Liu Enjing and Xu Xiaogong walked side by side and talked in low voices in the brave camp, both of them felt uncomfortable. When His Majesty decided to recruit Xiaoyong, there was no opposition in the court. At that time, none of the generals thought there was anything wrong with this, after all, they didn't worry about money, food, armor and equipment.
No matter how powerful the Sui Dynasty was, the loss of 700,000 horses in the northwest was not a small number. The loss must be made up, recruiting brave is a way. But no one thought that in less than half a year, everything the civil servants had foreseen would happen. The national treasury is gradually unable to support these heroic supplies of food and grass, because what needs to be paid is not only the 800,000 horses that Yunji has outside Chang'an City.
The emperor decreed that the travel expenses and food for those unqualified soldiers should be distributed. As a result, many people came under the banner of joining the army and returned with some money and food. The expenditure of the treasury in the past five months has been staggering.
The more kind and lenient your majesty is to the brave, the more the court will pay.
Then there is law and order.
Gyeonggi-do was originally the most benevolent area in the world. For example, when Fang Jie first came to Chang'an and passed by Gyeonggi-do, he didn't even see a single beggar on the street. The children of rich families dare not run rampant, and the rascals dare not be presumptuous. Fang Jie once praised that if the world was so peaceful and prosperous, it would not be difficult for the Great Sui Dynasty to last for thousands of years.
But now, the brave people gathered in several acropolises outside Chang'an City, which were overcrowded. After training, these people come out to hang out when they are bored. A group of young people who are full of vigor will inevitably find someone who is not pleasing to their eyes, and fights abound. Some fought over drinking and grabbing a seat, and some fought over going to a brothel to grab a woman, and the fierce ones didn't need a reason to fight at all, they just wanted to fight.
These two incidents alone caused the entire Sui court to suffer.
With His Majesty's decree, the local government did not dare to punish these brave men too harshly, but it was meaningless to them to warn them.
The inferiority of human beings is that the more we are used to it, the more presumptuous we become.
The imperial historians at Yushitai have been handing over papers like a snowflake these days. But seventy-eight out of ten of these excerpts will not come before His Majesty. In the court room of the inner court, there is a servant of the Huangmen who is on duty every day. There are four bamboo baskets beside him.
There are paper strips pasted on the bamboo baskets, with priorities written on them.
Only the memorials in the two bamboo baskets of heavy and urgent will be submitted to Changchun Garden immediately. And this distinction is all in Pei Yan's mind. Pei Yan didn't even look at the memorial at Yushitai, so he threw it into the slow word bamboo basket. No one knows how long this delay will last.
In the past year, His Majesty has intensified the training of the prince. He took a lot of time to teach the prince himself, and even started to let the prince learn to review memorials. For this point, not only the people in Yushitai couldn't stand it, but also many important officials in the court felt that it was a bit too much. In terms of age, the emperor was at the peak of his spring and autumn, so if nothing unexpected happened, he would have no problem sitting on the dragon chair for another twenty years.
The emperors of the Sui Dynasty lived a long life, and only a handful of them died before the age of seventy.
It is no problem to train the prince earlier, but now it should be the business of the officials in the East Palace. Although the prince's attendant school is still free, which one of the scholars in Wenyuan Pavilion and Shuhua Pavilion is full of economics and real talents
In one year, the court became less stable.
Liu Enjing and Xu Xiaogong walked side by side, talking while walking. The two of them were friends when they were in the Southern Expedition to the Shang Kingdom, and they have had a relationship for decades.
"Rather than this, it is better to urge His Majesty to send troops as soon as possible."
Liu Enjing sighed and said: "Nearly a million people are gathered in Gyeonggi-do, and if it goes on for a long time, there will be disasters. The training is fine, and they will be trained on the east bank of Yishui. Let them see what is going on with the rebels and the battlefield." What's going on. There are so many people outside Chang'an City, if someone instigates it... it's unimaginable!"
Xu Xiaogong nodded: "The only thing we can do is this. In the past, when His Majesty was in a hurry to send troops, we persuaded him. Now His Majesty is not in a hurry. We want to see how many brave men will come, but we are in a hurry."
"One moment and another moment."
Liu Enjing said: "You and I are veterans, we can't pretend to be deaf and dumb."
"Your Majesty also attaches great importance to Niu Huilun, the scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion, and Zong Lianghu, Minister of the Ministry of War. Why don't you and I be hosts tonight and invite them both to have a drink. If you can persuade them to write a joint letter, maybe His Majesty will pay more attention to it." .”
"Also."
Xu Xiaogong thought for a while and said: "However, the assistant minister appointed by His Majesty a while ago, Huangmen servant Pei Yan, university scholar Niu Huilun, military minister Zong Lianghu... three people, let's invite two, will it..."
"who cares!"
Liu Enjing said slightly angrily: "The villain is in power! Don't worry about him."
Xu Xiaogong sighed, the two generals who were supposed to be proud and ambitious were full of worries.
Changchun Garden.
The emperor stared at the covered melon stand outside in a daze. His spirit had been getting worse and worse these days. I used to stare at the memorial all day without being distracted, but now I can't concentrate more and more. Especially when the sun is warming up in the afternoon, the eyelids begin to droop involuntarily. Sometimes he could fall asleep just by sitting on the kang, but when he woke up, he was even worse.
Bingbi eunuch Su Buwei glanced at the emperor, and the worry in his eyes was fleeting.
"Your Majesty, if you are tired, take a rest."
The emperor suddenly smiled, as if thinking of something happy.
"Do you still remember, when Fang Jie first arrived in Chang'an City, I called him into the palace, and he was outside this house, hiding behind the rockery and stealing my cucumbers to eat."
