Concubine Xie ordered to go down, the maid responded, and asked someone to bring the news to Xie Zichen, never thought that Xie Zichen had left the city and would not be back until late at night, this matter was too private, and the maid could not ask someone to relay the answer until he was about to return to the palace Time has not yet come, so we can only turn back first.
That afternoon, Su Bai called Wang Xi over and said directly: "I heard that Wei Xiong is recruiting troops in Qingzhou?"
Wang Xi was slightly taken aback: "Is there such a thing?"
Su Bai looked at Wang Xi suspiciously and said, "You don't know?"
"I don't know," Wang Xi replied respectfully, "If I know, how dare your majesty expire?"
Although Wang Xi has a good relationship with Wei Lan, she is also a person who distinguishes the importance, and will not stand in the wrong position because of personal relationships. Even if it was Lin Che, she was only helping as long as she could without affecting the overall situation. If it would affect the throne, Wang Xi would not act recklessly.
Su Bai is the monarch that Wang Xi has always followed. For Wang Xi, this is his biggest bargaining chip in the family struggle. He once fought with Wang Yuan to be the head of the family. Wang Yuan bet on Su City, and he bet on Su Bai. It was because he made the right bet, so he sat firmly in the position of the next head of the Wang family.
Hearing what Su Bai meant, he quickly understood what Su Bai said, and hurriedly said, "I'll let someone investigate."
Wang Xi came out of the palace. It would be too late to go to Qingzhou at this time, so he sent two groups of people, one group went to Qingzhou, and the other group found people from Qingzhou who came to Shengjing at the gate of the city, looking for them. These people came to inquire about the news.
Regarding the matter of conscription, movement must be a big deal. Everyone who came gave a positive answer. As for the specific number, some people speculated that it should be 200,000, and some people speculated that it should be 10,000. Wang Xi looked at the data and chose The guess with the largest number of people sent the news to the palace that night.
Su Bai looked at the dazzling 100,000 soldiers and horses, and was so angry that he smashed several vases in the palace.
The palace people watched him smashing things, and it was already forbidden by the palace at this time, and it was inconvenient to go in and out, so they just secretly remembered the matter in their hearts.
In the early morning of the second day, when the court just started, everyone felt that the atmosphere was not right. Wei Lan and Xie Zichen looked at each other, and then their eyes fell on Su Bai.
Su Bai propped his chin up and listened to the routine report, and when the report was over, he said to the person below: "Is it finished?"
Everyone looked at each other, Su Bai smiled and propped his chin: "It's over, then I'm here to share with you an interesting thing I just learned."
Hearing this, everyone felt a little nervous. Su Bai smiled too strangely, his eyes were as cold as a knife, he set his eyes on Wei Lan, and said gently: "Wei Xiang, I heard that your younger brother Wei Lan Xiong is increasing troops in Qingzhou, is there such a thing?"
"Yes." When Wei Lan heard this, she understood that Su Bai was coming towards her today. After stepping out of the queue, she said respectfully, "Wei Taishou is recruiting troops for training in Qingzhou to strengthen the national defense."
"Miss Wei," Su Bai stared at her, tapped on the table and said, "It's not a time of war, and Di Jie has formed an alliance with our Great Chu. What does it mean that Wei Taishou is increasing his troops at this time?"
Wei Xiong's conscription must be at Wei Lan's will, Su Bai didn't point out Wei Lan, but brought up Wei Xiong: "Who gave Wei Xiong the order to recruit without authorization? "
Hearing this, Wei Lan smiled.
As early as when she got the Sioux City Army, Wei Lan knew that such a day would come. Su Bai was suspicious of her, he could not tolerate her self-assertive and rebellious courtier. But in the current situation, if the Wei family doesn't have an army of their own, then Wei Lan is nothing more than a strong outsider. No one knows if Huan Heng will turn around and stab her one day
Moreover, the south must have an army capable of confronting Huan Heng. The army that the south can use now is only Wang Ning, but if they blindly develop Wang Ning's army, who will say that it will not be the next Huan Heng
Wang Ning's army is not strong enough to be independent, this is the root of Xie Zichen's control over Wang Ning. If Wang Ning is turned into the next Huan Heng, what will Xie Zichen do
Spending so much money to support an army was originally a choice that Wei Lan had no choice.
She has been careful not to let the news of Qingzhou's conscription spread to Shengjing. After all, Qingzhou is remote and used to be often recruited. In the imperial court, she occasionally saw the papers of small officials from Qingzhou, and she also withheld them, just thinking that it would be a day, but who knew that Su Bai knew it so early.
Su Bai deliberately mentioned Wei Xiong, it was because Wei Lan didn't move easily, Wei Xiong is fine, if Wei Xiong conscripted without authorization, then he should be punished and withdrawn, but if it was ordered by the prime minister, it would be different up.
