On the night of the third day of March in the thirty-fifth year of the lunar calendar, around the time of the weather update, the streets in Beijing were already quiet and looked particularly gloomy and desolate.
Soldiers stood at important street entrances, checking the occasional passers-by.
The tall walls of Beijing are very quiet, with a lantern placed not far away.
Last year, the Helichi tribe of the Tatar Mongolian tribe in the steppe broke through the nine-border defense line and crossed the west bank of the canal in Tongzhou. Therefore, Dongzhimen and Chaoyangmen were particularly tight, and the lanterns on the city walls were also relatively dense.
But later Helichi's troops retreated, and the lanterns were not removed, so this section of the city wall was illuminated slightly brighter.
If someone stands at the top of the city and looks out, he will find that there are dots of lights flickering in the direction of the imperial city, among which the Chengqian Palace is even brightly lit. The emperor, who has been practicing Buddhism for a day, will be here every night to process the memorials handed over by the cabinet.
The Zhizheng Emperor of the Wei Dynasty is about in his early fifties this year. He has not been in court for more than ten years and has been living in the palace to practice Taoism.
Emperor Zhizheng's face was fair, but due to his age, several deep crow's feet lines had appeared in the corners of his eyes, and his eye sockets were a little dark. Especially under the illumination of several palace lanterns, he looked pale and haggard.
Since ten years ago, the Wei Dynasty has suffered from frequent natural disasters and civil unrest, which have tortured the old emperor, who was obsessed with cultivating immortality, into unspeakable misery.
There is no way, one needs to cultivate to become an immortal, but the country also needs to be managed, so in the dead of night, when everyone else has gone to bed to rest, he, the emperor, still has to [work hard to govern].
Seeing that the situation in the country was getting more and more difficult, with chaos becoming more and more chaotic every day, and all kinds of documents sent to the palace falling on the imperial desk like snowflakes every day, the Emperor Zhengzheng had already lost his patience.
There were too many documents today, and the Secretary of General Administration was afraid that the emperor would not be able to read them clearly and miss important information, so he thoughtfully adopted a method used in the Song Dynasty, which was to briefly write out the received documents on yellow paper and paste it on the front, which is called [ [Introducing yellow], and then use yellow paper to write a summary of the content and stick it on the back, which is called [sticking to yellow],
In this way, the emperor can read the introduction and labeling of yellow first, and does not need to read the full text of the less important ones.
However, there is no need to label urgent military intelligence reports and Tang reports because they were sorted out by the eunuchs of the General Affairs Department and the Supervisor of Ceremonies and placed at the top of all documents for the emperor's convenience.
Emperor Zhizheng felt a little tired today, so he asked Bingbi eunuch He Xian to read the memorials and Tang newspapers to him and draft an edict for him.
However, he did not fully trust the eunuchs who were close to him. He often suspected that they were colluding with the court officials and kept him in the dark.
So after He Xian read two memorials, he struggled to sit up straight, took a Tang newspaper and read it himself.
After watching for a while, he frowned and said, "Who is on duty tonight?"
He Xian immediately knelt down and replied: "It is Qin's chief assistant who is on duty in the house tonight!"
"Go and call him!" Emperor Zhizheng ordered while sketching on the memorial with a red pen.
After a while, an old man wearing crane patchwork clothes walked into Chengqian Palace with the support of a young eunuch.
As soon as he enters the door, the old man will kneel down and kowtow.
Emperor Zhizheng waved his hand impatiently and said: "Forget it!"
The first assistant, Qin Yan, stood up slowly with his knees supported.
Before he could stand up, Emperor Zhizheng asked: "Is Zhou Yi, the magistrate of Yangzhou, your disciple?"
Hearing this, the old chief minister replied in a hoarse voice: "The officials of the Wei Dynasty are all your Majesty's ministers!"
Emperor Zhizheng raised his eyelids, looked at Qin Yan, and did not comment on his words, and then continued: "You, your disciple, impeached the new Huaiyan Salt Transportation Department. Xue Cai, the transportation judge of the Huainan Branch, colluded with bandits and looted Regarding the salt tax, fortunately, the magistrate of Hailing led a county’s army and civilians to guard the laboratory! Do you know about this?”
Qin Yan nodded and said, "Today I have read Zhou Yi's memorial!"
"How do you think I will approve this matter?" Emperor Zhi Zheng leaned back slightly and leaned on the chair. Because the light was blocked by the curtain, his face looked dark and unclear.
Qin Yan replied without any hesitation: "Reporting to your majesty, I heard that this group of bandits just captured Taixing County a few days ago, killed officials and looted the county treasury. Who knew that the thieves were so arrogant that they dared to repeat their same tactics and attack Yanguan."
