Although there is no curfew, but at night, it is snowing again, the streets are deserted, there are not many pedestrians, only the wheels are heard, and the snow creaks.
The emperor was very interested: "I have heard that the Laba porridge in Banxiang Pavilion is good, let's try it today."
Banxiang Pavilion is at the entrance of Daxie Lane in the east of the city. Turning around the main road, you can see two red lanterns in front of the building from a distance, reflected in the snow light, the whole building is brightly lit, and the noise, talking and laughing can be heard from afar. Hearing the sound of the car, the clerk rushed out early to meet him, held a lock of the head, and set up a stool to wait for the car to get off. But the emperor got out of the car, turned around and stretched out his hand, Zhui Xia might as well be so considerate, after a while, he handed his hand to him, and got out of the car carefully. That guy is the most sharp-eyed, he has long seen that although the car is just an ordinary oil-covered cart, the horse pulling the cart is black and shiny, but its hooves are white, and it is extremely handsome. What's more, when the emperor stretched out his hand, the big hair on the cuff of the brocade robe under the cloak was exposed, and the sable fur was as shiny as satin, so he knew that this couple was either rich or expensive, and smiled all over his face: "You two, I'm sorry Alright, all the private seats upstairs are full. If you two have reservations, please mention the number first.”
The emperor didn't expect such a move, so he couldn't help but startled for a moment, the waiter saw his expression, and quickly said: "It doesn't matter if you didn't send the housekeeper to make a reservation earlier, there is still one left on the second floor. Qichu Pavilion is the most clean and quiet, and facing the plum blossoms in the backyard, it is the best place to drink and enjoy the snow, but the price is a little more expensive than ordinary private rooms, five taels of silver."
The emperor was stunned again, and said, "That's the room."
The clerk was all smiles, said "Hey", picked up a lantern to lead the way ahead, and instead of entering the main building, walked back along the blue brick road, bypassed the rockery barrier, entered the moon cave gate, and saw a small building. Upturned cornices and red lacquer railings are covered by heavy snow at this time, and four crystal lamps hang in a row under the corridor, illuminating the whole small building more like a jade palace.
The waiter bowed his hands when he got here, and someone else greeted them and led them upstairs. A waiter waiter had raised the curtain long ago, and the warm heat rushed to his face, mixed with a vague fragrance. It's just a few plum blossoms, the flowers are in full bloom, but unfortunately at night, the cold snow light is dimly reflected, making it hard to see clearly.
After the two of them sat down, they poured hot towels, dry and wet fruit plates like running water, and brewed tea. The emperor ordered a few dishes at random, and the waiter said: "Guest officials, wait a moment, the dishes will be available in a while." He retreated and slammed the door backwards.
The room suddenly fell silent, only to hear the charcoal in the brazier, beating and peeling. Seeing that there were air-dried chestnuts in the fruit plate, the emperor picked one at random and peeled it. Zhuixia suddenly felt uncomfortable in her stomach, as if she was hungry, but she didn't feel hungry, it was just a burning pain in the bottom of her stomach, and the room was too warm, making it difficult to breathe. So I stood up and went to the window, opened the window a little, and the wind suddenly blew in, blowing the gauze lamp on the table to be shaken. The lights and shadows in the room were shaking, Chaxia saw the lights were faltering, and wanted to close the window, but he blew out the lights with a "poof", and the room was filled with cold and snowy light, like the moonlight, and the sky and the earth were completely blurred. Quiet and silent, only the slight sound of snow outside the window, and the sparse shadows all over the wall are the shadows of plum blossoms reflected in the snow.
She was wearing a moon-white silver fox-lined cloak, and the plum blossoms all over the wall reflected on her dress, like dark flowers on a white background. Her fingers caressed the long and soft fur of the silver fox unconsciously. , a little warmth is on the fingertips, but it is always slippery and impossible to hold.
The emperor sat there, as if in a daze, and remained silent. There is silence between heaven and earth, only the sound of wind and snow, rustling like weeping.
