April 23 of the ninth year of Yanli Pingguang, this is a rainy day, Yanjing City has been rainy for two consecutive days, and the entire Yanjing City is shrouded in dim rain, so that the largest capital of Yanguo is full of gloomy atmosphere.

There is a simple and solemn yamen in the thirteen residences of the host, there are two big stone lions squatting in front of the door, which is very imposing, and the stone lions look more hideous in the rain at this time.

Raindrops slid down the glazed tiles, like filaments, and fell into the corners of the walls and the water ditches that were built, and flowed down.

Here is the Cabinet.

The thirteen institutes in the east and the eight most core departments in the west are located, which can be said to be the brains of the huge state apparatus of the entire Yan country.

The excerpts submitted from all over the Yan country will be gathered in this place, and the messengers from all sides will send the excerpts to the cabinet of the cabinet, where dozens of officials will accept the excerpts presented, and then according to the priority of the excerpts and the affairs of the items, they will be classified and processed and transferred to the Nazhe Division. . .

In the center of the abdomen of the inner yamen, it is also the widest office of the vast inner yamen, accounting for one-third of the entire cabinet.

There are always more than 40 officials here, who review and collect the contents of the excerpts, and according to the classification, set up the most concise excerpts, and concisely list the contents of the excerpts and the officials who put them on them.

About money, food, and people's livelihood, about criminal cases and prisons, about military equipment and defense, about related civil engineering projects in various places, about border army garrisons, about foreign envoy negotiations, about business exchanges, about local students taking exams ......!

A huge country has a huge affair, and all kinds of complicated affairs are gathered here, and these diligent officials divide them one by one, present them to the daily rotating officer, and then transfer them to the six ministries for further detailed processing...

Therefore, although the cabinet is the most authoritative place in the entire Yan Kingdom, it is also the busiest place, and the rotating officials in the daily day are the most powerful and the hardest.

Naturally, the rotating officer is a cabinet member, and two cabinet members are on duty every day to handle the affairs of the day.

The office of the rotating officer is the innermost state courtyard of each yamen, a very elegant but solemn courtyard courtyard, in the middle is the office of the rotating officer, and on both sides is the place where the cabinet members assist in handling the excerpts.

In this small courtyard, not many people in the entire Yan Kingdom are qualified to enter, and the black brick and black tile main house in the middle is even more difficult for anyone to approach...

The cabinet is the key point of Yan Guo, and it is the head of Yan Guo, and this place of black bricks and black tiles is the head of the cabinet.

Of course, although the rotating officials are busy with affairs on duty, it does not mean that they have to look at all the excerpts, there are thousands of excerpts every day, even if they are immortals, it may not be over-the-top.

The officials of the Cabinet Submission Division classify the excerpts and submit them to the Cabinet Division, which quickly sorts them according to their rank and then transfers them to the State Council.

Generally speaking, the folds that come up are divided into five grades.

The yellow head folds, the white heads fold, the black heads fold, the gray heads fold, and the most urgent and the most undelayed is the red head fold.

Generally speaking, including the folds below the blackhead fold, they are all processed by the Na Fold Division, that is, according to the level of the fold on the cover of the fold to make a mark of the upper grade...

As for the gray head fold and the red head fold, that is, the person who submitted it himself sealed the title with a fire seal, and it was classified as the most urgent category.

Of course, it doesn't mean that everything can be pasted with gray and red folds, for the setting of ranks, there is a whole set of rules in Yan Kingdom, and the officials who are qualified to present the folds are also clear about that set of rules.

If it is just some ordinary affairs, it does not reach the established level setting, and it is easy to seal the gray head fold or the red head fold, and if you don't do it well, you will be branded by the cabinet as a bluff to defraud the court.

Therefore, it is not urgent, and red head folding is rare.

This is a very efficient assembly line of the Yan State, from a certain point of view, the existence of the cabinet system, although the power of the family is too large, resulting in the weakening of the imperial power, but it is undeniable that this system is to allow many major matters of the Yan State to be dealt with and solved most quickly, from the whole, it plays a vital role in the development and stability of the Yan State. . . .

Every day, the main house of the State Council will directly present the red and gray folds of the day in the first time---- in the vast sea of folds, these two types of folds are naturally very few. Relatively speaking, there are dozens of gray folds a day, and red-headed folds may not be able to touch a few in a month.

The first thing that the rotating officer has to deal with is these two types of emergency folds, and then he will look at the clear folds presented by the folding division into a catalog, and select some of the more important ones from the offices on both sides of the State Council to deal with them.

According to the rules of the cabinet, the content of the gray excerpt, that is, to copy several copies, quickly sent to the other cabinet members who are not on duty, each member summarizes the opinions, if there is no big dispute, how comfortable from the minority to pass a certain decision...

However, once there is a red-headed fold, all the cabinet members must be present to discuss and make a ruling.

……

……

He Qingzhi sat in the carriage, and along the way, he was always thinking about his thoughts.

The day before yesterday, two copies of the 800-mile expedited gray head fold arrived in the cabinet, which were the two copies of Situ Jing and the supervisory envoy Ling Lei, although the wording was different, but the content was the same.

He Qingzhi learned the content inside, and he was still a little proud in his heart, there is no doubt that his brother did a good job over there, and he thought that he could come so quickly to get good news, and the unknown Guigu staff member who was hidden behind the scenes made great contributions, right?

Thinking of Han Xuandao and Su Guanya's expressions that day, He Qing's heart wanted to laugh.

