Cheng Wen put down her wine glass, as if nothing had happened, and tilted her head to look at Li Jiangyao: "Defender, what are you thinking about?"
Li Jiangyao came back to his senses, thought with a thought, and smiled: "Oh, I suddenly remembered something just now. I heard Princess Fenyang mention it the day before yesterday that the emperor is going to appoint a queen recently. It seems that you are also among the candidates, right?"
This move turned defense into offense, which immediately made the Cheng family feel slightly embarrassed again.
A lady who is about to become a queen comes to drink with a foreign man. If this spreads out, let alone entering the harem, the ridicule alone will be enough to make the Zhenguo government unable to hold its head high.
Cheng Dong choked on the wine in his mouth and coughed repeatedly. He blushed and said, "What the Protector said is right. The Zuo Xiang and others recommended my roommate...ahem...she...ahem..."
Cheng Wen looked much more calm and calm than her brothers, and said with a smile: "What? Could it be that the Chief Protector also has someone to recommend?"
Li Jiangyao waved his hand: "I don't."
"Liar." Cheng Wen smiled and rolled her eyes at him: "Concubine Hui is your sworn sister. Can you not recommend her?"
"I'm not lying to you." Li Jiangyao shrugged: "My grade is not qualified enough, so I can't recommend it even if I want to."
Hearing this, Cheng Wen showed an expression of sudden realization: "Oh, so that's it. I forgot about this matter. However, there will be a court meeting tomorrow, and the opinion of the Great Protector will definitely be important."
Li Jiangyao was slightly taken aback: "Meeting at court? You mean, the matter of appointing a queen will be discussed at court tomorrow morning?"
Cheng Dong said: "The governor didn't know something. The discussion on appointing the queen should have happened after the morning court. The emperor returned to the palace to rest, and the Ministry of Rites convened the officials who attended the court to discuss all the recommended candidates, and finally formed a list of three to five people. It will be presented to the emperor and selected by the emperor himself. When the time comes, I will also ask the Protector to say a few kind words for Wen'er."
Li Jiangyao blinked and looked at Cheng Wen, who was sitting next to him with an innocent face, and seemed to understand something.
From the view of the Zhenguo Government, Li Jiangyao could not support Cheng Wen no matter what his position was when the ministers of the DPRK and China were discussing the choice of queen. Maybe, because of Lian Ji's problem, he would deliberately make things difficult, causing the daughter of the Cheng family to lose in the first round.
At present, Li Jiangyao is the chief protector of the Zhenjiang Army and the commander of the navy. He has a large number of troops and a prominent reputation. His weight in the court is self-evident. Many people had to carefully consider his words, and almost no one dared to stand up and speak out against them.
Even Wei Zixuan, who is the minister Zuopushe, can't do it.
Therefore, the Cheng family must resolve this potential risk before the court meeting officially begins.
So how to solve it?
For the Zhenguo government, which now has no soldiers and no power, all they can do is to put on a show with red faces and white faces, cooperating with each other.
So, today's banquet was a natural thing, and at the same time, Cheng Wen unexpectedly showed up to accompany him. He was also stopped by the young prince Cheng Dong about the assassin who killed the old prince.
In this way, a subtle and clever signal was passed to Li Jiangyao without any trace: We know that your enemy Lian Ji is being harbored by you. However, there are two opinions within the Cheng family. One is to pursue it, and the other is to let it pass. I hope that the guardian can show his respect tomorrow and that we can both be well.
Thinking of this, Li Jiangyao first looked at Cheng Dong and Cheng Wen thoughtfully, then shook his head helplessly and said with a wry smile: "I am just a rough old man who only knows how to fight. I really can't do it for the emperor to choose his wife." . I may not be able to say nice words, but I can guarantee that I will never cause trouble, okay?"
Cheng Wen smiled sweetly and looked at her brother. Cheng Dong stood up and cupped his hands and said, "Thank you so much for your kindness."
-
In the morning of the next day, hundreds of officials gathered.
Emperor Li Bing briefly handled a few important government affairs, then ended the court meeting and drove back to the palace.
After he left, the Minister of Rites walked out of the courtroom, saluted Wei Zixuan and other important ministers, and then announced loudly that the meeting to discuss the selection of the queen had officially begun.
The officials of the Ministry of Rites held a volume in their hands and introduced to everyone the background, family background, and ancestral achievements of the forty-eight candidates recommended by the royal family and important ministers.
The thick material took about half an hour to finish. After finishing the work, the Minister of Rites explained the basic rules of evaluation to the courtiers:
If any of the candidates' direct relatives below the great-grandfather commits adultery and commits crimes, they will be dismissed.
If any of the direct relatives below the great-grandfather of a candidate has a serious disease, he or she will be dismissed.
If there are any parents or relatives who rebel against the country, they should retreat.
If any of the brothers or sisters have bad conduct, they will be dismissed.
If a lady is illiterate in arts and sciences, neglects female workers, or has a bad reputation, she will be dismissed.
All officials participating in public discussions in the court are not responsible for giving evidence and are not guilty of any crime. If you have doubts, you can speak out in public, and others can refute and argue.
The candidate ladies are finally ranked according to their family background and the number of doubters, and the top five are recorded in the gold foil selection book and presented to the royal family.
While Li Jiangyao listened to the explanation of the rules by the Minister of Rites, he secretly paid attention to the reactions of the courtiers, especially the officials and members of Wei Zixuan's family, who were all carefully watched by him.
