The Sage of Confucianism and Taoism

Chapter 2440 Situation in the Capital

Fang Yun's invitation to a banquet not only disrupted the situation in Xiangzhou, but also caused unrest in the capital of Jingguo.

During the day, everything was the same as usual. At night, carriages that were covered tightly traveled through the capital.

There were countless carriages parked in front of many places, including the five major families of Jingguo, the Jiang Mansion of Wenxiang Jiang Hechuan, the Li Mansion of the new Jingguo General Li Wenying, the Chen Mansion of the Grand Marshal Chen Zhixu, and the Cao Mansion of the Right Prime Minister Cao De'an.

Since the resignation of the Left Prime Minister Liu Shan, the position of the Left Prime Minister of Jingguo has been shelved.

At first, everyone thought that the Right Prime Minister Cao De'an would replace him, or Fang Yun would directly take over the position of the Left Prime Minister, but after Fang Yun resigned, the position of the Left Prime Minister has been undecided.

Since last year, a rumor has spread in the capital that the Queen Mother wanted to abolish the position of the Left Prime Minister and let Jing Jun, who has grown into a teenager, take charge of the duties that originally belonged to the Left Prime Minister.

After this rumor appeared, even some officials who claimed to be royalists suddenly wrote to ask King Jing to quickly appoint a new left prime minister to avoid being detrimental to the country.

But the position of left prime minister has not been determined so far.

Many officials suspected that the rumor was deliberately spread by the palace so that all officials could be prepared. The royal family of Jingguo was determined to abolish the position of left prime minister to prevent the new left prime minister from being as powerful as Liushan and suppressing the imperial power.

This move by the royal family of Jingguo caused dissatisfaction among all officials, so that the royal family could not formally announce the abolition of the left prime minister for a long time. As long as King Jing was under sixteen, all officials could prevent King Jing from ruling the country.

As long as King Jing could not rule the country, no matter what means the queen mother had, she could not really control all officials.

In the eyes of scholars, any country allows a left prime minister, but it absolutely does not allow a powerful Empress Lü to appear, nor does it allow a Qin Emperor and Han Wu who can play with all officials.

Shengyuan Continent is the world of scholars, and the court should also be the court of scholars.

This is already the consensus of scholars.

Scholars will not abolish the imperial power, but they will not allow the imperial power to enslave scholars.

At this time, Fang Yun announced that he would entertain Xiangzhou officials, sending a strong and clear signal, which was almost like adding fuel to the fire, igniting the court dispute in Jingguo that could break out at any time.

There are many factions of officials in Jingguo. After the fall of the Left Xiang Party, not counting the military forces, the largest political forces in the capital are the royal family, the Chen Sheng family, the other four semi-saint families, the Wen Xiang Jiang Hechuan family, the right Xiang Cao De'an family, the Fang Yun family, and finally the Li Wenying family. The remaining forces are limited in strength. As for the officials of the Left Xiang Party, most of them were uprooted, and only a few were lurking.

In Xiangzhou and Mizhou, the Fang Party has absolute control, and even in Jiangzhou, there are some Fang Party members.

However, in the capital, the power of the Fang Party is extremely weak, because most of the Fang Party members have become rich in recent years and have not had enough time to rise from the local areas to the capital, and Fang Yun has no experience in politics in the capital for a long time, so he cannot cultivate his own power.

Even if there are Fang Party members in the capital, they have been promoted from local areas in recent years, and most of them are officials below the fourth rank.

In various states, officials of the fifth rank or even the sixth rank have a certain say, but in the capital, except for a few key departments, the real power of officials of the fifth rank is extremely limited.

Officials in the capital often ridicule themselves, saying that there are so many third-rank officials and Hanlin scholars everywhere, and that a house collapsed and knocked out five people, four fifth-rank officials, and the last one was from the fifth rank.

The most important departments in the capital are almost all controlled by the royal family and people from various families. Even Jiang Hechuan's faction can only place its own people in Jingguo Academy and the Ministry of Rites. As for the right prime minister Cao De'an, he can only control half of the Ministry of Households, because he inherited the political legacy of his teacher.

