Pei Gonggui

"Your Excellency Pei walked in front of the imperial court. We all know that Eunuch Hu has a close relationship with the two provinces, so we need to have more eyes and ears. How can we not hear about it?"

The king of Jin told Pei Jun's lie, raised his eyebrows slightly and looked at him with a smile: "Your Excellency is self-effacing. If the proposal for the New Deal is passed today, the court will have to listen to the opinions of all officials in the morning after three days. Just ask Mr. Pei if he still holds the ticket."

This dynasty followed the old system of the previous dynasty, and the emperor still set up the Hengyuan Pavilion as the meeting place for important ministers, or the cabinet. There were three officials and six cabinet scholars, a total of nine officials, all called "the cabinet department".Whenever there is an important matter in the court that needs to be decided by the emperor, the memorial will be handed over to the cabinet first, and the nine cabinet ministers will draft it first. Whether you agree with it or not and the comments and suggestions for this decision are all written, and they are all sandwiched in the memorial for submission.

If the cabinet votes are passed in a more-to-less manner, it will effectively guide the emperor to make a decision. However, in order to seek fairness and to obtain the cooperation of all officials in the implementation of the policy, the emperor will listen to the opinions of all officials at the court meeting before the imperial pen and Zhu approve. To show that the government is not monopolized by important ministers.

Among these opinions, those who agree with officials are called express votes, those who sternly oppose them are called negative votes, and those who neither express nor oppose are called holding votes.

Holding a ticket means speaking without expressing meaning.Faced with issues that require the opinions of hundreds of officials in the court meeting, if officials with the right to speak choose to hold votes, it is actually tantamount to silent opposition.This kind of situation often occurs when the vote-holding official opposes the decision-making, but has a lot to do with the person who proposed the decision-making, so he cannot confront him sternly.

This is Pei Jun's current situation.Because among the initiators of "Xue Zhang Changing Strings", "Xue" is Taifu Xue Wufang, while "Zhang" is the scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion——Zhang Ling, who is famous as the head of Qingliu in the dynasty.

Not wanting to expose all the previous feelings, Pei Jun raised his eyebrows and asked King Jin at this time: "The minister is just a small ticket, it is insignificant, why should the prince ask the minister?"

King Jin finished grading the papers in his hand, raised his arms and rested his chin on the chair handle, and said with a gentle smile: "I don't understand the affairs of the government, I only know that the six departments are all of one mind with Mr. Pei, so naturally Mr. Pei The opinion is the opinion of the Six Parts, if you are lonely, it is better to have another ticket with Mr. Pei, so as to save yourself from wasting your brain."

——Sure enough, I want to follow the ticket again.Pei Jun wanted to untie the waistband of his trousers and strangle the traitor's neck. He knew in his heart that King Jin was definitely not trying to save his brain so he wanted to vote with him, but just to appear peaceful in the court.

"It's a great honor for me to be able to share the worries of the prince." Pei Jun secretly thought about how to respond according to the memory of his previous life, and nodded and bowed with a smile on his face.

Prince Jin waved his hand at him indifferently: "No, to be able to work together with Mr. Pei for the future, and to defeat the limelight of Cai's relatives is to be alone in Mr. Pei's glory. I must thank Mr. Pei alone. He brushed off his robe and stood up, probably about to leave, "Then, does Mr. Pei hold a ticket?"

Pei Jun was silent for a while, and said quite sincerely: "Your Highness knows about it, minister, so naturally you can't vote against it."

The implication is that King Jin also thought of it: "Naturally. Otherwise, how can Master Zhang lose face..."

Hearing what he said, Pei Jun curled his lips and bowed his head, saluting: "Yes, that's what I want. If the lord agrees with the vote, the minister will thank you in advance. In the future, he will rely on the lord's help when discussing the new policy." I helped."

King Jin nodded with his lips drawn together, "Well, then I won't disturb Mr. Pei's work." When he came down from the hall to rub shoulders with Pei Jun, he suddenly remembered something, looked down a little, and then laughed.

"Lord Pei's patched coat has been repaired, the embroidery is pretty good, and there are no traces."

