Chapter 21: The East Palace in the discretion of the wise and foolish

In the middle of the Eastern Palace, there were always two schools of opinion, and the school hostile to Xin Qimo believed that since the Fan family of Sinanbo was friendly with King Jing, and was now married to the Chancellor’s family, and since the Prince of King Jing was a close friend of the Second Prince, and since the Chancellor was gradually distancing himself from the Eastern Palace, the Fan family must be in the Second Prince’s school. Xin Shaoqing, however, was firmly against this opinion, because in his opinion, Fan Jian simply could not be an ordinary minister who would move with the sleeves of King Jing’s chancellor.

In the heavy deep palace, Xin Qiji honestly knelt at the entrance of the study, his buttocks sticking up high, fortunately, there were official clothes blocking it so that it didn’t look ugly.

“Get up.” The emperor’s voice resounded within the curtain.

Xinqi things stood up, arms hanging at his side, do not dare to move the slightest, this study he also came a few times, but still can not adapt to this natural and born of a sense of oppression, two drops of soybean-sized beads of sweat from the corners of his forehead slipped down, do not know because of the end of the summer is still too hot, or nervousness caused by the, but he did not dare to wipe away.

The curtain resounded with the sound of flipping through papers, after a long time of silence, the emperor asked faintly: “This article of Chen has reason and evidence, very good, since the north of that motherly still refuses to be at peace, that’s good, the Secretary has to open his mouth a little wider for me.”

Xin Qimo responded in a loud voice, “Yes, Your Majesty!”

The emperor’s voice suddenly sounded a bit strange, “Servant Fan’s son is now serving you as a deputy envoy?”

Xin Qimo did not expect that His Majesty would also be so concerned about Vice-Envoy Fan, a few more drops of sweat flowed from his forehead, and he respectfully responded, “Precisely.”

The Emperor seemed to be very interested in this matter, “Oh, this Fan Xian I let him work as a co-counselor in the Taishang Temple, why did you think of transferring him to the Honglu Temple?”

Although His Majesty’s voice was still gentle, Xin Qiji was on the verge of fainting with nervousness. Not daring to conceal the slightest bit, he honestly answered, “Some days ago, by His Majesty’s decree, he was lecturing in the East Palace, and had talked to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince about the matter of the envoys from Northern Qi this time, because Fan Xian is associated with this matter, and has great talent in the capital, and this time there is a Zhuang Mo Han in the envoy from Northern Qi, and the reception of the imperial court needs a talented person to be appropriate, so I took the liberty of mentioning this suggestion, and His Royal Highness allowed it. ”

“Uh-huh.” The emperor behind the curtain appreciated this courtier’s frank attitude. He was never afraid of someone forming a party inside the court, but this party must be formed in the open, “This matter is not for error, I will hand this matter over to you to handle in full on that day, even if it’s the Crown Prince, you don’t need to ask for instructions.”

“Yes.” Xin Qiji’s relationship with the Crown Prince was never intended to be hidden from His Majesty, after all, he himself was the person appointed by His Majesty to serve in the Eastern Palace that year.

The Emperor flipped through that dossier again, and vaguely seemed to frown: “How did Fan Xian do?”

Xin Qimo didn’t dare to be greedy and honestly answered, “The dossier that Your Majesty is seeing at this time is precisely the result of Deputy Ambassador Fan’s hard work in analyzing it.”

“Analyzed?” For some reason, the Emperor’s tone became a bit irritated, “It’s really getting more and more ridiculous!”

Xin Qimo didn’t know why His Majesty was angry, and was greatly panicked. It was a good thing that this matter did not seem to have much to do with the matter of the negotiations. After he exited the study, His Majesty the Emperor lifted the curtain and walked out, that face that was not angry and powerful, at this time, apart from a hint of annoyance, there was more than a hint of a hopelessly bitter smile, he instructed the eunuchs beside him, “Summon Chen Pingping to enter the palace.”

The eunuch softly led the order to go, the master of this Renqing country, the world’s largest power of the middle-aged man walked out of the study, stood under the palace corridor, looked at the world that some of the dimming of the moon, the corner of the lips slightly curved, muttering to himself: “the country’s weapon, not directly assist Honglu Temple, actually used to do the price of entry for the little children, good your Chen Pingping, it seems that do not knock knock knock knock you, you are Really want to send me that yard hands with that little child to play go.”

The emperor is a man, from the dossier which is said to be analyzed by Fan Xian, he saw the shadow of the Supervisory Yuan at a glance. But looking at his expression, he didn’t seem to be very angry, just a little amused. Xin Qimo’s attempts to get the Crown Prince to draw in the Fan family actually catered to His Majesty’s thoughts – the tendencies of the Eastern Palace had finally shown some political wisdom, and the Crown Prince seemed to have grown, a fact that made the Nine-Five Emperor feel slightly relieved.

In the East Palace, is breaking out a fierce quarrel, the quarrel between the two sides is the Honglu Temple Secretary Xin Qi things and the palace compiler Guo Baokun, the content of the quarrel, naturally, can not be separated from that is called Fan Xian’s eighth grade officials. Look at both sides of the face red neck thick appearance, we know the intensity of the previous quarrel.

Xinqi things slightly with a hint of contempt looked at Guo Baokun said: “do subjects, to do frank ministers, I was His Majesty’s will, came to assist the Prince, is to seek a thousand years for the Prince of the great cause, choose a good material. Concordance Lang Fan idle in the capital to have talent, view its recent behavior, know in and out, there are real talent, and the Fan family has always been the royal court, so the subjects, of course, the Prince should be condescending to accept, can not be because of some characters of the gas, will be rejected out of the door.”

