By the time Prince Yu recovered from his illness, it was already mid-winter.
After a few heavy snowfalls, the disease in the capital finally disappeared in the freezing weather. After the great disease, even the palace seemed desolate. On the wide and straight Jinzhongtian Street, there is only the sound of hooves, as if trampling the boundless silence. The little eunuchs who were sweeping the snow took shelter early, because of the cold, the wind blew the snow and the scorpions hit their faces, causing a slight pain.
After dismounting from the horse outside the Dinghe Gate, the internal officials greeted him early, and seemed to be relieved to see him: "My lord, the emperor is in the East Nuan Pavilion."
The little eunuch opened the curtains, and the warm current was blowing on his face, mixed with the fragrance of flowers. In the warm pavilion, there were late chrysanthemums and early plums, all of which were pleasant fragrances. Because it was warm in the pavilion, the emperor only wore a jacket, which seemed to be a little lighter, and he was not angry. When he saw him coming in, he smiled and said, "Lao Liu is really capable."
There were dots of black spots on the booklet, Prince Yu held it in his hand, and realized that it was bloodstains, which had dried up long ago, and the purple coagulated blood had long since turned black. The handwriting was scribbled and messy, showing that Li Ju, who wrote the booklet, was in a critical situation at the end—Prince Yu read it at a glance, then turned it over again, read it carefully word by word, and then fell silent, and put the booklet away. Go back to the imperial case.
The emperor said: "The rebellious army has already passed Panzhou, and further south is the Mihe River, Dingzhan..." He sneered a few times, "Hey, it came really fast." His face was gloomy, "Old Qi, after all, I miscalculated One step further, I thought he was just in collusion with Qi Erwu, and at worst let the Hulu enter Dinglan Pass privately, but I didn't expect that he didn't even want his ancestors, and he promised to cut the six northern counties to Qi Erwu, so that Borrowing soldiers and borrowing food to cause chaos, he is not afraid of being infamous forever!"
"I would like to ask for an order," Prince Yu said, "I ask the emperor to allow Dingluan to lead the army to meet the enemy and put down the rebellion."
The emperor frowned slightly, and said: "I don't worry about handing over the capital camp to others, and you are the only one left."
Prince Yu said: "I will do my best."
The emperor said: "The capital camp is only 100,000, and the rebellious army is several times larger than this. This battle must be dangerous." He sighed, with regret in his tone, "It's my carelessness. I used too much to lure the snake out of the hole this time, so I was killed." He will count."
Prince Yu only said: "The emperor has done nothing wrong, he has already had an objection, and since he lured the Hu captives into the customs, then he is my eternal sinner in Dayu. The emperor has the right way to fight, and he will undoubtedly win."
The emperor nodded and said: "The commander Qi Erwu always wears a mask, there must be something weird in it. Every time the spies come back, they don't have a single word of truth. I think it's true. Besides, Ding Zhan is colluding with him now. You have to work hard to deal with it.”
Prince Yu said: "My brother understands."
Because of the critical situation, the Ministry of Rites chose the nearest auspicious day and paid homage to the commander-in-chief. The emperor personally sent the three armies out of Fusheng Gate. The 100,000 Beijing battalion marched away in a mighty manner. The garrison in Gyeonggi was almost empty. There was a change in the situation, and before leaving, the emperor repeatedly persuaded him politely, and the emperor finally called back his compatriot, Prince Jing, and ordered him to lead the Imperial Forest Army.
Since what happened last time, Prince Jing has become a lot older. After returning to Beijing under the imperial edict, he was very cautious and behaved well. What's more, now that the war has started, the hearts of the people in the capital are fluctuating, so he personally leads the nine cities to patrol the city every day. It is already the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, all the yamen in the capital are on holiday, and the people are busy preparing for the New Year. It began to snow early in the morning, and the snow and mud trampled on the streets were muddy. Prince Jing returned to the office after touring the city. A pair of boots were already soaked. Fang took off and changed, and suddenly saw Xu Changzhi coming in, dressed in a green oil coat, he was breathing out of the cold and saluted: "My lord."