It seemed that half a lifetime passed before I heard footsteps. It turned out that the guy who delivered the food came back: "Hey, why was the lamp blown out by the wind?" He turned around to fetch the fire, and lit the lamp again. The room was as bright as ever, and all kinds of dishes were served on the table, which was very different from the daily diet in the palace. Among them is a crispy pickled fresh small cucumber, which is only about as thick as a hairpin and as long as a woman's hairpin. The waiter said: "This is the signature dish of this building, the golden hairpin. Don't look at the small size of the cucumbers. Each cucumber is worth the price of such a thick golden hairpin. It was baked in a fire kiln for several months before it was baked in a snowy day." It’s the only one in Nine Cities, even the emperor and his elders can’t eat this dish in the palace.”
The emperor smiled and said to Zhuxia: "Did you hear that, even the emperor can't eat it."
Zhuixia tasted it, it was sour, sweet, crispy and delicious, she couldn't help but ate two more pieces, seeing the waiter bring warm rice wine in a black silver pot, she poured herself a glass to drink. After drinking it in one gulp, it felt spicy and spicy, and I couldn't help turning away my face and coughing a few times. The emperor said: "Don't drink too much alcohol, it's not good for your health."
She didn't know why, but she just felt angry, and blurted out: "Do you love me, or someone else?"
As soon as these words came out, she seemed to be stunned. Seeing that the emperor just smiled slowly, as if she really understood it, she finally felt sour and put down her chopsticks.
The emperor asked the waiter, "Isn't your master Guo here? This dish is a bit out of taste."
The guy smiled apologetically and said, "So the guest officer is an old regular customer and knows that this golden hairpin is old master Guo's special dish. Old master Guo has been ill for more than a year, and now his nephew Master Xiao Guo is in charge of the kitchen." He poured another glass of wine for the emperor, and the emperor didn't ask any more questions, and waved him to retreat, and slowly drank the wine in the glass by himself.
The two of them were facing a large table of dishes, and they just drank silently. At the end of the drink, the emperor only felt that the wine was hot in his ears, and suddenly said: "I didn't expect you to drink too."
Zhuxia felt sad, and smiled: "There is nothing in this world that you can't do, only something you can't do."
The emperor was silent for a moment, and said: "Well said, there is nothing in this world that can't be done, only something can't be done." After drinking another glass of wine, he took the jug by himself, but it was empty, so he shouted, "Little Er, add more wine!"
He yelled for a while, but for some reason there was no response. On the spur of the moment, he hit the plate with his chopsticks, and listened to the sound of wind and snow outside the window: "Thousands of poems, thousands of cups of wine, how many times have you ever looked at the king? Yulou Jinque Let’s go home lazily, and make Luoyang drunk with plum blossoms!” Laughing with his face up, his eyes sparkling, the night under the light seems to be dark and unfathomable, with broken light flowing, as if something is broken.
Zhuxia's hands were trembling slightly, but she finally smiled: "Your Majesty, you are drunk."
He said dejectedly, "I'm drunk."
Her fingers were light and warm, pressing gently on his face, he grabbed her hand, with a slumped drunkenness: "You have a child, why didn't you tell me?"
She said slowly, "I dare not."
He didn't ask why, and a sense of despair suddenly appeared in her heart: "She even has the heart to plot against her own child, I don't know what she will do."
There was a flash of light in the emperor's eyes, but she couldn't see the look clearly, she just said: "Your Majesty, Mu Niang really can't stay—"
He suddenly raised his hand and gave her a slap, which was so clear and crisp that she was stunned. And he said: "I brought you here, and you dare to say such a thing."
She caressed her cheek, and half-kneeled and half-sat on the carpet, as if she didn't understand what happened. The emperor's eyes were reddish, and his anger was full. Make it easy for servants to find." The person who came in was covered in snow without dusting off, it was Zhao Youzhi, his fat face was blue with cold, he couldn't even salute, and he said tremblingly: "Long live, Something serious has happened, and Prince Yu has been killed."
