Chapter 1 Wei Zhonghe

Eunuch Wei Zhonghe came out of the back garden today and returned to the imperial palace.

He was here to bring back some items that would be used after the spring, although the Yan Emperor did not like extravagance, and was not particular about his expenses, but he would not lack these things.

But,

Sometimes, people are nostalgic.

The familiarity of things that you are used to cannot be completely compensated by adding new ones.

On this point, even the supreme emperor cannot be exempted from such sentimentality.

There were not many items to pack, but they all had to be carefully arranged. Eunuch Wei asked his men to take care of it first, and he only needed to be responsible for the final inspection.

Therefore,

In this gap,

Eunuch Wei went to his original room in the palace.

The room was not locked, but no one dared to enter Eunuch Wei Zhonghe's room without permission, regardless of whether he was there or not.

Pushing open the door,

The room was a little damp, mixed with a musty smell.

Eunuch Wei didn't care, walked to the inner room, and opened the curtain outside the shelf.

A shelf,

Full of *jiao xiansheng* (角先生, "horn masters" - varieties of small horns),

Some were long, some were short, some were straight, some were curved, some were thick, and some were thin,

Some revealed a scholarly atmosphere in their exquisiteness,

Some were rough and wrapped in a kind of bold life,

Even,

There were broken and damaged defective products.

This shelf of dazzling *jiao xiansheng* presented a variety of life experiences.

This sounds a bit ridiculous,

But what you see and what you feel is up to the beholder.

When it rains,

Poets will chant "The drizzle on the heavenly street is as moist as cream," while ordinary people will kick their child's butt and shout, "Tell your mother to go back and collect the clothes."

Eunuch Wei had not returned to the imperial palace for a long time,

This time when he came back,

He could feel that

The guards at the palace gate were more polite and attentive when they saluted him;

The eunuchs and maids who passed by on the way were even more afraid of him than before;

But this attentiveness,

This fear,

Deep inside, however, was a kind of alienation.

Eunuchs are more sensitive than ordinary people, and Eunuch Wei, who can serve the emperor and handle the task of accompanying a king like accompanying a tiger, is naturally more sensitive and delicate.

Actually,

Eunuch Wei Zhonghe didn't really care how others looked at him or how others treated him.

However,

The problem now is,

This time when he came back,

He actually found himself that he seemed to no longer belong here.

This imperial palace, where he had spent almost half of his life.

He entered the palace as a young boy after being castrated, and was later sent to the Prince's mansion. Later, the Prince became the emperor, and he re-entered the palace.

The imperial palace is the emperor's home;

But for everyone else except the emperor, it is an oppressive cage.

But the prisoners may not hate or dislike it,

Because they are used to it,

After being used to it for a long time,

They will instead develop a kind of attachment.

Just as the barbarians, no matter where they are, will miss the wind and sand of the desert; and the savages, no matter where they are, will dream of snow-covered mountains.

Eunuch Wei reached out,

And gently rubbed his brow,

This is his own place, a place where he can unload everything and be himself.

There is no need to hide, although hiding has become an instinct, but at least here, he can take a breath and leave a little bit more time.

No one knows better than Wei Zhonghe the state of His Majesty's health,

But,

No one dares to ask Wei Zhonghe about the Emperor's condition.

Standing here,

Looking at this row of various *jiao xiansheng*,

Eunuch Wei suddenly realized that the peace in his heart, the tranquility and comfort he used to get when facing them, was gradually disappearing.

Like a jar of wine placed under the scorching sun and in the rain, it will soon lose its taste.

The root,

The root,

The life root,

He himself is a rootless person, so what is the use of having so many roots?

Over the years,

He, a rootless person,

Has seen too many people with roots doing rootless things in front of him.

Eunuch Wei didn't really know what he was thinking now,

Maybe,

This is what it means to be sentimental at the sight of things,

Unfortunately,

He can't write poetry;

Um,

Even if he could write poetry,

Could he possibly write "A Record of Reflections on Seeing the Sun, Moon, Seas, and a *Jiao Xiansheng*?"

"Hehe..."

Eunuch Wei was amused by himself.

He subconsciously took out a small bottle and sprinkled some on his crotch.

His place no longer had the smell of ordinary eunuchs;

But he still kept this habit.

When he was a young eunuch in the palace, he always saw the older eunuchs applying grease and powder and incense to their crotches,

And always thought,

How envious, how magical.

