Chapter 1218 Dispute!

Chapter 1218

After talking with Cui Shao for about half an hour, Zhu Xiaowen left Cui's house and got on the carriage back to his home. Sitting in the carriage and listening to the sound of horse hooves, Zhu Xiaowen couldn't help but close his eyes and fell into deep thought...

Although Cui Shao was already in his fifties, almost sixty years old, Zhu Xiaowen never thought that his teacher was old. He still felt that Cui Shao was in his prime, and that he could easily work for another ten years, if not twenty years!
But when he saw Cui Shao today, Zhu Xiaowen looked at his teacher's graying hair and tired expression, and felt that Cui Shao suddenly seemed to have aged ten years. It was obvious that Cui Zibo was seriously ill, and the suicide of his daughter-in-law Gongsun Qiaoqing must have been a huge blow to Cui Shao!

In fact, today Zhu Xiaowen not only wanted to talk to Cui Shao about Gao Zhenji and Zhang Juning, he also planned to inquire about Cui Zibo's situation. As Cui Shao's student and Cui's son-in-law, he and Cui Zibo have always had a good relationship. Now that Cui Zibo has encountered such a thing, he should come over to say hello and see how Cui Zibo is doing!
But today Cui Shao was obviously unwilling to talk more about Cui Zibo's problem, so Zhu Xiaowen did not dare to offend his teacher and could only show some simple concern and then change the subject.

Although he did not find out any information about Cui Zibo's physical condition, from Cui Shao's reaction, Zhu Xiaowen had a vague feeling that Cui Zibo's physical condition might not be very good!

Thinking of this, Zhu Xiaowen's expression became more solemn. Although Cui Zibo was a third-rank assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice, in fact, in the Ministry of Justice led by Li Jian, one more or one less of him would not make much difference. Everyone knew that the Marshal gave Cui Zibo this position because of his father's contribution...

Under normal circumstances, the Marshal might have included Cui Zibo into the cabinet before Cui Shao retired from the court for Cui Shao's sake, just like Lin Shize and Lin Yi, father and son, creating a story of both father and son being cabinet ministers.

Unfortunately, although Cui Shao is as capable as Lin Shize, he is a good son of a good father, and Cui Zibo is far inferior to Lin Yi!
The fact that Cui Zibo was suffering from syphilis caused quite a stir in the court. The general view in the court was that even if Cui Zibo saved his life, his political career would most likely be over, so it actually didn't matter whether Cui Zibo lived or died!
The main issue that everyone is concerned about is whether Cui Shao, who is actually the prime minister, will completely abandon Cui Zibo as his successor to inherit his political legacy!
If the answer to this question is give up!

So who will Cui Shao choose?
It is generally believed that after Cui Zibo, Cui Shao has two possible successors!
The first one is Cui Shao’s nephew, Cui Hang, who is currently the fifth-rank doctor of the Ministry of Personnel, and the second one is Zhu Xiaowen, who is currently the third-rank minister of the Dali Temple!

To be honest, although he was Cui Shao's student and nephew-in-law, Zhu Xiaowen never thought of becoming Cui Shao's successor and inheriting his political legacy.

After all, there was Cui Zibo, his biological son, and Liu Zhengyue, the second-in-command of Cui’s faction, so it was definitely not Zhu Xiaowen’s turn.

But things are different now, Liu Zhengyue has been executed by the Marshal for his crimes, and even the people on his line are basically either dead or demoted...
And now that Cui Zibo has fallen again, apart from his teacher Cui Shao, the mainstay of the Cui faction, the only one left is Zhu Xiaowen, the Supreme Court Justice. No matter what Zhu Xiaowen himself thinks, at least in the eyes of outsiders, he is the second most important person in the Cui faction!
Since Zhu Xiaowen returned home, several officials from the Cui faction have come to see Zhu Xiaowen. Against this background, Zhu Xiaowen's mentality has also changed. He believes that the identity of a student and niece's husband may not be less close than that of a nephew, so he thinks that he can still compete with Cui Hang!

Zhu Xiaowen had to admit that he was very excited at the thought of becoming his teacher's successor. He believed that as long as Cui Shao recommended him to the Marshal before retiring from the court, the Marshal would most likely promote him and make him a cabinet elder of the future new dynasty, or even go further and become the Prime Minister!

