People in the early Tang Dynasty: I compete with Wu Zhao for the throne

Chapter 1453: Prince Xiang, are you so impatient?

The night is dark, Jade Dragon Garden.

Li Xuan opened her eyes gently, looked at the darkness above, sighed softly, and a trace of pity flashed in her eyes.

"Husband." Pei Shitong seemed to notice something and opened his eyes drowsily.

Li Xuan reached out and hugged Pei Shitong into his arms, and then whispered: "Tong'er, do you think it's instinct for the family to repeat itself?"

Pei Shitong looked at Li Xuan sleepily. It took him a long time to understand Li Xuan's words. His sleepiness immediately dissipated, and he asked in a low and worried voice: "Husband, what's wrong?"

Li Xuan smiled, looked up into the darkness above, and said softly: "Tell me, what will happen if the final candidate for Minister of Rites is Doulu Qinwang, Minister of Household Affairs?"

Pei Shitong was stunned for a moment, subconsciously thinking about what Li Xuan said, and then her expression changed: "What happened to my husband?"

"Don't worry about what happens, you just need to say, if it's you, how will you feel about it?" Li Xuan shook her head gently.

Pei Shitong pondered for a moment, collected his thoughts and then said: "I heard from the third sister that the selection of the Minister of Rites this time will be nominated by the Minister of Personnel, so the Crown Prince Zhan Shi Yao Gong and the Prime Minister Shi Doulu Gong will be nominated. But the final decision should be made by the political hall.”

Li Xuan nodded lightly. In this case, since the emperor and Empress Wu decided to make the situation in Luoyang more lively, they naturally had to delegate the decision-making power of selecting the Minister of Rites.

Only in this way will the eyes of the government and the public be temporarily removed from the emperor.

"The prince is now in charge of the political affairs hall, so as expected, the prince's will should prevail." Pei Shitong raised his head and looked at Li Xuan and said: "If the prince is in charge personally, he will not be able to decide on the candidate for the Minister of Rites, or even the Prime Minister. , then it shows that the government and the public do not actually accept the prince sitting in the East Palace."

Li Xuan nodded gently. The original candidate for Minister of Rites was Wei Beipi, the Minister of Household Affairs, who was a clan member of the Crown Princess.

Donggong even included Yao Lingzhang, but he was also a candidate to accompany him.

Even the emperor and Empress Wu wanted Wei to serve as Minister of War, but in the end, they overturned.

This shows that the crown prince has very little control over the political affairs hall, and that the prime ministers in the court do not accept Li Xian as crown prince.

The entire court situation will immediately become turbulent.

The opportunity for the Prime Minister came back.

"Listen to what my husband said, but the political affairs hall... no, it's Prime Minister Cui. Cui instead supported Duke Doulu?" Pei Shitong thought of what Li Xuan said about the family's repetition before, and immediately understood who Li Xuan was talking about?
"In the current political affairs hall, in addition to the prince, there are six prime ministers in total, Zhongshu Ling Xue Yuanchao, Shizhong Pei Yan, Zhongshu Shilang Li Yiyan, Huangmen Shilang Wang Dezhen and Huangmen Shilang Cui Zhiwen, plus Yue Weng, a total of six. "

Li Xuan said calmly: "Normally speaking, if there are too many objections to the selection of candidates for the Political Affairs Hall, then they will be based on the vote."

The emperor gave the power to choose the Minister of Rites to the Zhengshitang, so he naturally had to follow the opinions of the Zhengshitang.

As for whether he will be appointed today and dismissed tomorrow, that is a matter after the appointment.

"If Shilang Wei gets the most votes, then there is no doubt about it, but if someone gets the same votes as Shilang Wei, then..." Li Xuan's face became solemn.

"Don't the prince still have a vote?" Pei Shitong raised his head in surprise.

Li Xuan shook her head slightly and said: "If the votes are tied, as long as someone says, please ask the queen to make a decision, the prince's vote will not be used."

"Doesn't that mean that the prince's vote has never been used?" Pei Shitong suddenly realized.

Although Li Xian is in charge of the political affairs hall, if something is beneficial to him, the situation will be settled without his own vote at all.

