The death knell echoed over Chang'an for a long time, the mountains and rivers were empty, and the mourning was loud.
The emperor left a will to enshrine the crown prince, and then let go to the west to control the dragon and bintian at midnight.
The posthumous edict stated that the king of Zhou was established as the heir, and Shan Chao gave a different surname to assist the government, confine the Queen of Heaven, and liquidate the remaining parties. The rest of the favors were granted to the British public and rewarded civil and military officials, etc., the size is hard to count.
"Your Majesty!"
On the wide square in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, there was endless mourning in linen and filial piety, and the wailing of the ministers shook the sky. Dai Zhide, Zhang Wenguan and others were crying so much. King Li Xian of Zhou knelt in front of the huge coffin, crying so hard that he almost fainted, but the tears on his face were real.
The eldest son and the second son were the favorite of Emperor Daxing during his lifetime, so he obviously didn't have any expectations for Li Xian, and he probably saw a side similar to himself from him: weak and affectionate, gentle and kind. But this is not entirely a shortcoming, at least Li Xian's sleepless and weeping performance for several days was shown in front of the officials. Shan Chao stepped forward, took Li Xian with a strong hand, and said warmly: "Your Highness is filial and pious, and the whole world can see it." .But don’t mourn overly hurting your body, just use some ginseng soup.”
Li Xian struggled violently and shook his hand away.
"It's hard work, general... Gu, I can't drink it." Li Xian realized in an instant, and changed his expression reluctantly: "Let's talk about it later."
How could that feeble cover-up fool Shan Chao, but he only glanced at Li Xian and nodded calmly: "Forget it." He cupped his fists as he spoke, and retreated respectfully, making it impossible to find the slightest bit of disrespect.
Li Xian gritted his teeth and turned his head back. After a while, he couldn't hold on anymore. He staggered and almost fainted in front of the coffin, and hurriedly stretched out his hand to the other side. Wei Xuanzhen, who had long been watching and waiting beside him, understood, quickly stepped forward to support Li Xian, and whispered some comfort.
There was so much love between the monarch and his ministers, Shan Chao stood aside with a smile, as if he didn't see anything.
Two days later, Zhou Wang Li Xianling came to the throne in front of him. According to the will, he married Wei Xuanzhen's daughter Wei Wei as the queen, and became the heir of the Yuan Dynasty.
The emperor kept his filial piety and replaced the moon with the day, and ate vegetarian food for a full twenty-seven days.
Shan Chao also ate with him for twenty-seven days in his mansion.
"Aren't you stabbing the little emperor's heart?" Xie Yun picked up a chopstick of shallot tofu, dipped it in the prepared sauce, and ate it, "I was suspicious of you, a cheap brother, and now I'm even more restless... "
Seeing that there was no one around, Shan Chao took out a sauced meat pancake from his arms, and stuffed it into Xie Yun's mouth: "Eat yours, seeing that your face has turned blue because of the lack of water in the clear soup for a while."
Xie Yun said dissatisfied: "I'm not happy to share weal and woe with you, I'm used to it." He picked out the sauced meat and ate it.
Maybe it was because he was a vegetarian during the filial piety, but Shan Chao was still able to hold on, but Xie Yun withered away at a speed visible to the naked eye. Shan Chao felt sorry for his wife, and always secretly hid meat jerky and sauced bones to treat him, but it didn't get any better.
"The survivors of Korea are rebelling again," Shan Chao sighed while tearing off the meat from the sauce bone.
Xie Yun asked sensitively: "The little emperor wants you to go to war?"
"Otherwise? I am stationed in the capital with hundreds of thousands of soldiers, can he sleep?"
"do not go!"
Shan Chao wondered: "Why, don't you pick up the ready-made military exploits?"
Xie Yun slapped the chopsticks on the table with his backhand: "Don't go. You can hit wherever you like after I die."
Shan Chao was so startled that his hands stopped, he stared at Xie Yun speechless, and after a while he said angrily: "If you don't go, you don't go, you talk about life and death all day long... huh? Who the hell eight years ago The one who drove me to Qinghai now knows that he is reluctant to part with his apprentice?"
Xie Yun lowered his head and sipped his porridge without answering.
Shan Chao threw the torn sauced meat into his porridge bowl, and after thinking about it, he was a little happy again. In the past month since entering Chang'an, Xie Yun no longer chased him away as before. After so many years, the two finally returned to the time when they got along day and night again.
Xie Yun put a chopstick of sauced meat into Shan Chao's bowl: "You eat too."
