Rule the Roost in the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 974: The Past of One Thousand and One Nights

Views:

Li Hong kicked away Xiao Baiqi who wanted to follow him into the car. Xiao Baiqi did not dare to resist. He ducked to the side with his tail between his legs. Then he looked at Wu Mei pitifully, as if asking for help, and also seemed to be asking for help. He was complaining to Wu Mei that he was kicked.

Fortunately, Wu Mei's attention was not on Xiao Baiqi. As Li Hong opened the rear door, Wu Mei first looked inside. The carpet under her feet was very familiar to her, and the seats were also very familiar. Familiar, they are all made of fine fabrics.

There were two seats in front, and there was a circle on the left side. Wu Mei didn't know what it was for. She just bent down and looked inside the car, then stood up and pointed at the car and asked. He said: "Do you want me to sit here? It doesn't look as spacious as a carriage."

"This is at most a five-seater car. The back seat is already extremely spacious. If you remove the armrest in the middle, you can seat five people. But now you are the only one sitting in the back. If you put down the armrest, you can rest on it. It's more comfortable." Li Hong opened the curtains on the car window and showed Wu Mei the rear armrest.

Wu Mei, who seemed to understand, nodded, looked at the shiny black car shell again, and then at Li Hong's signal, she bent down and got into the car: "Where are you sitting?"

"Where can I have a seat? I'm responsible for driving the car for you." Li Hong chuckled, then closed the back door for Wu Mei, and then ran around the car towards the driver's seat.

Wu Mei followed Li Hong with her eyes, watching Li Hong circle around the car for a small half circle, then opened the door with a circle on the front left side of her car and got in.

"It's quite good. It's more comfortable." After the roar of the engine came to Wu Mei's ears, Li Hong closed the car door and blocked out all the disturbing noises. He said with satisfaction: "Although Liangshan is small, if It’s quite difficult to go around Liangshan, so let’s take my mother to go around Liangshan today.”

"You really don't plan to go back to Chang'an?" Li Hong put the car into gear, then held the steering wheel and asked inexplicably after the vehicle started slowly.

Wu Mei behind her didn't answer. In the rearview mirror in the middle, mother and son could see the expressions on each other's faces. However, as the speed of the car became faster and faster, the car seemed to become more silent.

Looking at the scenery on both sides is different from when she is sitting in a carriage and admiring it. In Wu Mei's heart, it seems that the scenery on both sides of the road at this moment is a kind of scenery that is unfamiliar to her, extremely strange, and she is traveling through time.

It's as if their time is not moving bit by bit on the sundial, as if their time is flying at the speed of years, or even decades or hundreds of years, just like the speed she can feel now, just like Like the scenery outside the car window, everything became so unreal, everything became increasingly blurry before her eyes, and before she could see the truth clearly, everything disappeared from her eyes.

"Chang'an is not the final destination after all. Isn't this... the mother's final destination?" After a long time, the mother and son in the car were silent for a long time. Wu Mei seemed to have just remembered Li Hong's question and looked at the car. The blurry scenery outside the window murmured.

"It doesn't matter, wherever you are, I will serve you there." Li Hong said with a smile.

Some things can be avoided, some questions can be avoided, but the answer will eventually surface. For ten years, the mother endured it for ten years, and thought about it for ten years. In the end, at this moment, everything was still possible. We need to go back to the starting point ten years ago, to the high main mausoleum of Qianling Mausoleum, and to Yuan Tiangang's four-character prophecy: "Flying immortals outside the sky."

Perhaps, everyone in this world is the reincarnation of himself in the previous life. Perhaps, everyone is in the six paths of reincarnation, entering the reincarnation due to good and evil, entering the six paths, and is reborn for things that he failed to achieve in the previous life.

The mistakes made in this life will be made up for in the next life; the fate missed in this life will be renewed in the next life; the people loved in this life will be reunited in the next life; the love owed in this life will be repaid in the next life.

In the rolling world of mortals, countless love, hatred, joys and sorrows, in the context of the great era, in the long river of history and time, form a world-class symphony with tiny waves.

