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Chapter 493 The Golden Palace Turns Its Face (Part 1)

The weather became more and more hot and hard to deal with in June, which made Zhao Ji, who was already neglecting government affairs, and even the daily court meetings were not held very well. But even so, he could not avoid the grand court every morning. June 15th was the last grand court meeting this month. All civil and military officials of the seventh rank and above in Bianjing City gathered in Daqing Hall.

In fact, such a dynasty will have far more formal significance to the monarch and minister than to be realistic. It is impossible to propose the general government affairs separately at this time. It is just to discuss some clichés. Therefore, today's monarch and ministers are not very interested.

But the situation changed after the report of the debts that the Ministry of Works' doctor general needs for the river engineer was reported. Following him, Yu Sheng, the doctor of the Ministry of Justice, a middle-aged official in his forties, was in his forties and a serious face: "Your Majesty, I have something to report. Now, Sun Tu, the chief supervisor of Jingdong Road, urgently delivered a crime to Beijing. Chen Yan, the local Qingzhou official magistrate Gao Xiang, the chief supervisor of the capital, and more than 20 officials, including the local Qingzhou official Gao Xiang, the chief supervisor He Mo, were in a rebellious manner in the local area, harming the people, and even aroused the public's resentment. Sun Tu took the arrest and executed a group of officials for the long-term stability of Qingzhou Changzhi, and sent all the crimes they admitted to the capital. Please ask Your Majesty for the holy review!"

As soon as this said, the palace suddenly became an uproar, and Gao Qiu's body shook slightly. Yun Danfengqing's face, which was originally full of shock and anger, quickly fell on the face of Tong Guan, who was standing behind him. However, the latter was looking at his eyes and his nose and heart at this time, as if Yu Sheng was not his person, and the things he was doing had nothing to do with him.

Zhao Ji, who was not very energetic and drowsy at the moment, looked nervous at this moment, and after a while, he said in disbelief: "What did you say? Then Sun Tu was arbitrarily proposing to kill a group of local officials in Qingzhou?"

After getting the affirmative answer, a burst of air blew up from the hall again, which was an incredible result! A military officer dared to act so recklessly in the local area. This cannot be described as bold and bold. It is clearly challenging the bottom line of the court!

"It's outrageous!" Zhao Ji, who had always had a good temper, was angry. Although he always felt that the name Sun Tu was familiar, he didn't care about it at this time: "It's really against him. The person who came immediately drafted an order to capture Sun Tu for me and brought him to the capital. I want to see what kind of person he is and dared to do such a thing."

The emperor was angry, which naturally made the ministers feel awkward, but Yu Sheng did not retreat because of this. Instead, he spoke again: "Please ask Your Majesty to temporarily stop the anger of thunder. I think that although Sun Tu's actions are inappropriate, it is understandable. Especially after seeing the relevant crimes he sent, I think that he decided to kill Gao Xiang and others for the sake of the overall situation."

"How do you say this?" The Emperors of the Song Dynasty had a good temper, and Zhao Ji was no exception. Not only did he not get angry because of his subordinates' dissuasion, he asked curiously. This made the steps of an official who had just received a gesture from Gao Qiu to refute Yu Sheng, who had only temporarily taken back the steps of an official who wanted to come out to refute Yu Sheng. This move naturally could not be concealed from Tong Guan's eyes, who had already prepared.

"Reply to Your Majesty, just because of the crimes written, Gao Xiang and He Mo and other officials have caused public resentment in the local area, and the local garrisons are also dissatisfied with them. If Sun Tu had not noticed it in time and tried to punish them, it would have led to civil unrest or even mutiny." Yu Sheng replied immediately. After pausing, he briefly said a few of the crimes, such as forcing taxes, random use of troops caused more than half of the Qingzhou army to suffer casualties, and forcing the people to enter the army, just to deceive the superiors and conceal the subordinates... Each one is a big crime, and he also specifically stated that they were all crimes signed and banned by Gao Xiang and others.

After this accusation, the faces of the monarchs and ministers in the palace became more and more serious, and Zhao Ji said even more dissatisfied: "These local officials are really doing things wrong. I didn't expect that I would let such officials go to local herders..."

Seeing that things were going to develop according to Tong Guan and the others' wishes, Gao Qiu couldn't help it anymore. He didn't care about letting the people under his command come forward, so he went into battle and said in person: "Your Majesty, I think this statement is just a one-sided statement and cannot be accurate. What is the so-called crime? It is even more unknown to us in the capital. However, Sun Tu dared to kill the imperial officials so unscrupulously in Qingzhou. Once this practice is spread, it will probably cause turmoil in the world and even lead to some evil people who are competing to imitate it!"

Gao Qiu is worthy of being a veteran of the officialdom who has been fighting in the court for many years. He knew very well that what he should do at this time was to grasp the main contradiction and take Sun Tu's bold move to reverse the current unfavorable situation. To be honest, Tong Guan's sudden attack at the court meeting today was really caught off guard.