These words changed suddenly, before Pei Jun could react, he heard Jin Wang continue: "It must be the same for the lonely Fu Di Qiuqiu."

"..." Pei Jun gritted his teeth and smiled, "Definitely, I will send my lord a blessing."

Seeing the figure of King Jin disappearing at the entrance of the Si gate, Pei Jun straightened up and shook his head and chuckled at the man again. Shaoyin's ear room in the backyard of the Ministry ordered his subordinates to bring up the records of the private salt case in the suburbs of Beijing in April.

Since ancient times, table salt has been necessary for the people's livelihood, and it has always been strictly controlled by the government. It uses the bottom price to collect income from the private sector, and then sells it at a high price. Taxes are set up at various places in transit, and huge profits are obtained from it to be charged to the national treasury. During the war, salt was hoarded and disturbed the country. Therefore, the imperial court strictly prohibited private cooking and competition between private traffickers and official salt.The so-called private salt refers to the table salt that is produced and sold privately in violation of the relevant government prohibitions.

Since the government's salt price is full of miscellaneous taxes at various levels, and it is not static, it often rises depending on financial needs. Therefore, when the salt price rises, ordinary people often cannot afford salt, but salt is something that everyone has to eat Yes, naturally, private salt with a lower price came into being due to luck, and its benefits are shared by everyone. The government has severely punished and tortured it, and it has been banned repeatedly, and it has become more and more rampant during wartime and poor times.

The Jingzhao Division, where Pei Jun worked, solved a small salt smuggling case in the suburbs of Beijing in April of the eighth year of Yuanguang, and sent all the salt dealers in the suburbs of Beijing to the Ministry of Criminal Justice for sentencing.But in this year, the price of official salt is not high, the water in the salt market is not deep, and the interests of private salt are relatively meager. After the start of the New Deal of the Communist Party of China—under Taifu Xue’s radical policy of preserving money, the imperial court set up a special “salt suppression department” to strictly investigate illegal salt. It just happened to hit the knife edge of the new yamen, and asked the salt arrest department to ask for merit, so he took out a big search to investigate, but followed the clues, and found out that these small salt dealers were actually just the big salt lords from Wuguang and Guangxi who had placed in Beijing. A few chess pieces.

At that time, it was cited as a major case by the court, and Wu Guang's private salt was uprooted. The confiscated salt goods and family wealth were equivalent to more than 1 million taels of silver, not to mention the salt mines and factories owned by the salt lord. All of them can be used by the official salt, and the silver produced is more than tens of millions.

In his previous life, Pei Jun thought that this could also raise money for the imperial court. At first, he didn't care about it, but later he saw Cai's party keep pushing people into the anti-salt department. Shocked, but after a righteous change of course, they have already started to make money from the salt industry - so that this new anti-corruption policy has also become a way for corrupt officials to get money.

At that time, he only realized later that he wanted to intervene, but in the end it was too late to get a piece of the pie—not to mention that he didn’t get back too much money for Jiang Zhan. All the greed in the industry has been planted on him, just like a man who has gnawed on the skin of a melon being used to steal melons.

That being the case, it would be better for him to occupy the melon field first if he is so unlucky.

"My lord, the case is here." At this time, Jingzhao Shensi Song Yi brought a few volumes of documents and put them on Pei Jun's table, and said strangely: "It's such a small case. Take it out and take a look?" He rolled his eyes and lowered his voice: "Could it be these traffickers..."

Pei Jun opened the file, gave him a deep look, and clicked his tongue twice: "It's really Song Shensi, how can this court hide it from you?" He laughed and patted Song Yi's shoulder, imitating Song Yi's humility. He made a voice: "Forget it, the peddler's Gao Tang's old mother is waiting to be raised, and it's just a momentary obsession that got into the muddy water. If you know your mistakes and correct them, there is nothing better. I'd like to trouble Song Shensi to the Ministry of Criminal Justice to inform, saying that we have arrested the wrong person. Let them close the case."

As soon as Song Yi heard it, he thought that his boss Pei Jun had already taken the money from the peddler's family for the crime. He wanted to use his money to eliminate the disaster, so he hurriedly expressed his position: "Yes, yes, your lord is very right! Your lord Compassionate and wise, I will go to the Ministry of Punishments right now, and release those traffickers today."

