At the morning court session on October 15th, all the officials in the Chuigong Hall stood in their respective seats as usual.

The left and right sides of the hall were filled with candles, and the three groups of ministers stood in order according to their ranks, but the original position of prime minister was now divided into different levels.

In the past, although the prime minister, the privy councilor, and the minister of planning all had the prime minister as the most respected, they were all senior officials in the central government and would stand in similar places.

That is, high-ranking officials of the central government stand in front of all other officials, followed by core officials from the three provinces, six ministries, the Censorate, the three yamen, the nine temples, and the six academies. At the bottom row there will be a large number of censors, advisers, and other seventh and eighth-rank officials.

This created three areas: high, medium and low, divided by the officials' ranks and positions, thus defining the officials' status.

But now the former prime minister is superior to the prime minister and the prime minister of strategy. Even the Minister of Revenue and the Acting Governor of Kaifeng, whose status should be below the prime minister and the prime minister of strategy, are standing inside, and their status is higher than theirs.

Because the people in the front are the Constitutional Yuan.

In other words, the current structure of the court is such that the Political System Council is above all other officials, and its status is even higher than that of the original prime minister. Even the Council of State, the Three Departments, and the Privy Council are under their jurisdiction.

Zhao Jun yawned as he stood in front of Lu Yijian. He felt that the morning court session was becoming more and more formalistic, and wondered if it could be cancelled in the future.

"His Majesty has arrived!"

Wang Shouzhong walked out from the back hall of Chuigong Hall and shouted loudly.

The curtain-rollers on both sides of the door pulled the curtains, and Zhao Zhen, wearing the red robe of the Song Dynasty emperor, walked out.

"Your Majesty!"

All officials raised the tablets in their hands, held them with both hands, and bowed in salute.

"No need to be polite!"

Zhao Zhen waved his hand.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

All officials stand up.

The palace official shouted, "If you have something to report, please leave the court early. If you don't, please withdraw from the court."

Lü Yijian was the first to speak up. "Your Majesty," he said, "the emperor recently issued an edict regarding the famine in Huainan. Those who hired men and women as slaves were ordered to redeem them. Now that the people are afraid to hire, and the poor may have no means of supporting themselves, I hope you will allow us to do as we please."

After hearing this, Zhao Zhen looked at Zhao Jun. Zhao Jun just nodded gravely. Zhao Zhen then said, "So be it."

"Many of the three departments and their sub-departments searched for names in ancient records, giving them direct orders and sending them to the various prefectures to investigate them one by one. Since the years have passed and the records are incomplete, it is quite troublesome to search and verify them."

Wang Sui said.

"How should we deal with it?"

"From now on, this is forbidden. Those who violate this rule must submit the written documents to the prefectures and counties. If the prefectures and counties dare to accept and send them away, the Transportation Department and the Criminal Justice Department will be responsible for investigating and reporting to the authorities."

"good."

After agreeing to this, Wang Zeng stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, there was a strong wind in Hangzhou. The river tide overflowed the bank six feet high and damaged the embankment for more than a thousand feet. What should we do?"

"How do you usually do it?"

Zhao Zhen asked.

"Usually, envoys are sent from the central government to offer sacrifices."

Wang Zeng replied.

Zhao Jun said, "Sacrifices are useless. Building dams is the real work."

"Then follow what Duke Song said."

Zhao Zhen said.

After these words were spoken, the ministers below were slightly agitated. In ancient times, people revered ghosts and gods and often offered sacrifices. How could Zhao Jun actually say that sacrifices were useless?

However, because Zhao Jun had many followers in the court, his supporters included the Prime Minister Group and the New Deal Group, and recently, the Deputy Privy Councilor Wang Deyong and the newly appointed Deputy Minister of the Three Departments Li Di were also added.

Not to mention Wang Deyong, Li Di, as the prime minister of two dynasties, once had a status in the court comparable to that of Lu Yijian, and he also had many followers. His support made Zhao Jun even more powerful.

Therefore, in the past, there were many people who impeached Zhao Jun in the morning court, but now there are basically very few people. Everyone keeps silent and no longer launches an attack on him.

Then, as usual, I talked about what was happening across the country, mainly natural disasters, military and political affairs in the northwest and Hebei, national food and grass allocation, newly emerging civil unrest, and the canal transport economy.

On the contrary, no one mentioned the actions of Kaifeng Prefecture and the Imperial City Administration.

After the three courts reported on the recent autumn tax situation in various places, the Chief Censor Fan Feng finally couldn't help but bow and said, "Your Majesty, why haven't you discussed the recent Kaifeng Prefecture incident?"

Zhao Zhen asked, "What happened in Kaifeng Prefecture?"

Fan Feng said, "The Imperial City Division and Kaifeng Prefecture poured into the underground of Bianliang, searching everywhere for the desperate criminals."

"Um?"

Zhao Jun turned his head and looked at Fan Feng with a stern expression, "Why, shouldn't this be done? There are so many thugs in Bianliang, harming tens of thousands of people, and you still feel proud?"

The expressions of Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng and others changed slightly.

Yesterday, Zhao Jun took them to the place where the victims were resettled. He said that as the prime minister of the Song Empire, he should always care about and love the people.

In fact, when they arrived at the place, they were scolded and scolded. Seeing the hellish scenes on earth, they really couldn't raise their heads.

If these things happened in other regions, they could still use the excuse that the emperor is far away and that ancient productivity and technology were backward, so there was nothing they could do.

But these things happened in Bianliang, the capital city, right under the feet of the emperor. Isn’t that a slap in their faces?

So everyone tacitly agreed not to mention this matter at the morning court today, for fear that Zhao Jun would lose his temper in the Chuigong Hall and embarrass them and even Zhao Zhen.

I didn't expect Fan Feng to bring it up.

Fan Feng felt somewhat baffled and said, "Of course this is what should be done. However, since the underground has been cleaned up, shouldn't we also discuss in the morning court how to resettle the victims, punish the perpetrators, and how to prevent the underground from causing trouble in the future?"

That's just how it is.

Zhao Jun thought about it and realized that he actually treated everyone as an enemy. He felt that those people below had colluded with so many officials. If he cleared them out, it might cause collective opposition among officials within the court.

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