In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

At this moment, all the officials were stunned and dared not make any move.

No wonder they were imagining things.

The main reason was that the title Zhao Zhen gave to Zhao Jun was too exaggerated, which made people think so.

Even the crown prince didn't have such good treatment.

After all, when Zhao Zhen was the crown prince, he was only the governor of Jiangning and the governor of Jiankang Army, and was promoted to the title of Shengwang.

A governor, a prince title, and other officials such as Kaifu Yitong Sansi.

Although it is a prince title, it is not the King of Song. Song is the name of the country, and only Zhao Jun can be called a title.

Even if it is just a duke, it is probably higher than a prince. This treatment is quite explosive in the whole Song Dynasty.

So all the officials almost instinctively thought that Zhao Jun might be the son left by the previous emperor. Looking more closely, there is actually a bit of resemblance between his eyebrows and Zhao Zhen.

"Uh"

"Brother Chunqing, just now you were filled with righteous indignation and were ready to write a letter of impeachment. Now is the time for you to express your sincere heart."

"Brother Cigong, you want to harm me, right?"

"Xiyan, what do you think?"

"What can I think? Just wait and see."

The officials whispered to each other.

There were wings on both sides of the hats of officials in the Song Dynasty, which made it inconvenient to talk.

But that refers to the ordinary official uniforms worn during the regular court and work, with two wings on the hats.

Yesterday, Zhao Zhen issued an edict that today's court meeting was grand and all officials wore court clothes.

So everyone wore court clothes that were only worn during large-scale sacrificial activities and grand court meetings today, without two wings on their heads.

But the ones whispering were basically the third, fourth and fifth-rank officials in the middle and back rows.

The first and second-rank officials in the front row all looked straight ahead, looked at each other's noses and looked at each other's hearts, and kept silent.

Compared to the officials below, they were mature and prudent, so they would not immediately come out to do something out of the ordinary.

Even if they have something to say, they will only arrange for the censors and remonstrators to speak on their behalf.

Because the remonstrators are not guilty!

So after a few minutes of silence, a few minutes of turmoil, and a few minutes of discussion, someone finally stood up.

Supervisory censor Zhang Zongyi walked to the middle, bowed to Zhao Zhen and said, "Your Majesty."

"Hmm?"

Zhao Zhen looked down.

All the officials also stood up in an instant, and their eyes surrendered to Zhang Zongyi.

Is there finally someone who stands up?

"I want to ask if Zhao Jun is the son of the previous emperor?"

Zhang Zongyi said.

Zhao Zhen said in a deep voice: "Zhao Jun's identity is not something you can talk about."

Didn't the emperor say it clearly?

Zhang Zongyi insisted, "Since he is not the son of the previous emperor, how can he be named Duke of Song? Please take back your decision."

Zhao Zhen said dissatisfiedly, "I am the emperor. Do I need a reason to confer titles on ministers? There are people in the court who have been awarded dukes. When have you ever criticized him? Don't you think Zhao Jun is easy to bully because he is young?"

Protecting his son?

All the officials were shocked. They didn't expect the emperor to protect Zhao Jun so much. Thinking of Zhao Jun's mysterious identity, they couldn't help but deepen their guess that he was the son of the previous emperor.

If Zhao Jun was really the son of the previous emperor, why did the emperor let him take charge of the Imperial City Department and even the Political System Institute?

This is not in line with common sense.

If the emperor felt that he could not give birth to a son and was in poor health and needed an heir, then he should openly show Zhao Jun and make public the evidence that he was the son of the previous emperor, and then make him a member of the royal family and be named the crown prince.

There is no need to directly let him serve as the head of all officials.

Could it be that the government really wanted to reform the Song Dynasty, but was afraid that the literati would unify their opinions and seize power, so they sent trusted clan members to monitor Lü Yijian and others?

This doesn't make sense.

If they want to monitor, they can just send a deputy, there is no need to be the chief officer. In this case, wouldn't Zhao Jun be the main one?

Lü Yijian and others are the ones who monitor him.

This situation is too weird.

The officials were confused, as if there was some fog inside, which was puzzling.

Although they were confused, there were still some young people who continued to write letters.

