At night, a carriage slowly stopped in front of the palace gate, and an official in his thirties walked out of the carriage. This man had a white face and long beard and gentle manner. His name was Liu Xuanmao. He was the son of Liu Shu, the prime minister of Emperor Wen of Sui.
Hedong County is a famous family in Jieliang, and his mother is Princess Lanling, the sister of Yang Guang.
When Liu Xuanmao was a young man, he studied at the Wang family. Later, he studied under the great scholar Wang Tong. He was very talented and served as the chief minister of Hedong County. He lived in seclusion at the end of the Sui Dynasty. Because he was highly recommended by Wang Xu, he returned to office and served as Dali.
Temple Minister.
Liu Xuanmao looked grim. Today he heard a news that was extremely unfavorable to the Wang family. He was very worried and hurriedly walked up the steps. Liu Xuanmao and Wang Xu had a very good relationship. He often came to the royal palace. Almost everyone in the palace knew him, and he didn't need to report it.
He opened the door immediately and invited him into the mansion.
Wang Xu was not in a good mood these two days. His bad mood had nothing to do with the assassination of Princess Chu, but from his eldest son Wang Ling, who is now worshipped by the East Palace Literature Museum. Only few people in the clan know about this.
Even the imperial court was concealed.
When Li Yuan raised an army in Taiyuan, he received strong support from the Wang family. Li Yuan promised that he would become the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty. If Yang Yuanqing did not capture Taiyuan, then Wang Xu would be an important official of the Tang Dynasty at this time, and even joined the Tang Dynasty.
Mutually.
However, the establishment of the New Sui Dynasty changed the fate of the Wang family. After the final discussion, the Wang brothers finally decided to defect to the New Sui Dynasty. On the one hand, they were worried that it would be difficult to compete with the Guanlong nobles and the Guanlong nobles in the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty lost Hedong.
The Wang family had no foundation in the Tang Dynasty.
On the other hand, as one of the two great gentry of Hedong, the New Sui Dynasty based on Hedong could not ignore them. As it turns out, their decision was completely correct. Wang Xu became prime minister, and the Wang family was all honored. There was another
For a deeper reason, Wang Xu is the uncle of the Princess of Chu. In the future, the Princess of Chu will be the queen, which will be beneficial to the Wang family.
But as a famous gentry, the Wang family could not have taken all their family fate to the Sui Dynasty. Wang Xu's eldest son Wang Ling studied in Chang'an, so under Wang Xu's arrangement, Wang Ling entered the East Palace and became a worshiper of the East Palace Literature Museum.
Of course, Wang Xu was also very clear that only famous scholars and great scholars in the literary museum were qualified to enter. At present, there were only ten people. His son was just a student of the great school and might not even be qualified to serve tea and water in the literary museum.
Becoming a worshiper was nothing more than the Tang Dynasty winning over the Wang family.
This is the trouble. The day before yesterday he received a letter from his son, telling him that the prince was very interested in some internal affairs of the Sui Dynasty. Wang Xu understood the meaning of this letter was to ask him to provide some secrets of the Sui Dynasty.
Although the letter did not state it clearly, Wang Xu's heart was like a mirror.
This is his trouble. As the Prime Minister of Ziwei Pavilion, he certainly has many secrets. If he chooses to tell the Tang Dynasty, he will not be discovered. But he is worried that if he has the first one, there will be a second time, and in the end he is Tang.
The dynasty was controlled and became the biggest traitor of the Sui Dynasty. Now that his son was worshipping in the East Palace, he felt a little controlled.
Wang Xu paced back and forth in the study with his hands behind his back. He was thinking about what to do? At this moment, the voice of his third son Wang Qi came from outside the door, "Father, Uncle Liu is here, saying that there is something important to see his father."
Wang Xu immediately withdrew his thoughts and nodded, "Please come in!"
Soon, Liu Xuanmao quickly walked into the study. Although he was a disciple of Wang Tong, in terms of generation, he was a fellow Wang brother, so Wang Xu never regarded him as a junior. As soon as he entered the house, Liu Xuanmao would
He said coldly: "Look at the good things you did!"
Wang Xu was stunned, "Brother, where do you start with this?"
"Hmph! You're still pretending to be confused. Do you think everyone is a fool?"
Liu Xuanmao knew that Wang Xu's eldest son Wang Ling was worshipping the literature of the East Palace. He believed that the assassination of the Princess of Chu was done by the Tang Dynasty, and the Wang family provided convenience. The assassin could deploy calmly, and there was another person who could escape. If there was no internal support, it would be difficult.
It makes people believe that Wang Su is very suspicious as Jing Zhaoyi.
Wang Xu was even more confused and asked a little displeased: "What are you talking about?"
"Dare you say you are innocent in the assassination of the Princess Chu?" Liu Xuanmao sneered repeatedly.
Wang Xu was shocked. Why did he have something to do with the assassination of Princess Chu? He suddenly felt inexplicable panic. He knew that Liu Xuanmao was not talking nonsense and must have received some news. He quickly closed the door.
"My brother sit down, let's talk slowly."
Liu Xuanmao sat down and watched Wang Xu's expression change. Seeing that there was no panic in his eyes, but a sense of surprise, he became a little confused. Isn't this happening? But as Su Wei's identity,
How could he talk nonsense?
"Just tell me one thing, is it related to the Wang family assassination of the Princess Chu?"
Wang Xu shook his head, "It definitely has nothing to do with me."
He was even more surprised and asked quickly: "Who did you hear that the assassination of the Princess of Chu was actually done by the Wang family?"