In this way, Zhu Xiaowen would become a high-ranking official, bring honor to his family, and have no regrets in his life!
Although he was very excited, Zhu Xiaowen still took two deep breaths to suppress the surging emotions in his heart. After all, the cabinet elders and the cabinet prime minister were things that had not yet been decided, and he was facing some real difficulties right now...
The Dali Temple, the Ministry of Justice, and the Censorate were called the Three Law Courts in the Great Zhou Dynasty. If there was any major case, the Dali Temple, the Ministry of Justice, and the Censorate would be required to jointly investigate, which was also called the Three Courts' Joint Trial!
Among the three judicial departments, the Ministry of Justice is in charge of the criminal law policies of the Great Zhou Dynasty and is mainly responsible for arresting and trying people.

The Dali Temple is the highest judicial organ, in charge of the trial of criminal and prison cases, and has the power to review the trial of some cases of the Ministry of Justice. The main responsibility of the Censorate is to monitor the discipline and behavior of all officials, and to supervise the work of the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple!

Therefore, Zhu Xiaowen, the Minister of Dali Temple, is highly related to the current Minister of Justice Li Jian in work, which also leads to some differences and contradictions between the two at work!

As the Minister of Justice, Li Jian insisted on using severe punishments in troubled times. In order to achieve results, he would rather arrest someone by mistake than let him go. This also led to some unjust, false and wrong cases in the work of the Ministry of Justice. Apart from that, Li Jian has always been strict and severe in the standards of sentencing!
Therefore, when reviewing the cases of the Ministry of Justice, Zhu Xiaowen also pointed out some problems, which made Li Jian embarrassed. For this reason, Li Jian also looked for Zhu Xiaowen, hoping to reach some consensus with Zhu Xiaowen, but Zhu Xiaowen still insisted on his position!
Seeing that Zhu Xiaowen didn't buy his account, Li Jian was a little angry. He thought that Zhu Xiaowen's action was deliberately instructed by Cui Shao behind the scenes. So under this view, Li Jian also had a lot of opinions about Zhu Xiaowen, and the conflict between the two people became more and more serious...
Zhu Xiaowen firmly denied Li Jian's idea, and Cui Shao never instructed him to target Li Jian or strangle him.

The reason why Zhu Xiaowen deliberately found fault with Li Jian was that when he was trying to figure out Ye Mingsheng's thoughts, he believed that Ye Mingsheng wanted him to be the Chief Justice of the Dali Temple, and one of the important purposes was to check and balance Li Jian and prevent Li Jian from monopolizing power in the SF system!

Zhu Xiaowen believes that he must not become Li Jian's yes-man or follower. As the Chief Justice of Dali Temple, he must make his own voice heard. However, in Li Jian's view, what Zhu Xiaowen did was holding him back!
Therefore, Li Jian also intended to let Zhu Xiaowen change his place, and then let Zhuang Shanhe from his faction be the Chief Justice of the Dali Temple, so that no one would hold him back!
Although Li Jian had such an idea and even tried to implement it, he had no choice but to rely on Cui Shao, so everything ended in failure and he was unable to shake Zhu Xiaowen's position as the Chief Justice of the Dali Temple!
However, Cui Zibo's incident this time gave Li Jian another opportunity. Zhu Xiaowen had just returned yesterday and heard the news that Li Jian was ready to make a move.

If it were before, Zhu Xiaowen would definitely sneer and disdain Li Jian's eagerness. After all, he didn't make any big mistakes at work and he still has the protection of his teacher. Who are you, Li Jian?
But now it is different. Cui Shao is unable to govern the country due to illness, and the work of the Minister of Revenue is temporarily performed by Zhang Juning. This gives Li Jian an opportunity. If Li Jian takes advantage of this opportunity to make trouble, things will be really troublesome!

Thinking of this, Zhu Xiaowen secretly made up his mind. At least during this period of time before Cui Shao came back, he must be careful not to give Li Jian any chance to take advantage of him...

·····························
·····························
Yijing, the ancient capital

In a room, Bai Yuanyuan's second sister-in-law, Bai Cui, the wife of Bai Changjiu, the current deputy governor of Anqing, and Gu Sansi's concubine Chen Wanting were chatting together.

Ever since the last incident with the Chen family, Bai Cui has been in touch with Chen Wanting. Chen Wanting is also very grateful to the Bai family for stepping forward to help her family. The two of them, one trying to please the other and the other feeling grateful, soon became good sisters. Bai Cui also comes to the ancient mansion from time to time to meet Chen Wanting!

