Chapter 779: Another Banquet at Rongguo Mansion
The commotion at the birthday party seemed to be just a small episode.
But the subsequent impact is obvious.
A considerable number of the prince's original followers became more determined in their beliefs because of this.
Among the court officials, there were also some conservative officials who showed their goodwill towards the prince.
In fact, many of them did not support the prince, but rather the rules of propriety and justice .
In the eyes of these people, although the crown prince had been cut off from his lineage, he was still nominally a legitimate member of the royal family, and the crown prince was also certified by the court.
Since it is the orthodoxy, it is worth supporting.
To put it bluntly, these are the villains in costume TV dramas who shout "The laws passed down by our ancestors cannot be easily abolished."
As the core figure among the villains, Sun Shaozong has naturally attracted much attention recently.
On October 18, Emperor Guangde issued an imperial edict, praising his ambition and criticizing his actions. In the end, his merits and demerits were offset and he was fined half a year's salary to see the effect.
That night, the prince hosted a grand banquet to entertain Sun Shaozong. In addition to Sun Tao, the president of the Hanlin Academy and the prince's guest, and Zhao Guojiu, the queen's younger brother, several important officials in the court were also present.
The official with the highest status among them surprised Sun Shaozong quite a bit.
This is because this person was Zhao Rongheng, the Right Censor-in-Chief who served as the deputy commander-in-chief when the Long Gen case was investigated.
Zhao Rongheng had originally intended to prevent the birth of the 'Crown Grandson', so it stands to reason that he had quite a grudge against the Crown Prince.
Who would have thought that after only two years of not seeing each other, this Lord Zhao had become the core member of the prince's party, and even the one with the highest status among them.
After all, this guy is a second-rank censor leader, and his power and status are equal to the six ministers, and in some aspects he is even slightly superior.
Of course, in terms of being trusted by the prince, he was still slightly inferior to Sun Shaozong.
In fact, when Sun Shaozong later thought about it, he realized that there were already clues as to why this person had come to him.
After all, he was recognized as the staunch ally of Prince Beijing. There was even a legend that Prince Beijing Shui Rong was actually the son of Zhao Rongheng and the eldest princess.
Prince Beijing had already sided with the Crown Prince two years ago, so it was not surprising that Zhao Rongheng would join the Crown Prince's camp.
October 19th.
Sun Shaozong went to the yamen to sit in court the first day after the ban was lifted.
As a result, as soon as he arrived at the government office, he received an unexpected news: according to Wei Yi's wishes, the case of Yang Kui poisoning Lu Mingsi has been officially declared closed .
This is really weird.
Previously, Sun Shaozong had instructed Tang Weishan and others to submit a memorial listing the evidence of Yang Kui's corruption, and to apply for a search and confiscation of his property and to temporarily restrict the freedom of his family.
Wei Yi also knew about this.
Logically speaking, the confiscation of property had not yet been approved. Even if Wei Yi was anxious to understand the case so that he could ask the Ministry of Revenue for money, he should have waited until the imperial edict was issued.
Besides, this case was taken by Sun Shaozong after all. It was not in accordance with normal procedures to directly announce the closure of the case without any prior notice.
This confused behavior can no longer be described as a compromise. Sun Shaozong even suspected that he was deliberately covering up the mastermind behind the scenes.
but……
Although Wei Yi was somewhat lacking in his ability to do things, he also lacked the necessary ambition.
But he is, after all, a veteran in the officialdom. If he really intended to shield the mastermind behind Yang Kui, he should have chosen a more covert way instead of being so straightforward.
Is there any hidden story behind this?
Think twice.
Sun Shaozong couldn't just ignore the matter, so he found Wei Yi and asked him directly why he acted that way.
Wei Yi refused to say it explicitly, but only hinted that this was the intention of his superiors and not his own willful behavior.
Upon hearing this, Sun Shaozong immediately remembered that on the day of the birthday banquet, the emperor had specially called him over to learn all the details of the confrontation between him and Zhou Chang.
Could it be that...
Is there someone else involved behind Zhou Chang?
And even the emperor was afraid of the person involved?
I have doubts in my mind, but it is not convenient to investigate openly.
Therefore, Sun Shaozong decided to find an opportunity to ask Yu Qian about what government affairs Zhou Chang was responsible for on a daily basis and what connections he had with the senior officials in the court.
Of course, it won’t work today.
Jia She, the head master of Rongguo Mansion, sent an invitation to invite Sun Shaozong to a banquet in the evening.
According to Sun Shaozong's speculation, this was most likely done at the instruction of Jia Yucun, and the purpose was still to solve the case of Shi Daizi.
At the beginning, Sun Shaozong set the policy of playing both sides, and was also prepared for the Rongguo Mansion to become estranged from him.
As a result, not to mention Jia Baoyu, Jia Lian and others, Jia She would find himself without hesitation when he encountered trouble, with no awareness of being in opposing camps.
But to be honest, if it weren't for Jia Yingchun, Sun Shaozong really wouldn't want to bother with this old dude.
But since you have slept with someone else's daughter, you should at least give your cheap father-in-law some face.
