"Your Majesty, are we really going to do this?"
In the imperial study, Jiang Shang was in a difficult position and looked exhausted.
Although Ouyang Shuo was surprised that the ministers had come forward to object, he did not panic. The first person he found was the Cabinet Chief, Jiang Shang, hoping that Jiang Shang would step forward and suppress this wave.
It was not that Ouyang Shuo was irresponsible and would hide like a tortoise after something happened, letting the ministers take the lead. In fact, with Ouyang Shuo's prestige in the government, he could completely suppress this storm alone.
But if he really did that, the ministers would only accept it, but they would not be convinced.
In the future, when the Great Xia Supreme Court exercised its authority, it would definitely be made difficult by various parties, whether overtly or covertly. It would not be able to establish its judicial authority, and the reform might even be aborted midway.
This was not what Ouyang Shuo wanted.
Furthermore, as an emperor, it would be too improper for Ouyang Shuo to directly argue with the ministers. A truly brilliant emperor's strategy was to use the ministers to oppose the ministers, so as to achieve his political goals.
Jiang Shang was undoubtedly a suitable candidate.
Other than Jiang Shang being the Cabinet Chief and a grandmaster of a hundred schools of thought, he had high prestige in the circle of historical talents and the Great Xia civil officials. More importantly, Jiang Shang had already materialized as a homo sapiens.
As a homo sapiens, his thoughts were naturally very different.
Jiang Shang knew very well why His Majesty wanted to establish the Great Xia Supreme Court, and he himself supported it. But this situation was not understood by the ministers who had not materialized.
In order to not cause a commotion in the game world, Gaia stipulated that before NPCs materialized, other NPCs would not be able to come into contact with the real world, much less understand the interstellar migration environment.
Misunderstandings were inevitable.
As such, Jiang Shang became the bridge between His Majesty and the ministers, as well as a mediator.
This was one of the powers of the prime minister.
If it were any other time, Jiang Shang would be more than happy to take on such an errand to expand his influence in the officialdom, but this matter was extraordinary. It affected the cake of the entire civil officials, and the pressure was like a mountain.
Even with Jiang Shang's ability, he could not withstand it.
Ouyang Shuo heard that during the Spring Festival, more than ten ministers had rushed to Jiang Shang's residence to visit him, questioning why the Cabinet Chief had agreed to establish the Great Xia Supreme Court.
As a result, there was a lot of unhappiness between them.
If it weren't for Zhang Liang, Jia Xu, and the other ministers who had been materialized to mediate between them, Jiang Shang would have already stood against the entire group of civil officials.
This was the first time such a huge disagreement had occurred within the Great Xia Corporation.
As time passed, the ripples of this matter began to spread from the capital to the surrounding provinces, causing quite a stir in the provinces.
The officials of Great Xia trembled.
During the entire process, Ouyang Shuo sat calmly on the fishing platform. He needed a chance like this to observe these ministers. He wanted to see who was worthy of materializing and who was stubborn and couldn't bear great responsibility.
With Great Xia's unstoppable unification of Huaxia, almost all of the talents in Huaxia's 5,000 years of history were captured by Great Xia.
When the forest grew bigger, there would naturally be a mix of fish and dragons, mud and sand.
The undercurrents during the Spring Festival were all recorded by the Mountain Sea Guards, from the imperial court to the prefectures and counties. One by one, they were brought to Ouyang Shuo.
Among the officials in the capital, the one who was the happiest was the head of the Civil Affairs Bureau, Pei Yun. It was precisely because of Pei Yun's mediation that a dozen or so ministers had forced the First Secretary of the Cabinet to abdicate his residence.
In truth, the performance of one of the Pei clan powerhouses had greatly disappointed Ouyang Shuo. Because of this, Ouyang Shuo also had a bad impression of the clans in the imperial court.
In the end, the clans cared too much about their family's interests.
