Chapter 81 Gui Yang: I am speechless...

"My dear minister, I have long known that you are working hard, so I established the cabinet in the hope of giving you some relief. However, I didn't expect that the cabinet would not be enough to relieve you."

After listening to Gui Yang's resentful accusations, Shen Zhiwei felt extremely guilty. It was also because the cabinet members she selected were too incompetent. The six ministers each had their own things to do, and the others also had a lot of things to do.

Cabinet members in history were generally Hanlin scholars, people who focused on one thing.

But isn't she short-staffed?

If there were enough manpower, she would wish two people could do the job for one position, so that everyone could relax a little, go to get off work and leave on time, and even have a long vacation!

She didn't want to exploit the slaves, but she only had so many slaves and so much work to do. Even she herself started to work like a slave. It was a joke for her subordinates to want to take it easy.

Of course, the truth cannot be told to Gui Yang, so I can only calm her down first.

After hearing what Shen Zhiwei said, which showed great understanding, Gui Yang's expression became much better. He also knew that the king had worked hard, and to put it bluntly, it was because his ministers were incompetent. If he had the ability, he could take over, and the king wouldn't have to worry about forming a cabinet for him.

The king is broad-minded and cares about the world, but he is bothering the king with such a small matter. When Gui Yang thought of this, she felt a little ashamed.

"It is Yang's incompetence that has caused the king to worry so much about Yang. Yang truly deserves death!"

"It's not that serious. You're already so exhausted. No one deserves death, and it's not your turn."

Shen Zhiwei couldn't help but complain, and when she met Gui Yang's confused eyes, she felt even more guilty.

In the past, Gui Yang would follow her words and express her own ideas, and would flatter her from time to time to show her loyalty. But now, Gui Yang is like a wooden man, who moves only when poked, and her autonomy is almost zero.

It can be seen that people are really tired and almost go crazy.

"How about this, you can recommend a few people to join the cabinet to work for you. Let's say three people, and I'll give you three spots."

If the person Shen Zhiwei found was not useful, then let Gui Yang find one himself. Shen Zhiwei generously gave him three places, cabinet places.

This is extremely valuable. If Gui Yang was a person from the Ming Dynasty, he would probably go home and set off firecrackers at his ancestral grave to tell his ancestors that he has really achieved something.

Unfortunately, Gui Yang was from the Great Zhou and had no idea how important the cabinet was. As for King Shen Zhiwei, she was loyally followed by her subordinates, and no one dared to use the cabinet to divide her power.

In later generations, Shen Zhiwei would be the founding emperor. The power in her hands was highly unified. Officials were nothing to her. They couldn't even hit her knees when they jumped, and it was impossible for them to cause her any harm.

Three people emerged in Gui Yang's mind. They were all his capable retainers. Those retainers had helped him do a lot of things before, but they had not had official positions granted by the court before, so what they could do was limited.

If he got the position of cabinet scholar, those retainers would be able to help him more.

When Gui Yang thought of this, she immediately agreed with gratitude, and started to speak a lot of good things, praising Shen Zhiwei to the heavens and the earth. She believed that she was the most wise monarch in ancient and modern times. With her around, the Great Zhou would regain control of the world in no time.

Shen Zhiwei liked to hear nice things, so she accepted all of Gui Yang's nice words, but in the end she didn't give Gui Yang any other benefits.

She can listen to nice words, but forget about the benefits. Gui Yang has already become the Prime Minister. If she is given more benefits, won’t he be overjoyed?

Gui Yang, who is happy that someone can share his pressure, does not know that he will soon have to bear more pressure.

Shen Zhiwei has decided to fake pregnancy.

The matter of the child cannot be delayed any longer. During this period, some old ministers in the court have mentioned the issue of the vacant harem. Shen Zhiwei is already twenty years old. If it is delayed any further, I am afraid that someone will have some shameful thoughts.

The child that Empress Dowager An was pregnant with in winter could not stay pregnant. She had a miscarriage at the beginning of summer. She was almost seven months pregnant at the time of the miscarriage. It was a fully grown male fetus, but unfortunately it was stillborn. Empress Dowager An's body was also seriously damaged, and she has not been able to leave Xia Jing Palace until now.

Seeing how Queen Mother An was almost paralyzed a month after her miscarriage, Shen Zhiwei became even more determined not to have children. Giving birth is not only dangerous, but also the weakest time for women. She stayed in the palace obediently every day, and there were countless assassins rushing at her. If she really gave birth, how could she survive?

So it is impossible to have a child, it is impossible to have a child in this lifetime.

It would be best to fake a pregnancy and then bring a baby back from outside the womb.

Shen Zhiwei has already found a baby girl. The baby girl is one month old. The doctor has examined her and found that her limbs are healthy, her reactions are sharp, and she has no problems. She is a healthy full-term baby.

Shen Zhiwei planned to announce the news of her pregnancy now, and after five months, she would say that she had given birth prematurely in August and bring the baby girl into the palace.

By then, the baby girl should be more than six months old and be raised in seclusion. Babies are prone to death when they are young, so Shen Zhiwei can keep the child away from outsiders. When the child is older, the age difference of five or six months will not be noticeable.