The Battle of Pulan was extremely difficult. Prince Yu fought hard for more than ten days with few enemies and many enemies. He waited until Hua Lin from Yanzhou and Le Shirong from Pingzhou arrived with their troops. Qi Erwu's army turned around and surrounded the king's division. Le Shirong's troops were caught off guard and were immediately wiped out. Prince Yu's central army fought and retreated. They were ambushed by the Min River, and the situation is unclear now.
The situation became very bad, Qi Erwu could cross the Min River in a few days, and the 30,000 Qingqi led by Prince Rui had already detoured to Zhongchuan and came straight to the capital. In the more than three hundred years since the founding of the dynasty, except for the chaos of the Four Houses in the eighth year of Chengqian, the capital has never been threatened like this again.
The emperor was still very calm, and issued several urgent edicts to dispatch the garrisons of Fuzhou and Jinzhou to the north, but the garrisons in these two places were only more than 10,000 people, and it was already too late to calculate the time. The officials in Beijing urged the emperor to "hunt west", but the emperor flatly refused.
"Even if there is only one soldier left, I will not surrender the capital to Ding Zhan."
The first assistant, Cheng Pu, was in tears, and fell on the ground and kowtowed: "The master is worried about the humiliation of the minister, and the master will die after humiliating the minister. The ministers are incompetent, and today's catastrophe began."
"Get up!" The emperor was a little impatient, looking up at the gold-plated dome, with an inexplicable contempt and enthusiasm, "I'm not dead yet, why are you crying?" He sneered, "Does he think he's winning? It's early, I'll be waiting here, waiting to see if he has the life to step into the Zhengqing gate!"
That winter was very cold, because the military situation was urgent, and even the New Year in the palace was sloppy. For several days, the heavy snow fell from time to time, and there were foot-long icicles hanging under the eaves of Zhengqing Hall. Cheng Yuan supervised the little eunuch to take the iron rod Break it, and suddenly hear someone behind you say: "Don't knock." Cheng Yuan turned around and saw that it was Zhaoyi Wu.
The foot-long icicle refracted a strange light in the dim winter morning light, and reflected on Chaxia's snow-white face. She was wearing a black fox cloak, and the black fox fur collar surrounded her face, making her look paler and paler. Bloody, she narrowed her eyes slightly, as if feeling the glare of the snow. The red walls and green tiles in the palace are all covered under the white snow, plain white like a snow city, and even more silent like an empty city.
And she stood there quietly, like a speck of black jade in the snow.
"Just let them hang."
Hearing the emperor's voice, Cheng Yuan hurriedly led the people to bow down. The servants don't need to salute every day, and the emperor has always been impatient with such red tape. Cheng Yuan lowered his head and saw the emperor's Shi Qingxiu pattern. boots to walk across the gold brick floor.
"It will be the beginning of spring in a few days, and it is still snowing like this."
Zhuxia did not make a sound, and the emperor stared at the plain white palace. She was choked by the cold wind and coughed twice. The emperor said, "Don't stand on the wind."
Zhuxia didn't answer, and after a while, she said, "It's really quiet."
The emperor looked at the dense snow curtain, and said indifferently: "It won't be quiet for a few days."
The snow is still falling, and the sound of rustling snow can be heard. And Prince Rui's 30,000 light cavalry have already approached Jizhou Prefecture, which is a hundred miles away, so close that the clank of iron hoofs can almost be heard faintly.
That day was Gengshen Day, and later generations called it "Gengshen Change".
It was midnight at the beginning of the incident, and Zhuxia was already asleep, when suddenly she vaguely heard a few shouts from afar in the wind. Ever since she was pregnant, she had been sleeping lightly, and woke up suddenly. She sat up and hugged her knees and listened quietly. In the roaring north wind, there were not only short shouts, but also occasional clanging sounds, which were obviously weapons. Intersecting sounds. Her heart sank, she immediately put on her coat, and the maids outside had already woken up and hurried over to wait for her to put on her coat. Zhuxia's fingers trembled slightly, she knew that this day would come eventually, but she didn't expect it to come so soon.
