Li Tuo's reputation in the capital has always been tepid. He definitely has a reputation in the officialdom, but people just treat him as an ordinary petty official!
Zhang Jing of the Military Aircraft Department, to put it bluntly, is slightly higher than the post type. According to Europeans, such people are collectively called secretaries!
To put it more carefully, even if this person is an official and has reached the top level in his career, if a junior official reaches the top level, he will be like Li Tuo!
There are as many high-ranking officials as dogs in Sijiu City, including Zhang Jing and Bi Tie Shi. They are no different from ordinary people walking on the street!
But Li Tuo is an exception. The yamen he works for is really too high. Zhang Jing of the Military Aircraft Department handles the highest-level government affairs in the empire, and all the information he comes into contact with is top secret!
It is precisely because it is close to the core of rights that it attracts so much attention!
People had to pay three points of respect not only for the distance between him and the emperor, but also for the distance between him and the emperor... Especially foreign officials who were far away from the capital. Every year when they returned to the capital to report on their duties, they had to pay a lot of respect to people like Li Tuo!
The purpose is to get some protective amulets from these well-informed people!
Thinking about it, the officials in the northwest of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, regardless of whether they are second or third grade, how do they know about the new trends in the capital? How do they know that those princes, princes and ministers were at odds with each other again and reconciled again?
So spend money to buy some top-secret information, which is called a protective amulet!
Li Tuo is just like a loach, swimming in the pool of the capital is like a hearty one. Although he looks like a small Zhang Jing, in fact, the money in his pocket is more than the combined net worth of ten Qingliu from the Hanlin Academy. There are so many!
Such an old loach actually managed to make Prince Chun Yipei say respectfully, "Teach me, sir!" This could be regarded as smoke rising from the Li Tuo family's ancestral grave!
But Li Tuo deserves this honorific!
It was someone else who solved the case of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's gold seal being stolen. It was he who helped Cixi regain her reputation by offering suggestions and advice. He even encouraged Li Lianying to conspire to send Cixi a visit to the capital!
Cixi thought that Li Tuo was her new direct descendant, but no one thought that Li Tuo had actually been hooking up with Prince Yi Pei for a long time. Li Tuo's true identity was Yi Pei's top military advisor!
"Your Majesty! No need to guess. Prince Lao Li and Prince Qing are both gathering at Prince Gong's Mansion. This means that their only alliance has been formed!"
"Don't forget that Prince Qing is in prison. Being secretly released to attend such a banquet means that Director Lian Xing of the Ministry of Internal Affairs has also taken refuge with Prince Gong!"
"Revenge is just around the corner. These two factions are completely at odds with each other!"
"One is a reformist and the other is a conservative... They are destined to be incompatible with water and fire!"
"I have also guessed this. Sir, tell me how you will fight if there is a conflict? How should I respond?"
Li Tuo closed his eyes and thought for a while, "There shouldn't be a fight for the time being. Prince Gong is very smart. He knows very well that the two major forces standing behind His Majesty are the Chinese and the British!"
"Once a war is initiated, it is easy to defeat the new Yulin Army, but the aftermath is not easy!"
"My lord, please don't forget that when the Queen Mother of the West surrounded Jingshan with her soldiers, Xiao Letian came to the capital with a blood-letter on his belt to support the king!"
"Once, won't there be a second time? If Zai Chun is really pushed into a hurry and brings out a Chinese-British coalition to serve the king... the excitement will be great to see!"
Yi Pei thought about it and it really made sense. "Damn it...what happened to the Qing Dynasty? You live your life well but you always have to listen to other people's interference..."
Li Tuo waved his hand, "My lord, please stop complaining. Mortals can't do anything about the situation! Although Xiao Letian is a rebel, he still looks at the times with a vicious eye!"
"Didn't he once say that from now on, the earth will be like a village, and the earth will become smaller and smaller. It's impossible to live a small life behind closed doors! You have to adapt..."
"Adapting to what? Just adapting to outsiders meddling in other people's housework all day long?" Yi Ping huffed angrily.
"Hey... whether we adapt to it or not, others will mix it up, and it will become more and more mixed in the future. This is a historical trend that cannot be reversed!"
"Let's get down to business! Prince Gong and the others will not take the initiative to rebel. Even if I lend them ten courages, they would not dare to initiate a war!"
"So their purpose should not be to usurp the throne. I think..." Li Tuo stretched out his hand and tapped the table and lowered his voice, "I think it is very likely that they will engage in the old system of eight kings discussing politics!"
Hiss... Yi Pei's back hit the backrest of the Grand Master's chair in fright, and his face turned pale. "This... this is a big taboo of the imperial court. During the Kangxi, Yong, and Qian dynasties, they killed people to death, and that's why this system was completely eliminated!"
"Is it going to start killing people again? Can't these Eight Kings discuss politics and kill them alive? Do they have to revive?"
"My lord! Is there anything in the world that can be completely killed? In fact, even us mortals are not easy to kill!"
"When people pass by, they leave their names, and when geese pass by, they leave their voices! As long as anyone and anything has existed, they will definitely leave traces!"
"When a person dies, his influence on the world will remain. When something dies, the desires of the people associated with it will still exist forever!"
"You said that this system was completely eliminated during the Kangxi, Yongzong and Qianlong dynasties? I don't think so. As long as this system brings benefits to some people, there will definitely be people who will challenge Jing!"
"The system of the Eight Kings' Discussion is actually somewhat similar to the parliamentary system in Europe! I don't think Prince Gong will let go of such a good tool to win over people's hearts!"
"Follow the successful experience of the foreign devils and sing his own show!"
"What he wants is not to usurp power or become emperor... What he wants is actually to seize power permanently!"
Yi Pei rubbed his temples in pain, "Hey... You don't rebel, but you use the old system of eight kings to discuss politics to win allies? In the end, you divide the power in the hands of the emperor? Is it an excuse for His Majesty..."
"Tsk tsk tsk...Obai's old road?"
"It doesn't matter who follows the same old path. What matters is that Prince Gong has already done this! What happens next is probably to anger His Majesty and make Him take the initiative to provoke a war!"
"Let His Majesty take the initiative to provoke a war?"
"Yes, this is the only excuse that can block the intervention of the Chinese and British. He must make Long Live Master take the initiative to raise the knife. He must show his attitude of betrayal and self-protection to the outside world. Only in this way can he win more people's support. Support!”
"Self-defense counterattack and active rebellion...those are two different things!"
"No... I have to remind the emperor when I enter the palace tomorrow!" Yi Pei rushed around the room.
Li Tuo smiled helplessly and said, "My lord, what are you going to say? You didn't remind me of any evidence? Aren't we all analyzing it ourselves?"
"Besides, with Mr. Long Live's temper, the more you remind me, the bigger the conflict will become!"
Yi Pei thought for a moment that this was really true, sighed and sat back in the chair!
"Your Majesty! Are you worrying blindly again? You can't change the current situation in the court... On the surface, it's a struggle for power, but the real conflict is thoughts!"
"The conservative forces and the reform forces within the imperial court are already at odds with each other! This is a contradiction that cannot be reconciled at all!"
"What should I do? You can only let them fight. This war is not something you can stop! All you have to do is think about how to profit from this war!"
"You have to be the third party! The imperial court only has one more third party, which can ultimately restrict power!"
"Only in this way can the winning side not be slaughtered, and can you leave a trace of vitality to the Eight Banners and this court..."