Although Li Wenying is not good at party struggles, because of his extraordinary strength, he has fellow townsmen, classmates and colleagues. Over the years, he has become a faction of his own and has good relations with all parties.

Fang Yun has excellent relations with various factions, but the Fang Party is different.

In the capital, the Fang Party has been excluded.

This is not determined by the will of any one person, but by the interests of the party.

Because, if we look at the whole country, not just the capital, the power of the Fang party is no longer inferior to the royal family.

Jingguo has the capital, Xiangzhou, Jiangzhou, Dongyunzhou, Mizhou and Yanzhou. The Fang party monopolizes Xiangzhou and Mizhou. In addition, Fang Yun recovers the north. In a few years, the new state in the north will definitely take shape, and there will definitely be a second Mizhou.

This means that in a few years, the Fang party will control the three states.

The Fang party is half of Jingguo!

It is precisely because the Fang party is too powerful that the traditional forces in the capital have used all means to exclude the Fang party, so that the officials of the Fang party cannot occupy the central positions.

Even some officials who are obviously from other factions but have close contacts with Fang Yun have been excluded.

For example, Sai Zhixue, the Minister of Rites, Cai Hecai, the student of Jiang Hechuan, the Minister of Literature, Zhang Poyue, Yu Xingshu and Chen Xibi, the former Grand Commander of Jiangzhou, and Ding Haosheng, the General of Beimang.

For example, Cai He, because of his dual identity, being a student of Minister Jiang Hechuan and a friend of Fang Yun, rose rapidly to the top. He was a fourth-rank official and served as the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites. Originally, he would be promoted to the Third Rank in a year at most, and the general Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites was a third-rank official or a third-rank official.

But just after Fang Yun entered the Burial Valley, he was transferred to the Canal Transport Department to serve as the Right Secretary.

The status of the Canal Transport Department was far inferior to that of the Ministry of Rites, but it was a department with more oil and water and power. The Right Secretary of the Canal Transport Department was a fourth-rank official. This was a horizontal transfer on the surface, but in fact it was a demotion.

Just three months ago, Cai He was transferred again to the Hanlin Academy.

The Hanlin Academy of the Holy Academy is quite different from the Hanlin Academy of other countries. With the change of the times, the power of the Hanlin Academy of Jingguo was gradually taken away by the cabinet. The current Hanlin Academy is mainly responsible for the imperial lectures, writing literature and history, etc., and has no real power.

Therefore, there are only two types of officials in the Hanlin Academy. One is to use the Hanlin Academy to gild and be ready for promotion at any time, and the other is to retire. It is unknown how long it will take to be promoted. Some officials of the Zuo Xiang Party who have a good reputation and are related to the aristocratic family are now serving in the Hanlin Academy.

Not only Cai He, except Zhang Poyue, the rest are facing the same dilemma, high position but no power, famous but no benefits.

The rest of the people were forced to retreat in the face of exclusion, only Zhang Poyue was different.

Because officials who want to exclude Zhang Poyue always have accidents. They either fall into the cesspool when the toilet collapses, or are rushed into the house by dozens of prostitutes to collect debts when they return home, or accidentally eat poison and have diarrhea, or are put in a sack and beaten outside the power of the holy temple, but the murderer cannot be found.

Jingguo's No. 1 rolling meat, the court's No. 1 street-cleaning tiger, this is Zhang Poyue's new nickname for this year.

So, after returning to the capital from the north, Zhang Poyue's life became more and more comfortable, and he even married two concubines, as if he really liked to spend his days in the capital.

Originally, the capital was in a relatively balanced state with many parties wrestling, but Fang Yun broke the peace with a banquet.

Everyone who went to Jiang Mansion was waiting, because Jiang Hechuan was not in Jiang Mansion.

Jiang Hechuan was summoned to the palace overnight by an urgent imperial edict.

It was not until after midnight that many of Jiang Hechuan's disciples and old friends were tired of waiting, and Jiang Hechuan entered from the main gate, looking tired.

All the officials stood up, and one of them asked in a low voice: "Prime Minister, what are you doing entering the palace so late at night?"

"The Queen Mother... wants to promote me to the position of Left Prime Minister."

The officials were shocked. The royal family was using Jiang Hechuan to deal with Fang Yun.