Chapter 563: Stabilizing the Court and Allocating Chairs

Emperor Qing must die!
Let’s not talk about other reasons.

Just to say, Xiao Ye’s murder must be avenged.

Now that he has lived for more than ten years longer, it can be considered a reward for his hard work and love for the people over the years.

Inside Weiyang Palace.

Bright lights.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Su Mingzhe finally slowly opened his eyes.

After opening his eyes, Su Mingzhe first saw an old woman with white hair and a frail appearance. This was the Queen Mother Nanqing, and also the grandmother of Crown Prince Li Chengqian:

"grandmother……"

"My dear grandson, it's okay. The assassin has been driven away..."

When the Queen Mother saw Su Mingzhe wake up, the spirit that she had been holding on to was broken by the call of "Grandma", and her tears dripped onto the floor.

Although the grandson is fine, his son Emperor Qing is gone.

Su Mingzhe also remembered that his "father" was assassinated in front of him. He was extremely sad for a moment, and he and the Queen Mother hugged each other and cried bitterly.

Next to her was a noble lady wearing a five-colored jade ring, a heart-shaped seven-treasure hairpin, a five-phoenix gold-inlaid hairpin, and a phoenix coronet and bridal robe.

Just by looking at her attire, you can tell that she is the current Queen Nanqing, the mother of Crown Prince Li Chengqian.

At this time, the queen saw Su Mingzhe wake up and wanted to go forward to check if her son was injured. However, she saw Su Mingzhe and the queen mother hugging each other and crying, and she felt relieved.

Even though Emperor Qing died, she was not nervous or sad. After all, Emperor Qing was the archenemy who wiped out her entire Gaoyuan Li family.

She has lived like a piece of wood all these years, just wanting to keep her position as queen and let her son inherit the throne smoothly.

Now that Su Mingzhe had woken up, the queen breathed a sigh of relief and the rosary in her hand began to turn.

Standing together with the queen were concubines such as Shu Guifei, Yi Guipin, and Ning Cairen.

Emperor Qing reigned for twenty years, and because he was not greedy for beauty, he did not have many concubines in the harem.

Among them, Concubine Shu is the biological mother of the second prince Li Chengze.

Concubine Yi was the biological mother of the third prince Li Chengping.

Ning Cairen is the biological mother of the eldest prince Li Chengjiang.

As the other concubines had no children yet, now that Emperor Qing had passed away, they had to either be buried alive with him or be sent to the cold palace.

These concubines all knew that among Emperor Qing’s sons, the best one to be crown prince was Li Chengqian, who would ascend the throne and become emperor.

This was because when Li Chengqian was the crown prince, he had always been kind to others and would definitely not engage in any ritual of burying people alive with the dead.

In addition to the concubines in the harem, there was also Princess Yongtao present.

This eldest princess is the biological mother of Lin Wan'er, the heroine of "Joy of Life", and her maiden name is Li Yunrui.

(In the novel, Li Yunrui is the younger sister of Emperor Qing, but in the TV series "Celebrating Yu Nian", Li Yunrui has no blood relationship with Emperor Qing.)
(The author makes a bold guess here that one of Si Lili and Li Yunrui may be an orphan of the Queen's family.)
When no one was paying attention, Li Yunrui's eyes when looking at Su Mingzhe were always full of affection and gentle as water.

Su Mingzhe and the Queen Mother hugged each other and cried for a while, and everyone started crying with them.

In the end, it was the legendary 'Grand Master' Hong Sixiang who stepped forward to comfort the Queen Mother and Su Mingzhe:

"Queen Mother, Your Highness, now that His Majesty has passed away, it is not appropriate to be overly sad. Please issue an order to summon several important officials in the court to the palace as soon as possible to discuss the funeral arrangements."

Princess Yongtao Li Yunrui, who was standing next to her, also spoke up after hearing this:

"Eunuch Hong is right. Queen Mother, Your Highness, the assassins have succeeded in killing Your Majesty and will definitely not let it go. We should first call Prime Minister Lin, Prince Jing, and Chen Pingping into the palace to discuss countermeasures."

"What my aunt said is quite true, but it may not be appropriate to only invite Prime Minister Lin, Prince Jing, and Dean Chen. Also, Si Nanbo has been friends with my father since childhood, so he should also be invited in to take charge of the situation. In addition, to prevent the news from leaking, when inviting them to the palace, we should use my father's name."

Su Mingzhe said something to Li Yunrui, then looked eagerly at the Queen Mother, asking her to make the decision.