Then he saw Zhang Kui, the Imperial Censor in the palace, also stood up and said with a bow: "Your Majesty, no matter what, there has never been anyone in the Song Dynasty who has not passed the imperial examination and has not experienced the local affairs to control the officials. How can the state affairs be so absurd?"

Before Zhao Zhen spoke, Prime Minister Wang Sui refuted: "Your Majesty has his own intentions. We, the ministers, have seen Zhao Jun's talent and are all convinced by him. Do you have better judgment than your Majesty and the ministers?"

"I dare not, but if you want to know the Political System Institute, it is not something that ordinary people can do. We want to know what is different about Zhao Jun from ordinary people?"

The Imperial Censor Liu Kui also stood up.

"Yes, although Zhao Jun has investigated a lot of filth in Kaifeng Prefecture, it doesn't mean anything. What the government needs is a talent for governing the country, not relying on the hilt of the Imperial City Bureau to convince the people."

"Nonsense, how do you know that Zhao Jun has no talent for governing the country? In my opinion, he is better than any of you."

"Haha, it's useless to just talk? Even if he really has talent, he should first take the imperial examination, and then experience the local areas step by step before he can be ranked as the prime minister. Without doing anything, he can go straight to the center, how is he different from the traitors in ancient times?"

"When Li Linfu asked Yuan Qianyao for a Langguan, Yuan Qianyao said that Langguan should have talent and reputation, and Ge Nu could also be a Langguan? Sure enough, he became the prime minister by flattering others, which brought disaster to the country and the people. The government has just established the Political System Institute, aiming to control the world, how can it appoint people without talent and reputation?"

"Zhao Jun is now famous in Bianliang. The people of Bianliang praise him. He wiped out the filth in Kaifeng Prefecture overnight and is preparing to clear out Wuyou Cave and Guifan Tower. This is something that no previous Kaifeng prefect in Bianliang could do. How can he not have talent and reputation?"

"Everyone knows that Kaifeng Prefecture has been unable to eliminate these things because it has the protection of high-ranking officials and dignitaries behind it. Zhao Jun is not afraid of the dignitaries and has done these things, so what? If the government wants them dead, anyone can do it!"

"I'm afraid you don't know that the matter of Jiaozi Shop was proposed by Zhao Jun. Now Jiaozi Shop has made the treasury more than enough to afford the food and grass for the border troops. , and also proposed the tea law, suppressed prices, opened the trade and import, so that merchants no longer falsely estimated and enriched themselves, and settled down in the central government, all thanks to Zhao Jun! "

"Haha, there is a Jiaozi shop in Shuzhong. The tea law and the trade and import law are also the credit of Li Xiang, why are they all placed on his head?"

"You people, isn't it because he has no talent and reputation among you that you are like this? Why are you talking so big? If you have talent and reputation, let the people of Bianliang praise you?"

The chat box opened, and after someone spoke first, seven or eight officials from the Imperial Censorate immediately stood up and wrote a letter.

Prime Minister Lu Yijian and Wang Zeng did not speak, and the rest of Wang Sui, Cai Qi, Sheng Du, Song Shou, and even Yan Shu and Fan Zhongyan were not to be outdone, and stood up to defend Zhao Jun.

Although the three prime ministers and three counselors were not powerful in the court, they were also very powerful. Therefore, when the members of their faction saw that the boss supported Zhao Jun, they did not refute, and some even stood on Zhao Jun's side immediately when they saw that the wind was not blowing.

Fan Zhongyan was the leader of the young and vigorous faction, and Ouyang Xiu was only a proofreader in the library, and was not qualified to attend the court. The rest of Yu Jing, Yin Zhu, Wu Zunlu, Cai Xiang, Wang Zhi, Wang Zhu and others were either of low rank or only had salary officials without dispatch, and could not attend the court.

However, Li Hong, a direct scholar of Longtu Pavilion, was a third-rank official and qualified to participate in the court. Fu Bi, the head of the Jianyuan, was a censor in Kaifeng Prefecture. Although he was a sixth-rank official, the censor and the imperial censor were both low-ranked and powerful, so he could also attend the court.

