Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 489 The Emperor's Decision

Among these seven people, except for Murong Yanzhao, the governor of Henan County, the commander of the Northwest Camp, the other six are all local officials. These are equivalent to the Standing Committee of a province in later generations, and even the highest official among them is Yu Jiangyue, the transfer envoy of West Hebei Road, which is already equivalent to a high-ranking official in a province in later generations. In order to put an end to the hidden danger of military generals supporting themselves in the troubled times of the Five Dynasties, Song Dynasty gave local civil officials great power to suppress local generals who led troops. Therefore, the power in Yu Jiangyue's hands is far beyond what the top leaders of a province in later generations can compare.Just now Zhao Kuangyin suddenly realized that five thousand Khitan cavalrymen were able to sneak into the rear of the Great Song Dynasty and cut off the food and grass when they attacked the Northern Han Dynasty last year. It was because Yu Jiangyue was included in this list.

"The Huaxia Weifu has sent people to keep an eye on these people, right?" Zhao Kuangyin asked.

Ye Chen nodded in agreement, and then said: "Your Majesty, I have asked the Supervision Department and the Intelligence Department to start collecting evidence of all the illegal things they did, and then use this as a breakthrough to take them down one by one."

Zhao Kuangyin nodded slightly, expressing his satisfaction with Huaxia Weifu's preparations for a rainy day, and then said: "Except for Murong Yanzhao, the other eight people have been highly valued ministers by me over the years, and their official reputation and popular reputation are all top choices. But they Although it is a little troublesome to deal with, with the current methods of the Huaxia Weifu, even if it is Yu Jiangyue, I am not very worried about how much trouble they can cause. It's just that the old man Murong Yanzhao has been in charge of the Northwest Camp for many years. Take yesterday It can be seen from the fact that you were assassinated outside the city that he must have a lot of followers in the northwest camp. If I just find an excuse at this time and order him to return to Beijing, something will happen in the northwest, and he will definitely I will use this as an excuse not to come. And if I directly order your Huaxia Weifu to arrest him, this old man may directly lead some people to rebel, and even join forces with the party ministries who just expressed their surrender to cause turmoil in the Northwest Therefore, dealing with Murong Yanzhao is the most important thing, and your Huaxia Weifu will make a good plan on this matter to ensure nothing goes wrong, and you must also be prepared to go to the northwest to handle this matter yourself."

For Zhao Kuangyin's final decision, Ye Chen was not very surprised, it was all in his expectation, so he respectfully said yes at this time.

The news of Ye Chen's assassination had already shocked the capital, and everyone gradually knew the details of the incident.I also guessed that there must be powerful figures from the military involved in this matter. Every time I think that there is a problem with the army under the strictest control of the emperor, all the civil and military officials are silent. Multilingual sentence.And if they could see the list in Ye Chen's hand, and then see His Majesty's expression when he saw the list, they might be able to understand that His Majesty is more gloomy and angry than they imagined.

In the next few days of the Xiaochao meeting, except for the political affairs.The most talked about is the assassination of Ye Chen. The investigation is led by the Huaxia Weifu, and it has already started in cooperation with Dali Temple and the Privy Council.It's just that the five hundred people's heads have been drawn several times to find out, but they can't find a clue.

Except for the five city guard crossbows and clothing and other clues, the investigation of Ye Chen's assassination did not make any progress.

Although His Majesty's face was still calm, the ministers who were lucky enough to participate in the court meeting could feel the growing anger hidden in His Majesty's eyes, but they didn't know when the fire would come out.Burn some to ashes.And those who know the truth of some things know better that His Majesty's anger at this time is not actually because of Ye Chen's assassination, such as Ye Chen, Cao Bin, Zhao Pu and Zhao Guangyi.

Half a year ago, Ye Chen went to Wuyue Kingdom in the name of sending off his relatives to Princess Yongqing. On the one hand, to send off his relatives, on the other hand, he wanted to wipe clean the ass of his subordinates who accidentally killed the ambassador of Wuyue Kingdom at that time.

But no one thought that Ye Chen would do so many things when he came to Wuyue Kingdom from the south of the Yangtze River. In less than a month, he would directly subdue Wuyue Kingdom and merge it into Song Kingdom.At that time, after this incident spread to Kaifeng, it can be said that it shocked the entire ruling and opposition parties and even the world.

Later, it was reported that Ye Chen was assassinated by the Southern Tang Dynasty and the Maitreya Sect in order to avenge Wu Yue. The greatest reward of all things.

However, the day before yesterday, His Majesty the Emperor suddenly announced to the world that Ye Chen was still alive, and he had sneaked into the Southern Tang Dynasty by feigning death for some important matters. The country's national treasury was empty for half a year, and the problem of having no money for disaster relief was easily solved.

This matter made the entire court and even the entire Kaifeng City dumbfounded at the time, feeling that this matter was too suspenseful.But with the 200 million taels of silver brought back by Ye Chen, the imperial court finally had the confidence to continue to overhaul the reservoir, provide disaster relief and reduce taxes, and coupled with the great achievements of conquering Wu and Yue, all of this was Ye Chen's contribution to the Song court. achievements.His Majesty the Emperor asked all the officials and dignitaries in the court, including King Jin, King Wei and the prime minister, to go to the south gate to greet him. Such an honor has never been given since the founding of the Song Dynasty, but Ye Chen's achievements do have this qualification.

