In fact, according to the Queen's intention, she and Emperor Jingren should secretly go out to enjoy the lanterns, and then Emperor Jingren would guess the lantern riddles and give her some lanterns. The Queen was confident that she could protect Emperor Jingren, and it would not matter if something happened at the lantern market. However, this time it was Emperor Jingren who asked to go out, and even if it was a private visit, there would be some guards around to protect him, and there were also several cabinet ministers who followed the Emperor. The group swaggered, for fear that others would not know that a noble person had gone out.
On festivals like the Lantern Festival, many emperors would leave the palace to celebrate with the people. Emperor Jingren had never been out before, and this time he thought that even if he didn't go, the Empress would definitely force him to go out, so he might as well follow the old tradition and take a look at the people's livelihood.
However, the emperor could go on private visits in disguise, but the empress was a female member of the family and should stay in the palace in a proper manner and be a dignified empress. So the empress once again turned into a guard, and together with Jing Xixian, they protected Emperor Jingren on the left and right.
Jingxi Xian is the leader of the Jinyiwei, and knows secrets that many people don't know. Emperor Jingren has a personal guard who looks exactly like the queen. He is so skilled that he can defeat hundreds of Jinyiwei with one hand. With the queen protecting Emperor Jingren, they will be much more relaxed. Last time when the hunting ground was assassinated, the imperial guards who were separated from Emperor Jingren were fined at most. There was no major punishment. It was because of the queen who fought against 78 assassins alone, and Emperor Jingren didn't lose a hair.
In the past, the guards would always be worried when protecting the emperor when he left the palace, but now Jing Xixian is not worried at all. With the queen around, he can also enjoy the lantern festival.
Considering Su Huailing's luck, Jing Xixian also brought her along on this trip. He dressed her up as a servant and followed in the crowd, with his head lowered and not daring to raise his head.
Hearing that Emperor Jingren was going to visit incognito, Grand Secretary Lin, Prime Minister Li, and Minister Tan also followed, each under the banner of protecting His Majesty, but in fact they just wanted to show off their talents in front of the emperor during the Lantern Festival. Ever since Emperor Jingren gave his ministers a warning on New Year's Eve, these three have looked at Emperor Jingren differently.
After New Year's Eve, the three of them went back and discussed it. Suddenly, they realized that it seemed to have become much more difficult for them to do things in the court over the past six months. Many of their subordinates and students were not very obedient, and their wings had been clipped a lot, but they themselves had not noticed it.
All of this was going on quietly, making the three adults wary. It wasn't that they were disloyal to the emperor or unpatriotic, but after so many years, everyone would do something illegal, and it was enough to confiscate everyone's property and execute them. They had to seize every opportunity to observe this young but extremely shrewd emperor and figure out his intentions, so that they could consolidate their position in the court and finally have a good ending.
With these people, the team became even bigger. Fortunately, no matter which big family, young masters and young ladies would be followed by a group of servants when they went out. There were many such large teams in the Lantern Festival, and these people were not so noticeable.
The Queen had planned to enjoy this last night before court with Emperor Jingren, but the team was so large that she was doomed to be unable to do anything. She could only follow behind Emperor Jingren silently and protect his little emperor.
The lantern market was bustling, and the faces of the people in the capital were full of smiles, which showed how happy they were in their lives this year and how much they were looking forward to the future. These smiles were more pleasing to Emperor Jingren than any rare treasures, and they were the best New Year gifts given to him by the people.
As they walked along, Emperor Jingren became more interested. He saw a cute little pig lantern. The lanterns made by the common people themselves were not so exquisite. They were all domestic animals that could be seen in daily life. The fact that there was a pig in the Chinese character for "home" was enough to prove that this kind of livestock represented a good life for the common people. Emperor Jingren saw that the simple-minded pig was very cute and the riddle was easy to guess, so he said the answer, took off the lantern and put it in the queen's hand.
Queen: “…”
He actually didn't know that Emperor Jingren actually liked piglets. No wonder Emperor Jingren didn't even look at the exquisite eight-treasure glass lamps, beauty lamps, and jade rabbit lamps in the palace. This was the reason.
As he walked, Emperor Jingren saw a candy figurine stall and saw a candy figurine that looked like a door god. He bought it but didn't eat it himself. Instead, he stuffed it into the empress's hand and asked her to hold it.
The things the emperor liked were too strange, so his subordinates had no idea how to please him. Lin Xueshi, Li Xiang, and Tan Gelao followed for a long time and saw that Emperor Jingren bought rice cakes and spring rolls, which were vulgar items that could be bought with copper coins, but Emperor Jingren liked them very much. He didn't eat them after buying them, but stuffed them into the hands of the guards beside him. Soon, the guards were covered with snacks and small things, but other guards came forward to pick up things for Emperor Jingren, but Emperor Jingren ignored them and put all the snacks on the same guard.
Gradually, I came to the stall of the students of the Imperial College. This year, there was a joint examination held every three years. Some students from all over the country gradually gathered in the capital, and they were competing with the students of the Imperial College in talent.
Emperor Jingren leaned over with great interest to listen to their essay competition. Jing Xixian brought a chair. After Emperor Jingren sat down, he took the sugar figure of the door god from the hand of the guard beside him, and without licking it, he bit off the head and held it in his mouth.