When encountering such a tie vote, just as Li Xuan said, if someone only needs to say, please ask the queen to make a decision, then the vote of Li Xian, the prince, will be equal to none.

As for what happened to Li Xian, his vote was basically useless.

"So, the emperor will agree to the prince sitting in the political affairs hall." Li Xuan's eyes were heavy, and he did not expect that the situation would change so quickly.

If there is no rebellion from the Cui family, then there are Cui Zhiwen, Wang Dezhen, Xue Yuanchao, Li Yiyan, and Liu Rengui. Even if Pei Yanzhen becomes Shangshu Zuopushe, he will give up three points.

But now that Cui Zhiwen has turned against him, he only needs to win over Pei Yan. If Zhongshu Province fights against Xue Yuanchao, the situation will be unfavorable to Li Xian as long as there is a tie, not to mention a reversal.

Although Liu Rengui was formerly Shangshu Zuopushe, and now even though he is the third rank of the Prince and Taifu Tongzhongshu, His Majesty and the Queen of Heaven often call him Zuopishe, but after all, he is no longer Shangshu Zuopushe.

Even if he can use Yu Wei to sit at the head of the political affairs hall, he is actually just a clay Bodhisattva.

For the matter of the Minister of Rites, the Prime Minister's Palace only needs to get two votes and then persuade others to abandon their votes. Even if the East Palace has two votes from Liu Rengui and Xue Yuanchao, it will be difficult to win.

Although Li Xuan has a good relationship with Wang Dezhen and Li Yiyan, when it comes to this kind of thing, the exchange of interests behind the scenes and the back and forth of connections, it is difficult for Li Xuan to guarantee that these two will support Donggong at the last moment.

I have to admit that the Zheng family is one of the seven families with five surnames. If you really want to choose one, you will never leave it. They do have the qualifications to influence the overall situation.

Pei Shitong also figured this out, raised his head and looked at Li Xuan, and asked softly: "Now, will the Zheng family really do this for the sake of the Prime Minister?"

"Yeah!" Li Xuan nodded lightly, without explaining why he was so sure.

Not only Pei Shitong, but even Mrs. Cui of Tong'an would not understand that Li Xuan actually placed people at her house and around her.

The Zheng family's butler was indeed an old servant of the Zheng family, but he was a member of the Zheng family's third family.

Although they are not direct relatives, if the people in the third house are in charge of the people in the fifth house, it will definitely not sound good.

Li Xuan had already secretly contacted Ye Wanwan and the children of Zheng's third house.

In fact, these people never knew that the messages they sent later would eventually reach Li Xuan's hands.

In the entire Zheng family, except for some extremely secretive things, many other things were difficult to hide from Li Xuan. …

"Husband, is Cui Xiang really following the Zheng family's actions? If he does this, wouldn't it mean that the Cui family has completely fallen out with the East Palace, leaving no room for peace?"

"It stands to reason that the Zheng family is the Zheng family and the Cui family is the Cui family. Even if they are in-laws, the interests of the government and the public are always their own, and they don't care about anyone else." Li Xuan hugged Pei Shitong into his arms and said softly: "But Mr. If Wang comes forward and makes a personal promise, it will not be surprising if Cui Xiang weighs the interests and repeats it, not to mention that there is a bachelor from Beimen. "

"Queen of Heaven?" Pei Shitong immediately understood the biggest reason for this.

"It's hard to say what the Queen thinks, but the North Gate bachelors will definitely act under the guise of the Queen. Even if they don't mention the Queen, the world will think that the Queen is supporting them from behind, especially the family." Li Xuan smiled slightly, Cui Xuan said If Li Xuan really did this, there really was nothing he could do to stop it.

"Beimen Bachelor?" Pei Shitong asked in a low voice, "Would you like to find your uncle?"

After all, Pei Shitong is also the legitimate daughter of the Pei family in Hedong. Although Pei Yan and she are not in the same room, they are somewhat close to each other.

"Don't worry about it." Li Xuan shook his head calmly and said, "The prince will make the decision on matters concerning the Minister of Rites. Even if he fails in the end, he should be taught a lesson."

Pei Shitong gently wrapped around Li Xuan and whispered: "Are you planning to take revenge after the prince makes a mistake?"

Li Xuan patted Pei Shitong on the back and smiled softly.

