Qining left the Ghost Bamboo Forest and walked north. Although he had exhausted a lot of energy last night, fortunately he had strong internal strength. In addition, he and Chi Danmei also slept for two hours and recovered a lot. His feet were like flying and he walked for two hours. At this time, it was official.
He knew that it was still a hundred miles away from Lucheng. Fortunately, people came and went on the official road. Many of them were carriages that sent guests to Lucheng and then turned back. He hired a carriage and arrived at Lucheng. He directly let the carriage arrive at the post house, paid the fare, and then returned to the post house.
After a long day of work yesterday, the clothes naturally looked a bit messy. Fortunately, the guard of the post house recognized him and let him in. When he arrived at Dongyuan, the soldiers of the Chu State who were patrolling saw him. They were overjoyed and immediately ran back to report that Qining had just arrived. In the main hall of Dongyuan, Qi Feng and Wu Dalin had already led a group of people to rush in. They were all overjoyed to see that Qi Ning was indeed safe and sound.
Qi Feng came forward and said excitedly: "Master Hou, you... you are back. This is great."
Wu Dalin stepped forward and cupped his hands and said: "Master Hou, after you were kidnapped out of the city, we have been negotiating with the Dongqi people, and they also sent people to look for you. Brother Qi Feng was worried about Master Hou's safety and wanted everyone to go out of the city to look for him. , my subordinates are worried that if they are not careful on the ground in Dong Qi, they will cause even greater trouble, so they are strictly prohibited from acting rashly and wait for news from the Dong Qi people first."
Qi Ning patted Wu Dalin on the shoulder and said with a smile: "You are right. The more tense the situation is, the more calm you must stay." He glanced at Qi Feng and said: "You have also been on the battlefield. Why do you panic when things happen? You should learn more from Leader Wu."
When Qi Feng saw Qi Ning coming back, he was in a good mood. He didn't care about anything and said with a smile: "What the Marquis said is that in the future, he must learn more from Leader Wu in everything."
Wu Dalin hurriedly said: "I don't dare."
"Leader Wu, what happened next?" Qi Ning sat down. After working hard for a long time, he felt a little thirsty. He asked Qi Feng to pour tea, and asked Wu Dalin to sit next to him before asking: "Beitang Fengdai If an assassin enters the palace and commits an assassination, will the people of Dong Qi be held accountable?"
Wu Dalin smiled and said: "Then there is no way to pursue the case. At that time, many Eastern Qi ministers advised to control the Northern Han mission and arrest Prince Yu and Beitang Feng. However, the prince was calm. Although the assassin and The Northern Han Dynasty envoy is involved, but Prince Yu is the prince of the Han Kingdom after all, so if we really fall out, it will not be of any benefit to Dong Qi."
Qi Ning sighed and said: "I also expected that after this incident, the people of Eastern Qi may not dare to do anything to the Han mission."
"However, the ministers of Dong Qi are all dissatisfied with the Han mission." Wu Dalin said: "Prince Yu made sharp remarks in court, and the ministers of Dong Qi couldn't argue with him, and they were even more angry. Last night Dong Qi Tao Shangshu from the Ministry of Rites of Qi still sat here with us for a while, and in his words he was quite dissatisfied with the Northern Han people."
Qi Ning asked: "Have we ever discussed the issue of ceding territory and asking for marriage?"
"No." Wu Dalin said: "The king of Dong Qi was almost assassinated and was still in shock. After the marquis left, Shen Tuluo personally escorted the king of Dong Qi to leave the court. Later, the crown prince of Dong Qi took over. Prince Yu argued with the officials of Dong Qi, He kept explaining that the Northern Han Dynasty had no intention of assassinating the king of the Eastern Qi Dynasty, but Beitang Feng was panicked before and admitted that he had indeed brought the assassin into the palace, so the people of the Eastern Qi Dynasty seized on this and tried to blame him. Beitang Feng was so frightened that he said the next sentence I don't even dare to say it." He asked softly: "Master Hou, it seems that Beitangfeng really doesn't know that the woman is an assassin."