If there is reincarnation, if there is reincarnation, if Huangquan Road, Wangchuan River, Naihe Bridge, Wangxiang Terrace and Sansheng Stone really exist, maybe we have just forgotten who we were in the last life.

Somehow, everyone we meet in life and everything we do may be because they are closely related to the previous life. Or maybe you in the ninth and tenth life just never remember the past life. matter.

"Mysterious and mysterious, it would be great if people were really as you said. In that case, I should think carefully about who my mother was in my last life!" Wu Mei had an antique wooden box in her hand. Place it on your knees and slowly open it.

"This wooden box has never been opened since Bai Chun gave it to me. I don't know what happened today, so I suddenly took it with me." Wu Mei lowered her head, took out the paper inside, and said while looking at the words on it. : "Yuan Tiangang said four words: Flying Immortals from Beyond the Heavens. Li Chunfeng left eight words: Six Paths of Reincarnation and Nine Reincarnations. It fits what you just said."

"From the moment he was born, from the moment his mother held him in his arms to the moment he opened his eyes, he was able to remember many things, and even knew everything in the world. Didn't you always say that he would be a prince? He was still able to govern the world with ease, and he could still predict the future when he was the king, but after becoming the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, when it came to handling government affairs... "

"Then tell me, what will happen to the queen mother? What if... what if you don't remember what you remember, what if nothing has changed?" Wu Mei put a hand on the armrest, looking at the reflector in front of the light. Li Hong looked a little complicated.

"Is it recorded in the history books?" Li Hong slowed down the speed of the car, and the mother and son still chatted calmly.

"Perhaps, you were too smart back then, but the Queen Mother needs you to be so smart, and even the Queen Mother who is smarter will like it very much. Cynics say: Great wisdom is close to monsters, great kindness is close to hypocrisy, you are not good but you are close to monsters, right Isn't that right?" Wu Mei's expression did not appear complicated, and even contained a hint of calmness.

"Actually, it sounds better to be wise and foolish." Li Hong raised his head and glanced at Wu Mei in the reflector, smiled and said, "My son has been afraid of his mother since he was born. After all... the queen is famous..."

"You have to be ruthless, right?" Wu Mei chuckled, looked out the window with some self-deprecation and said: "The Queen, Queen Xiao, etc., the palace was full of dangers back then, and who knew about the mother's background? Do you want to continue? If you were to gain a foothold in the palace and do ordinary things, the Queen Mother would already be a pile of bones. Your sister is less than two months old, but... The Queen Mother is not like this. How can you gain a foothold in the harem and create a better identity and status for you? , As the saying goes, the mother is worth the price of the child. If you were not too cautious, the queen might not be able to... But you were only two years old at that time, and the queen could not see anything... "

"Until that night, after the son-in-law read that poem in his palace, did the queen mother become acutely aware that in fact, if she wanted to gain a foothold in the harem, relying on her son-in-law was enough?" Li Hong smiled bitterly, if After all, he was also responsible for his sister's death.

"Think about it this way, when I had trouble sleeping and eating, when I hoped to give birth to another sister for you, but instead gave birth to Li Xian, Li Zhe, and Li Dan, my mother would hate you at that time. If If I had noticed your intelligence earlier, if I had noticed that you were almost a demon and could predict the future, maybe you wouldn't be a vicious woman." Wu Mei tilted her chin and murmured as she looked out the window.

Back then, she strangled her daughter to death with her own hands, causing her to toss and turn every night. Whenever she saw Li Hong and other siblings enjoying themselves, her heart felt as if it was being pricked by needles. Even she herself could It felt like her own heart was breaking piece by piece.

What's more, did Li Zhi really not notice it at all? Maybe you won't notice it at first, maybe you can hide it for a year, two or three years, but how can you hide it for a lifetime

But it has to be said that Wu Mei's feelings for Li Zhi in her heart, and Li Zhi's pure love for her, made her feel guilty and gave birth to children one after another. Finally, after giving birth to the princess Li Lingyue, the couple was willing to give up.

