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“Your Highness, Crown Prince, this humble servant, Su Cheng Sheng, and Ma Cheng'en request an audience…”

To be a servant of the imperial family, addressing oneself as ‘humble servant,’ is something many people in the Great Qian Dynasty cannot even dream of.

After all, this is an ancient feudal society where cannibalism is rampant.

“Come in.”

Fang Xing nodded.

He saw Su Cheng Sheng, the chief eunuch by the late Emperor's side, enter with his close aide, Ma Cheng'en, and immediately knew something was up.

“Speak…”

He held a teacup in one hand and used the lid to skim the tea leaves with the other, speaking casually, yet with an undeniable air of authority.

“This humble servant, acting under the late Emperor's decree, manages the Embroidered Uniform Guard. The roster is complete and presented for Your Highness's perusal…”

Su Cheng Sheng knelt, holding a册子 high above his head.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard is essentially the Embroidered Brocade Guard, responsible only to the Emperor, with the power of investigation and arrest, and has always been viewed with hostility by nobles and civil officials.

If the new Emperor does not accept them, their fate will likely be dire.

“Eunuch Ma, what about you?”

Fang Xing looked at his chief eunuch and sighed.

“This humble servant also holds a position as Deputy Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard… Please forgive me, Your Highness.”

Ma Cheng'en kowtowed repeatedly.

“Father Emperor…”

Fang Xing sighed deeply: “You truly planned far ahead, even my close aide, who grew up with me, is from the Embroidered Uniform Guard…”

“This humble servant deserves to die ten thousand deaths, but the late Emperor only wanted to protect Your Highness. Your Highness is purely filial, this humble servant is merely acting as a villain…”

Ma Cheng'en was in tears.

As the person monitoring the Crown Prince, he naturally knew most of the Crown Prince's secrets, and indeed, there was no intention of rebellion.

Moreover, the Emperor's death had nothing to do with the Crown Prince.

It could only be said that he was unlucky. He originally thought that the Emperor was in his prime, and he would definitely precede the late Emperor and the Crown Prince, but he never expected that fate would be so unpredictable…

“You two, the death penalty can be waived, but the living penalty is unavoidable… Both of you are to be sent to guard the late Emperor's spirit.”

Fang Xing waved his hand, essentially raising high and gently setting down.

“Your Highness, Crown Prince…”

Eunuch Ma was moved to tears. He originally thought he was doomed this time, but he didn't expect a glimmer of hope.

Little did he know that he was the Crown Prince's best witness to innocence, and Fang Xing naturally wanted to keep him in case anyone with ulterior motives investigated.

…

Jingde, year twenty-six.

Today's court assembly was particularly unusual.

Princes who had long left the palace to establish their own residences, such as Prince Tai, Li Ruzhang, and Prince Kang, Li Rujin, were all present, though they tried to conceal it, their haggard appearances were still noticeable.

The officials stood in their places, arranged in the order of civil on the left and military on the right, with nobles and civil officials lined up accordingly.

“Ascend the Luan Carriage!”

At this moment, accompanied by the eunuch's soft shout, a phoenix chair was carried to the side of the imperial throne, immediately shocking the assembled officials.

“Greetings to the Empress Dowager, ten thousand years!”

The officials hurriedly bowed, and they saw the Empress Dowager slowly approaching, supported by the Crown Prince. Everyone knew that something major had happened.

“Last night… the Emperor suffered a sudden heart attack and unfortunately passed away…”

Li Ruzhang immediately wailed: “I want to see Father Emperor! I want to see Father Emperor!”

“Enough, Prince Kang, Prince Tai… You should naturally go after the court session… Now we are discussing matters of state. A country cannot be without a ruler for a day. What do you all think?”

At this time, the officials saw the Crown Prince standing next to the Emperor's throne. Who didn't know that the overall situation was settled?

Yuan Zhao took the lead to step forward: “His Highness the Crown Prince possesses noble character and the visage of a dragon and phoenix. He is the rightful heir and should ascend the throne.”

“We beseech His Highness the Crown Prince to inherit the great mandate.”

The officials knelt down like harvested wheat. Prince Kang and Prince Tai seemed a bit out of place, but they quickly suppressed their unwillingness and knelt down, bowing: “Please, Crown Prince brother, ascend the throne…”

Fang Xing routinely declined three times, then smiled bitterly: “Alas… you have made things difficult for Us.”

He came before the Emperor's throne, but did not sit down, instead standing to the side: “Today, among all matters of the court, the most important is the late Emperor's funeral… As the ancient saying goes, ‘To not change his father's ways for three years may be called filial.’ We wish to follow this… From this day forward, We will rule the court, but the appointment and removal of officials above the third rank will be temporarily frozen… until We are familiar with the situation.”

Friends who are often emperors know that the most taboo thing for an emperor is to make big moves as soon as he comes to power.

Especially for someone like Fang Xing, who does not have the prestige of the founding emperor, his only legitimacy lies in being the son of the late Emperor.

This is actually very fragile. If he is not yet an adult, he will really be taught a lesson by the Empress Dowager and the Grand Empress Dowager…

Even if he is an adult and personally governs, if he immediately shouts that I want to implement new policies, I want to seize power, I want to smash the pot, I want to smash the pots of many, many people… he will still be beaten like a pig's head.

Now that the new emperor has just ascended the throne, it is a fool's dream to seize military power and financial power.

Military power and financial power ultimately require people to seize them. The most important thing is actually the power of personnel!

Now Fang Xing's wings are weak, and he doesn't have many people in his clique at all!

It would be good enough to understand the palace guards and the imperial guards within three years.

Therefore, before becoming emperor, one must break the situation by any means.

