"Ah! My sins are so serious, yet you can forgive them with just a few words. Your Highness is truly very open-minded!" There was no trace of joy in Yang Yuanzhi's words. Instead, they seemed as calm as death.
But he continued, "I am a dying man, so I don't care whether I forgive or not. But my son is now an official in Lingnan Road, and my grandson Yang Jin is still immature. If Your Highness can speak up for them in front of the prince and not humiliate them, then I will die with my eyes closed!"
Qiu Yizi was sweating on his forehead after hearing what Yang Yuanzhi said, and he kept saying, "Okay, okay, my adoptive father is such a man. Since he can forgive the old prime minister, he will naturally not embarrass them."
"Your Highness is a man of great integrity, and I have long experienced that. Since Your Highness has said this, I will have no regrets in my grave." Yang Yuanzhi finally showed a relieved expression on his face, and a kind smile appeared in his cloudy eyes. "Your Highness is both virtuous and talented, and has met a wise master. It is the time for you to make achievements and have a bright future. It's a pity that I can't see the moment when Your Highness reaches the pinnacle of power. Please..."
As Yang Yuanzhi spoke, he stood up tremblingly in the cabin.
Qiu Yizhi thought that Yang Yuanzhi was going to salute him, and was about to reach out to help him. Unexpectedly, Yang Yuanzhi fell to the side of the boat, and fell into the water. The small wooden boat lost its balance and swayed from side to side.
Qiu Yizhi was not good at swimming, so he subconsciously grabbed the side of the boat with both hands, fearing that he would also fall into the lake, and would not be able to jump into the water immediately to save people. When the boat stabilized, Yang Yuanzhi, a veteran minister of three dynasties, had disappeared in the unknown depth of the lake.
Qiu Yizi was already panicking, and hurriedly paddled to the shore, only to see Yang Jin standing alone on a rockery, staring blankly at the ripples in the lake, his eyes full of confusion and sadness.
Qiu Yizi didn't dare to meet Yang Jin's gaze, and hurriedly hugged Yang Jin and ran towards the gate of Yang's mansion like a fly.
The soldiers guarding the Yang Mansion were all surprised to see Qiu Yizhi's appearance. Just as they were about to ask, they heard Qiu Yizhi order in an unquestionable tone: "This place is closed, no one is allowed to enter, do you understand?" He then gently put Yang Jin down and said, "This young master is an old friend of mine. You must take good care of him and serve him carefully. If he loses a hair, you will lose your head. Do you understand?"
After saying this, Qiu Yizi didn't wait for the soldier to reply, and quickly mounted his horse to look for Zheng Rong.
Zheng Rong is currently offering sacrifices to the tablets of the ancestors of the Han Dynasty in the Taimiao.
This matter was the most important matter in the world, and even if the sky fell, it could not be disturbed. Qiu Yizi had no choice but to wait outside the Imperial Ancestral Temple, and he was already as anxious as an ant on a hot pot.
After a long while, Zheng Rong finally came out of the Imperial Ancestral Temple under the protection of numerous guards and imperial guards. Qiu Yizi hurried forward and told Zheng Rong everything about Yang Yuanzhi's misfortune.
Upon hearing this, Zheng Rong pondered for a moment and said, "To die in this way means he was still smart... Well, I will fulfill his last hope and not dig deeper into the matter. You go find Mr. Zhongli and ask him to write a letter in the name of the Ministry of Personnel, asking him to summon Yang Yuanzhi's son to the capital to attend the funeral!" After that, Zheng Rong led countless guards and followers and left without looking back.
After such an experience, Qiu Yizhi was in low spirits for a long time. Fortunately, Zheng Rong had already controlled the overall situation in the court, and there was nothing for Qiu Yizhi to do. Therefore, Qiu Yizhi asked Zheng Rong for a long vacation on the grounds that he was too tired in the past few days. Every day, he took Yuchi Lianghong, Zhao Chengxiao and the 18 Yunmeng bandits to visit the lakes and mountains near Luoyang, which was also free and easy.
More than a month passed by unknowingly.