Locally, the commotion was even worse. This was especially true for the officials who had just submitted to Great Xia. They almost jumped out and cursed. They didn't dare point their spear at the emperor, Ouyang Shuo, so they vented their anger on Jiang Shang.
During the Spring Festival break, Ouyang Shuo actually received over sixty impeachment memorials against Jiang Shang. This made Ouyang Shuo so angry that he wanted nothing more than to behead all of them.
In the end, Ouyang Shuo endured it.
Ouyang Shuo had to continue observing calmly. He knew that this wasn't all that had jumped out. There were bound to be more and bigger fish hiding under the water.
What Ouyang Shuo needed was patience.
The entire court was bustling with activity during the half-month break.
What comforted Ouyang Shuo was that not all of the ministers who hadn't appeared were in opposition. Generally speaking, those who supported or at least didn't oppose the establishment of the Great Xia Supreme Court could be divided into three types.
The first type were the generals.
This was also what comforted Ouyang Shuo the most. During the entire process, Ouyang Shuo didn't even instruct Bai Qi to make an appearance. The entire group of generals fell silent, scrupulously abiding by their duties and not getting involved in this storm.
Having such an army was indeed the Great Xia's fortune and Ouyang Shuo's fortune.
Ouyang Shuo had always scrupulously adhered to the principle of separating the military from politics. The army was not allowed to interfere in politics. It had withstood the test of this storm and bore the fruits of victory.
The second type were the old officials of the imperial court.
The native civil officials represented by Gu Xiuwen and Zhou Haichen, as well as the early civil officials led by Tian Wenjing and Fan Zhongyan, all unconditionally supported the court's decision.
This also made Ouyang Shuo feel very gratified.
They did this because they were most loyal to Ouyang Shuo and were truly loyal to him. Secondly, it was because they used to be by Ouyang Shuo's side and were influenced by him, so they were more open-minded.
The third type were the truly ambitious people.
Not only did they not oppose it, but they also firmly supported the imperial court and supported a certain limit on the imperial power. Ceng Guofan, Wei Zheng, Di Renjie, and the others were the representatives.
What surprised Ouyang Shuo the most, but also the least, was that the Minister of Internal Affairs, Wei Yang, firmly supported the establishment of the Great Xia Supreme Court.
One had to know that once the Great Xia Supreme Court was established, the Minister of Internal Affairs would have the greatest impact.
The fact that Wei Yang didn't care about his personal gains and losses and objectively evaluated the matter from the perspective of the rule of law made Ouyang Shuo feel very gratified. He felt that he had not misjudged Wei Yang.
The legalist was indeed a legalist.
…
After the opening of the court, the storm hadn't subsided yet.
Ouyang Shuo didn't plan to wait any longer. This time, not only did he want to establish the Great Xia Supreme Court, but he also wanted to use this opportunity to clean up the Great Xia bureaucracy.
When Jiang Shang learned of this, he was put in a difficult position.
Upon seeing this, Ouyang Shuo consoled him, "Minister, if there's plenty of time, I wouldn't want to do this either. However, it's already the seventh year of Gaia. Time waits for no man."
Ouyang Shuo was obviously anxious.
In the next three to four years, the Great Xia had to continue expanding its territory and crush the Silver Hand and Azure Badge. It also had to complete its internal transformation before reaching Planet Hope.
Regardless of which it was, it was a thorny matter. How could he not be anxious?!
"I understand!" Jiang Shang nodded with mixed emotions. He knew His Majesty's difficulties and said decisively, "Your Majesty, please rest assured. I will do my best to mediate this storm."
"Thank you for your hard work, Minister."
Ouyang Shuo was filled with emotions as he looked at Jiang Shang's silver hair.
However, any reform could not always be smooth sailing. There were always all sorts of storms and challenges.
"It's my honor to be able to share Your Majesty's worries."
Ouyang Shuo sighed and waved his hand. "The imperial court has been too smooth in the past. It's time for us to reform ourselves. Otherwise, it will ultimately be a scourge."
Jiang Shang fell silent.
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