Queen: “…”
He vaguely remembered that Emperor Jingren once praised him for being like a door god and giving people a sense of security... Never mind, since he only vaguely remembered it, he would just pretend that he didn't remember it.
The students of the Imperial College are either extremely talented or the children of the rich and powerful. They are usually divided into two groups. There are even two stalls in the lantern market, which are facing each other. Originally, they were competing to guess lantern riddles, but who knew that a group of foreign students suddenly came and took down all their lanterns, especially the lanterns of the children of the rich and powerful. The children of the rich and powerful did not set up the lantern market for money, but just wanted to compete with the talented group. Who knew that the foreign students took down all their lanterns? Isn't this a mockery of their lantern riddles that have no depth
So the most knowledgeable children of the rich and powerful stood up and fought with these foreign students. The other faction of the Imperial College was watching the fun, but the scholars were arrogant. After those talented foreign students defeated the rich and powerful children, they said that all the students in the Imperial College were idiots. Now the other side could no longer watch the fire from the other side, so they stood up, rolled up their sleeves and fought with the other group of students.
Of course, they were all learned people, so they naturally used words instead of fists. The Imperial College was divided into two factions to fight each other. The powerful faction would occasionally step on the clean party, and the clean party would fight back against the powerful faction when they specifically fought against the foreign students. The foreign students were even more disgusted with the powerful faction, which was mostly composed of playboys, but they would always mention the Imperial College, forcing the powerful faction and the clean party to sometimes unite to deal with them, and sometimes step on each other separately. Suddenly, the three-party melee was very exciting, attracting many people to watch.
Emperor Jingren should have been quite annoying for sitting there and eating snacks while watching the fun, but there were people in the crowd who were even more arrogant than him. The Prince of Huainan ate melon seeds while watching, and even brought a few people from the clan office to eat melon seeds with him. He laughed out loud from time to time, and his laughter was so exaggerated that the three parties finally stopped arguing and turned their eyes to him.
"Who is this gentleman?" Qingliu Fang was very discerning. Even an ant that was crushed to death by the emperor's feet might be raised by the prime minister. They couldn't afford to offend cats or dogs. Moreover, the King of Huainan was dressed in luxurious clothes. Although he looked a little out of place, he was noble from head to toe. The nobility brought up by the royal family was not something that ordinary people could compare to.
But there were some people who didn't have eyes. A young man whose clothes were made of better material than the King of Huainan rushed out and shouted, "Who cares who he is? He dared to spit melon seed shells on my shoes. Don't you want to live? Do you know who I am? I am the son of the Prime Minister!"
The King of Huainan laughed even louder. He had already seen Emperor Jingren, who was sitting next to him and watching the battle, and three adults who were surrounded by guards and could not show their faces. He walked up to Emperor Jingren and saluted. Because Emperor Jingren was visiting incognito, he did not kneel down. He simply bowed and said, "Brother, you have to make the decision for my younger brother. He is the son of the Prime Minister!"
Li Xiang, who was trapped among the guards, was almost turning blue in the face, and the two old enemies next to him were looking at him with a cunning smile, which made him so angry that he wanted to quickly catch his unruly little son and give him a good beating.
"I can make the decision," Emperor Jingren was surrounded by imperial guards, so that Master Li had no way of bringing his servants in to beat up the King of Huainan, "but you have to tell me what you were laughing at just now."
"I just saw people arguing in the street and thought it was interesting."
"What's so interesting about it? What did you see from this literary duel today?" asked Emperor Jingren.
The King of Huainan handed the melon seed bag to the servant beside him, organized his words and said: "Brother, I am uneducated and I don't understand 90% of what they say, but I understand the truth. It should be that there are people who are better than you, and the students from all over the world are actually more talented than the students of the Imperial College, so the students of the Imperial College are at a disadvantage. But I don't understand, the enemy is strong and we are weak, and the Imperial College is divided into two factions to step on each other, and will never unite to face the outside world. If they join forces, there may be a possibility of the weak defeating the strong, but they are weak to begin with, and they have to decide the outcome in front of outsiders, and their family shame has been thrown out of the capital. People have come to their doorstep to make trouble, but they still want to stabilize the country before they can resist the outside world. Aren't they just waiting for others to use the strategy of sowing discord to completely defeat themselves?"
"Well said." Emperor Jingren finally showed a hint of appreciation towards Prince Huainan, which he had never shown before.
Seeing that Master Li was still eager to teach the King of Huainan a lesson, Emperor Jingren said, "Prime Minister Li, you can come out now."
The guards made way, and Li Xiang walked out with a sullen face. The boy who was just shouting asked in shock, "Dad, why are you here?"
Li Xiang glared at his son, then knelt before Emperor Jingren and said directly: "Your Majesty, my son is immoral. Please deal with him as you wish!"
His kneeling shocked all the students. Their knees went weak and they all knelt before Emperor Jingren. Even the Prince of Huainan knelt down to pay his respects.
Emperor Jingren took advantage of the moment when everyone was kneeling to give Jing Xixian an appreciative smile.
Jing Xixian was encouraged by the emperor's eyes and secretly gave a thumbs up to Su Huailing in the corner.
The Queen's guard, who was watching the interaction between several people, slightly raised the corners of his lips. It seemed that today's farce was again led by the little emperor.