Uncle Lai in the Red Chamber

Chapter 455 Check and Balance
Illness comes like a mountain down, sickness goes like a thread.

In fact, the emperor was overly preoccupied, became ill from overwork and wasted too much, and did not know how to restrain himself, which led to an emergency similar to a stroke.

Speaking of people's words, it is immediately windy.

However, due to the timely rescue, the imperial doctors worked hard all night and finally saved their lives for the time being.

The country cannot live without a king for a day, and the only prince is still in his infancy. Emperor Zhenglong strictly ordered the outside to loosen up and the inside to tighten, and at the same time, he was not allowed to order the imperial doctor, so he used the medicine of tiger and wolf to boost the spirit.

"Ahem! The queen has arrived just in time. When all the pavilion elders come over, I will appoint King Qi as the crown prince!"

"Your Majesty!" Queen Tian took three steps at a time, knelt down in front of the dragon couch, and said with tears: "Your Majesty was fine yesterday, what happened? I came here to say hello in the morning, and I just thought that the Emperor just felt cold... …never thought of it…”

Emperor Zhenglong waved his hand and said feebly: "Since the queen is here, just listen on the sidelines!"

As the queen and cabinet ministers were summoned into the palace, decrees came out one after another.

Although King Qi is the emperor's only prince, the canonization of the prince is considered as the successor king in terms of ritual.

Moreover, the Supreme Emperor was still alive, and Emperor Zhenglong had to consider this variable.

The canonization of the prince is to rectify his name, but he still needs someone to protect him.

After all, the queen is the prince's biological mother. If he is in good health, he will definitely be wary of the arbitrary power of his relatives. But now, in order to guard against the suspicion of the young minister, he can't care so much.

Of course, Emperor Zhenglong, who was well versed in power, would not let one side become bigger.

The assistant minister is also an indispensable arrangement. He knows that the relationship between imperial power and the bureaucracy is a game.

Once the bureaucrats in the imperial court become unified, the imperial power will inevitably be eclipsed.

Therefore, the most important thing for an auxiliary minister is not prestige, but loyalty.

On the contrary, only ministers without prestige need to rely on the endorsement of the imperial power. It would be inappropriate to respond to everything at once.

In addition, it is necessary to divide and conquer, and not let them become a rope.

For this reason, Lai Shangrong is undoubtedly the best candidate.

First of all, he was not born as a second-ranking scholar and was excluded from the civil service system.

Secondly, due to the implementation of the new currency, he almost offended the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty. This conflict of interests itself was irreconcilable.

In the end, he was still a pure minister with a bad reputation. He could only keep his skin by relying on the imperial power.

However, the King of Qi is still in his infancy after all, and it may not lead to a dominant family in the long run. Therefore, an irreconcilable opponent must be arranged for him.

The first thing Emperor Zhenglong thought of was Mei Gong, who was far away in Xiyi.

Although Lai Shangrong took the blame for himself at the beginning, and he was the one who issued the order and promoted Xue Baoqin to become his concubine, it was just a secret operation after all.

Apart from herself, there were only a few people who knew about it, including the Queen and Jia Yuanchun. Without telling them that they were in a deep palace, it was impossible for the Queen to tell the truth from her position.

And even if Lai Shangrong explained it to Mei Gong, he might not be able to explain it clearly.

Regarding sending Mei Gong to Xiyi, he didn't worry at all that he had any resentment. He had two official words, let alone him as the emperor.

The original release can be said to be for protection, and when he came back, he was entrusted with important responsibilities, so he was not afraid that Mei Gong would not be grateful.

Considering that Xiyi was thousands of miles away and had a long journey, he immediately ordered a new mission to be dispatched to take over Mei Gong's work.

He even planned to arrange for Chen Yiwen, an old minister of Qiandi, to mediate to prevent the two from delaying the government due to internal fighting.

However, these are all arrangements behind the scenes. Apart from sending a new mission to get Mei Gong back to the capital as soon as possible, all other orders are secret and will not be made public until Long conquers Bintian.