The place where she lived was not far from Yuqing Palace, and it was too late to pass on the chariot. The maid was carrying a horn lamp, and she was holding an umbrella. The snow was falling densely, like a curtain, separating everything in front of her from the curtain. And a lamp in the maid's hand, a hazy ball of light, can only see her feet, the snow has already accumulated deep, and her foot sank very deep, her heart is at a loss, she doesn't know what she is thinking, just deep Walk forward with one shallow foot.
Seeing a little light in the distance on the way, she thought to herself, if the rebel army had already entered the harem, they would inevitably die if they met head-on like this. The maid's hands were already shaking so badly that she could hardly even hold on to the lamp. She took the lamp and asked, "Who is it?"
"Slave Cheng Yuan."
Seeing her, Cheng Yuan also seemed to breathe a sigh of relief: "Long Live Lord sent his servants to pick up the empress."
"But the rebel army has entered the city?"
Cheng Yuan shook his head, and only urged her: "My lady, please hurry up." While speaking, he led the way ahead, "My lady, step carefully."
The palace of Yuqing is still very quiet, the emperor has changed into light armor, Zhuxia has never seen him wearing armor, under the soft gold armor is a vermilion brocade robe, woven with gold circle flower dragon pattern, jade chi belt hook, looks more and more tall Because of Yuli's height, Zhuxia felt that she was too far away, and felt so strange that she didn't recognize her. The emperor took the imperial bow from the bow-wielding officer, looked back at her, did not put down the bow, walked up to her, and said, "I'll ask Cheng Yuan to lead someone to escort you to Shangyuan first."
"Dingyong must want my life." The emperor's voice was calm, as if he was talking about something irrelevant, "The soldiers and horses in the Nine Cities are in his hands, and he actually stands still. It won't last two hours." He smiled, "Siblings of the same father and mother, over the years, I have tried my best to protect him, but I never thought I would come to this point."
"Prince Jing?" Zhuxia seemed taken aback, "How come?"
The emperor smiled back: "There is nothing in this world that you can't do, only something you can't do."
Zhuxia was silent for another moment before saying: "I won't leave."
The emperor frowned, turned around and called out: "Cheng Yuan!"
"The servant is here." The flickering light shone on Cheng Yuan's face, still showing a respectful expression.
"Send her away." The emperor pointed to Zhuxia, "If there is anything wrong with Wu Zhaoyi on the way, you don't have to come to see me."
"Slave obeys the order." Cheng Yuan kowtowed, but Zhuxia raised her face: "If I don't leave, I will be here."
The emperor ignored her, and ordered the bow-wielding officer to hold the quiver and go outside. Suddenly, he felt his sleeves tighten. It turned out that Zhuxia had grabbed his arm. She stared at him with her dark eyes, only do not let it go.
The emperor's heart softened, and he couldn't help reaching out to hold her hand, and suddenly warm tears fell on the back of his hand. The emperor had never seen her cry before—the corner of his mouth was smiling, but every minute Forcefully, she opened her fingers, bit by bit, abruptly.
"Your Majesty..." She burst into tears, but couldn't speak.
His fingertips were slightly cold, his hands were always so cold, and he wiped away her tears: "Stop talking, let's go."
"His Majesty!"
The emperor had already walked outside the gate of the palace, and only looked back at her from a distance, Cheng Yuan stepped forward to support her: "Your Majesty, this servant will wait for your Majesty to leave the palace right now, if it's too late, I'm afraid it will be too late."
That night was extremely chaotic, and it seemed as long as a lifetime.
When Prince Rui finally reined in his horse and stood in the middle of Tianjie, the gray curtain of snow covered the entire majestic imperial city in a cold snow light from the sky to the ground.
For more than twenty years, even though he was born and raised here, he has never seen such a quiet imperial city, as if all the people died overnight, only a few lights, outlining the vague outline of the palace, and that light is also cold. Yes, fluttering in the wind and snow.