The banquet continued. After Li Ling and the others came out, many half-drunk officials came forward to greet each other, and even expressed their loyalty to Sun Bi with the intention of drinking. He was naturally very satisfied with this. Even though he was not very comfortable, he still greeted him one by one, almost drinking until he drank, without neglecting anyone.

However, Li Ling was obviously depressed after coming back. Although he was able to be polite and polite when facing other people's toasts, the smile on his face was quite forced. The emperor and the court's methods made him feel heartbroken and he couldn't accept it until now, which made him forget what he had thought before and took the opportunity to ask Sun Bi's opinion about Yue'er, and he might even have changed his mind a little.

Wei Liang soon found him a little strange, but he didn't ask much at the banquet. It was not until the banquet was over and the guests left and he took the opportunity and asked in a low voice: "But something happened? Why did you go out with the prince and have a worry when you come back."

Li Ling was silent for a moment, but decided to tell the teacher truthfully what he knew, so he asked him to get on his carriage, and then slowly told the emperor about the emperor's desire to push Sun Bi to fight with the prince, as well as the inside story of Huguang.

Now Wei Liang changed his face: "How dare they... Your Majesty be afraid that Huguang will cause chaos after the disaster, which will make the world unstable?"

Li Ling showed a sarcastic smile on his face: "Do you still remember the court's actions after the Jiangnan change a few years ago? Even though he knew that Jiangnan was suffering from disasters and had caused chaos, the court still had to collect sufficient money, grain and taxes? In the eyes of these high-ranking adults, the life and death of the common people is really not worth mentioning, they are just a group of ants."

Although his words were a bit extreme, Wei Liang did not refute it. After silence, he sighed: "It was all caused by the struggles in the court. It is said that since ancient times, party struggles have caused the most harm to the country and the people. I didn't understand them very much in the past, but now I really understand them."

"What's even more terrifying is that for his own power, His Majesty is still helping to increase this trend. Because he is worried that the prince is powerful, he pushed His Highness out. In order to let His Highness have his own power in the court as soon as possible, he wants to sacrifice Huguang..."

After a few words, the atmosphere in the car became heavier. The two of them no longer spoke. They only looked at each other for a while before Wei Liang said, "So you plan to take on this job and go to Huguang to provide disaster relief?"

"This is the only thing I can do for them, and Your Highness also hopes that I will help him find out the many bad policies of local officials in Huguang, so that he can truly gain a foothold in the court." Li Ling smiled bitterly. Although he did not agree with the emperor's approach, in the end, he still had to do things according to their wishes.

After a pause, he cheered up again: "And this time it's just right, both public and private affairs can be done. Then Ma Bangwen's family is in Xiangfan, Huguang. I can just go over and see what the matter is, and maybe I can find out the inside story of the previous case from them."

"Then what do you hope I can do for you?"

"I would like to ask the teacher to continue to help me investigate this case in the capital. Maybe there are other details that we have ignored. Also, it is the man named Ma Xian. Even if he uses a pseudonym, he is always a real person. As long as he is from a capital, he can find him!" Li Ling expressed his thoughts.

Wei Liang nodded: "Then I will check as you said. As long as he shows up later, he will be caught one day."

"By the way, teacher, this matter is also related to the Imperial City Department. In order to prevent them from being unfavorable to you, I will ask the Imperial City Department to send someone to protect you secretly."

"Huh?" Wei Liang couldn't understand this. What does it mean to worry that the people from the Imperial City Department are not good for him, and then ask the people from the Imperial City Department to protect him?

Li Ling hurriedly explained the struggle between the two forces within the Imperial City Department, which made Wei Liang sigh again. The Dayue court really penetrated the internal friction and internal struggle into the bones, and even such a yamen were divided into two factions.

This may be because the real leader of the Imperial City Department was Wei Tang, the eunuch who had been following the emperor. Under the influence of his eyes, he naturally learned this method of checking and balancing his subordinates. However, he did not really say this idea, and only accompanied the other party and sighed.

When Li Ling first sent Wei Liang home and returned to the mansion, it was already after the third update. Fortunately, tomorrow is still during the New Year holiday, otherwise there would be a court meeting or something, and he could go home to change his clothes and go out directly.

In fact, even though he had not returned home at this time, he went to an inconspicuous courtyard in the inner city. Few people knew that this ordinary residential courtyard had been bought by the prince, and today he stayed here as the prince's emperor.

