Chapter 419: Will you let your long-cherished wish go to waste?
The sudden return of His Majesty, who had led the army in person, to the palace immediately caused quite a stir in Chang'an.
He appointed treacherous and corrupt officials, murdered loyal and good people, was incompetent and lazy in his administration... The people had not had a good opinion of him before. If one were to choose the most incompetent king in the history of Daxia, I am afraid that most people would think it is His Majesty.
But people's views of him changed when he killed the Wei emperor, destroyed the Wei Kingdom, led the army in person, and personally led the soldiers of Daxia to capture cities and expand Daxia's territory to the extreme.
Now, all the people of Daxia are looking forward to His Majesty leading his troops to annex Chu, destroy Qi, and lead Daxia to a new height every day. However, he suddenly returned to the palace, which made people puzzled.
What’s even more puzzling is yet to come.
For many years, Your Majesty has stayed in the palace and hardly cared about state affairs.
However, on the second day after returning to the palace, he issued an imperial edict to the three ministries, ordering the army attacking Chu to set up camp on the spot and keep troops in place. At the same time, he ordered You Xiang and others who had already occupied half of Qi's territory to temporarily give up attacking Qi and instead march towards Zhao.
This imperial edict was both unexpected and reasonable.
Although Zhao and Daxia have been friendly countries for hundreds of years, there is no real friendship between countries. If Daxia wants to unify the world, it is impossible to leave Zhao alone, and sooner or later it will turn its military force against them.
However, Your Majesty has already set his sights on Zhao before we have conquered Qi and Chu. Isn’t that a little too early?
Moreover, if this happens, Daxia will be attacked on three fronts. It is hard to imagine how His Majesty could make such a decision...
The Left Prime Minister and several officials from the Ministry of War went to the palace to meet His Majesty and tried to persuade him to revoke his order, but they did not even see His Majesty. Soon afterwards, His Majesty's second imperial edict was issued.
From now on, matters concerning the Mingjing Division will be reported directly to him.
The Mingjing Division is only responsible to His Majesty. This imperial edict may seem meaningless, but some court officials with a keen sense of smell have already noticed that things are about to change in the court.
Your Majesty would not have issued such an imperial decree for no reason.
The deeper implication of this imperial edict is that Li Xuanjing, the Minister of Dali Temple, is no longer in charge of the Mingjing Division.
It is impossible for a Dali Temple Minister to make several major families and court officials in the palace fear him.
The reason why Li Xuanjing had been able to dominate the court for so many years was due to the Mingjing Division in his hands and the protection of His Majesty. Now, the Mingjing Division has been lost, which means that the emperor's favor has also gone away from him.
Without these two things, he is just an ordinary person.
Of course, it is a bit of a stretch to say that he is an ordinary person. After all, ordinary people do not have a son who is a half-saint of the Legalists.
However, the Half-Saint of the Legalists sounds powerful, but in front of His Majesty today, the entire Li family, even with the Sanqing Sect, which has a close relationship with them, is not enough.
Although it is not known why the Dali Temple Minister fell out of favor, his fall from favor undoubtedly meant that Prince Chun was getting further and further away from the throne.
In the palace of Prince Chun.
Because Prince Chun is obsessed with cooking, he never takes the initiative to compete with other princes. He also does not recruit advisers in the palace. Advisers who want to give advice to Prince Chun must first master extraordinary cooking skills before they can catch his eye.
The political acumen of these strategists is naturally different from that of ordinary people.
After the Grand Secretary fell out of favor, there was no need for them to stay in Prince Chun's mansion. Between Prince Chun and Prince Gong, it was obvious that Prince Gong was the one who had the last laugh.
In Prince Chun's Mansion, the few counselors who disguised themselves as cooks had already rushed to Prince Gong's Mansion impatiently.
The housekeeper of Prince Gong's Mansion waved his hand and said, "Go back to where you came from. We don't accept everyone in Prince Gong's Mansion..."