It can be said that from that time on, there was truly no barrier between the husband and wife.

"Historical books cannot truly evaluate a person. What's more, before the Tang Dynasty, the historical books had a very positive evaluation of you. The orthodoxy of Confucianism has not yet completely taken over, so your evaluation is very high. After all... "Li Hong glanced at Long Ma who was in a daze behind him, paused for a moment and then said: "After all, you are the first female emperor in the ages. Apart from you, no one can be like you."

"Female Emperor?" Wu Mei came back to her senses and looked at Li Hong in astonishment. Could it be that according to the original history that this kid said, she had actually achieved that step? And how? Why do you do this? He had four sons and one daughter, so how could he proclaim himself emperor after Li Zhi's death

"Yes, so how dare I disrespect you, and how dare I act too evil in front of you at such a young age?"

"You are already a monster enough. Just look at the records of the real historians in the palace and you will know." After Wu Mei finished speaking, she continued to look at Li Hong, waiting for Li Hong to further explain to her that she was in the original history. Why do you call yourself emperor

In her opinion, it was like listening to a story that had nothing to do with her, but seemed to be another person's story. She was somewhat expecting it, but she would never feel disgusted.

"How stupid do you four brothers have to be to make the Queen Mother finally have no choice but to proclaim the emperor and continue the national destiny for the Tang Dynasty." Li Hong looked like he was organizing his words, but also seemed to be reminiscing. Wu Mei paused and sighed softly. road.

"It has nothing to do with Er Chen. He became the prince at the age of four, but died of illness at the age of twenty-three. He was posthumously given the title of Emperor of the Tang Dynasty by your father and you. His posthumous title was: Filial Jing. He was buried with the honors of the emperor in what is now Li Ye Gang. "In the mausoleum built by my son," Li Hong said casually, as if talking about other people's affairs.

Wu Mei, on the other hand, felt her heart tightening and feeling uneasy. After all, Li Hong was already forty years old. If he died of illness at the age of twenty-three, what would happen to him in the future? manage

After strangling a daughter to death with my own hands, am I going to have to watch my eldest son die of illness more than twenty years later? This... How can I bear such a blow!

"Who died of illness in Qiyun Palace in Hebi Palace in Luoyang?" Wu Mei's heart tightened, and she suddenly remembered that when they were in Luoyang Palace, because there was no rain in Luoyang for a long time, Li Zhi privately ordered the release of the one with the thunder. hot air balloon.

At that time, seeing that the hot air balloon carrying thunder was about to float towards the palace where they were, Li Hong rode his horse and ran wildly in Luoyang Palace, and finally stopped the hot air balloon from floating here, but it just happened to explode when Li Hong shot it down. Qiyun Palace of Hebi Palace, together with Li Hong, was seriously injured in the accident. After two months of careful recuperation in Luoyang, he became full of life and began to act like a monster again.

"How do you know? Is it possible that the memory of your previous life also remains?" Li Hong smiled and asked Wu Mei in the reflector.

"That year when you were praying for rain in Luoyang Palace, your father privately ordered a hot air balloon to be released. You were seriously injured near Qiyun Palace. When my mother rushed there, I thought you were dead all the way. At that time, my mother's mind was blank. I just ask God not to take you away. I really can’t imagine what the future will be like without you, the prince who can make my mother and your father happy. What’s more, after what you said, my mother will also be happy. Remember, you happened to be twenty-three years old that year," Wu Mei murmured, recalling the past.

The car continued to walk along Liangshan, but for some reason, when it passed the convoy of Li Lingyue and others, Li Lingyue and others did not stop it. It seemed that everyone knew that the emperor and the empress dowager were talking about the secrets of heaven in the car, so one by one Standing on the roadside, he saluted solemnly, and then watched the car drive away.

Wu Mei and Li Hong didn't stop the car either. The atmosphere between mother and son was a bit subtle now, as if they were telling a fairy tale together or recalling the years of relationship between mother and son.