At this moment, the two saw Fan Zhongyan standing in line, and immediately realized that Zhao Jun might be the master that Fan Zhongyan had been talking about before.

And this master had also asked Fan Zhongyan to give them some documents.

They were very excited to see the contents of those documents. Now that they saw the master in person, although they were a little disappointed, they were not the wise old man they imagined, but they also cheered up and joined the argument.

For a time, the faction headed by the prime minister's group, and other factions in the court and the dissatisfied censors and censors came out to argue.

The court was completely in chaos.

Because the prime minister's group was also divided and hostile to each other before. Unexpectedly, they are united now, which is surprising.

As for the censors and censors, they are also divided. For example, Fu Bi is a censor, and Han Qi is also a censor, but at this time Han Qi stood on the other side and did not defend Zhao Jun with him.

The result is that Zhao Jun himself has not yet opened his mouth to argue for himself, and the court has already quarreled for him, and saliva is flying.

That is to say, fighting was not popular in the court during the reign of Song Renzong.

Otherwise, you have to practice.

Zhao Zhen just watched the people below quarreling with each other, and Zhao Jun also watched everyone with interest, and no one stopped them.

In fact, it was meaningless to stop it. The censors did not have the power to refute the imperial edicts. Only the prime minister and the imperial edict editor could do so. However, with the prime minister's support among the three ministries, how could the edict not pass?

So they could quarrel, but they could not change the fact that Zhao Jun ruled the Song Dynasty.

After a long time, everyone was exhausted and their lips were almost worn out. Only then did they realize that the main person Zhao Zhen and Zhao Jun had not spoken.

It was Li Zi, the Privy Council, who came up and said, "Please clear the court."

"Approved!"

Zhao Zhen nodded.

Wang Shouzhong struck the bronze bell.

A series of ding-dong sounds resounded throughout the Chuigong Hall.

All officials gradually quieted down.

Because if they did not quiet down, they would be driven out by the guards outside.

Even if the emperor investigated, they would face the possibility of being dismissed from office, so everyone was honest.

When the court was quiet, Li Zi then said, "I want to ask, are the methods that the emperor taught me really what Zhao Jun said?"

"Yes."

Zhao Zhen nodded.

Li Zi bowed to Zhao Jun and said, "I meet the Duke of Song. The Duke is a great talent. I am willing to support the Duke to be the head of the Political System!"

"Yes."

Zhao Jun nodded with satisfaction and said, "Okay."

Li Zi retreated.

Fu Bi and Li Hong looked at each other, stood up and bowed to Zhao Jun and said, "Excuse me, Duke, is the saying in the "Selected Works" written by the Duke?"

"I am."

Zhao Jun's face was actually a little embarrassed.

That was written by the person he respected the most in his heart, but the great man in the Song Dynasty had not yet been born, so he could only pretend to be a villain.

Although the great man would not mind, and was even pleased that he could seek truth from facts and take root in the grassroots of the people in the Song Dynasty, this was after all borrowing the light of the great man, so he was still very ashamed in his heart.

Zhao Jun could only swear silently in his heart that he must inherit the great man's ambition. After a while, he will travel all over the Song Dynasty, go to the grassroots level in various places to conduct research, reform the shortcomings of the Song Dynasty, and let the people of the Song Dynasty escape from the dire straits and return a bright and sunny day to the Chinese people.

"We support the Duke of Guozhi's Political System!"

Fu Bi and Li Hong bowed.

"Okay."

Zhao Jun nodded again.

Then the other party members of the prime minister's group, such as the Lu Party and the Wang Party, also came up to express their support.

Even Jia Changchao, Chen Yaozuo, Wang Gongchen, Zhang Dexiang, Song Xiang, Song Qi and others came to express their support for the prime ministers' decision.

In an instant, it seemed that Zhao Jun had received unanimous approval from the whole court.

But in fact, Jia Changchao, Chen Yaozuo, Wang Gongchen, Zhang Dexiang, Song Xiang, Song Qi and others were all party members of Lu Yijian and Wang Zeng. For example, Jia Changchao and others had been recommended by Lu Yijian, and Song Xiang and Song Qi supported Wang Zeng when Lu Yijian and Wang Zeng went to war.

