"Pei Ju? You said the culprit behind drugging Concubine De was Pei Ju?"
Just as Pei Ju was furious and scolded Pei Xuande. Zhan Zhao, who followed Duan Yi to Pei Mansion and determined that Pei Ju was the mastermind behind the scenes, had already informed Bao Zheng, and they all went to the palace to explain the past to Yang Gao.
After listening to the two people's narrative, Yang Gao froze on the spot and asked in confusion: "Pei Ju is a dignified prime minister. Although he is a little selfish towards his family in daily affairs, he is still loyal to me in all matters of right and wrong, and he is kind and virtuous." My concubine has always had no grievances, so why did he do such a treasonous and unethical thing?"
Bao Zheng cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty, as far as I know, Xiangguo Pei has always been critical of General Xue, thinking that he was a warrior who was promoted to Minister of War in just two or three years and became the most popular No. 1 general in the Sui Dynasty. The general who unified the army was promoted too quickly. Yichen estimated that he was worried that if Concubine Xue De gave birth to his majesty's eldest son, his majesty would definitely rely more on General Xue in the future, and he would definitely outnumber him and Pei Ju in the future, so he Come up with this plan."
"hateful!"
Yang Gao was very angry and protested, "The great prime minister of the Sui Dynasty actually did such a treacherous and unethical thing for his own selfish desires. He did this to an unborn child. I am really disappointed. Zhan Zhao! I order you to do so immediately." Lead his Jin Yiwei to arrest Pei Ju."
"Wei Chen obeys the order!"
Zhan Zhao cupped his hands and immediately turned around to leave. Unexpectedly, just after taking a few steps, a young eunuch rushed in and bumped into Zhan Zhao who was walking out.
"You bastard, what are you doing recklessly? There are no rules at all! What happened?" Yang Gao was angry because of Pei Ju's incident, and his attitude at the moment was also very rude.
The young eunuch was so frightened that he hurriedly knelt down and said tremblingly: "Your Majesty, Pei Xiangguo tied up his nephews Pei Xuande and Duan Yigong and knelt down outside the Meridian Gate to beg to see Your Majesty, claiming that they came to apologize to Your Majesty! "
"Pei Ju!"
Yang Gao was startled when he heard this, paused for a moment, then waved his hand and said, "Let him come in!"
After a while, Pei Ju walked into the imperial study with Pei Xuande and Duan Yi, who were tied up with five flowers. He immediately bowed to Yang Gaona and said, "Your Majesty, I am guilty. My family education was not strict, which caused Pei Xuande, the son of the clan, to do what he did. This treacherous act has occurred, and I feel unworthy of your majesty's kindness."
As he spoke, he kowtowed heavily and recounted in detail the incident in which Pei Xuande used his own name to instruct Duan Yi to drug Xue Baochai.
Zhan Zhao was a warrior and had always admired generals like Xue Rengui who were famous all over the world. Naturally, he didn't have much favorable impressions of Pei Ju who was slandering Xue Rengui behind his back. After listening to Pei Ju's narration, he immediately snorted disdainfully: "Master Pei is really good at calculating. For such a serious crime as murdering the emperor's heir, you just casually push out a member of the clan to apologize and just try to get away with it?"
Pei Ju glanced at Zhan Zhao dissatisfied, and then said with tears streaming down his face: "Your Majesty, Pei Xuande is the son of my brother Pei Yun. Pei Yun's descendants suffered heavy casualties during Xiaoguo's rebellion. Pei Xuande is now the elder brother of the old minister. The only living son. If the crime he committed today were not punishable, I would never have kidnapped him to see His Majesty!"
The more Pei Ju talked, the sadder he became. Suddenly he hit his head on the ground again, making a loud bang, and cried: "Your Majesty, please believe me! Believe me!"
Looking at the bruised Pei Ju in front of him, Yang Gao's inner anger gradually subsided and he began to think about the matter calmly.
