Chapter 5： Minister of Justice Xie Zhi

Bai Qingyang did not sleep soundly, and her long-term experience made her nerves tense even when she was resting.

She dreamed that when she was a child, Aye taught her to read and let her ride on his shoulders to visit temple fairs. But as soon as the screen changed, the prime minister's mansion was destroyed, and the line of sight turned into a fire that soared into the sky, reflecting the quiet night sky red.

The scene then turned to the scene of Li Chou choking her neck and... the scene of himself committing suicide in the dilapidated prime minister's mansion.

When she woke up, most of her clothes were soaked with sweat, her forehead hair was sticking to her ears, her chest was stuffy, and she was gasping for breath, very embarrassed. She hugged the quilt and lay on her side on the bed for a long time before she remembered that she seemed to be going to listen to politics today.

It wasn't dawn yet, but Bai Qingyang didn't feel sleepy at all, so he simply sat up.

On the other side of the Tianshu Palace, when Li Zichou was woken up by the maid, she really thought it was such a mess, what court, what plan, she is going to sleep now!

Li Zichou learned a lot yesterday and saw that going to bed late was just a normal routine for modern people to her, but it was not the case for ancient people who went to bed early. Li Zichou didn't expect the ancients to get up so early for work, and it wasn't even dawn outside!

When the maids were worrying about how to get the Queen out of bed without making her angry, Li Zichou lifted the quilt and got out of bed.

Forget it, life is important, Li Zishou got up from the bed resignedly.

Li Zichou: "Hey..." I suddenly feel like I'm back to the postgraduate entrance examination period.

When the maids at the side heard the empress sigh, they didn't dare to vent their anger, and they only accelerated the action of dressing and binding Li Zixu's hair in their hands.

Li Zichou doesn't like someone serving her so closely, she is a person who pays great attention to personal privacy and social distance. But there is no way, the clothes of the ancients are too complicated to wear, and it took a lot of effort to take them off last night.

The dark red court dress embroidered with dragons was **** with a jade belt, and a robe of the same color was put on over it. It was much better than yesterday's red one, and Li Zichou breathed a sigh of relief.

Although Li Zichou is a woman, since she is going to court, there is no need to put so many golden things on her head. So when the maid took out those bright and flamboyant jewelry, Li Zichou directly asked someone to bring the Jinxian crown.

The original owner got up so early every day, and still had time to dress up so thoughtfully? Li Zifu couldn't do it, she only wanted to study.

No... maybe the original owner didn't go to court much...

Xuanzheng Hall.

The courtiers came in one after another from outside the hall, and stood in line before the emperor arrived, with civil officials on the left and military officers on the right. It's not time yet, and they are all looking for someone to chat with each other.

Yang Dejin was so guilty that she was dying of guilt. Since she entered Chengtianmen, people kept greeting her. She didn't know how to respond to those unfamiliar faces, so she just kept her face straight, acting like she was not close to strangers.

Seeing Prince Yu's displeasure, some officials thought about the news that came out of the palace yesterday.

When Li Zishou arrived, he sat down on the dragon chair above the high hall, and saw that the seat on the side was still vacant.

She frowned subconsciously, and glanced at Yang Dejin who was standing a few meters away at the bottom of the white marble stairs: Bai Qingyang hasn't come yet?

Yang Dejin's poker face hasn't had time to remove: You ask me?

Li Zishou: ...

The officials behind Yang Dejin: Your Majesty and Prince Yu are really in the same situation, and the court will be in chaos today!

Just when all parties were thinking wildly, Bai Qingyang came in from outside the hall. She was wearing a koi-colored phoenix robe today, her long hair was coiled up and fixed with a hairpin, and the head of the hairpin was dangling with suspenders, hanging behind her ears.

The whole person has changed from yesterday's elegant and deserted feeling, which is quite classically beautiful, and the eyebrows and eyes are still indifferent, but it makes people feel like a sharp knife is about to come out.

Both Li Zishou and Yang Dejin were slightly amazed by her, watching her quietly the whole time as she walked behind the curtain.

