Your time is running out. "
As soon as Gao Pragmatic said these words, Liu Shouyou couldn't help but feel nervous. He didn't know what Gao Pingshi meant, and he couldn't help but wonder in his mind whether he planned to mobilize his servants to resist forcefully, or whether he wanted to invite "reinforcements"?
Liu Shou rolled his eyes and did not answer, but he secretly thought in his heart: It should be impossible to resist forcefully. In front of a group of scholars like Yu Tingyao and Wang Shiqi, it is impossible for Gao Pragmatic to do such a stupid thing to annihilate himself from the world. Then he can only find "reinforcements", but who will the reinforcements be?
The first thing Liu Shouyou thought of was Chen Ju, because although Chen Ju was only the second-ranking figure in the inner court, he was the admiral of Dongchang. If he came in person, he would have the right to forcefully suppress him no matter what he was doing. ——In fact, it cannot be said that he has the "right to suppress", but once Chen Ju gives an order, the people of Jinyiwei really do not dare to disobey, even if Liu Shou expresses dissatisfaction on the spot.
This situation is like the censor of a certain province forcing a certain prefect of the province to suspend something. Even if the prefect's superior, the chief envoy, has issued an order, it will not work. The prefect must first listen to the inspector, otherwise he will be punished. Most of the inspectors will be dismissed from office, but relatively speaking, even if the envoys participate in the impeachment of the prefect, the prefect will usually only be noted by the Ministry of Personnel and criticized.
The reason is very simple: The duty of the overseer is to supervise. Now that I find that you are not doing something right, the power of "making decisions on small matters" can be used. If you refuse to implement it, it will be regarded as disobeying the holy will. As for whether I "cut it off" correctly or not, the Emperor's Holy Judgment will naturally follow afterwards, and it has nothing to do with you.
Admiral Dongchang's situation with the Jinyiwei is similar to this. He supervises the Jinyiwei. If he tells you to stop immediately, you have no choice but to stop, otherwise it will be equivalent to disobeying the holy will. As for whether his order is considered a holy will or not, you have no control over it anyway. The emperor can only judge it afterwards.
Of course Liu Shouyou knew very well how close the relationship between Chen Ju and Gao Pragmatic was, and he did not doubt that Chen Ju would definitely help Gao Pragmatic in this matter.
However, after Liu Shouyou concluded that Gao Pragmatic did not intend to resist with force, he did not seem very panicked, because he also had a back-up plan.
At the same time that Gao Pangshi allowed Liu Shouyou to search the Baiyu Tower, Zhu Yijun had just entered the Cining Palace.
It was already afternoon. Of course, Zhu Yijun could not come to Cining Palace for greetings. The reason he used was to "ask about Wu Qinghou's illness."
Li Wei, Marquis of Wuqing, was the biological father of Empress Dowager Li, Zhu Yijun's grandfather. He was nearly 60 years old this year. Because this man lived a difficult life in his early years, and after his daughter became rich, he became greedy for money and indulged in pleasure. His health has not been very good in the past two years, and he has been ill recently, so Zhu Yijun came here with the excuse of asking about illness.
But this is just an excuse. Zhu Yijun doesn't have deep feelings for his grandfather, and he also knows that his reputation is very bad. In addition to some ceremonial activities, such as paying homage to previous emperors on behalf of the emperor, and so on, other things are basically Don't let him participate.
Empress Dowager Li has a deep affection for her father, because her mother passed away early, and it was her father's decision that she could enter Prince Yu's palace as a maid, so she was very happy to hear that her son came here for this purpose.
However, she didn't have time to talk to Zhu Yijun about it yet, because someone just came to report a big event to her: Princess Yongning quietly slipped out of the palace!
It’s not that Empress Dowager Li didn’t know what was happening to her daughter. Although she was a traditional and typical patriarchal mother, a mother was still a mother, and she felt quite guilty about her daughter’s marriage. But in her opinion, this is not the reason for her daughter to sneak out of the palace!
In particular, Queen Mother Li has gone through so many things in the past, and now she knows very well that her daughter's leaving the palace will definitely not be unintentional. She must be looking for Gao Pragmatic!
In fact, Queen Mother Li doesn't think that Gao Pragmatic is good enough, but for the Tian family, if this kind of excellence is to be put to good use, it should never be exchanged for the princess. As for the reason, Empress Dowager Li has never thought about it deeply, because her political talents are really average, and she just stubbornly maintains the rules established by the previous emperors.
After all, in her opinion, the rules of the Tian family are more important than anything else, just as her son will definitely be the emperor. This is determined by the rules, so for her, maintaining the rules means safeguarding everything.
