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The dead are dead, but the living must continue to live. Yuan Cixian tried to cheer himself up and gave orders to send people to settle Zheng Zhuo and protect Zheng Hong, and then he and Yuan Yu rode out together.
They received news that the old king of Nanzhao had secretly arrived at the imperial city three days ago when he was leaving the country, and had contacted his old subordinates. He had now launched an uprising in the Nanzhao Palace, preparing to drive his evil son out of Nanzhao.
The firecrackers that Lu Shiqing had buried for so long finally exploded when it was time to explode. The whole country was shocked, and the old king who had stood in the Nanzhao royal court for decades won the majority support, and the officials under Xi Ju were unable to defend themselves. After all, if they dared to say that the assassination was done by the Great Zhou, it would be tantamount to admitting that Xi Ju had colluded with the enemy and betrayed the country in order to gain a position, and the situation would be even more serious.
Yuan Cixian knew that the opportunity to catch them all in one fell swoop had come. Xi Juren was outside the country, and without the Nanzhao as a shield behind him, he must have no energy to covet the Great Zhou at this time.
The two led their men to the direction Zheng Zhuo had come from before, and received a message confirming the location of Shi Cui and Cao An. Yuan Yu wanted to turn his horse around and chase them, but was stopped by Yuan Cixian: "As soon as the news came out from Nanzhao, Xi Ju should have guessed that Shi Cui was a trap set by us, and she must have been far away from her by now."
Yuan Yu slapped his head, indicating that he had made a stupid mistake.
Yuan Cixian continued, "I fought him once in southern Yunnan four years ago. At that time, I led the army to help my father, and then he fled. I took advantage of the victory to pursue him, but in the end I was not in time and failed to capture him. The reason why he was able to escape was that he was always following me in a place I couldn't see, which was behind the army. He was bold and opportunistic."
"You mean, he's doing it again?"
"Of course not now. But if we send more people, pretend to be headless flies, and search in a big way, we may be able to lead him to us. When people are desperate, the first thing they think of is always the trick they are most familiar with."
After the brother and sister discussed it, Yuan Yu would be the headless fly, while Yuan Cixian led the men to hide in the dark. After a day and a night, they really found the secret residence at noon the next day.
The so-called hiding in the rear certainly does not mean the tracking distance. Xiju and his followers and an exquisite carriage appeared ten miles behind Yuan Yu. Yuan Cixian spotted a terrain with a mountain on one side and water on the other side and asked Chen Zan to encircle it.
The two sides soon started fighting around the carriage.
Xi Ju was originally a good fighter, but Chen Zan and others had just lost Zheng Zhuo, and now they were furious. They wanted to tear him to pieces and eat him, so the fight was like a wolf running and a tiger roaring.
Yuan Cixian brought a few people, armed with crossbows and arrows, and hid on the hillside of a small mountain beside the mountain path. She knew that with his keen sense of observation, he must know where she was, and her purpose of hiding was not to launch a sneak attack, but just to distract his attention.
She was halfway up the mountain, and even if Xi Ju had great arm strength, he couldn't shoot an arrow to this position, so he couldn't get rid of her. Since he couldn't get rid of her, he had to be on guard at all times to avoid leaving an open door to her side. His restraint gave Chen Zhan an opportunity to take advantage of him.
Yuan Cixian was sitting on a high place, his eyes fixed on the motionless carriage.
Xi Ju fled with a carriage, which should be because Shao He or the Queen was hiding inside and could be used as a shield by him, but he has not taken them out since the beginning. Is it because the time has not come yet, or Shao He and the Queen have been rescued by Zheng Zhuo, and this is a scam
Considering Xi's cunning nature, the latter may not be impossible.
She stared at the curtain of the carriage and watched the battle out of the corner of her eye until she saw that Chen Zhan's side had the upper hand. Xi Ju had to use the carriage to block the opponent's attack so that she could get on the horse and escape.
He kicked the carriage towards the river bank, and a woman screamed from inside. At the same time, the curtains of the carriage swung open. Yuan Cixian, who had never looked away, immediately saw that the person inside was the substitute arranged by Xiju, and shouted quickly, "Don't worry about it!"
Chen Zhan, who had just subconsciously wanted to save the car, quickly came to his senses and chopped forward with his knife. However, Xi Ju had already jumped on his horse, raised his whip and fell accurately, galloping a foot away.
Yuan Cixian quickly drew the bow, raised his hand and the arrow flew into the air. The next moment, two "swish" sounds of arrows entering the flesh overlapped together. One arrow entered Xiju's back and exited from his front, and the other arrow entered his front and exited from his back.
The arrow in front of her heart is hers, but what about the arrow in the back of her heart
Xi Ju fell off her horse with a bang. She looked up in surprise and saw a man holding a crossbow walking slowly towards her in front of the mountain path. Then he stopped in front of her and said something.
It was Lu Shiqing. He also rushed back from the Uighurs.
Yuan Cixian felt something stuck in her throat. When she recalled his mouth shape, she realized that he had said, "You should also experience what he has experienced."
