After saying this, Wang Pu said goodbye. Guo Shao followed him out of the back room and said to Wang Pu: "When Envoy Wang returns, give orders to the various departments of the Imperial Guards. Three days later, cancel the morning court on weekdays. There will be a morning court on the first and fifteenth day of each month. For other duty hours, everyone can gather once in the side hall on the east side of the Jinxiang Hall at the hour of Mao every morning. Those who roll in include the chief and deputy envoys of the Privy Council, the commander-in-chief of the Palace Front Department and above, the commander-in-chief of the Guard Department, and the prime ministers of the Political Affairs Hall.
Wang Pu agreed, and Guo Shao asked the officials on duty outside the door to write the imperial edict and take it to the Council of State.
At first, Guo Shao enjoyed the feeling of self-aggrandizement when he was worshipped by all the ministers in the morning court, but now he is tired of it. He thinks that he is not a vain person and does not feel much pleasure from those scenes.
The morning court of the ministers was complicated and time-consuming. Moreover, they did not say much useful things. The officials were very smart and would not talk about sensitive specific matters in the hall. They usually talked about happy events and some general principles of governing the country. Sometimes they would quarrel frequently. As a modern man and military general, Guo Shao was more tired of the ministers' ideas, so he just wrote memorials.
Three days later, the key figures met for the first time in the side hall to exchange important information from various government offices. At this time, Guo Shao had not received Huang Binglian's report, and several days had passed without catching the spy. If he could not be caught in a few days, he might have run away, and it would be difficult to make any progress on this matter.
After Guo Shao ascended the throne, the atmosphere was tense for a while, but soon calm was restored, and the court in Tokyo did not change much. The reason may be that people have become accustomed to changing dynasties every ten years or so, especially those officials who are determined to harm the government, who have no resistance at all. Now the country's name has not changed, and most people listen to whoever is in the imperial city; moreover, one or two years before Guo Shao ascended the throne, he and Fu Jinzhan had already gradually deployed the power of all parties and eliminated some hidden dangers. The difference before and after the throne is nothing more than a different status. For example, the current imperial palace, Guo Shao moved in without any pressure, and it was full of Fu Jinzhan's people, and he didn't even need to change the people.
Fu Jinzhan has temporarily faded from the sight of court officials, but even though she has retreated behind the scenes, her influence is still very great.
The place that has changed the least is Wanfu Palace, which is commonly known as the cold palace. No one cares about it at all.
The person with the highest status here is the Grand Imperial Consort Zhang, but she cannot control Wanfu Palace alone. In fact, many people do not listen to her. The protection of power begins with violence and coercion. For example, the power of the court is backed by various coercive institutions; the power of the queen is backed by the emperor, who has force and violence in his hands.
But Zhang only had a nominal status; she couldn't even meet those who truly had power in the court, so her power was not guaranteed.
The palace ladies here may not understand the logical relationship, but they understand these things intuitively. The topics they are interested in privately are also those things outside Wanfu Palace, such as Mrs. Fu's second sister and Li Yuaner giving birth to a prince.
However, the most talked-about little thing is the fact that Li Shanggong was favored.
Zhang and a few close palace ladies gathered in the hall waiting for dinner, and they all started talking about Li Shang Gong in a whisper.
A palace lady said: "Li Shanggong entered the palace a long time ago. I knew her before. She is not very good-looking. She was not young when Taizu was in power. She has been in the palace for so many years. She must be at least 30 years old now."
How can such a person be favored? Another palace lady whispered.
The palace lady who had just spoken said sourly: "The one who is near the water gets the moon first." Besides, Li Shanggong has been in the palace for so many years, and has not been exposed to the wind and sun, so she may be delicate and tender. She leaned forward and whispered, "I heard that the new king is the nephew of Taizu, but he has always been a military general. It is estimated that the military generals have been fighting outside for many years and have seen few women, so they can't resist the seduction of an experienced woman like Li Shanggong."
These palace ladies were women without official status, not the concubines of Emperor Taizu, so they were not supposed to live in the cold palace. However, people were needed to work here, and they were not liked by the superiors, so they were naturally sent here. Like Li Shanggong, even palace ladies from the previous dynasty could sleep with the emperor of the current dynasty, and since the Tang Dynasty, these were no longer important; so when they talked about Li Shanggong, they often had a tone of envy and jealousy.
Another palace lady said: "The emperor has two extremely favored concubines who take turns sleeping with him every day. One of them is said to have been married three times and worked as a maid in the market and a servant in a blacksmith shop. The other was robbed in Huainan and was sent back and forth by others until she came to the emperor's room."
That's right. Men don't look at their background. The more shameless a woman is, the more favored she is. At the time of Taizu, wasn't Empress Li, who was at odds with us, that kind of person
You speak so convincingly, as if you know men well.
Zhang said calmly: "Don't talk too much. The person delivering the meal will come soon. If outsiders hear it, there will be gossip. There is nothing going on in Wanfu Palace, but you are still fighting so fiercely."
The palace woman said: We are helping Madam Zhang, so we are on guard against Madam Li and the others.
At this time, several palace maids came up with food. There were no dishes in the cold palace, let alone wine, but there was still white rice and white flour to eat.
Zhang picked up the chopsticks, picked up a piece of food and put it in the bowl, and then the women sitting with her started to eat.
She mixed the vegetables, took a small bite, and picked up a piece of rice from the bowl with her chopsticks. Suddenly, she saw something moving in the bowl. She looked closely and saw two live maggots crawling out of the rice. Zhang's pretty face suddenly turned pale.
Her stomach lurched, she retched, dropped her chopsticks, covered her mouth with her hands, and stood up. She ran to a basin in the corner and immediately vomited.
Madam Zhang and the other palace ladies looked at her in surprise.
One of them understood something and hurriedly stood up to look into Zhang's bowl. He glared and said: "There is something dirty in the Madam's bowl. It's disgusting!"
Everyone came over to take a look and immediately started cursing.
Zhang vomited for a while, rinsed her mouth with clean water, and said coldly: How dare you put such a dirty thing in my bowl today? If you find poison, you will poison me to death.
The palace ladies said: It must be someone named Li who did it.
Zhang also concluded that the rice had to be cooked to become rice, and it was still hot. If someone hadn't put it in there on purpose, how could there be such a big maggot? The person who hated her the most in Wanfu Palace was Taizu's concubine Li. When Taizu was alive, she and Zhang used all means to compete for favor. Later, neither of them got a prince, and Li blamed Zhang for all the crimes. She was sent to the cold palace and the hatred was not resolved.
Zhang was just angry and said poison. After she finished speaking, she couldn't help but feel cold in her heart, because she felt that even if she was murdered, who would care about the life of a person in the cold palace? If she couldn't find out the truth, and Li was obstructing her, they would definitely burn the body and leave it alone. Anyway, they were all waiting to die.
At this time, a palace woman said: I will go and find the person who will deliver the meal.
Zhang said coldly: They won't admit it and will push the blame onto the kitchen.
Then call the kitchen staff as well.
Zhang snorted, her chest heaving, and she took a deep breath and said: This was not necessarily done by Empress Li's people. We have wrongly accused her without any evidence, and it has only caused more trouble.