Chapter 336

"Liu Jinyi, Liu Jin... is it this blatant?"

An Ziyang flicked his fingers on the document twice.

"With such obvious clues, they might have been waiting for you to come to their door, and yet I had to wait for Battalion Commander Mei to communicate with me... Are you all eating too well lately, or am I too easy to talk to?"

The company commanders stood with their heads down, silent as cicadas in winter.

One of them stammered: "Battalion Commander, it's not that we aren't trying... Battalion Commander Zhu is the Commander's only son. We are your people, you are the Regional Commander's person. If we investigate and cause any friction, we are afraid it will make it difficult for the Regional Commander in front of the Commander..."

An Ziyang sighed.

That's true.

The root of this matter was because he had brainwashed his subordinates too much on weekdays, causing the entire battalion to be like a cult.

Things like being startled, clutching their chests and shouting "Oh my Regional Commander," or sneaking to Li Miao's door to steal bricks to grind into pendants to wear on their chests for protection, were no longer fresh news in his battalion.

The benefit was absolute loyalty to Li Miao, but the downside was that whenever they encountered something related to Li Miao himself, these people would get a bit dizzy.

Take this matter, for example.

Everyone in the Embroidered Uniform Guard knew the relationship between Li Miao and Zhu Zai; it was closer than father and son.

Don't look at how they tease each other or throw tables on weekdays, neither giving the other a good look. But if someone really stood in front of this pair... there was no one in Great Shuo that Lord Li dared not kill, and no mess that Lord Zhu dared not clean up.

How could these company commanders dare to get involved between these two?

A godson investigating a biological son—it doesn't sound good.

"Forget it."

An Ziyang stood up.

"Go and investigate the background of this Liu Jinyi for me. Dig up the ancestral graves within eight generations, and perform blood recognition for every dog raised in the family. If there is even a slight mistake... you know that the Tang Men sent a batch of good things recently, right?"

Several company commanders turned pale and nodded repeatedly.

An Ziyang took the stack of documents, left the Embroidered Uniform Guard office, and took a carriage to the Forbidden City. After getting off at the palace gate, verifying his identity, and receiving his tooth plate, An Ziyang walked quickly toward the southeast of the Forbidden City.

After walking for a while, passing through the Donghuamen, a two-story building came into view in the distance, three bays wide, with a double-eaved hip roof, covered with black glazed tiles and green edges. On the plaque on the door were the three large characters "Wenyuan Pavilion."

Wenyuan Pavilion, that is, the Cabinet.

This was the center of power in Great Shuo.

If it were before last year, An Ziyang, a small fifth-rank company commander, would not have been qualified to come here. Even Zhu Zai had to be careful and respectful when coming here.

But now, it was very different.

An Ziyang walked to the door of Wenyuan Pavilion, glanced to the side, and saw several eunuchs standing outside the door with their heads down and eyebrows low, as if they hadn't heard his arrival.

Directorate of Ceremonial.

The supreme power of Great Shuo can be divided into three parts.

The Emperor, the Cabinet, the Directorate of Ceremonial.

World affairs, when put on paper, are just a small memorial. Countless memorials are summarized by the Six Ministries to the Wenyuan Pavilion, and the Cabinet gives processing opinions, which is the so-called "ticket drafting." Once the "ticket drafting" is formed, it is sent by the Directorate of Ceremonial to the Emperor to form the final decision, called "red batching."

The key lies in this "red batching."

Theoretically, "red batching" is spoken by the Emperor himself, and the eunuch in charge of the Directorate of Ceremonial uses a vermilion brush to put the Emperor's will on paper, forming the supreme resolution of Great Shuo.

But in practice, not every "red batching" comes from the Emperor's own will. Some "not very important" small matters are directly batched by the Directorate of Ceremonial, and it's the same.

As for what matters are important and what are not... if the Emperor doesn't ask personally, it is actually decided by the Directorate of Ceremonial.

The phenomenon of "eunuchs in power" in Great Shuo was born because of this. The Senior Grand Secretary and the eunuch in charge of the Directorate of Ceremonial, these two roles lie on top of imperial power, swallowing every bit of power the Emperor abandons, and eventually growing into two behemoths in the Great Shuo court.

If the incident at the Imperial Mausoleum hadn't happened, the Embroidered Uniform Guard wouldn't have been able to lift their heads in front of these two roles.

But now... An Ziyang looked at those eunuchs, and the corners of his mouth slowly curled up.

These eunuchs were all gray-haired and wrinkled, standing at the door like puppets, and only reacted when An Ziyang got close, raising their dim old eyes to look at him.

Seeing his Embroidered Uniform Guard official uniform, these eunuchs suddenly became respectful and bowed to salute.

An Ziyang waved his hand.

"No need, if you are tired, go and rest. As long as there is someone at the door... just go through the motions."

"Yes, yes."

The old eunuch nodded like a garlic masher.

"Is the Commander here?"

"Yes, yes, the Cabinet just drafted some regulations, and the slave just sent them down to Lord Zhu."

"Hmm."

An Ziyang nodded and walked into Wenyuan Pavilion.

The first floor is divided into two rooms. The outer room is for clerks responsible for summarizing and classifying the memorials sent by the Six Ministries. The inner room is where the Cabinet Grand Secretaries and the Senior Grand Secretary discuss matters.

Seeing An Ziyang enter, the clerks in the outer room reacted differently.

Some showed flattering smiles, some suddenly changed color and lowered their heads, and some showed indignation.

An Ziyang stopped, tilted his head, and scanned those who showed indignation.

One of them suddenly flushed, his lips moving as if to speak. His colleague behind him reached out and pulled his sleeve, pulling him behind, and smiled at An Ziyang.

An Ziyang didn't care and walked up to the second floor.

The second floor is also divided into two rooms, but there was no one in the outer room. An Ziyang walked to the inner room and knocked on the door.

"Enter."

A weary greeting came from inside.

An Ziyang pushed the door and walked in.

"Commander."

Inside the room, the floor was covered with documents full of words, and some of them were memorials with "red batching" that could be used as imperial edicts outside, also thrown on the ground in a mess.

And in the middle of these papers was a long table a *zhang* wide, also filled with documents and memorials. The highest stack was two feet high, swaying and tottering.

In the center of the long table, Zhu Zai was frowning, lost in thought while looking at a memorial in his hand. The ink on the brush in his right hand had already dried, obviously having been suspended in mid-air for a long time.

An Ziyang glanced at the brush in Zhu Zai's hand.

This brush was seven inches and three *fen* long, with a red jade handle, transparent as chicken blood, inlaid with a gold *chi* button at the head, the tip made of white wolf hair, and the four characters "By the Mandate of Heaven, the Emperor Reigns" engraved on the body.

This was the "Vermilion Brush."

The foundation of the Directorate of Ceremonial, the embodiment of imperial power that can decide world affairs with one stroke, and also the sharpest and heaviest weapon in the world.

Zhu Zai held this brush, but only felt tired.