"Then there is Lao Song Shensi." Pei Jun wrote down the names of several dealers in the file, then handed the paper back, and said with a smile: "You don't have to bother Prince Jin with such trivial matters, what do you think? ?”

Song Yi took it with both hands respectfully, nodded again and again: "Yes, yes, my lord is thoughtful, and I understand it."

In this way, Pei Jun got acquainted with the affairs that should be done recently in the Jingzhao Division, and felt more and more confident in his heart. After lunch in the division, he had to go to the imperial city with the affairs of Enke prepared by the Ministry of Rites .

In the early winter afternoon, the sun was blue and white, and the sedan chair staggered to Sichongmen in the imperial city.As soon as Pei Jun took the department's badge and got off the sedan chair, he saw three important ministers coming out of it.

At this time, it should be that the cabinet votes have just been released, and the three who walked out are all cabinet ministers.The first one with straight eyes, thin lips, gray eyebrows, and a stone-blue golden pheasant men's gown is none other than Zhang Ling, a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion.He was talking about the New Deal in a low voice with the two academicians behind him, when he raised his head while walking, he met Pei Jun face to face.

Pei Jun paused for a while, then bowed to the side to get out of the middle, and lowered his head slightly: "Master Wan'an."

But Zhang Ling didn't seem to have heard Pei Jun's words, even his expression didn't change, his face was still as cold as frost unique to his Zhang family, and he led the people to walk past Pei Jun.

When he was far away, Pei Jun straightened his head and handed over the waist badge record to the servant. After receiving a few compliments and auspicious words from the servant, he joked about it and went back to the palace with Zhang Ling.

Unexpectedly, as soon as others stepped into the courtyard of the Ministry of Rites, Feng Jiru, the servant, came out holding two booklets: "Master Pei, you are here, and I have been waiting for you for too long! Look, this year's Qiu Wei The roster and the year-end tribute will be handed over to the imperial court, don't you wait to read it first?" He said, handing out the two booklets in his hand, and then wiped the sweat on his forehead, which was respectful He smiled and said, "It's all here."

Pei Jun took the two booklets, thinking that Feng Jiru must have picked up good things with the tribute booklet, why would he wait for him again, but comforted him: "Hey, Feng Shilang is tired, our Ministry of Rites has lost you What can I do." After saying that, he gave him a casual glance and said with a smile, "Then Shi Lang Feng will send it to the imperial court, and this court will go in and have a look—"

"Master Pei!"

While talking, two young eunuchs came suddenly and saluted Pei Jun: "Master Pei, the emperor announced that you will have an audience immediately, and wants us to invite you."

When Pei Jun turned his head and saw him, he knew that he was the little father-in-law who was serving in front of the imperial court. He sighed secretly that Jiang Zhan couldn't escape once he entered the imperial city.

When Feng Jiru saw this scene, he immediately handed back the two volumes he just took in his hand to Pei Jun: "Then this is—"

"Then Feng Shilang will send it to the imperial court together with this court." Pei Jun looked at the fire, smiled slightly at Feng Jiru, and raised his chin at the little eunuch, "Let's go."

"This..." The two young eunuchs glanced at each other and had no choice but to agree. They buried their heads in front and walked into the palace. At this time, Feng Jiru, who was following behind Pei Jun, finally had layers of sweat on his forehead. .

After a while, when they arrived at the Imperial Study Room of the Zhongqing Palace, the little eunuch reported to the servants one by one, and finally led Pei Jun in.

As soon as the door of the palace was opened, there was a burst of rich ambergris fragrance from the inside.Without squinting his eyes or raising his head, Pei Jun led Feng Jiru to kneel down when he entered the hall: "I bow to the emperor."

At this moment, there was a sudden silence in the hall, and after a while, a clear and cold voice came from the hall:

"Feng Shilang is also here."

The two young eunuchs who led the people in immediately fell to their knees, lying on the ground trembling.

Feng Jisu, who was mentioned by the emperor, had already leaned over and threw himself on the ground, swallowed his breath and said, "Return...to the emperor, today the autumn tribute list and... and the year-end tribute booklet are all out, Pei... Mr. Pei brought his ministers here to report to the emperor."