Everyone was seated, and all the courtiers saluted: "Your Majesty the Queen, long live my emperor!"

The expected "flat body" did not sound, and the officials were surprised, but they did not dare to look up at the emperor.

Li Zishou and Yang Dejin looked at each other, both a little unhappy: It's over? Isn't the heroine still there? Why does everyone treat the queen as air. It seems that the original owner's dog legs didn't take Bai Qingyang seriously.

Li Zichou had no choice but to say dryly: "The empress is here today."

There was silence underneath, and someone boldly spoke out first: "See empress empress, empress is a thousand years old."

Then the other courtiers came to their senses and shouted for the queen to be a thousand years old, and Li Zichou reluctantly nodded to tell them to die.

Bai Qingyang didn't respond, only a little doubt in her heart, she glanced at Li Zifu's side face through the bead curtain.

She didn't wear those exaggerated accessories today, but wore the emperor's gauze hat.

Looking down, he found that her back was straight and her hands were neatly placed on her knees. Bai Qingyang could still see a part of her sleeves being tightly held by her right hand. She couldn't understand what Li Zishou was planning.

"Report to Your Majesty." Someone began to play, and Bai Qingyang looked at His Highness.

"I heard that His Royal Highness Prince Yu ventured into Yuheng Palace yesterday. Prince Yu only returned to Beijing at noon yesterday to pay homage, and trespassed into the Queen's bedroom in the afternoon. Is it a bit reckless and incompatible with etiquette?"

Bai Qingyang suddenly understood in his heart: So he wanted to make use of this matter.

Bai Qingyang knew that person, it should be said that there was no civil and military official in the court whom she didn't know. The one who spoke was Liang Jing, the left prime minister who was at the head of civil servants, the empress faction, who held a high position but did not do practical things, only knew how to accept and collect money, and was best at flattery. He was simply a pest of Dasheng, a big corrupt official.

Liang Jing was dressed in a purple official robe with a round collar, a black gauze cap, a mustache on his face, and a slightly rich waistline. He looked at least over fifty years old.

What he said at this moment seemed to accuse Prince Yu of breaking the rules and offending the Queen.

In fact, it also alluded to Bai Qingyang's disobedience to women, crossing over the emperor to meet the emperor's uncle. To please the emperor by ridiculing the queen can also provoke the relationship between the monarch and his ministers. As expected of an old treacherous minister who has been in the officialdom for two generations, he is really daring.

Bai Qingyang sneered silently, this old thing is still the same. It was not good in the last life to kill him directly, so he was thrown into a bandit den in Xirong, and he was left to fend for himself.

Bai Qingyang could hold back his defense, but some people couldn't.

Yang Dejin's fist hardened after hearing this. He's a tortoise - he doesn't bite, he's disgusting!

Almost ignoring his own identity, he was going to fight with Xiang Xiang for 300 rounds.

Yang Dejin glanced at the person sitting on the dragon chair: He is that corrupt official Liang Jing, you have to get rid of this bastard!

Li Zichou coughed and said, "Is that so? I haven't heard about this in the palace yet. It seems that you, Prime Minister, have better news than I do?" It was a kind of implicit warning.

Liang Jing was taken aback, and he hesitated twice, obviously he did not expect the emperor to ask him such a question, he couldn't say that he had settled someone in the palace, could he?

Li Zishou has no real power in his hands now, and he can't move him for the time being. After a small warning, he asked Yang Dejin: "Prince Yu, how do you explain?"

Prince Yu glared at Liang Jing with a sullen look: "Go back to Your Majesty, I just stopped by to visit the empress, Your Majesty is not to blame."

Li Zichou: "Oh, by the way." She emphasized the pronunciation of those two words. Although she didn't say anything else, it always made people feel frightened.

The officials below were a little surprised, and today's His Majesty felt a little uncomfortable.

Bai Qingyang thought the same way. Although Li Fu had a bad temper, viciousness and cruelty in the past, she was always "coaxed" by some courtiers, but now it makes people feel that she is scheming and hides a knife in her smile.

what happened?