This is really interesting, Su Buwei couldn't help laughing when he thought about it: "In history, the first thief who dared to steal in Changchun Garden."
"He has no ghosts in his heart. He picks something to eat when he feels hungry. Some people have ghosts in their hearts, and they pretend to be nothing when they are obviously hungry. Looking at the cucumber drooling, they have to stand upright and dignified... Relatively Speaking of which, I prefer the temper of that little thief in your mouth."
He paused, as if he suddenly remembered something.
"It seems that someone came just now, who?"
The emperor rubbed his brows and asked.
"Luo Weiran, the commander of the Ouchi Guards Department, said that he has something to see, and he has been waiting outside for a while."
"Pass it in."
The emperor waved his hand, then sat up straight.
Outside the window, two little maids were playing with His Royal Highness Yang Chengqian. The prince, who will be ten years old in another month, looked at the emerald green cucumber and asked, "Royal father said that there was a thief who stole his cucumber to eat, but he thought the thief was a talent, so he didn't blame him." , and I plan to let him be my attendant... His name is Fang Jie, but I don't remember if I have met this person."
The little palace maid with delicate features turned her head away: "A thief is a thief, and His Majesty is too tolerant. If you want me to say that stealing something, you should be pulled out and killed!"
The prince raised his brows, turned around and looked at the little maid, and said coldly: "Slap your own mouth! Do you dare to question what the father said? Recently, you have become more and more presumptuous! Stick to stick, do you know what is stick to? You know dead people What does it look like? You are so ruthless at this age, if you don't teach him, you might say something outrageous in the future!"
The little palace maid who had played very well with the prince on weekdays was startled, and cried before hitting him. She looked at the prince sadly, thinking that the prince would soften his heart. But after waiting for a while, she realized that the prince's eyes were still cold.
So she raised her hand and started to slap her mouth.
The emperor who was sitting by the window smiled again when he saw this scene.
…
…
Luo Weiran bowed and stood still without looking up. He hadn't seen the emperor for a month, and he was already used to this kind of cold reception. The emperor said a while ago that he trusted him, but Luo Weiran knew that it was just a way for the emperor to comfort people's hearts. The supreme being in front of him doesn't trust anyone in his bones. It has been more than a hundred years since the founding of the Sui Dynasty, and the emperor in front of him is the first person who is not at ease with the old dean Wan Xingchen.
"I remember I told you that in the future, if you have something to do, just come in directly at the sign."
The emperor said lightly: "There is no need to wait outside."
Luo Weiran bowed his head and said: "Eunuch Su said that His Majesty has been a little tired these two days, so I dare not disturb you."
The emperor hummed: "What's the matter?"
"Your Majesty, the offender Yang Yin begged to see His Majesty again."
The emperor frowned slightly, and seemed to be very indifferent and said: "He has lived a long life, and his mouth is not controlled in the prison... What do you want to see me?"
"I don't know, he just asks me to report to see His Majesty every day."
"So you relented?"
The emperor glanced at Luo Weiran, although his tone was plain, but the meaning behind his words made people shudder.
"I dare not, but I just dare not delay. Yang Yin is a repeat offender, and I cannot neglect my duty."
"I know."
The emperor waved his hand impatiently: "If you have nothing else to do, then step back and tell Yang Yin to let him live well in the prison. He should eat and sleep, and don't die before I want to kill him. , I will meet him sooner or later, now is not the time."
"The minister obeys the order."
Luo Weiran gave a wry smile in his heart, bowed his body and backed out.
"Wait… "
When he walked to the door, the emperor suddenly changed his mind: "Bring him to Changchun Garden, I really want to hear, what else does he want to say to me, and what face does he have to see me!"
Luo Weiran responded, and then exited the Qionglu.
When he was going out, he saw the little eunuch Mu San winking at himself, and slipped out a small ball of paper from his cuff. When Luo Weiran passed by him, he walked over and stepped on it, pretending to tidy up his boots and picked up the paper ball Hold it in your palm. He didn't dare to look at what was written on the ball of paper in Changchun Garden, and he didn't open the ball of paper until he got on the carriage. With just one glance, his face suddenly turned pale.
"No wonder... no wonder!"
He murmured.
There was a pen, ink, paper and inkstone on the carriage. After thinking for a while, he picked up the pen and wrote a short message, chatting for more than a dozen words, but every word was extremely heavy. After writing, he put the letter into a small iron box and sealed it with sealing paint. Halfway through, he stopped the carriage, casually walked into a restaurant, and bought a jug of old wine and a catty of cooked beef.
Half an hour later, the iron box containing the secret letter arrived in the hands of Wu Yiyi, Marquis of Sanjin.
Wu Yiyi picked up the sealing paint, opened the letter and looked at it, and his face also changed drastically. There was an indescribable worry and fear in the eyes of this deep man who was always calm and calm. I don't know what it is, but it can scare the commander of Ouchi's bodyguard office and the boss of Huo Tong Tian Xing.
Wu Yiyi was silent for a while, then resealed the letter, and then called a trusted aide.
"You send it to Huangyang Road as quickly as possible, find Fang Jie, and hand it over to him. This thing is too important. You can die, but it cannot fall into other people's hands. If necessary, destroy it. You If you die, I will treat your family generously."
The confidant clasped his fists together: "Master Hou, don't worry, your subordinates know what to do!"
He stuffed the iron box into his arms and put it close to his heart, then turned and went out.
After the cronies left, Wu Yidao seemed to have been drained of strength for a moment, and leaned on the chair slumped, his expression still ugly.
After being silent like this for a long time, he let out a long breath of foul air from his mouth.
"Da Sui... The wind and rain are precarious..."
He stood up, walked to the window and looked at the sky outside, dazed.
A huge secret seemed to press a huge rock weighing ten thousand catties on his heart, making it hard for him to breathe.