During these forty or fifty days, the situation in the Han court continued to develop in a direction favorable to Zheng Rong.
First, the two generals Cui Nan and Wei Hu led the army and occupied the prefectures one after another without any hindrance. The various frontier officials only wanted to keep their lives and official positions in this ever-changing situation, and had no moral principles in their hearts. As soon as the Youyan army arrived, they presented documents and files, which was considered surrender to Zheng Rong.
The second person Zheng Rong was most worried about was Lingnan King Zheng Gui. He originally wanted to take advantage of the chaos in the court to fish in troubled waters. Although he did not think that he could seize the throne, he could at least seize a few states and counties in the chaos to accumulate some strength to confront the court. But to his surprise, Zheng Rong's campaign against rebellion was completed in just a few months, leaving him no chance to fish in troubled waters. So Zheng Gui discussed with several of his think tanks and simply submitted a memorial to persuade Zheng Rong to ascend the throne and become emperor immediately, so as to firmly occupy the first place in the support. Zheng Rong certainly knew Zheng Gui's intentions, and understood that he had no intention of competing with him in the short term, so he was relieved. At the same time, he did not forget to deploy a large army on the border of Lingnan Road to be prepared.
Then, together with Heluo King Zheng Hua, Zheng Miao held talks with civil officials at all levels. After several discussions, most of the officials in the court expressed their loyalty to Zheng Rong. There were also some officials who were no longer willing to work for the court, and Zheng Miao arranged for them to retire without making things difficult for them. As a result, the mentality of the officials in the court had settled down.
The eldest son Zheng Xin followed Zheng Rong's order to lead the rectification of the six ministries. During the campaign against the rebellion, Zheng Xin was only responsible for the transportation of food and supplies in the rear. Although he made great contributions, he rarely had the opportunity to show off. Therefore, he wanted to show his ability in front of his father and the officials, so he mustered up his energy and took turns to stay in each ministry to rectify the affairs of the ministry.
All of a sudden, the Ministry of Personnel impeached more than 20 corrupt and redundant officials, and the administration of the court was immediately solemn; the Ministry of Revenue cleaned up the treasury silver and stored grain, and submitted a petition to make up for the deficits in various places within a time limit; the Ministry of Justice sent personnel to sit in the prison, check the backlog of cases over the years one by one, and re-examine all unjust imprisonments; the Ministry of Works mobilized civilians and craftsmen from the vicinity of the capital to repair the damaged Luoyang East Wall and rebuild the burned Taixing Hall, and issued a military order to complete the project before New Year's Eve; as for the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Rites, Zheng Rong sent Zhongli Kuang and Zheng Sen to sit in charge, and Zheng Xin did not forget to ask about it on weekdays. As a result, the central ruling machine of the Han Dynasty, which had been lazy for more than ten years, finally burst into vitality again and started to operate in an orderly and rapid manner.
In the Ministry of War, Zheng Rong handed over the main affairs to his third son Zheng Sen, and invited Dai Luanxiang to take charge. Although Zheng Sen was a bit rough, he was also well versed in military affairs. With the assistance of famous generals like Dai Luanxiang, things were handled more easily. So countless old and weak soldiers were eliminated from the Imperial Guards, and elite soldiers were recruited to fill the vacancies. The backbone elites of the Youyan Army were transferred and promoted to join the Imperial Guards as generals at all levels. So within just a month, Zheng Rong had two highly combat-effective armies that were loyal to him.
As for the affairs of the Ministry of Rites, they were Zheng Rong's top priority. In the near future, he had to do a good job in the two matters of ascending to the Great Hall and recruiting officials through the imperial examination. These were important matters related to winning the hearts and minds of the people in the Han Dynasty, and they had to be taken seriously. Therefore, in addition to Zheng Rong's constant attention, he also sent Zhongli Kuang to take charge.
Zhongli Kuang was originally a very efficient and neat person, but although his lord Zheng Rong had not yet officially ascended the throne, he was far from being comparable to the original King of Youyan. The various affairs he had to deal with were more than ten times more than before - just organizing and summarizing the memorials sent from all over the country every day was enough to keep Zhongli Kuang busy, not to mention taking on these two extremely important tasks.
