In the autumn of the fifth year of Qingli, Hong Zhu, a young eunuch in the palace, was holding a thick stack of documents, half bent, and trotted all the way towards the room on the west corner door, stepping on the slightly wet ground with his small toes, without any hesitation. . The hem of the light blue shirt he was wearing had been turned up so as not to trip his feet, but his right hand was placed horizontally on the stack of documents, and the wide sleeves covered the documents tightly, for fear that there would be someone in the sky. The pendulum clouds, as thick as lead, squeezed out a few drops of rain, which wetted the paperwork.
After crossing the threshold, following the handover procedures, and checking the registers with the eunuchs in the room, Hong Zhu felt relieved, carefully marked on the watch, and handed over the document in his arms.
Zhongshu is the center of the Qing Dynasty to deal with the government. Its status is not as important as it is today, because there is still a prime minister in the sixth department of the General Command. The memorial is always read by the prime minister before he enters the palace to ask for orders. , and now that Prime Minister Lin Ruofu has sadly returned to his hometown, the position of Zhongshu Province has been highlighted at once. His Majesty has appointed several veteran officials to Zhongshu to discuss matters, and set the place of discussion outside the corner gate of the palace for convenience. connection.
Now in charge of the important affairs of the court in Zhongshu are Shu University scholar and several veteran officials.
The slightly cold autumn wind blew over from the square in front of the palace, Hong Zhu rubbed his hands, took a deep breath, and stood quietly outside the door, waiting for the reply from the elders. He couldn't leave at this time, and stood obediently outside the door, listening to the movement inside with his ears up.
From time to time, officials walked past him and nodded politely to him. Knowing his identity, Hong Zhu hurriedly saluted with a smile. But no one thought it was strange for him to stay outside the temporary school of Zhongshu Province, because everyone knew the job of this little eunuch.
Occasionally, some young eunuchs sent by the palace to serve the elders saw him, and saluted him respectfully, asking him to escape from the cold in the side room next to him. Hong Zhu didn't have so much courtesy to these little eunuchs, he nodded in self-effacing, but still stood firm outside the door.
He is only sixteen years old this year, but he has such a small status in the palace. The reason is that his daily work is a very important part of the palace, and more importantly, his surname is Hong, so the palace has always been there. It was rumored that he might be related to Mr. Hong.
Hong Zhu touched the small pimple on the left side of his lower lip, and was a little annoyed. The Overwatch Council has been arresting people very hard these days, the civil servants' memorials are very fierce, the Zhongshu is very noisy, and his palace and palace He ran several times a day, and was so busy, the anger in his body was so heavy that he rushed out. He thought to himself, after returning to the palace, he must go to the small kitchen to ask for a bowl of herbal tea.
The voice of the discussion inside the door was not very loud, but it still reached his ears.
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"This is the affairs of the Overwatch Council. Your Majesty sent this memorial back. I don't know what it means."
"Perhaps..." The voice who answered the words seemed very hesitant, "Does Your Majesty feel that Fan Tisi has gone too far recently?"
An old minister's angry voice rang out: "It's not too much? He, Fan Xian, is clearly using his public power to attack dissidents! In just ten days, he actually arrested five ministers and sent them to the hospital late at night. It's like the Overwatch Council of the imperial court, it's like a bandit in his hands!"
Another voice of disapproval sounded: "Fan Tesi's actions are aboveboard. After the arrest of these five ministers, the detailed charges were posted on the wall outside the Dali Temple on the second day, and the people in Kyoto are very clear about it. I think Mr. Yan's words are a bit exaggerated. What the Overwatch Council does is to supervise the administration of officials, so what does it have to do with cracking down on dissidents? In my opinion... it's because of the misconduct of those five ministers that the problem arises."
The old official surnamed Yan said angrily: "Isn't it to attack dissidents? Then why did the Overwatch Council suddenly take so many actions after the Metropolitan Procuratorate intervened with him last time?"
The man sneered and said, "If it's retaliation, why didn't Mr. Fan take any action against the Metropolitan Procuratorate?"
