Princess Promotion

Yingge was silent for a long time before she spoke: "Although I like military life, it doesn't mean I like this kind of rough men."

Under Yao Chuguang's gaze, Yingge coughed awkwardly and said, "Actually, I wasn't that reluctant to marry your father back then. Putting aside other aspects, at least your father's face is very much to my liking."

Facts have proven that lust is a double-edged sword, and this applies to both men and women.

Yao Chuguang never expected that Yingge actually liked the type of gentleman villain.

The people on this side of the border are tough, most of them are the kind of rough men who are about 1.8 meters tall, with strong and powerful builds.

It is indeed difficult to find such a gentle and handsome man at the moment, but it is not difficult. If she doesn’t have any here, she can send some over.

Yao Chuguang promised, "The imperial examination will be held soon. I'll help you keep an eye out for those good-looking men who don't have wives. I'll assign them to be county magistrates nearby."

Yingge: …………You are really your father’s good daughter!

Yingge hesitated for a moment, then added, "I... like younger ones."

Isn’t it just a young and handsome guy!

Yao Chuguang understood immediately and gave Yingge a look that said, "Don't worry, I'll take care of things."

Unlike the bustling courtyard of Yao Chuguang, Yan Mingzhe's courtyard on the other side was a bit lifeless.

Yan Mingzhe finally recovered from the blow and sat in front of the mirror to comb his messy hair.

Afraid that someone would come and see her in such a miserable state, she combed her hair while reviewing how to pretend to have lost her memory after drinking.

This matter must be carried out thoroughly. He cannot take the initiative to mention that he lost his memory after drinking. That would be too deliberate.

Just pretend nothing happened like you did this morning. After all, how could a person with amnesia realize that he or she has lost his or her memory?

In the border post station, Song Guguang covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief and looked around the room with disgust.

The attendant immediately took out a handkerchief and put it on the chair, and Song Guguang sat down reluctantly.

He picked up the tea on the table and took a sip. The bitter and piercing taste made Song Guguang frown and spit it out immediately.

I was so angry that I threw the cup away. What a crappy tea! It tastes worse than the water used to wash the pot.

The servant was so frightened that he immediately knelt on the ground, not caring about the broken porcelain pieces piercing his legs, and endured it without saying a word.

Song Guguan rubbed his temples, damn it!

Originally, he just wanted to use Cao Shijin as a pawn to test the empress's bottom line.

I really didn't expect that the empress would be so cold-blooded and ruthless.

It was just a few verbal disputes, but they ended up resorting to violence.

As a result, most of the chess pieces he had placed with great difficulty were destroyed.

It is said that one cannot blame everyone, and this matter involves the families of many officials of the previous dynasty.

Generally speaking, the mastermind is arrested directly, while the others are let off lightly for making a lot of noise but doing little.

As long as the water is muddied, Song Guguang can take advantage of the situation to fish in troubled waters.

In Song Guguan's plan, he would first use Cao Shijin as a pawn to make this matter a big deal.

The empress will certainly take action to rectify the situation, but since so many officials are involved, if all of them are held accountable it will cause turmoil in the court.

It was a critical moment in the war with the barbarians, and the empress had to ensure stability in the rear.

Song Guguan deduced from this that the empress would only take action against a few ringleaders, killing the chicken to scare the monkeys and suppress the matter, and then give the others a few warnings.

So on the surface it seems that the punishment is severe, but in fact there is a lot of room for maneuver.

This was the opportunity Song Guguan wanted. He would deliberately drag the children of high-ranking officials into the water and wait for the empress to start dealing with these people.

Those children of high-ranking officials on the list will definitely let their elders know when they know that they can no longer hide the matter.

The empress has always been a person who cannot tolerate any grain of sand in her eyes. If those high-ranking officials and their families are involved in this, they will definitely be very panicked and try their best to clear themselves.

Isn't this a handle that has been delivered to their door? At this time, Song Guguan had no choice but to use a little trick and say that he had a way to help them settle this matter.

The list of joint memorials was originally handled by Song Guguang. He just had to write the names of those he wanted to win over at the end in an inconspicuous place.

After the empress dealt with the leaders, he would find a few more people to be scapegoats, saying that these young men signed while drunk.

This way the guilt will be even less!

If this doesn't work, he will use silver to trick Cao Shijin and ask him to come forward and take the blame on himself.

