Chapter 587 Current Situation

Qin Huiyin and the Tang family rested outside for a few nights, and only returned to the house after making sure that there were no aftershocks.

The Song and Tang families' houses did not suffer much damage. Only a few older courtyards collapsed. Most of the houses were still intact, so they just needed to find a few servants to do some repairs.

First the earth dragon turned over, then the stone tablet was dug out, and now the atmosphere in the court was very solemn. It was said that the emperor's temper was getting out of control, and even the King of Wei, who had a good relationship with him, almost died in his hands. Since then, the King of Wei has been ill and can no longer attend the morning court, and the civil and military officials in the court are even more panicked, and dare not breathe a word.

Now the court is divided into two parties, one is the Prime Minister's Party, and the other is the Song and Tang Party.

It goes without saying that Song and Tang are the two people. To say that these two people are very strange, to say that their relationship is very good, they often disagree on government affairs. To say that their relationship is not good, once the prime minister takes action against one of them, the two people's confidants immediately unite to deal with the outside world. It is said that someone secretly wrote a storybook for the two people, saying that their behavior is more like a pair of lovers who love each other but cannot stay together.

Of course, the book was confiscated within three days. In order to copy the book, people from the Ministry of Justice and the Censorate were mobilized. However, the book was no longer available on the market, but the book in people's hearts could no longer be erased.

"What are you looking at?" Song Ruize appeared from behind Qin Huiyin.

Qin Huiyin quickly put away the notebook in her hand.

She put the notebook away, placed it on her knees, and said, "Nothing!"

Song Ruize looked at her suspiciously and snatched the book from her hand. When the familiar cover appeared, the smile on his face disappeared and he even gritted his teeth.

"I copied and burned all the ones outside, but I didn't expect to have another copy at home." Song Ruize hugged Qin Huiyin's shoulders from behind and bit her earlobe. "It's fine if others make up stories about us, but you also follow them to make trouble. If your eldest brother knew about it, I don't know how he would deal with you."

"Husband..." Qin Huiyin leaned in his arms and acted coquettishly, "I just wanted to watch the fun. I know it's fake, I just treat it as a fun story. Besides, your names are not written in the book, you are too sensitive and insist on taking it for granted."

"Really? If others knew that even the ladies of the Song Mansion bought such a book, what do you think they would think? They would think this story is true."

"I don't want to watch it anymore."

"I think I've finished it!"

Qin Huiyin felt guilty.

She really thinks that the person who made up this story is a talent. If it were in modern times, it would be a pity if he didn't write online articles. With that person's imagination, he would definitely be able to write a hit.

"Husband, has the issue of the earth dragon's turning over been resolved?" Qin Huiyin turned and looked at him.

Song Ruize sat down next to her.

"It's solved. We gave some compensation to the families of the people who died as a token of our gratitude. However, for most families, no amount of money can bring back their loved ones. In addition, for the damaged houses, the poor have lost their homes, so we can only arrange a temporary place for them to stay. After that, they have to rely on themselves to survive."

The treasury was empty, and the emperor was unwilling to care about the people who had lost their homes. Rumors that the emperor treated the people like grass had long been spread, and everyone knew that the houses they lived in were built by the Song and Tang families with their own private money for them to live in. Although the Song and Tang families were not short of money, other officials were not short of money either, and no other officials were willing to take care of the people. Therefore, the people knew very well that they could survive now because of the kindness of the Tang and Song families, not because of the court's care for them.

Prime Minister's Mansion. The Prime Minister listened to his subordinates' reports with a heavy heart.

"Why are Tang and Song pretending to be good people? Those poor people are useless trash. Even if we win them over and gain their hearts, what good will it do them?" said the prime minister's son.

"Of course the people's support is important. The emperor's actions have become increasingly unpopular recently, and now the people want him to abdicate as soon as possible. If this continues, the emperor will lose the support of the people, and I'm afraid that more and more people will join the Wuxiang League and the Wei Family Army."

"Dad, let my sister get pregnant as soon as possible. As long as she gets pregnant, the unpopular emperor will be of no use. We can use the emperor to control the princes."