"That's because His Majesty is wise and strictly prohibits the Overwatch Council from participating in the affairs of the Metropolitan Procuratorate!"
The man's sneer sounded even more sneering: "Then dare to ask Yan Shangshu, what is the relationship between Qin Tianjian and the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate? If Fan Xian wanted revenge, why did he want to arrest the supervisor of Qin Tianjian? "
Yan Xingshu, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, spoke coldly for a while, and then said in a cold voice after a long while: "No matter what, the Overwatch Council can't let the Overwatch Council escalate the situation. If they continue to arrest them like this, do they have to arrest all the courtiers?"
The man mocked and said: "Master Shangshu, don't worry, the Overwatch Council has no right to do anything to ministers above the third rank." It's just that the power of the Overwatch Council has an upper limit, and officials of the third rank and above cannot be moved.
Yan Xingshu's angry voice immediately reached Hong Zhu, the little eunuch outside the door: "It's ridiculous! Are you going to just watch the Overwatch Council grow up?"
The person who spoke first began to act as a peacemaker, and said gently: "Master Shangshu, don't get angry, and Xiao Qin don't want to talk anymore. The Overwatch Council can only investigate the case, and it cannot judge the case unless it is approved by the will. These ministers ..." He coughed twice, and said: "Guilty or not, Dali Temple has to go through the trial. It's just that His Majesty's meaning is very clear, we must have an opinion."
The person called Xiao Qin said first: "The court affairs are a matter of personal concern to His Majesty. As a subject, Qin does not dare to talk about it."
Yan Shangshu said angrily: "I think this trend will not last long. If Fan Xian acts recklessly, don't all my colleagues really think that I, Daqing Dynasty... will have another Chen Pingping?"
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Standing on tiptoe, Hong Zhu, who was guarding the door, heard the conversation inside the door clearly, a sneer appeared on the corner of his lips, thinking that the relationship between His Majesty and Mr. Chen could not be compared with that of you civil servants.
Just as he was thinking about it, he saw Qin Heng, the Counselor of the Privy Council, push the door out with a sneer on his face. He hurried forward to flatter him and said, "Master Qin, this slave is in a hurry to return to the palace. When can I get it?"
Qin Heng is in his thirties this year, and he is the biological son of Old General Qin, the envoy of the Privy Council. He fought against the Northern Qi last year, and he was the commander of the Qing Army at that time. With his seniority, he was not good enough to enter the Council of the Ministry of Education, but the old General Qin has been saying that he was ill since the last court appointment. His Majesty specially ordered Qin Heng to be a member of the Ministry of Education, which can be regarded as a favor for the Qin family. It also said that the Qing Kingdom still attaches great importance to military achievements.
The Privy Council made Old General Qin say that he was ill and would not go to court. Originally, the courtiers thought it was because the Qin family could not get used to Fan Xian's popularity and arrogance in the court, but Hong Zhu heard that Qin Heng was defending Fan Xian everywhere today, so he couldn't help but feel guilty. muttered.
Qin Heng took a look at the little eunuch, smiled, and said, "Let them quarrel, and no one dared to disobey His Majesty's wishes in the end. You, don't keep eavesdropping here, anyway, I'll give you eighteen courages, You don't dare to tell others as a joke, why bother to bore yourself."
Hong Zhu smiled pleasingly with lowered eyebrows, and shook his head for some unknown reason as he watched the most popular military stalwart disappear into Gongfang's entrance.
Not long after, the discussions or quarrels of Zhongshu Sheng finally came to an end under the mediation of Bachelor Shu. The ministers tactfully noted their own opinions on the document. Your Majesty, please be cautious about this matter. After all, although the five ministers who fell from the horse were not high in rank, they were all old people in Beijing. The so-called things hurt their kind. Wen Chen was also unwilling to see the Overwatch Council pull them down so easily.
So Hong Zhu hugged these documents again, lifted the light blue palace clothes to his waist, covered the documents with his sleeves, stood on tiptoes, arched his buttocks, and trotted all the way towards the palace.