"No, I'm here..."
"Where is that nonsense," Xie Yun reprimanded in a low voice, "It's not your real father."
The two looked at each other for a moment, Shan Chao ate with a smile.
Gory is back again.
In the fifth year of Xianheng, Goguryeo, Silla, rebelled against the public. Li Jinxing led his troops to attack Maixiao City, but was defeated by Silla, and more than 3,000 horses were captured. The little emperor's new official took office three fires, and this matter aroused his attention.
Wei Xuanzhen then offered a somewhat insidious strategy to the new emperor: in the name of Chang'an Weiping, order Shan Chao to keep the main army in the capital, and then lead an expedition of 50,000 troops to Anton.
—In this way, as long as people go to the front line to kill Shan Chao without anyone noticing, and the army stationed in Beijing has no commander, they can easily surrender. From then on, the foundation of the throne is stable, and there is no need to worry about having an unknown uncle or elder brother Come grab a job.
The little emperor repeatedly praised the clever plan, and praised his future father-in-law as the real pillar of the country. However, when the next day came to make an order, Shan Chao stubbornly resisted: "Lead 50,000 troops?"
The little emperor said displeased: "You don't like Ai Qing?"
"Your Majesty," Shan Chao said with a smile, "Li Jinxing stationed 200,000 troops and was defeated by Mai Xiaocheng. Why does Your Majesty think that a humble minister with 50,000 troops can pacify Anton? Forgive me, I am neither Han Xin's reincarnation nor Li Guang is born again..."
With a puff, Hao Chujun, the chancellor of the court, suddenly burst out laughing, and quickly stopped.
"When the late emperor was alive, he repeatedly praised you for being able to fight. Could it be that they were all fake?" The little emperor slammed the table and said angrily, "If there were really a million troops, even I could easily wipe out Silla! I still need you What's the use!"
"It doesn't need a million, just three hundred thousand. You just need to ask the minister to take away all the troops stationed in Beijing, and Silla will be defeated within a month."
The little emperor was silent.
Originally, the idea was to let Shan Chao die on the battlefield so that he could smoothly accept his soldiers. If he really defeated Silla, wouldn't he have to replace him after returning to Beijing? !
"Since Your Majesty still needs to think about it, I'll come back another day," Shan Chao bowed humbly, turned his head and strode out of the imperial study.
Shan Chao stopped at the top of the majestic jade steps, facing the summer wind sweeping from the sky.
The blue sky of Chang'an City is vast, and the golden sun shines on the endless white jade square, reflecting dizzying light. He narrowed his eyes slightly, and sighed silently after a moment.
King Zhou came to the throne in a hurry before his death. He neither had experienced a long and systematic imperial education like his father, nor did he have a group of loyal advisers who tried their best to assist him like his elder brother. The group of prime ministers headed by Dai Zhide, Hao Chujun, and Zhang Wenguan were mostly hardcore members of the Eastern Palace. Even though they have the heart of the new emperor, the little emperor has limited trust in them; The decision-making power is firmly in his own hands, but there are really too many things he can't do.
The war situation in Silla is complicated, Goryeo is revived, Tubo is about to move, and Turkic troops are mobilizing. Emergency reports of drought in the north and floods in the Yangtze River basin arrived in the capital at the same time. Overnight, it seemed that all parts of the country were asking to open warehouses to distribute food. Pressing the button, it popped up from one end to the other. There were hundreds of state affairs, large and small, every day. .
Shan Chao asked himself that he was unable to solve all these problems. He looked at the little emperor's anxious and helpless appearance every day, and suddenly thought of Empress Wu.
No matter how strangled her own daughter and poisoned her second son, no matter how she tried to usurp the throne. The operation and complicated affairs of this huge empire used to be on her shoulders alone.
How does his mother, who is strong, cruel, and murderous with vicious methods, manage the country
"Your Majesty summoned the Assistant Prime Minister and wanted to tell the world to order you to go out. If the 50,000 troops could not defeat An Dong, it would be a capital crime. I was persuaded by Dai Xiang while dragging his sick body." Zhang Wenguan sighed and said: "I and Hao Xiang, Several people who came to dissuade me from the sidelines, and they all suffered a lot of scolding... "
Shan Chao held the sapphire teacup with two fingers, put it gently on the edge of the table, and sighed, "I've hurt a few gentlemen."
"The general's words are serious, and he is really thinking about the situation in Anton. Just imagine, if the outcome cannot be determined in one battle, why bother to kill 50,000 people for nothing? They are all the people of my Tang Dynasty!"