Prime Minister Cui certainly knew this truth. However, the premise was that the emperor could make the women in the harem pregnant. According to his spies, the emperor no longer had that ability.

Since he didn't have the ability, he could only let his daughter try. The emperor didn't have the ability, but the King of Wei did. Anyway, the King of Wei was also a prince, and getting pregnant with the King of Wei's child would not be considered confusing the royal heirs.

"Today you invite the King of Wei to drink, and then..."

"Gao, Dad, you still have a way."

On the other side, people from the Zhu family entered the palace to meet Zhu Hongxiu.

After the emperor ascended the throne, Zhu Hongxiu became a noble concubine, whose status was second only to the empress.

Zhu Hongxiu's face was filled with worry, and she was unhappy to see someone from the Zhu family appear.

Madam Zhu took her hand and pointed at the maid next to her.

The maid was tall and looked a bit stout, and she didn't look like an ordinary maid at all.

"Mom, you're not going to let me..."

"Hongxiu, you finally entered the palace and became a noble concubine. Our Zhu family depends on you. Everyone in the world wants the emperor to fall, but our Zhu family doesn't! If you can get pregnant and give birth to the emperor's only son, he will be the prince, and our Zhu family will be the prince's mother clan. Hongxiu, this is our Zhu family's chance to soar to the sky."

Song Ruize had just come out of the government office and was about to go to the food city to take a look when a confidant came over and whispered a few words in his ear.

After hearing what his confidant said, a smile flashed in Song Ruize's eyes.

"Whether it's the Zhu family or the Cui family, they are really asking for death."

In the emperor's current situation, everyone hopes that the person on the throne will be replaced, but the Cui and Zhu families are exceptions because these two families are already tied to the emperor.

Once the emperor changes, the prosperity and wealth of the Cui and Zhu families will completely disappear. Therefore, the two families have to find a way to make this chess game come alive.

The useless emperor is totally hopeless. If a new turn of events occurs at this time, such as the birth of a prince and the enthronement of the prince, the people do not want to see war or the change of imperial power. Once there is a more democratic monarch in charge, they will be able to accept the new heir to the throne.

"Sir, what should we do now? Should we stop them?"

"No need. I'm worried that the incompetent emperor won't be able to hold on for too long and ruin our plan." Song Ruize said, "If they want to give birth to an heir, then let them do it."

A month later, two good news came from the palace. These two good news were announced half a day apart, that is, the queen and the imperial concubine were pregnant at the same time.

After this news came out, the emperor's violent behavior subsided a lot. It is said that he ran to the palaces of the two concubines all day long, and all the government affairs in the court were handed over to Prime Minister Cui to handle.

Cui Xiang gained great power and began to suppress the close confidants of Tang and Song who were against him.

At this time, the Zhu family received news that the queen was not pregnant with the emperor's child.

After receiving clues from the Zhu family, the emperor angrily rushed to the queen's bedroom, where he saw the queen having an affair with a foreign man.

The emperor angrily beheaded the man and sent people to jail the queen. As for the child in the queen's belly, the emperor did not do anything because he still needed the child.

The Queen's child was fine, but there was trouble with the Cui family. Prime Minister Cui had been so proud for so long, but once he lost the Emperor's trust, all his power was taken back.

Zhu Mansion. Minister Zhu looked at the masked man with his back to him and said, "I am very grateful to you for selling us such important information and giving us such important clues. If you are willing to help our Zhu family reach a higher position, I promise you that I am willing to offer you 100,000 taels of silver as a reward."

"The emperor didn't kill the bastard in the queen's belly because he is now infertile. He said the baby in the queen's belly is his, and no one dares to say it's not. He needs that child to prove his ability. Although the imperial concubine of your Zhu Mansion is also pregnant, no one can guarantee that the child is a male heir before it is born. Therefore, the emperor will keep the queen's child to ensure that there is no risk. If your Zhu Mansion gave birth to a unicorn, the emperor would definitely get rid of the child born by the queen."

"Can you provide us with more information?"

"We in the Dark Chamber are impressed by the Zhu family's ability and are optimistic about your victory, so we are willing to do you a favor. You can rest assured that the Cui family has lost their trust. As long as your Zhu family performs well, the emperor will definitely trust your Zhu family the most."

