Madam, don't do this!

Chapter 245 The Embroidered Uniform Guard? (1)

Liu Yisheng frowned, and when he mentioned that Prince Fu had a problem, he seemed hesitant, with some uncertainty in his expression. Song Yan then understood that Liu Yisheng's investigation into Prince Fu might be facing some obstacles.

"How to say?"

Liu Yisheng pursed his lips: "If we only look at the information that can be gathered on the surface, Prince Fu is simply a model prince. He has no interest in power or fame, and only likes to travel around, cultivate Taoism and refine elixirs. His footprints have covered almost every corner of Ning Kingdom."

"Even places like Liaodong and Jin have been visited by Prince Fu."

"About twenty years ago, Prince Fu traveled to Shanxi and visited various famous mountains and rivers. In the same year, he met a woman in Shanxi who later became Princess Fu."

"I can't find out if this Princess Fu is related to the Eight Great Families, but it's certain that she came from a forbidden area."

"What's strange is that, apart from the title of Princess Fu, I couldn't find out the princess's real name, and there was no family in the Dingzhou area who claimed to be from the Princess Fu's family."

“The royal archives must contain records, but those are not things I can see.”

Song Yan nodded slightly, roughly understanding Liu Yisheng's confusion.

Even if Prince Fu cannot inherit the throne, he is still a prince, and a prince's marriage is related to the royal bloodline, so the woman's background will naturally be thoroughly investigated. Historically, it is not uncommon for enemies to marry their women into the royal family and then seek revenge.

An investigation will inevitably leave traces; how could they not even know the princess's name?
Moreover, she is a princess. As long as you are associated with the princess, you are considered a member of the royal family. Under normal circumstances, there should be many people who would come out from the corners and claim to be relatives of the princess. How could there be no family members from her mother's side?
“Prince Fu enjoys traveling to famous mountains and rivers, while Princess Fu lives a secluded life, spending most of her time in the Prince's residence. Unless absolutely necessary, she will never go out, and even for various banquets, she will decline if possible…” Liu Yisheng continued, “It’s as if she wants to…”

Song Yan sighed and replied, "Is it like trying to completely erase one's existence from everyone's sight?"

Liu Yisheng clapped his hands and replied, "That's exactly right."

"So far, the effect is good. People have almost forgotten about the existence of this princess. They only remember that there is such a person when she is specifically mentioned."

Everything seemed normal; for the emperor, these should have been the most worry-free younger brother and sister-in-law.

A brief silence fell over the guest room as Liu Yisheng and Song Yan pondered something.

Soon, Liu Yisheng breathed a sigh of relief: "Also, Prince Fu only has one queen, no concubines, and it is said that he doesn't even have any maids in his room."

"As for offspring, he only has one daughter, Princess Gaoyang."

"I heard that when Princess Consort of Fu gave birth to Princess Gaoyang, she had a difficult childbirth and almost lost her life. Since then, Prince Fu has not planned to have any more children."

Song Yan grinned and said, "He's quite the romantic."

"Haha, who knows."

"Is there any connection between Prince Fu and the eight prominent families of Jin? Especially the Fan family?"

Liu Yisheng shook his head again: "Even if there is a connection, it is an extremely confidential matter. Our intelligence system is still not good enough, and we currently have no way to access such secrets."

Song Yan could understand.

This is the difference in terms of foundation.

Even though he had several thousand elite soldiers under his command, he was far inferior to those aristocratic families with thousands of years of history in other aspects. This was not only due to land, money, cultural heritage, and influence in the imperial court, but also because of the huge gap in intelligence gathering capabilities.

“My lord should start working on creating a secret service.” Looking at Song Yan, Liu Yisheng said in a deep voice, “Although I have selected some clever men from among our people, these brothers are good at fighting and killing, but they are still a bit lacking in intelligence gathering.”

Song Yan felt a little strange and wondered if he should try establishing a Jinyiwei (Imperial Guard).

"What about Jiao Junze? Have you found anything?"

“No, there’s not a single suspicious point.” Liu Yisheng grinned. “This guy’s resume is simply perfect. He climbed up from the bottom and relied on his merits to become the governor of Dingzhou. He didn’t curry favor with anyone, and his achievements were not exaggerated at all. When he was the governor of Dingzhou, he was fair and just in enforcing the law. He didn’t embezzle or accept bribes. He was a model official. He’s the kind of person you can’t find the slightest fault with.”

A strange light flashed in Liu Yisheng's eyes, as if he had encountered a challenge. Sometimes, the more problems you can't find, the more problematic they are.

Song Yan narrowed his eyes. Jiao Junze was able to take advantage of his sister-in-law's massacre of Fan Dabiao's lineage to slaughter all the servants and young men of the Fan family and plunder hundreds of thousands of taels of silver from the Fan family. This alone was enough to prove that he was definitely a ruthless person, and at least not as clean as the investigation revealed.

Then why tear off the mask of pretense because of the sister-in-law?
In that situation, perhaps the best decision would have been to have someone attack and kill Luo Tianyi with a flurry of blows.

The idea that the eldest princess could speak on his behalf in court to avoid attacks from the civil officials was utter nonsense in Song Yan's eyes. Looking at Jiao Junze's resume, it was clear that someone was backing him; this person wielded considerable influence in the Ning Kingdom's court, capable of protecting at least one person's meteoric rise to power without a problem.

However, this person is extremely well hidden, and nothing can be found out for the time being.

Jiao Junze's deliberate letting Luo Tianyi go is intriguing. Was he trying to use her as leverage? Song Yan sighed heavily: "Has the new Minister of Rites been confirmed?" To be honest, the position of Minister of Rites is a bit awkward.

