Du Yan glanced at Su Jin, who had an unkind face, and slowly stepped forward and said: "Your Majesty, the old minister thinks that the worries of Lord Qian, Lord Wang and others are not unreasonable, and it is also for the sake of the Qingming of my Great Song Dynasty, so there is nothing wrong with it." ”

Everyone knew that this was the result, if Du Yan and Qian Mingyi and others didn't wear a pair of pants, it would really be the sun coming out in the west.

"Du Aiqing means to support the severe punishment of Fan Zhongyan and others, right?" Zhao Zhen asked.

Du Yan coughed and arched his hand: "This ...... Although the old minister thought that Lord Qian and Lord Wang were reasonable, they did not approve of severely punishing Han Fan and others, but on the contrary, they asked the emperor to think twice, consider their starting point, and give leniency. ”

"What?"

"Du Gong, what are you talking about?"

Qian Mingyi, Wang Gongchen and the officials who echoed it were so shocked that they could stuff a duck egg into their mouths, and the officials in the palace once again had their eyes spilled on the ground, Du Yan was able to intercede for Fan Zhongyan and others, this is simply a big joke, if you don't hear it with your own ears and see it, who can believe it.

Most people didn't believe Du Yan's words, they all agreed that Du Yan was playing tricks, deliberately showing generosity, so as not to leave the name of falling into the well, and saying this kind of thing when Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi and others were basically punished severely was basically a treacherous strategy.

Zhao Zhen was slightly surprised, tilted his head and asked, "Oh?" What does Du Shumi mean is that I should lightly send Fan Zhongyan and the others? Didn't Du Shumi keep writing and saying that the crime of treacherous party and disrupting the dynasty was unforgivable? Why has the tone changed today? ”

Du Yan's face turned red, and he complained in his heart that the emperor shook out the matter of his letter asking for severe punishment in public, and did not give himself a way back, but at this moment, he couldn't care about embarrassment, Su Jin's big eyes were staring at his every move, he didn't want to mess with Su Jin, let Su Jin make things out of control in the court.

"Your Majesty, the minister did advocate severe punishment of the traitorous party, but the minister also felt that this matter was too important to make a hasty decision, in recent days, the minister has been thinking hard day and night and sent people to secretly visit Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi and his henchmen, and did not find that it is very harmful, that is, although Han Fan and others braved the world's disapproval to form friends privately, but they did not have time to do anything really harmful to the court; They did make a lot of mistakes in the implementation of the New Deal, but the mistakes of the New Deal and the troubles of the friends are two different things, just from the matter of the friends, the harm has not yet formed, and there is no conclusive evidence to say that they have other conspiracy theories, and my Great Song Dynasty from the emperor to the bottom all pursue the way of mercy and forgiveness, in the absence of evidence, how can we be severely punished based on speculation, let alone according to what Lord Qian and Lord Wang said directly to torture to extract confessions, it is not a joke to spread it. ”

Qian Mingyi looked at Du Yan directly, wanting to speak but not daring to speak, what's wrong with the boss today? Did you take the wrong medicine?

Zhao Zhen frowned and said: "There seems to be some truth in what I said, but there is no need to cause harm to the party, and this kind of behavior itself has a very bad impact, if it is not severely punished, it is not conniving at others to follow suit." ”

Du Yan said calmly: "The emperor doesn't have to worry, not severely punished, but can be punished severely, take this as a warning, so that the world can be heard, and besides, if you talk about the original intention of Fan Zhongyan Han Qi and others, the minister can guarantee that they are generally similar to unintentional mistakes, judging from the past performance of these people, they can still be called loyal to the monarch and love the people. ”

Zhao Zhen said unhappily: "You don't mean it." ”

Du Yan was shocked to say the wrong thing, and hurriedly said: "The minister should die, the minister means that they don't know how to cherish the grace of the saint, and they are not more diligent and self-disciplined because of the emperor's trust, but on the contrary, they are arrogant and empty-minded, so that they go astray." ”

Zhao Zhen said: "You guarantee that they are just going astray? Do you dare to vouch? ”

Du Yan said: "The ministers have the courage to vouch for them. ”

Zhao Zhen shouted: "Did you guarantee it?" ”

Du Yan snorted: "Minister...... Minister......"

Su Jin stepped forward and said: "Weichen also came to vouch, if it is really found out that Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi and others have other intentions in the future, the ministers are willing to sit together." ”

Zhao Zhen frowned and was about to scold Su Jin for intervening in his legs, when he saw Bao Zheng step out of the queue and said: "Minister Bao Zheng is also willing to guarantee, like Lord Su, he is willing to sit together in the future." ”

Du Yan took advantage of this kung fu to give Wang Gongchen Qian Mingyi, and the two really believed that Du Yan really wanted to exonerate Han Fan and others, although they didn't know what to do, but it was the obligation of the younger brother to follow the pace of the boss Du Yan.

