Pei Gonggui

"Your servant will accept the order!" The commander of the forbidden army immediately led the order out of the hall and left quickly.

At this moment, all the Chinese, military and military officials in the palace looked at each other, and everyone looked at themselves in danger. Even if they were on good terms with the Tang family on weekdays, they would never dare to say a single word to intercede for the Tang family at this moment with overwhelming holy anger.

Among the six parts, Fang Mingjue and Yan Yuliang looked at each other, raised his hand and pulled Pei Jun's back, and said in a very low voice: "Da Xian'er, the emperor doesn't look right today, you mention that matter...be careful." some."

It doesn't need to be said by him, Pei Jun has already noticed it.Jiang Zhan ascended the throne as a teenager, and has been in power for nine years. However, during the nine years, Jiang Zhan struggled to keep his position and power. It is rare for him to be so tough and dictatorial. It is the first time that such a decisive decision has sealed the death of hundreds of people.

And not only Pei Jun present, but all the courtiers also noticed that from the very beginning of this court meeting, all the courtiers were dominated and controlled by the young emperor on the throne. Listening to political affairs is already exhausting enough——

This is also a scene that has not been seen in the ruling and opposition parties for many years after the death of the first emperor and the succession of the young emperor.

Pei Jun raised his eyebrows and glanced quietly at the hall, seeing that Jiang Zhan's anger was gradually calming down. After taking a deep breath and sitting back on the dragon chair, he finally let go of the fingers that were clenching the imperial case until they turned white.

At this time, Jiang Zhan's eyes slowly turned to the last seat of the cabinet, and asked as if pointing: "What else do you want to play?"

As far as he could see, Zhang Ling stood up with his arms in his arms: "I have something to do."

Pei Jun suddenly understood.Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jiang Yue frowned and shook his head at him, which showed that he understood Jiang Zhan's sudden thunder trick just as well as he did.Regarding this, the two looked complicated and solemn, but they could only suspend their doubts temporarily, and listened to Zhang Ling's report:

"Reporting to the emperor, since the case of Yan, the official documents and laws have been distributed to all levels in the suburbs of Beijing, and all villages, counties and towns are asked to try Baojia. So far, this policy has been effective from top to bottom, and it has shown initial success. Orders at all levels have been gradually spread to the north and south. It is estimated that within one month, all the states in the world will be able to establish this system, which will be the basis of the New Deal."

Hearing this, Pei Jun cast a glance at Yan Yuliang at the right time, and Yan Yuliang immediately came out and said, "My Majesty, I have a question: Now that Mr. Zhang's protection has been completed, what about the salt arrest department who supervises the soldiers and civilians of the kitchen households?" When will it be established? If there is no such department, how will the imperial court respond if there are soldiers and civilian kitchen households occupying land to control salt, or villages and counties cutting land for self-fertilization?"

As soon as this question came out, Jiang Zhan frowned again on the throne.He looked at Pei Jun who was standing quietly in the hall, and turned to the cabinet again: "The matter of arresting the salt department has been in the cabinet for a long time, can you make a proposal from the cabinet?"

The matter of arresting the salt department was proposed by Pei Jun, and once it was released to the cabinet, it naturally disappeared.Cai Yan's plan was to delay the matter until the courtiers had forgotten about it, and then pass it in private, and gradually take the power back into his own hands. The emperor's words should be drafted in the near future."

"What day is it?" Jiang Zhan has just been touched by the Tang family's huge corruption, and his heart is still not stable. Now he hears that the Yanmin soldiers are unattended, and he immediately refuses to let him procrastinate. "Why don't you be here today Let’s draft a vote in the main hall. In this way, all the officials can discuss it directly, and I can make a decision immediately, so as not to delay the matter for a long time and cause another accident.” As he said, he ordered the palace servants to bring a few tables and put them in the cabinet seat He took paper and pens and handed them one by one to the eight cabinet ministers present for their writing.

