Fang Yun's invitation to a banquet not only disrupted the situation in Xiangzhou, but also caused turmoil in the capital of Jingguo.
During the day, everything was normal, but at night, carriages that were tightly covered traveled through the capital.
There were countless carriages parked in front of the gates of many places, including the Jiang Mansion of the Five Great Aristocratic Families of Jing State, the Jiang Mansion of the Minister of Literature Jiang Hechuan, the Li Mansion of the new General Li Wenying of Jing State, the Chen Mansion of the Grand Marshal Chen Zhixu, and the Cao Mansion of the Right Prime Minister Cao De'an.
Ever since the Left Prime Minister Liu Shan resigned, the position of Left Prime Minister of Jing State has been on hold.
At first, everyone thought that it would be the Right Prime Minister Cao De'an who would take over, or Fang Yun would go straight to the position of Left Prime Minister, but after Fang Yun resigned, the position of Left Prime Minister remained undecided.
Since last year, a rumor has been spreading in the capital that the Queen Mother wants to abolish the position of Left Prime Minister and let Jing Jun, who has grown into a young man, take charge of the duties that originally belonged to the Left Prime Minister.
After this rumor appeared, even some officials who claimed to be royalists suddenly wrote to the king, asking him to quickly appoint a new left prime minister to avoid any harm to the country.
But the position of Left Prime Minister has not been decided yet.
Many officials suspected that the rumor was deliberately spread by the palace so that all officials could be prepared. The Jing royal family was determined to abolish the position of Left Prime Minister to prevent the new Left Prime Minister from becoming as powerful as Liu Shan and suppressing the imperial power.
This move by the Jing Kingdom royal family aroused dissatisfaction among all officials, so that the royal family was unable to officially announce the abolition of the left prime minister. As long as Jing Jun was under the age of sixteen, all officials could prevent Jing Jun from ruling the country.
As long as Jingjun is unable to rule the country, no matter what means the empress dowager has, she will not be able to truly control all officials.
In the eyes of scholars, any country can allow a left prime minister, but it will never allow a Empress Lü who has all the power in the court, nor will it allow a Qin Shi Huang or Han Wudi who can manipulate all officials at will.
The Shengyuan Continent is a world of scholars, and the imperial court should also be a court of scholars.
This is already a consensus among scholars.
Scholars will not abolish imperial power, but they will not allow imperial power to enslave scholars either.
At this time, Fang Yun announced a banquet for Xiangzhou officials, sending a strong and clear signal, which was almost like adding fuel to the fire, igniting the court dispute in Jing State that could break out at any time.
There are many factions among officials in Jing State. After the fall of the Left Prime Minister Party, excluding the military forces, the largest political forces in the capital are the royal family, the Chen Sheng family, the other four semi-saint families, the faction of Jiang Hechuan, the Minister of Literature, the faction of Cao De'an, the faction of Fang Yun, and finally the faction of Li Wenying. The strength of the remaining forces is limited. As for the officials of the Left Prime Minister Party, most of them were uprooted, and only a few were lurking.
In Xiangzhou and Mizhou, the Fang Party has absolute control, and even in Jiangzhou, there are some members of the Fang Party.
However, in the capital, the power of the Fang Party is extremely weak, because most of the members of the Fang Party have become successful in recent years and have not had enough time to rise from the local areas to the capital. Fang Yun also does not have long-term political experience in the capital and cannot build up his own power.
Even if there are Fang party members in the capital, they were promoted from local areas in recent years and most of them are officials below the fourth rank.
In each state, officials of the fifth or even sixth rank have a certain say, but in the capital, except for a few key departments, the real power of officials of the fifth rank is extremely limited.
Officials in the capital often make fun of themselves, saying things like "third-rank officials are everywhere and Hanlin scholars are as numerous as dogs", "a house collapsed and knocked five people unconscious, there were four fifth-rank officials, and the last one was from the fifth rank".
Almost all the most important departments in the capital were controlled by the royal family and various aristocratic families. Even Jiang Hechuan's faction could only place their own people in the Jingguo Academy and the Ministry of Rites. As for the Right Prime Minister Cao De'an, he could only control half of the Ministry of Revenue because he inherited the political legacy of his teacher.