Although another group of officials was quickly sent to Xichun to investigate the matter, He Qingzhi was very convinced that with Xu You's plan, even if ten groups of officials were sent, no clues would be found...

After all, it is the land of the He family.

He Qingzhi sat in the carriage, thinking about Han Xuanchang's current mood, he lost his son in middle age, this time it should be a very heavy blow to the Han family, right? This time, it's time for the Han family to understand how powerful the He family is, right?

He lifted the curtains of the car, and it was still drizzling outside, and the rainy weather always made people feel dull, but the mood of congratulations was very relaxed.

The carriage stopped in front of the cabinet office, and some guards had already lifted the curtain and served outside with oil-paper umbrellas.

He Qingzhi tidied up his official uniform, and then got out of the carriage, the oil-paper umbrella shielded him from the drizzle, and several guards with knives were behind him, and when He Qing got off the car, the carriage immediately turned around and went to the stable next to him to stop. . .

Just as he was about to enter the yamen, he heard another sound of horses' hooves, and a carriage came from the opposite side, and seven or eight guards were guarding both sides, and they were coming quickly.

He Qingzhi smiled coldly, he naturally knew that inside the carriage was Hu Xuexin, the secretary of Dali Temple, who was the rotating officer who was on duty with him today.

"My nephew is dead, I'm afraid it's not easy, right?" He Qingzhi secretly thought in his heart, and when he saw that Hu Xuexin had already gotten out of the car, he smiled and said, "Lord Hu, it's early enough!" ”

Hu Xuexin himself held an oil-paper umbrella, glanced at He Qing, and said, "Didn't Lord He earlier?" ”

"The weather was bad for the past two days, and I woke up in the middle of the night, so I came early." He Qingzhi said with a smile.

"It seems that Lord He has too much on his mind." Hu Xuexin walked over with an umbrella and said indifferently: "But pay attention to your body!" ”

"I have to worry about it. . . ." He Qingzhi said with a smile, then leaned over and said in a low voice: "Lord Hu, how are Lord Han Xuanchang and Lord Han these two days?" Don't let him worry, it's just a disappearance, Ji Ren Tianxiang, I think Han Mo will be fine. I would have liked to visit him, but ...... Hehe, you also know, I'm afraid that the Han family has a lot of opinions about me now, and blames our He family for not taking good care of Han Mo in my heart, so ...... If Master Hu goes to his house, there is Lao to help me convey my greetings, ...... I'm sorry too! ”

Hu Xuexin's face sank, and he sneered: "Lord He, you must know that on the ground of your He family, a servant of the Ministry of Servants has died, and a commander of the Imperial Forest Army has disappeared...... Is it really that simple? As a Dali Siqing, this official's favorite is criminal cases, if the official sent this time can't find out the truth of the matter, the official will personally bring the coffin at that time, but he will have to check ......! ”

He Qingzhi's expression was a little stiff, but he said: "That's a matter within the responsibilities of Lord Hu, and this official really hopes that Lord Hu will personally check it, lest some people be suspicious in the back and think that these things are related to my He family!" ”

The eight guards in front of the yamen were all bowing and saluting, and when they saw that the two rotating officials did not enter the door for a while, they were arguing with oil-paper umbrellas in the rain, so they could only bow down and wait...

At this moment, a person hurriedly came out of the inside, and he didn't care about the light rain outside, so he came out directly, and said respectfully: "Two adults, you are here......!" ”

He Qingzhi naturally knew this official, who was the head of one of the secretaries of the State Council, and asked, "In a hurry, what happened?" ”

The principal looked solemn and said respectfully: "Back to my lord's words, early this morning, thirteen red heads were sent to ......!" ”

"What?" Hu Xuexin was taken aback, and He Qingzhi also changed color suddenly.

The red head fold is rare, it is a big emergency and not a fire seal red head, in the past, it was rare to see a few such red head folds in a month, but at this time, there were thirteen at once, how could this not be shocking.

Hu Xuexin didn't say anything more, walked into the door quickly, and He Qingzhi quickly followed, asking as he walked: "Where did the excerpt come from?" Is it a border gate? ”

Generally speaking, such a big move is a red head, and there are a large number of them, and there are ten ** changes at the border gates.

"It's not a border pass." The principal replied: "Thirteen excerpts, all of which were urgently submitted from Yichun County for eight hundred miles, arrived at the same time!" ”

When He Qingzhi heard this, he stopped his steps and did not wrinkle instantly.

Yichun? Thirteen red-headed folds?

His nerves tensed suddenly, and there was ...... What kind of big deal has happened?

……

Thirteen folds of red heads, sealed by fire seals, were placed on the desk in the main room, lined up, and the red paper heads were sealed with fire seals on the top of each fold.

The crimson paper is like blood.

He Qingzhi's brows have not been loosened, and when he saw the thirteen red heads folded in front of him, he faintly had an ominous premonition......!

He stretched out his hand and was about to take the red head fold, he really wanted to know what happened over there in Yichun!

"Lord He!" Hu Xuexin's voice sounded coldly: "It seems that we should ...... Notify others, right? ”

He Qingzhi's outstretched hand couldn't help but take it back.

This is a red head fold, can not be opened privately, otherwise it is illegal, lighter, fines and dismissal, heavier, if someone takes advantage of this to strike, and even has a life-threatening fear.

The Cabinet is a majestic and complex place, with absolute power and absolute taboos.