From the temporary residence of Zhongshu to the imperial study in the palace, it was all under the clouds, in the eyes of everyone, and under the protection of the inner guards, so there was no fear that anyone would endanger these most important documents of the Qing Kingdom. Hong Zhu ran away He was extremely proud, and along the way, some court ladies greeted him tenderly with affectionate eyebrows and eyes, but he didn't have time to pay attention to it, and the flattering eyes of those little eunuchs also turned a blind eye.
Running outside the imperial study, Hong Zhu took a breath, lowered his eyebrows and pushed the door openly, carefully placing the documents under the desk.
His Majesty the Emperor, who was frowning and looking at the southern memorial, picked a copy, his brows furrowed even tighter, his thin lips parted suddenly, and he said coldly: "These mediocrities! Shu Wu only knows hahahaha, Yan Xingshu It's a bit courageous... Well, the kid from the Qin family is pretty good."
How could Hong Zhu dare to listen to the emperor's thunder words, he stood quietly on one side, feeling extremely nervous.
The emperor waved his hand.
Feeling relieved, Hong Zhu withdrew from the imperial study, which means today's affairs are over. He detoured a few turns along Qingshizier Road, and came to the side of Taiji Palace. In that side room, there were a few eunuchs playing with melon seeds. Seeing him coming, he quickly invited him to take a seat, and asked with a smile: "What's so strange about today?"
Hong Zhu said impatiently: "Every day, you still hear those bosses arguing, so there's nothing new about it."
These eunuchs hurriedly complimented: "Eunuch Xiao Hong travels between the Imperial Study Room and Zhongshu every day. The important matters of our Daqing Dynasty all happened under your noses, so naturally it is not new."
Another jokingly said: "That is, if we want to talk about the key points of our Daqing Dynasty, they are all held in the arms of Little Hong Gonggong."
No matter how proud Hong Zhu was, he still had some vigilance, and quickly said with a serious face, "What nonsense are you talking about? I'm just a slave!"
The eunuch laughed and said, "Except for Your Majesty, we officials and gentry of the Qing Kingdom are all slaves... Little Hong Gonggong, you don't know, now your name has been revealed, even the little one is doing embroidery for the palace outside. Bu, when other people hear that the little one is on good terms with you, they will look at you differently, and they all say that in this capital, besides Mr. Fan in Shang Shu's mansion, you are the only young eunuch Hong."
Hong Zhu stretched out his hand to flatten the flying hair in front of his forehead, smiled, and said nothing, although he knew that he was far from being on the same level as the famous Mr. Fan, but flattery is always human. People like to listen, especially when they compare themselves with that person, they will inevitably feel a little complacent.
At this moment, a figure walked past the door of the side hall, several young eunuchs quickly stopped talking, Hong Zhu also trembled in his heart, he saw clearly that it was Eunuch Dai from Concubine Shu's palace, Although he took over the job of holding the document, but in terms of grade, he was far behind Eunuch Dai.
It wasn't until Eunuch Dai walked away that a young eunuch spat on the ground. He seemed to feel that the silence just now was a bit off-putting, and said bitterly, "This Eunuch Dai is no longer as good as before. Fortunately, I haven't recovered before." Come on, why should we bother with him as he is now down and out."
Hong Zhu's heart moved, and he asked, "What's wrong with Eunuch Dai?"
The little eunuch beamed and said: "A few days ago, the censor came to Mr. Fan and pulled out Eunuch Dai. Although His Majesty beat the censor to the court in the end, Eunuch Dai was also punished by Haosheng. Now I heard that, Not only did His Majesty take away Eunuch Dai's job of proclaiming the imperial decree, but even the imperial concubine and empress are planning to drive him out of the palace."
Someone next to him flattered Hong Zhu and said: "When Eunuch Dai was popular back then, he beat and scolded us below. Now that he has lost power, who else would care about him? He is the one who fell into the mud The autumn leaves, which are fresher branches than Mr. Hong."
Hearing that the flattery words became more and more unbearable and vulgar, Hong Zhu frowned, said a few words casually, and hurried out of the side hall.
