Changsheng: Peak at the Beginning

Chapter 1485: Legend of the Hidden Sea 5

Emperor Zhenshun has repeatedly selected students from Jiangnan, and there are still twenty or thirty candidates who are suitable to be the Princess of Qinghe. Then he feels that students from other places cannot be ignored. After all, even though it is well known that Jiangnan is the place with the most prosperous literary style, students from Shu are not much inferior, and some even look better than those from Jiangnan.

Emperor Zhenshun was actually somewhat dissatisfied with the Duweisi. After all, it was because of the Duweisi's carelessness that the matter of him selecting a princess for Prince Qinghe was leaked. Now, some voices of dissatisfaction had been heard in various guild halls in the capital.

Shi Quan had been kneeling in Hanzhang Hall for nearly two hours, not daring to move at all. He wished he could disappear immediately, but unfortunately, sometimes what you fear will come true.

Hearing the eunuch coming in to report that Prince Qinghe had arrived, he felt as if he were falling into an abyss.

Xiao Jinyue certainly had no opinion about the eunuch group. After all, in her eyes, all beings were equal. It was just that she really couldn't stand some individuals.

For example, Shi Quan in front of him, she just nodded slightly when she came in, and before she could even bend her knees, Emperor Zhenshun pulled her over and said, "Yue'er is here, you did a good job with the imperial mausoleum."

"Now the position of the Director of the Imperial Observatory is vacant. What do you think?"

The Imperial Observatory not only predicted good fortune and misfortune for the royal family and the people of the world, but also observed celestial phenomena and geography, and most importantly, calculated solar terms and formulated calendars. This cannot be summarized by just one sentence of ancient astronomers and geographers.

A truly outstanding official of the Imperial Observatory was also a very good mathematician.

However, Xiao Jinyue had no idea about the Imperial Observatory, and directly replied to Emperor Zhenshun: "The Imperial Observatory has a low official position and has little presence in the court. It would be better to choose someone with real talent and knowledge."

After hearing Xiao Jinyue's answer, Emperor Zhenshun knew that she looked down on people who used celestial phenomena and fortune to make a fuss. He sighed inwardly, yet couldn't help feeling proud.

Before he ascended the throne, he was extremely cautious and treacherous towards the Empress Dowager, Prince of Linzi, and even towards the previous emperor. After he ascended the throne, he was still under the control of the Empress Dowager and Prince of Linzi. In particular, he could not have other offspring, and the court officials could not completely stand on his side. So he could only stay in Hanzhang Palace or Chengpingxuan, doing carpentry work, earning some money for his own private treasury while relieving his endless worries.

So sometimes, he wished that Xiao Jinyue was a prince, and now he also wanted to adopt Xiao Jinyue's son as his grandson to inherit the throne, but he never thought of passing the throne directly to Xiao Jinyue.

Firstly, as a father, he was jealous of the child's strength and ability; secondly, he himself was not confident that he could suppress the voices of opposition.

Xiao Jinyue knew all this very well, but she had experienced a lot and was no longer at the age of being provoked. Whenever she thought about the things that an emperor needed to worry about, she felt overwhelmed, so she acquiesced in Emperor Zhenshun's approach.

Especially since Dayong was established nearly a hundred years ago, and none of the previous emperors could be called the ruler of the revival. She had no interest in personally saving this mess.

After that, Emperor Zhenshun mentioned the Pingjin Marquis Mansion again. He was very dissatisfied with Zhuang Luyin and Zhuang Zhifu, and was also unhappy with Xiao Jinyue's behavior of letting them go. "Zhuang Zhifu was so greedy that he even coveted the money for repairing the imperial mausoleum. Why did you insist on saving their lives?"

Xiao Jinyue really wanted to pry open Emperor Zhenshun's brain to see what was inside. "Father, most of the civil officials now stand with Prince Linzi. Even though we have trained a lot of people, none of them have reached a high position."

