A large group of people had gathered outside the imperial palace and the official bedroom. However, there was a group of guards guarding the palace. No one was allowed to enter without any order.
Zhou Chen, as the commander of the front office of the palace, was also guarding outside the palace at this time. Although he wanted to go inside the palace to see Zhao Heng's situation, Zhao Heng did not summon him, and even he could not go in.
Because of his pure Yang internal energy and his enhanced physical fitness, his hearing is far superior to that of ordinary people.
But even so, he couldn't hear clearly what was going on in the palace. There were many people in the dormitory, and even more people outside. It was impossible to keep quiet. With such noisy and confusing sounds, no matter how powerful he was, it would be difficult for him to distinguish them.
After a long while, Chamberlain Cui came out of the dormitory and called a few people in, including Zhou Chen.
Zhou Chen walked into the bedroom and saw a group of people kneeling on the ground, including the young prince.
Zhao Heng was lying on the dragon's collapse, and Queen Liu Wan was next to him.
At this time, Zhao Heng no longer had the kingly demeanor of the past. He was as angry as a thread, his body was swollen, and there was no trace of blood on his face. He seemed to be running out of oil.
Zhao Heng, who was on the dragon's roof, didn't even have the strength to speak now. He just held Liu Wan's hand tightly, his eyes opened blankly, and his mouth opened and closed, as if he wanted to say something, but no sound came out.
In the end, in this battle with the god of death, Emperor Zhao Heng, as the lord of the world, was defeated, closed his eyes, and dropped his hands feebly.
"Official!"
A shrill voice sounded, and all the courtiers knelt on the ground to see off the official Zhao Heng.
The third emperor of the Song Dynasty and the longest reigning emperor, Zhao Heng, died of illness in the palace in the first year of Qianxing.
However, although Zhao Heng died of illness, sufficient arrangements had been made before that.
The imperial edict assigned the crown prince Zhao Zhen to inherit the throne, and the queen Liu Wan became the empress dowager, with the right to listen to the government and assist the young emperor Zhao Zhen.
Tian Wei also became the first assistant of the new dynasty, with the same power as the prime minister. Someone from the previously silent Qingliu lineage was also selected by Zhao Heng and awarded high positions to assist the new emperor.
Zhao Heng's thoughts also changed when he was dying, causing the court to form a confrontation between several major forces, because he did not want one family to dominate, causing the new emperor to be oppressed.
His idea is good, but unfortunately, power moves people's hearts, and his actions only make the struggle more intense.
When the emperor dies, his ministers also have to mourn for twenty-seven days.
During this period, no happy events such as weddings are allowed. When reviewing memorials, the emperor cannot use a red pen, but a blue pen instead. All ministries and yamen must also use blue seals for writing; during the mourning period, all temples and Taoist temples must ring.
Bell 30,000 times and so on......
The national mourning is still going on, but the fighting within the court has already begun from the moment Zhao Heng died of illness.
When Liu Wan was the queen, she had already begun to help the officials review memorials and gradually came to power. Now she has become the empress dowager. The new emperor is still a twelve-year-old child. Of course, she will not let go of this good opportunity to take control of the court.
What's more, she still had the late emperor's will, so she felt that she could come to court in an upright manner.
Tian Wei, who was promoted to prime minister, faced a young new emperor, and of course he wanted to have power. In addition, he was very ambitious and looked down on Liu Wan. He felt that women should not be in power, so he had already begun to make plans.
, preparing to sideline the Empress Dowager Liu Wan and monopolize the government affairs.
The Qingliu lineage was not to be outdone, because the new emperor Zhao Zhen was surrounded by several civil servants from the Qingliu lineage. They firmly supported the young emperor and felt that the young emperor was their hope, so they wanted to rely on the young emperor to rise again.
But they currently lack arrow figures, and their reputation and power cannot be compared with the Empress Dowager Liu Wan and Prime Minister Tian Wei.
Xiao Qinyan, who was transferred not long ago, is also very ambitious and naturally does not want to see Tian Wei grow bigger, so he is now in close contact with the Empress Dowager and has great plans.
Today's imperial palace and court are like a huge whirlpool. One mistake may lead to serious consequences.
That is to say, during the current national mourning period, all forces are still planning and restraining themselves, otherwise the chaos will only be greater.
As Zhou Chen is an upstart, there are naturally people who want to encourage him, but he doesn't see any guests. He just performs his duties every day and doesn't rely on anyone.
He now holds the position of Prince Shaobao, so he should be more inclined to the new emperor. But the problem is that he has only known Zhao Zhen for a short time, and he cannot compare with the civil servants and advisers around him. Especially after Zhao Zhen ascended the throne, he
It's even more impossible to rely on.
Of course, it was also because he didn't want to do that, because he knew very well that in the next ten years, the new emperor Zhao Zhen would be a puppet, unless he could defeat Empress Dowager Liu Wan and Prime Minister Tian Wei and become the most powerful minister in the court.
.
But this is really too difficult. Compared with Liu Wan and Tian Wei, his foundation is still insufficient. Moreover, with the Song Dynasty's model of literati ruling the world, unless he imitates Wang Mang, it is impossible to achieve power over the world.