Liu Xuanmao frowned, "Last night at Qibaozhai Restaurant, Su Xiangguo and several ministers revealed that the case of assassinating the princess and princess of Anjin Temple may be related to the Wang family."
"What!"
Wang Xudi stood up and said angrily: "He is the dignified Shangshu Youpushe. How can he slander people? He talks nonsense!"
"I also think that as a high-ranking prime minister, he could not say nonsense. Moreover, Han Shouzhong, the censor who is responsible for investigating the case, is his person. He must have a basis for saying this."
Liu Xuanmao still looked at Wang Xu with some doubts and reminded him: "Have Brother Mingda and Shaoxuan communicated with this matter?"
Shaoxuan refers to Wang Xu's third brother Wang Su, who was appointed as Jingzhao Yin. Wang Xu was also a little nervous. It was not that his third brother did something on his back! Assassinating the princess and princess is a destruction of the family.
A serious sin!
Wang Xu immediately ordered his son who was standing outside the door and said, "Qi'er, go and invite your third uncle!"
The room was quiet, neither of them spoke, each thinking about their own thoughts. Although Liu Xuanmao was resentful of Yang Guang because of his father's death, his mother was Princess Lanling after all. He was more inclined to the Sui Dynasty and asked Wang Xu to surrender to Wang Xu.
He did not agree with the Tang Dynasty's approach.
As a grand family, the clan members served in two dynasties at the same time, which was no problem in itself. Wang Xu's problem was that when the Sui Dynasty was prime minister, he secretly arranged for the eldest son to surrender to Li Jiancheng of the East Palace, and his motive was obviously impure.
It was just because of his affection that Liu Xuanmao did not turn against the Wang family about Wang Ling's surrender to the East Palace, but some of the Wang family's actions made him increasingly dissatisfied and worried about his career.
After a moment, the door opened, Wang Xu's third brother Wang Su walked in quickly. Wang Su was appointed as Jingzhao Yin and was also an important official.
"Is there anything wrong with me with my brother?"
Wang Xu gave his son Wang Qi a wink and asked him to close the door, then he said to his brother: "Sit down first! Sit down before talking."
Wang Su greeted Liu Xuanmao and sat down. Seeing that Huangchang and Liu Xuanmao were both solemn, he couldn't help but feel confused.
"Is something going on?"
Wang Xu sighed and said to him solemnly: "Tell me the truth, is it related to you when the assassination of Princess Chu?"
Wang Su was stunned for a moment. He stared at his brother and said slowly for a while: "Does my brother think I did it?"
"I'll just ask you, right?" Wang Xu couldn't control his emotions and raised his tone.
Wang Su suddenly became angry and said with hatred: "Of course not! What does this matter have to do with me?"
His eyes turned to Liu Xuanmao again. His brother suspected that he must have something to do with Liu Xuanmao. "Envoy Liu, who said that this matter has something to do with me?"
Wang Xu felt the anger in his brother's tone, and he felt relieved. This matter had nothing to do with his brother. At this time, he became more and more dissatisfied with Su Wei, and stood up and said, "I want to talk to Su Wei about this matter."
It is clear that he cannot speak nonsense like this and trap the Wang family injustice. I guess the city of Taiyuan has been circulating in a lot of controversy."
Liu Xuanmao sighed, "Mingdahuang, please be careful not to be impatient. Su Wei is a senior prime minister and an old minister of the founding country of the Sui Dynasty. He has long been a cunning man in the officialdom. How could he talk nonsense about such a major matter? He will say this,
For a reason, Brother Mingda still thinks about it, what is the motivation for him to say this?"
Wang Xu slowly sat down again and fell into deep thoughts.
...
Just as Liu Xuanmao visited Wang Xu, a heavyweight guest came to the residence of Prime Minister Su Wei, Han Shouzhong, the censor of the Sui Dynasty. Currently, Du Ruhui served as the Censor of the Sui Dynasty.
The reform of the Taiwan system deepened, and the censor gradually became a false position, and the real power began to be in the hands of two censors who supervised the books.
Han Shouzhong was one of them, responsible for the supervision of all officials in the capital, and another censor, the Censor of the Secretariat, was appointed by Zhang Liang, the Neishishu, who was responsible for supervising local counties.
Han Shouzhong is from Jingzhao and is a fellow villager with Su Wei. He has been from a poor family since childhood. He is about 35 or 36 years old. He was originally a Sima of Hanzhong County. He was an honest and upright official. All the officials of the court were quite satisfied with him, but he got Su Wei.
He highly recommended it, so he naturally had the mark of the Su Party.
From ancient times to the present, factional struggles and power struggles have always been the main line of the officialdom. The fundamental purpose is to distribute interests. As a superior, this kind of struggle is also needed as a means to control court officials.
Of course, any kind of power struggle must be limited. Once it is out of control, it will fall into a riot of the clique and cause a crisis in the court. In history, such crises occurred in the late Tang and late Ming dynasties.
Yang Yuanqing also acknowledged that the faction of the court appeared, but in fact he could not stop it. As long as there are literati, there will be struggles and will not change according to his will.
At present, the factions of the imperial court are relatively clear, mainly based on major famous families, such as the Pei Dang, the Wang Dang, the Su Dang, the Hebei Group and the Fengzhou Group.
The Su Party is a relatively weak faction, mainly because Su Wei did not have a strong family background, but with his qualifications and prestige, he also successfully gathered a group of court officials by his side, such as Han Shouzhong, the Censor of the Shushu.
Gao Dehong, Minister of the Inner History, and Xu Wenyuan, Priest of the Imperial College, etc.
Han Shouzhong's visit tonight is of great significance to Su Wei.