After becoming emperor, one must sit firmly on the fishing platform.

For example, the newly appointed Grand Empress Dowager is already so old that he can slowly outlive her.

'Thinking that you are the emperor and everyone has to listen to you is the most foolish idea… This is like how all civil officials will definitely form cliques, and then be of one mind, ridiculously like the Zerg.'

'In fact, everyone below has their own little thoughts. Even if you promote a group of people and overthrow the original ones, after many years, they will all become vested interests, becoming the very people you hate the most…'

'And among the civil officials, there are loyal ones and treacherous ones, and they may even transform at any time… Some are purely loyal when the emperor wants you to be loyal, and treacherous when he wants you to be treacherous.'

Fang Xing looked at the kneeling people below, first the several princes.

This was not a big problem. The overall situation was settled, and the status was determined. If the other party rebelled again, they would be true rebels, condemned by the world.

Now the people want stability and will not be chaotic.

The most ⊥ new ⊥ small ⊥ say ⊥ is ⊥ at ⊥ six ⊥ 9 ⊥ ⊥ book ⊥ ⊥ bar ⊥ ⊥ premiere!

Then there were the nobles.

Thinking of the nobles, Fang Xing sighed. Ancient battlefields were extremely tragic. Whether the survivors were soldiers or generals, they might have some post-traumatic sequelae. To put it bluntly, they were mentally ill patients and were not suited to the environment of peacetime at all.

Especially these nobles, who didn't know how many heads of rebel kings and false emperors they had chopped off, naturally had no reverence for imperial power. Once they had military power in their hands, they would immediately be unstable factors.

It's no wonder that the founding meritorious groups of all dynasties rarely had good endings.

'Fortunately, the first generation is a dragon, and the second generation is a worm… Not to mention the third and fourth generations, it's also good to slowly outlive them.'

'Among the civil officials, although there are also those who plotted against the rebel kings in troubled times, they have no power… As long as you chop off their heads again, the problem is not big. A snake cannot move without a head…'

'The so-called snake head is naturally the person who controls the right to speak. It is normal to form cliques, but there cannot be only one clique. It needs to be balanced… Moreover, if someone cultivates a reputation for decades, and the scholars in the folk all praise him, calling him a ‘sage,’ one should be careful. This is trying to seize the right to speak… Arranging a death from illness or something is just right.'

'Keeping the nobles will prevent people from saying that you are mean and ungrateful, and incidentally suppress the civil officials… The military and civil affairs also need to be balanced.'

'If the Manchus did not have the Eight Banners to suppress the civil officials, how could the emperor have been so comfortable?'

'The so-called emperor's world, before the development of papermaking and other civilizations, must give half to the aristocratic families, and after education is lowered to the poor families, must give half to the civil officials… The real mud-legged people have nothing to do with it.'

'Because only civil and military officials are the cornerstone of rule.'

'If you want to enlighten the people, everyone will read and write, and then the emperor's crown should fall off, and maybe even his head will fall off.'

'The so-called emperor and scholar-officials co-governing the world, at least they only want half, and enlightening the people and universal education costs as much as mountains and seas. Not to mention whether ten national treasuries can withstand it, after withstanding it, the emperor will definitely be beheaded…'

'As an emperor, unless you want to commit suicide, it is impossible to engage in popular education…'

'Feudal dynasties in ancient times were all elite education. Of course, if a farmer's son studies and takes the imperial examination, he will be accepted as a member of the elite. In order to maintain their rule, the ruling class will also pay attention to absorbing fresh blood and updating and iterating…'

Fang Xing looked below, and his plans were already made: 'The most important thing for an emperor is to be the referee himself, never play, and he will definitely not lose!'

'Moreover, I am more calm than the emperors of the past, because my great power belongs to myself, so I can use people with confidence…'

'As long as you have the ability, use it boldly, without worrying about the master being shocked by high merit, or the cunning rabbit dying, the hound being cooked…'

After the thoughts flashed through, Fang Xing calmly spoke:

“All of you may rise…”

…

Just as Fang Xing was accepting the worship of many officials in the court.

In the palace.

“Your Majesty, spare me, spare me…”

Several eunuchs were dragged out and beaten to death.

Zhao Hu didn't even frown: “This palace should be thoroughly cleaned up. How dare they spread news… It's really outrageous!”

“Report, ‘Qinghe Palace’ has been swept clean…”

A member of the Crown Prince's guard quickly came: “The Duke of Ying has already received the decree and is heading to the Imperial Guard camp…”

“Good, We are the Crown Prince's guards, and now we must at least control the palace defense…”

Zhao Hu felt a little hot in his heart.

He was originally just a team leader of the Crown Prince's residence, only a ninth-rank official.

Now it seems that even a third-rank general can be made. This is a case of one person attaining the Dao, and chickens and dogs ascending to heaven.

'The good fighter has no great achievements. The old Duke of Ying has a great influence in the army. Although the late Emperor cleaned it up several times, it was difficult to completely eradicate it. Now, please invite the new Duke of Ying, with the help of the nobles, at least to ensure that the army is not chaotic…'

If the army is not chaotic, there will be no major chaos.

As for the palace coup, the Xuanwu Gate incident, etc., Fang Xing secretly arranged, contacted, and preemptively eliminated them…

In short, he did not give the opponent any chance, and nipped the danger in the bud.

Now, cleaning up the internal lines in the palace is also cutting off internal and external connections.

No matter how many backhands that noble concubine has, now that the palace power is lost, most of them will fail. Separating her from Prince Tai will be of no use.

In the eyes of outsiders, the coup d'état did not involve any military battles, which was very boring.

But in fact, if weapons were really used, it would damage the vitality of the Great Qian and make the world miserable.