Among the eight pavilions, except for the head and the tail, six of them took up the pen, looking left at Cai Yan for a while, and Zhang Ling for a while at the right, with restless expressions, and it was difficult to settle down.After a few breaths passed, Zhang Ling and Cai Yan handed over the papers in their hands one after another. The six people looked at each other, calmed down, and hurriedly wrote down the papers and handed them over. Finally, the ceremonial officer sang a series of "Second proposals" .

Pei Jun led the remaining people from the sixth part to vote, and looked at Cai Yan again amidst the noise of votes from the five temples, met Cai Yan's eyes like an ancient well, gently moved the corner of his mouth, and said "" Concession".

Cai Yan pretended not to see him, but the wat board in his hand had already been put back under his sleeve.Not long after, he gradually coughed for a while, and then lowered his eyes again, even if the next cabinet asked him a question, he seemed to have never heard of it, as if he was tired.

In this way, the Department of Anti-Salt was determined to be established, and Jiang Zhan asked all departments to work together to deal with it, and even urged the Ministry of Officials to select more talents from the current examination for preparation.Yan Yuliang respectfully agreed, knelt together with Pei Jun and accepted the emperor's order, and together they received the scroll made by the court tailor for the palace examination imperial list, Xie En got up.

At this time, the Honglu Temple came out, and the last important thing was that the princess of the Haring tribe who came to marry Jiang Zhan had arrived in the capital, and all the accompanying dowry and documents had been sent to the palace. It is necessary to check and discuss with the Ministry of Etiquette so as to prepare for the emperor's wedding as soon as possible.

This was finally the first happy event in the early morning, and the atmosphere in the hall was somewhat relaxed, but just as the Honglu Temple handed over the talk to the Ministry of Rites, the head of the Ministry of Rites, Pei Jun, didn't say much, and lifted his robe, Plop knelt down.

All the officials in the palace hadn't responded yet, and the princes were still whispering to each other. Before Jiang Zhan could speak on the throne, Pei Jun folded his hands on top of his head and kowtowed:

"The emperor forgives the crime! The wedding is about to be prepared, and the matter is of great importance. I am ashamed of my guilt, and I dare not take on this important task."

Jiang Zhan's face turned pale, and after a pause, he asked in a cold voice, "What does Pei Qing mean? Does she not want to help me prepare for my wedding?"

The courtiers looked at each other with bated breath, Pei Jun knocked again, and after a moment of silence, he said in a deep voice: "Reporting to the emperor, the recent scandals in the court, big or small, are all caused by six departments, and the left and right are related to the minister. It really makes the minister shameless to see the emperor. Seeing your colleagues face to face, I am even more ashamed of the students and common people in the world, ashamed of my mending gowns and black yarn and salary and silver food. I know that my talents and learning are shallow, I don’t know right from wrong, and I have been an official for several years. However, the officials who have been elected have abused their criminal power and neglected human lives, and the people under their rule have abandoned sages and accepted bribes in exchange for papers. Their faults are so great that it is difficult to forgive them. The selection of talents and the matter of diplomatic relations may bring disgrace to the country and bring shame to the country in the future. Therefore, today, I only hope that I can take the blame and plead guilty, and I especially ask the emperor to dismiss my ministers, so as to rectify the government!"

In the six years since Pei Jun came out of the Imperial Academy and entered the imperial court, he had often acted arrogantly in favor of favors, and retreated as an advance. The words of "pleading guilty" and "hoping for responsibility" were often on his lips.All the officials listened to it, but they all regarded him as seeking favor from the emperor, which had long been ignored.But only today, his speech actually fell on the topic of "special request for dismissal", which made all the officials suspicious.

Jiang Zhan on the throne listened to Pei Jun's words in silence, and the more he listened, the more he frowned.When those words fell, his brows formed shallow rivers, and his face suddenly seemed like frost. The youthful spirit on the skin surface was broken in a few breaths, his brows gradually turned cold and stern, and his eyes were suddenly deep like abyss, and his eyes could hardly fall. On the back of Pei Jun kneeling and kowtowing in the hall.

After taking a deep breath, while all the officials in the palace held their breaths, he suddenly frowned, and said with reddish eyes:

"I won't allow it."