He drove forward along the huge pillar of His Highness, and finally saw Eunuch Dai's dejected back before the stone gate into the harem. He hurried forward and said flatteringly, "Eunuch Dai, it's you from afar. Hurry up to greet you."
Eunuch Dai glanced at him in surprise. In recent days, these little bastards in the palace are rarely as polite as him. He also knows that Hong Zhu has been working in the imperial study recently and is gradually becoming popular, so Feeling more and more strange.
Hong Zhu didn't say what was the matter, but just sent clever compliments to the other party's heart, which made Eunuch Dai very happy, and then they broke up.
Looking at Eunuch Dai who disappeared into the depths of the harem, the young Hong Zhu showed a smug smile on the corner of his lips.
Others thought that Mr. Dai would lose power, but Hong Zhu didn't think so. Because this Eunuch Dai had a relationship with the little Mr. Fan outside the palace, he would definitely stand up again—the little eunuch Hong Zhu didn't have much confidence in Eunuch Dai, but he had great confidence in Mr. Fan Tisi.
Because he can hear the discussions between the Imperial Study Room and the Ministry of Education every day recently, and he knows how popular that little Master Fan is now! Overwatch Council arrested five ministers within ten days! His Majesty has always maintained Zhongyun, no matter how strong Zhongshu Sheng's opinion is, no matter how strong the backlash is, there is no way to move Fan Tisi in the slightest!
Although the ten days and five ministers were all officials below the third rank, as a eunuch in the deep palace, Hong Zhu also knew very well what kind of courage that little Mr. Fan needed to make such a big commotion. What kind of backer stood behind him - he was often in the imperial study, and he knew very clearly that this backer... was His Majesty the Emperor of the Qing Kingdom!
Hong Zhu touched the pimple on his lips that was about to burst out, and he was extremely envious of that little Mr. Fan outside the palace who was attracting attention from all over the world. He thought to himself that they were all young people, how could there be such a big difference in living levels? It would be wonderful if he could be attached to this little Master Fan through the relationship of Eunuch Dai.
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Qin Tianjian, the Ministry of Officials, and five consecutive Beijing officials were sacked, and the shadow of the Overwatch Council began to shroud the entire capital again.
However, the people in the capital don't value these things very much. Anyway, the unlucky ones are officials, so what do you do
In the officialdom, however, the evaluation of the First Division of the Overwatch Council was more negative. In addition to hurting others, it is more of a lack of understanding. No official can understand why the young Fan Tisi attacked these seemingly insignificant officials.
Except for a very small number of people, no one knew that these officials from various tribes were important pawns in the second prince's secret system.
Many people thought that Fan Xian was taking revenge, annoyed at the censor's collective participation, but because of His Majesty's strict order, he could not take action against the Metropolitan Procuratorate, so he was like a stimulated reckless man, holding a seven-pound butcher The knife, roaring on the long street, slashes at everyone, especially the defenseless children, in order to vent the depression in their hearts.
It's just... Fan Xian and Fan Tisi, judging from his performance in the past two years in Beijing, he shouldn't be such an impulsive and brainless character.
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Fan Xian was sitting in the Xinfeng restaurant with a smile on his face, holding chopsticks in his right hand and stirring the red noodles with meat sauce on top, looking at the case file presented by Mu Tie in his left hand. The trial of these cases was extremely fast, I had prepared adequately, and the evidence obtained in one place was extremely solid. It seemed that even if they were sent to Dali Temple or the Ministry of Criminal Justice for trial, there should be no problem.
Before starting this operation, of course, he first asked his father and the old lame man for instructions, and the two old foxes were silent, so Fan Xian knew their attitude.
This is a must. He must make the second prince hurt, and make him be more cautious when listening to Xinyang's words in the future, and at the same time save himself some trouble.
However, the second prince's reaction was somewhat beyond Fan Xian's expectations. After He Zongwei was kicked out of the mansion by himself, he did not send anyone to ask for peace. Presumably it was the prince's noble self-restraint that made him stop further contact, but the other party He didn't start to fight back either, there was a bit of weirdness in this matter.
"Where is Moon Tower?" Fan Xian asked curiously.
A hint of obscenity appeared on Mu Tie's face.