I didn't see them at the beginning, and now that the situation has come to fruition, they come to the palace to ask for benefits. There is no such good thing in the world.
Although rejected by the team of advisers, these people were not discouraged and spoke up one after another.
"We are not here to apply for a position as a counselor. We want to ask if Prince Gong's Mansion is hiring a cook."
"Yes, yes, yes. Our cooking skills are not even comparable to those of the royal chef. Butler, can you try the dishes first..."
"Our craftsmanship will definitely satisfy you!"
Not long after, the few people who were finally hired by the kitchen of Prince Gong's Mansion breathed a sigh of relief.
Although I didn’t help Prince Chun much in the past two years at Prince Chun’s mansion, I learned a lot of cooking skills from him. Otherwise, I would have been rejected by Prince Gong’s mansion today...
In a hall in the palace, Prince Gong leaned back in his chair, tapping the tabletop unconsciously with his index finger.
Li Xuanjing fell out of favor, although this was something he had expected.
Since twenty years ago, he has been a knife of his father. He does things that his father cannot do, and kills people that his father cannot kill... When his father no longer needs this knife, that will be the end of his death.
But he didn't expect that this would happen so suddenly.
There must be some reason that he doesn't know.
Prince Chun was no longer a concern. He looked at the people around him and asked, "Is there any movement from Prince Rui?"
The old man said, "Your Highness, there has been no news from Prince Rui for a long time. In the past few months, he has not stepped out of his mansion..."
Prince Gong waved his hands and said, "Forget about him. He has become stupid from studying too much. Father will not let a fool inherit the throne. As for Prince Chun, he is just a cook. Without Li Xuanjing, he is nothing..."
…
The people who were most happy about the separation of the Dali Temple and the Mingjing Bureau were the aristocratic families.
After Li Xuanjing lost power, no one in Daxia would oppose them anymore.
Although there is still his son, since His Majesty has already started to take action against the Li family, he will not stop easily.
Sure enough, just half a day later, the three provinces received orders to transfer Li Nuo's position.
In the past, Li Nuo held several positions, including Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Secretary of the Secretariat, Inspector Censor, and Director of the Imperial College. Most of these positions were of the fourth rank. This time, he was promoted two levels to the Minister of the Ministry of Rites, and like his father, he became one of the nine ministers of the third rank.
However, in Daxia, the power held by the Minister of the Honglu Temple was far less than that of the Zhongshu Sheren and others. This was a promotion in name only and a demotion in reality, as it kicked him from the center of court decision-making to a marginal office among the Nine Temples.
There are only four countries left on the continent today, and it is very likely that it will soon become just one. The Honglu Temple is the department in charge of diplomacy. Daxia doesn't even have neighboring countries anymore, so the Honglu Temple will almost no longer be necessary.
If it were just these, it would be nothing more than the Li family being in favor one day and out of favor the next.
But what Your Majesty has to do seems to be to deny everything the Li father and son have done.
Li Nuo's legal reform was completely abolished by him, and the old Daxia law was re-implemented. Daxia's officials and dignitaries once again had the privilege of being exempted from punishment by paying silver.
The Ministry of Revenue was planning to build a college, and funding for the National Medical Clinic was stopped.
The land reform policy promoted by Li Nuo will also be gradually abolished...
This is a good thing for the vast majority of officials in the court.
In recent years, with the continuous reforms of the imperial court, their privileges as officials have been lost one by one.
Studying is so hard, but they persist for more than ten years, or even longer. Isn't it just to become a superior person?
They finally became officials, but they were not allowed to be superior to others. They said that officials and citizens are equal. They are actually somewhat dissatisfied in their hearts.
But both the left and right prime ministers were Confucianists, and the court was dominated by Confucian officials, so they had no choice but to obey.
This time, Your Majesty not only suppressed the Li family, but also severely suppressed Confucianism.
The Imperial Palace.
In the imperial study.