The same spot on the back, she didn't know how much hatred he must have to choose to hurt someone from behind.
When Yuan Cixian retreated from the mountain, Xi Ju was already dead, and his body was dragged away by a group of Nanzhao soldiers who were also chasing him. Chen Zhan's eyes were bloodshot, and he waved his knife to remove the body to vent his anger, but was stopped by a few sober colleagues.
forget it.
It's useless, forget it.
Yuan Cihan was standing far away on the mountain path and saw Chen Zan, a grown man, sitting on the ground crying and punching the mud.
Lu Shiqing stood there stiffly, looking down at him, his face expressionless.
But Yuan Cixian knew that the calmer and more suppressed he was, the more expressionless he was, the more turbulent his heart was. He didn't even notice her coming down the mountain.
She stopped where she was and didn't approach immediately. After a while, she saw Chen Zhan calm down, slowly stand up, kneel in front of Lu Shiqing, and said, "Minister Lu, His Highness has something to give you." After he said that, he took out a letter that had been pressed long ago from his armor, nodded and presented it solemnly.
Lu Shiqing was silent for a while before he reached out to take it. He listened to him and said, "His Highness said that you gave him a box the night before you left Beijing. In the box were documents recording all kinds of dirty deeds of the previous emperor, including a series of evidence of his crimes. He didn't understand what you meant at first, because this box is useless. No matter how conclusive the things in it are, they are useless. The overwhelming evidence cannot punish the current saint. But he later figured it out. You staged a rebellion to help him take the throne. This was an extraordinary measure for extraordinary times. This measure can make His Highness successful, but it cannot save the Great Zhou. And that box that seems to be useless for the time being is the lifeblood of the Great Zhou."
"Your Highness said that in this play with you, he played the role of a filial son who respected his father. His every move represented his recognition of the late emperor. He did not gain the throne legitimately, so he had to rely on this recognition and this deep father-son love to win the support of the people. This is contrary to the ideals that you and he have always had."
"The previous emperor passed away, but the truth has not yet been revealed. If Your Highness continues to play this drama, the descendants of the Great Zhou will never know why the country is so weak, and will never understand the true way of being a king. They will only remember that during the time of the previous emperor, a powerful minister rebelled and almost caused the dynasty to change its name, so they will continue to follow the "path of power" that the previous emperor took. Similarly, the court officials will continue to be deeply involved in party struggles. In this way, even if the Great Zhou survives Your Highness's generation by chance, it will soon reach the point of national destruction."
"Your Highness said that you understood this, so you gave him the box, hoping that he would one day be able to stand firm, not be afraid of the stigma of 'illegitimately gaining the throne', and have the confidence to become an emperor without precedent and a son without successor, so that the crimes of the previous emperor can be exposed and the indifferent court officials and people of the world can be awakened. Only then will the Great Zhou have real hope."
"You trust him so much, but he says he can't trust himself. He wants to be worthy of you, but people's hearts change over three or five years. Sitting in such a high position, even the hottest blood can slowly cool down. To reveal the evidence of the late emperor's crimes after so many years is to overthrow himself with his own hands. When he is surrounded by power, can he still have the courage to move forward and pick up the box?"
"Once this drama is performed, there may be no way out. So he thought, we can't wait, and the Great Zhou can't wait any longer. Since it's his turn, we might as well do it now. During the few days when His Highness was out of the city 'hunting' you, he personally wrote this letter exposing the scandal of the late emperor and gave it to me."
When Chen Zhan said this, his eyes became red again, and he choked up and said, "Perhaps His Highness didn't think about going back alive, so he explained everything, including to the court officials under his command. His death is to remove the crime document and the box, and to add the third board to the Great Zhou. The more tragic, the more powerful it is. And the part about you mentioned in the document is enough to clear your name. With the support of the court officials, you will definitely be able to go back to assist His Highness the Thirteenth. He doesn't want to force His Highness the Thirteenth to grow up, but he has to do this. I hope you can retire a few years later and accompany His Highness through the most difficult part of the journey."
After listening to this, Lu Shiqing was silent for a long time, then he opened the incriminating document in his hand and took out a note from it first.
There was no signature or inscription on the note, just two lines of words, elegant and powerful yet so clear that they could be seen through the paper. It was written by Zheng Zhuo with his left hand. He said: "I have sought benevolence and obtained it, and I have no regrets even when I die."
Yuan Cixian walked closer and looked down, and her nose suddenly felt sore.
Lu Shiqing held the note in his hand, told Chen Zhan and the others to move away, and then said to her, "Don't blame yourself."
He knew it without her saying anything. Yuan Cixian shook her head, not knowing what she was trying to say.
Lu Shiqing sighed, looked at her and asked, "In your dream, when did I die?"
She didn't quite understand why he suddenly asked this, and hesitated before saying, "Not long after His Highness the Thirteenth Prince ascended the throne."
"The court is empty, His Majesty the Thirteenth Prince has just ascended the throne, and I died before I could stabilize the court. How long do you think the Great Zhou can last? In no more than three years, it will surely fall."