Throughout the hundreds of years of history of the Song Dynasty, how many people who were military officers were able to become powerful ministers who were inferior to one person and superior to ten thousand people?
This is relatively an imaginary world. Who knows whether the final development will be the same as official history, so Zhou Chen does not want to participate in the power struggle between Liu Wan, Tian Wei and others.
After the national mourning period on the 27th, Tian Wei took the lead in launching a struggle. He used his authority as the first and assistant prime minister to quickly develop his own power in the court. A large group of civil servants joined his command and became his subordinates.
Minions.
The new emperor ascended the throne, and Empress Dowager Liu Wan officially took the stage. Previously, she was in charge of the government as a queen, but her name was not justified.
But this time was different. This time she came to the court as the empress dowager, and she also had the late emperor's edict, so she could legitimately take charge of military and state affairs.
It's just that her first court meeting didn't go well, because Prime Minister Tian Wei was really too strong, and he controlled the rhythm of the entire court meeting. Liu Wan spoke several times, but he calmly defused it and passed it.
Suppressing Liu Wan enhanced his authority.
It is very rare in history for a queen mother to come to court, let alone in a dynasty like the Song Dynasty where scholar-bureaucrats and scholars were supreme. These people even dared to confront the emperor. They were not afraid of a woman, even the queen mother.
.
It's just that Tian Wei's power is too strong now. Even the Empress Dowager Liu Wan can't contain it and can only find ways to compete with him for power.
On the contrary, the new emperor Zhao Zhen, who has just ascended the throne, has no other support except some civil servants from the Qingliu lineage and some royalists. However, these people will never go to Tian Wei and the Empress Dowager for the sake of the young Zhao Zhen.
to fight.
What's more, the prince is still controlled and disciplined by the empress dowager, so Zhao Zhen is basically a puppet emperor now.
It can also be seen from this that the military attache played a very small role in this process of transition of imperial power, because many military powers in the Song Dynasty were basically controlled by civilian officials, and military attachés only had command authority on the battlefield. In Tokyo
In an imperial city like this, one can only be constrained by civilian officials.
Therefore, if you were a military attache in the Song Dynasty, your future would naturally be more than one level worse than that of a civilian official.
Even for a second-grade official like Zhou Chen, who has reached the peak of military attachés, his appeal among the officials in the court is much lower than that of those civilian officials.
The general trend of the world cannot be changed overnight, and it cannot be changed by Zhou Chen now.
If you want to change this phenomenon, there is only one way, and that is to start over.
When the empress dowager Liu Wan and Tian Weidou were in deep trouble, Zhou Chen acted as a transparent person and only did his own thing and didn't care about other things.
Although Xiao Qinyan also looked for Zhou Chen, Zhou Chen didn't reply to him at all and always talked about him. Later, Xiao Qinyan stopped looking for him.
Instead, Gu Qianfan asked him to have a drink with him.
Zhou Chen has a very good sense of Gu Qianfan. Gu Qianfan has a very good character. In addition, Gu Qianfan is now the Imperial City Secretary. His rank is not high, but he has great power, so Zhou Chen is willing to be friends with him.
.
The Qingliu people wrote several times to ask Zhao Zhen to recall Ke Zheng from Leizhou, but they were strongly suppressed by both Liu Wan and Tian Wei.
Now there are two tigers fighting each other. If Ke Zheng returns with force, the situation will be more complicated. Therefore, both of them are unwilling to let Ke Zheng return, let alone see the Qingliu lineage rise again.
The civil servant group is so complicated and divided into many factions. The main reason is that the civil servants have too much power and everyone wants to be the first and assistant prime minister.
One month passed quickly, and Zhou Chen was very free now. He got off duty early. He did not go back to the Hou Mansion first, but went to Zhang Haohao's place first. He spent two hours happily before returning to the Hou Mansion.
He returned to the mansion and as soon as he walked into the side hall, he saw Zhao Pan'er walking in with Nanny Zhu.
Aunt Zhu saluted Zhou Chen with a happy face.
"Congratulations, Lord Marquis, congratulations, Lord Marquis!"
"Congratulations, why are you so happy?"
Zhou Chen was a little confused, but he quickly realized that Aunt Zhu had been living in the Hou Mansion and rarely had contact with people. The happiness she mentioned must be a happy event in the Hou Mansion.
Thinking of this, he immediately turned his attention to Zhao Pan'er.
"Pan'er, could it be that you..."
Zhao Pan'er smiled and said: "Master Hou is Master Hou. I guessed it right away. Master Hou, I am not feeling well today. I asked the doctor to come to my house, but..."
Speaking of this, her face showed a look of joy and shyness.
"The result is happy pulse."
"Okay, okay, Pan'er."
Zhou Chen was overjoyed and hugged Zhao Pan'er regardless of who was present.
He and Zhao Pan'er have been married for half a year, and there has been no news. Although he is not in a hurry, Zhao Pan'er has been very anxious recently.
After all, she was looked down upon and looked down upon when she married into the Hou family. If she was still unable to have children, the pressure she would face would be even greater.
To be continued...