Su Bai forced Wei Lan to bring this matter to her, Wei Lan sighed, it was not a big deal if it was her responsibility, so she said: "Your Majesty, calm down, this matter is ordered by my minister Yes, it has already been reported to His Majesty, and His Majesty probably forgot."
"Oh?" Su Bai sneered, "When did you report it to me?"
"When Wei Taishou took over Qingzhou, I told His Majesty about it."
At that time, Wei Lan made an agreement with Su Bai that she would pay the money, raise the soldiers, fight the wars, and return them to Su Cheng after three years, and Su Cheng would not interfere with the military affairs.
These words made Su Cheng choke. He did agree to Wei Lan back then, but he never thought that Wei Lan would be so rich that he could raise an army and recruit soldiers!
Su Bai gritted his teeth with hatred, and said coldly: "That's why I'm surprised. At that time, Wei told me that the army in Qingzhou was fully supported by the Changxinhou Mansion. Now it is possible to openly recruit 100,000 soldiers. The Changxinhou Mansion's money is actually paid for." There are so many?!"
As soon as the words came out, there was an uproar in the hall.
Changxinhou's Mansion is nothing more than a mere Marquis's Mansion, and it is completely incomparable with those first-class families. It is nothing for a first-class family to raise a government army. But it is too abnormal for the Changxinhou Mansion, which started out with military merits, to have such a rich property.
"Wei Lan," Su Bai stood up, and said angrily, "Where did your money come from?!"
"Your Majesty, although soldiers are recruited in Qingzhou, the soldiers recruited usually cultivate land and don't need much money. In addition, the grandmother of the humble official is good at doing business, so the Changxinhou's mansion has the spare power to recruit soldiers. Half peasants and half soldiers, such a Come on, there are 100,000 troops, and it is not too much consumption."
"well… "
Hearing these words, Su Bai obviously didn't believe it, and said angrily, "Come on, pull Wei Lan down, Wang Xi!"
"The minister is here." Wang Xi came out, Su Bai raised his hand and nodded: "You will conduct a joint trial with the Dali Temple Minister and the Censor Doctor to thoroughly investigate the accounts of the Changxinhou Mansion. I want to see it, your Changxin How much money does the Hou Mansion have to support so many people!"
"Yes." Wang Xi accepted the order decisively, but the rest of the people did not dare to move, and no one even dared to come up and pull Wei Lan down.
Wei Lan held the wat board in her hand, her face was calm: "Your Majesty is planning to copy Changxinhou's Mansion? Then dare to ask Your Majesty, what crime did I commit?"
Su Bai choked, and Wei Lan smiled calmly: "It's just because Your Majesty doesn't believe that Changxinhou's Mansion can have so much money, so you can check the minister's family at will without evidence. Why do you keep this army? Don’t you know Your Majesty? In order to defend against Di Jie, to contain Huan Heng, and for the imperial court of the southern aristocratic family, my Wei family paid out of our own pockets to support an army. How dare we ask everyone in the court today to end up like this and be so jealous? , dare to do anything for this court?!"
Hearing this, Su Bai's face changed. He always pays attention to his own reputation, but Wei Lan's words seem to be his fault. So he softened his face and said slowly: "Wei Aiqing don't need to be wronged. If Wei Aiqing is really innocent, she won't be afraid of being traced. You can cultivate at home these few days and wait for the results of the investigation by the Third Division. If Wei Aiqing is innocent Yes, I personally apologize to Wei Aiqing. If Wei Aiqing is not innocent, then I believe Wang Shangshu will give Lord Wei a fair verdict."
"Heh." Wei Lan raised her chin slightly, and sneered, "If you want to commit a crime, why don't you have excuses?"
"Wei Lan, are you questioning me?" Su Bai turned cold.
Wei Lan smiled coldly, but she turned around and left without answering Su Bai.
"Look..." Su Bai trembled, pointing at Wei Lan's leaving back, tremblingly said: "Look at her! Does she really think I'm an emperor?!"
No one spoke.
In this era of emperors with iron families and flowing water, imperial power is certainly important, but when the family is humiliated, imperial power does not seem to be so inviolable.
Everyone knows Wei Lan's character. She built such an army and paid for it herself, and her intentions are also very obvious. One is to make the Wei family squeeze into the ranks of first-class families, and the other is to contain Huan Heng.
Everyone tacitly knew that they were not that sensitive to Su Bai's excitement, and whoever it was would seem to make the same choice as Wei Lan.
Although Wei Lan's conscription seems to be somewhat contemptuous of Sioux City, everyone knows in their hearts that the south needs an armed force that can compete with Huan Heng.