"Why are you back?" Prince Jing couldn't help asking, "Aren't you supposed to be on duty today?"
Xu Changzhi said: "The emperor sent the prince to enter the palace." Then he said, "I heard that there is a military report ahead, I'm afraid it is not good news."
Prince Jing rushed into the palace city through the wind and snow. The emperor was not in the warm pavilion of the Zhengqing Palace, but outside the Zhengqing Gate. A thin layer of snow has fallen on the hats and shoulders of the internal officials who are wearing ritual utensils. I don't know how long the emperor has been standing here. So he walked closer and bowed again, the emperor's expression remained the same and he said, "Get up."
The tone was gentle, but his eyes were looking at the boundless falling snow outside the Zhengqing Gate, and it took a while before he said to Prince Jing: "400,000 rebels have surrounded Pulan."
However, the Beijing camp led by Prince Yu was only 100,000 people. Prince Jing only felt a chill on his face. It turned out to be a snowflake falling on his cheek softly and silently. , although the enemy is outnumbered, but it does not appear to be defeated."
The emperor laughed: "It's rare to hear you praise him."
Prince Jing said: "I'm just telling the truth."
The emperor suddenly said: "Let's take a walk with me, such a good snow."
Prince Jing had no choice but to take orders, the emperor ordered Zhao Youzhi and others to stay where they were, and walked along the Tianjie to the east, Prince Jing followed behind him step by step, the snow was getting heavier and heavier, and after a while, the palace in the distance All have become a piece of Qionglou Yuyu in the vast expanse of whiteness. The emperor had a pair of deerskin boots, which creaked slightly on the snow, and walked for a long time until he reached the Shuangtai Gate. Then the emperor stopped and said, "Dingyong, all these years, your heart Blame me, don't you?"
Prince Jing was originally in a trance, but when he heard this, he said: "Your brother dare not."
The emperor sighed, and said: "I have been in the dynasty for more than three hundred years, and I have experienced more than ten civil strife, each of which is bloody. There are too many examples of brothers fighting against each other, and you don't understand."
Prince Jing remained silent.
The emperor said: "Over the years, I have treated you lukewarmly, even better than being close to Lao Qi. In fact, I want to leave a way out for you and myself."
Only then did Prince Jing raise his head, and looked at the emperor with some perplexity.
The emperor smiled slightly, pointed to the row of vats outside the Shuangtai Gate, and said, "Do you still remember that when you were young, I brought you here to catch crickets?"
At that time, Prince Jing was only five years old, and the emperor was only twelve years old. Every day, he would go to Jingtai Palace to pay respects to his mother and concubine. Dingchun was older, and occasionally did not give lectures in the afternoon, so he took Dingyong out of Shuangtai Gate to play. That was almost the closest period of time for the brothers, and as they got older, the two gradually became estranged, and they were no longer the same.
Standing in front of Shuangtai Gate at this time, snowflakes are falling silently, looking around, the stretching glazed roof is completely white, and even the copper ring of the water tank is covered with a thin layer of snowflakes. The wind blew the hem of the two people's robes slightly bulging, but in the western half of the sky, there were low and thick yellow clouds, and the snow was even deeper.
"Dark clouds overwhelm the city, ready to destroy it," the emperor finally breathed out, and said, "It's going to snow heavily, let's go drink."
It is a common practice for the emperor to give wine to relatives and nobles to avoid the cold in Laba, but he drank two more glasses to the prince this day. Sleeping soundly, he was suddenly awakened by his relatives and said: "My lord, General Li sent someone here, saying that there is something urgent to see the lord."
Because the seal was sealed, only urgent military affairs would be dealt with in this way, Prince Jing's heart sank, he was afraid that some bad news had come from Pulan City, so he quickly spread it. There were two envoys, with the same color of azure cloaks, the first one did not take off the hood, but bowed and saluted: "Please leave the left and right, my lord." The voice was high-pitched, as if it was an internal official.
Prince Jing gave a slight signal, and all the people around him retreated. The person who was the first took a step back, and the other person who said nothing just now took off the hood, but saw a pair of bright eyes shining brightly, almost as if The snow outside the window was cold and bright, but the cloak couldn't hide her figure, she was obviously a young woman.
