At night, the city gate of Chang'an City closed and the drums of the square gate were beating, and the people who were eating or visiting outside rushed to their homes, and they still had some time to complete the door after beating one hundred and eight drums.

A carriage stopped in front of Xiangguo Han Rong's mansion, Shang Shu's left servant Yan Zhenqing came out of the carriage, and on the steps, Han Qun, Han Rong's eldest son, had been waiting for a long time.

Han Qun hurriedly greeted him and saluted: "My father is already waiting in the study, and I specially ordered my little nephew to come to greet Shibo." ”

Yan Zhenqing smiled slightly: "I'm really embarrassed to disturb your father so late." ”

"Where! Uncle Shi is too polite, please follow the little nephew into the house. ”

"There's a nephew."

Yan Zhenqing followed Han Qun into the door of the mansion and came directly to Han Rong's outer study in the atrium, where Han Rong had already greeted Yan Zhenqing at the gate of the courtyard.

Han Yun said with a smile: "The drum of Guanfang has already sounded, does Qingchen carry the Xiangguo card, if not, I can lend it to you." ”

Yan Zhenqing patted his pocket, "Of course I brought it, I didn't bring a brand, how dare I go out at night?" ”

The two of them smiled and walked into the study, and the guests were seated, and a maid served them tea.

The reason why Yan Zhenqing came to visit Han Rong when the door was closed was mainly to avoid some criticism.

Last month, there were two major events in the political affairs hall, Choi Youfu drank and prostituted in the teaching workshop, and let the prostitutes play the role of the prime minister.

This incident was immediately denounced by Chang Gon, so that the Son of Heaven Li Yu was very dissatisfied, thinking that Cui Youfu was out of character, so he dismissed him as prime minister and demoted him to the young Yin of Henan Prefecture, and within a few days, Liu Yan fainted twice in a row during the court meeting, his health deteriorated, and then asked the Son of Heaven to resign as Xiangguo.

In just half a month, there were two less Xiangguo, and the Son of Heaven Li Yu did not have the idea of supplementing Xiangguo, and the deliberations of the political hall had to be suspended.

Yan Zhenqing was deeply anxious, so she made the decision to visit Zuo Xiang Han Yun tonight.

"The deliberations of the political hall have been there since the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, and it has become a common practice after Gaozong, why is it not now, let Chang Youxiang monopolize the power, I really don't understand."

Han Yun smiled faintly: "I discussed this issue with the prince a few days ago, and the prince also relayed to me the opinion of the saint, the saint believes that the voting system of the political hall has become equal in phase, and it does not reflect the authority of the right minister, which is also a problem that Chang Xiangguo constantly reacts to the saint, he is the right minister, but everything is vetoed, so what else does the right minister do?" ”

Yan Zhenqing snorted, "It's nothing more than the impeachment of Guo Song, if he doesn't have selfish intentions, how can he be vetoed?" He should examine himself first. ”

Han Yun shook his head, "The problem is that now the Holy Lord supports him, and the crown prince also thinks that the traditional political affairs hall should meet left and right, rather than the entire prime minister's vote, Qingchen, you still can't figure out the key to this?" ”

"Brother Han, forgive me for being stupid, can you make it clear?"

Han Yun sighed and said, "It's very simple, if the deliberations of the Zhizheng Hall have been voted by Xiangguo, then what else is there to do?" Didn't you find out that the voting system of the prime minister is actually a hollowing out of the saints? ”

Yan Zhenqing hesitated for a moment and said: "But the Xiangguo voting system was originally implemented by the Holy Lord, why is he opposed it now?" ”

"It's just a moment in time, it was because Yuan Zai monopolized power, in order to prevent another Yuan Zai, the Holy Lord proposed a vote in the political hall, but now the question is, if the political hall has been voted through, then what is the point of the court discussion? Is the Holy One a Critic or not?