The most urgent task is to further weaken the influence of the Supreme Emperor.After all, because of the murder of Prince Jing, the father and son had already been at odds with each other. Once he could no longer support himself, there was no guarantee that the Supreme Emperor would not attack his son and establish a new king.

Fortunately, after the murder of Prince Jing, the Ministry of War went through another round of baptism. Now there are six ministers, and the former ministers of the Supreme Emperor only have two departments: the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Households.

Before Mei Gong went on his mission, he was an official in the Ministry of Rites, and his official position was Shaoqing of Honglu Temple.

Although the Shaoqing of Honglu Temple is only a fourth-rank official position, according to the usual practice, he must be promoted before going on a mission and after returning.

Although the position of Minister is not yet high enough, he was born in the Han Dynasty. As long as his body can support him and he can stay in the position of Minister for a year and a half, it will be logical for him to entrust him to be promoted to Minister on his deathbed. .

Minister of the Ministry of Rites, he intends to stay put for the time being, and wait for Mei Gong to return to Beijing.

However, the Ministry of Revenue is in charge of the world's money and food. It is said that the soldiers and horses go ahead with food and grass before they move. Although the battle for monarchy is not a march to war, it is undoubtedly more convenient to win over people's hearts by controlling the world's money and food.

He didn't want to delay this position for a moment, and it had to be firmly in the hands of someone he could trust.

Therefore, under the hint of Emperor Zhenglong, the Minister of Hubu had no choice but to resign in front of the palace.

Immediately afterwards, Lai Shangrong was appointed as the minister of household affairs and temporarily acting as the household minister.

The Ministry of War, which already lacked ministers, was selectively ignored by Emperor Zhenglong.

After issuing one decree after another, Emperor Zhenglong also exhausted his energy and fell into a deep sleep.

Empress Tian, ​​who had been listening for several hours, served her around carefully while secretly guessing the emperor's thoughts.

…………

"Sir, thank you for the order!"

"Congratulations, Mr. Lai, for taking charge of a department at such a young age and acting as minister for the time being!"

"Eunuch Zhou is so polite!"

Lai Shangrong, who received the order to express his gratitude, got up from the ground, took out a banknote and handed it to Eunuch Zhou.

Then when he handed over the banknote, he pulled him to the corner and asked, "I would like to ask my father-in-law to clarify Shang Rong's doubts. Is this appointment related to the emperor's resignation today?"

Eunuch Zhou glanced around and said, "It is inconvenient to say more about this matter!"

Then the conversation changed: "However, before Lord Lai's appointment came down, the emperor had just consecrated King Qi as the crown prince! This matter will be announced to the world soon, so there is no need to hide it from Lord Lai!"

What these eunuchs do is to serve people, and they are best at observing people's emotions.

At this time, the emperor asked Lai Shangrong to temporarily act as the Minister of Household Affairs, obviously entrusting him with an important task.

Having said this, Lai Shangrong knew what was going on.

The sudden resignation of the court and the appointment of a crown prince were undoubtedly due to the emperor's physical condition.

Allowing himself to temporarily take over the position of minister at this time shows that the emperor has no estrangement due to the Yuanchun incident and has increased trust in himself.

However, Lai Shangrong did not reveal his joy, but was worried.

The butt determines the head. In order to avoid the suspicion of the young minister, the emperor wanted to contain the courtiers with his relatives, but Lai Shangrong had to worry about the queen's overreaction.

In the past, he only had to be wary of the Tian family's secret arrows, but now he had to consider that once the emperor passed away, the queen would use the name of the little emperor to deal with him.

Also, there are still half a year of national filial piety. If the emperor has another emergency and makes a seamless transition, won't his marriage have to be delayed again?

Thinking of this, he secretly decided that as long as the emperor could survive the filial piety of the country, regardless of the date or etiquette, the two marriages and concubines must be carried out as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)