Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 461 Proportion
Li Shishi was stunned.

I didn't know how to comment for a moment.

Pei Yuan continued with a sneer, "A woman in the deep palace intends to humiliate the Queen Xia family and vent her anger for her brother. She is afraid of attracting criticism and wants to please the court officials and win their support."

"Isn't this a good opportunity? Isn't this something she has caught?"

Li Shishi listened to Pei Yuan's words and said in disbelief, "The Queen Mother wouldn't be so unwise, right?"

Pei Yuan smiled.

The Empress Dowager Zhang, a short-sighted brother-supporting woman, used to have her husband to support her, so she could do whatever she wanted. Even if something went wrong, her husband would bite the bullet and clean up the mess for the Zhang family.

But now, she still wants to use her old ideas to unscrupulously protect her evil brother.

I can only say that I really took it for granted.

Pei Yuan sighed, "The emperor has grown up. He is no longer a child who can be spanked at will to please his ministers."

Pei Yuan's experiences over the past few days have made him somewhat empathize with the emperor's situation of being "childless".

Originally, Pei Yuan was nonchalant and careless about it.

But since he began to pay attention to this matter, Pei Yuan was affected by the anxiety and started to be paranoid from time to time.

As the most powerful monarch in the world, Zhu Houzhao must have felt even more ashamed and embarrassed when he was repeatedly exposed by court officials on this matter.

But Zhu Houzhao had some shameful love for Long Yang.

The memorials from court officials urging Zhu Houzhao to quickly appoint an heir must have made Zhu Houzhao suspicious, thinking that those people were secretly mocking him and laughing at him for only focusing on a man who could not give birth to a son.

So when Li Shishi stood up to support Zhu Houzhao at this time, Zhu Houzhao was very moved.

Moreover, Li Shishi also pulled the queen out to help Zhu Houzhao share the firepower.

The ministers disliked Zhu Houzhao, but the queen was always innocent, right?

The empress is less than twenty years old and has done nothing wrong. She is fully capable of giving birth to her own legitimate son. Why should she be in such a hurry to let the emperor adopt a son of the royal family?

In this case, where does the ministers' actions put the queen?

The angle of Li Shishi's attack was so tricky that all the ministers were speechless for a moment.

If the emperor was just being naughty, everyone could advise him and use all kinds of high-sounding excuses to cover it up.

But when it comes to the Queen, things become less easy.

Because many people know that the queen did nothing wrong, and Li Shishi jumped out to morally blackmail her. He is really a piece of shit!
Zhu Houzhao thought he had barely gotten through this hurdle, and was secretly rejoicing and forcing himself to continue the court meeting. Unexpectedly, not long after, Empress Dowager Zhang came to convey an imperial decree, saying that the Queen's bedroom was not clean and so on.

Such vague and revealing words made Zhu Houzhao's brain explode.

He almost thought he was being cheated on.

Fortunately, Zhu Houzhao calmed down quickly and realized the problem immediately. Since it was just a move and repair, it was obviously not a big problem.

He was not cheated!
He was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but he keenly noticed that the civil and military officials in the court were looking at Li Shishi, who had just spoken for him, with a teasing look.

Then Zhu Houzhao immediately understood the hidden malice in the eyes of the court officials.

——You just said that the queen did not do anything immoral, is that not necessarily true?
The blood vessels in Zhu Houzhao's forehead were throbbing, but he didn't know how to express his anger. He threw his arms and knocked everything on the imperial desk to the ground.

The ministers were so frightened that they dared not make any more noise.

Li Shishi thought about what happened at that time, and then thought about Pei Yuan's analysis just now. Suddenly, his heart jumped. He looked at Pei Yuan in doubt and said, "My dear brother, you asked me to submit this memorial. Are you plotting against me?"

Pei Yuan rolled his eyes and said hypocritically, "My elder brother and I are as close as brothers, why would I plot against you?"

"Besides, I am just a small Jinyiwei captain. Even if I want to plot against you, can I plot against the Queen Mother?"

What Pei Yuan miscalculated was that he did not expect that the previous stereotype would make Li Shishi casually say, "That's hard to say."

Li Shishi originally said it unintentionally, but after he finished speaking, thinking about the whole thing, he actually became a little suspicious.

"Why do I feel like I am the bait you handed to me, waiting for the Queen Mother to bite the hook?"

Pei Yuan was heartbroken when he saw that Li Shishi actually doubted him because he trusted him too much. "Why did Dadu Xian say that? I only figured this out after you told me."

"And think about it carefully. If it weren't for the Queen Mother's recklessness, wouldn't the Emperor have already praised you?"

Li Shishi's suspicion gradually faded, and he sighed, "That's right."

Then he turned his anger on her and said, "That Jin Gui is really a piece of shit. When I get back to the Censorate, I'll check the files to see if there's anything that can impeach him."