Frankly speaking, Yang Gao did not believe that Pei Ju would instruct the eunuchs to drug Xue Baochai, so he was shocked after hearing the reports from Zhan Zhao and Bao Zheng. Because according to Yang Gao's understanding of Pei Ju, he was cunning, cautious, and able to play both sides. He could be called an official roly-poly. Such a person would be the least courageous to do such a high-risk thing as murdering the emperor's heir.
After pondering for a long time, Yang Gao took a deep breath, stood up slowly and said: "Pei Aiqing, I believe that you were not the mastermind of the Concubine De case, but the evidence is conclusive that you bribed the palace servants with large sums of money. In addition, Pei Xuande is you after all. Disciple of the Pei family, as the head of the family, you are still guilty of lax discipline. In view of this, I have decided to remove you from Zuopushe and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and only retain your casual official position and title. Do you have any objections?"
"Old minister, thank you for your kindness!"
. . . . . . . . . .
Half an hour later, Yang Gao issued an imperial edict. Pei Xuande, a son of the Pei family, colluded with his servant Duan Yi to conspire to poison the emperor's heir. The crime was unpardonable and he was immediately taken to the Meridian Gate and beheaded in public. Although Pei Ju, the Prime Minister of the country, did not know about this beforehand, as the head of the family, he did not strictly discipline the children of the clan and removed him from the posts of Zuopushe and the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
In the morning of the next day, Yang Gao once again issued an imperial edict, and Zhang Juzheng, the envoy of Qingtian, succeeded Pei Ju as the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and Wang Anshi, the governor of Nanyang County, took over the post of Zuopushe, the Minister of Pei Ju.
In addition, rewards were given to the meritorious officials in the Central Plains Campaign. Xue Rengui of the Central Plains Corps was promoted to Duke Dingguo. Chang Yuchun was granted the title of General Zuotunwei and the title of Duke of Huaiyuan County. Yang Ye was promoted to general of the town army. Li Jing was granted the title of General Youhou Wei and was given the title of Duke of Fenyin County. Fang Xuanling was promoted to Zuo Sanqi's regular attendant, and Liu Bowen was named Zhongshu's attendant. The rest, Su Dingfang, Li Siye, Zhou Dewei, Zhang Dingbian, Xue Kui, Lu Junyi and others also received rewards based on their merits and were promoted to positions and titles.
Lin Chong, who was unfortunately assassinated by Ge Shixiong and died on the battlefield, was posthumously named General Zhongwu and given the title of Marquis of Anxiang. He also ordered the officials to have a good life and support Lin Chong's family and never neglect him.
Yang Lin, Long Zhi and others on the battlefield of Jingxiang also played an important role in capturing Chai Shao, the prince-in-law of the Tang Dynasty, and annihilating 40,000 Tang troops. Yang Gao once again passed down the golden words and rewarded the patron king Yang Lin with thousands of hectares of fertile land. Long Zhi was granted the title of General Guide and was given the title of Marquis of Tingdu. Master Shang and his apprentice were promoted to the title of Marquis of Boshan County. Guan Sheng was awarded the title of guerrilla general. Li Mi was granted the title of Minister of War. Zhou Ben was the captain of Guoyi. Guan Ling, Wei Wentong, Shi Bao and others were all promoted to one level.
Finally, Yang Gao established the Military Aircraft Department on the grounds of the continuous war in recent years. Led by Shangshu Ling Yu Yunwen, assisted by Zuo Sanqi Chang Shifang Xuanling, Zhongshu Shilang Liu Bowen, and the Ministry of War Shifu Xu Wei, they handled all urgent military and political affairs.
Although Yang Gao claimed that the Military Aircraft Department was a temporary organization during wartime, it would disband itself after the world was unified. However, many discerning people discovered that the members of the Military Aircraft Department were either old people from Prince Zhao's palace or rising stars who had been promoted in the past two years. They secretly guessed that it was probably because of Pei Ju's incident that Yang Gao began to distrust the veterans of Emperor Wu Yang Guang's period. That's why it was decided to set up the Military Aircraft Department to override the power of the Prime Minister.
19610