Fortunately, Zheng Rong temporarily pardoned Shi Liangzhi, who had offended him in the past, and asked him to be responsible for the relevant matters of the coronation ceremony.
Shi Liangzhi also knew that if he failed to do this important thing well and made some mistakes that angered Zheng Rong, it would be a disaster. So he relied on his long experience in the Ministry of Rites and his familiarity with various rituals and procedures, and spent day and night in the Ministry of Rites, repeatedly practicing, and was determined to do this perfectly.
As for the Enke Luncai Ceremony, Zheng Rong, mindful of the malpractice of leaking examination questions in recent years, personally prepared the examination questions and sealed them, and sent trusted soldiers from the Youyan Army to deliver them to the government offices of various prefectures over a 600-mile journey. He also asked Zhongli Kuang to select honest and reliable people from among his clerks and assign them to supervise the opening and grading of the examination papers, in order to prevent corrupt officials from taking advantage of their own interests and committing fraud. In this way, although not all the newly admitted Xiaolian officials in various provinces were truly talented and learned, there were not many unqualified people among them.
In addition, Zheng Rong personally issued an order to immediately seal off the Quanshansi Yamen, which had caused great harm. All the civilians and officials he had captured were released, while the leaders and minions of the Quanshansi Yamen were all imprisoned in the Ministry of Justice. They were released one by one after investigation, and anyone who had done evil was severely punished.
In short, after Zheng Rong's swift and vigorous rectification in just over a month, the atmosphere in the Han Dynasty became solemn and the people were all grateful. In addition, Zheng Rong's relative, Qin Guangyuan, who was also a famous scholar in the country, widely spread the word among the literati, so that Zheng Rong's reputation grew, far exceeding that when he was guarding Youyan Road.
Therefore, for a while, memorials persuading him to ascend the throne were endless and filled up the books, and were continuously sent to Zheng Rong's desk - it was a foregone conclusion that Zheng Rong would ascend the throne and become emperor the next year.
This matter was strongly supported even within the harem.
It turned out that the late Emperor Zheng Yong was addicted to Taoism in his later years and was not interested in women. His concubines had not established any prestige, and the entire harem still followed the lead of Zheng Yong's mother. And this old empress dowager, who was over 60 years old, was not only the biological mother of Zheng Yong, but also the biological mother of Zheng Rong. It goes without saying that when Zheng Yong became emperor, if Zheng Rong also became emperor, then the position of the leader of the harem would be more stable. With this layer of interests involved, she naturally supported Zheng Rong's accession to the throne.
Time flies, and in the blink of an eye it is already the coldest time of the year. The New Year's Eve is just around the corner, and Zheng Rong's enthronement ceremony is getting closer and closer.
In order to make this grand ceremony solemn and dignified, the Minister of Rites Shi Liangzhi had already issued a letter to the Han Dynasty's vassal states such as Korea, Bohai, Japan, Annan, Tubo, Qiuci, Loulan and so on, asking them to send envoys to the capital as soon as possible to pay tribute, so as to create an atmosphere of all nations coming to pay tribute.
Bohai was a vassal state of the Han Dynasty to contain the Turkic forces, and it had a very close relationship with the Youyan Palace. Therefore, although it was inconvenient for the Khan of Bohai, Dali Khan, who was also canonized as the King of Zhongshun by the court, to come to pay tribute in person, he sent his legitimate son Prince Wudun and daughter Princess Yiran, carrying extremely generous tributes, to Luoyang with great fanfare.
Prince Uldun is the heir of Dali Khan. He came to the Central Plains this time with an important mission. After entering the capital to meet Zheng Rong, he began to meet and feast with the bigwigs in the court every day and was very busy.
Princess Yiran was raised in the Youyan Palace since she was a child, and she had a very good relationship with Qiu Yizhi. After coming to the capital, she had nothing else to do, so she played games with Qiu Yizhi every day. (To be continued)