Pei Yuan made a bold suggestion, "The emperor is smart, I'm afraid he will soon figure out the queen mother's intentions."

"In order to support the Zhang brothers and win over the court officials, Empress Dowager Zhang once again catered to the opinions of the important officials and embarrassed the emperor."

"Instead of impeaching Jin Gui, you might as well impeach Zhang Heling to vent the emperor's anger."

Li Shishi was shocked. "Zhang Heling? No, no!"

At the beginning, Li Mengyang was disgusted by the fact that the Zhang brothers "rely on their favor and are arrogant, and no one dares to question them", so he wrote a letter to the court to speak out, and wrote the famous "Responding to the Imperial Edict to Point Out the Truth", which directly pointed out the "two problems, three harms, and six gradual changes" of the current ills.

He also listed many crimes of the Zhang brothers, including "recruiting scoundrels, exploiting thieves, seizing people's land, demolishing people's houses, abducting people's children, intercepting merchants' goods, occupying salt taxes, running rampant on rivers and lakes, raising yellow flags, and being as powerful as winged tigers."

As a result, despite Li Mengyang's great reputation, he was almost killed because of Empress Dowager Zhang's tantrum.

Although Emperor Hongzhi showed some protection to Li Mengyang, Li Mengyang was eventually framed and tortured by the Zhang brothers.

The silence of Emperor Hongzhi further fueled the arrogance of the Zhang brothers. If Li Mengyang had not been so famous and had not had many people come to rescue him, he would probably have ended up dying in prison.

As for the matter of Zhang Lian, the Censor of this dynasty, there is no need to say more. The matter of Zhang's daughter is still the gossip of many people after drinking.

Li Shishi was an old and experienced man, so he certainly knew who he could afford to offend and who he could not afford to offend.

Now that the Queen Mother has assisted the court officials twice, they have realized that the Queen Mother may become an important bargaining chip to check and balance the Emperor.

As long as the court officials continued to favor the Zhang brothers and obtained more evidence of their crimes, it would be equivalent to holding Empress Dowager Zhang's weak spot.

For the sake of the Zhang brothers, Empress Dowager Zhang might make a compromise at a critical moment.

Under such circumstances, it would make no sense for the ministers to take the initiative to kill the hostages.

If Li Shishi impeached the Zhang brothers, not only would no one come out to help him, but he might even have to bear the Queen Mother's wrath alone.

Seeing that Li Shishi was not fooled, Pei Yuan sighed and said, "Forget it, forget it. I gave you a chance but you couldn't grasp it. Go ahead."

Li Shishi said with lingering fear, "My elder brother is timid and cannot accept this wealth. Goodbye, goodbye!" After Li Shishi left, Pei Yuan estimated that it was time for Zhu Houzhao to see him, so he quickly asked someone to pack up for him.

Apart from anything else, it was he who submitted the report on the uncleanness of the Queen's bedroom.

Zhu Houzhao must ask in person what is going on.

Sure enough, when Pei Yuan had packed up, a eunuch from the palace came to convey the emperor's order, asking Pei Yuan to enter the palace to see the emperor.

Pei Yuan did not bring anyone else with him and followed the eunuch straight into the palace.

While the palace gate was being searched, a eunuch wearing a bright red dragon robe came rushing over, surrounded by a group of eunuchs.

Pei Yuan took a look and saw that it was Zhang Rui, the eunuch from the East Factory who had been causing trouble many times before.

Zhang Rui looked at Pei Yuan with a smile, "Captain Pei, are you going to see the emperor?"

Pei Yuan replied calmly, "I suddenly heard the emperor summon me, but I don't know what it is."

Zhang Rui restrained his smile and did not try to hide it, "It should be that incident. Captain Pei, you better take care of yourself."

Pei Yuan was about to evade the question, but he saw Zhang Rui staring at him, as if he wanted to hear something definite from him.

Pei Yuan thought to himself that he had already decided to take down the Zhang family, so there was no room for compromise.

I wanted to make my stance clear, but then I changed my mind. Our relationship was bound to deteriorate anyway, so what if I just lied to him again?

Then he said, "I know what to say."

Zhang Rui then showed a smile, "As long as you know your limits."

After Zhang Rui left, the eunuchs quickly took Pei Yuan to meet Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Houzhao was standing with his hands behind his back outside the hall where they had met last time. His face looked as if covered with frost and was extremely ugly.

Pei Yuan stepped forward and greeted him respectfully.

Zhu Houzhao stared at Pei Yuan and asked rudely, "What's going on with the queen's bedroom?"

Pei Yuan spoke up and said truthfully, "I found traces of a wandering soul in the side hall of the Queen's bedroom, but I don't know who it is or when it happened."

Hearing that was all, Zhu Houzhao's expression remained grim. "That's all?"

Pei Yuan replied, "That's all. I have reported it truthfully."

Zhu Houzhao fell silent.

