Fenghou

Chapter 343 Conspiracy
Wang hesitated for a while before saying: "The letter from the Empress Dowager was also written by Ta Lan, so he made two demands, one is to prevent Chen Qing from returning to Shaanxi, and the other is to get him convicted!"

Qin Hui was really uncomfortable, and Wan Yanchang was also confused, how could the Queen Mother be involved in such a thing?

Of course he understood Wan Yanchang's intentions and used the Empress Dowager to put pressure on himself.

Qin Hui really had a sense of crisis in his heart. If the Queen Mother did better than himself, would he become an abandoned child?
Maybe this is what Wan Yanchang meant. If he can't handle things well, he can choose between himself and the queen mother.

Qin Hui was secretly annoyed, but there was nothing he could do.

Wang glanced at the letter in Qin Hui's hand again, and asked, "What did Tanlan say?"

Qin Hui smiled wryly and said, "It's similar to the content in the Queen Mother's letter, except that there is one more item."

"What more?"

Seeing his wife's curious face, Qin Hui really didn't want to talk about some things, but he also knew that if his wife's request was not met, she would not tell him the news about the Queen Mother next time.

Qin Hui could only say: "He wants a gunpowder barrel from Chen Qingjun, let me get it for him as soon as possible."

Wang was at a loss and said: "What's so strange about the gunpowder barrel? You can buy it on the street. Doesn't the Golden Congress have it?"

"I also found it strange at first, but the messenger told me that the gunpowder in Chen Qing's army was different, and they also tried to bribe Chen Qing's soldiers, but it is said that ordinary people can't touch it."

"Since ordinary people can't touch it, what can my husband do?"

Qin Hui pondered for a while and said: "There is only one way, let the officials put pressure on Chen Qing, let him hand over the secret of the gunpowder barrel, so that other Song troops can share it, it cannot be used exclusively by his army, as long as other Song troops have Now, it will be easy to get it."

Wang rolled her eyes and said: "Chen Qing is very cunning, he will definitely do everything possible to evade it, even if he handed it over, it may not be the real thing, it is better to let the government directly send a special envoy to fetch a few barrels from his army, and the husband will bribe him at the same time." Special envoy, hide a bucket in the dark, so that you can explain to Tarlan."

"That's a good idea!"

Qin Hui greatly appreciated it, but his wife had a brain.

At this time, he thought of Wan Yanchang's other two requests, and his head started to hurt again, to prevent Chen Qing from returning to Shaanxi, to convict Chen Qing and deprive him of his military power.

"Then you said Chen Qing should be convicted and deprived of his military power, what should we do?"

"Well! If you find his weakness, you might as well talk to Bo'er. He is Chen Qing's old enemy, so he should have a better understanding of Chen Qing."

Qin Hui nodded, it doesn't hurt to have a talk with Wang Bo.

In the morning of the next day, Chen Qing came to the Ministry of Officials. The Ministry of Officials was also responsible for conferring titles. He did not come here this time to report on his work, nor to show merit. It was Li Gang's job to apply for credit.

When he came to An'an, there was only one thing, conferring a knighthood.

Generally, he doesn't need to make a special trip to Lin'an for conferring titles. The main reason is that his title is the Duke of the Kingdom. This is not an ordinary title, and must be bestowed by the emperor himself.

In the Song Dynasty, the titles of the ministers were generally the highest, and only the relatives of the emperor had the opportunity to be crowned kings, or the title of the king after the death of the minister, anyway, it cannot be inherited by the descendants, and the title is actually meaningless.

Only Tong Guan regained the empty city of Yanjing because of Song Shenzong's last decree, and was granted the title of King of Guangyang County.

This is the first minister who was named a county king while he was alive, but it also set a precedent, so that generals such as Zhang Jun, Han Shizhong, and Yang Cunzhong were all named county kings while they were alive.

As for the duke of the state, it is not very unusual. Basically, famous ministers and prime ministers can be named duke of the state, especially in troubled times, there are more generals who can be named duke of the state.

But this time Chen Qing was indeed lucky to be the Duke of Jing, because Yang Yao was too harmful in Huguang, and he formed an alliance with the puppet Qi, but the imperial army was unable to destroy it after repeated defeats.

In desperation, Zhao Gou made a public promise at the court meeting to promote Yang Yao to three ranks and make him a Duke.

Originally, the title of duke of this country should have been given to Li Gang, because Li Gang was the commander in chief who defeated Yang Yao in Dongting Lake, but because the puppet Qi aggressively attacked Jingxiang, Li Gang had no skills at all. The important task was transferred to Chen Qing, so that the final reward and credit belonged to Chen Qing.

In addition, it is also related to Li Gang's poor popularity in the court. No matter Lu Yihao, Zhang Jun, Li Hui, Zhao Ding, or the emperor Zhao Gou, they all don't like Li Gang. Although Qin Hui doesn't like Chen Qing, he hates Li Gang even more. He would rather Chen Qing win the title than Li Gang's comeback.

Therefore, no one spoke for Li Gang, and the grand prize of Duke of the Kingdom fell on Chen Qing's head.