After Wei Lan walked out of the hall, she turned cold and said directly to Ran Mo: "Go to the palace and ask who leaked the news."
Ran Mo also had a cold face, nodded, then turned and walked into the palace.
Wei Lan left the palace and waited for Xie Zichen in the carriage. She closed her eyes and thought about the accounts. The money indeed belonged to Su Cheng. She concealed the money and did not tell Su Bai. Wei Xiong, she had asked Wei Xiong to launder the money before using it quickly, but she didn't know if there was any evidence left. She had to go to the side of the trial to feel at ease.
But now that the three divisions are interrogating, she must be placed under house arrest, and the only one who can do this is Xie Zichen.
She squinted her eyes in thought, and the dyed ink curtain jumped up: "Your Majesty, I will ask, you will never think of who leaked the news to His Majesty."
"Who?" Wei Lan opened her eyes, which were full of coldness. Ran Mo said a name: "Xie Xue."
Wei Lan frowned, seeing that Wei Lan had no impression, Ran Mo reminded, "It's my uncle's half-sister, and I especially admire my uncle."
Hearing this person, Wei Lan was stunned, quite surprised, and then she was even more surprised: "Why did she do this?"
Obviously she and Xie Zichen have formed an alliance, the Wei and Xie families should be one.
"The person who gave me the news said that when Miss Xie came to the palace that day, she told Concubine Xie about you for a long time. You said that you stopped my uncle from marrying a wife and having children, and you ruined him for the rest of his life."
"absurd!"
Wei Lan shouted angrily, and wanted to curse: "Women see men." But then remembered, this is a woman.
She held back and held back, she hadn't come into contact with the idea that her whole life would be ruined if she didn't have children for many years.
She was so angry that she was dizzy. She never thought that she would capsize in the gutter and fall into the hands of such a person. She felt that her original mother was right in saying that to be a good politician, one must first have a safe home.
What kind of experience is it to have a sister-in-law who is so stupid that he outrageously
Wei Lan felt it.
She resisted the urge to kill Xie Xue and waited until Xie Zichen came back. Xie Zichen came out in a hurry as soon as he was in court, and when he saw the carriage from a distance, he almost trotted over, jumped into the carriage in three or two steps, and hurriedly said, "What are your plans now?"
"Sucheng's 30,000 taels of silver. I'll let Wei Xiong wash it off before using it. I'm afraid he won't be able to do things stably. Please help me go to Qingzhou to check it."
"Okay." Xie Zichen broke his mouth decisively, Wei Lan finished the business, and said coldly: "Before you go to Qingzhou, I will take care of another matter."
"Huh?" Xie Zichen was a little puzzled, and Wei Lan curled her lips: "Your good sister Xie Xue reported what happened today. Xie Zichen, if you can't clean up your big family, don't blame me for doing it yourself. .”
Xie Zichen's expression froze, and he heard Wei Lan say, "Give them face, I'm afraid I will die in their hands sooner or later!"
"No." Xie Zichen broke his mouth decisively, and said coldly: "You go back to the Marquis Mansion first, and I will go to Xie's house."
After speaking, Xie Zichen jumped out of the carriage and left.
Wei Lan closed her eyes, and Ran Mo said through the curtain of the car: "Your Majesty, isn't His Majesty going to put you under house arrest? Why haven't you sent anyone yet..."
"Who dares to come?"
Wei Lan sneered: "I'd like to see who dares to put me under house arrest. Is it Wang Xi, Xie Zichen's master Wang Nan, or the minister of Dali Temple that I single-handedly picked up?!"
Wei Lan opened her eyes, and said angrily: "He, Su Bai, wants to fight with me, okay, I want to see how this yellow-mouthed kid will turn his life around!"
Ran Mo listened, silently.
She really wanted to remind her master, son, you are only in your early twenties
The author has something to say:
[small theater]
Mo Shubai: "Weilan, why don't you want to be emperor?"
Wei Lan: "What do you think is the most dangerous profession in the world?"
Mo Shubai: "Who cleans the windows of tall buildings?"
Wei Lan: "What is that?"
Mo Shubai: "Oh, this is not important, what do you think is it?"
Wei Lan: "You know that in more than 30 years of political career, there have been five emperors, three in Daliang, two in Dachu, and there will be a sixth soon. Do you think the emperor is dangerous?"
Mo Shubai: "Dangerous..."
Wei Lan: "I can't afford such a dangerous job... Whoever likes to do it, I just want to be a quiet prime minister for the country and the people."
As she spoke, Wei Lan raised her hand and brushed her hair behind her ears: "It's getting cold, it's time to change the emperor."
Mo Shubai: "..."
Don't pretend, please, don't pretend!