"Liu Ziyu may not come..." Li Guangqing knew that the other party wanted to say that there was a senior official from Bashu or a confidant of the government behind Liu Ziyu, but he kept shaking his head.

"That's not what I meant." Lin Qi continued to twirl his beard and shook his head. "What I meant was that in the current situation, whether or not we know the military situation, or whether or not there are people in the Privy Council who know us, is no longer important."

"That's right." Li Guang also came to his senses. "In the current situation, it will only be effective if the prime minister directly steps in."

Having said this, everyone in the room looked at the youngest person, Fan Zongyin.

Finally, Fan Zongyin shook his head seriously and said, "To be honest, I did go and ask yesterday. Lord Xu was probably willing to speak for Lord Li. I didn't go to Lord Wang's place at all. As for Lord Lu from the capital..."

"What did Mr. Lu say?" Lin Qi couldn't help but become serious.

"Minister Lu said that this kind of thing is not something that the prime minister can decide. It still depends on the emperor's intentions and the attitudes of the two ministers themselves..." Fan Zongyin replied seriously.

"That actually makes sense." After a moment of silence in the restaurant, Lin Qi sighed. "We are just busy doing nothing, but we have to be busy."

Everyone was completely dejected.

Now, these people got together today despite their busy schedules because of the recent disturbance in Tokyo City… You know, after the military personnel were roughly arranged, the title of prime minister became the top priority, and as expected, Lu Yihao came from behind and successfully surpassed Wang Boyan to be promoted to Privy Councilor with his merits of defending Nanyang and persuading the emperor to lead the army in person. As soon as he returned to Tokyo, he became the official Prime Minister of the Western Palace.

However, although they are both serious ministers, this Minister Lu is different from the other Minister Lu.

Lu Yihao had just become the Privy Councilor and he began to monopolize power, taking on all the affairs of the Privy Council.

If any official in the Western Palace dared to disobey him, he would turn his face away on the spot. At the very least, he would deduct their salary; at the worst, he would expel them from the Western Palace. As for military personnel, anyone who was disrespectful or rude to him would be punished directly. From Han Shizhong to the ordinary commanders of the imperial army, and to the ministers of various departments, he would never give them a cold shoulder and had no habit of taking revenge overnight.

As a result, everyone was shocked, and Wang Boyan, the deputy privy envoy, was also sidelined.

But that’s not all, because there is a tradition of officials passing notes to the four ministers for discussion... which means being a hands-off manager... so many important matters were just reported to Official Lan in the imperial city behind the Xuande Building, and the four ministers would then discuss the matter in front of the Youye Gate of the Xuande Building, where the former Shangshu Province, now the Metropolitan Province and the Privy Council, were located.

However, ever since he became the Privy Councilor, this Prime Minister Lu would often use the excuse of military affairs as an excuse to forcibly assign many matters to the Privy Council during the Four Ministers' meetings, and naturally he would be the one to handle them in the end.

Among the four ministers, Prime Minister Wang was a deputy and naturally a head shorter than them. Prime Minister Lu of the capital province was the official prime minister but one who dared not compete. Xu Jingheng did dare to compete, but because of the grouping pattern of the East and West Palaces, he could not speak past Lu Haowen. Therefore, Lu Yihao not only controlled the Privy Council, but also gradually overwhelmed the other three ministers, and seemed to be monopolizing power.

That's fine.

In the past two days, as Yue Fei quickly set out to the south, Lu Yihao suddenly took advantage of the situation and repeatedly criticized Li Gongxiang who was far away in Yangzhou...

To be honest, there was no precedent of a prime minister impeaching another prime minister in the Song Dynasty, otherwise Lu Yihao would have directly impeached Li Gang for harming the country.

But even if direct impeachment was not possible, following Lu Yihao's almost naked statement, people in Beijing could not help but feel uneasy.

If this Lu Xianggong really replaced Li Gongxiang and became the head of all officials, who would be able to survive with his power? Even if he did not replace Li Gongxiang, but just overthrew him, would his power be reduced?

Therefore, several of Li Gang's confidants in Beijing contacted Fan Zongyin, who had spoken appropriately in front of Lu Haowen and Xu Jingheng, in an attempt to appease them.

But it was clear that the situation was too dire.

Because in the final analysis, this is not just a problem of Lu Yihao's arrogance. The real problem lies with Emperor Zhao and Li Gang.

Li Gang's military skills were too poor, and it was a sin in these days to force himself to control the military affairs even though he was not good at it. The example of Li Yanxian and the contrast of Zong Zhongwu were there, but he still caused trouble again and again... He had tens of thousands of troops in the rear of the imperial camp, but at the critical moment, he not only could not help the front line, but also disrupted his own formation. It was his own fault that he was criticized this time!

At the same time, what made Li Gongxiang and his confidants even more panic was that they suddenly realized that with Emperor Zhao's defeat of the Jin army and his return to the old capital, the situation of mutual support between Emperor Zhao and Gongxiang was no longer meaningful... Up to now, who would still doubt Emperor Zhao's intention and strength to fight against the Jin? And why did they need Li Gongxiang's appeal to help Emperor Zhao organize and establish a court team?

In a word, Emperor Zhao no longer needs Prime Minister Li's banner to establish his image. If he asks for support, his own dragon banner is already effective.

This group of people are essentially worried that Emperor Zhao will destroy his bridges after crossing them.

"Fan Zhixu is dead." After the scene was quiet for a while, Fan Zongyin, who had been thinking for a long time, suddenly revealed a piece of news with a hint of bitterness.

"When did it happen?" Someone looked up in panic. "How did he die?"

"I'm not sure. It should have happened not long after he arrived in Zunyi. Anyway, when I handled the document, it said that the hay barn he was guarding caught fire, so he died in Zunyi." Fan Zongyin answered casually.

"That's all?"

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!