…
However, after a whole day, Sun Shaozong finally sorted out the backlog of official documents - basically they were all trivial matters that Liu Xianglian should have been responsible for handling, but this guy was currently helping Jiang Yuhan prepare for the opera troupe and had shamelessly asked for a ten-day vacation.
It seems that I still need to hire another reliable advisor.
However, Sun Shaozong was still prepared to wait and see.
Sun Chengye will take part in the Spring Examination again next year. If he fails this time, it would be best to use a familiar person instead of a new one. It would be most appropriate to let him guide Liu Xianglian.
It was almost evening.
When Sun Shaozong came out of office, he saw a carriage from the Rongguo Mansion waiting outside.
At first, Sun Shaozong thought it was Jia Lian who had arrived.
Later it was discovered that it was Jia Baoyu who had not been seen for a few days. After the birthday banquet, the boy seemed to be under house arrest, and even Jiang Yuhan could not contact him.
When he saw Jia Baoyu, Sun Shaozong couldn't help but become curious and asked him why he had a conflict with Uncle Zhao that day.
"Second brother, you are wrongly accusing me."
Jia Baoyu looked aggrieved: "I have seen my uncle and my master being forced to go to the Zhao family to admit their mistakes before, so how could I have a conflict with him again?"
Listen to this kid's story in detail.
It turned out that he was not very happy about the emperor's special invitation to attend the birthday banquet that day. Instead, he felt it was very troublesome.
The only thing that attracted him was the possibility of meeting Jia Yuanchun - but when he arrived at the birthday banquet, he only glanced at her from afar and was not able to talk to her at all.
Before leaving, Mrs. Wang and Lady Jia naturally gave him some advice.
Therefore, after entering the palace, Jia Baoyu was unusually cautious in his words and actions, and even seemed a little dull in front of the emperor.
But somehow, Uncle Zhao suddenly showed up and, regardless of the fact that he was in front of the emperor, he started to mock Jia Baoyu.
Jia Baoyu didn't say anything back, but was kicked out of Wenzhao Pavilion along with him.
That’s not all, Uncle Zhao took his anger out on him because of this.
"Second brother, do you think this person is sick?"
At this point, Jia Baoyu said indignantly: "My sister has only been pregnant for a short time, who knows whether she is pregnant with a princess or a prince? If he wants to prepare for the rainy day, he can learn from you, second brother, and supervise the prince to make progress - this mad dog is biting people randomly, what's the matter with that?"
It's not just Uncle Zhao.
There were many people in the court who swore that Jia Yuanchun would definitely give birth to a child.
Thinking back to that day when he saw the Taoists and alchemists sitting in the front row of the civil and military officials, and their indignation and shared hatred of the enemy, Sun Shaozong really didn't know whether they looked down on the alchemists or respected them too much.
The book does not elaborate.
The two chatted all the way, and when they arrived at Rongguo Mansion, some unexpected problems occurred - Jia She was not at home!
The guests have arrived, but the host is not at home. I really don’t know how he made the arrangements.
Besides, Jia Lian was currently serving his "master" Jiang Yuhan, and was also not at home.
Therefore, Sun Shaozong could only follow Jia Baoyu to his Yihong Courtyard to spend time.
"Second brother, please sit wherever you want."
While greeting Sun Shaozong, Jia Baoyu hurriedly told Xiren to take out the tribute tea given by Jia Yuanchun, and did not forget to speak on behalf of his uncle Jia She: "Please don't mind, brother. I have been waiting for you at home. I heard that it was brother Cong who got into trouble outside, and the other party specifically asked me to go over and deal with it, so I treated you poorly."
Is it that the feng shui of Rongguo Mansion is not very good?
Otherwise, why would a weasel give birth to mice in such a short time that each litter is worse than the last?
When Jia Cong was a child, he seemed to be a restless person. It is said that he has been getting closer and closer to Jia Huan recently. It is obvious what he can do.
But then again, Jia She didn't seem to like this illegitimate son very much in the past.
But now, as soon as they heard that he was detained, why did they hurriedly drop their work and rush over to save the situation?
"this……"
When Jia Baoyu heard Sun Shaozong ask about this, he hesitated a little, and finally came up with an obscure explanation: "Maybe as I get older, I pay more attention to my offspring."
I'm afraid that these so-called "descendants" are not just Jia Lian and Jia Cong.
Instead, it refers to the offspring of the next generation.
Thinking about it, Jia Lian had already started to plan to "borrow" his son - and even killed Lin Hongyu for it - it was obvious that he had already given up hope on this matter.
It is estimated that Jia She also thought so, so he paid attention to Jia Cong, hoping that this illegitimate son could carry on the family line for the eldest house.
As the two were talking, Xiren came in again. She bowed to Sun Shaozong apologetically and then reported: "My concubine is coming here right now. She said she got some good material for making coats and wants to see if we like it."
Aunt Xue is coming over?
Sun Shaozong immediately stood up and was about to retreat.
After all, Li Wan had tried to be a pimp before, and although she was sternly rejected by Sun Shaozong later, it was inevitable that it would be a bit awkward when they met again.
Of course, even if this had not happened, the embarrassing incident in the jungle was enough to embarrass the two of them.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he made a move, there was already noise in the yard outside.
Xiren lifted the curtain and peeked out, and couldn't help but be surprised: "Hey, how come the concubine came so quickly?"