"Prince Yu, please don't have so many incidents happen in the future, do you understand?"

"...The minister obeys the order."

Prince Yu still looked like he was swallowing his anger, but His Majesty was much more reserved than before. Before, he used to speak without restraint, pointing at His Highness the Prince's nose and cursing. This is what some officials say.

That's really reserved, after all, Li Chou's speech is not as eccentric as Li Zishou's.

"Continue, is there anything else to play?" Li Zichou didn't care what they thought, her task today was to recognize the few people Yang Dejin mentioned.

Bai Qingyang finally blinked in confusion and looked at the high position. This is the end? She blamed the prime minister and the prince, but she didn't come to question me? Then what did she ask me to do?

"Reporting to Your Majesty, after the expansion of the southeast corner of the capital, the patrol department of the capital is somewhat unable to manage and control it. I request that the patrol battalion be expanded."

Yang Dejin glanced at him, but didn't recognize him.

Bai Qingyang suppressed the doubts in his heart and looked at the queue of military officers: Ji Zhuilu, the captain of the patrol department in the capital, is also a mediocre person. He has been the captain of the patrol department since Emperor Jing's time, and he still hasn't been promoted after so many years.

In the early days, he was quite dedicated to his job, but after he seized the throne, he was the one who opposed him most fiercely in the court, criticizing himself for seeking power and usurping the throne. Later, he committed corruption and was exiled to southern Xinjiang by himself.

Li Zichou: "Sure."

"Your Majesty, this year's Spring Festival is already too late, so we can't delay it any longer."

In the original book, after Li Fu came to power, he indulged in sensuality and ignored the government. This spring he said that he would forcefully marry the heroine, which made the court a mess.

The usual practice is that the scientific examination held in the first month has been postponed again and again. People from the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial College have played it several times, but each time they were prevaricated and could not get funding.

It's hard for a clever woman to cook without rice, and without funds, the Ministry of Rites can't carry out the examination work at all. A large number of students and tributes have been stranded in the capital for a long time, and it is really difficult to deal with.

Li Zichou thought to himself, the dog emperor, how could such an important thing as the education exam be treated as a trifling matter?

"I will try it, let's do it, and go to the household department to get the money." Li Zichou responded casually, "Do it well, and work hard during this time."

It seemed that the Minister of the Ministry of Rites rarely heard the emperor say such personal words, and agreed to allocate funds, thanking the emperor very excitedly.

Bai Qingyang also understands that among the six departments, the Ministry of Rites is the cleanest, they are all scholars, they are not as prestigious as the Ministry of Punishment and the Ministry of War, nor are they dealing with people and money like the Ministry of Households.

Since I took office, I haven't cleaned up the etiquette department much, which is very worry-free. But also because of this, the Ministry of Rites is the least concerned among the six ministries. It only holds an imperial examination and sacrifice every year, and sometimes receives foreign guests. The funds and personnel it can get are very embarrassing.

At this time, a thin young man came out of the civil service queue. She was wearing a crimson official uniform and a slightly wide black gauze hat.

That handsome face stood out among the crowd of middle-aged and elderly officials who were blessed.

When Bai Qingyang saw him, his eyes lit up slightly: Xie Zhi!

In this solemn and solemn court, the young man still looked as usual: "Your Majesty, as of yesterday, among the prison lawsuits accepted by the Ministry of Criminal Justice, thirteen old cases were solved, and three unjust cases were rehabilitated."

Li Zichou recognized him as the official who took the lead to salute Bai Qingyang just now: "Good job...what's your name?" Li Zichou asked after receiving Yang Dejin's signal.

Xie Zhi bowed and replied: "My minister, Xie Zhi, Minister of Criminal Affairs."

The author has something to say:

small theater:

Li Zishou (I can’t believe it: Me? I’m good at calculating? Me, hiding a knife in my smile?

Yang Dejin (patting on the shoulder: I'm praising you for your good acting.

Li Zishou (turning his head): Really?

Bai Qingyang: Yes.