He paused and continued: "The old minister thinks that first of all, the Ministry of War in Nanzhili should issue a document to mobilize soldiers and horses from prefectures and counties to encircle and suppress the bandits. The first is; the second is that the Ministry of Punishment, together with the Jinyi Guards, send people to judge Xue Caitina Come to Beijing and interrogate strictly!"
The old emperor did not hear anything from Qin Yan's words, but the eunuch He Xian had just reminded him that the judge Xue E was a student of the second assistant. With the recent intensification of the party dispute in the imperial court, as the first assistant The student impeached the second assistant student, which had to make him suspect that this matter was unusual.
However, the emperor's professional sensitivity did not find any trace of party struggle in Qin's words, so he said with a cold face: "If you are looking for an opportunity, you should go to Bishan's house. The water will pound the mica and the wind will sweep away the heather. If I love living in seclusion, so I invite you to play with Zixia. The court is in troubled times right now, so sir, I have to work a lot more, so please don’t disturb my Taoist heart!"
Qin Yan quickly lowered his head and said "Yes".
After coming out of Chengqian Palace, Qin Yan sat silently in the shoulder carriage carried by two warriors in brocade clothes.
As soon as they arrived at the duty house, Gong Youwei from Zhongshushe came up to greet him and whispered: "Sir, just now the eldest son and His Highness the King of Qi came to ask about the situation!"
Qin Yan kept walking and walked straight into the room that belonged to him.
After entering the room, Gong Youwei helped him sit down softly, and then squatted down to help Qin Yan take off his official boots.
Only then did the old chief assistant look relaxed.
"You ask someone to inform Lu Yunshen, the commander of the Jinyi Guards, that I will hold a banquet at my house tomorrow noon, and ask him to honor me!"
"Go and call Qin Que and ask him to serve me when I return home tomorrow!"
Gong Youwei quickly wrote down his resignation, turned around and went out to do errands.
Half an hour later, Qin Que came to the duty house yawning.
Seeing his father sitting on the couch and reading the memorial under the light, he casually kicked off his boots with both feet and climbed up the couch: "Dad, have we looked for you over there?"
Qin Yan said: "Go to Prince Qi's Mansion in person tomorrow. Remember, tell Prince Qi face to face that his people should not come to the house to look for me in the future. Do you hear me?"
Qin Que's face showed disdain: "The third child came to look for his father today? I think there is something wrong with his mind!"
Qin Yan glared at him, and then said: "Tomorrow, please entertain Lu Yunshen for me and ask him to check whether the eunuch He Xian, the eunuch Bingbi, the chief of etiquette, is Xia Yangqiu's person!"
Although Emperor Zhizheng practiced Taoism, he had a very suspicious character. It was normal for him to inquire about the connections behind officials, but tonight He Xianming knew that he was on duty, and he also emphasized to the emperor that the judge's master was Xia Yangqiu, the second assistant. Now, things get interesting.
Qin Que was a very smart man and immediately guessed what his father meant from his mouth. He pondered: "What about Yangzhou?"
Qin Yan looked at the flames dancing on the dwarf table, and after a long time he said to his son: "Wait until the people from the Punishment Department and Jinyiwei go to Yangzhou, in front of them..."
Qin Que didn't wait for his father to finish speaking, he immediately nodded and said: "My son knows what to do!"
Qin Yan nodded and said, "That's Li Zhijie over in Hailing County, right?"
Qin Que thought carefully for a while and then nodded and said: "That's right, in the subject where my father was the examiner six years ago, he ranked second and 138th! He was just released."
Qin Yan thought for a while and said, "Let the officials report their merits to the people of Hailing County."
After a pause, Qin Yan said again: "I heard that he also has a student who made great contributions in this matter?"
Qin Que said with a smile: "Yes, I heard that Li Zhijie is an outstanding student. Not long ago, Lu Yun took office and went to Hailing to look for the man named Xie. At the reception banquet, the schoolboy named Xu He wrote several poems. He is a talented poet. It's quite a gain. Moreover, the recent chant in Beijing, "Don't be afraid of being shattered into pieces, keep your innocence in the world" was also written by this person."
"Don't be afraid of being broken into pieces, and ask for innocence in the world!" Qin Yan recited it once, and then said with a smile: "Haha, nothing in this world is black and white. I am so worried about composing new words at a young age."
"What about this student Li Zhijie...?"
"Everyone has been rewarded. It's hard to miss anyone. Let's discuss it!" Qin Yan was a little tired. After saying this, his eyes were slightly closed and he fell asleep soon!
