After saying this, Emperor Zhao turned away. This time, no one dared to stop him, but they were filled with shock and fear in their hearts.
In the end, most people hurriedly caught up, but the few who stayed behind to assist in drafting and conveying the imperial edict in accordance with the system turned their attention to Zhu Xi.
Zhu Yuanhui was a bachelor. What was there for him to worry about as a newly transferred official from Tongpan? What was the point of worrying about it? He went to the front yard, looked for a pen and ink, and just wrote down the order.
However, even though he prided himself on being upright, he broke out in a sweat after writing just one sentence, and his hands were shaking when he was sealing the decree.
I couldn't help but smile bitterly.
It was a long time after the imperial edict was sent out that the man calmed down and prepared to go find Emperor Zhao. He walked out of the side courtyard and saw the two princes' entourage. He wanted to tell the eldest prince, with whom he had a good relationship, about this matter, but he didn't dare to... In fact, the surroundings were in chaos and Emperor Zhao had been out for half a quarter of an hour. No one dared to tell the two princes who were arranging the funeral in the innermost part about this news.
The Holy Lord has been in power for thirty-six years and has accumulated so much power.
Of course, the news was bound to spread, because Emperor Zhao was releasing the news in the first place... When the edict reached the two ministries and the Censorate, the prime ministers would know about it; when it reached the Secret Council, the backbone of the entire bureaucratic system would know about it; and when it reached the Public Council, the whole world would know about it.
The ministers did not dare to be negligent. The Prime Minister Chen Kangbo, the Deputy Prime Minister Hu Quan, and the Deputy Prime Minister Yu Yunwen; the Chief Envoy of the Privy Council Liu Qi, the Deputy Envoy Li Shifu, and the Deputy Envoy Jiang Fei; and the Chief Censor Chen Junqing informed the emperor at the first opportunity and then immediately went to the palace to meet the emperor.
However, Emperor Zhao had not returned to the palace yet, and was not even in the Prince of Qin's Mansion. The attendants seemed to have heard the news long ago and told the ministers that after leaving the Prince of Qin's Mansion, the Emperor went to the Daxiangguo Temple and asked them to wait for a while.
Soon, several ministers realized the intention of Emperor Zhao's action, because after hearing the news, many other important officials and veterans in Yanjing, including Prime Minister Zhang Jun and Prince of Wei Yue Fei, immediately requested to enter the palace and were all led to Qionghua Island in the North Sea of the palace to wait for orders.
After a while, dozens of people gathered.
It is obvious that Emperor Zhao is planning to gather together the core people who are concerned about or have opinions about this and make a unified explanation.
"I have made up my mind, but if you have any hesitations or concerns, you may as well tell me so that I can reassure you." It was late in the afternoon when Emperor Zhao returned to Qionghua Island in Beihai with a group of attendants, and then summoned all the ministers to the stone table under the spring trees on the island.
However, although everyone rushed over in a hurry, it did not mean that all of them were completely opposed to this matter. In fact, anyone with a little common sense knew that it was not so unacceptable for an emperor to choose to abdicate after thirty-six years on the throne, and it could even be of obvious benefit to the country.
However, this benefit cannot be spoken of by the ministers. As long as the Song Dynasty remains a feudal empire and a political and moral ideology based on Confucianism, they cannot speak of it. Instead, they should try their best to retain and comfort the emperor.
Then Emperor Zhao gave his reason himself, and everything would be fine.
"I beg the emperor to revoke his order!" At this moment, a man forcibly knelt down and spoke, ignoring the fact that the ministers, princes, and other ministers had not yet spoken. "If the emperor abdicates, we northerners will have no place to stand!"
Everyone looked in surprise and saw that it was Zhang Hao, the Minister of Rites with white hair and beard. They all forced themselves to stop scolding.
The reason is very simple. This man is a surrendered person from the Old Jin Dynasty, a Liaodong hybrid (Han and Bohai mixed blood), and even the only surrendered person from the Old Jin Dynasty on the island. Scolding him is not worth it, firstly, and secondly, his demands make some sense.
Emperor Zhao has to say something to people.
"What are you thinking about?" Zhao Jiu replied in a gloomy voice. "The capital of the dynasty is Yanjing, and I have divided the quota of the Imperial Academy into four lists: north, south, west and outside. The dynasty will only pay more and more attention to the northerners. If you have to say that the northerners have a difficult position, it is because the old Jin Dynasty has only been destroyed for more than 20 years, and the important officials in the court still have the experience of Jingkang, so they are inevitably repelled... If I abdicate early and the new emperor ascends the throne, this embarrassment can be avoided... Or maybe this is one of the reasons why I abdicated."
Zhang Hao was stunned when he heard this, and kowtowed again: "In this case, I am ashamed. I will return to Liaodong due to my old age and illness."
"That's fine." Zhao Jiu nodded. "You've worked hard managing Liaodong and dealing with the Northeast over the years. Go back and have a good rest... The ground is cold, get up. You know I don't like people kneeling."
Zhang Hao kowtowed heavily once again, but finally stopped talking. He just stood up and stood at the back.
At this time, several new and old ministers had already prepared their speeches. After looking at each other for a while, the retired Zhang Jun, who had the most experience and was still the minister of state according to political tradition, and was actually the leader of the cabinet, took the initiative to step forward and opened the topic from an unexpected angle:
"Your Majesty, may I ask you, I came here in a hurry, has the King of Qin passed away?"
"Yes." Zhao Jiu answered calmly. "No at noon."
This piece of news should have been news, but it was overshadowed by Emperor Zhao's decree, so that many people present did not know about it at all and were a little surprised at this time.
"Then may I ask your Majesty?" Zhang Jun continued to ask, "Your Majesty is thinking of abdicating this time, but is it because of the sadness of the death of the King of Qin?"
"That's why I was touched." Zhao Jiu said frankly. "But I have been thinking about abdication for a long time, and I finally made up my mind today."
Zhang Jun nodded and had nothing to say.
"Excuse me." The Prime Minister of the capital province, Chen Kangbo, followed up. "Why do you have such thoughts? If you can't make it clear to the upper and lower levels, I'm afraid that people in China and abroad will be unsettled."
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