This statement indeed won the recognition of most of the officials present, and many people followed up and agreed: "Your Majesty, I also thought that Sun Tu's behavior was a great crime. He was only a fifth-rank military general. How dare he slaughter our court officials so unscrupulously, but he placed your Majesty where the court was!" This was extremely serious, and he was about to say that he had the intention of tyranny.

Although Sun Tu's approach was very pleasant, it did touch the high-voltage line of the Song Dynasty. How did the Song Dynasty gain the country? It was Zhao Kuangyin who relied on his own military power to bully the orphan and widowed mother of the Chai family. Then he was afraid that the generals under his command would repeat what he did, so he released the military power with a glass of wine. Later, he tried his best to suppress the power and status of the military officers in the court. Even now, the generals have no dignity in front of civil officials.

Now, Sun Tu, a military officer, actually did the task of killing civil servants without permission. This is clearly challenging the foundation of the entire Song Dynasty for a hundred years, which will naturally attract opposition and criticism from all the officials in the court.

Gao Qiu felt sure when he saw this. This was exactly what he wanted to see. As long as the ministers made a statement and the emperor followed suit, Sun Tu would undoubtedly die! Then he could free up his hands to deal with Tong Guan slowly.

Tong Guan also saw his intentions. Since the other party had already taken action personally, it was obviously unrealistic to let Yu Sheng compete with him, so he followed him out of his post: "Your Majesty, I think what Gao Taiwei said is a bit too much. Sun Tu's move was not because of personal grudges, but because if he hadn't killed Gao Xiang and other officials in a decisive manner, he would be afraid that there would be a major change in the local area. Your Majesty, Qingzhou is in Shandong, and now a group of bandits in Liangshan are rampaging in the local area, so there can be no more trouble."

When Zhao Ji heard this, his already aroused anger was suppressed again. He nodded deeply and said, "What Tong Guan said makes some sense. If they really stir up a rebellion, even I will punish them severely."

This made Tong Guan happy. Before Gao Qiu could attack, he hurriedly said, "In addition, Sun Tu is quite familiar with this minister. He has always been loyal to the court and has made great contributions more times. How could he be as unjust as you said?"

"Shumi Tong, are you exaggerating?" Gao Qiu retorted with a gloomy face: "As far as I know, just two years ago, there was an incident of killing officials in Qingzhou. The one who caused this change was Sun Tu? He, a military officer of the fifth and sixth rank, actually killed the officials of the court in Qingzhou several times in a row. Isn't this enough to explain the problem? As for what you call me credit, it's just a trivial matter. Your Majesty, Sun Tu's crime is unpardoned, so he should be taken to the capital and handed over to the department for interrogation and severe punishment!"

"Teacher Gao's words are not willing to agree with this." Tong Guan immediately looked at the other party with a tit-for-tat attitude and said without any hesitation: "The incident that happened in Qingzhou two years ago has long passed, and His Majesty has made the most wise ruling at that time. Do you think His Majesty was wrong at that time?"

This really made Gao Qiu's army very difficult, and he didn't know how to refute the other party for a while. He could not really follow this meaning and say that the emperor made the wrong decision two years ago. Taking advantage of his stagnation, Tong Guan continued: "As for the so-called minor contributions of Taiwei Gao, it is even more heartbreaking. Your Majesty, Sun Tu repeatedly suppressed the traitors in Qingzhou, so it would be fine if he didn't mention such contributions. But last year, he followed his ministers into the Liao Kingdom, and lived and died, and earned the Liao Kingdom's defense map on the border of our Song Dynasty for our Song Dynasty."

"Hmm?" Zhao Ji became interested when he heard this: "There is such a thing? Didn't you say that you couldn't bring the drawings back?"

"I did not bring the defense map back in person, but Sun Tu fulfilled his mission. I originally planned to present the map to Your Majesty." Tong Guan said, and then took out the defense map prepared from his sleeve and raised it high above his head.

The emperor was even more happy: "Hurry up, let me show the map." The eunuchs beside him went down to get the pictures.

Gao Qiu, who saw this scene, felt nervous. He knew that the situation today was getting worse and worse for him. Tong Guan was completely prepared and his reaction was completely in his plan.

While the emperor was happily looking at the blood-stained defense map, Tong Guan said again: "Your Majesty, the blood on this map is left by Sun Tu. In order to protect this map, he almost died in Liao Kingdom. He asked Your Majesty to bless him, so he was able to escape from danger. In addition, he not only made great contributions to our Song Dynasty in Liao Kingdom, but also made greater contributions in Xixia."

"Xixia? Why did you talk about Xixia again? What do you say? Come and tell me in detail." Zhao Ji immediately became interested and asked hurriedly, but put the previous matter aside.

The ministers below also knew that Tong Guan had gradually taken the initiative, and the emperor was in high spirits, so they stopped talking, but just watched Tong Guan perform alone. Even Gao Qiu, although he was angry, he was a little difficult to speak for a while.

But everyone knows one thing that after today, Gao Qiu and Tong Guan, the two favorite ministers, have really turned against each other! But what they didn't expect was that this time the turn against each other was more thorough than they thought, and this was just the beginning.
Chapter completed!
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