"I finally found a way to destroy the Queen Mother and Prince Linzi's hope of winning over the generals to control the military power. Please don't make things difficult for me and turn around and help the enemy!"

Seeing his precious daughter, Emperor Zhenshun couldn't help but blush, and coaxed her softly, "Okay, okay, it's your fault. The civil and military officials in the court are just tools for the emperor to govern the country. How can they deserve such a big honor?"

Xiao Jinyue sighed and said, "The Zhuang family has fought bravely for our Great Yong for generations, defending the borders and the country. As long as they don't commit crimes and behave themselves, we can't take the initiative to do anything to such a family of generations of meritorious service. Otherwise, who would dare to work for us?"

Emperor Zhenshun wanted to say that the world was so big and Dayong was full of talented people that his Zhuang family was not lacking, but seeing Xiao Jinyue's disapproval in her heart, he could only swallow his words.

Shi Quan, who was kneeling aside and listening to the whole process, had new feelings about Xiao Jinyue, the King of Qinghe.

In the past, he only knew that Xiao Jinyue had killed Prince Linzi when the previous emperor was still alive, and barely escaped the blame by exposing the fact that Prince Yongrong had difficulty in having an heir due to the Queen Mother and Prince Linzi's lineage. Later, when Emperor Zhenshun came to power, saving her, the princess, from the Queen Mother and Prince Linzi was nothing, if nothing else.

Later, when she was coming of age, Xiao Jinyue came up with a method of wool weaving and designed a relatively complete method to provide relief to the elderly, weak, sick and disabled military households. She directly won over the garrisons from all directions and cut off the Queen Mother and Prince Linzi's connections in the army.

But she has always had the reputation of being arrogant and domineering. Her every move seems to have ulterior motives in the eyes of others. Even Shi Quan, the eunuch who served Emperor Zhenshun personally, almost mistook him for Prince Qinghe!

Unlike what Emperor Zhenshun thought, Shi Quan misunderstood that Emperor Zhenshun might intend to push Xiao Jinyue, the Prince of Qinghe, to the throne, so now he just wanted to test whether he had room for maneuver in front of the Prince of Qinghe. After all, he had seen the methods of the Prince of Qinghe. Even if the Prince of Qinghe was lucky enough not to be able to ascend to the throne, the four armies in the southeast, northwest, northeast and southwest, as well as the 20,000 soldiers and horses in the camp outside the capital were enough to ensure the continuation of her power.

Others may not know, but how could they not know that many civil servants were actually wavering between Emperor Zhenshun, Prince of Linzi and the Queen Mother?

This is because if Prince Qinghe does not take action, it is fine, but once he does, it will be fair and honest and his attack will hit the target.

They even knew that many civil officials privately regretted that Prince Qinghe was not a prince but just a princess.

Due to the special situation of Qinghe Palace, Xiao Jinyue specifically asked Emperor Zhenshun to appoint a female official from the palace as the Chief Clerk of the Palace. This Chief Clerk, Shen Mudan, was very clear about her ambitions and worked wholeheartedly for the Palace. She even used her old friendship to establish relationships with Zhenlouxiang Antiu and the Eighth Young Master.

It's just that both parties have not yet brought these relationships to the surface, and everything is being done in secret. Or it can be said that although everything seems clear on Shen Mudan's side, she is actually the one who benefits the most from the relationship between the three.

For example, the true identities of Xiang Antu and the Eighth Young Master.

It was a day off, and Shen Mudan went to the Pillow Tower to have fun as usual, but she didn't expect that Xiang Antu would take the initiative to mention someone.

Xiang Antu personally poured a cup of tea for Shen Mudan and said with a smile: "You stay in the palace all day, I'm afraid you don't know the inside story of the imperial mausoleum."

Shen Mudan put on a similar smiling face and asked back: "How do you know I don't know?"

Xiang Antu covered her mouth and smiled: "Everyone knows that there are no common people coming and going in the Qinghe Palace. Officials below the fourth rank don't even know which street the Qinghe Palace is located on."