In fact, the voting system of the government hall not only threatened the power of the right minister, but also gradually threatened the power of the monarchy, and the holy lord showed an ambiguous attitude in this matter, and instead supported the request of the permanent minister. ”

Yan Zhenqing took a few steps with his hands in his hands, and finally he looked at the roof and said helplessly: "If everything is decided by the right minister, then what is the need for us ordinary ministers to exist, the imperial court can directly set up the left and right ministers, and I will resign tomorrow." ”

Han Yun saw the loss in Yan Zhenqing's heart, so he comforted him with a smile and said: "The Holy Lord does not approve of the voting system of the Political Affairs Hall, but it does not mean that he opposes the multi-phase system, in my opinion, in the end, the multi-phase consultation and the right phase slapping system will be adopted, as for Brother Qingchen, don't worry too much, as far as I know, the Holy Lord intends to let you be in charge of the Ministry of Officials and concurrently serve as the servant of the Ministry of Officials." ”

Yan Zhenqing now understands that the Son of Heaven actually wants to restore the system of reality and virtual phase, the left and right phases are reality, and the other phases are all imaginary phases, but they only have the title of Xiangguo, and no longer have the real power of Xiangguo, only when the saint holds an important military meeting, he will only attend the discussion, and the saint is ready to appoint himself as a servant of the ministry, which can be regarded as a kind of compensation!

"It doesn't really matter how many ministers there are in the imperial court, right?"

Han Yun nodded, "That's true, but I heard that Duan Xiushi wants to add the title of Xiangguo, in charge of the Criminal Department, and Li Mian also wants to add the title of Xiangguo, but he still sits in the Central Plains." ”

Yan Zhenqing was really a little frustrated, the Holy Lord's abolition of the voting system in the political hall was actually Chang Gon's victory.

In fact, Yan Zhenqing also knows that saying that the voting system of the Xiangguo is a tradition is actually biased, and the traditional Xiangguo deliberations are only a system of consultation between the left and the right.

The right phase is the middle book order, responsible for drafting the holy decree, and the left phase is the subordinate servant, responsible for reviewing the holy decree.

For example, if the right minister of the Zhongshu Order asked the Zhongshu Sheren to draft a holy decree, and after submitting it to the Son of Heaven for approval, it was transferred to the hands of the subordinate servants, who felt that it was inappropriate and vetoed the holy decree, then the reply of the Son of Heaven would be meaningless.

Therefore, in order to avoid the rejection of the holy decree after the Son of Heaven approves it, before the Son of Heaven approves it, the right minister and the left minister meet in advance to negotiate, and after reaching a consensus, the holy decree is handed over to the Son of Heaven for approval.

The system of consultation between the left and right ministers was implemented from the time of Gojong, which is the traditional political affairs hall deliberation, and the Xiangguo voting system actually started ten years ago, and the initial motive was to check and balance Yu Chao'en, and prevent Yu Chao'en, who was the left minister, from using the veto power in the service to interfere with the government, and later to check and balance Yuan Zai.

Now that Yu Chao-eun and Won Jae have been overthrown, there is no need for the Sang-kook voting system to exist anymore.

After being silent for a long time, Yan Zhenqing said again: "Then what is Chang Gon's deliberate detention of the commendation of the Fengzhou Army?" The impeachment of Guo Song last time was unsuccessful, and this time he deliberately ignored Guo Song's efforts to defend the land, Brother Han, I really don't understand, why does Chang Gon hate Guo Song so much, make things difficult for him everywhere, and suppress him? ”

Han Yun smiled and said, "Chang Gon is not Yuan Zai's party, what is he doing to suppress Guo Song?" Qingchen was a little worried, in fact, Chang Xiangguo's reason is also reasonable, the Fengzhou Guard War and the Shuofang Army sent troops to Xue Yantuo is one thing, so he proposed to wait for the Shuofang Army's war to end, and then consider it together, the Holy Lord and the prince agreed, Qingchen should stop worrying about this matter, he really refuses to give Fengzhou credit, and the prince will not agree, right? ”

Yan Zhenqing sneered, "I'm afraid that the final result will surprise us." ”

........

At the same time as Yan Zhenqing's night visit to Han Rong, Chang Gon also received an urgent letter from Li Huaiguang in his house.

The content of the letter made Chang Gon very angry, and Li Huaiguang actually fought fiercely with the Sijie tribe when he exterminated Xue Yantuo's army, and finally suffered a crushing defeat, with more than 9,000 casualties among the 20,000 army.

In the letter, Li Huaiguang said that they had been attacked by the Sijie Division, but the reason for the attack on them by the Sijie Division was unclear.

