In Baoci Palace, Queen Mother Gao was sleeping with her eyes closed.
"Empress..." Liang Weijian's voice came from outside the curtain: "Zhang Shiliang, the official of the Imperial City Company, has been ordered to play!"
Empress Dowager Gao opened her eyes and whispered: "Ask him to come and talk to me!"
"According to the order!"
A moment later, a minister who was about forty years old, short, stocky, and seemingly honest, arrived outside the curtain of the Queen Mother's chamber.
Seeing the figure of the Queen Mother sitting inside the curtain, he bowed and said: "Official official Shi Liang of the Imperial City Department, I wish to express my sincere wishes to the Queen Mother that she is well and well!"
"I'm fine!" Queen Mother Gao sat in the curtain, looked at Zhang Shiliang's short figure outside the curtain, and asked, "Tell me! What did the Detective Department find out?"
Zhang Shiliang lowered his head, bowed in obeisance, and presented a document in his hand: "I am reporting to you, your Majesty, that I have recorded all the matters in Bianjing that the Inspector has recently investigated in writing, and begged your Majesty to read them!"
Under the ancestral system of the Song Dynasty, the harem was not allowed to interfere in politics.
However, the Imperial City Department was subordinate to the inner court and acted under the command of the emperor and empress, and was not subject to the restrictions of the ancestral system.
Therefore, the Imperial City Secretary became one of the few concubines in the imperial court who could exert influence on the outer dynasty.
The queen mothers, in particular, have always placed their trusted ministers in the Imperial City to control the direction of the government and the opposition.
Zhang Shiliang was Empress Dowager Gao's eyes and ears in the Imperial City Department.
The original intention was just to tell him to keep an eye on his relatives and not to let them act recklessly outside, so as not to cause trouble and lose the dignity of the palace - mainly the dignity of Empress Dowager Gao!
But now, at this time when the hearts of both the ruling and opposition parties are in turmoil.
Zhang Shiliang became the eyes and ears of Empress Dowager Gao.
The soldiers under the jurisdiction of the Detective Department under the Imperial City Department became the most powerful chess piece in the hands of Empress Dowager Gao.
Liang Weijian took the document from Zhang Shiliang, then respectfully walked from the side of the curtain to Empress Dowager Gao, and presented it to the Empress Dowager.
Empress Dowager Gao took the document, opened it, and frowned immediately.
Liang Weijian was nearby, glanced out of the corner of his eye, and immediately lowered his head.
Because the words on that paper were really too much.
"...I heard that Huang Lu, the Prime Minister, said to his neighbors one day: I have a grudge: I am admonishing the two kings not to move out of the country! Now that the emperor is ill and the two kings are in the ban, if one day the ban suddenly drops a piece of paper , it’s too late for us to regret it!”
What kind of treasonous, arrogant and arrogant words are these?
However, the person who said this was Huang Lu, the censor Zhongcheng!
This person is the emperor's confidant!
In addition, Huang Lu has a son-in-law named Lu Huiqing...
When Huang Lu said this, what did he want to do? Who did he consult with? And who was instigating him to say these things behind his back?
Is it Lu Huiqing or that person from Jiang Ning? Or simply from...
Liang Weijian didn't dare to think about it anymore.
Empress Dowager Gao was not as angry as Liang Weijian imagined.
The crows in Taiwan have been clamoring for the two kings to be driven out of Da Nei. They have been clamoring since the second year of Xining until today.
Empress Dowager Gao has long been desensitized to this.
To be honest, if the emperor hadn't been seriously ill now, Queen Mother Gao would have laughed it off even if Huang Lu said such words in front of her.
Why bother with Taiwan's admonishment officials?
That's what they do.
What's more, Huang Lu is the censor Zhongcheng. Under such circumstances, if he didn't say that, he would be considered to have "two ends".
The memorial to impeach him would flood all the offices of the Bank of China.
Empress Dowager Gao continued to look down. What the Detective Department reported were all the private discussions involving ministers, relatives and the royal family in Bianjing City.
Therefore, Empress Dowager Gao quickly saw a report from a police officer: Yesterday, there was a tabloid rumor among the tiles in the capital, and the insider said: The insider said that the prince of Yan'an County was a pure filial piety. He took medicine from the official family and only ate vegetarian food. He copied Buddhist scriptures for his father and sent them to Funing Hall every day as a prayer for blessings.
Queen Mother Gao's face suddenly darkened, and she felt a little uncomfortable.
She looked at Zhang Shiliang outside the curtain with cold eyes, and asked: "Why did the insider news reach Wazi in the market and be discussed by ordinary people? Who is this insider?"
Zhang Shiliang immediately lay down and bowed his head tremblingly: "I am guilty of death! Death!"
When Liang Weijian saw it, she quickly approached Empress Dowager Gao and explained in a low voice: "My dear, the so-called spy is the tabloid's nickname for the source of banned information..."
