Traveling through Tianlong: Starting from the Zhenlong chess game

Chapter 633: The Key to Controlling Officials

Zhao Mu looked at these little palace maids carefully, and he also saw the little palace maid who brought him here among the crowd.

Zhao Mu looked at everyone and asked, "What does the Queen Mother mean by this?"

The Empress Dowager Xiang smiled flatteringly and said, "Haha, I know that His Majesty Zhongdi likes beauties. These girls are the maids in my palace. They are all selected from various places as tributes, and each of them has a very distinctive appearance. If His Majesty Zhongdi is willing to help me, I am willing to present them to His Majesty Zhongdi."

Zhao Mu sneered when he heard this and said, "Haha, the Queen Mother really underestimates Zhao Mu."

Zhao Mu was speechless. He even wondered if the person in front of him was the Queen Mother of the Song Dynasty or the madam of a brothel. She was asking for his help with such a despicable trick.

Upon hearing this, Empress Dowager Xiang was stunned.

She said to the Queen Mother: "Why does Your Majesty Zhongdi say that? If Your Majesty Zhongdi doesn't like it, there are other people in my palace."

Zhao Mu sneered again, and then replied: "Forget it, Madam. These girls are indeed very good. But if I want them, I can just tell Your Majesty. Why do I need your consent, Madam?"

Zhao Mu inserted his hands and said, "Forget it, I will tell the queen clearly. If the queen really wants my help, she must give me something valuable."

Asked the Queen Mother: "Is this valuable thing?"

At this moment, Empress Dowager Xiang thought of something and said, "Oh, right! I do have something that Your Majesty Zhongdi is interested in."

With that, Empress Dowager Xiang returned to her bed and took out a box.

Then Empress Dowager Xiang handed the box to Zhao Mu.

Zhao Mu looked at the box and said, "Oh? What is this?"

Empress Dowager Xiang sighed and said, "These are the letters between Prime Minister Sima and others and me, as well as the Empress Dowager when she was alive, over the years."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Mu opened the box, then randomly picked out a few letters and opened them to read.

Zhao Mu didn't know until he opened it, but after he opened it and looked at it, he was shocked.

After Zhao Mu finished reading, he closed the box and said, "Haha, it seems that the Queen Mother really knows her mistake and will no longer interfere in the affairs of the previous dynasty."

Said to the Queen Mother: "Of course, of course."

Empress Dowager Xiang then sighed again.

The letters in this box to the Empress Dowager are all confidential letters from her party.

Now that Empress Dowager Xiang handed these things over to Zhao Mu, it was equivalent to her betraying Sima Guang and other members of the harem. All the power of her former dynasty was completely disintegrated.

This time, Empress Dowager Xiang was desperate and spent a huge amount of money.

Zhao Mu also felt a little sad. These court officials had supported the Queen Mother and the Grand Empress Dowager for many years, but now they were betrayed by this woman. It was really sad and lamentable.

Zhao Mu just took a quick look and was frightened.

That’s because some of the things mentioned in these letters are life-threatening.

For example, Sima Guang once reported in a letter that Zhezong was deceived by Zhao Mu. If the Song and Liao went to war, the Song Dynasty would be in danger. So Sima Guang suggested in this secret letter that the two queens act as soon as possible to remove Zhezong, and then issue an imperial decree to imprison Zhao Mu. If it was absolutely necessary, Sima Guang also suggested that the two queens abolish Zhezong and replace him with another prince as emperor. Zhao Mu saw the content of the letter and the title above, and roughly guessed that it was written on the eve of the Song-Liao Battle of Xiongzhou.

Although that incident has passed, if it had been exposed, Sima Guang would not have been confiscated and his family would not have been exterminated, but he himself would probably not have escaped the sword.

As for the letters from others, Zhao Mu did not read them again. After all, the content of the letter from the prime minister was so explosive. Not to mention the letters from others.

Zhao Mu was indeed quite interested in the gift given to him by Empress Dowager Xiang.

In this way, when they launch the Northern Expedition, or even in their future campaigns to the east and west, there will no longer be any complaints from the civil service group.

After all, the letters in the box and the tricks are in their hands. As long as these people are not fools, they will definitely behave themselves.

But out of curiosity, Zhao Mu still looked at the bottom of the box.

Zhao Mu discovered that in this box, there were not only letters between Empress Dowager Xiang and Empress Dowager Grande and officials, but also an account book.

Zhao Mu took out the account book and took a look at it. He was shocked again.

Because this account book is not an ordinary account book, it clearly records all kinds of scandals involving the reception and seeing off of guests, private transactions, and embezzlement of officials in the court over the years.

Zhao Mu looked at the account book in his hand and asked, "Empress Dowager, what is this account book?"

Empress Dowager Xiang did not hide it. She lowered her head and said, "This account book was left by the late emperor before his death. It was given to the Empress Dowager. Because when the late emperor passed away, Your Majesty was still young. And we are women after all, it is difficult for us to blackmail the officials."

"So the late emperor left this account book to prevent us from being unable to control the ministers. This account book records all the scandals of the nobles and high-ranking officials of the dynasty. The Empress Dowager used this as a threat to pressure the officials during her lifetime. That's why the officials were so obedient."

After listening to Empress Dowager Xiang's words, Zhao Mu finally understood why the power of the Empress Dowager's party was so deeply rooted. After all, this group of people is a community of interests. What they want to protect is not the Empress Dowager and the Grand Empress Dowager, but themselves.

If the matter of the account book were to be exposed, there would be a huge change in the court.

Later, the Empress Dowager used both kindness and force to seize the little braids in her own hands, and then promised them benefits to preserve their official titles. Naturally, all officials obeyed these two old witches.

Moreover, the officials recorded here are all capable and important officials with high prestige, strong abilities, the longest seniority and the most irreplaceable in the court.

If you defeat them easily, you will inevitably get hurt.

When Zhao Mu saw this thing, he also felt a little emotional.

If he had not used his military exploits and military power to intimidate all officials to submit to Cheoljong, then Cheoljong might have been just a puppet in the hands of the Queen Mother and the Grand Queen Mother until his death, just like in the original history. Although he had his autonomy, this autonomy was only based on the consent of the two Queen Mothers.

However, in this parallel time and space, I, an outlier, used my absolutely powerful military force and prestige to force all officials to submit. By some strange coincidence, I broke this unsolvable deadlock. Otherwise, the Song Dynasty might really repeat the mistakes of the original time and space.

Now that the account books and letters were in Zhao Mu's hands, he was not interested in using these small handles to blackmail or eliminate those officials.

However, with it, Zhezong can also give them a warning, or replace them with suitable talents as soon as possible, so that these people will not always oppose them in the future.

After all, if I spend a huge amount of money on a sea expedition in the future and the civil service group does not cooperate, it will be difficult to do so.

But now that he has the whole civil service group in his hands, he is not afraid that they will not obey. Even if they don't obey, with these evidences, it will only take a word to deal with them.

(End of this chapter)