It was not until the two officials who attended the banquet avoided the eyes and ears of many people that Sun Cong, who had been a little impatient, became energetic and saw them on the spot and asked, "How is it, are there many people going to the Laoqi banquet today?"

"If you want to go back to the prince, there are 62 officials from the capital who attended the meeting today..." After seeing the prince's face sinking, he quickly added, "But these people are just people with no real power in the yamen. In my foolish opinion, they are just a group of speculators, so there is no need to worry too much."

"I also think so. Although the King of England has been named king, his status, fame and power are far from comparable to your Highness. How many officials with real power will join him!"

"You will list the list of participants first." The prince did not relax his vigilance because of this statement, because he did feel a great threat, which was very similar to the process of King Yong being supported by his father.

All the princes who were only granted titles, so many officials took the initiative to submit. Then, under the various arrangements of the father, this group of people quickly grasped the real power of the various yamen in the court. After waiting for an opportunity, King Yong was promoted to prince and took charge of the Ministry of Justice, his prince was suppressed by him.

He didn't want the same situation to happen again. He had to suppress and remove all the followers around Sun Bi before the other party had grown up!

Under the order of the prince, the two officials did not dare to neglect, so they quickly wrote out the list of guests at today's banquet on the desk. They had taken this purpose, so they naturally paid special attention to the banquet. After a while, the list of dozens of people was written, and no one of the sixty people was left out.

The prince compared the names of officials on the list with his official positions one by one, and his face was filled with gloomy and sunny.

If it were before, he would have looked at these guys who did not have real power, he would have disdained it, but now, he had a hint of doubt in his heart: "In addition to Li Ling and Wei Liang, a few people who already had good friends with Sun Bi, only Yang Zhihe, the Ministry of Personnel, Sun Fan, and others had a little real power... But why do I always feel that things are not that simple?"

What he asked was naturally not the two confused officials in front of him, but the more trustworthy Liu brothers and Mr. Mo.

Liu Suiyun immediately took the list from him, looked at it quickly, and then frowned and said, "Your Highness, these people seem to be no threat. The only thing that is worrying is why they risked the possibility of offending Your Highness and turned to the King of England. You know, he has just been named the king and has no foundation. Even Your Majesty doesn't value him much."

"The only explanation is that they did this because they were instructed." Liu Suifeng followed and analyzed after glanced at Mr. Mo who was closing his eyes and pondering.

The previous defeat in Northern Xinjiang caused the two to lose their reputation in front of the prince. This time, I naturally hope to show some results and make meritorious service to atone for my sins.

"Then you say, who will guide them? Could it be the Father?"

"If His Majesty really took action, there wouldn't be only these people." Liu Suiyun shook his head slightly, but could not make further inferences.

At this time, Mr. Mo suddenly spoke: "Your Highness, what we should care more about is what they believe that following the King of England will be beneficial. All the officials in the court are very smart. If they cannot make a profit from it, how could they make such a choice?"

"Sir, did you think of the reason?" The prince immediately looked at him. After Mr. Mo joined his disciple, he almost always agreed and made the plan. Naturally, the prince looked up to him.

In the eyes of the Liu brothers who were full of food, Mr. Mo smiled and said, "If you think of it below, you should have the chance to fall into the hands of the King of England. Maybe there will be a wave of trouble in the court again, and a group of officials with real power will suffer."

"No, you're just guessing." Liu Suifeng immediately refuted.

Mr. Mo was not angry and still smiled: "I am just making some analysis based on the information at hand. Your Highness, do you think this list has any regular characteristics?"

The prince looked at the list again, and looked at the names of the dozens of people above, but couldn't see the reason for that for a moment, so he could only shake his head gently: "Mr. Mo, don't keep it in silence, just say it."

"These people seem to be messy, but if you carefully count them, you will find that among them, there are the most people in the Ministry of Works and Revenue, but there are almost few people in the Ministry of Justice. Does this mean that the next storm will fall on these two departments?"

"This..." Even the prince could not fully accept his inference.

Mr. Mo didn't care, but continued according to his own ideas: "And then look back at the recent incident in my country's Dayue Middle School. The only thing that could lead to dozens of officials, especially the two officials, was the only disaster in Huguang! Because whether it is disaster relief or the people's relief, the responsibility lies with the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works. As long as there is any mistake, they will inevitably be unable to escape responsibility."

The expressions of the prince and the Liu brothers suddenly changed. This time, they really believed the other party’s remarks: “Is there such an arrangement? How should we deal with it?”
Chapter completed!