The rest of the ministers of the Ministry of Justice and the deputy envoy of the three departments, Xia Song, Zheng Jian, the co-director of the Privy Council, Fan Feng, the chief censor, Zhang Qi, the envoy of the Privy Council, Cheng Lin, the envoy of the three departments, Wang Deyong, the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, Chen Yaozuo, the signatory of the Privy Council, and more than ten other senior ministers of the first, second, and third ranks, said nothing and watched the situation quietly.

Although many people here later united to fight against Fan Zhongyan's new party, it was because they had to form an alliance of interests to defeat Fan Zhongyan. Before the Qingli New Deal, they were also political enemies with Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng and others.

For example, Xia Song and Lu Yijian had a bad relationship, and Zheng Jian had impeached Lu Yijian and Sheng Du. Lu Yijian deposed Fan Feng, and Cheng Linju presented "Empress Wu's Court" to Liu E, which was disliked by Fan Zhongyan, etc.

So they might not stand on the side of prime ministers such as Lu Yijian and Wang Zeng.

However, because the current situation is too strange, these old foxes dare not stand on the side easily, so they are silent one by one.

Now those who dare to speak out are not many imperial censors, but some iron-headed kids and young people.

Such as Zhang Zongyi, Zhang Kui, Han Qi, Liu Yuanyu, etc.

At this moment, the supporters obviously account for the majority, and many court officials are neutral, so these twenty or so opponents have become a minority.

For a while, the positions in the hall were clearly divided. There were at least thirty or forty supporters, and the remaining dozens of people did not rashly come forward and wait and see.

"Zhao Jun, what do you think?"

All opponents and supporters stood up, and it was not until this time that Zhao Zhen looked at Zhao Jun.

He was looking forward to how Zhao Jun would deal with the current problem.

Hearing this, everyone's eyes naturally looked at Zhao Jun, including those who expressed their support for him in the prime minister's team, all with a puzzled look.

Since he is to be the head of all officials and the leader of the literati of the Song Dynasty, he must naturally demonstrate his ability.

Zhao Jun stood up, walked to the steps of Zhao Zhen, turned his back to Zhao Zhen, looked at all the officials, looked around, looked at the opponent in front and asked: "What's your name?"

"Supervisory Censor Zhang Zongyi!"

Zhang Zongyi held his head high and seemed to be unafraid of the powerful.

Zhao Jun thought for a while and said: "Why do you oppose my ruling?"

"How can you, a person of unknown origin, be worthy of being the chief minister of the Song Dynasty?"

Zhang Zongyi said.

Zhao Jun laughed and said: "I remember that during the Tiansheng period, someone in your family forged a land deed to seize the land of a clan member, and said that this clan member was of unknown origin and not your clan member. You pretended to be deaf and dumb at the time, and it was Zhang Pin, the deputy minister of the Dali Temple, who solved the case. You immediately cut off your relationship with your family, and now you are making it up again. Your old illness has relapsed, and you are the same as your family."

"You!"

Zhang Zongyi was furious.

Zhao Jun said, "The emperor knows my identity, and so do all the ministers. Only you don't know. Who do you think you are? Dismissed from office!"

"Zhang Zongyi allowed his family to seize the land of his clan members. Dismissed from office!"

Zhao Zhen said.

Zhang Zongyi was horrified and quickly said, "Your Majesty, this is Zhao Jun's revenge. I never condoned my family."

"Take him away!"

Zhao Zhen waved his hands. He would never treat officials like this before, but now he had to do so for the sake of his ancestors.

Immediately, the imperial guards came up and dragged Zhang Zongyi, who looked ashen, away.

Then Zhao Jun looked at Zhang Kui and asked, "What's your name?"

"Zhang Kui, the Imperial Censor!"

"Why are you against me?"

"Of course, it's to maintain the laws of the country!"

Zhang Kui raised his head and said, "You didn't enter the government through the imperial examination, so you can't take on this important task according to the rules."

"I've heard of you, you're a good person. Some time ago, I asked the Imperial City Department to check those censors to see if they were connected with the Ma and Han families. When I checked you, I found that you were still a good official."