"In addition to internal spies, the tabloid also has 'provincial spies' and 'yamen spies', who respectively inquire about provincial and government news..."
When Empress Dowager Gao heard this, she was furious.
Can anyone in the market get the inside news?
So what secrets does this Dauchi have in front of the world?
The tabloid even has so-called provincial detectives and government detectives!
Does it mean that not only is it forbidden, but news from the capital and government agencies will also be spread, discussed and evaluated in Wazi? !
Why doesn't the emperor care?
She looked at Liang Weijian and asked: "Since you know this, why don't you punish this person?"
Liang Weijian lowered his head and said aggrievedly: "Empress, at that time Ren Temple was fashionable and there was nothing we could do. Kuang Chen and others?"
"Isolating China and foreign countries is a big crime!"
But in their hearts, both Liang Weijian and Zhang Shiliang knew it.
Who are these spies?
Moreover, almost all of them were under orders to leak secrets inside and outside!
It's just that sometimes it's under everyone's orders, and most of the time it's under the orders of the big guys in the palace to leak secrets.
In particular, after Xining, Wang Anshi's political reform caused an uproar in both the government and the public, and the world was in turmoil.
The ministers in the Imperial Household were also severely affected.
In particular, the implementation of the Market Change Law and Market Change Affairs has caused many people to lose their previously profitable transactions.
Therefore, a large number of internal ministers began to actively leak information to the outside world.
In this way, even if you can't stop it, you can still disgust the capital and the palace and cause them some trouble.
However, the Queen Mother does not need to know these things.
Everything is attributed to the ancestral system, and everything is attributed to Jiayou's government.
In this way, Queen Mother Gao will not pursue it any further.
Sure enough, most of Empress Dowager Gao's anger dissipated after hearing Liang Weijian mention the two key words "Ren Temple can do nothing" and "isolating China and foreign countries, its crime is not small".
Empress Dowager Gao's favorite was the rule of Renmiao Jiayou.
There is nothing wrong in the world. The Holy Lord is at court and famous ministers are in office.
Peace for all.
Instead of like now, for a few ounces of copper coins, there was a lot of chaos from the capital to the localities, the ancestral system was completely destroyed, and there were complaints from top to bottom.
Especially the use of troops in the northwest was endless and costly, but only gained some barren land.
This made Empress Dowager Gao the most dissatisfied!
"Since it's an ancestral system, I can't interfere with it. It's just a forbidden matter. You have to keep an eye on it from now on and don't let anyone leak it out at will!"
"Yes..." Liang Weijian nodded immediately.
Zhang Shiliang, who was outside the curtain, also quickly bowed his head: "I respectfully obey the imperial edict of the empress!"
Empress Dowager Gao looked at the words in her hand and then at Zhang Shiliang outside the curtain.
I couldn't help but ask: "Are Zhang Shiliang and Wazili really praising Sixth Brother for his pure filial piety?"
Zhang Shiliang looked at the figure of Empress Dowager Gao in the curtain with his eyes, and replied: "I am a despicable person, how dare you say this?"
He dared to discuss this matter only if he didn't want his life!
Queen Mother Gao nodded: "I know!"
Then he told Zhang Shiliang: "Go to the Imperial City Department and tell everyone in the Detective Department to pay attention to the discussions in the public. If there is any move, report it to the palace!"
"According to the order!"
After Zhang Shiliang left, Empress Dowager Gao held the documents in her hand, leaned against her pillow, and asked Liang Weijian: "Liang Weijian, is it true that Sixth Brother is eating vegetarian food and copying Buddhist scriptures every day?"
Liang Weijian naturally did not dare to conceal this matter. He lowered his head and replied: "As far as I know, everyone in Qingning Palace said so!"
"If your Majesty has any doubts, you can ask Feng Jing of Gou Qingning Palace to ask..."
Queen Mother Gao shook her head: "That's not necessary!"
To ask Feng Jing, wouldn't it be equivalent to publicly announcing that she, the mother-in-law, was suspicious of the prince in Qingning Palace?
In this way, no matter what the answer is, for Empress Dowager Gao, the gains outweigh the losses.
…
Note: The Detective Department under the Imperial City Department was established by Zhenzong. Initially, there were 40 marriage officers and soldiers, who were in charge of "detecting rumors and people with evil intentions in the capital." In both the Shenzong and Zhezong dynasties, the Detective Department experienced large-scale Expansion, the establishment once reached 500 people.
Note 2: Those who engage in the official affairs of the Imperial City Division are officials in charge of the Imperial City Division, often serving as military ministers and internal ministers, "Song Huiyao". "Official Officials" records: In the sixth year of Yuanfeng, in the first batch: there were many corporate officials in the Imperial City Division, and only ten were retained.