Although Li Wenying is not good at factional struggles, because of his extraordinary strength, he has fellow townsmen, classmates and colleagues. Over the years, he has formed his own faction and has good relations with all parties.
Fang Yun has excellent relations with all factions, but the Fang Party is different.
In the capital, the Fang party has always been marginalized.
This is not determined by any individual's will, but by party interests.
This is because, if we look beyond the capital and across the country, the Fang Party's power is no longer inferior to that of the royal family.
Jing State has the capital, Xiangzhou, Jiangzhou, Dongyunzhou, Mizhou and Yanzhou. The Fang party monopolizes Xiangzhou and Mizhou. In addition, with Fang Yun's recovery of the north, a new state in the north will be formed within a few years, and there will definitely be a second Mizhou.
This means that in a few years, the Fang Party will control the three states.
Fang Dang Ban Jing Guo!
Precisely because the Fang Party was too powerful, the traditional forces in the capital used all means to exclude the Fang Party, making it impossible for Fang Party officials to occupy important central positions.
Even some officials who were from other factions but had close contacts with Fang Yun were excluded.
For example, the Minister of Rites Sai Zhixue, the student of Minister of Literature Jiang Hechuan and the Magistrate of Cai Hecai, Zhang Poyue, the former Grand Commander of Jiangzhou Yu Xingshu and Chen Xibi, and the General of Beimang Ding Haosheng.
Like Cai He, because of his dual identity, the student of Minister of Culture Jiang Hechuan and the friend of Fang Yun, he rose to prominence rapidly, serving as the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites with the fourth rank. Originally, he would have been promoted to the third rank in a year at most, while the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites was usually held by people of the third rank or the third rank.
But just after Fang Yun entered the Holy Burial Valley, he was transferred to the Grain Transport Bureau as the Right Chief.
The status of the Grain Transport Office was far inferior to that of the Ministry of Rites, but it was a department with greater power and lucrativeness. The Right Secretary of the Grain Transport Office was a fourth-rank official position, which was a lateral transfer on the surface, but in fact it was a demotion.
Just three months ago, Cai He was transferred again to the Hanlin Academy.
The Hanlin Academy of the Holy Court is quite different from the Hanlin Academy of other countries. With the changes of the times, the power of the Hanlin Academy of Jingguo was gradually taken away by the cabinet. The current Hanlin Academy is mainly responsible for imperial lectures, writing literature and history, etc., and has no real power.
Therefore, there are only two kinds of officials in the Hanlin Academy. One kind uses the Hanlin Academy to gild their reputations and is ready to be promoted at any time, and the other kind is there to retire, and it is unknown how long it will take before they can be promoted. Some officials of the Zuo Xiang Party who have a good reputation and are related to aristocratic families are now serving in the Hanlin Academy.
Not only Cai He, but everyone except Zhang Poyue faced the same dilemma: high positions without power, fame without benefits.
Faced with exclusion, the others were forced to retreat, except Zhang Poyue.
For officials who wanted to exclude Zhang Poyue, some accidents would always happen. Either the toilet collapsed and they fell into the pit when they were using it, or dozens of prostitutes from brothels rushed into their houses to demand debts as soon as they got home, or they accidentally ingested poison and suffered from vomiting and diarrhea, or they were put in sacks and beaten outside the power of the holy temple and the murderer could not be found.
The most stubborn person in Jing State and the most aggressive person in the imperial court, these are Zhang Poyue's new nicknames for this year.
Therefore, after returning to the capital from the north, Zhang Poyue's life became more and more comfortable. He even married two concubines. It seemed that he really enjoyed living a carefree life in the capital.
Originally, the capital was in a relatively balanced state with various parties competing against each other, but Fang Yun's invitation to a banquet broke the peace.
Everyone who went to Jiang Mansion was waiting because Jiang Hechuan was not there.
Jiang Hechuan was summoned to the palace overnight by an urgent imperial edict.
It was not until after midnight, when many of Jiang Hechuan's students and old friends were tired of waiting, that Jiang Hechuan entered through the main gate, looking exhausted.
All the officials stood up, and one of them asked in a low voice: "Prime Minister, what are you doing entering the palace so late at night?"
"The Queen Mother... wishes to promote me to the position of Left Prime Minister."
The officials were shocked, thinking that the royal family was using Jiang Hechuan to deal with Fang Yun.