Qi Feng had already brought the tea and said: "Master Hou, I think it was Beitangfeng who was so lustful that he was deceived by the assassin. Beitangfeng is as timid as a mouse. If you know that woman is an assassin, I definitely don’t have the guts to take her into the palace.”
Qi Ning thought that you were right, and said with a smile: "I hope Beitang Feng can leave Dong Qi alive this time." He said to Wu Dalin: "The imperial court brought a gift to Prime Minister Linghu, but it was always difficult to give it to him before. Go over there and bring a few people to deliver the gifts over there at night."
Wu Dalin agreed with his hand, and Qi Feng said from the side: "Master Marquis, if the people of Dong Qi hand over the princess to the people of Northern Han this time, wouldn't the gifts we sent him be in vain?"
"Why don't you go back and tell the Minister of Rites that if you don't marry the princess, return the gifts to us?" Qining took a sip of tea and said with a smile, "Maybe we can really get those things back."
Wu Dalin frowned and said, "Master Hou, do you really think the Northern Han people won this time?"
Qi Ning put down his tea cup and said: "I didn't expect that the Northern Han people would cede land for marriage. I always thought that the land of any country was won with blood, and no one would cede the land easily. , let alone ceding land when they have all the advantages. The Northern Han Dynasty is more than one and a half times stronger than the Eastern Qi State. Who would have thought that these turtles would use such a trick. "
Wu Dalin said: "At least our country of Chu will never be like this."
Qi Ning asked: "Yes, what is the situation of Han State now? Has Han State not established a prince yet?"
Wu Dalin said: "The founding king of the Han Dynasty was Beitang Tianwu, who was originally from the Chu Kingdom... Lord Marquis, the Chu Kingdom that my subordinates refer to is the former Great Chu Empire. The Beitang clan was originally a relative of the Great Chu Empire. Beitang Tianwu was in charge of Jizhou at that time, and was granted the title of shepherd of Jizhou. His two sisters, one was the queen of Chu State, and the other was a noble concubine of Chu State. She was a holy family member and was very powerful in both the government and the public."
Wu Dalin knew very well that the young Marquis had just awakened and had not participated in state affairs before. Now that he was asking whether the Han Kingdom had a prince, he probably did not know much about the history of the Han Kingdom, so he simply The history should also be explained, so that it can be explained clearly.
At this time, someone brought another cake. Qining had really not eaten for a long time. He picked up a piece of cake in his hand and asked, "Since he has received such a favor, why did Beitang Tianwu raise an army to rebel?"
"The subjugated king of the Chu Empire had no talent for governing, but he liked beauty." Wu Dalin said: "He doted on the two ladies of the Beitang family in the early days, and the Beitang family became more powerful because of it. But later, he doted on one of them. A concubine named Tang, and he made the concubine named Tang a noble concubine. If it were just that, it would be fine, but the Tang family rose because of Tang Guifei, and they even wanted the emperor to abolish Queen Beitang and make Tang Guifei their queen. The battle for the palace was naturally extremely bloody. After two years of struggle, Queen Beitang died suddenly. This caused a huge disaster. Without saying a word, Beitang Tianwu immediately raised his troops to rebel, and attacked the Qing emperor The banner of the Beitang family. At that time, the power of the Beitang family was unparalleled in the entire Chu Empire. There were party members everywhere. Beitang Tianwu raised his troops and followed them like clouds. In one moment, he gathered hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, and directly Fighting towards Luoyang, the foundation of the Tang family was not stable, and how many soldiers and horses were under their control, they could only take the emperor hostage and flee south. Before crossing the Yangtze River, they were blocked by a rebel army. The Emperor of Chu and the accompanying officials, large and small, came to Thousands of people were all killed on the banks of the Yangtze River, and their blood flowed like a river."