If Pei Yuan reported the truth, then it would be obvious who was deliberately misleading the court officials about the "uncleanliness of the Queen's bedroom".

Zhu Houzhao was silent for a long time, waved his hand to signal Pei Yuan to leave, and slowly walked towards the center of the hall.

Seeing this, Pei Yuan knew that haste makes waste, so he stood up and walked out without saying anything.

After walking more than ten steps, he suddenly heard Zhu Houzhao shouting from afar, "Stop!"

Pei Yuan quickly turned around, bowed respectfully, and then stepped forward quickly and said, "I am here."

Zhu Houzhao was in a bad mood. He looked at Pei Yuan and said, "Pei Qing is also a man of talent and wisdom. What do you think about this matter?"

Pei Yuan pretended to be confused when he heard this, and said, "It's just a few minor matters. I have already dealt with them. There is nothing to see."

Zhu Houzhao said impatiently, "I was talking about what happened at the morning court meeting."

Pei Yuan lowered his head quickly, "I don't know."

Zhu Houzhao said, "That is..."

After saying two words, he waved his hand impatiently, "Forget it, what do you know?"

Just as he was about to ask Pei Yuan to leave again, Pei Yuan replied at the right time, "Could it be that the heated discussion these days is that His Majesty has adopted hundreds of adopted sons?"

Zhu Houzhao was worried and too lazy to explain what happened in the morning to Pei Yuan. When he heard Pei Yuan talking about this topic, he asked casually, "This adopted son strategy was carefully planned by you. How is my hand doing?"

Pei Yuan saw that the topic had turned to the direction he hoped for, and he quickly said, "Your Majesty, this move has both advantages and disadvantages."

Zhu Houzhao was a little surprised when he heard this.

Ever since the news that he had adopted hundreds of sons spread, both the court and the royal family had been condemning him.

Zhu Houzhao felt that Pei Yuan was the earliest planner of the "Adopted Son Policy". Even if others opposed it, he could see the benefits of it. He didn't expect that this guy would also say that there were some mistakes in the policy.

Zhu Houzhao said unhappily, "You don't need to tell me about the 'gains'. Tell me where the 'losses' are."

Pei Yuan was not afraid at all when he heard this, and said in a deep voice, "Your Majesty has gathered hundreds of adopted sons this time. I heard that they are all brave and capable generals in the capital army and the border army. It is not an exaggeration to say that all the heroes in the world are within Your Majesty's grasp."

Zhu Houzhao felt a little relieved after hearing this.

Pei Yuan was comparing him with Emperor Taizong of Tang.

Then Pei Yuan continued to flatter him, "With these hundreds of adopted sons, Your Majesty can firmly control half of the country."

When Zhu Houzhao heard this, he frowned and shouted, "How dare you! What do you mean by half of the country?"

Upon hearing this, Pei Yuan immediately said, "Your Majesty, when the North and South lists were being reviewed, all the northern scholars failed. Even though the capital of Nanzhili was so prosperous, only one person was on the list. Emperor Taizu was so worried and angry about this that he could not sleep or eat, so he later divided the list into two lists, the North and the South, to show his honor and favor."

"Now, your Majesty has adopted a hundred sons, all of whom are listed as the emperor's illegitimate sons, showing off his favor to the world. However, your Majesty's more than a hundred sons are either generals in the three borders or brave warriors in northern Zhili. In such a vast Jiangnan, there are not many strong and brave men among them."

"Your Majesty is not only not worried, but is proud of it. Therefore, I think that Your Majesty is not as wise as Taizu."

When Zhu Houzhao heard this, his face became serious and changed several times, but he didn't say anything.

No matter how arrogant Zhu Houzhao was, he would never think that he was more capable and ambitious than Emperor Taizu.

With Pei Yuan's deliberate guidance, Zhu Houzhao also realized his own problem. "Are you saying that the lack of southern military officers among the adopted sons will easily make them alienated?"

Pei Yuan also said solemnly, "That's right. Although the Southern Garrison is corrupt, it also controls the richest land in Ming Dynasty. These people may not be able to accomplish anything, but they are more than capable of causing trouble."

"Besides, both the Jin and Song dynasties relied on the remains of a wall and ruled by dividing the river. Why don't you understand the foresight of your great ancestor?"

Zhu Houzhao understood what he meant, "You mean, you want me to adopt some southern warriors as my adopted sons?"

Pei Yuan immediately agreed, "Yes, in this way, Your Majesty can even bypass the Ministry of War and directly influence the entire world."

Zhu Houzhao hesitated for a moment, then said to Pei Yuan, "We have adopted so many sons this time, which has already caused a stir in the court and the public. If we add more candidates, I'm afraid it will be even more chaotic. Besides, the reason I adopted sons is to reward them for their contributions in suppressing the rebellion. The Southern Guards didn't do much this time, right?"

(End of this chapter)