, and even the appointment, promotion or promotion of the court officials will be decided by then." It also needs to be judged by the superiors, but who is the superior in the court... Isn't the cabinet under the imperial power? What the master did was to nourish the cabinet with the law. Overriding the imperial power and holding more power in the hands of the cabinet, how pure and clever is this method? If Master is not counting as playing power, there will be no one who dares to say playing power in the world."

Before Zhang Ling could speak, he went on to say: "In the world's politics, as long as those who run the country are still human, it is impossible to use death to restrain them. As long as there are officials in the four directions, it is impossible for no one to exercise power. Master You are a clean stream. The most important thing in this life is law, loyalty, and reputation. However, none of these can be turned into food for the world to eat. What is fulfilled is only your good name. Master needs to know that the evil of the world does not lie in the law, but in the law. Profit, and the direction of profit is the direction of power and people's hearts. If Master does not recognize this principle, then the New Deal will go downhill. If power is not gathered and benefits are not gathered, within five years, it will inevitably be a failure."

Not only Zhang Ling heard these words, but also the officials and royal family around at that time.They also heard Zhang Ling's response to this, that is, he and Pei Jun will never be kind to each other in the future, and even stop all the teaching of Pei Jun in Qingyun Prison, and he is not allowed to take another step, lest he Misleading people's children - teaching everyone to be like him.

Jiang Yue still clearly remembers that Pei Jun laughed it off at that time. In the future, he would never step into the Qingyun Prison, and later confronted Zhang Ling over the New Deal, and said Zhang Ling: "Don't talk about all the people in the world. , Master’s actions are only for his own benefit.”

"—But how does Gu know that Mr. Pei is not for his own benefit?" He didn't drink in the end, and put the wine cup back on the table, looking at Pei Jun with a calm but sharp gaze, "During the New Deal, the Zhang family You can see the benefits, and the Cai family can see the benefits, and they all go for it. Could it be that you, Pei Jun, only think of the world's sages?" He also smiled at this point, and sighed softly, "I don't think Master Pei is like this. people."

Pei Jun was not in a hurry or annoyed and said earnestly: "Oh my lord, you can't keep thieves beaten and don't let thieves eat meat." He carried a piece of steamed whitebait for Jiang Yue and also for himself. One piece, and smiled slightly at Jiang Yue: "This thief is a bright thief, not a prostitute. I am willing to serve this pot of meat to the emperor, to the prince, and to the people of the world. In the year, the lord is less likely to share some meat scum with the ministers, and the ministers can chew on it, and it is not rare when they grow up."

After finishing speaking, he handed the chopsticks in front of Jiang Yue to his hand, and said gently and softly: "My lord, don't listen to my nonsense, you can eat something first. The dishes in this building of Young Master Mei are all good. If the prince is willing, I will accompany the prince to use it again, and accompany the prince to drink and talk happily, and have a long talk."

——I'm afraid it's really necessary to invite several officials to discuss matters.Jiang Yue shook his head amusedly, took the chopsticks straight up, and under Pei Jun's earnest gaze like an old lady, he finally took a bite of the steamed whitebait. The fragrance and aftertaste, although not amazing, are fresh enough and delicious.

At this time, Pei Jun said again: "I often heard that the prince has fought several times and has old injuries. He doesn't like spicy and greasy things. This time, he specially asked Master Mei to make some elegant side dishes. I wonder if the prince still likes it?"

Jiang Yue slowly swallowed a mouthful of soft and warm fish, nodded slightly and said with a smile: "It's okay. I'm sorry for your trouble, Mr. Pei."

"It's a minister's blessing to take care of the prince." Pei Jun narrowed his eyes and smiled at him, and picked up a bunch of green leaves for him: "Try this again."

Jiang Yueke did whatever he wanted, and let Pei Jun pick up the dishes several times, and ate them one by one.At this time, I don't know if the half-cooked meal is really special, or if he just got hungry after hearing Pei Jun's nonsense, that's why all the dishes are really unspeakable. The fresh and delicious taste of Qing Dao is unknown, so that he, who has always ignored the reception of courtiers, has a little understanding that many things can really be discussed in the meal and toast.

It turns out that as long as all the flatterers are in the right position, no matter how wild Ju Zi is, he can turn around.

As for Pei Jun, he really knows this well.

But Jiang Yue didn't speak at the moment, just smiled and ate the exquisite food in silence, but his heart was very clear.

Except for him, who is a traitor on the surface, there are three types of people in the court—one is a dog, all of whom are loyal to the emperor for self-interest, and the other is a slave, all of whom are to share the halo of power , and the third is that as a public servant, he talks about the righteousness of the world all day long, but in private, he thinks about letting the former two ideas be on him for a longer time.

Those who are eagles and dogs are important ministers like Cai; those who are slaves are eunuchs like Hu Li; and those who are public servants are like Zhang Ling.He had always thought that Pei Jun would still be counted as the former for throwing away his obscure and unrefined relationship with his imperial nephew, but now...

It seemed that Pei Jun had neither continued to be blindly loyal to his imperial nephew, nor could he be self-interested.

It seems that he no longer belongs to any one of these three—that is to say, Pei Jun jumped out of this three-way chess game, and became a profit-seeking rule that cannot be used within the chess game, just like Jiang Yue. to divide it up.

Jiang Yue drank the last spoonful of soup, collected his hands and took out a silk handkerchief to wipe his mouth, and thanked Pei Jun: "I've eaten alone, thank you Mr. Pei for your hospitality."

As he said that, he got up, and amidst the compliments and farewells of all the courtiers, Pei Jun said with a smile: "The prince is too polite. I send the prince down."

When the two walked downstairs without a word, Mei Linyu had already brought out a large wooden plate with a smile on her face. On the plate should have been the sable fur that King Jin had just faded, but now she was holding a piece of silk embroidered with silver silk. Wrapped, you can't see what's inside.

Just when Jiang Yue's long eyebrows were slightly raised again, Pei Jun raised his hand to uncover the colorful embroidery on the wooden plate, lifted the contents inside and shook his arms, and for a while the candlelight in the hall was on it Flowing, like azure blue, like Xunlan, like Miaozi, fleeting, and when the flowing light dissipates, it returns to a piece of peaceful pure white, dyeing every complete and light feather on it, which makes people see clearly that it is Wearing a beautiful fur robe.

"Wild fur?" Jiang Yue's face was full of astonishment, and he looked at Pei Jun with a broken smile and said, "Master Pei repaired this fur in such a short period of time, you are really good at dancing."

Pei Jun took a step forward, and gently draped this rich and luxurious fur robe on Jiang Yue's generous shoulders: "I also said that this robe is not easy to repair, and I should try my best as a prince even if I am wearing a sinful body." If you go to the mountains and rivers, even if you bow down and weave it yourself, you will still die."

"It's just..." Pei Jun walked around to tie Jiang Yue's fur ribbon and cord, and raised his eyes with slanted eyebrows, looking into his deep eyes with smiling eyes, and whispered Shen Shen said: "This is my wish, but I have to wait for the prince of Jin to let go of the past and give me the way, so that I can work diligently and slowly."