There was an uproar in the hall, and the Taichang Temple Qing had just called out "Think twice, Your Majesty", when Jiang Zhan glanced over:

"I said, I won't allow it."

This was the first time in Jiang Zhan's life that he uttered the word "no" very clearly in front of a crowd of courtiers in the court hall.

Pei Jun, who was kneeling and kowtowing in the hall, still didn't move a muscle. At this moment, he still didn't get up even though the eyes were piercing his back like knives and guns.

Just listening to Jiang Zhan's voice revealing an empty majesty, he continued without seriousness:

"Pei Qing is my teacher, and I want to call him Mr. Pei Qing. I have always asked about political and miscellaneous matters, and discussed everything big and small. Now that the new policy is starting, everything is waiting to be done, the government is difficult, and corruption is rampant. I need reliable and useful ministers around me, if even Pei Qing abandons me, from now on, who else can I trust? Who else can I use?"

He lowered his eyelashes, quietly staring at Pei Jun's ochre-colored sleeves, feeling that the reddish to dark color suddenly resembled a puddle of coagulated and dried blood—roughly and arbitrarily applied to his eyes, even more so. It seemed to stick in his heart, and finally formed his cold sentence: "This matter will not be discussed in the future, and the Ministry of officials and the cabinet are not allowed to accept Pei Qing's resignation. If I want to know who disobeyed this order... then Pei Qing There is no need to go, he will take off the patch coat and black yarn first."

After saying this, he withdrew his eyes indifferently in the dead silence of the room, and said softly: "Retreat."

The ceremonial officer immediately sang and drank, all the officials knelt down with Pei Jun, and the mountain in the Qinghe Hall shouted respectfully, and all the officials got up with a rustle.

The officials walked out of the hall in groups of twos and twos. In the bustling crowd, Pei Jun brushed off his patch coat and straightened up on his knees, only to see the princes and the others walking out with Jiang Yue on their arms.

Jiang Yue looked back at him among the brothers, uncles and nephews, with a look of anxiety on his face. At this time, he tilted his head slightly outward, as if to indicate that he would wait for him at Yuanchen Gate, but he was caught by King Tai and King Cheng in a short while. Pulling it outward, even the cuffs disappeared at the corner of the corridor.

Pei Jun was also pulled over by Yan Yuliang, and asked anxiously: "Zi Yu, the emperor has already cut you off, why did you mention resignation again? You know it can't be done, don't you want to make the emperor unhappy?" ?”

"It's just that we know it won't work, so we have to bring up this matter again." Pei Jun put the wat board sleeve in his hand.

Fang Mingjue leaned over: "You want the emperor to go his own way and not be accepted by many, so that he can pave the way for Prince Jin to take over the government?"

Pei Jun frowned and asked him to speak carefully, and pushed the two of them out of the hall. At this time, he was about to continue talking, but he heard a shout from behind:

"Master Pei! Master Pei stay behind!"

Turning around, it was Hu Li who trotted over in three steps and two steps at a time, put Fuchen in his arms, and smiled at him: "Master Pei, the emperor asked our family to invite you to the imperial study."

Pei Jun rebuffed, "Forgive me, Father-in-law, the Ministry of Rites still has important matters, and I have to sign the seal."

"Oh, Mr. Pei, what can be more important than the emperor? Our family sees that you are so busy." Hu Li hooked his elbow and smiled, and nodded to Yan Yuliang and Fang Mingjue as he spoke. He dragged Pei Jun to the inner palace.

The emperor's life is really difficult.Since Pei Jun had been pulled away from Yan and Fang, and had no other reason to refuse, he could only suppress his impatience and follow Hu Li to the inner palace.As he walked, he frowned and looked in the direction of the palace gate behind him, before continuing on amidst Hu Li's forced greetings, he only hoped that he could break up with Jiang Zhan quickly so that Jiang Yue wouldn't wait at the palace gate. He is too long.

Er Er walked to the imperial study room, the palace servants respectfully sent Pei Jun into the hall, then retreated and closed the hall door.Pei Jun walked in alone, and when he walked around the screen, he saw Jiang Zhan standing in the middle of the room with his back to him, his court clothes still on, with his head slightly raised, as if he was admiring something.