Looking at the files in front of him, Emperor Xia's face was gloomy.
It turns out that Confucianism has developed to this extent in recent years.
The father and son of the Li family, the son disobeyed the king's order and asked him to support a new king in the Kingdom of Yue, but he completely ignored it. Did he really think he had forgotten it?
His father pretended to obey him but secretly disobeyed him. He had been by his side for many years, deceiving the emperor and tricking him into killing the nobles of his clan, not to prolong his life, but to achieve his Confucian pursuit. I'm afraid his purpose was not just to support Prince Chun to ascend to the throne...
Those three strategists were certainly not doing it for him, but Confucianism had undoubtedly become a major concern for the royal family!
What they want to do is to completely undermine the imperial power like those small countries!
…
With His Majesty taking power again, the whole of Chang'an was in a state of calm before a storm.
Unlike some court officials who were excited, the hearts of the common people were shrouded in a layer of gloom.
Da Xia was at its most powerful moment since its founding and was even about to complete the task of unifying the world, but as the people of Da Xia, they were not happy at all.
Your Majesty has negated all the changes in the court in recent years in just one day.
Back.
They are coming back.
The redemption law is coming back, the powerful are coming back, the corrupt officials who oppress the people are coming back, the landlords and businessmen who treat the people harshly... they are all coming back, and they will ride on the heads of the people again.
To the people of Chang'an, everything they have experienced in the past two years seems like a dream.
Although dreams are beautiful, there will always be a day when you wake up.
But the seeds planted in their hearts once have begun to take root and sprout.
Confucian officials who cared about the people had worked hard for so many years to create today's Great Xia. However, because of the emperor, all the efforts of everyone went to waste...
In this world, if there were no emperor, people's lives would definitely be better!
In the major academies, countless students fell silent.
The revival of the old law is beneficial to them. As long as they can pass the imperial examination, they will immediately become superior people.
But there was one person who made them understand that for scholars, some things are more important than becoming a superior person.
That is, to make sure that no one is superior to others in this world.
This is the ideal that all Confucian students want to practice throughout their lives. They thought that once the world was unified, this dream would soon come true. But now, there is an insurmountable mountain blocking their way...
Officials in various government offices in Chang'an had different moods.
Some people were overjoyed. Li Xuanjing was finally going to fall. If he fell, there would be no one they feared anymore in the court.
Finally, I don’t have to live my life so cautiously every day like before.
Some people, after hearing the news, became silent.
Jingzhao government office.
Pei Zhe, the Junior Yin of Jingzhao, sat in the government office, looking at the document that had just been issued to abolish many of the government orders of the past few years. He lowered his head, sighed leisurely, and murmured, "Is it a failure after all?"
This was not only a failure of the Li family, but also a failure of Confucianism. He once naively believed that the world would eventually become what they imagined it to be, but the results of countless people's hard work turned into nothing just because of an imperial decree.
Also in the Jingzhao government office, Jingzhao Yin Zhang Shang stood with his hands behind his back, staring at a painting on the wall that read "Establish a mind for heaven and earth, establish a destiny for the people, carry on the lost knowledge of the sages, and create peace for all generations", and he remained silent.
Ministry of Justice.
The Minister of Justice looked at the old "Daxia Code" on the table with a grim expression, and clenched his fists in his sleeves.
Censorate.
Since His Majesty returned to the palace and issued several imperial edicts, the atmosphere in the entire Censorate has become extremely depressing.
Sometimes, an imperial censor could not control his inner righteousness and would slam the table in anger or yell at people, the content of which was unbearable to hear and extremely filthy...
At the same time.
Ministry of Revenue.
Ministry of Rites.
Taichang Temple.
Guanglu Temple...
Some officials ignored the clerks from the three provinces and slammed the door and left.
Some officials locked themselves in their government offices, staring at the portraits of Confucian saints on the wall in a daze.
An official placed his official uniform and hat on the desk, took off his official boots, left a letter of resignation, laughed sadly a few times, and left resolutely.