Shan Chao got up solemnly, bowed deeply and made a long bow: "Mr. Zhang is only for the world, family and country, and Shan admires him very much."
Zhang Wenguan hurriedly got up to help him: "This great gift cannot be done, absolutely not!"
Ever since they knew that the prince in front of him was a serious prince, the attitudes of the prime ministers towards Shan Chao became much more ambiguous. Especially now that the little emperor is devoted to supporting his own relatives, and he treats several important ministers with noses and eyes, so the Prime Minister Group and Shan Chao share the same hatred and gradually form a natural alliance.
"Wei Xuanzhen was forced to occupy the temple fields by slaves, and was sued by the monks before the emperor, but his majesty said: "Wei Qinggui is the head of the country, why can't you even have a few acres of land, where is the reason?" So the imperial pen personally approved Wei Xuanzhen's five hundred acres Irrigate the land with good water." Zhang Wenguan looked up to the sky and let out a long sigh, almost unable to smile bitterly: "The late emperor rewarded Dai Xiang, but it was only twenty acres. Five times?!"
Shan Chao sighed and shook his head.
"Nowadays Wei Xuanzhen is always asked about everything, big or small, and there are often some inappropriate handling. But if I wait for the old minister to mention it, His Majesty will be very impatient, as if we are deliberately slandering and provoking..."
Zhang Wenguan shook his head repeatedly with self-deprecating, Shan Chao gently persuaded: "Several ministers are old-fashioned in seeking the country, and Shan knows it well. However, His Majesty is young, and it is impossible to listen to it occasionally."
"Drought in the north, floods in the south, people's livelihood, treasury, and front-line soldiers, how can this time be wasted!" Zhang Wenguan was heartbroken, but he couldn't say a word.
Shan Chao comforted the old prime minister with kind words for a while, as he had often done during this period of time, and then discussed some court affairs to win over each other's relationship, and then he got up and left. Zhang Wenguan didn't dare to be negligent, and personally sent him out of the house, watching Shan Chao's car gradually go away.
Although the power and status are not what they used to be, his servants and horses are very low-key, and they don't walk through the crowded streets. They deliberately walk away from the more remote streets, presumably to avoid obstructing the market and pedestrians.
Zhang Wenguan stood there in a daze for a long while, and suddenly remembered what Dai Xiang had said to him privately a few days ago: If the last emperor ordered this person instead of King Zhou, what would happen now
He shook his head to dismiss the idea, and went back home disappointed.
However, Zhang Wenguan was wrong—Shan Chao did not take the long way because he was afraid of obstructing the traffic, but when he got on the bus, he suddenly remembered that a new cook from Zuixianlou made good rose cakes, so he thought about giving Xie Yun two boxes to try.
If Mr. Zhang knew, he would probably be able to spit out a mouthful of Ling Xiao's blood on the spot.
Shan Chao is the kind of person who wants to get a share for his wife whenever he sees something good. He brought four cakes of roses, jasmine, chrysanthemum and cherry in his hands and returned home. When he entered the door, he asked, "Has Commander Xie come today? "The housekeeper knew it already, and said with a pleasant smile: "Commander Xie is drinking tea in the garden, waiting for you to return to the house to discuss matters!"
In the past month, Xie Yun "discussed matters" in Shanfu every day, even at night. The two of them ate in the same bowl, slept in the same bed, and drove the same car for outings when they were resting, just like a newlywed couple with deep affection; Hanging above his head, Shan Chao has already indulged in this kind of life, and will not think about the next thing at all.
He strode across the corridor, like a young man who fell in love for the first time, and he couldn't wait to walk down the garden from the steps, and climbed over the railing with one hand, shouting: "Xie Yun!"
Xie Yun half-lyed on the bamboo couch, dozing off lazily in the midsummer full of colorful gardens.
Fall asleep in broad daylight. Shan Chao put down the snack box, made tea with his own hands, and looked at his slightly flushed face when he came back, couldn't help but love him more and more, couldn't help stretching out his hand to pinch the tip of his nose.
"Hmm..." Xie Yun turned his head uncomfortably.
Shan Chao smiled and said: "It's noon, wake up and eat before going to sleep." He went to hold his hand again, but then there was a "Huh".
Xie Yun's face was bright red, his hands were hot, but the air he exhaled from his nose was cold. Suspicious clouds arose in Shan Chao's heart, and he put it on his forehead to test his temperature, and it turned out to be scalding hot.
-He has a fever.