Zhao Jun said, "But you're wrong about one thing. The laws will change. There was no imperial examination in the Han Dynasty, only the imperial examination. In the next few decades, there may be no imperial examination, only the college entrance examination. Confucius also said that if you are quick to learn, you don't feel ashamed to ask questions. If a person's talent exceeds everyone else's, why can't he lead everyone to a bright road?"

Zhang Kui wanted to say something, but Zhao Jun waved his hand and said, "Don't hold on to any laws. Rules are set by people and should be used flexibly. The same is true for being an official. People with stubborn minds can't go far in the officialdom."

Fan Zhongyan's face froze and he looked at Zhao Jun with resentment.

Zhao Jun ignored Zhang Kui after he finished speaking and looked at the next person.

The man stood up and said, "Wu Yu from the Taichang Liyuan."

"Oh."

Zhao Jun looked around and asked, "Who is Liu Yuanyu!"

Liu Yuanyu stood up from the crowd and said, "I am Liu Yuanyu, the deputy envoy of the Three Departments of Salt and Money!"

Zhao Jun said to Wu Yu, "You are crazy, Liu Yuanyu falsely accused you of usury in Henan, oppressing the people, and ruining your reputation, and you are still with him to oppose me?"

Wu Yu was furious and looked at Liu Yuanyu and said, "It turns out that you, a villain, ruined my innocence!"

At the beginning, he was the magistrate of Henan. He was supposed to be promoted because of his good performance, but he was impeached in the court and could not be promoted repeatedly. Because there was no one in the court, he didn't even know who framed him.

It was only with his excellent performance that he was promoted to the Taichang Temple step by step. Now that he knew the real culprit behind the scenes, Wu Yu was very angry.

Liu Yuanyu was dissatisfied and said, "So what? The censors can report things based on hearsay!"

"Reporting things based on hearsay does not mean that you can falsely accuse someone of innocence."

Zhao Jun smiled and said, "Wu Yu, I can't tolerate such a villain."

"You bastard!"

Wu Yu also had a bad temper. He punched Liu Yuanyu in the eye socket and kicked him hard.

Liu Yuanyu was caught off guard and fell to the ground, but he quickly got up and said viciously, "You dare to hit me?"

After that, he rushed over, and the two wrestled together, and the scene suddenly became chaotic.

"Get out!"

Zhao Zhen couldn't bear to watch it, and hurriedly waved his hand to signal to take the man away.

Three opponents were taken away at once.

Zhao Jun then looked at the next person.

If it was someone else, he would definitely not understand it so carefully.

But these censors and censors were different.

At the beginning, he checked a lot of censors and censors to see if they were colluding with the Han and Ma families.

As a result, he found several people who had financial transactions with each other.

The case of the Ma and Han families has not been concluded yet.

Kaifeng Prefecture and the Imperial City Department worked together to arrest more than 40 officials above the seventh rank in Bianliang alone, and more than 200 officials below the seventh rank, which was more than four times more than the officials involved in the Zhao Jian case during the Zhenzong period.

So the Imperial City Department got a lot of information.

Zhao Jun only glanced at a lot of information, but he was still very concerned about those with higher official positions, so he wrote down a lot of things.

Soon he disintegrated at least 12 or 13 opponents, and the rest were either those who had no black history and no handle, or those who could not be helped even if they reasoned with the other party. Such as Han Qi and Zhang Kui.

But as the opposition was disintegrated, only a few people still disagreed. There was no power in the court, so naturally there was nothing they could do to Zhao Jun.

After easily dealing with these oppositions, Zhao Jun looked around and finally looked at the neutrals who had the most people in the group, and asked: "Today I want to be the head of the Political System Council (the person in charge). Who is in favor and who is against it?"

There was silence.

The centrists were all cunning and neither supported nor opposed. After seeing Zhao Jun easily kill those oppositions, how could they still be willing to stand out?

Even Xia Song, who hated Lu Yijian deeply, stood in the crowd honestly and did not speak.

Because they knew that there was only one reason why Zhao Jun could be so rampant.

That was the emperor's immense trust.

The emperor's trust.

The prime ministers all supported it, and it didn't matter whether they supported it or not.

In the future, perhaps it would be Zhao Jun's world!