At the gate of Li’s house.
Before stepping into the house, Li Nuo looked back.
Chang'an seems a little different.
The great righteousness in his body had some kind of response.
In the past few days, many Confucian forces have appeared in Chang'an. Some of them are still very weak, while some have already grown to a high level.
These auras are very subtle and cannot be detected unless one is a semi-saint of Confucianism.
It was only at this moment that Li Nuo discovered that there were so many Confucian disciples hiding in the dark in Chang'an.
It was at this time that a streak of light suddenly appeared in the sky outside Chang'an. Almost in an instant, a powerful but reassuring aura descended on Chang'an.
"The Right Prime Minister is back!"
Feeling this breath, whether it was the common people, the students in the academy, or the Confucian officials in the court, they all breathed a sigh of relief in their hearts.
The right prime minister, who has the cultivation of a semi-saint in the Confucian school, has become the backbone of everyone.
Secretariat.
Overnight, the left prime minister seemed to have aged a lot. He looked at the right prime minister and said with his head down: "Pei Hao, you are back. I am sorry. It is my incompetence that I failed to persuade His Majesty..."
After receiving the order from the court to temporarily stop attacking Qi and send troops to Zhao, he handed over the military power to Prince Chun's son Li Yun and rushed back as soon as possible, not knowing what happened later.
After learning the whole story from the Left Prime Minister, the Right Prime Minister did not show any surprise on his face.
The left prime minister held his hand and said, "You are back just in time. Now, I am afraid that you are the only one who can persuade His Majesty..."
The right prime minister shook his head and said, "It's useless. Haven't you figured it out yet? His Majesty is not only targeting Li Xuanjing this time, but also our Confucianism. He wants to wipe out everything that Confucianism has done in Daxia over the years..."
Zuo Xiang's body trembled, he sighed deeply, and remained silent.
Over the years, countless Confucian disciples have sacrificed their lives, and so many people have worked hard to achieve all this, but because of a thought from Your Majesty, it all turned into nothing.
At this time, the right prime minister looked at the left prime minister and said in a deep voice: "We have finally come this far, Cui Jian, are you and I willing to let our long-cherished wish go to waste?"
The left prime minister said decisively: "Of course I don't want to, but now, what else can we do?"
The right prime minister's eyes were deep, he exhaled slowly, and said: "This world does not necessarily need an emperor..."
The left prime minister's eyes narrowed slightly, but he did not speak immediately. After thinking for a long time, he nodded slowly and said, "You are right. This world does not need an emperor..."
…
Li Mansion.
Li Nuo walked into the house, looked at Butler Wu, and asked, "Where's my father?"
Butler Wu said, "The master is in the study."
Li Nuo came to the study room, and there was a figure with his back to him. After Li Nuo walked in, Li Xuanjing did not turn around, but said: "Light a stick of incense for these uncles..."
Li Nuo walked forward, took three incense sticks from him, bowed to an open cabinet, and then inserted the incense into the incense burner below.
Li Nuo has memories of this cabinet in his mind. When he was a child, this cabinet was in the study, but it was always locked. Throughout his childhood, he had no impression of what was in the cabinet.
Today he knew.
This cabinet is filled with spirit tablets.
There are four compartments in the cabinet, with four spirit tablets in each compartment, for a total of sixteen spirit tablets.
At that time, my father led a group of newly-appointed Jinshi to march in protest and tried to implement new laws. Among the seventeen newly-appointed Jinshi, only he survived, and the other sixteen were executed for treason.
Xie Mingyuan, Shen Qingyan, Su Dan, Lin He, Chu Huaiqian, Jiang Wenshao... Li Nuo had seen these names on the list of new Jinshi in his father's class.
Li Xuanjing put his hands behind his back and said, "Don't you want to know why your mother and I named you Li Nuo?"
He looked at the spirit tablets and said softly, "Because I made a promise to these people."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