Yuan Cixian frowned, not realizing what he meant for a moment.
He continued, "But it's different now. In your dream, Ah Zhuo died suddenly, but he gained nothing. The Great Zhou Dynasty came to an end, and the sacrifices of each of us were in vain. But now," he picked up the note in his hand, "he died in exchange for the awakening of the court, and I will accompany His Majesty the Thirteenth Prince to revive the Great Zhou Dynasty until we see the light of day."
He stroked her hair with his hand and said, "So don't blame yourself. Because of your change, he got what he wanted. The future of the Great Zhou will be different. Yaoyao, cheer up, let's go back."
Yuan Cixian's heart, which had been suppressed for a whole day, seemed to suddenly come alive, and she nodded desperately: "Go back, go back to the capital."
*
Seven days later, on June 11, the 13th son of the Great Zhou Emperor ascended the throne, and at the coronation ceremony, the 6th son Zheng Zhuo was posthumously named the King of De. Afterwards, the former Minister of the Central Secretariat, who was supposed to have been executed, begged to see the emperor, and brought a heavy coffin with him. Despite the stunned eyes of the whole room, he read a letter of guilt on behalf of the King of De who died to save His Majesty.
The 3,000-word article exposed the evidence of the late emperor's crimes and the truth of the Chen Gong Incident. After he finished speaking, the whole hall fell silent. The young emperor looked solemn and issued the second decree since he ascended the throne. He promoted Minister Lu to the position of Zhongshu Ling of Da Zhou, and gave him full authority to handle the case in order to inform the spirit of King De in heaven.
This year was the first year of Changqing.
*
Seven years later, in the midsummer of the eighth year of Changqing, a carriage with the Lu Mansion emblem quietly drove out of the side door.
A woman muttered softly from inside the carriage: "I don't want this. I want something sour."
Then a male voice sounded, wondering: "Why don't I remember you being so picky about food when you were pregnant with Yuan Zhen and Yuan Shu?"
"I just entered your house, so I have to leave a good impression of being a virtuous woman to my mother." She then complained about something else, "Speaking of which, I'm pregnant now, why do I have to go all the way back to Luoyang with you to recuperate?"
In the carriage, Lu Shiqing was holding a bowl of millet porridge, not knowing whether to put it down or use a spoon. He sighed, "I'm not afraid that your delivery will conflict with Chang'an."
Yuan Cixian curled her lips and said, "I think you want to take a maternity leave thanks to me, and then you can just stay there and never come back to the capital. Let me tell you, His Majesty is very cunning at a young age, and he won't let Yuan Shu leave his eyes. Do you really think that this trip will really allow your whole family to escape?"
After hearing this, Lu Shiqing was so angry that she drank the porridge prepared for her and said, "I have prepared the letter of resignation." She looked like she was going to leave no matter what.
Yuan Cixian glanced at him, feeling a little sleepy, and leaned her head into his arms, "I'll take a nap, call me when you get there."
He hummed, let her lean against him, and then silently thought about how to retire.
Yuan Cihan fell into a sleep comfortably, during which she heard the long-lost sound of gurgling water.
Because it had been seven years since she last saw it, she didn't react immediately. It took her a long time to realize that she was trapped in the stones of Lu Bridge again.
This time there was a lot of noise on the bridge, as if a cavalry of tens of thousands of people had passed by. The clatter of horses' hooves was deafening, and she could hear the sharp sound of weapons scraping across the bluestone slabs, with a destructive force mixed with the strange language and accents of the foreigners.
She suddenly realized that the alien race had invaded the Great Zhou and reached Chang'an.
Amid countless shrill noises, the bridge swayed violently, slowly a layer of fine stone powder fell, and finally collapsed with a loud bang.
The stone she was on fell down and landed in the water with a "splash". Her soul hidden in the stone slowly left the water and went up to mid-air.
Therefore, she opened her eyes for the first time in her dream, but saw corpses everywhere in Chang'an City, blood flowing, and a raging fire burning in the Daming Palace. Zheng Hong, who looked to be nine years old, was covered in blood and was detained by foreigners and kicked to the ground.
Yuan Cixian suddenly woke up, and for a moment she could hardly distinguish between dreams and reality. She lifted the car curtain and looked out.
Lu Shiqing asked her what was wrong.
She came to her senses and understood what was going on. In the dream, Zheng Hong was nine years old. In other words, in his previous life, when he was nine years old, the Great Zhou Dynasty was destroyed.
But now, Zheng Hong is thirteen years old.
The carriage just passed the Lu Bridge. The Lu River outside was gurgling and clear, not as bloody as in the dream. The white locust flowers on the locust trees in the distance exuded a rich fragrance. The people were facing the rising sun and enthusiastically selling their goods under the trees.
The present life is stable and everything is fine.
She shook her head and said it was nothing, but her eyes were looking towards the blue sky above Chang'an City.
Zheng Zhuo, look, it has been seven years, the country is peaceful and the people are safe, they have turned the Great Zhou into what you wanted.
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