Transmigrated into a female county magistrate during a famine, leading her country to prosperity

"I disagree."

Prime Minister Cui looked at Xu Zhijie and calmed himself down, saying, "Yin'er grew up next to me. She's been accustomed to a life of luxury. Why would she want to go to a place like Tong'an County and suffer hardship? My dear nephew, you're tearing out my heart."

Xu Zhijie's words already showed that he wanted to make friends with Shen Zheng.

He must not... must not let them succeed.

The only way is to use his kinship with Cui Jinyin to let Cui Jinyin stay in Shangjing, or even in the prime minister's residence.

When Xu Zhijie heard this, his eyes were filled with sarcasm.

What kind of place is Tongan County?

In his opinion, compared with the ruthless Cui Mansion, Tongan County was like a paradise.

"How could Tong'an County be as deplorable as the Prime Minister describes? You're really exaggerating." After saying a few good words in Tong'an County's favor, he continued to stab Prime Minister Cui in the heart: "Besides, in this world, how can a disciple not follow his master? If that's the case, what's the point of Jinyin becoming Master Shen's disciple?"

"What did you say?"

Cui Xiang spilled the tea in his hand. He glared and said, "Become a disciple? How can Jin Yin become Shen Zheng's disciple? This is sheer nonsense!"

This Xu Zhijie, this Shen Zheng!

How many things have they done secretly in the past few days!

The more anxious he became, the calmer Xu Zhijie became.

"Your Excellency, this is not true." Xu Zhijie took a leisurely sip of tea, took out a few scrolls of official documents from his sleeve, and asked in a pretentious manner: "Your Excellency, do you think that Lord Shen's official rank is too low? I am here to deliver the official documents. As long as Your Excellency takes the pen and seals it, Lord Shen will officially be appointed as the Assistant Director of the Six Ministries..."

Slowly putting down his teacup, he smiled again, "A fourth-rank assistant to six ministries, how could that be low? Yin'er, apart from being a daughter of a rich family, has no achievements of her own. Being able to take Lord Shen, the most important female official of the dynasty, as her teacher is already quite high. How could such a good thing be considered nonsense by the Prime Minister? Could it be that the Prime Minister, unlike me, doesn't sincerely wish Jinyin well?"

He pressed on step by step, and every word he said was full of daggers, and a thin layer of sweat appeared on Prime Minister Cui's forehead.

"My dear nephew, there may be a misunderstanding between you and me..."

Why didn't he notice before that Xu Zhijie had turned his attention to Shen Zheng?

If he had known that these two were going to join forces to deal with him, he would have stopped Xu Zhijie's idea from the beginning.

"A misunderstanding?" Xu Zhijie smiled and shook his head, using a double meaning in his words. "The Xu and your families have been related for many years, and Your Excellency is a generous and open-minded person. This humble official is well aware of this. So, how can there be any misunderstanding?"

His stubborn attitude completely angered Prime Minister Cui.

"Yin'er is the daughter of our Prime Minister's family. She's not married yet, so how can she leave this place? I know you mean well, but this is really not acceptable. When this Prime Minister leaves the palace tomorrow, I will personally appeal to Lord Shen. Lord Shen will surely understand. It's best for you, nephew, not to worry about this!"

Xu Zhijie smiled and said, "Perhaps worrying is my fate. Heaven, Earth, Emperor, Parents, and Teacher. Although 'Teacher' comes after 'Parents', 'Heaven, Earth, Emperor' always come before 'Teacher'."

He glanced at Prime Minister Cui meaningfully and continued, "I've asked the Imperial Astronomical Observatory to calculate the date, and I'm going to visit you today and pay my respects to you as my teacher. So this afternoon, I'll bring Jinyin and gifts to the Shen residence to pay my respects to Heaven and Earth, to the Emperor, and to my teacher."

today?

Cui Xiang suddenly felt a dull pain in his chest.

Why today? Do I need to think about it anymore?

Xu Zhijie had clearly calculated the date accurately - today was the last day that the Cui Mansion would be closed, and it was also the last day for the process of signing and approving the official documents.