"Yes, Erchen also thought that he could not escape the fate of history, but he unexpectedly let Erchen come back to life." Li Hong shook his head and said with a smile while driving.

"Then it will be Li Xian who becomes the crown prince. No wonder Li Xian competed with you for the crown prince's position back then." Wu Mei felt as if she was in a world that was half real and half illusory. Some things that came out of Li Hong's mouth, After her speculation, it seemed that she could find some clues about the so-called original historical trajectory.

"Li Xian was also called Prince Zhang Huai by future generations because of the Zhang Huai Notes he wrote. In the second year of Tiao Lu, my father was unable to go to court due to dizziness. Most of the affairs in the court were handled by you..." Li Hong. I don’t know how to say this. After all, neither the Queen Mother nor Li Xian are still on the original historical track at all.

"Your father was seriously ill and you passed away. Li Xian was made the crown prince, and the government was managed by his mother. With Li Xian's character, since he became the prince, he naturally wanted to be in power, so there would be friction between him and his mother. ... Won't she be exiled to Bazhou by her mother? "Wu Mei is indeed the only woman who can be the emperor. Even now, her mind is extremely agile. She can guess by following the little traces of what Li Hong said. To a rough idea.

"Yes, Li Xian was exiled to Bazhou and was later forced to commit suicide by Qiu Shenji." Li Hong nodded and answered truthfully.

"Is it the Qiu Shenji who now works in Prince Li Xian's palace? Did you deliberately arrange this?" Wu Mei was stunned. She didn't expect that according to Li Hong's description, Li Xian died like this.

At this time, Wu Mei felt that she was listening to Li Hong tell a story, telling a story that was completely different from her own experience, but that made her look forward to it. She even had some faint expectations. As Li Hong continued to tell, she finally reached the end. How to ascend the throne as emperor.

The vehicle circled around Liangshan, but did not return to the foot of the courtyard. Wu Mei did not speak, and Li Hong did not finish speaking. The two of them seemed to have a tacit understanding, and the car seemed to follow the two people's wishes. He slowly drove in from the entrance of Qianling Mausoleum.

This day seemed to reveal something different from the beginning, just like they met Li Lingyue and the others halfway. After entering Qianling Mausoleum, Li Hong and Wu Mei found that the entire Qianling Mausoleum seemed to be deserted.

The Jinwu guards who had been guarding here all year round saw no one, not even anyone else. The entire Qianling Mausoleum seemed very quiet, and except for their mother and son, there was no one here.

"Li Zhe has a soft ear and is easily fooled by others. If you die of illness and Li Xian commits suicide, after Li Zhe becomes the crown prince, he will not be able to manage the Tang Dynasty well. Sooner or later, he will be betrayed by those close to him. Harmful. So from the mother's point of view, Li Zhe can't escape bad luck in the end, right? But..." After Li Hong opened the door, Wu Mei slowly got out of the car, frowned and thought, and continued: "But the mother should not. Those who will harm him will be exiled at most. One Li Xian has been forced to death, and the queen mother will not force another one to death. "

At the end of her speech, Wu Mei could no longer distinguish between reality and illusion. She let out a long sigh and said with some melancholy: "Li Dan is the same, he has no backbone, and he is so close to Li Lingyue, just like you are so doting on him now." , Sooner or later... something will happen."

"Every family has its own scriptures that are difficult to recite. Even the royal family cannot escape these. Therefore, all I have been able to do for many years is to prevent them from touching their rights. Even Li Xian, I have never treated him Even when I, you and your father were kidnapped by Li Xian in Prince Pei's Mansion, I never really had murderous intentions." Li Hong put his hands behind his back and walked side by side with Wu Mei, slowly heading towards Qianling Mausoleum. Walk towards the huge stone gate of the main mausoleum.

But at some point, Xiaobai and Huniu slowly walked out from the side, one on the left and the other on the right. As if they were extremely psychic and had a tacit understanding, Huniu slowly walked to Li Hong's side. , Xiao Baiqi slowly walked to Wu Mei's side.