The most important matters of state are sacrifice and war.

The sacrificial rites involved worshipping Heaven and Earth, sages, and ancestors, praying for favorable weather and national prosperity. These rites were primarily conducted by the Ministry of Rites, which was nominally the head of the Six Ministries.

However, the Ministry of Rites did not often have the opportunity to visit the Imperial Ancestral Temple and pay homage to Heaven and Earth. Most of the time, the Ministry of Rites had nothing to do, and with nothing to do, there was no money to be made. Therefore, the Ministry of Rites was also known as a "clean" department.

However, even the most obscure government offices eventually see the light at the end of the tunnel, and that is... the imperial examinations.

For scholars, the imperial examination was an opportunity to rewrite their destiny.

Passing the imperial examination with flying colors is like a fish leaping over the dragon gate.

For the country, scientific expeditions are an important means of selecting talent, so every scientific expedition is given great importance.

The imperial examinations, from setting the questions and supervising the exams to grading the papers, were almost entirely handled by officials from the Ministry of Rites. It could be said that the Ministry of Rites' power reached its peak at this time, making it the most lucrative period for personal gain. Similarly, controlling the Ministry of Rites made it easier to install one's own people through the imperial examinations. For example, when Yang Guochen controlled the Ministry of Rites, he could easily ensure that members of the Yang family passed the examinations, and with a little maneuvering, they could be appointed to official positions throughout Ningguo.

Therefore, removing Yang Guochen this time is a very heavy blow to the Yang family.

Liu Yisheng smiled. In some ways, matters of the court like these are the easiest to find out, since everything is out in the open, and with the right channels, one can easily find out everything.
"The Minister of Rites holds a high position and wields great power. He is not appointed arbitrarily. Usually, the three provinces jointly draft a list of about ten people, which is then submitted to the emperor for review. The emperor will then select one of them to serve as the Minister of Rites. Even so, the person who will actually become the Minister of Rites on this list is basically already decided in advance, and the others are mostly just there to fill the role."

"According to the information I've gathered, there are three main candidates vying for the position of Minister of Rites this time..."

"Firstly, Huang Wentao, formerly the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, was talented but eccentric, rigid, and even single-mindedly wanted to restore the Zhou rites and advocated the supremacy of the monarch. He was a born royalist."

"Secondly, Guo Dong, as the lord knows, aristocratic families like the Yang and Fang families often do things like helping the local people and building bridges and roads to maintain their family reputation. Guo Dong was talented from a young age, but his family fell into decline. Because of the Yang family's help, he had the opportunity to continue his studies. He then participated in the imperial examination and became the top scholar in the prefecture, becoming famous for a time. The Yang family saw that this boy had a bright future, so they married him to a concubine's daughter from a side branch of the clan."

"Thirdly, there was a student from Bailu Academy who was originally the Chancellor of the Imperial Academy."

"The rest of the people are also mostly connected with the three major factions, but their status and abilities are not as good as these three."

"As for who will ultimately win, it depends on which of the three factions has the most capable methods."

Song Yan's lips curled into a slight smile: "What about Xilin Academy? Don't they have anyone they recommended?"

"Most of the officials at Xilin Academy are in the lower to middle ranks," Liu Yisheng said, shrugging. "They don't yet have the ability to become ministers in the Six Ministries."

"Is there anyone who has absolutely no connection with any of the major factions?"

"There is...Lu Yuanzheng!"

"Former Prefect of Dongling Prefecture".

“In an imperial city like Dongling, the position of prefect is the most difficult. There are too many powerful and arrogant people. If you are not careful, you may offend some big shot. If you offend someone, you may lose your official position or even your life.”

"Therefore, the governors of Dongling Prefecture throughout the ages have been extremely cautious, but even so, most of them did not meet a good end."

Clearly, Liu Yisheng had obtained detailed intelligence through some channel and had a good understanding of most of these people:

"Lu Yuanzheng, however, was an anomaly among anomalies. In just three years as the Prefect of Dongling, he dealt with the legitimate sons of three dukes and the offspring of nine marquises. Even the sons of the six ministers and their servants were arrested without hesitation."

"I heard that in the first year after he took office, the Prince of Fu, who had been traveling, returned to the capital and rode his horse wildly on the streets of Dongling. Lu Yuanzheng threw him into prison. In the end, it was the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs that got him out. After all, the Prefect of Dongling Prefecture has no jurisdiction over members of the royal family. This is the responsibility of the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs."

"The Imperial Clan Court got Prince Fu out and released him on the street. Because of this, Lu Yuanzheng wrote several memorials to impeach Prince Fu and the Grand Master of the Imperial Clan Court. It seemed that the matter would not be over until Prince Fu was dealt with, which made everyone in the Imperial Clan Court curse their bad luck for getting involved with such a piece of dog shit."

"In the end, having no other choice, they pretended to lock Prince Fu in the Imperial Clan Court for two days before the matter was considered closed."

"Since then, Lu Yuanzheng has been known as the Iron-Headed Kid. Even the imperial relatives and nobles have been constantly restraining their clan members to behave properly in front of Lu Yuanzheng. It is said that the reason he was nominated this time is because a group of nobles had been tormented and wanted to replace him from the position of Prefect of Dongling."

As Liu Yisheng spoke, his words were full of admiration.

Only Song Yan narrowed his eyes to slits, a cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth: "Judging from this, Lu Yuanzheng should be the next Minister of Rites."

Prince Fu.

There really is a problem!
(End of this chapter)