Of course, Li Huaiguang's purpose in writing this letter was to hope that Chang Gon could protect him, and Chang Gon also knew in his heart that if the Son of Heaven was angry, Li Huaiguang's Shuo Fang Jiedu would have to be dismissed.

But how can you protect him?

Chang Gon paced back and forth in the study with his hands in his hands, he looked at the letter again, Li Huaiguang finally put the responsibility on Guo Song, the envoy of the Three Towns Economy, it was Guo Song who had promised to hand over Xue Yantuo's department to Sijie without authorization, which caused Sijie to turn his face in order to compete for Xue Yantuo's herdsmen and the Tang army.

Is it really because Guo Song made a promise to Sijie that Sijie and Tang Jun turned against each other?

Chang Gon felt that Li Huaiguang thought about the problem too simply, not to mention whether Guo Song had made a promise to Sijie Ministry, even if he had promised, Sijie Khan would not take it seriously, unless it was Guo Song who pretended to pass on the holy decree, but this possibility was very small.

Although Chang Gon was very dissatisfied with Guo Song because of the matter of the Zhang family in Fengzhou, it was okay to wear small shoes for Guo Song, but when it came to military affairs that the Son of Heaven was strongly concerned about, Chang Gon was more careful and would not easily express his personal emotions.

But Li Huaiguang is his person again, he strongly recommended Li Huaiguang as the envoy of Shuofang Jiedu, and he was defeated in the first battle, how can he explain to the Son of Heaven?

Although Chang Gon was very annoyed, Li Huaiguang definitely wanted to protect it, but how to protect it and how to share the responsibility, he really had to think about it.

........

Two days later, a shocking news quickly spread throughout the government and the opposition, when the Shuofang army was exterminating the remnants of Xue Yantuo, it was attacked by the Sijie and Hui coalition forces, and the Tang army fought back and was unfortunately defeated, with more than 9,000 casualties.

It was just a brief and whitewashed message, and the exact details were not announced.

What shocked people was not only the defeat of the Tang army, but also the battle between the Sijie Department and the Tang Army, a few years ago the Sijie Khan also came to Chang'an for the Hajj, and the two sides formed an alliance.

In the imperial study, Li Yu's face was very ugly, and on the imperial case in front of him was a detailed report sent by the Shuofang Jiedu Mansion, which described in detail the cause of this incident, as well as the detailed process of the two sides fighting several times and finally breaking out into large-scale battles.

Li Yu tapped the report on the imperial case with his knuckles and said to Chang Gon: "There are still many questions in this report that have not been clarified, why did Sijie attack the Tang army tribe?" Xue Yantuo's backstage were the Qarluqs, not the Sijie people, they were the enemies of the Sijie tribe, and there was no need for the Sijie army to rescue them. ”

After a pause, Li Yu said in an accentuated tone: "The report said that the Sijie Department was to compete with the Tang Army for population and land, but the Tang Dynasty has never plundered the grassland population, let alone encroached on the grassland land, this is already common knowledge that everyone knows, does Sijie not know?" Also, at the end of the report, it was Guo Song who privately promised the Sijie Ministry, and I want to find out whether he had any contact with the Sijie Ministry, and whether he promised anything to the Sijie Ministry? ”

"Your Majesty Shengming, in fact, there is another matter about Guo Song, Wei Chen feels that it is necessary to find out."

"What's the matter?"

"Yushitai received a report that after the Tang army defeated Xue Yantuo in Fengzhou, a large number of materials were seized, including nearly 10,000 taels of gold vessels, worth more than 100,000 yuan, Guo Song ordered someone to secretly transport them into Beijing and handed them over to the Dongshi Jubaoge jewelry store, according to investigation, Guo Song and this jewelry store have a close relationship, and Yushitai hopes to open a case to investigate the matter."

Li Yu was very clear about the relationship between Jubaoge and Guo Song, he nodded, "Meritorious service must be rewarded heavily, and violations of the law must be severely punished, the imperial court must be clear in rewards and punishments, the imperial history platform first ascertains the facts, and if it is true, then file a case for investigation, in addition, spread my will, and summon Li Huaiguang and Guo Song to Beijing!" ”