The last time about Pei Yan, Li Xian was already a little wary of Li Xuan. Now he really wanted Li Xian to see the true face of the family.

When everything is finally settled and Li Xian starts to panic, he will know how much influence Li Xuan has on him.

……

The night is dark, the uncle's mansion in Yanling County.

A team of Jinwu Guards escorted a carriage slowly into the uncle's mansion. After Huangmen Shilang, Bo Cui Zhiwen of Yanling County entered the mansion, the team of Jinwu Guards turned back and left.

As soon as Cui Zhiwen walked into the middle hall, the housekeeper stepped forward and said, "Sir, Zheng Chongzhi, a member of the Ministry of Household Affairs, is here."

Cui Zhiwen stopped, frowned, and asked coldly: "Where is he now? Did you see him coming?"

"He is in the study, no one saw him coming." The housekeeper nodded slightly, he had handled all these matters properly.

"Mr. Zheng?" Cui Zhiwen sighed softly. His cousin may have completely chosen the way forward and will never look back.

I sent someone to see him today, probably because I wanted him to do something.

The Cui, Lu and Zheng families have always advanced and retreated together. Now, the Cui family cannot avoid this matter no matter what.

Standing at the door of the study, looking at Zheng Chongzhi, a member of the household department, Cui Zhiwen nodded calmly and said, "Why is my nephew here today?"

While talking, Cui Zhiwen had already stepped into the study.

"I've met Uncle Shi." Zheng Chongzhi handed over his hand seriously.

Cui Zhiwen sat down, stretched out his hand to motion for Zheng Chongzhi to sit down as well, and then said a little tiredly: "What's the matter, but it doesn't hurt to talk."

"Here!" Zheng Chongzhi saw that Cui Zhiwen was so tired, so he stopped talking and said directly: "I have something to report to Uncle Shi. The Tai Madam and the Prime Minister have already agreed that after one year, I will marry Liu Niang. The Prime Minister’s side concubine has signed a marriage contract.”

"Marriage?" Cui Zhiwen suddenly sat up straight and stared at Zheng Chongzhi: "If the Prime Minister marries a concubine, he needs to report it to His Majesty and the Queen and register it in the family register. You said that your Majesty and the Queen have already agreed to this matter?"

"That's not true." Zheng Chongzhi smiled a little, and then said: "It is the private seal of the Prime Minister."

The Prime Minister's private seal, this sentence made Cui Zhiwen think through all the keys.

"Prince Xiang, are you so impatient?" Cui Zhiwen's face became extremely heavy.

Cui Zhiwen knew about Yuan Wanqing's impeachment of Li Xuan.

King Xiang was unwilling to accept the prince's succession to the throne, and many people knew about it.

But no one expected that Prince Xiang would be deeply connected with the Zheng family in Xingyang in private.

Nowadays, the emperor's dragon body is uneasy, and it is difficult for people not to think of something when the king is acting like this.

But everyone knows that King Xiang will not stand a chance.

"The Prime Minister is stable, but now the matter of the Minister of Rites, the Prime Minister hopes to be settled as soon as possible." Zheng Chongzhi bowed lightly.

"Shang Shu of the Ministry of Rites, hey, does the Prime Minister want to promote his own people to power now? He really can't wait." Cui Zhiwen sneered.

The position of the Minister of Rites is very critical, and the Songshan incident is just one of them.

Once the emperor passes away in the future, when the successor emperor takes the throne, the status of the Minister of Rites will even be comparable to that of the prime minister.

Zheng Chongzhi held up his hands and said to Cui Zhiwen: "Uncle Shi, this public recommendation of the Minister of Rites is the decision of His Majesty and the Queen of Heaven. I am just casting my vote in accordance with the rules."

"One vote, I'm afraid one vote is not enough. Who else did you contact?" Cui Zhiwen looked directly at Zheng Chongzhi.

Even if Pei Yan watches independently, there are still five votes besides the prince. The prince is already determined to get the two votes of Liu Rengui and Xue Yuanchao. On their side, Cui Zhiwen counts as one vote, and he must get at least one vote to compete with the prince. , and the last person must abstain from voting.

"So, who did you find, Li Yiyan or Wang Dezhen?"

(End of this chapter)