But no one could have imagined that on the same day, Ye Chen would be killed by a sniper in a valley more than 40 miles away from Kaifeng City on his way back to Beijing!Moreover, the person who assassinated Ye Chen was not Song's enemy Nantang or the Maitreya Sect and the Holy Church, but an army of Song Dynasty, and the most important thing was that he was carrying a defensive crossbow.

This is not just a sniper killing of a great hero or the emperor's most trusted and trusted official, but this matter has touched the bottom line of the court and the emperor. The control of the country, especially the control of the army of the Song Dynasty, is far from what it used to be.

And today, when the battle for the succession of the Great Song Dynasty gradually surfaced, this signal is undoubtedly like a smear of blood from the wound of a huge whale in the sea, enough to attract countless sharks to come greedily for food!

But the case was always like a cloud of fog, and for a long time I couldn't really see what it looked like inside. If it was delayed for a while, I'm afraid His Majesty the Emperor would be enraged and punish him with thunder regardless of the consequences.

And those prudent ministers in the court, even including Zhao Pu who wanted to take the opportunity to do something, were most afraid of this situation. They were worried that His Majesty would make sexual attacks without evidence because he cherished his face. The punishment was limited, and the matter was extended to a point where the Song State could not bear it.

"Please think twice, Your Majesty!"

An old minister who stood at the front of the civil servants came out and knelt under the dragon chair, and said sadly.

"Think twice about what?"

The emperor of the Song Dynasty raised his heavy eyes. In the past few days, the Jianghuai snow disaster has gradually appeared. The memorials from the Jianghuai Road and other states are actually more than the snowflakes in the sky. They are not reaching out to the court for money. It is to conscript a husband, or it is complaining repeatedly, saying that the tax will be reduced and exempted in the coming year.

Let’s cut it down, after talking with Ye Chen a few times recently, he also secretly asked the household department department of the third department to conduct some investigations and comparisons, and found that by digging the silver from the land, even if you scrape the ground three feet, you can’t scrape much silver shavings Well, Ye Chen is right, things like money still depend on business.

It's just that almost all the states in the Jianghuai area have sent emergency messages. Could it be that the snow in the Jianghuai area is really so heavy this year?

The emperor frowned. In the autumn of the previous year, when Ye Chen had already announced in advance that the Yellow River would break its embankment, the court made so many preparations. In the end, although Kaifeng Mansion did not break its embankment, the Yellow River still burst its embankment elsewhere. I don't know how many of my own people I drowned, and how many people's houses and good fields were washed away.In the spring of this year, the drought in Sichuan and Sichuan first appeared. After the expedition against the Southern Han Dynasty had already set off, a riot broke out under the conspiracy of the Maitreya demon, which almost shook the country. Finally, Ye Chen led 2000 troops to attack 200 bandits at night, turning things around in one fell swoop. It has been stable for half a year.However, in autumn, the land in the east of the river encountered drought and locust plagues, resulting in no harvest. Finally, the [-] million taels of silver stolen by Ye Chen was used by the court to slow down and save some strength. Unexpectedly, it would come suddenly at the end of the year It snowed heavily.

Oh my god, I really don't give myself this emperor face.

Fortunately, the Huaxia Weifu has sorted out the corrupt officials in the rich and prosperous Jianghuai area in the past six months. Those who continue to be in office and those who are re-appointed are either capable officials, or they are all relatively clean and practical people. At the beginning of the heavy snowfall, a lot of preparations were made, and the disaster relief was done faster than when the government encountered similar things in previous years.Every time Zhao Kuangyin thought about this, he felt that the establishment of the Supervision Department of Huaxia Weifu was one of the most sensible things this year.

Thinking of this, he woke up suddenly, and then he thought about his distraction, but even what he was thinking in his distraction had something to do with Ye Chen, so after being slightly startled, he laughed again and asked again.

"Think twice about what?"

Kneeling in the hall is one of the two deputy ministers of the Political Affairs Hall, Ye Chen's deadly enemy in the imperial court, Shen Zhizheng Shi Lu Yuqing.

Lu Yuqing first lost his face in a bet with Ye Chen on the construction of the Yellow River dam last autumn, and because he lost [-] guan at that time, he had the handle to fall into the hands of Zhao Guangyi, so he had to secretly lean towards Jin in the court. Wang Zhao Guangyi, this has always been regarded as a great shame and humiliation by him, so he made an enmity with Ye Chen.

Half a year ago, when the Emperor Liu Yu of the Southern Han Dynasty came to Beijing, he listened to the advice and instigation of Ye Chen's other two enemies, Wang Yuefeng and Tao Gu, and took advantage of the opportunity that he was in charge of arranging for Liu Yu to threaten and trick Liu Yu into framing Ye Chen for the disappearance of the wealth in the Southern Han imperial palace. Chen, but Ye Chen punctured it on the spot, so that Lu Yuqing lost his face and passed out immediately.

(End of this chapter)