Chapter 21 Party Struggle
It is said that the Prime Minister intended to transfer Shen Jianzhong to serve as the commander of the Hujie Imperial Guards as a fourth-rank officer. However, because he did not control his pants, he had an affair with the concubine of a noble official. After the incident, he was collectively impeached by the officials and almost lost his life. In the end, the Prime Minister spared his life because he was a talent, but also stripped him of his official position and transferred him to the Zhaowu Camp, which had been established not long ago, as an instructor. The original owner therefore had a master-disciple relationship with him.

Although Shen Jianzhong is a very capable person, he is also a wine and womanizer. Just now at the banquet, after drinking some wine, his attention was not so focused and he started to talk nonsense. Ye Mingsheng took this opportunity to intentionally or unintentionally extract some information from him.

With this information, Ye Mingsheng further confirmed his guess. Whether it was Wang Kangxin's plan or Liu Shilin's plan, it was indeed the Supervisory Office that was directing it behind the scenes. And the root of all this was the factional struggles in the court of the Great Zhou Dynasty!

As the "Jinyiwei" Supervisory Office of the Great Zhou Dynasty, it was nominally the emperor's henchman, responsible for supervising officials and foreign enemies, defending the imperial power, and maintaining the rule of the court.

However, when the late Emperor Jing was seriously ill, Crown Prince Jiang Song rebelled and was suppressed and killed by Shangguan Hongyuan, who was the commander of the Shenwu Imperial Guards at the time. With the support of the noble families headed by the Minister of Personnel Lin Shize and the military guarantee of Shangguan Hongyuan, Jiang Rui, the two-year-old son of Huapin and Shangguan Hongyuan's cousin Wang Yun, was made crown prince.

After Emperor Jing died, Jiang Rui ascended the throne and became Emperor Hui of Zhou, with the reign title of Anhe. Shangguan Hongyuan was appointed as the minister of state and the commander-in-chief of the imperial guards, in charge of the military power of the imperial guards. Lin Shize was the chief minister of the cabinet. Later, as Lin Shize was getting older, he resigned from the position of chief minister on the grounds of lack of energy. Shangguan Hongyuan took over the position of chief minister as a military officer and became the head of all officials.

Because the emperor was young, power basically fell into the hands of the Prime Minister Shangguan Hongyuan. Therefore, the Supervisory Office, which was supposed to be the emperor's lackey, also defected to Shangguan Hongyuan and specifically helped the Prime Minister do things that he wanted to do but could not do openly!
What does Lord Shangguan Hongyuan, who was born a military general, holds military power, and has been the Prime Minister for nearly ten years, want?
Although Shangguan Hongyuan had never publicly expressed his ambitions, everyone in the court knew that what he wanted was the throne!
If it weren't for the fact that there were no local vassal states like the Prince of Qin who controlled Yongliang, Zhao Fuqu who controlled Youyan, and Song Wenhui who controlled Liaoyang, and if it weren't for the constraints and hindrances from people like Lin Shize, the former chief minister of the cabinet, Shangguan Hongyuan would probably have seized the throne from his nephew and proclaimed himself emperor long ago!
Although Shangguan Hongyuan never ascended the throne due to obstruction from local vassal states and court officials, he never gave up his ambition and kept on overcoming difficulties and moving towards this goal!

If you want the throne, you not only need real hard power, but also some invisible and intangible, but real soft power, such as people's hearts!

If you want to win the support of the people and make them support you to become emperor, the most important thing is that you have to have prestige. As a prime minister who was born a military man and still firmly controls the military power, is there anything that can better enhance your prestige than expanding the territory for the country?

Isn't Zhenyuan Hou Xu Zhaojie aware of his boss's thoughts?

Doesn't he know that the tens of thousands of his brothers in the imperial guards want to destroy the palace and the country so that they can be rewarded for their merits and gain wealth and glory?

The answer is naturally no. Xu Zhaojie is not a fool, how could he not know this!
Then why did he pretend to be ignorant and strictly order his soldiers not to clash with the palace army?
The reason was not how much gold, silver, treasures and beautiful women the King of Gongdu, Li Jae-won, bribed him with. As a noble of the Great Zhou, how could Xu Zhaojie be short of this little money and these women?

The real reason is that although Xu Zhaojie is under the command of Shangguan Hongyuan, he is a member of a noble family. His family has been the hereditary Marquis of Zhenyuan for five generations. A weak emperor like the current one is the best thing for them. Such nobles have almost unlimited power and can almost be said to share the world with the emperor!
Although the current Prime Minister Shangguan Hongyuan is also from a noble family and his family has inherited the title of Duke of Anguo, making him a member of the noble family, he is a man of great talent and strategy, both in civil and military affairs, and is recognized as a hero by the world!
If such a tyrant became emperor, how could he tolerate the nobles under his rule to share the power in his family with him?
There is no doubt that once Shangguan Hongyuan becomes emperor, the first thing he will do is to chop down the noble families with his knife!

Therefore, in order to prevent Shangguan Hongyuan from becoming the emperor as he wished, Xu Zhaojie did not want to destroy the Gongdu Kingdom and increase Shangguan Hongyuan's prestige.

Lord Shangguan Hongyuan, who was far away in the capital, must have been well aware of Xu Zhaojie's little thoughts. However, due to his reputation, he could not directly order Xu Zhaojie to destroy the Gongdu Kingdom.

After all, Gongdu Kingdom was just a vassal state of the Great Zhou Dynasty and had never failed to pay homage to the Great Zhou Dynasty. If he did this, even if he really destroyed Gongdu Kingdom and increased his prestige in the court by expanding territory, he would be branded as a traitor and murderer of the blood alliance. In fact, this was not a big deal. It was just a small country and it would be destroyed if it was destroyed!
But the crux of the matter is that most of the noble families who stood on the opposite side of Shangguan Hongyuan controlled the public opinion of the world. Once they caught Shangguan Hongyuan, they would definitely make a fuss and guide public opinion to attack Shangguan Hongyuan. A hero who wanted to be an emperor naturally attached great importance to his reputation. Shangguan Hongyuan didn't want to catch the fox but get into trouble at the same time...
So if Lord Shangguan Hongyuan wants prestige but doesn't want to be criticized, what would he do?
This left only one choice, which was to secretly order his henchmen, the Inspectorate, to make some moves in Gongdu, forcing Xu Zhaojie to choose to destroy Gongdu.

As for why Shen Jianzhong appeared in Gongdu and came up with such a plan with Liu Shilin, the reason is very simple!
The current Liaoyang Supervisory Office's pacification commissioner, Jin Yingquan, is almost sixty years old this year. If nothing unexpected happens, he will retire this year. After his retirement, the position of pacification commissioner will naturally become vacant. Originally, this position was to be taken over by his subordinate, Qianhu Wang Zhongsen, if nothing unexpected happens.

But what Wang Zhongsen never expected was that a Cheng Yaojin suddenly appeared. Shen Jianzhong, who had been dormant in the Supervisory Department for several years, set his sights on the "meal on the plate" that he thought he was sure to get.