Chapter 265: The Dispute over the Queen, a War of Words

In the Jinluan Palace, in addition to Zhang Fu, the Minister of Rites, who was frightened by the words of the Minister Guo Xiaoru, there was another person whose heart was in his throat.

This person was Li Jingyu, the Minister of War who recommended Guo Xiaoru to be the Minister of Rites.

On the day when the King of Jin conquered Jinling and proclaimed himself emperor, he gave the important task of reorganizing the six ministries of the new dynasty to the surrendered minister Li Jingyu.

Therefore, most of the officials of the six ministries of the new dynasty were recommended by Li Jingyu to serve in the six ministries.

If nothing unexpected happens, after the new emperor holds the coronation ceremony, the officials of the six ministries will continue to stay in office.

However, Guo Xiaoru, the Minister of Rites, actually made the emperor lose his position in front of all the civil and military officials at the first court meeting of the new dynasty, which made Li Jingyu feel that something was wrong!

Speaking of which, when he was ordered to reorganize the six ministries in a time of crisis, Li Jingyu, as a surrendered minister of the previous dynasty, strictly followed the principle of "recommending the virtuous and avoiding relatives" when recommending officials from the six ministries in order to show his loyalty to the new emperor Chen Huaian.

Take Guo Xiaoru, the Minister of Rites, for example. He was originally a lecturer in the Hanlin Academy of the previous dynasty, mainly responsible for the compilation of literature and history. He was also an official with clean sleeves and conscientiousness in the previous dynasty.

For this reason, when the new dynasty was just established and the various ministries were in need of people, Li Jingyu recommended Guo Xiaoru to be the Minister of Rites to assist Zhang Fu, the Minister of Rites, in handling daily affairs.

Who would have thought that Guo Xiaoru, the old Confucian scholar, was actually a stubborn guy.

What made Li Jingyu even more puzzled was where did Guo Xiaoru hear the news that the emperor was going to "set a precedent in history and establish the empresses of the East and West Palaces"?

He kept saying that there were rumors in the streets. How come he, the Minister of War who was acting as the Prime Minister, hadn't heard of it?

Or, were they not in the same street?

Now that things had come to this, he should hurry up and think of ways to remedy the situation!

Minister of War Li Jingyu lowered his head and thought about it.

On the other side, Guo Xiaoru, the Minister of Rites, who was pulled by Zhang Fu, the Minister of Rites, did not stop talking, and even asked back: "Sir Zhang, why are you doing this?"

"Let him speak!"

At this moment, the new emperor Chen Huaian on the dragon throne suddenly spoke.

His voice was not loud, but it was enough for the civil and military officials in the Jinluan Palace to hear it clearly. The cold voice without any emotion was intimidating without anger, revealing the majesty of being the emperor.

Seeing that the emperor had spoken, Zhang Fu, the Minister of Rites, who looked ashen, had to withdraw, leaving Guo Xiaoru, the Minister of Rites, to speak eloquently and quote classics in the court.

Guo Xiaoru said: "Your Majesty, the Uighur Khanate's Princess Yueqiluo was the one who proposed a marriage to Your Majesty in order to avoid the military force of our Celestial Empire and to avoid the same disaster as the Turkic Khanate;"

"Speaking of which, Your Majesty is willing to accept the surrender of the Uighur Khanate, which is already a great favor from heaven for them;"

"But the heroic Khan of the Uighur Khanate is still not satisfied, and even wants to recommend his daughter Princess Yueqiluo of Pijia as the queen of our new dynasty when the new dynasty appoints the queen. His wolfish ambition is obvious!"

Guo Xiaoru continued: "As far as I know, the emperor and Princess Shujun of the Wuning Palace , the marriage contract had been made long before the emperor personally led the expedition to the Western Regions. It was the parents' order and the matchmaker's words, and it was legitimate;"

"This Wuning King is a respected pillar of the court in my new dynasty. The emperor's appointment of Princess Shujun as the empress of the new dynasty is in accordance with the will of heaven and the will of the people;"

As he said this, Guo Xiaoru fell to his knees in the Golden Palace with a plop, and advised the new emperor Chen Huaian on the dragon throne earnestly:

"I dare to ask the emperor to marry Princess Shujun as soon as possible, and to appoint her as the empress of the new dynasty during the coronation ceremony to calm the country and the people!"

