mtlumby2d Chapter 327
Chapter 327
[And that Supervising Secretary of the Six Ministries, do not look down on him just because he is only a seventh-rank official; ambition does not distinguish between high and low ranks.He also wanted to betroth his sister to Xie San, who told Xie San to enjoy composing poems and associating with literati and scholars on normal days.
This attracted a group of people from humble backgrounds who clearly had no talent but felt they were geniuses.
Their hearts were higher than the sky, unwilling to be ordinary, always having an overarching ambition to climb up. What could yield greater returns than the merit of supporting a new emperor from the very beginning?]
The sovereign and ministers of the Great Yan dynasty nodded silently. Regardless of whether those people could succeed, just speaking of the merits, one could bring honors to their wives and sons, and be appointed as marquises and chancellors.
Apart from the merit of following the Great Ancestor to conquer the world from scratch and establish a dynasty, the next greatest was the merit of supporting a new emperor!
And at this moment, Xie Zhixin, who was called out, finally personally felt the helplessness and terror that his second brother had just endured from their imperial father's coercion and the inexplicable glances swept over by the ministers, intentionally or unintentionally.
He was actually guiltier than Xie Zhimin. After all, unlike his second brother, his wife's family and mother's family were deeply tied together as maternal relatives.
Behind him stood his maternal grandfather's Cui family, an aristocratic family with a heritage of three to four hundred years, and his fiancée's Bai family also had a heritage of two to three hundred years. Both families had many civil officials and scholars over the generations, and their ancestors had even sat in the position of chancellor in the previous dynasty.
The first top scholar in the imperial examination at the founding of Great Yan came from the Bai family. When his imperial father was still the crown prince, in order to gain the support of the Cui and Bai families as well as the scholarly circles, he took his mother and Consort De into the palace.
If it were not for the Junior Preceptor pressing down from above, Xie Zhixin had to put away his ambitions. He was very certain that he would definitely fight his second brother for the throne, just like in the original historical timeline.
But now there were three great mountains pressing on his head: first, the Crown Prince; second, his imperial father; and the biggest one was Junior Preceptor Yue Fuguang.
He could ignore the first and curry favor with the second, but as for The Immortal Lord, she seemed to have no flaws or weaknesses at all, and her temperament was even more unpredictable. He had no way of pleasing or manipulating her.
Thinking of this, Xie Zhixin swallowed hard. Looking up, he met the Junior Preceptor's half-smiling eyes.
Yue Fuguang: Little brat, if it were not for the newly refreshed mission prompt, she would have almost forgotten about the two brothers who had been playing dumb.
It was also because her missions had gone too smoothly that she underestimated the people of the world.
Daring to play tricks in front of her, then today she would use a real ghost to scare them!
"Xie Zhixin and Xie Zhimin, are they impatiently jumping out before the Crown Prince is even dead?"
[They are now equivalent to the hope of the whole village. Whether they truly want it in their hearts or not, they have already been propped up by the people below.
People want the merit of supporting a new emperor, so they will push the two to fight.
Especially Xie Zhixin, his maternal grandfather and wife's family are both of aristocratic origin. The assassination of the Fourth Prince and the Ninth Prince had the shadows and silver of these two families behind it.
After all, the Cui and Bai families are very happy to eliminate two competitors for Xie the Third.]
Hearing that the Cui and Bai families had actually participated in the assassination of Xie Si and Xie Jiu behind his back, Xie Zhixin, who originally had a bit of a fluke mentality to muddle through, completely panicked!
He suddenly looked up, meeting his imperial father's sharp eyes and the bloodthirsty smile curling at the corners of his mouth. At this moment, Xie Zhixin felt as if he were standing on the vast and dead Homeland-Viewing Platform in place of Xie Zhiwei.
Before this, he was clearly the victim. Who could tell him how, in just a short while, he had become the perpetrator!
Xie Zhixin thought with a pale face, the disadvantage of the Cui and Bai families was exactly that few high-ranking officials attending the court sessions could hear the Junior Preceptor's inner thoughts.
Of the three people from the two families who could stand in the court, every single one of them had never heard a tiny bit.
Even when facing the often bizarre atmosphere in the court, they never thought deeply about it, still holding onto the plaque of their century-old aristocratic families with complacency.
Looking down on those ministers who rose from humble backgrounds and the civil and military officials who started with the Great Ancestor.
Calling them mud-legs and upstarts!
Now it was great, boasting of wide connections and being well-informed, yet they were excluded from the biggest secret and opportunity of this court.
At this time, Xie Zhixin did not dare to look back at his two uncles and prospective father-in-law.
Although the three of them were not yet the heads of their families, they were all younger generations entrusted with heavy responsibilities by their respective family heads. It was impossible for them to be completely ignorant of the hired killings.
Meanwhile, Cui Quan, Cui Shu, and Bai Jingyuan were also slowly realizing that something was wrong.
What did it mean that their colleagues standing next to them were silently moving away from them?
Just now, they had acted like they had seen a ghost, but the three of them had not made it that obvious. Why were these people acting like this now?
Along with their small movements, a sudden panic inexplicably arose in the three of them.
Their necks felt cold, and why did they have the illusion that their heads were about to fall off?
Feeling guilty but unable to find the source, the three carefully peeked upward, only to meet Emperor Mingxi's sharp gaze and the faint murderous intent hidden within.
In an instant, a cold sweat broke out on their backs, and the great hall felt three degrees colder than before.
Cui Quan thought things were going to turn bad and silently prepared to enter the palace after the morning court to seek an audience with his niece, Consort Rong, to sound her out.
Recently, it seemed the Cui family had not done anything excessive other than making a move against the Fourth and Ninth Princes.
But their Emperor had always been muddle-headed and surely would not find out those things were related to them!
"Little Zhu, are you saying that the deaths of Xie Si and Xie Jiu are related to the Cui and Bai families?"
Although these two both had reasons to die, and they did indeed take the blame for her, they died before they had time to commit any sins.
As a bystander and beneficiary, she could casually mention that their early death was better than dying later, but Yue Fuguang would not disregard this favor because of it.
So, while completing the task of cleaning up the aristocratic families, avenging the two of them was just a convenient side task.
[It is indeed inextricably linked. Master, the Great Yan Dynasty has eight major aristocratic families and twelve minor ones.
The word minor here is in comparison to the eight major families, which have a heritage of three to four hundred years, possessing massive wealth and cultural lineage.
In fact, the minor families are also behemoths to many people.]
Yue Fuguang nodded. As the saying goes, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse; the minor families were not something declining humble families could compare to.
[To protect their own interests, these aristocratic families formed an alliance to resist imperial power and anyone who damages their interests.]
"Because the papermaking and printing techniques dug up the roots of their control over the cultural lineage, they assassinated Xie Si and Xie Jiu, who took the blame for me?"
[It indeed started because of the printing and papermaking techniques, but the Cui and Bai families exerted the most effort, also because it involved the battle for the succession.
Without these two families fueling the flames, they would not still be holding onto it after the printing and papermaking techniques became an established fact.
The interior of the aristocratic families is not a monolith either. On the surface, led by the Cui and Bai families, they support Xie San, who has aristocratic bloodlines.