Qian Mingyi stepped forward cheekily and said, "This ...... The emperor started playing, the minister listened to Du Shumi's words, and the minister's performance was biased, the minister thought about it just now, and also felt that Han Fan and others were unable to control themselves because of the expansion of power too quickly, so there would be no real conspiracy, and the minister withdrew the proposal just now. ”

Zhao Zhen said angrily: "You have changed quite fast, just now it was black and white in a blink of an eye, do you still have an idea?" It is really unreasonable for national affairs to be like child's play. ”

Qian Mingyi hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed: "The emperor is angry, knowing that mistakes can be improved, and the minister also realizes the mistake and corrects it immediately, and the minister doesn't want to make a mistake to the end." ”

Zhao Zhen said angrily: "You are reasonable, just get up, think clearly about it in the future, I don't want to hear these contradictory words again." ”

Qian Mingyi wiped his sweat and thanked him and retreated, glanced at Du Yan like a resentful woman, and said in his heart: Boss, you almost hurt me, if you don't explain it to me afterwards, I won't follow.

Du Yan gave him a relieved look, leaned over and said again: "Your Majesty, the ministers have the courage to suggest that the punishment of Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi and others should be light and slow, which can not only reflect the emperor's reasonableness, tolerance and open-mindedness, but also stabilize the situation so as not to cause a big panic, but the new deal needs to be abolished immediately, this matter is unpopular, and it is Han Fan and others who are trying to implement it, and there is no need to implement it, and the fallacies caused during the new deal need to be corrected one by one, so as to calm the hearts of the people with public anger." ”

Zhao Zhen sighed and said: "What you said is also reasonable, I also think that Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi and others will not be eroded to this point all at once, after all, these people were all heroes of my Great Song Dynasty, Han Qi and Fan Zhongyan have been resisting the western thieves in the northwest for several years, and they have worked hard and made great achievements; Fu Bi has followed me for many years, he is kind and cautious, Ouyang Xiu has been in charge of the Yushi Observatory for several years, and he has a reputation for every time he admonishes and admonishes, these people were originally the important weapons of the country that I am optimistic about, but because of this, they made big mistakes, and I am also very sad. ”

Yan Shu hurriedly said: "The emperor doesn't have to worry, real gold is not afraid of fire, and the real virtuous ministers can naturally withstand the invasion and test of wind and rain. ”

Zhao Zhen nodded and said: "That's what I said, sharpening the edge, I will follow the advice of the people, and treat these people lightly, Huang Peisheng, the will." ”

Huang Peisheng hurriedly picked up a pen and paper to record, Zhao Zhen frowned, looked at the beams of the hall, and said slowly: "Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi, Fu Bi, Ouyang Xiu and others, disregarding the grace of the saint, formed friends privately, and took advantage of the implementation of the new policy to eliminate dissidents and attack the courtiers; The New Deal was originally the government of a strong country, but it was reduced to the accusations of the people, and I greatly regretted and disappointed; I originally planned to severely punish the four people, but I remembered that the four people were upright and did not do much harm, and they had been meritorious ministers of the imperial court, so they were invited by the ministers to be punished lightly. ”

The ministers pricked up their ears and didn't dare to take a breath, listening carefully to the fate of these four people.

"Fan Zhongyan was the head of the party, and refused to admit the party's trip, vainly saying that 'the spirit is unbreakable', which only provoked the anger of the public, and dismissed the deputy privy envoy and the same governor of the political affairs, and at the same time dismissed the post of deputy envoy of the two roads of Huanqing in Yanyan, and demoted to the county magistrate of Bin County of Jingxi Road, and removed Han Qi from the post of privy deputy envoy, degraded to Yangzhou Mansion, dismissed from the post of deputy privy envoy of Fubi, degraded to Yunzhou, dismissed from the post of Ouyang Xiu Yu Shi Zhongcheng and degraded to Chuzhou on Huainan Road, and the rest of the party henchmen were all dismissed and demoted to petty officials after verification; , not for the words of the friends, admiring this! ”

As soon as Zhao Zhen's words fell, there was a sound of gasping in the court, some didn't expect it to be so cheap, Fan Zhongyan and others, and some didn't expect it to be so heavy, these four people were relegated to four places thousands of miles away, even if they were friends, there was no chance for them to get together; And Fan Zhongyan plummeted from being a second-class member of the dynasty to being directly demoted to the county magistrate of Binxian County, which seemed to be the emperor's grace, but in fact it was equivalent to smoking Fan Zhongyan's mouth.

And Han Qi and Fu Bi are much luckier, firstly, these two are Fan Zhongyan's right-hand men, which is slightly lighter in terms of responsibility, and secondly, perhaps because of Yan Shu, the punishment of Fu Bi has to be taken care of, and Han Qi is stained, although the two were demoted, they at least kept their positions as state officials.

Ouyang Xiu was the luckiest, he wrote that "Theory of Friends" to openly advocate the innocence of friends, and he should have been punished more severely, but for some reason, he also retained his position as the governor of Chuzhou, perhaps because Zhao Zhen looked at Su Jin's face, in short, it was a lighter punishment.

As soon as the punishment results came out, Su Jin breathed a sigh of relief, finally there was no major mistake, none of these four people were imprisoned, although they could only mess around in the state capital outside the capital from now on, and they may never have the opportunity to join the center, but at least, they could be regarded as living up to their hard work in the past few days and even did not hesitate to turn their faces with Zhao Zhen.