Prince Jing gasped involuntarily, and it took a long while before he heard his own voice stiffen, and asked, "Who are you?"
"It doesn't matter who I am," she smiled, "I know that the prince has always had doubts in his heart, and today I am here to solve the doubts for the prince."
Prince Jing was silent for a moment, then suddenly raised his face: "No matter who you are, you leave here quickly, I just pretend that I have never seen you."
The woman smiled sweetly, and it was as touching as a spring breeze, and her voice was even more gentle and pleasant: "Don't you really want to know how the Empress Dowager Xiaoyi died?"
Prince Jing's body shook slightly, even his face changed, and he shouted: "You are so courageous, don't go here to deceive the public and stir up the brotherhood of our brothers."
She smiled and said: "It turns out that the prince has guessed a little bit, not completely without suspicion, otherwise, he would not know what I want to say."
Prince Jing said: "No matter what you want to say, it won't be true anyway."
She sneered slightly: "Why do you deceive yourself, my lord? Even if I am talking nonsense, there is one thing that cannot be faked." She took out a roll of yellow silk from the bottom of her sleeve and handed it to Prince Jing, but she saw that her fingers were white and greasy. , holding the jade scroll written on silk, the skin color on the hand seems to be the same as the jade scroll, "My lord, you can take your time to see if such a thing is true or not, you just need to carefully identify it yourself."
Prince Jing's face was pale, as if he knew what she was holding, but he couldn't reach out to pick it up. After a long while, he gritted his teeth: "I don't want to see it!"
She finally burst out laughing with a "chi" sound: "It turns out that I often hear people praising the prince as a young hero, and his talent and courage are not inferior to that of Prince Yu. It's a pity that seeing you today is nothing more than that." Speaking of this point, her tone has changed Almost ridiculed, "He didn't even dare to look at the last emperor's edict. He really is a descendant of Emperor Dayu."
Prince Jing's face became paler and paler: "This must be a coercive edict, the first emperor died of a sudden illness, there is no will at all."
"This is not the last edict of Emperor Mu Zongxian, but the last edict of Emperor Xingzong." She stared at him with crystal-like eyes, and said almost every word, "The current emperor does not hesitate to force his own mother, Empress Dowager Xiaoyi, to die. Just to seize this edict, don’t tell me you don’t even have the courage to take a look at this edict now, my lord?”
Prince Jing only felt the corners of his mouth trembling, although he wanted to reprimand him angrily, he couldn't even utter a single word. Suddenly stretched out his hand, snatched the imperial edict, gathered his mind, and finally unfolded it slowly, only to see the familiar handwriting appearing in front of him sentence by sentence, the most familiar handwriting, because all the princes studied books when they were young, and Emperor Xingzong personally I have written calligraphy so that the princes can copy it, but now I see that the strokes are evenly spaced and full of handwriting, but I am very familiar with it.
Her voice was as cool as snow: "My lord, carefully identify it, is this a coercion?"
Prince Jing felt that the words on the edict floated and twisted one by one, as if they were not handwriting, but a huge vortex, trying to suck everything in. He just felt dizzy and couldn't help asking: "What do you want to do?"
She said: "Now it's not what the concubine wants to do, but what the prince should do. To obey the edict or not to obey the edict, is it possible that the prince is planning to resist the last emperor's will?"
Prince Jing gritted his teeth and said after a while, "He is my elder brother."
She sneered: "When the sixth master handed this thing to me, he said: 'Although my eleventh brother is upright, he is the most soft-hearted woman.' Sure enough." She slowed down her voice, " The prince is soft-hearted, but unfortunately that person never softened his heart when he sent someone to poison his biological mother to death."
The muscles on Prince Jing's cheeks twitched slightly, and his eyes were wide open. The look was quite frightening, but in the end his voice was low and calm, which was somewhat terrifying: "You are talking nonsense."
"All the officials and maids serving the Empress Dowager have been buried. This matter should have been flawless. Only Xiao Zhao, who dispensed medicine for the Empress Dowager, had contracted typhoid fever before the accident, and was moved to the Jiyu Hall to wait to die. I survived." She turned her head and waved, and the internal officer took a step forward and bowed to accept the order.