Following Jiang Zhan's gaze, he saw a simple framed ink painting of Jiangshan hung high and horizontally on the wall of the North Mountain behind the throne.

Pei Jun still remembers that this ink painting was drawn by Jiang Zhan himself when he was still an attendant in his early years. Later, Jiang Zhan hung it in the main hall on a temporary basis, and it has been hanging for more than ten years.

The reason for making this painting at the beginning has been mostly obscured by the years, but the words that the two of them said when they were painting, suddenly jumped out from the depths of Pei Jun's complicated memory at this moment——

"Sir, are the mountains and rivers really like this outside? Smoke from cooking houses, long rivers, green mountains..."

"Of course not." That's how he answered Jiang Zhan at that time, "The matter of Jiangshan, how much effort and how many people have I spent in the past 300 years for my ancestors, how can it be so simple?"

Hearing this, Jiang Zhan hesitated holding the pen, turned his head between his arms and looked into his eyes, his appearance was printed in the clear pupils:

"What is Jiangshan like?"

He held Jiang Zhan's hand, laughed, and drew:

"The mountains and rivers are enormous. The rivers are extremely deep, and the mountains are extremely far away. The emperor and the king of a country must have eyes that can reach thousands of miles, ears that can hear thousands of miles, and the ability to wear Only the sound of the mountains can be observed and indulged, and the people of the world can feel the holy meaning."

Jiang Zhan thought his words were funny, like a storyteller: "I'm not a heavenly soldier, how can there be such a thing?"

Pei Jun stopped writing, picked up Jiang Zhan's finger, tapped the tip of his nose, then tapped Jiang Zhan's ear, and said softly in Jiang Zhan's laughter: "The eyes, ears, mouth and nose of the emperor are the palaces inside and outside the palace. People and subjects. As long as the emperor makes good use of good people, the affairs of the world will come to the emperor like birds feeding..."

In my memory, the laughter of the young emperor was like the wind blowing through the bamboo forest, accidental surprise, and surprise like a stone falling into the spring.At this moment, Jiang Zhan, who was alone in the middle of the imperial study, turned to face Pei Jun, but only the outline of the past remained on his non-smiling face. Although his beauty remained unchanged, his spirit was no longer the same.

The young emperor's childish voice lingered in the hall, and he said indifferently:

"Pei Jun, in fact, this painting...is not the one that the two of us painted back then."

Pei Jun's memory was suddenly damaged by these words, and he frowned and looked over, only to see that Jiang Zhan gently placed the golden rooster paperweight in his hand on the wooden table beside him, walking towards him, and continued:

"I liked that painting so much back then, and thought it was so beautiful. When I just painted it, I lay on the couch at night and couldn't stop taking it out to look at it. Unexpectedly, sparks fell overnight and ignited in the wind. , almost set the tent on fire, and in the end, only half of it was snatched... the other half was burnt to a black residue, and it fell into my bedroom. There is nothing left. I'm afraid you will get angry when you know it, and you have to think about it. This is a way to make you no longer suspicious. Later, after listening to Hu Li, I only copied a very similar painting according to the appearance I remembered, and asked someone to frame it and hang it on the wall. When you come, I will tell you: This painting is mine. Hanging it up, I like it very much, we can see it every day in the future, how good is it?

"Pei Jun, you said before that since ancient times, no one has cared whether the things hanging on the plaque or hidden in the tomb are real or not—because they have all become people's thoughts, then No one will pay attention to whether it is what it is...Now I think, what you said is really right. After all, these years have passed, this painting is true and false, you have looked up countless times, and you have never felt the difference ...It's like believing that it will never be fake, so I almost believe it is true..."

Pei Jun felt empty in his chest, and heard himself asking him: "So from the very beginning... when it was hung up, this painting is fake?"

Standing in front of him, Jiang Zhan turned around and looked at the high-hanging picture of mountains and rivers again, shook his head seriously, and raised his finger: "Not really. The half of the real painting I grabbed was mounted on the back of the fake one. Well." At this point, he put down his hands, seemingly amused, "I just won't tell you, how long it will be...you won't know."