Hearing this, Jiang Zhan's eyes fell on Pei Jun who was in the lower hall. For a moment, the thin white left hand on the imperial case slowly clenched his fist under the golden sleeve, clenched it tightly for a moment, and finally let it go slowly, and said softly: "Then present it up." , let me see."

The eunuch next to him went down the steps to take the brochure in Feng Jiru's hand and presented it. For a while, the hall was so quiet that it was audible and breathtaking, until a moment later Jiang Zhan picked up the imperial pen to approve the brochure and said something. : "Okay, let's do it like this." Feng Jiru at the bottom seemed to have received an amnesty, and hurriedly kowtowed to thank him, and took the booklet handed back by the eunuch with both hands.

Only the emperor said again in the hall: "Feng Shilang step down first, I still have something to explain to Mr. Pei."

Feng Jiru then kowtowed more devoutly to thank him, saluted and hastily left the hall.

Pei Jun kept his eyes down and knelt on the ground without moving a muscle. At this moment, he could only feel the shadows in the hall swaying slightly. It was the maids in the palace who filed out behind closed doors. Suddenly, there was a piece of bright yellow clothes embroidered with blue silk and dragons. Then, the clothes rolled and sank, and Jiang Zhan suddenly squatted in front of him, looking into his eyes with a pair of eyes like ink beads.

"Pei Jun, are you avoiding me?"

Pei Jun turned his head to avoid this gaze, "I dare not."

"You nonsense!" Jiang Zhan raised his hand to grab his front, his slender brows trembled slightly, "you treated me like that yesterday, I told you not to turn back, and announced that you would not enter the palace, did you still Are you angry with me?" He let go of Pei Jun's skirt with his fingers, and then shook Pei Jun's sleeve in a fawning manner, "It's because of the New Deal, isn't it? You're still angry that I agreed to Zhang Ling, right? no?"

Hearing the words, Pei Jun felt his heart tremble, and finally he remembered it, and suddenly he was stunned as if he had lost his words.

——It turned out that the moment he returned to his soul was actually...

"Pei Jun, Pei Jun..." Jiang Zhan took the hand under his sleeve, clasped his fingers with him, lowered his eyes and said in a low voice: "There are deep evils in the world, it is like a raging fire, only worry about turning it into a blaze, you once said But there is no other way but to change the course, but why do you oppose the New Deal? Zhang Ling is your master, you have always respected him so much, but since he and Master Xue proposed the New Deal in February, how many times have you quarreled with him? Because of how many times he held the ticket, he ordered him not to step into the Qingyun Prison to mislead his children, and he is still a stranger to him, don't you feel sorry for him?"

He stretched his arms around Pei Jun's waist, put his chin on Pei Jun's chest, and raised his head to ask him: "Pei Jun, you just agree...won't you agree? Liubu's heart is up to you In one place, as long as you vote, they will vote, can you help me? If you don't want to, you don't have to vote, you help—"

"emperor."

Pei Jun pinched Jiang Zhan's shoulders violently, pushed him away from him, and looked at him at the same level.

Under his gaze, Jiang Zhan didn't move at all, for a moment he looked like a very cute rabbit, his black eyelashes trembled slightly, his eyes were filled with anticipation, and he obediently waited for Pei Jun to speak again.And Pei Jun looked at him quietly like this, but almost at this moment he saw the face that he had stared at every time in his previous life - seeing those happy, fawning, begging, coquettish looks, overlapping again With this clear and expectant face right now, he suddenly realized that he and Jiang Zhan had always been just a tool, a dog.

He remembered everything now—it turned out that yesterday in his previous life, he had a quarrel with Jiang Zhan in the imperial study for the first time in his life because he heard that Jiang Zhan wanted the cabinet to vote for a new policy today, saying that it was decided at the meeting of all officials. He will sternly oppose the vote and lead the six ministries to fight the cabinet to the end.After Jiang Zhan heard this, he begged him softly, but he was very firm. He only said that the new deal would end in failure, and he would never agree with Jiang Zhan gambling with the power of a country. Wrap around and blow wind in his ear, as long as he no longer opposes the New Deal.