Seeing that Su Mingzhe behaved in a measured manner, the Queen Mother nodded with satisfaction and said:

"Eunuch Hou, what the prince said is very true. You should immediately summon Prime Minister Lin, Prince Jing, Dean Chen, and Minister Fan to the palace in the name of the emperor."

(Fan Jian was still the Minister of Revenue at this time, but he was acting as the Minister of Revenue.)
Because the ministers have entered the palace, except for the empress dowager, it is no longer appropriate for the other concubines to stay here.

The Queen Mother then asked the concubines to stay in the Yaohua Palace where the Queen lived.

As for Princess Yongtao, she was sent back to Guangxin Palace.

After the concubines left, Su Mingzhe asked Hong Sixiang and Yan Xiaoyi to guard the Weiyang Palace, and then sent someone to take care of the Yaohua Palace.

As for Gong Dian, he was hit by two bullets and slapped, and is now receiving treatment from the imperial physician.

Soon, Fan Jian, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue and Earl of Sinan, arrived first.

Then came Prime Minister Lin Ruofu, Director of the Inspection Institute Chen Pingping, and Prince Jing Li Zhi.

These people were summoned into the palace, and only then were they told the news that Emperor Qing had been assassinated.

After being shocked, several people gathered together to discuss something.

Chen Pingping insisted on seeing the body of Emperor Qing.

Fan Jian, Lin Ruofu and Li Zhi had the same request.

The Queen Mother naturally could not refuse.

After the four of them saw Emperor Qing's body that was smashed by a submachine gun, they returned to the imperial study in Weiyang Palace to discuss the aftermath.

Lin Ruofu was the first to bow to the Queen Mother and said:
"Queen Mother, now that His Majesty has passed away, please ask His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to ascend the throne immediately and make arrangements as soon as possible to prevent the scoundrels from causing chaos."

When the other three heard Lin Ruofu's words, they all widened their eyes.

This Lin Ruofu is indeed a "traitorous prime minister". The body of Emperor Qing is still warm, but this bastard is actually thinking of becoming a "hero of the dragon". Now that Lin Ruofu brought it up first, Prince Jing Li Zhi had to agree after taking a look at him:
"Mother, what Minister Lin said is correct. Now that His Majesty has passed away, we should ask the Crown Prince to ascend the throne as soon as possible."

The Queen Mother did not expect that after she invited these four people into the palace to take charge of the situation, the first thing they said was to establish a new king. She was immediately unhappy.

However, the Queen Mother was also very scheming. Seeing that Chen Pingping and Fan Jian were both frowning and not speaking, she was also afraid that the two had other ideas, so she could only look at Su Mingzhe who was distracted:
"Cheng Qian, Prime Minister Lin and your uncle both want you to ascend the throne as soon as possible. What do you think?"

"Grandma, I can ascend the throne soon, but I also ask Dean Chen to catch those three assassins as soon as possible and cut them into pieces to comfort my father's spirit in heaven!"

Su Mingzhe looked as if he had been wronged, as if he had been forced to ascend the throne and become emperor.

When the Queen Mother saw this, she felt a little warmed in her heart, at least her grandson was not a cold-hearted person.

"My dear grandson, the assassin will be caught!"

Seeing that the Queen Mother agreed to the crown prince ascending the throne, Lin Ruofu continued to play:
"Empress Dowager, Your Majesty has four sons. After the Crown Prince ascended the throne, he has been busy with many affairs. I am afraid that the task of mourning will have to be handed over to other princes. Please ask the Queen Dowager to issue an order to summon the eldest prince back to the capital to guard the coffin."

When everyone heard Lin Ruofu's words, they glanced at him again.

The eldest prince is leading troops outside. Now that Emperor Qing has passed away, calling the eldest prince back can also avoid accidents.

Lin Ruofu thought of getting ahead of everyone again.

"Minister Lin is right. I approve your request."

The Queen Mother also disliked Ning Cairen's eldest prince, so she agreed to Prime Minister Lin's request without hesitation.

Afterwards, Fan Jian and Chen Pingping also expressed their opinions.

Only Prince Jing Li Zhi remained silent about what was happening in the court, like a clay Buddha.

As orders were issued one after another, the originally chaotic situation in the palace was stabilized.

Finally, regarding the cause of Emperor Qing's death, Chen Pingping suggested not to tell outsiders that he was assassinated, so as not to cause panic among officials in the court and inside and outside Kyoto.

The Empress Dowager also approved it and said that Emperor Qing died of an acute illness.