Although Bai Cui's little thoughts could be hidden from Chen Wanting, they could not be hidden from Gu Sansi. However, because Chen Wanting was pregnant, and she didn't have many friends in Yijing, and there were few people to talk to her on weekdays, Gu Sansi acquiesced to Bai Cui's coming to the Gu Mansion.

At this time, Mrs. Bai Cui in the room looked at Chen Wanting's bulging belly and couldn't help but asked with a smile:

"My sister Wanting, the baby in your belly is probably six months old, right?"

Chen Wanting nodded shyly and said:

"Sister Cui, it's been exactly six months!" Bai Cui said with great concern:
"The ten months of pregnancy are the most difficult time in a woman's life. When I was pregnant with our eldest son, I vomited everything I ate. I couldn't sleep at night or during the day. I couldn't lie down or sit up!"

"I was dissatisfied with my sister at the time. I thought about what I had done wrong in my life to deserve this. I even regretted being a woman in this life!"

Hearing this, Chen Wanting nodded in agreement. Before she became pregnant, she looked at other women and thought it was no big deal. But when she herself reached this stage, she felt that pregnancy was truly painful and difficult!
Seeing Chen Wanting nod, Bai Cui also changed the subject and continued:
"But when I saw my first son, I felt that it was all worth it. It's strange, I vowed to have only one child in my lifetime, but less than half a year after giving birth to my first son, I wanted to have a second one!"

Chen Wanting heard this and whispered:

"My husband and I have agreed that no matter whether the child is a boy or a girl, we will only have this one..."

Bai Cui smiled and said:

"My husband said the same thing at the time, and then he told me that having many children means more blessings, and that he wanted to have more children for the Bai family!"

Chen Wanting heard this and said softly:
"My elder sister has already given birth to a pair of children for my husband, so it's enough for me to give birth to one!"

Hearing Chen Wanting mention her "sister", Bai Cui couldn't help but ask:
"Sister Wanting, is Lord Gu still in contact with her?"

Chen Wanting thought for a moment and said:

"During every festival, my sister would write to her husband to introduce our father and the children. I remember she wrote a letter some time ago saying that she wanted to bring the children to Yijing!"

As soon as these words came out, Bai Cui said:

"Sister Wanting, you have to be careful. What is she doing in Yijing? She still won't give up!"

After hearing what Bai Cui said, Chen Wanting fell silent. Seeing this, Bai Cui continued:

"Sister Wanting, even if it's for the sake of the baby in your belly, you have to make plans early!"

Chen Wanting couldn't help but said:
"Actually, I have thought about it, but after all, she is the legal wife, and I am just a concubine!"

Speaking of the word concubine, Chen Wanting looked a little self-pitying. Seeing this, Bai Cui immediately said with some disdain:

"What legal wife? She is nothing more than a peasant woman. She was so lucky to meet Master Gu and she is like a piece of taffy that you can't get rid of her!"

"Sister Wan Ting, you come from a family of officials. Your family has been officials for generations, and you are well-educated and well-mannered. You and Master Gu have a close rapport. You two are a perfect match made in heaven!"

Hearing what Bai Cui said, Chen Wanting was also somewhat tempted, but after thinking about it, she still said in a low voice with some uncertainty:
"But Sister Cui, I was married before!"

Bai Cui said without hesitation:
"Sister Wanting, being married is nothing. You just took a detour before meeting Master Gu. Master Gu himself doesn't care, so why are you worried?"

"Emperor Wen of Han's mother, Bu Ji, was married before and only got together with Emperor Gaozu of Han later. Didn't her son still become emperor?"

"And Han Wudi's mother, Wang, was married before and gave birth to a daughter. Didn't she become the empress dowager in the end? Didn't her son also become an emperor through the ages?"

"Bo Ji and Wang Shi are both fine. What can't you do, Wanting sister? That country woman is just ignorant. Wanting sister, you are like the white moonlight in the sky, and that woman is just a toad in the farmland!"

"Yes! She is just a toad, occupying the position but not biting anyone and annoying people!"

"Sister Cui, don't say that! She is still your husband's wife after all!"

Seeing that although Chen Wanting refuted her verbally, her expression was full of satisfaction, Bai Cui couldn't help but curse her in her heart as a bitch, but on the surface she continued to speak:
"Sister Wan Ting, this kind of thing must be dealt with immediately and without any delay!"

(End of this chapter)