He deliberately piled up all the things today just to embarrass himself!

"You..." Cui Xiang covered his chest with one hand and pointed at him with the other: "If you act like this, aren't you afraid..."

Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by a cold voice: "Your humble servant still has official business to attend to. Please do not interfere with public affairs for personal reasons and sign these documents as soon as possible."

With a "bang", the unfolded document fell on the table, and the sound was like slapping someone in the face.

In this way, the two of them had completely torn their faces apart.

Looking at the document filled with black words, Prime Minister Cui sneered, "What if I were still bedridden today?"

How can I sign the document then?

Xu Zhijie had anticipated this and smiled back, "There have been a lot of events going on in the court lately, and they all depend on the Prime Minister. You should attend the morning court as soon as possible."

After a pause, he said deliberately, "Let me tell you one thing, Your Excellency. I'm afraid you may not be aware of this. The Water Supervisor, Wu Ti, has been detained and interrogated by the Ministry of Justice for deliberately sabotaging the inspection and acceptance of the Huihe Dam. If it weren't for you to suppress this kind of heinous behavior, I'm afraid there would be more of it in the future."

Wu Ti......

"How could someone so audacious as to sabotage the imperial project inspection?" Cui Xiang suppressed his anger and said in shock, "I must have Minister Luo interrogate him thoroughly to determine if he is complicit and punish him severely."

Xu Zhijie carefully observed his reaction.

What Shen Zheng said to him was confirmed.

"The night that Lord Jiang, Lord Wei, and I visited him in prison, Wu Ti committed suicide. He knew Prime Minister Cui wouldn't fall for the time being, so he'd rather die than confess, all for the sake of protecting his family... When you meet Prime Minister Cui, you can test him with Wu Ti. If he shows no reaction, it means he's already prepared a plan and isn't afraid of Wu Ti's betrayal. If so, we can use this as a starting point to deal with him later."

He and Shen Zheng both knew that using Wu Ti alone would not be enough to bring down Prime Minister Cui.

But as long as they have enough chips in their hands, things will go more smoothly in the future.

After mentally admonishing himself, "Don't be impatient," he smiled and said, "That's natural. But..."

He changed the subject and picked up the document. "If the Prime Minister is still unable to sign today, then I will have no choice but to enter the palace and report this matter to Your Majesty. There are thousands of officials in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and we cannot afford to hold back on this document just because the Prime Minister is not well."

Prime Minister Cui understood the threat in his words.

Rules are dead, people are alive, he is the minister, and the emperor is the king.

If he kept delaying and not signing, angering the emperor, the emperor might directly take away his power to approve officials.

in this way......

Prime Minister Cui gritted his teeth, thinking that it was really not worth it.

In this battle with Shen Zheng, he was defeated particularly miserably because of the participation of Xu Zhijie.

But now he had no other choice but to call his servants to prepare writing materials.

There were four copies of the official documents, one was from Zeng Tongshi of the Ministry of Works, who was promoted to the fifth rank of Water Affairs Officer; the other was from Jie Meng of the Ministry of Revenue, who was promoted to the sixth rank of the Ministry of Revenue Director.

As for the last two...

After reading the content clearly, Cui Xiang's fingertips holding the brush gradually turned white, as if he was about to break the brush.

It’s just too much!

Even though he is made of clay, he should be a little angry by now!

"My dear nephew, apart from the official documents from Zeng Tongshi of the Ministry of Works and Jie Meng of the Ministry of Revenue, I'm afraid these remaining two documents... don't conform to the rules."

Xu Zhijie stood up upon hearing this, walked over to him, and said with a smile, "How about you, Prime Minister, take a closer look? It's not in accordance with the rules that His Majesty personally drew up the edict."

"..."

After Xu Zhijie left with the certificate, he sat alone in the hall for a long time.

The shadows of the trees outside the hall swayed, and the weather gradually turned from sunny to cloudy. I don't know when, it started to drizzle again.