After saying this, Guo Xiaoru kowtowed to Chen Huaian without hesitation.

For a time, the court was silent.

The eyes of the civil and military officials in the court were subconsciously cast on the dragon throne.

After a while, another civil official knelt down and kowtowed in the court, shouting: "I beg the emperor to marry Princess Shujun as soon as possible, and to confer the title of Empress of the new dynasty when the coronation ceremony is held to calm the country and the people!"

Chen Huaian took a quick look and found that the second person who stood up to force him to marry and establish a queen was He Kuan, a civil official from the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun.

"I beg the emperor to marry Princess Shujun as soon as possible, and to confer the title of Empress of the new dynasty when the coronation ceremony is held to calm the country and the people!"

Then, civil officials and military generals knelt down in the Golden Palace one after another, petitioning the emperor to marry and establish a queen.

More than half of them were representatives of the interest groups of civil officials and military generals from the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun.

Even the deputy general Liu Ziyu stood up.

On the contrary, the facial expression of Wuning King Liu Xinwu, who stood in the front row of the Golden Palace and could look directly at Chen Huaian on the dragon throne, looked particularly gloomy and ugly at this time.

However, in this situation, Liu Xinwu seemed to be in a difficult position to say anything.

Of course, there were still sober people in the court.

For example, Pang Xianchu and Zuo Liangcai of the Longcheng Po Lu Army; Chang Yuchun, Chen Qingzhi, and Wang Jian, generals produced by the [Born to Be Emperors] system; Tang Ziyi, deputy general of the Huben New Army; Su Chen and Jiang Ning, governors-general of Liangjiang and Lianghu; Lu Jiang, the first person to be conferred a title in the new dynasty, and so on;

These generals just stood quietly in the Jinluan Palace, silently lowering their heads.

Especially the brave general Pang Xianchu, who knew the whole story, stood there in a daze without saying a word.

However, Pang Xianchu knew very well that the new emperor Chen Huaian, who could lead 8,000 Dragon City Po Lu troops to raise an army to quell the rebellion and eventually overthrow the Zhao family of the Great Xin Dynasty, could not be a puppet controlled and manipulated by others?

The matter of establishing a queen still needs to be polished!

"My dear ministers, please be quiet!"

On the dragon throne, facing the voices of establishing a queen in the court, the new emperor Chen Huaian still maintained a calm demeanor.

It seemed that this matter had nothing to do with him.

After the civil and military officials in the Golden Palace calmed down, Chen Huaian said slowly: "Lord Guo, the rumors you heard from the streets are even wilder than the unofficial history I have read!"

Haha!

As he said that, Chen Huaian smiled and continued: "Which storyteller did you hear this from? I want to set a precedent in history and establish the empresses of the East and West Palaces?"

"This--"

Under the hall, Guo Xiaoru, the Minister of Rites, was suddenly stumped by the emperor's question.

In fact, Guo Xiaoru also heard this news by chance on a flower boat on the Qinhuai River a few days ago.

When Guo Xiaoru wanted to find out, the people who were talking loudly on the flower boat had already left.

If it weren't for the rush of words at the court meeting today, Guo Xiaoru would not have chosen to be so abrupt and said this groundless news in front of the civil and military officials of the court.

Therefore, when facing the emperor's questioning, Guo Xiaoru didn't know how to answer for a while.

Fortunately, Chen Huaian did not delve into this issue.

Chen Huaian continued, "My dear ministers, since this is a rumor, it must be groundless!"

"The appointment of the queen of the new dynasty is the first major event after the founding of the new dynasty. The queen mother and I will make our own decision on the selection of the queen, and you don't need to worry about it;"

"When I hold the coronation ceremony, I will announce the selection of the queen of the new dynasty to the world!"

"My dear ministers, do you have anything else to report?"

In the Jinluan Palace, the civil and military officials who had just experienced such a scene would definitely not choose to report something at this time even if they had something else to report.

For a while, the ministers in the hall were silent.

On the dragon throne, Chen Huaian waved his hand.

The next moment, Cai He, the eunuch who held the pen of the Silijian, who was standing beside him, dragged his sharp voice and said sternly: "Withdraw from the court--"