Those people were obviously well prepared, and they were all eager to try, eager to pounce on them and cut the candidates into pieces.
Of course, among the people they want to kill, Cheng Wen, the daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo, is definitely not included.
Things went as Li Jiangyao expected. As soon as the Minister of Rites announced that the officials would start deliberation, seven or eight ministers immediately jumped out and pointed their fingers at Li Xiangning, the sister of Li Mu, a great scholar in Youzhou, and Yan Yijun, the daughter of the Marquis of Kaiyun.
Those guys don't know where they got the dirty information. Counting from the grandfathers of the two candidates, they were either making irresponsible remarks on state affairs, satirizing the court, embezzling military pay, or bullying men and women. In short, the Li family and the Yan family were completely reviled, and they were simply two dens of heinous bandits.
Of course, there are also some ministers who have good relations with the Li Jiayan family and are willing to stand up and help speak out. However, this could only refute some of the accusations, and it was difficult to refute some of the crimes that they had never even heard of.
That's often the case with public opinion.
Three people talk like a tiger, and if there are many people talking about one thing, and all of them are conclusive, it is easy to influence the onlookers. More and more courtiers gradually believed the accusations and expressed that Li Xiangning and Yan Yijun were not suitable to be included in the gold foil selection.
In this way, Cheng Wen's two strong opponents were defeated early without any surprise.
For a long time, the public discussion entered a relatively boring stage: except for Ma Yunfang, Murong Ling, Li Qin and Cheng Wen, the remaining 42 candidates all had some problems, and the civil and military officials expressed their opinions. Thirty-seven more people were eliminated one after another.
According to the rules of public discussion, the remaining nine people only need to be sorted, and the top five will be automatically promoted and hand-picked by the emperor.
However, in this case, among the top five most noble people, there are still three candidates who can directly threaten Cheng Wen, namely Concubine Shu Ma Yunfang, Concubine Hui Murong Ling and Princess Linzhou Li Qin.
This was not safe enough for Shangshu Zuopu to shoot Wei Zixuan.
He coughed lightly and at the same time glanced at Wang Hong, the censor. Wang Hong received the signal, strode out of the courtroom, and said loudly: "I have something to say!"
The Minister of Rites first looked at Wei Zixuan, and then said to Wang Hong: "Master Wang, please speak frankly."
Wang Hong took out a folded book from his sleeve, shook it in front of everyone, and said: "The prince of Guangxing County, Li Chenglu, has been very close to the rebel Qiao Yin for many years, and he even compiled Qiao Yin's poetry collection in the name of the palace. , is a move against the best!"
As soon as these words came out, the entire court suddenly burst into buzzing discussion.
The Prince of Guangxing County did not have a prominent reputation among the royal family, but Qiao Yin and Qiao Chucheng were a well-known figure. At that time, he drank too much and wrote 108 poems mocking the late emperor Li Chengwu with a splash of ink, which shocked the world!
Shen Lie led the Bei Ya Ni Lin Division overnight to arrest the Qiao family. Qiao Yin himself disappeared completely since then. I wonder if he was secretly dealt with by Shen Changshi.
Now Wang Hong has revealed that Li Chenglu actually collected Qiao Chucheng's poetry collection. Is this really a big deal? !
Anguo Duke Wei Chixiao was the recommender of Linzhou Princess Li Qin. When he heard about this situation, he immediately lost his composure and asked quickly: "Wang Hong, you can't talk nonsense, you expose the Guangxing County Prince , is there any evidence?”
Wang Hong smiled: "Mr. An Guo, without evidence, do you dare to accuse the royal family? This is the "Collection of Poems of Chucheng" printed by the Guangxing County Prince's Palace. It also has the seal and signature of the old prince on it. Can you take a look at it?"
Yu Chixiao stepped forward quickly and took the folded book from Wang Hong. After hurriedly flipping through it a few times, he said to the ministers with an embarrassed look: "I...I...I didn't know there was such a thing." It’s something. Alas!”
Wei Zixuan sneered and snorted: "In that case, what else is there to say? Princess Linzhou, retreat!"
The Minister of Rites agreed and shouted loudly: "Remember, the prince of Guangxing County privately printed the poetry collection of the traitor Qiao Yin, which is an act of rebellion against the country. Li Qin, retreat——"
Following his words, the officials of the Ministry of Rites wrote down a note on the roster, and at the same time, the chamberlain took off the sign with Li Qin's name on the shelf.
Li Jiangyao looked at the remaining eight nameplates on the wooden frame with great interest, smiled and said to a military attache next to him: "It's so fast, there are only eight people left. Who do you think has the greater hope?"
"Of course I hope that Concubine Shu will succeed," the military attaché said with a smile, "General Protector, I am from the Southern Army and have been serving under Commander Ma."
"Oh, no wonder." Li Jiangyao smiled and nodded: "If you support Concubine Shu, then there must be someone who supports Concubine Hui."
The military attache responded: "You are absolutely right. Our military is basically a supporter of these two empresses. Both Commander Ma and Commander Murong are deeply loved by the soldiers."
Li Jiangyao nodded slightly and thought: For the Shengtang military, having one of their own become the queen will naturally bring many benefits in the future. Although Ma Yunfang and Murong Ling cannot compare with Cheng Wen in background and family background, they have both given birth to children by Li Bing. I heard that the relationship between the couple is not bad, and the chances of being selected are also very high.
Unexpectedly, when he was making his own calculations, the Minister of Rites suddenly shouted: "Concubine Shu, Concubine Hui, retreat——"