Qi Ning had heard about this period of history from Xiang Baiying, and knew that the conquered king of the Chu Empire died on the banks of the Yangtze River.
"Beitang Tianwu occupied Luoyang and established a little emperor at the beginning. At that time, the Great Chu Empire had already existed in name only, and the little emperor was just a puppet. Within a few months, the little emperor issued an imperial edict and abdicated in favor of a worthy person. Beitang Tianwu sat on the throne and established the Northern Han Empire." Wu Dalin is very familiar with that period of history: "After Beitang Tianwu died, his eldest son inherited the throne. Beitang Tianwu's successor was named Emperor Chongming, and Emperor Chongming did not have him. I live a long life, and after his death, my eldest son Beitang Huan succeeded to the throne and is now Emperor Guangwu."
"Emperor Guangwu?" Qi Ning was startled, then smiled lightly and said: "What a great reputation." He asked: "There is a great master in the Northern Han Dynasty, do you know Beitang Huanye?"
"The Marquis is talking about Muyunhou." Wu Dalin nodded and said: "Muyunhou Beitang Huanye and Emperor Chongming are brothers, and they are also the sons of Beitang Tianwu, the founder of the Han Dynasty, but I don't know much about this person. Not much, I just know that he is the emperor's uncle of the Han Dynasty, one generation older than the old emperor Guangwu, so Prince Yu has to call him uncle."
Qi Ning thought to himself that these great masters were indeed old monsters. Based on this calculation, Beitang Huanye should not be much younger than Beigong Liancheng and Baiyun Island Master, but he did not know whether Beitang Huanye was as good as those two great masters. Generally speaking, the appearance is ageless.
"The Beitang clan is prosperous, and Beitang Huan is said to have had seven or eight sons. According to the knowledge of his subordinates, when Beitang Huan got his first prince, he was very excited and immediately made that prince the prince. , who would have known that the little prince would die in less than five months. After giving birth to the second prince, Beitang Huan made him the prince again. The second prince lived for a few years, but at the age of five, this The second prince was practicing riding a horse. It is said that the horse was frightened and the second prince fell off the horse. After the fright, he died within three days."
Qi Ning was a little surprised, thinking that Beitang Huan's fate was not good, but Wu Dalin continued: "Both two princes died in infancy, and Beitang Huan has never established a prince since then. He still has Among the five princes, Beitangfeng ranks fourth, but this Beitangfeng is the daughter of the Empress of the Northern Han Dynasty, so according to the rules of establishing a prince, he has the greatest possibility of inheriting the throne."
Qi Ning thought to himself that it was no wonder that the Northern Han Dynasty wanted to marry Beitang Feng. It turned out that Beitang Feng was probably the successor of the Northern Han Dynasty. He couldn't help but think that if Beitang Feng became the emperor, how would he be with the Chu State? Compared with the Little Emperor Longtai, Beitang Feng is far from the Little Emperor Longtai in terms of intelligence and courage. If the two heroes compete for hegemony, only in the aspect of the emperor, Chu State should have won.
Qi Ning traveled all day yesterday, spent another lingering night last night, and drove for half a day today. After all the hard work, he felt a little tired. He knew that the king of Dong Qi was assassinated yesterday and was in shock. He was afraid that he would not be able to summon the envoy today. , immediately someone arranged bath water, took a bath, put on a set of clean and soft clothes, and then went back to the house to sleep.
When he woke up, it was already dark outside. When he got up, he suddenly heard whispers outside the door. It seemed that someone was talking. He frowned, went over to open the door, and saw several figures whispering in his courtyard. Whispering, when they heard the sound of the door opening, several people immediately stopped talking and came over here.
Qi Ning glanced at it and asked, "What are you talking about here?"
Qi Feng and Wu Dalin looked at each other, then came forward and whispered: "Master Hou, something may have happened with the Northern Han Dynasty Mission. We are thinking about whether to report it to Master Hou."