The person who received Chen Qing was Zou Yi, a doctor in the household department. He took out a stack of forms for Chen Qing to fill out, and said with a smile: "I heard that Chen Du ruled Yang Yao before, and many officials in the court thought that the possibility of being a Duke Big, maybe the title will be changed to the Duke of the county, but Mr. Zhang said, the officials keep their promises, how can they go back on their promises, and it turns out that the decree is indeed confirmed. It is the Duke of the State. Refill, you just happened to be here, so I simply let you fill it out by yourself, lest we make a mistake."

"Why refill?" Chen Qing asked.

Zou Yi shook his head, "I don't know either, the above didn't say anything."

When Chen Qing read the last letter of conferring titles, he understood that the wording should have been changed. In the past, he should be commended for his military exploits in annihilating the water thief Yang Yao. Qing made many achievements in Huguang, and was specially awarded the Duke of the Founding Duke.

The sentence 'many achievements made by Huguang' is very vague. It includes not only the achievements of destroying Yang Yao, but also the achievements of resisting the invasion of the puppet Qi army. It is the two achievements Zhang Jun made for himself yesterday. If so, the will will be renewed.

In fact, this kind of approach is a bit petty. Logically, as a dignified emperor, he should not care about this reward. If I guessed correctly, it must be related to the empress dowager's pressure.

Fortunately, Chen Qing didn't care. He quickly filled out various forms, signed and stamped, put down his pen and said with a smile, "What else?"

Zou Yi checked it carefully and was sure that the filling was correct. He looked at the address again and said with a smile: "I will report it today. After the Ministry of Officials approves it, it will be reported to the Shenzhengtang, and finally the Shenzhengtang will report it to the emperor. This process will take about ten days. , once it is approved, we will cast a seal, and at the same time, we will notify Chen Dutong of the specific time to meet the officials."

"After I have an audience with the official family, will there be another conferring ceremony?"

Zou Yi shook his head and said with a smile: "The audience with the officials is your conferment ceremony. The kind of separate conferral ceremony you mentioned is only for conferring princes. Generally, conferring the three princes is only until the officials meet."

Chen Qing nodded, "Then I have nothing to do now, just wait for news at home?"

"That's right. Of course, if there are other matters in Dutong, it has nothing to do with me. I only care about conferring titles."

"I understand, thank you Langzhong Zou!"

Zou Yi smiled, put away a stack of documents and left.

Chen Qing sat in the official department for a while, then got up and left
Walking on the square, Chen Qing suddenly heard someone calling him from behind, and when he turned around, it was Li Gang chasing after him.

Chen Qing stopped, and Li Gang ran forward panting, "I said I was going to find you! I didn't expect to see you here."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Hey! I went to the Privy Council just now, and I was almost pissed off. This is not a place to talk. Let's go out and have a cup of tea."

It was still early for lunch, and the two came to a teahouse next to the imperial city. A tea girl ordered tea for them, and Li Gang waved her hand to let the tea girl go down.

Li Gang sighed and said: "I don't know what happened? The imperial court erased your name and credit from the credit book, and Li Hui said that he would count credit for you alone. I don't understand what he meant by this sentence? Judging from his tone, it seems that it is not a good thing."

"I went to the official department today, and the official department has already told me the reason, so I probably understand."

"What did the official tell you?"

"What they mean is that my contribution in the battle of Jingxiang should be counted together with the contribution of exterminating Yang Yao."

Li Gang frowned, "But these are two things!"

"Xuanfu envoy think about it, I just killed Yang Yao and named Jing Guogong, but in a blink of an eye, he wants to reward me again, what should the court do? The officials can't make me the king of the county anymore!"

"It's just nonsense! These are two completely different contributions, how can they be confused? Besides, you don't have to be a knight, and promotion is also good, why not give it to you? I'll talk to the officials. If you didn't send troops, Jing Xiang would have If it is lost, I, Li, will also jump into the Yangtze River to die for the country, basically it is all due to you alone, how can the court not count?"

Chen Qing smiled and said: "Actually, Mr. Zhang and I have already talked about it. I agreed to their arrangement, but I also made a condition."

Li Gang heard that Chen Qing had already agreed, so he could only smolder in his heart, and asked sullenly, "What conditions did you offer?"

"I give up the credit for the battle of Jingxiang, but all my generals will be promoted to another level in addition to the normal rewards, and then the soldiers who died in our army will be doubled."

Li Gang understood that Chen Qing actually gave credit to his subordinates. Normally, each person was promoted by one rank, but now each person was promoted by two ranks, and then doubled the compensation for the fallen soldiers.

Li Gang nodded, sighed and said: "You are really good, no wonder your subordinates are willing to work for you, I know, then I don't have much trouble, hey! I wanted to go to the Zhizheng Hall to have a big fight There is no need to offend them now, thank you Chen Dutong for the timely notification!"

Speaking of this, Li Gang bowed his hands to Chen Qing, and Chen Qing hurriedly bowed and said, "I should be the one who thanks the envoy Xuanfu for standing up for me!"

(End of this chapter)