By then, even if the empress was angry, Duke Li was still fighting bravely in the front. She would choose to let him go lightly, whether for the sake of stabilizing the morale of the troops in the front or for Duke Li's face.

They wouldn't do anything to Cao Shijin at all. At most they would just scold him and put him in solitary confinement!

No matter how Song Guguan calculated it, this move was perfect and steady.

The plan went smoothly until it reached the Empress stage.

It disrupted all of Song Guguang's plans and almost caused him to fail.

Even now, Song Guguan would sit up and curse when he woke up in the middle of the night, saying, "He's fucking sick!"

The empress did take action to deal with the people who started the trouble immediately, and then things started to become magical.

The attack on Cao Shijin was so cruel that those who knew about it thought it was an execution of a criminal, while those who didn't thought would think that the empress had a grudge against the Cao family.

Not satisfied with dealing with Cao Shijin and the Cao family, she even spared her married daughter and her aunt.

When Song Guguan heard the news that Duke Li was going to divorce his wife, he was completely dumbfounded.

Is the Empress acting so extreme?

After the empress dealt with the Cao family, she even arrested those cronies who usually ate and drank with Cao Shijin.

For a time, Cao Shijin became a rat crossing the street, and everyone was afraid to have anything to do with him.

Fortunately, Song Guguan usually met Cao Shijin in private, and few people knew that they knew each other.

Moreover, Song Guguang is well-informed and will run away immediately at the slightest sign of trouble.

Fortunately, I ran away early, otherwise I would have really capsized in the ditch.

Song Guguan originally thought that since the empress was on the first day of the month, don't blame him for being on the fifteenth.

The loss is so huge, he must do something to recover some of it.

Since the empress is so heartless and merciless, Song Guguan cannot just sit there and wait to die!

The best way for Song Gu Guangjue at the moment was to bring the news to the border front.

Among the families of those high-ranking officials, there are more or less some relatives who hold important positions in the military.

Just think about it, when they learned that they were fighting for the empress on the front line, the empress was actually plotting against their families in the rear. How could this not be heartbreaking?

The empress may not care about the life and death, honor and disgrace of Duke Li, but can she really turn a blind eye to the many soldiers fighting bloody battles on the front line?

If she insisted on killing everyone on the list, it would probably make countless soldiers feel heartbroken and desperate.

By then, the army will be demoralized and morale will be low. How can it resist the invasion of foreign enemies?

If the empress finally chose to let the soldiers' families go, then this matter would probably have ended in such a hasty and whimpering way.

As the saying goes, "What is worrying is not the lack of wealth but the uneven distribution of wealth." Once this biased situation occurs, it will inevitably lead to a series of unpredictable consequences and turmoil.

Although there were some deviations in the middle of this matter, Song Guguang was confident that he could handle it well.

As long as he can save these people this time, these losses will not matter.

Just when Song Guguan set out for the border, thinking he had victory in his grasp.

The empress actually allowed Yu Zhijian to openly accept bribes, and she did it in an open and aboveboard manner, posting the list with clearly marked prices.

If you want to save someone, you can use silver to save them.

Not enough money?

You can mortgage your land and shop with very low interest. When you pay off all the money, you can return the shop and land.

None of the people Song Guguan wanted to win over were short of money.

How many people who can become officials are stupid? It is easy to repay the money owed to the court, but it is difficult to repay the favors owed to others.

Moreover, the price of Yuzhi's appraisal is very reasonable. The fine will hurt you, but it will not bankrupt you.

After the empress collected the fines, the most outrageous thing she did was to use part of the fines to reward those officials whose children were included in the list.

They even specially fired a batch of porcelain for this event, on which they wrote how to get the reward.

Imagine if your opponent got this reward and you didn’t, and your opponent carried that broken bowl in front of you every day to show off.

This is simply killing people and destroying their hearts. All the face and dignity are lost.

It was the same as killing them. I heard that there was a shortage of medicine for injuries in Yundu City during those days.

Song Guguan never thought that the empress would be such a shameless person.

This is like being both a referee and a contestant.

I heard that the remaining silver was directly awarded by the empress to the soldiers fighting bravely on the front line.

Although each person could only get a few dozen copper coins, it was unexpected wealth.

They suddenly received such a large sum of money for no apparent reason, and now they are really worried.

Many soldiers were secretly hoping that this would happen more often.

There is silver to be had!

Song Guguan's carefully planned plan ended in a miserable failure.