On the second day.

When all the officials went to court, they learned the news that Emperor Qing had passed away yesterday.

The second prince Li Chengze was so angry that he vomited blood when he saw Su Mingzhe ascend the throne and become emperor despite everyone's repeated persuasion and three times refusal.

Afterwards, Fan Jianyi requested that Li Chengze be brought into the palace to keep vigil for Emperor Qing.

Li Chengze didn't even have the chance to react or resist.

After the grand court meeting.

Su Mingzhe was already considered the new emperor of Nanqing. He asked Eunuch Hou to summon Lin Ruofu, Fan Jian, Chen Pingping, as well as the Minister of Rites Guo Youzhi, the Prefect of Kyoto Mei Zhili, and the Junior Secretary of the Honglu Temple Xin Qiwu.

Prince Jing was not present at the meeting this time, but Guo Youzhi, Mei Zhili and Xin Qiwu were present.

Prince Jing Li Zhi did not participate in court affairs and voluntarily requested an imperial decree to return to his own palace to observe mourning.

Guo Youzhi is the man of Princess Yongtao Li Yunrui, and Li Yunrui is one of the women chosen by Su Mingzhe, so Guo Youzhi is also Su Mingzhe's man.

Secondly, Mei Zhili, the governor of Kyoto, and Gong Dian, the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard, were both court officials that Li Chengqian had worked hard to win over, and they are now considered Su Mingzhe's confidants.

As for Xin Qiwu, he was Li Chengqian's most trusted confidant.

After Su Mingzhe asked everyone to sit down, he was about to speak when he heard Mei Zhili say cautiously:

"Your Majesty, why don't you invite the two Grand Secretaries Hu and Shu to discuss state affairs?"

The Southern Qing Kingdom implemented the cabinet system of six ministries.

There are three grand secretaries in the cabinet, among whom the chief grand secretary is Lin Ruofu.

At the same time, the cabinet also had two vice prime ministers, Hu Daxueshi and Shu Daxueshi.

These two university scholars liked idle conversation and were not close to the prince, so Su Mingzhe had not originally thought of calling them.

At this moment, Mei Zhili suddenly reminded him of this. Su Mingzhe was stunned for a moment, then reacted:
"I forgot about this for a moment. Eunuch Hou, please invite Grand Secretary Hu and Grand Secretary Shu to come and discuss this matter. Oh, and please invite Minister Yan of the Ministry of Personnel to come as well."

Although Grand Secretary Hu, Grand Secretary Shu and Lin Ruofu were all in the cabinet and were considered leaders of the civil officials, their voices in the Nanqing literati community were completely opposite.

The literati in Nanqing all called Lin Ruofu a "traitorous prime minister".

However, Grand Secretary Hu and Grand Secretary Shu were known as the leaders of the literati.

One look at the literati's attitude towards the three men revealed that Lin Ruofu and the two were from hostile factions.

The Minister of Personnel Yan Xingshu was also a unique leader among the civil servants.

Soon, the three arrived and began the first small court meeting after Su Mingzhe ascended the throne.

The agenda of the court meeting included some routine topics, such as the burial of Emperor Qing, as well as the redivision of affairs of several departments.

First of all, Lin Ruofu was still the head of the cabinet, and he was also in charge of the Ministry of Justice.

The other five ministries were headed by Fan Jian in charge of the Ministry of Revenue, Yan Xingshu in charge of the Ministry of Personnel, Guo Youzhi in charge of the Ministry of Rites, Shu Daxueshi in charge of the Ministry of Works, and Princess Liu Guo in charge of the Ministry of War.

In addition, Grand Secretary Hu was in charge of the Censorate, Chen Pingping was in charge of the Inspection Office, Mei Zhili was transferred to the position of Minister of the Dali Temple, and Xin Qiwu was in charge of the Secretariat.

The "Zhongshu Menxia" of the Southern Qing court was abbreviated as "Zhongshu".

In the court of Nanqing, the function of "Zhongshu" was equivalent to the "Hanlin Academy" in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It was mainly responsible for providing secretarial work for the emperor and his ministers, and was also responsible for "editing books and writing history".

The Zhongshumenxia was usually headed by the emperor's confidants.

Originally, the affairs of the Secretariat were mainly handled by Grand Secretary Hu and Grand Secretary Shu.

Now Su Mingzhe transferred the two to other affairs and replaced them with his close confidant Xin Qiwu as the new "Zhongshu Ling".

(End of this chapter)