After finishing speaking, he looked at Pei Jun with a clear and bright expression: "I heard that you came out from Jin Huangshu's residence the day before yesterday?"

Pei Jun froze, and said, "Xuan'er broke his leg in the Prince Jin's residence, I'll go pick him up and bring him back to the residence."

"Oh, I fell." Jiang Zhan nodded, and sighed worriedly, "I'm still the Seventh Uncle, why can't I even take care of a child...I heard that he is going to your house I have snatched Jiang Xuan back to raise him, I am afraid that he is finally worried about his heirs, and wants to take Jiang Xuan back as his son?"

Pei Jun's brows tightened, and boredom grew in his heart: "Prince Jin is just taking care of the emperor's grandson, the emperor is too worried—"

"Worried too much?" Jiang Zhan raised the corners of his lips slightly, and looked at him with slender eyebrows, as if smiling, "A grandson of the dead father, with the blood of the Cai family flowing on his body, and his uncle's surname is Pei, now he is throwing away There is no mother outside the palace... If you have no children, or if you have a large army - if you are the King of Jin, would you worry about it?"

"What do you want to say?" Pei Jun suddenly felt that Jiang Zhan was a little scary at the moment, so he couldn't help but took half a step back, and raised 12 energy to warn: "Xuan'er is still young, and he is also your own nephew. he--"

"What about him?" Jiang Zhan gradually withdrew his smile, looked up into his eyes sincerely, "I'm his uncle, I've kissed him a generation longer than Uncle Jin Huang, how could I hurt him? I am For his own good, I think about him and consider for him. In my opinion, it is better to take him into the palace and live with me. After all, there are not many chopsticks in the palace, and no one dares to let the child fall. He Now that you have entered the palace, the King of Jin has no reason to bother you—didn’t you say that you are not willing to work in Jingzhao? Then I will allow you to transfer, and you will no longer have to deal with him too much, anyway... ..."

He twitched a smile at the corner of his mouth, and turned his head to look at Pei Jun: "You hate him anyway, how many years has it been..."

"I don't think this matter has anything to do with King Jin, but you really want Naxuan'er as your heir!" Pei Jun looked at him coldly, and the five fingers under his sleeves were tightly drilled into solid fists. If he didn't know that there were guards outside the palace, Guard, he really wanted to strangle Jiang Zhan to death, "Xuan'er is not yet seven years old, and his mother is still in prison, but you want to use him to occupy the place of the eldest son before the foreign princess enters the harem." Bit...Jiang Zhan, do you still have humanity?"

"Human nature?" Jiang Zhan took half a step closer to him again, gritted his teeth in a low voice, "I was only seven years old when my brother was named the crown prince, but I was also pushed out by my mother to kowtow and kneel for him. The only thing is to make my father look at her more, so are they human? Now I just want to take Jiang Xuan into the palace to take care of him, and I want to raise him as my child. I don't even need him to do anything, he What's wrong with being able to stand and sit with the prince just like the prince? At that time, who would dare to look down on her mother? Who would dare to neglect him? Who would dare to let him break his leg? Pei Jun, as long as If you want, I can make him the crown prince in the future, and if you treat me for a hundred years, he will be the emperor, and you will be the uncle of the country, and all the honor in this world belongs to him, as long as you—"

"I don't need it!" Pei Jun gritted his teeth, grabbed Jiang Zhan's neck and looked at him, his forehead was tense with veins, trying his best to suppress the fury in his heart, "Jiang Zhan... you Can you let Xuan'er go? Can you let me go?"

"No." Jiang Zhan answered him almost immediately, opened his eyes even wider, looked into his eyes close at hand, and said soberly: "No. Unless I die."

"You want me to die now!" Pei Jun uttered the last sentence from the root of his teeth, and pushed him away. At this point, he felt that he and Jiang Zhan had nothing to talk about, so he turned and walked towards the gate of the palace.

But the moment he pushed open the palace door, Jiang Zhan behind him ordered in a low voice:

"Come here, take Pei Jun down for me."