So in his previous life, he compromised, and finally held the vote at the court meeting, so that the new policy had not been dissuaded by six stern words, and the young emperor could agree to it and implement it in the world.

But five years later, the New Deal, as he said, was indeed defeated after spending a huge amount of official money and material resources.

"...Pei Jun?" Seeing that Pei Jun had been silent for a long time, Jiang Zhan called him and raised his hand to tug on his sleeve.

Pei Jun was brought back to his senses by this, and he couldn't help but slowly let go of the hand holding Jiang Zhan's shoulder.

He looked at Jiang Zhan for a while, and in a moment, the originally cold and stern expression gradually softened, his brows relaxed a little, and after a few breaths, even the corners of his lips curled up slightly.

He heard himself say to Jiang Zhan: "Don't worry, your majesty, I will not vote against you."

Then he backed up, kowtowed, and exited the main hall with all manners. Standing on the imperial steps outside the hall, he was blown by a biting winter wind. Suddenly, when the altar woke up, he felt that his eyes seemed to see the reunion of the previous life and the return in the shadow of the blue and white swaying sun. The self in Chaoshi——

At that time, Pei Jun was walking in from the Zhongqing Hall with a smile, and the familiar palace servants whistled and greeted one by one, young and tireless pushed open the door of the Imperial Study Room covered in travel dust, and before he knelt down, he was greeted by a The bright yellow shadow rushed into his arms:

"You're back!"

At that time, he hissed pretending to be in pain, and Jiang Zhan's face changed in fright: "What's wrong? Are you injured?"

But he still kept silent, letting Jiang Zhan hurriedly tore off his belt and stripped off his several layers of clothes, and stroked his thin white fingers over his bare chest, searching inch by inch, looking at his left waist. , Look at the right waist again, finally there is no bloodstain.

The young emperor then became very angry and said angrily: "Good you Pei Jun, you lied to me again!" After saying that, he turned around and ran away, but Pei Jun grabbed a handful from behind and hugged him, and bit his jade-colored back with his mouth. On the neck: "The emperor has taken off his minister's clothes, how can he be so easy to run?"

As he spoke, he turned Jiang Zhan over and kissed him carefully, then pressed his nose and asked, "A Zhan, do you miss me?"

Jiang Zhan pursed his lips and pushed his face away, and the tips of his ears gradually turned crimson: "I'm so busy with state affairs, I... I can't take care of him..."

"That's it." Pei Jun smiled lightly, and stopped talking to him so far, but buried his head in his neck again, greedily sucking the sweet and rich ambergris fragrance around his body, and put his broad palm into the golden silk embroidered chest. Under the dragon robe, after a while, I finally heard an uncontrollable whisper in my ear.

Jiang Zhan hugged his neck, his eyes seemed to have some water, and he was full of anger and aggrieved: "I recruited you into the palace to hand in the tiger talisman, and you will bully me as soon as you come back..."

Pei Jun seemed to be waiting for Jiang Zhan's words, and when he heard the words, he took out three iron objects from his waist with a smile, and sent them to the bottom of the dragon robe in the blink of an eye, and pressed them back and forth against Jiang Zhan's thigh: "Mr. Is it—”

"Pei Jun!" Jiang Zhan pressed his hand, his whole face blushing, "Tiger charms are precious, you, you can't be like this..."

"So what?" Pei Jun smiled angrily, rubbed the tiger amulet in his hand to the base of his leg, and continued to pinch the back of his head with his other hand and kiss his snowy neck and red lips, until Jiang Zhan's legs felt tense, and even trembled slightly , then took out the tiger amulet and put it on the table contentedly, bowed his head and kissed his face: "Look, this is so frightening, why? I said earlier, I can't eat enough for you by myself, why would you call someone else?" Things to divide..."

At that time, the candles in the inner hall were flickering brightly, and it was as if the moonlight cut Hezhe's blade and shone coldly into his eyes in the blink of an eye.

He closed his eyes, he hugged Jiang Zhan tightly, and then hugged Jiang Zhan tightly...

So far empty-handed.