Unfortunately,

His Majesty usually doesn't like incense, he doesn't like heavy smells.

But His Majesty likes the "Soothing Dew" produced in Fengxin City.

It's actually the peppermint balm made by the Marquis's mansion.

The Yan Emperor rarely set tributes, because this often turned into waste of money and manpower.

But the Yan Emperor would not mind ordering Wei Zhonghe to quietly procure some useful things for himself.

Such as this Soothing Dew.

The Marquis's mansion in Fengxin City naturally attached great importance to this, and sent a lot of it, not only Soothing Dew, but also various other perfumes, which were as precious and rare as gold on the outside.

The Yan Emperor, lying on the bed, had specifically ordered people to present the list of gifts from the Marquis's mansion,

Taking a glance,

This habit may have originated from a butcher who dared to show off his wealth to himself with pig heads and pig feet.

After reading the gift list,

The Yan Emperor opened his mouth and said;

"You can keep the rest and reward people as you see fit."

Wei Zhonghe knelt down and thanked him, and at the same time said: "This servant will not use this, for fear of fumigating His Majesty."

After a long time,

The Yan Emperor said:

"It doesn't matter."

Then,

He added:

"I can't smell anything either."

Wei Zhonghe recalled that scene,

And tears appeared in the corners of his eyes.

Everyone has a reliance.

He is a duckweed,

When he entered the Prince's mansion, he knew that his reliance in this life was on this master.

As long as the master is well,

He, Wei Zhonghe, will be well.

Perhaps,

What Wei Zhonghe cares about is not an imperial palace, an imperial palace, a dead thing, so what does it matter!

Wei Zhonghe reached out and pulled the curtain down again.

He didn't think about transferring or disposing of these things, let alone burning them;

He wanted to keep them, and leave them to the future owner of this room, so that he could see his collection.

The affairs of the world,

How many disturbances, how many grievances and affections,

Seemingly complicated,

Are actually simple,

Almost all that's left is one sentence:

Is he a man or not?

For some reason,

Eunuch Wei, who had left the room, suddenly thought of Marquis Pingxi, who had entered the palace in a panic that night to report the news.

Ah,

He's been conferred a Marquisate,

Really,

He is an amazing talent.

Eunuch Wei immediately made a hand gesture,

Stepped into the rain outside,

And hummed:

"What a pity, what a pity~"

——

A pot of warm yellow wine, a plate of broad beans, a plate of pickled vegetables from the cellar, plus a pot of steaming white soup with only two slices of ginger and a section of scallion, is enough to brew a moment of beauty in the cold day.

What's being blanched in the pot is not mutton, but tender tofu. It's not easy to put tender tofu in, and it takes even more skill to get it out;

After being blanched, it's taken out and dipped in the seasoning dish, and when it's finally sent into the mouth, it's fragrant, warm, and doesn't require much chewing. It can slide down the throat into the abdomen, dispelling the cold air from the whole body.

Zhao Jiulang招呼着其他几位阁臣一起吃着；
Zhao Jiulang invited the other cabinet ministers to eat together;

The cabinet ministers of the Great Yan are different from the Privy Council of the Qian Kingdom, which is the so-called "Prime Ministers," and even more different from the Ming Dynasty's cabinet that Lord Zheng knew so well. In Great Yan, the cabinet ministers are actually secretaries, the emperor's secretaries, and also the prime minister's secretaries. Not only are their official ranks not high, but they are not very prestigious, so apart from Zhao Jiulang, most of them are young faces.

At this time, a young eunuch came in holding a stack of memorials and placed them on the desk on the side.

Watching the adults eating tofu together, he couldn't help but sniff, having just come in from the cold outside.

Zhao Jiulang handed over a pair of chopsticks and pointed to the bowls that were neatly stacked there.

"Thank you, sir."

The young eunuch was not polite, picked up the chopsticks and a bowl, and squeezed in. Obviously, it was not the first time he had joined in.

The imperial kitchen would send fresh, tender tofu every hour, and yellow wine and other side dishes would be replenished as needed.

In fact, this pot, if it's not lit, it's not lit, but once it's lit, it will burn for a long time.

During the winter, anyone who wants to eat a couple of pieces can come over and cook them themselves, so there has always been a saying in the outer court's circle of officials that the people in the inner cabinet are holding a tofu running banquet every day.