"If the prince doesn't believe it, just ask Xiao Zhao carefully and you will know."
The inner officer was terrified and called out "Eleventh Lord" in a low voice, Prince Jing felt as if a turbulent sea was surging in his chest, and he was unspeakably depressed. Thinking back to this afternoon in front of the Zhengqing Gate, the emperor's words, deeds, and actions clearly had ulterior motives. Could it be that he really felt guilty? Or is it intentional to win over, trying to deceive myself for the rest of my life? He was originally straightforward, but now that he was involved in such a big event, he only felt that his thoughts were ups and downs, no matter how difficult it was to calm down, but now at a critical moment, he was involuntarily drawn into the vortex and undercurrent, and it would not be a pity to be smashed to pieces, and all this was too sudden and terrifying, Holding the edict tightly in his hand, he didn't know how to deal with himself.
The sky was getting dark gradually, and the only sound in the room was the crackling of the silver bone charcoal in the brazier. As if inadvertently, she brushed her hair on her temples and said: "I should go now, and the key to the palace gate will be released sooner rather than later."
Prince Jing finally made up his mind: "I have something to ask you—were you the person in the car that day outside the city?" After finishing speaking, he stared at her closely, as if trying to get some clues from her face.
She just smiled and didn't answer, she took a plum blossom from several vases and threw it at him from a distance. Seems like nothing. The faint light of the charcoal fire was reflected on the twelve lacquer screens with landscape figures, and the green landscape and mother-of-pearl patterns on the screens were full of brilliance, and the wind blowing through the window paper fluttered softly. He just felt like a dream.
But the snow was getting bigger and bigger, and it was quite dark, only to hear the north wind blowing like a roar, carrying the snow and hitting the window paper, making a rustling sound. Although there is an earth dragon kang, there are several white copper braziers in the room, so the room is warm, and Zhuxia only wears a brocade robe woven with white lotus and gold, and leans on the smoked cage to look at the needlework. Recently, she has described her behavior as always lazy, swaying quietly when she has nothing to do, her temper has become more and more eccentric, and she often has outbursts for no reason. A few days ago, even her most trusted internal official was beaten with a cane for a trivial matter , so the inner officials and maids held their breaths and did not dare to disturb her.
The emperor was originally wearing a pair of buckskin boots, but he walked lightly, and he didn't say until he approached, "I'm not afraid of being cold."
Zhuixia seemed to be taken aback, the maid who was holding the tea tray by her side had already knelt down, but she didn't bother to move, she just said: "It's snowing so much, it's getting late, what are you doing here? There are not enough people here, and when you come, they are in a hurry, so they can't take care of me."
The emperor stretched out his hand to pinch her chin, and the bright light on the candlestick made her skin look even more fat, but he pinched her: "You are really wrong now, everyone in this palace is looking forward to me, only you come up." Hurry and drive me outside."
Zhuixia leaned on the smoke cage, with a smile that was not a smile: "You are just coaxing me, today Mu Niang can go to the Great Buddha Temple to fulfill her vows, but I don't have that blessing, I stay in this deep palace, I can't go anywhere."
The emperor also had a half-smile: "If you want to go out for a stroll, when the Lantern Festival comes, let's sneak out of the palace together to watch the lanterns."
Zhuxia sighed, and said: "What's the point of sneaking around, people can fulfill their vows in a fair manner, but I have to sneak around to see the excitement."
The emperor saw that she was holding the flower, but it was getting tighter and tighter, and it was almost torn apart. Looking at it like that, she really seemed to be angry, so he said: "You are so busy these days. So, do you really despise me?"
Zhuxia smiled sweetly: "I don't dare." Then he said, "It's just that you coax me casually, Shangyuan is still early, even if you wait until that day, you may have such and such things and leave me alone. "
The emperor suddenly got excited: "We don't have to wait for that day, we just go out for a stroll tonight."
Zhuxia was stunned for a moment, and the emperor urged: "Hurry up and change into big clothes, it's cold outside and snowing again, just dress warmer."