The baby girl's original mother was a slave girl with poor health. She was dying after giving birth to the baby girl. Shen Zhiwei originally wanted to set her free and take her away from the Great Zhou to live in a small country in the west. However, she was unable to overcome the hurdle of childbirth. Finally, Shen Zhiwei buried her in a place with good feng shui.

As for the baby girl's father, no one knows which prince or noble he is, but his ancestor is from the same lineage as Shen Zhiwei. Princes and nobles marry each other, so their ancestors are all from the same family.

Now the affairs of the court can be handed over to the cabinet. Once Shen Zhiwei starts to fake pregnancy, she can reduce her workload. She can tell others that she is having a hard time during pregnancy, but in fact she is giving herself a long vacation.

As soon as Shen Zhiwei thought about it, she felt that this idea was really great. How could she have such a good idea? She is a genius!

She was happy when she thought about having several months off and only having to do some simple government affairs. She was so excited that she couldn't sleep at night. However, she didn't know how outrageous this matter was to Gui Yang.

Because Shen Zhiwei had no one in her harem, there were not many young and handsome men among the men she came into contact with on a daily basis. After counting them all, Gui Yang was the most suitable.

And Shen Zhiwei had no intention of arranging for someone to be the father of her child, fearing that the man would develop ambitions in the future, or try to coax the future crown prince to get close to her, making it difficult for her to handle the situation.

Shen Zhiwei said that he had the inspiration in a dream, just like what some special characters in mythology say when they are born. But the officials of the Great Zhou are not fools. They know clearly how much is true and how much is false in ancient myths. So the inspiration in a dream is pure nonsense. The child must have a father.

So Gui Yang discovered that after the king said he was pregnant, many people looked at him differently.

Become mysterious, as if to say, I know all your secrets.

Know what?

Gui Yang was confused for several days, and finally the truth was revealed to her by a subordinate's words.

"Prime Minister, it's rumored that he's the king's male favorite!"

At that time, Gui Yang felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck her head directly, and her whole body became numb in an instant.

"It's being spread outside? Who's spreading it outside?! It's nonsense!"

Not to mention that the king had no messy feelings for him at all, he himself was unwilling to be a male concubine.

If he really wanted to take a shortcut, he should have clung to Empress Dowager An before.

Besides, he is already twenty-six years old this year. How could the king be interested in an old man like him?

In the Great Zhou Dynasty where the average age was thirty, twenty-six was indeed not young, but among the nobles, twenty-six was still a young man. Gui Yang's achievements always made people subconsciously ignore his age.

"The king is pregnant despite having no one in his harem. The court officials couldn't guess who the king's husband would be, so they guessed the prime minister. The prime minister is the only young, handsome man around the king who doesn't have a family."

The subordinates were also skeptical about this matter, mainly because their master was already 26 years old and still hadn't married, and the backyard was empty, comparable to the king's harem. How could one not be suspicious?

"Could it be that I'm so busy with government affairs that I haven't gotten married?"

Gui Yang was speechless. His mother was in poor health, and his relationship with his father wasn't great, so he hadn't considered getting married. What if the woman he married couldn't tolerate his mother, who had once been a slave? If his mother became angry, her life, which she had managed to save, would be in jeopardy.

And he was really busy. There was a shortage of people everywhere in the Great Zhou, and he wanted to climb up. In the twelve hours of a day, except for the four hours for sleeping, he used the rest of the time to handle government affairs. He wanted to advance so much that he didn't leave any time for other things at all.

Not only him, but also Wen Tao, Hu Youan and the king himself are all like this.

Gui Yang didn't know how hard Shen Zhiwei tried to be lazy. He felt that the king had done so much that it was impossible for him to have free time.

If Shen Zhiwei knew what Gui Yang was thinking, she would definitely let Gui Yang see how powerful the slacking skills of modern office workers were!

The subordinate stammered, "Prime Minister, people outside don't believe it."

Without any outside help, the subordinates themselves wouldn't believe it. How could a man be too busy to get married? And without getting pregnant, is it really that difficult to spare half an hour before bed?

Gui Yang took a deep breath, not knowing what to say. He wanted to order his subordinates to find the rangers to find the end of the rumors. He must deal with those who made up nonsense such as he was a male concubine!

But he stopped talking when the words came to his lips.

If this male favorite is not him, then who could it be?

Was the king aware of these rumors? If so, why did he allow them to spread? If not, would the king be willing to hear these rumors as an explanation for his pregnancy?

In Gui Yang's opinion, the king's pregnancy was real, but the child's father had most likely been dealt with by the king.

The queen is a woman. If the man favors her, the father's status will be enhanced by his son, which may easily lead to instability in the country.

The matter of killing the father and keeping the son would be somewhat unpleasant if it were to be spread out, and it would affect the king's reputation. Now the other vassal states are surrounding him, waiting to throw dirty water on the king and attack the Zhou emperor in order to erase his legitimacy. He cannot let the king suffer stigma because of a momentary impulse.

"Alright, you can step back now. Keep an eye on this matter and don't let it spread too far."

Gui Yang thought that he had to find other information to suppress the rumor. He couldn't clarify it, but he couldn't let the rumor spread either.

At the same time, Shen Zhiwei also heard similar rumors. She lay on the bed eating grapes, feeling that the court officials were too idle.