Zhao Jiulang got up, walked to the desk, and began to read the newly sent memorials.

In the past, when His Majesty was in the palace, the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs had the power to approve memorials, that is, to represent His Majesty's will and affirm, deny, or reconsider the results discussed by the officials on the memorials.

His Majesty rarely left things unaddressed. He was too lazy to have his officials guess and speculate about his intentions, and he would not gloat over it. Nor would he use the memorial process to play any power struggles or checks and balances with his officials.

In the final analysis,

The emperor had truly achieved his word being law.

But now, the Crown Prince is supervising the country.

At first, he was personally involved in everything, getting up earlier than the officials, leaving later than the officials on duty, and being humble and eager to learn, which made many older officials have to simply sleep on the floor in the palace or signing room, which was unbearable.

Some complaints inevitably reached Zhao Jiulang's ears, and Zhao Jiulang just smiled it off.

Fortunately, as time went on, the Crown Prince began to gradually withdraw himself from routine affairs and learn to use people to solve the problems below.

This seemingly a change of method, but in fact, it was a change of mentality, he had to accept the fact that the power he had just taken from his father had to be re-distributed.

The Crown Prince is talented;

But Zhao Jiulang knew that one master had known this long ago, otherwise his business wouldn't have grown so big.

The newly sent memorials didn't have anything particularly big, the year was bad, it was nothing more than disaster relief, disaster relief, and more disaster relief, tax reduction, tax reduction, and more tax reduction, and then, suppressing a rebellion.

The Yan area here is still good, the old Yan people and the Ji family's endurance to endure hardship together is still there;

And in the Jin area, small-scale rebellions are popping up one after another, but they are quickly suppressed.

At this time, Li Yinglian, the Crown Prince's personal attendant, came in and looked at the group gathered together eating tofu hot pot, and smiled:

"I was wondering, I smelled the fragrance from a long way away."

Zhao Jiulang pointed inside and said:

"Eunuch Li, would you like a bite too?"

"No, no." Li Yinglian took half a step back and bowed to Zhao Jiulang, "Sir, the Crown Prince invites you to come over, to discuss the selection of the new governor of Nanwang City."

Li Yinglian personally came to invite him, and directly stated the matter to be discussed in advance, which was a sign of respect.

Zhao Jiulang picked up his cloak hanging on the carbon stove,

And Li Yinglian personally stepped forward to help Zhao Jiulang put on the cloak.

Zhao Jiulang nodded and walked out, with Li Yinglian half a step behind him.

The Emperor was resting in the back garden. Earlier, the Crown Prince would go to the back garden every day to pay his respects and report on state affairs.

Later, the back garden was simply sealed off, and he had to see the Emperor only in the middle and late of each month. At other times, he was not allowed to see him.

There were rumors from the outside world that this was because His Majesty wanted to show his trust in the Crown Prince, so that the transfer of power could be carried out smoothly in advance;

But there were also people who speculated that His Majesty's health had really deteriorated to the point where it was extremely difficult to even see people and discuss matters every day.

The Yan Emperor's withdrawal from the scene changed the original dictatorial mode of the court.

The Crown Prince, supervising the country, had his own team from the Eastern Palace, and he also held the banner of righteousness, so he was naturally an extreme;

The Sixth Prince, also known as the Sixth Master Party, was suppressed at first because His Majesty ordered the Crown Prince to supervise the country and constantly gave him power. However, with the ennoblement of Zheng Fan, the Sixth Master Party's number one general and flag-bearer, the Sixth Master Party was once again boosted in morale.

Because many people believed that Zheng Fan's ennoblement as a Marquis, although there were factors that his merits were outstanding and that he had to be rewarded for his achievements and that he had to be ennobled in order to secure the frontier, the Yan Emperor had not intended to re-establish the close cooperation between him and Marquis Zhenbei.

In addition to the two extremes,

There is actually another extreme,

That is, the civil and military officials in the court, headed by Prime Minister Zhao Jiulang.

When the Yan Emperor was in power, the Prime Minister of Great Yan always gave people a feeling of being inconspicuous. Even the idle people in Yanjing City who liked to gossip gave this Prime Minister some "elegant names," such as "Paper Prime Minister," "Clay Prime Minister," or "Puppet Prime Minister."