Two tigers and wolves who had been raised as pets by the royal family, one on the left and one on the right, followed their master silently in perfect harmony.

"If the Queen Mother wants to ascend the throne and become the emperor, it will be more difficult, even hundreds or thousands of times more difficult than deposing Li Xian and the other three. Therefore, after the Queen Mother ascends the throne and becomes the emperor, she will also kill a group of people to suppress the opposition. Sound?" Looking at the huge Qianling Stone Gate in the distance, Wu Mei felt that her words could be heard by Li Zhi who was immersed in the stone gate.

"The Queen Mother ascended the throne as emperor, changed the name of the country to Zhou, and surrounded herself with good ministers and cruel officials. Di Renjie, Zhang Jianzhi, Hengyan Fan, Yao Chong, Jinghui, Lou Shide and others were all entrusted by you to use them..." Li Hong looked at the huge stone door and seemed to be talking to Li Zhi in the mausoleum.

"The cool official asked the queen mother to guess. Over the years, the Jingwei in Bai Chun's hands have killed many inexplicable people. Even those people did nothing at all, but after their identities were determined, they all died inexplicably. Later, Wang Lou once told his mother that the deaths of these people were vaguely related to Jingwei, such as Lai Junchen, Zhou Xing, Suo Yuanli, Hou Sizhi, and Xue Huaiyi, etc., after her mother ascended the throne. Re-employing these people? Since you want to re-employ cruel officials to suppress the different voices that oppose the mother, then you have to frame the blame, so you have always been opposed to the copper concubine proposed by the mother a few years ago, right? "Wu Mei seems a little bit? Changlao touched Xiao Baiqi's head next to him, and then looked at Huniu next to Li Hong.

A tiger and a wolf. In the end, the tiger defeated the wolf.

"As your minister said just now, after Confucianism took over the dominant position, its evaluation of you was greatly reduced. Especially after the fall of the Tang Dynasty and the change of dynasties, several great Confucians emerged in Confucianism. Among them, women are inferior to men. As the concept of respect becomes more and more popular, the evaluation of you becomes more and more biased. However... no matter what future generations say, you have inherited the prosperity of Zhenguan rule and are recognized by future generations as having Zhenguan legacy... "

"Men are superior to women? Huh! If my mother really ascends the throne and becomes the emperor, and changes the Tang Dynasty to the Zhou Dynasty, even after her death, she will never erect a monument or write a biography. I want to see how those Confucian sons will judge me!" Wu Mei at this moment shows her majestic and arrogant side.

Even Li Hong next to him and Huniu who had been following him took two steps back involuntarily.

"It's just that things in the world are unpredictable. Fortunately, the queen mother has not become the empress you call her. The fall of the Tang Dynasty and the change of dynasties are inevitable facts. It is not something that anyone can change. It's just... the queen mother no longer wants to know what happened after her death. Now, if my mother dies, she can have the blessing of you. She will remember all this. She will take a good look at the high-rise buildings and buildings you mentioned, which ones are better than cars like yours. Cars and planes that can carry many people flying back and forth in the sky. I also want to see what our earth looks like, and whether the land area is really much smaller than the sea. I also want to see what it will be like in a thousand years. Is the world really what you said, finally abandoning the Confucianism that has harmed our entire nation for thousands of years, and realizing the equality between men and women that our Tang Dynasty now enjoys?" Wu Mei murmured to herself as she stroked the huge stone door.

"Equality between men and women? Haha, maybe, it should be said that women are superior to men. There are many men who are afraid of their wives and mothers." Li Hong also walked to the huge stone door, looked at the huge stone door, and seemed to push it open. , Li Zhi will walk out of it with a smile on his face.

"In that case, let's listen to our mother and help her build Liangshan into the most ideal home for her. Bai Qi, go back to the courtyard." Wu Mei looked at the huge stone door and patted it, as if following the people inside. Li Zhi said goodbye.

(End of chapter)