Fan Xian smiled and scolded: "You are so old, go home and take care of your grandson obediently, don't keep thinking about such good things."
Mu Tie said with a bitter face: "Although Wangyuelou is a brothel, it is the most newly developed place in Kyoto this year. A secret investigation found that there should be a big person behind this building. There has been a lot of movement there recently, and there seems to be some People are planning something in the dark."
Fan Xian has no interest in brothels, and the Liujinghe side is the sphere of influence of Prince Jing's son Li Hongcheng. Although he was now secretly confronting the second prince, he didn't want to tear himself apart with Li Hongcheng so soon. Friends, maybe what will happen in the future.
But he was very interested in Mu Tie's words: "Big man? How old?"
After thinking for a while, Mu Tie said: "This building is a bit evil, very courageous, and dares to do any evil things. In a few months, it forced several women to death... Seeing the silence of the governor of the capital... Attitude, I'm afraid the person behind it... should be a prince."
Fan Xian became silent. He didn't know whether it was the crown prince or the Second Highness who was behind the Moon Tower. That eldest prince only liked to compete with others in the military headquarters every day. His majesty's rewards were generous, so he didn't need money for the time being.
Under the current circumstances, it is certainly impossible for him to offend everyone at the same time. Thinking that the Second Highness is more likely, he felt a little relieved, and said to Mu Tie: "Go and find out sometime, if it is true as you said, which prince used this high-end brothel to contact the Beijing officials?" , then you stuff a few people in."
Mu Tie shook his head: "It's tightly controlled, and it's newly opened, so it's hard to get in for a while, and the Overwatch Council only supervises hundreds of officials, so there's nothing to do with private businessmen."
Fan Xian gave him an annoyed look, and said, "Although the yard can't control the prostitutes, it can always control the prostitutes' yamen. In short, you should keep an eye on it."
There was one thing he didn't tell Mu Tieming that the second prince was too modest and quiet, and Fan Xian always felt that the other party had a trump card and was waiting to play it at a certain time.
After finishing his business, he didn't go back to the mansion. Instead, he sat in the carriage with some headaches and went directly to Prince Jing's mansion.
Today, the whole Fan family is in Prince Jing's mansion.
For Prince Jing's birthday, he didn't invite any outsiders, but Fan Shangshu's family. This kind of affection, this kind of favor is here, even if Fan Xian doesn't want to see Li Hongcheng now, he must go this way.
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Entering the palace, the first thing Fan Xian thought of was that a year and a half ago, he had memorized Lao Du's poem by the lakeside of the palace, and then there was the later banquet, Zhuang Mohan's vomiting blood, Beiqi's Donating books—many reasons seem to start from this quiet and luxurious palace in front of me.
Fan Xian suddenly remembered the precious books in the carriage. After he gave these books to the Imperial Academy, he still had no chance to look at them. Just as he was thinking, Li Hongcheng had already greeted him, holding a bowl of physalis from outside the palace.
Fan Xian sighed in his heart, took it and drank it, and said with a smile, "You know, I'm only greedy for the one outside your mansion." When he first came to Prince Jing's mansion, he almost vomited from the sedan chair, all thanks to a The bowl of Physalis returned to spirit.
The eldest son Li Hongcheng looked into his eyes, shook his head and sighed: "Now that you hold the supervisory power, you can arrest whoever you want. Why don't you arrest the Physalis dealer outside my house back to your home?"
Fan Xian heard the blade in his words, and smiled wryly: "I knew I couldn't escape this difficulty today. When you came over with a bowl of physalis, I was surprised. I thought you had to punch me."
Li Hongcheng snorted, walked side by side into the palace with him, and said, "Do you still know that I'm unhappy?" He glanced at Fan Xian, and said bitterly, "Not only I don't understand, but the second child also doesn't understand, Since you are not a member of the prince, why bother with these things?"
Fan Xian shook his head, said with a wry smile, "You think I'm happy to offend people everywhere? Or don't that one force you."
After saying this, he pointed to the heavy autumn clouds in the sky, with his fingertips straight, expressing endless helplessness.