When Zhu Yijun arrived at Cining Palace, he realized that his mother was not in the main hall or the bedroom, but in the garden. He didn't think much and went straight to the garden.
When they arrived at the garden, the maid from Cining Palace informed the emperor that Empress Dowager Cisheng was at Hanqingzhai, so the emperor turned right. This Hanqingzhai would not have appeared in the Ming Dynasty. Now this place was built a few years ago by Gao Pragmatic's suggestion Zhu Yijun for the Empress Dowager Cisheng, and the name was "Queen Mother's Christmas" (that's the right word).
There is a couplet hanging on the door of Hanqingzhai, which reads "The couplets are not decorated with algae, and the seats are clear". This calligraphy was written by Zhu Yijun himself. In the past, he would take a look when he came here, but today Zhu Yijun didn't take a second look, but hurried in.
As soon as he entered the front room of Hanqingzhai, Zhu Yijun saw the empress mother holding a rosary in her hand and turning it gently. He wanted to go up first to say hello, but who knew that Empress Dowager Li asked first: "Emperor, where is Yao?"
Zhu Yijun felt a chill in his heart and thought to himself: Sure enough, someone snitched on you.
However, there was a look of surprise on his face, and he said in astonishment: "Yao Xi? Isn't she in Changchun Palace?"
"you do not know?"
Zhu Yijun shook his head, looking innocent.
Empress Dowager Li frowned slightly and said to a female official beside her: "Go and ask the Queen to come."
Zhu Yijun quickly stopped her, and then asked: "Queen Mother, what happened?"
Empress Dowager Li glanced at him and said, "I heard that the empress recently gave a Kunning Palace forbidden phoenix tablet to Yao Yu. The Ai family would like to ask the empress her intention for doing this."
"Then there is no need to ask the queen. This matter is my wish." Zhu Yijun signaled the palace maid to step back, and then said to Queen Mother Li: "Mother, I think the spring has been coming recently and the weather is good, so I took advantage of the queen's help. Hand, let Yao Lao have the opportunity to go out for a walk and relax... Queen Mother, you also know that Yao Lao has been in a very low mood recently, and I am worried that she will be bored out of her mind. "
Empress Dowager Li was noncommittal and asked calmly: "Although some people in the outer court may gossip about the princess going out for an outing, it is only a trivial matter after all. It is just a matter of your mouth. Why do you need to do it with the hands of a fake queen? Or should I say that this outing? This place is very sensitive, and you also know that it cannot be known to outsiders?"
"My son doesn't quite understand what the mother said." Zhu Yijun said calmly: "My son has been busy lately, it's spring and the Yunnan war, and he doesn't have time to ask Yao where he wants to relax, so then Ye just casually said something to the queen...what, she left the palace?"
Empress Dowager Li narrowed her eyes slightly, but there was no emotion or anger on her face. She just said calmly: "I heard that she went there, and she went out pretending to be a palace maid..."
"Really? I just came from Qianqing Palace, so I don't know about this." Zhu Yijun's acting skills have also improved a lot now, and he started to talk nonsense without changing his face and heart: "But she went out of the palace to go on a trip, pretending to be a palace maid What to do? Oh, by the way, I heard that she also set up a charity fund. Could it be that she wants to convince Bai Arowana and understand the public sentiment? "
Empress Dowager Li said: "The Ai family doesn't want to take care of things like charity funds. After all, it's all about accumulating virtue and bringing good fortune, which is always a good thing. But if she does anything that damages the reputation of the Tian family, then the Ai family just wants to It doesn’t matter anymore.”
"How could it be so?" Zhu Yijun smiled and asked: "Has the queen determined her whereabouts?"
In Zhu Yijun's sentence, the word "sure" was placed particularly heavily, which obviously meant something.
Empress Dowager Li was moved in her heart and said: "The Ai family has just received such news, and has not sent anyone to Changchun Palace to verify it. Emperor, you are here..."
"It's not confirmed yet, so there's no point in talking about it now." Zhu Yijun turned around with a smile and told Chen Ju: "Send someone to Changchun Palace immediately to see if Yongning is there. If she is, ask her to come over. If she is not, Come and report immediately."
Chen Ju bowed in agreement and went out to arrange for people to go to Changchun Palace without mentioning it.
It stands to reason that this matter can be suspended for a while. After all, we have to wait for news from Changchun Palace. Fortunately, Changchun Palace is not far from Cining Palace, so it doesn’t take much time to come and go.
At this time, if Zhu Yijun really came to "ask Wu Qinghou Ji", he could start "talking about business" now.
However, Zhu Yijun did not mention this at all. Instead, he hesitated for a moment, as if he wanted to ask something but was not comfortable asking.
Empress Dowager Li frowned and said, "Just say what you have to say, hesitantly, how can you behave like an emperor?"