What Song Guguan didn't expect the most was that the empress was so resolute and decisive in treating Cao Shijin this time, as if... as if she had planned it all along and deliberately wanted to make this matter a big fuss and let everyone know about it.

Could it be that he had inadvertently become the empress's right-hand man in eliminating Cao Shijin, the thorn in her side?

Thinking of this, Song Guguang couldn't help but feel a sinking feeling in his heart, and a layer of fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

No...impossible, how is this possible!

It's all just coincidence, all coincidence.

Song Guguan kept denying it, and took this incident as a lesson.

The Empress obviously doesn't buy into the human wave tactic, and it's unrealistic to rely on it to gain a foothold.

Since this road is blocked, we can only try another route.

Then we can only start with the people the empress trusts.

Song Guguang looked at the wooden plaques with names carved on them on the table. These were the names he had painstakingly collected.

He picked up a wooden plaque engraved with the name of Duke Li, looked at it, and then threw it into the fire and burned it.

Originally, Song Guguan wanted to establish a relationship with Duke Li through Cao Shijin, and then lie in wait to collect intelligence and see if Duke Li had any weaknesses.

As long as Song Guguan can control Duke Li, wealth, power and status will be as easy to obtain as taking something out of a bag.

By then, he will be able to call the wind and rain and realize his ambitions.

Unfortunately, the Empress protected Duke Li like an iron wall, and any factor that might endanger Duke Li would be ruthlessly eliminated.

Even the wife of Duke Li was no exception. Song Guguan really couldn't find any loopholes to exploit with such a person.

Now there are only six wooden signs left: Xiao Ge Lao, Yu Zhijian, Li Yinhan, Lin Wan, An Tian and Fu Hongxuan.

Song Guguan thought carefully about which one to start with.

He had collected very little information about the two women, Lin Wan and An Tian, so he would not consider them for the time being.

Li Yinhan is definitely the toughest nut to crack among all people. It is too difficult to persuade him to rebel. Song Guguang has no intention of taking action without a suitable opportunity.

Lord Xiao is also a very difficult person. Although Song Guguan does not think that such a powerful minister is absolutely loyal to the empress, this kind of person has been able to survive three dynasties, and some small favors will not be able to shake him at all.

It is impossible to persuade this old fox without enough chips, so Song Guguan will not consider this old fox at the moment.

Song Guguan now has only two candidates left, one is Yu Zhijian and the other is Fu Hongxuan!

Speaking of Yu Zhijian and Xiao Ge Lao, they are simply two extremes. One is from a wealthy and powerful family, and the other is a bachelor.

He has nothing and only wants to investigate the case and then behead people. Generally, such people who are ignorant of the ways of the world and are stubborn in doing things are not welcomed in official circles.

And the work you do is offensive to others, which makes it difficult for you to get ahead and be excluded everywhere.

But the empress supported Yu Zhijian, allowing Yu Zhijian to exclude everyone on his own.

If you want to bribe Yu Zhijian, the common methods such as bribing him with money or seducing him with beautiful women will not work at all.

Song Guguang had the idea of deliberately creating a false case, letting Yu Zhijian make a wrong judgment, and then arranging someone to point out his misjudgment.

At this time, Song Guguan came out to play the role of a good guy and suppressed the case, claiming that he did so because he could not bear to see a good official's career ruined because of this mistake.

Then Yu Zhijian will be grateful to me and owe me a favor. When I have accumulated enough favors, Yu Zhijian will be of use to me.

But there is a risk in doing so, that is, Yu Zhijian may be too upright and go directly to the empress to apologize.

Since the Empress holds Yu Zhijian in high regard, she will most likely suppress this matter.

But it is also possible that the case will be thoroughly re-investigated. If there are any clues left, he may be implicated if he is not careful.

Yu Zhijian is now young and energetic, full of passion and ambition, and vows to uphold justice for all the people in the world.

Faced with such a person, Song Guguang knew that he could not act too hastily. He could only wait patiently. Time would slowly smooth out the edges and sharpness of Yu Zhijian.

A person may be able to do good deeds for a while and do one, ten or even a hundred good things, but who can stick to the right path and never deviate from it all his life?

As long as he has enough patience, and waits until Yu Zhijian is gradually corrupted and assimilated by the darkness of officialdom, it will be the best time for him to take action.

Song Guguang looked at the only wooden sign left on the table.

"Fu Hongxuan"

It just so happened that he recently heard some news about Fu Hongxuan. Maybe this was his chance!