Because throughout history, the prime minister has always had the natural historical attribute of leading officials to fight against imperial power;

But in Great Yan,

What the Yan Emperor said,

Zhao Jiulang did,

What the Yan Emperor wanted,

Zhao Jiulang gave,

The Yan Emperor's will was his Zhao Jiulang's will, and at the same time, Zhao Jiulang would try to "whip" the officials to make them follow along.

The power of the prime minister, in Zhao Jiulang's hands, was completely surrendered to the power of the emperor.

But after the Yan Emperor entered the back garden, the Prime Minister's ability and power truly surfaced.

How could this Prime Minister, who was promoted from a humble background to the position of Prime Minister by the Yan Emperor when the aristocratic families of Great Yan were standing tall, and who had been standing tall after so many years of ups and downs serving such a monarch, be a simple person?

In the current situation,

After the campaign against Chu, Great Yan was in trouble, the Jin area was in trouble, and after the joyous celebration of the victory in the foreign war, the whole country began to pay off the debt for "exhaustive military force."

The situation of power struggle did not appear;

Both the Crown Prince and the Sixth Prince were controlling their respective forces at this time, not colliding, and focusing on the country.

First, after all, the two brothers were both named Ji, and no one could say for sure who would really sit on this throne in the end, but what could not be denied was that they could both pat their chests and say that this was the ancestral property;

Second, because their father was still alive, and as long as their father didn't die, the two brothers wouldn't dare to abandon the overall situation and fight under their father's nose.

But,

Sometimes,

Arguments, confrontations, and even the emergence of the rudiments of factional struggles, are unavoidable.

This is not for fame and fortune, but for real differences in political views.

Nanwang City originally belonged to Yilang County, but now it is to be restructured, with Nanwang City as the county seat, and a governor is to be appointed to facilitate dealing with the threat from the three sides of the Qian Kingdom.

The problem lies here.

The Crown Prince meant to let a man from the military camp who was actually taking the path of a civil official, that is, another version of Xu Wenzu, take the position, so that he could replace Xu Wenzu's original job and continue to cooperate with the eldest to stabilize the situation there;

And the Sixth Prince meant to let an official who was good at local governance take charge, so as to restore the former "Little Jiangnan" of Great Yan, Nanwang City, to the prosperity that was interrupted by the war.

Both sides also had candidates;

This is very interesting. On the surface, Ji Lao Liu (Sixth Prince) is in charge of the Ministry of Revenue, and it seems reasonable to want to open up sources of income and promote trade as much as possible in the current difficult financial situation of Great Yan;

But in fact, Zhao Jiulang knew that the Crown Prince was the more conservative type, and his policies and propositions should have been to stop the war, rest and recuperate;

And the Sixth Prince, like the Yan Emperor, would not be satisfied with being a conservative emperor. It should be his true intention to expand outwards and strive to compete with his father in terms of achievements, regardless of whether he admits it or not.

Because no one would believe that a "young Ji Runhao" would be content with the status quo.

But the two sides, in this contest for candidates, have gone to the opposite side of their original policies.

There is too much to say about this.

Just like this pot of tofu,

Eating it in the summer is easy to get irritated; eating it in the winter is really comfortable.

When the season is different, everything is very different.

His Majesty is old,

Their father is old,

The Crown Prince wants to prove to His Majesty that although he is a conservative ruler, he will not fall down from his father's name as an explorer!

The Sixth Prince wants to prove to His Majesty that although he has the intention of expansion, he will not act aimlessly.

Zhao Jiulang was walking when he suddenly stopped,

Sporadically,

It actually started to drizzle,

The rain was mixed with some ice crystals, and the chill seemed to penetrate into people's bones.

Zhao Jiulang smiled,

It really lives up to the old saying,

Whether it is sunny or cloudy,

It all depends on the will of Heaven.

And just at this time,

Zhao Jiulang saw Eunuch Wei walking towards him.

"Greetings to Eunuch Wei, may Eunuch Wei have happiness and good health."

Li Yinglian quickly knelt down to Wei Zhonghe.

An old Emperor is most likely to make his officials tremble, and the chief eunuch who is about to guard the tomb can also make his colleagues panic!

Wei Zhonghe nodded to Li Yinglian, but he didn't exchange pleasantries with him. Instead, he smiled at Zhao Jiulang:

"Prime Minister, look at this weather, how it changes so quickly, it makes people feel panicked."

Zhao Jiulang stood on the steps,

Shook his head,

And said:

"Don't worry, it won't collapse."