Guo BaoKun coldly laughed: “Could it be that Lord ShaoQing thinks that this official is only remembering the hatred of that one punch? Don’t you forget, the relationship between the Fan family and the Jing Wang family, and that Fan Xian, will soon become the son-in-law of the Chancellor, the Chancellor’s recent direction, are you still not clear about it.”

Xin Qimo straightened his neck and said, “Not clear, I only know that there is only one His Majesty in the Kingdom of Qing, and there is only one Crown Prince in the Kingdom of Qing, and any attempt to artificially divide the factions in the court is extremely foolish.”

He wasn’t a sourpuss with an empty ambition but no skill, of course he knew that the second prince had recently caught fire, but strategically, he still believed that there was no need for the Eastern Palace to treat the second prince as a rival, and that once that happened, it would open a dangerous door. As long as the Crown Prince himself held himself upright and righteous, there was simply no enemy to speak of.

The Crown Prince sitting on the high ground sighed, he was indeed lustful and cowardly, but not a fool, and deep down in his heart he also knew clearly that if he looked at the big picture, Xin Shaoqing’s view was undoubtedly the most correct. But politics has always been a struggle between you and me, even if one is careful, who can guarantee that those squinting eyes to measure the throne of the two brothers will not do something.

“The situation at hand is not at that point.” The crown prince rubbed his temples, somewhat troubled, said: “After all, this palace is a country’s crown prince, for the court to reserve talents is also the rightful righteousness. As for the imperial brother’s place, you guys don’t say anything blindly, that’s also too ridiculous.”

This was the helplessness in the palace, obviously you defend me and I defend you, but verbally no one could say anything.

“Then Fan Xian?” Guo Baokun was still somewhat undeterred.

Xin Qiji said with a cold snort, “Lord Guo, I think you have been misjudging one thing.”

“What thing?” The crown prince asked curiously.

“Many officials, including you, have categorized the Fan family into the Second Prince’s faction because of the relationship between the Fan family and the Jing Wang family, but who has the evidence to prove this? This time, the Eastern Palace’s brief decree has given Fan Xian an opportunity to show his face so much, if the Fan family is really as Lord Guo said, I’m only afraid that they wouldn’t dare to take this errand at all.” Xin Qimo continued coldly, “The most crucial part is that Fan Xian is about to become the prime minister’s son-in-law, and for Lord Guo to use this to judge that Fan Xian is unlikely to be loyal to the Crown Prince is truly absurd.”

“What’s absurd about it?” A hint of sinisterness flashed in Guo Baokun’s eyes, “Whether it’s above the courtroom or in the shadows, the news has already shown that Lord Chancellor has already broken with the Eldest Princess, and is attempting to gradually detach himself from the influence of the palace.”

“As a country’s prime minister, it is only right that he should not be manipulated by palace figures.” These words were a bit over the top, Xin Qimo snapped out of it and bowed to the Crown Prince to apologize. The crown prince shook his head indifferently, signaling to continue.

Xin Qimo added, “What Lord Guo said earlier is exactly where the problem lies. Everyone knows that Lord Chancellor broke with the Princess …… What does this have to do with the Eastern Palace? Does this mean that Lord Chancellor is no longer loyal to His Majesty? No longer on the side of His Highness?”

The Crown Prince frowned, “But …… Auntie has also been very angry with Lord Chancellor recently.”

“Your Highness, forgive me for being so arrogant …… It is important not to change your attitude towards the prime minister because of the attitude of the eldest princess.” Xin Qimo said without being humble.

Prince frowned deeper: “But ……” he wanted to say but stopped, Guo Baokun took this opportunity to say coldly: “But if the prime minister adults are still as before, why after the recent court meeting, are not like the old days that come to the East Palace to ask for peace.”

Xin Qimo smiled extremely confidently and responded, “I have not denied this. Your Highness, right now it’s just an arrangement, it’s still far from the time when the two sides will compete for strength, a truly smart courtier will naturally cling to His Majesty, and that will be enough to maintain the longevity of his family. Lord Chancellor is the same, he may be oscillating between the Crown Prince and the Second Prince at the moment, but in the end, he will still follow His Majesty’s will, and if we want Lord Chancellor to truly side with us.” He took a deep breath, “The key lies in Fan Xian, the Chancellor no longer has a true son, Fan Xian waits as if he is the future of the Lin family, if we can get Fan Xian to defect to His Highness, the Chancellor’s attitude, naturally, will shift.”

Guo Baokun snorted, “The relationship between Prince Jing and Fan Xian, don’t you forget.”

“You should also not forget that the person who was found out the other day, whose subordinate he was.” Xin Qimo said indifferently, “That person deliberately allowed Fan Xian and Your Highness to have a coincidental encounter, naturally hoping that Your Highness would remember the grudge from the other day and humiliate Fan Xian in order to get Fan Xian to truly throw his lot in with him. Fortunately, Your Highness is wise and naturally would not fall for such a villain.”

The Crown Prince smiled gently, somewhat flattered.

“If the Fan family is truly of his faction, why would he need to use such tricks again.” Xin Qimo added: “I believe that with the power of the Fan family, they will definitely be able to discover the hidden agenda behind this matter, if they really find out that it was that person who did it, Fan Xian will only hold a grudge, so there is no need to worry about the Fan family’s current attitude.”

The Crown Prince was somewhat moved and said softly, “If the Fan family is still in the dark and has fallen for that person’s tricks, this palace might as well tell him.”

“Taking in Fan Xian is like taking in the Fan family Lin family, the two main forces in Kyoto, the civil officials as well as the powerful, at least half of them are looking at these two families. And a few years from now, I’m afraid that even the inner treasury will be run by this young scion.” Xin Qimo said softly to the Crown Prince, “A small official of the eighth rank can bring more than just a few poems to the people of Kyoto, definitely.”