fifth form

"She is verifying your sincerity!"

In the Weiyang Palace, the Empress Dowager whispered to the new emperor.

Even though the new emperor listened to his Majesty's advice and was willing to be a good baby in front of the Empress Dowager, the new emperor did not expect that it would be so difficult to be an obedient grandson.

In just two days, Taizu Dou followed the orders of the Empress Dowager and launched an extremely violent attack on the Confucian faction in the court. He even directly rebuked Zhao Wan, Wang Zang and others, and searched for evidence to let the new emperor Act on these two top Confucian scholars.

The Empress Dowager did not directly suppress and capture Zhao Wan and Wang Zang, but handed the matter over to the new emperor.

This is to force the new emperor to be cruel to Confucianism, and it is also the new emperor's declaration of surrender.

The new emperor needs to make a final choice whether to choose the old and seriously ill Empress Dowager or the Confucianists who continue to insert Confucian scholars into the court system.

"Think about it carefully," the Empress Dowager said, "but don't try to delay it. The longer it is delayed, the worse it will be!"

"understood!"

"Your uncle said that you can either take advantage of your illness to risk your life and bear the name of rebellion from now on, or you can gamble your life and see if the Queen Mother will cut off your wings step by step or use the power of the sect to finally make you abdicate and replace you!"

The Empress Dowager mentioned the reasons for the new emperor's difficult choice.

It was not that the new emperor was reluctant to give up Confucianism, but what he would use to leverage his strength after giving up Confucianism.

The Empress Dowager can force him to cut off two important Confucian ministers today, and force him to cut off others tomorrow. In the end, the new emperor will have no basis.

This is far heavier than the price the new emperor thought he would pay for bowing his head, and may even be too heavy for the new emperor to bear.

If you invest in the Palace of Peace, it almost means gambling your life.

But if he didn't surrender to the Anle Palace, he would look like a joke guarding the Anle Palace late at night, further making the Empress Dowager think he was unworthy.

The possibility of his rebellion has been greatly reduced after that night. At least Li Guang will not take it seriously anymore. As for the feasibility of wooing Confucians to target Anle Palace, it is far less likely than the new emperor has arranged it. He was suppressed on charges of treason and immorality.

The Empress Dowager seemed to have mentioned two paths, but neither path was easy to follow.

Obviously the Empress Dowager is lying in the Anle Palace, but the new emperor feels that he is the fish waiting to be slaughtered on the chopping board.

He fell into a dead end. He seemed to have a choice but in fact he had no choice. He could not control his fate whether it was to the left or the right.

"Mother, I know!"

After watching the worried empress dowager leave, the new emperor looked at everything in Weiyang Palace.

This was the center of power of the Han Dynasty, but it was not the center of power.

One mountain cannot accommodate two tigers, and one dynasty cannot tolerate two voices.

Only one person could make the decision between him and the Empress Dowager.

Cintiq undoubtedly lacks advantages at the moment.

If Li Guang, the chief guard of Weiyang Palace, did not follow him in rebellion, the new emperor would have no choice but to lead a few young eunuchs in rebellion.

Correspondingly, Tian Fu's first choice is simply impossible to achieve.

But the second option was difficult for Cintiq to accept.

He used the most ceremonial methods of installing chariots, pulling silks, and adding jade to seek talents. However, in just half a year, he was about to exclude the school that came to seek talents from the court.

This is undoubtedly a big joke in the world, and will completely destroy the prestige that the new emperor brought when he ascended the throne.

And this would also mess up all Emperor Jing's Confucian arrangements beyond control.

What's more serious is that the new emperor no longer has any leverage to rely on. As long as he follows the wishes of Anle Palace and attacks Confucianism, all the ministers in the court will inevitably turn to the Empress Dowager, and he will be reduced to a person on the throne from then on. mascot. "The old man's words are just words on paper and difficult to apply in practice. If I continue to do this, I will become a puppet. Even if I do things as the Queen Mother wants, she will look down on my talents and talents!"

The choice was difficult, and the consequences of the choice were unbearable for the new emperor.

No matter how he chooses, he will always lose.

"I was supposed to be the master of the Han Dynasty and should have supreme luck. Why did I end up like this..."

The new emperor was sitting in the empty Weiyang Palace, and his head was as hard to find as an empty palace.

He was in a daze for a long time, and it was not until the young eunuchs asked questions repeatedly that the new emperor came back to his senses.

"What's the matter?" the new emperor asked.

"Your Majesty, there are several great scholars outside Sima Gate asking for an audience. The leader said that he holds the Order of Confucius and that he can meet the saint!"

"The great Confucian who holds the Holy Order of Kong should be Kong Zhong, the successor of the Kong family. What is he doing in the palace?"

Confucianism is inclusive, with not only diverse cultivation levels, but also extremely complex factions. The descendants of Saint Kong are not the masters of Confucianism, but these descendants are respected by the major Confucian factions because of their bloodline, and have survived peacefully to this day.

This has to be said to be an extremely wonderful school model. Even if the dynasty changes and the school collapses, the Confucian family is still living well and is respected by various schools of Confucianism.

Even the Kong family belongs to the nominal heads of the major Confucian schools. Even if it is in name only, the other party does have this qualification.

The new emperor was in a bad mood and didn't want to see anyone at the moment.

But for Kong Zhong, who holds the Kong Shengling Order, he still has to take into account the nominal leader of the school.

"Xuan... I'd better come out of the palace to greet you!"

The new emperor just wanted to summon Kong Zhong and others to see him, but after thinking for only two seconds, he got up.

He treated Shen Peigong and Meicheng Confucianism with extremely high etiquette. If Confucianism, a nominal sect of Confucianism, came with Kong Shengling, but he just summoned them casually, it would undoubtedly be criticized.

Moreover, his current situation is not good, and he almost feels the same pain as Kong Zhong.

This caused the new emperor to come out of the palace to greet him personally, and the young eunuch shouted to inform him again and again.

The new emperor could not travel more than five hundred meters, and then he saw five dwarfs trotting in a row, led by the eunuch.

The dwarf at the front was holding a dark token, and his face was full of anxiety. This state made the new emperor shudder.

It was rumored that Saint Kong was nine feet tall and six inches tall. The new emperor did not expect that the height of this generation of the Kong family would be reduced by half.

"You are Kong..."

As the young eunuch said, "Your Majesty has arrived," the new emperor also spoke.

But before he finished speaking, the leader Kong Zhong knelt down holding Kong Shengling, and the four dwarfs behind him also knelt down.

"There is no need to perform such a grand ceremony of kneeling and worshiping," the new emperor took a step forward to help him.

"Your Majesty, we deserve to die. We should not let those three monsters dig up your ancestral graves." Kong Zhong held the order and begged loudly for mercy: "We are incompetent, but we didn't expect that Zhao Wan and Wang Zang knew about us. Even though we have little ability, we were asked to garrison Yangling where a powerful enemy invaded. They should have sent Zhou Ba, Xia Kuan and others..."

Kong Zhong knelt on the ground and loudly scolded the censor Zhao Wan and the doctor Wang Zang for their faults. Part of the content even involved the two illegally amassing money to gather Confucian students.

This made the new emperor narrow his eyes slightly.

Until now, he finally figured out how to deal with Confucianism without triggering a backlash from the surrender school.