Zhu Yijun was waiting for this sentence. Hearing this, Hao Ran smiled, coughed slightly and said, "I'm just a little strange. Regardless of whether Yao Lao left the palace or not, even I don't know about this matter. What's wrong with my mother?" Did you know so soon?"
Empress Dowager Li's face changed and she said displeasedly: "Why, the emperor is saying that the mother-in-law of the Ai family is too lenient in the palace?"
"The Queen Mother has misunderstood. How dare I have such rebellious thoughts? I just discuss the matter." Zhu Yijun said seriously: "Although there are two queen mothers and empresses in charge of affairs in the harem, I really don't have to ask anything at ordinary times, but Yao Xiu She is the eldest princess of the Ming Dynasty. If she really left the palace incognito, shouldn't she report such a thing to her son and minister first? Why hasn't the son and minister received the news yet, but the queen mother has received the news? "
As Zhu Yijun spoke, he bowed to Empress Dowager Li and said seriously: "What I want to ask is whether the person who came here to report the news has been arranged by the Empress Dowager, or..."
"The Ai family worships Buddha all day long, so you are too busy to arrange these things?" Queen Mother Li felt a little uncomfortable when her son asked her. She frowned and said, "You mean that someone deliberately wanted the Ai family to know before you did?" This news?"
Zhu Yijun thought: It is impossible to do it earlier, but the other party does mean this.
"My son does have such suspicions." After all, Zhu Yijun has been in power for a while, and during this period he has also won consecutive victories in foreign wars, especially the Monan victory, which allowed the Ming Dynasty to reverse the situation on the northern border in one fell swoop. He is much less afraid of his mother now. At least he doesn't have to worry about her threatening her with deposing the king and establishing a new one. Therefore, he has obviously become much more confident in his words.
Unexpectedly, Queen Mother Li was not very disgusted with her son's attitude. She was just a little curious. After thinking about it, she asked: "Let's not say whether there is such a thing. Let's assume that there is - what do you think? Why did this person do this?”
Zhu Yijun said: "It's hard to say, this is exactly what Erchen has been thinking about just now." He paused slightly and said: "A few years ago, when Erchen was discussing history and seeking truth, he once mentioned a point of view: as long as a brain is When normal people do things, they must have a purpose, and this purpose is usually to obtain some kind of benefit. Then, if you want to infer who did something, the key lies in who can benefit from it. .”
Queen Mother Li asked: "In this case, who can benefit from the news being known to the Ai family first?"
Zhu Yijun smiled slightly and said: "What's the benefit? There are usually two types. One is that you directly benefit, and the other is that your opponent is unlucky. Mother, I think that person should have expected that you would know about this first." After that, someone will be unlucky, and this unlucky person will be that person’s opponent, or at least one of his opponents.”
This statement sounded a bit confusing at first, but it was actually quite simple. Empress Dowager Li understood it immediately and thought about it: "If you hadn't come just now and things had developed as that person thought, who would have been unlucky..."
Zhu Yijun smiled and said nothing.
Queen Mother Li's expression quickly changed and she said in a deep voice: "The Ai family just suspected that Yao Nao went to Gao Jingshi's place, so what you are saying is that... that person wants the Ai family to vent their anger on Gao Jingshi?"
Zhu Yijun sighed and said: "As for the shortcomings of Qiuzhen, I really can't say anything. At most, he loves making money. But although he loves money, he is a gentleman who loves money and has always taken advantage of it. There is a right way to go. Unfortunately, the world clings to the word 'copper smell' and refuses to let go. They always think that loving money is a bad thing... So if you seek truth, you will be praised all over the world, and slander will follow."
Queen Mother Li was a little surprised and asked: "You mean, Gao Pragmatic blocked other people's way of making money, so someone wants to frame him?" She was slightly disbelieving, shook her head and said: "That's not what the Ai family heard, even you People with Third Uncle's temperament say that Gao is pragmatic, generous and righteous, and never eats alone."
Zhu Yijun did not answer immediately, smiled bitterly, and then shook his head slightly and said: "The queen mother is not aware of something. The so-called shopping mall is like a battlefield, and there are always enemies and friends on the battlefield. If he can stand on the side of seeking truth, everyone will naturally think that he is righteous, because You can always make money by following him in business. But what about the other way around? There are always some people who cannot stand with Qiu Zhen, but can only stand opposite him. However, Qiu Zhen is very good at business. If they lose money because of this If they make less money or make less money, do you think they can stop hating the truth?"
Queen Mother Li finally understood, nodded, and said: "The person who came to report just now is..."
Before she could finish her words, a eunuch suddenly shouted loudly outside: "Her Royal Highness Princess Yongning has arrived——"
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