"Thank you, Master of the Dark Pavilion."

After the masked man left, Minister Zhu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

Minister Zhu's confidant said, "Sir, if the secret cabinet can find out that the child in the queen's belly is a bastard, then our imperial concubine..."

"How dare you." Minister Zhu looked at his trusted subordinate coldly, "The child in our imperial concubine's belly is a prince of noble status. What is there to say?"

"Yes." The confidant said cautiously, "Of course the Imperial Concubine is pregnant with a prince. But this secret cabinet is too scary, as if they know everything. Do they also know the secrets of our house? If they do, nothing we do can be hidden from them, so won't they have something on us?"

"I've heard that the Dark Pavilion is not easy to mess with. Prime Minister Cui accidentally offended the Dark Pavilion and was retaliated by it. As long as we don't make enemies with the Dark Pavilion, we naturally won't have to face such a terrible enemy. From what the mysterious man from the Dark Pavilion said just now, we know that the Dark Pavilion is placing a bet. They chose to place the bet on our Zhu family and take advantage of our Zhu family's power to soar to the sky. In this way, the owner behind the Dark Pavilion wants to enter the officialdom and get rewards for his merits, just like the kind of hereditary title."

"If that's the case, we can work with the Dark Chamber to completely defeat the officials of Cui Xiang's party."

"Prime Minister Cui has been in power for many years. He has his confidants among the civil and military officials. It is not easy to completely defeat him. Even now, the emperor did not directly investigate the Cui family for such a serious crime as the queen's affair, but took away some of their power. It is obvious that the emperor does not dare to break off relations with the Cui family."

"That's why we need to cooperate with the Dark Chamber."

"That's right. The Dark Chamber is a group of greedy guys. As long as we pay enough silver, their information will certainly belong to us. When they feel our sincerity, they will naturally take the initiative to cooperate with us, and then it will be the end of the Cui family."

Song Mansion, study.

Jiang Qingnan walked into the study door, took off his mask, and revealed his rather majestic face.

"You are now the commander-in-chief of the military department, and you actually went to the Zhu Mansion to negotiate with Minister Zhu. Aren't you afraid that he will discover your identity?"

Jiang Qingnan sat opposite Song Ruize, drinking tea and saying, "I represent the Dark Chamber, and there are few people in the entire court who dare to be enemies with our Dark Chamber. Minister Zhu saw that we even knew the Queen's secrets, so of course he knew that we also knew their family's secrets. He didn't dare to offend us, so he had to behave himself and didn't dare to offend me."

"Although the emperor is incompetent, he understands the way of balance. These princes have been influenced by him since childhood and know how to control the civil and military officials in the court. Therefore, although he hates the Cui family in his heart, he does not want to get rid of the Cui family at this critical juncture. Otherwise, if the balance is broken, his recent carefree days will be gone."

"Let's use the Cui family to deal with the Zhu family and let them fight each other. Then we can reap the benefits." Jiang Qingnan said, "If we do this, we should be able to hold out for another half a year."

In half a year, the Wuxiang League should be able to enter the capital.

"Is half a year enough?" Jiang Qingnan asked.

"That's enough."

In order to quickly expand the Wuxiang League, he and Yinyin spent money like paper, and recruited soldiers very quickly. Not only that, Qin Huiyin also drew many blueprints of new weapons and arranged the best weapon masters to build those weapons. It can be said that the Wuxiang League is obviously more confident.

"Sir..." A servant's voice came from the door, "Madam's appetite is not very good today."

When Song Ruize heard this, he said to Jiang Qingnan: "Let's talk about this today, and we can talk about other things tomorrow."

Jiang Qingnan was not surprised and stood up to say goodbye.

Song Ruize rushed to the backyard and saw Qin Huiyin sitting by the lake looking unhappy. He put his cloak on her shoulders and said, "What's wrong?"

"I don't have much appetite today. I vomited everything I ate. I asked my second brother to prescribe some medicine. Although I feel a little better after taking it, but..." Qin Huiyin raised her little face and pointed to her forehead, "There are several pimples on my forehead. Am I ugly now? I will become uglier in the future. Will you dislike me then?"